Day 15 and 16 of the Whole30. Why I Decided to Do This Again.

Today has started well.  I had my usual breakfast: berries, eggs, bacon.  Day 15 (yesterday) was a good day food-wise.  I had my pizza egg cups for breakfast.  Lunch was this AMAZING seafood soup from Cocina La Ley in Nogales.  It had tender chunks of fish, shrimp, and this really good broth. I added lots of cabbage, onion, cilantro, and lime juice. Yum.  Dinner was sauteed chicken and spinach with 1/4 of a baked potato with olive oil.

Hooray for Seafood Soup!

I must admit I had a mid-afternoon indulgence.  Last week we got a box of cantaloupes from my friend Scott.  I had been letting this one get perfect and juicy.  Well, today was its day. I cut it up and proceeded to eat an entire cantaloupe. Sure, it was smallish, but I ate the whole thing. It was delicious.  I love ripe cantaloupe with just a little sprinkle of sea salt.  I would do it all over again!

I am 1/4 of the way through doing a Whole60 (since I decided to double my Whole30).  I did the Whole30 over a year ago, too, but it has been a while.  I really liked that in the Whole30 I started feeling better. I had more energy, I was swimming faster, and I was sleeping better.  My mood was great.  This low grade sense of anxiety that constantly bugged me went away.  If you know me, you know anxiety is not normal for me.

So, after a tough year where I was stressed out, depressed, anxious, and gaining weight, I decided I needed to do something to get back on track.  In December I actually started a low-carb diet that included me replacing an occasional meal or snack with a low-carb whey protein bar or a protein shake.  There is this one protein shake I LOVE.  It's strawberry, and it tastes just like a strawberry ice cream shake.  Yummooo.  Around the same time, I also had the need to take two rounds of antibiotics for a simple illness.

Then in January, February, and March, I really noticed I was feeling bad.  My stomach was a wreck.  I was having mysterious back pain and abdominal pain.  I was taking tons of fiber to try and resolve the issue, but that wasn't helping.  My joints ached. I felt tired, fuzzy, and absent minded.  I googled my symptoms and came up with a bunch of options of what was happening, and I was freaking out.  I thought I was eat up with some horrible disease.  I was having panic attacks.  It was a bad scene.

I went to my primary care provider and had tons of blood work done.  Was it my thyroid? No.  Rheumatoid arthritis? Not that.  Weird electrolyte levels? Nope.   Mr. Medical Dude had no answers.  I kept searching, and I read a few things online that said sometimes people can have a milk protein intolerance that has some of the symptoms I was experiencing.  Also, the protein bars I was eating were sweetened with sugar alcohol.  So I started thinking maybe it was the whey or the sugar alcohol or the donuts I was still sneaking into my low carb-ish diet, or any number of other food items I had started eating again after the first Whole30.  Maybe it was the after-effects of the antibiotics, too.  Who knows?

The straw that broke the camel's back is something I'll refer to as "the incident along the train tracks."  It was early April, and I was in the midst of feeling bad, eating weirdly, taking fiber, wondering why I had mystery back pain, and generally anxious.  A friend texted and asked if we could load up Taz and talk a nice walk on a Sunday morning.  Taz needed a walk, and there is a really nice dirt road that parallels the train tracks where we walk sometimes.  It's perfect because in the morning it's still shady and cool, and Taz LOVES all the smells.

So here we are on a Sunday morning, walking and chatting and having a nice time of it.  The temperature is perfect, and as we mosey along, Taz enjoys stopping to smell all the different smells.  After a mile and a half, we turn around to walk back to the cars.  Weirdly, I feel this rumbling in my stomach.  "Uh oh," says the early warning system in my head. 

My rational, adult mind says, "Don't be silly.  It's just a minor rumbling. Nothing to worry about here on this nice walk in the middle of nowhere."

A few steps later, my early warning system says again, "Uhm, we might have a problem soon."

"No, no, no, no, no problem. We are fine. There's no problem,"  I tell myself, but I start to walk a bit faster and don't let Taz linger to sniff.  "We will just walk a tad bit faster and be home before there are any issues," I think.

After a few more steps, the rumbling in my stomach returns with increased vigor, and I start to get sweaty despite the cool morning breeze.  Then it's a full-on debate with myself.  "Am I going to make it to the car? Even if I make it to the car, am I going to make it home?  Of course I'll make it, right? I mean, what are my options? I'm a damn adult with the ability to make it.  I CAN MAKE IT! I'm not going to make it.  I'm in the middle of nowhere with a dog and my friend. Do people just drop trow in the middle of nowhere and let er rip? I guess so, right? I mean is that really what I'm down to? OH MY GODDDDDD!!!!!" 

At this point, my friend is still talking about something that I'm sure is very interesting, but I stop and say, "My stomach feels weird."  She looks at me, I fling the leash at her and yell, "Take the dog! Save yourself! I'm going in the bushes!!!" and then I proceed to back my way into the bushes, drop trow, and let her rip.  There are probably snakes and scorpions and javelina and black widows and all kinds of nefarious things in those bushes.  I don't care. 

It was over in seconds, and I immediately felt great...back to normal and ready to walk a mile back to the car.  As I pulled up my pants, I thought, "the railroad company has cameras all along the tracks.  I sure hope they didn't get a weird show this morning."  I also thought, "I have got to figure out what is going on with my stomach." 

So, here I am. Back on the Whole30.  I'm happy to report that I don't take fiber anymore, my stomach feels totally normal, no more weird back pain, and no constant anxiety.  Thanks be to "the incident along the train tracks" because it pushed me even faster to figure this all out.  

And you can laugh all you want about this story.  I've told people, and it's generally hilarious.  Most people can relate in some way or another, and telling my story always leads to someone else saying, "There was one time something similar happened to me," and then we hear another hilarious story.  I will start walking with a pack of tissues in my pocket, though....just in case.