Whole30: Day 5 Recap

From August 1 through August 23, I’m documenting my Whole30, including the when, what, where, and how much of my sleep, activity, food, and mood. Read about why I’m doing the Whole30 right here. Not familiar with the Whole30? Learn all about it here and get extra help with the Whole30 Daily.

Whole30: Day 4

Sunday is usually our secular sabbath, but we have a few very busy weeks coming up, so we did fun work today. We did the preliminary shots of a really fun how-to video… more on that soon. Very exciting! I also did a simple but massive Weekly Cookup to keep us in Whole30 food this week, and enjoyed a glorious nap between chores and my walk around the lake. The goal of the Wilson’s Protocol I’m using right now is to raise my average temperature to 98.6 — my temp usually hovers in the 97.something range — and I’m happy to find that six days into the protocol, my average daily temperature is increasing by a 10th of a degree every day. Neato!

Sleep
7 hours — 12:00 (damn it, Olympics!) to 7:00-ish, plus an hour nap yesterday

Activity
Walk: Good heavens to Betsy Ross, it was hot and humid today. But I did it! It was more leisurely stroll than power walk, but Dave and I did about 40 minutes on the trail around the lake.

Meditation: Our kundalini instructor Robin challenged us to do this simple 3-minute breathing exercise/meditation every day this week. Want to try it? Think of it as a 3-minute break from the world to refresh your mind and oxygenate your body. It’s a great little exercise to help you transition from one task or day-part to another. You could do it between waking up and breakfast, just after lunch to pave the way to getting back to work, between work and dinner, or before bed.

1. Set a 3-minute timer.

2. Sit comfortably in a chair on on the floor.

3. Close your eyes, relax your shoulders, breath deeply into your belly, and focus your attention on your breath.

4. Place hands in your lap or press the palms together at your heart center.

5. For your inhale, take in the breath in four even sniffs through the nose. On your exhale, expel the breath in four even puffs through your nose.

6. If you want to occupy your brain with a task, you can count the breaths or chant sa-ta-na-ma on each segment of the inhale/exhale.

When the timer rings, take a few slow, deep breaths and gently open your eyes. Congratulations! You just meditated for three minutes.

Food
I’ve found my appetite is less ravenous, and I feel better if I eat in a 11-hour window — usually between 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. so I can stop eating about 2-3 hours before going to bed — and don’t snack between meals or before bed. Because I’m dealing with my thyroid experiment, I’m measuring and tracking my food right now. I aim for 40% fat, 30% protein, 30% carbs.

Snack, 8:30 a.m. (waiting for Dave to wake up for breakfast)
1.5 ounces Romanian sausage

Breakfast, 10:00 a.m.
1 ounce smoked salmon
1/4 cup blueberries
sorta egg foo yong: 3 eggs scrambled with coconut aminos, Chinese 5-spice powder, 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 cup broccoli, 1/2 cup sweet potato; cooked in 1 teaspoon coconut oil

Lunch, 3:00 p.m.
1 can tuna w/ 1 tablespoon homemade mayo, scallions, pickled banana peppers
1/2 large cucumber
1 large red bell pepper
1 cup jicama
8 cherries

Dinner, 8:00 p.m. — takeout from Green Mesquite BBQ
2 pork ribs + 2 slices smoked turkey
3/4 cup cole slaw
3/4 cup strawberries

Mood
Good! There was lots of giggling during the photo shoot and even though I have a really stressful week coming, I felt pretty calm and rational about it.

Photo of the Day
Dave took some snaps during our walk. The light was really beautiful…

And me. In polka dots.

How was your Day 5?

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Comments

  • Lindsey says:

    Hello! Hoping to grab your book at BookPeople soon. Any idea if they’ll get more! Thanks!

  • Lindy says:

    Day 4 almost done. Woke up again feeling like all the moisture was sucked out of my eyeballs. ugh.
    I felt so tired this afternoon. took a 1.5 hr. nap and woke up feeling like a new woman! Woo hoo!

  • AndreaSam says:

    I right around day 21 or something like that…i had a exhausting weeks of running from store to store trying to find stuff like coconut aminos, coconut manna, GF beef, nitrate free bacon…

    pretty much found it all after going to 6 stores…there has got to be an easier way! LOL

    Got my breakfast for the week ready and dinner tomorrow!

  • Danijela says:

    Hi, Melissa,
    I saw your cookbook and blog at palomg.com and I had to stop by. Everything here is just too interesting. You have done an amazing job. Will have to stop by more often from now on. Have a great day.

  • Kim Dowse says:

    It’s Day 30 for me…woohoo! however, and going to continue thru August 24. I have a four day vacation and will want a glass of wine on that Friday, so Whole 48 for me. Sleep is 150% better. I actually stay asleep, well except to pee :-). That nightly glass (or two) of wine was doing me no favors. Lovin’ the posts, Mel…and am following your thyroid experiment…good luck figuring it all out!

  • I just can’t take it anymore! I can’t stand the pressure! 😀 Originally we wanted to start our Whole30 on August 21st, but I just can’t wait any longer! We eat 99% clean anyways (the 1% usually is just chewing gum, really) for the past three weeks (okay, we had one small beer each last week and a small piece of no-sugar fruit pie from my mother in law), so today we decided that there is no point on waiting. We can survive the next week’s travelling and staying in my dad’s house, if we take our own food with us. Plus, I am really inspired by your daily updates, I plan to do it for a while now, blog and take pictures of our meals on a daily basis (BOD, LOD, DOD and WOD – breakfast, lunch, dinner and workout of the day, haha!). We wanna keep going after our Whole30 and buy Nom Nom Paleo’s t-shirts as a reward 🙂 I plan to cook A LOT from WellFed 🙂 The biggest thing for me right now is that Dallas recently told me on FB that they will be visiting Czech Republic in autumn, which I am super excited about (yaaaaaay!) and I can’t wait to get my copy of It Starts With Food to get signed :)) It also reminded me of last year when you were here and we didn’t meet 🙁 But anyways! Love your blog, your meals, yourself, you inspire me like crazy, Mel, thank you!!! :))

    • Mel says:

      HOORAY! Do it! Congrats on jump starting your Whole30. Have fun!

      And we will definitely make time to meet when Dave and I return to the Czech Republic. We’re hoping to visit for my birthday in May 2013.

  • Teri M. says:

    We started a 35 day Paleo challenge at our box today and I spent A LOT of time with your book yesterday. My fridge is ready for hot meals. AND I made my own mayo for the first time and it did exactly what it was supposed to do! I was so proud I had to run up and show my husband (who was in the shower). 🙂

    • Mel says:

      Congrats on tackling 35 days of clean eating — that’s awesome! And kudos on your mayo success, too. Was your husband appropriately impressed? 🙂

  • Rich says:

    Well it’s day 5 for me, wasn’t able to start until the 2nd of the month. Feeling great so far although i’m pretty ravenous especially yesterday at home with a fridge full of food. A few successes that I can attribute to Well Fed.

    1) Protein for lunch today was just beef saute with onions, garlic and taco spice, yummy and very simple.

    2) Made a turkey breast using the best chicken brine and rub, very good although I think it needed a longer brine being such a big piece of meat.

    3) Made homemade mayo, this was very fun and my wife was amazed how easy it was.

    • Mel says:

      Really good ground beef is really… well, good. I LOVE to make a fresh pan and nom on it. Congrats on your mayo success!

  • hwalkerf says:

    You look fab in dots btw – so cute!!

  • Patti Hainline says:

    Your walking path around the lake looks magnificant, and so do you in polka dots!

  • J Vo says:

    In this case, the clothes really do make the girl. Love the polka dots on you!

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