Day 5: Preservatives and Caffeine Withdrawl

This morning was tough... I woke up with a raging headache and felt exactly the same as I would have if I had been stinking drunk last night. Which I wasn't, of course. But I felt sour, like I had been poisoned. I even texted Nicole for support. I feel like shit! Remind me why I'm doing this? I felt kind of bad yesterday, feel really bad today!

Her response?

"So you can clear out the crap and start fresh as a baby! So you can hear what your body is telling you. My guess is that you are also going through major caffeine withdrawl. You drink a fair amount of coffee. So stopping it like you have is going to make you feel shitty. And it's so you can press the "I did it" button tonight."

She was right. About all of those things. I definitely have a caffeine addiction and I haven't been drinking as much since the start of the Whole30. She was also right about all the reasons that I'm doing this. Once she helped me get my mind back on the right track, I chugged a cup of coffee, opened the fridge door and made the conscious decision that I would not spend the day feeling crappy. That I would feel better. I would cook a nice breakfast and have some fruit. I would get a shower and head out to the grocery store (which always makes me happy). So that's exactly what I did. And I did feel better. But it was touch and go there for a little while.

Other than spending a small fortune at the grocery store, I also spent quite a bit of time browsing and reading labels. I searched for sparkling water that I could try, I found some sliced pork belly, I got prime rib steaks (buy one get one free), I bought more coconut milk, and I picked up some new tea and a few larabars. I also spent a large amount of time in the spice aisle. You would think that most spices would contain just spice right? Guess again! So many spices have other things in there; sugar, silicon dioxide, and other things that I can't imagine. Check out the label on the bottle for a cajun mix spice. Thankfully I haven't used the spice since the Whole30 started. Wow, I don't even know what half of those ingredients are! High Oleic Sunflower Oil? Disodium Inosinate & Guanylate? Calcium Silicate?

According to the Whole9, there are three chemicals/preservatives that must be avoided on the Whole30: MSG, Carrageenan, and sulfites. They aren't saying that other chemical compounds are neccessarily good for you but that these are the main three to stay away from. Eating any one of these 3 items requires a restart of your 30 days. That's how bad they are for you! That's how much of an impact they have on your health! For those of you not following the Whole30, have a look at what you are eating over the next few days and see how much of these you are ingesting.

So here's to the end of Day 5. Thanks again Nicole for your support today!

Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs, leftover steak fried with mushrooms, onions, peppers, tomatos, and proscuitto.

Supper: two bone in chicken breasts, cucumber and tomato salad with homemade mayo (made with love from Nicole and it was delicious!) mixed with dill, olives.

Snacks: 1/2 larabar, homemade larabar from Nicole, currents (picked fresh from Greg and Kristie's garden at their rental property. I picked a whole ice cream tub. If anyone has any great recipe ideas that contain red currents, please share!).