Whole30 food : : 30

Breakfast: pastured egg scramble with ground lamb (cooked up last night) and a dollop of garlic scape pesto.  Iced coffee to drink.

I am quietly stunned to realize 30 days have passed.  I haven't even finished reading the book.  As with so much else in this life, in retrospect, it went fast.

I slept poorly last night.  I tossed and turned for awhile, realized the room wasn't cooling and discovered a pile of stuff was partially blocking the air conditioner.  Got out of bed to wait out the cooling of the bedroom and read some more of Freedom.  Ended up catching about six hours of zzzs.  Woke up all sorts of tired, ache-y, puffy, grumpy and sad.

Yesterday I went back and read all of my Whole30 posts.  I was curious to see what I could see.

• I did not experience an increase in energy as I had hoped I might.

• my cooking repertoire did not expand as I had thought it might.  neither did my consumption of vegetables.

• I thought I'd feel more "accomplished".

• during the last week I have noticed external indications of decreased systemic inflammation: two different lumps I've had on my body (one for about ten years, the other for about twenty years) have both...receded.  they are gone.  also, mosquitoes still like to suck my blood, but not as much, and the bites have not swelled or itched anywhere near to the levels that I have experienced all my remembered life.  as in, the few mosquito bites I've gotten in the past few weeks have not only barely registered, but they have not bothered me at all.

• although issues with sleep, mood and lack of energy/fatigue have popped up and/or persisted, my mind has definitely been clearer.  I can certainly see clearer that the dual paths of hormones and auto-immune (and how they might intersect?) are worth further inquiry.

• there does seem to be a relationship between my reproductive hormonal cycle and the fatigue.  the second half of my cycle saw an increase in my fatigue with big spikes around ovulation and the start of my period (which reminded me of the tiredness I felt during the first trimester of both my pregnancies).

• my next push will be to move beyond "the food".  despite what feels somewhat like anemic achievement, I want to carry forth what I have learned about the food...to maintain the foundation of the Whole30.  to be clear that somewhat dashed hopes do not equal total loss.  I should be getting the lab results back tomorrow when I meet with my doctor.  I am seeing Vinny today.  it is time to integrate something "new".  add another layer.  hmm.  30 days of daily Qigong practice?

Peace.  (Kid wanting to use my laptop.)