Jump to content

Recommended Posts

I'm on Day 7 of my second Whole30. I just ate 2 RX bars and a little almond butter as a "snack." Should I start over? I guess technically all the ingredients are compliant, but I feel like a fraud calling this a meal. I woke up late today and so didn't eat my first meal until 1pm. Then, an hour and a half later I was already hungry again, but instead of eating another proper meal, i just reached for the energy bars with fruit and nuts in them. I don't know if this is grounds for a restart or if its just a lesson learned about eating enough for breakfast and if I'm really hungry not turning to fruit and nuts. (Hello fish and broccoli test!). 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Andria

Whether you start over is ultimately up to you. However, what you at is not grounds for a restart since what you ate is technically compliant.  You already know it was way less than ideal. No need to feel guilty or berate yourself.  Just move on and eat your 3 meals per day following the meal template. 

 

http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-meal-planning.pdf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

I think you already know what you need to know, but I am going to elaborate a bit for the sake of anyone else that reads through...

 

RX bars are okay on a long hike or as emergency food when you are stuck late at the office or stuck in traffic. If you eat them as part of a meal, in place of a meal because they are convenient/easy/you like the taste, or as a snack, you have misused them. You get a pass if you misuse RX bars once. You should get rid of all your RX bars and start over if you misuse RX bars twice. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you to the mods for your tough love and guidance. I think it is reasonable to give myself a pass on this one misuse of RX bars since I didn't eat anything non-compliant. But if it happens again, I will throw out the bars and start over. 

 

I can't stop thinking about how guilty I feel for eating those bars and I keep beating myself up. Its throwing off my Sunday. Totally not worth eating them! I'll just stick to the meal template from here on out. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

 

I can't stop thinking about how guilty I feel for eating those bars 

 

So you clearly know eating the bars was not good -- but it wasn't some kind of moral failing that you need to feel guilty about either. Food is not ever "good" or "bad" -- it's healthy or not, and choosing to eat it can be a good decision or a bad decision, but when you start throwing the word guilty in there, stop and think about what you're saying.

 

If I steal something, I'm guilty. If I eat a pint of Hagen Dazs, I made a bad decision. Maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I think when we start talking about feeling guilty about something, some of us tend to find it hard to let go of the feeling of guilt, and it can cause us to continue to make bad decisions, especially those of us who have a tendency toward emotional eating anyway. 

 

Basically, don't feel guilty. You made a bad decision, we all make bad decisions at some point. You learned from it. If you learn from it the first time and never repeat the same bad decision, you're doing better than I did with Larabars -- I'm stubborn, it took me eating them two or three times in non-emergency situations to realize I really can't keep them in the house.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

It takes a while to really understand how the Whole30 works and doing an ideal Whole30 from day 1 is hardly ever achieved. When I started, I ate an off-plan food every Thursday for two weeks before I reread the rules and discovered I was doing something wrong. I still had a great experience because I got most of the program right. 

 

Note: Rather than leaving what I did wrong a mystery, I'll tell you. I ate white potatoes on Thursdays. I knew they were a vegetable. I missed the part in the original rules of the Whole30 (that have since been changed) that eating white potatoes was not allowed. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

THE FUTURE OF WHOLE30 APPROVED

 

4 June, 2015

By Melissa Hartwig and Dallas Hartwig, co-creators of The Whole30 program

We’ve worked hard over the last six years to make the Whole30 logical in its framework, as effective as possible across the broadest range of people, and easy to follow. Achieving and balancing all three of these factors with the same set of rules has proven challenging, so we are always evaluating the program to determine what improvements we can make, staying true to our integrity and the spirit and intention of the program.

Sometimes, that involves bringing whole foods back into the program (hello,white potatoes), or determining whether a new “paleofied” concoction is Whole30-appropriate (no dice, date-paste-coconut-milk-coffee-creamer). Recently, that meant reevaluating our Whole30 Approved program, based on our observation of our community’s response to the products, our peers’ feedback, and our own moral compass.

 

We have made the difficult decision to remove RxBarsBeaver Bites, andYawp bars as official Whole30 Approved partners. But hear us clearly: this isn’t about the ingredients, the bars themselves, or the companies behind them. It’s about the way we have observed people (mis)using the bars during their Whole30 programs, and our desire to provide the best guidance possible for your program through our partnerships.

 
RxBars, Beaver Bites, and Yawp bars are still made with the highest quality real-food ingredients. They are still a healthy choice when used appropriately. Most important, they are still acceptable “emergency food” on the Whole30 program*.This change only affects our promotion of these companies as a Whole30 Approved partner or affiliate.

*All but the Peanut Butter RxBar, because peanuts.

 
A Critical Review

This isn’t a decision we took lightly. When we partnered with these companies, we looked at the short list of real-food ingredients and loved the idea of introducing our Whole30 participants to healthy and convenient “emergency food” options. We imagined all the ways you would use them; kept in an office drawer for the odd late night at the office, added to a backpack to fuel your long hike or bike ride, packed in a carry-on in case your flight is delayed, or carried in your purse for those unexpected traffic jams. We still stand behind these bars as a good choice—when used appropriately. Our mistake was assuming that people would see their value as healthy on-the-go convenience food and use them only as such.

But over the last few years, we’ve seen people on the Whole30 gravitating to these bars for less healthy reasons. They’re sweet, salty, and fatty. They’re as close to a sweet treat as you can get on the Whole30. And for many, the strong emotional ties to sweets and the temptation to use these products to satisfy those cravings proved too strong to resist. We found ourselves torn, prominently promoting the bars with a discount code while constantly remind people, “Don’t eat these like candy, don’t use them to feed your Sugar Dragon, include these in your Whole30 carefully.” 

 

The announcement of RxBar’s new Chocolate Sea Salt flavor, plus the other dried-fruit-and-nut bar companies who have recently approached us with partnership requests, brought this issue to a head. With so many new members of our community, and so many struggling to overcome cravings, food addictions, and reestablish a healthy relationship with food, we felt now was the time to revise the message we were sending through our promotional efforts, and provide clearer guidance for the Whole30 community.

 

Going forward, we will no longer promote any dried-fruit-and-nut bars under our official Whole30 Approved program. The only bars to which we will lend our name and our logo are those with meat as a base (like Primal Pacs,Chomps, and Epic Bars), as those will never be mistaken for candy.

 

Emergency Food, Please

This change to our marketing strategy comes as a desire to provide the best guidance we can during y9our Whole30, and help you make the healthiest choices for your long-term goals. RxBars, Larabars, and other dried-fruit-and-nut bars are still appropriate emergency food for your Whole30, as long as the ingredients are compliant. But as always, include these in your Whole30 cautiously, as there is serious potential to use these bars in a less healthy manner during your program. As on-the-go or emergency food? Yes. As a replacement for your mid-day sugar boost, daily late-night treat, or to satisfy your Day 3 raging Sugar Dragon? While it’s not an official Whole30 rule, we’d strongly suggest no.

 

Reminder: just because the ingredients are compliant doesn’t mean the product is the best choice for inclusion in your Whole30. For more on this topic, refer to the Treats, Food Fixations, and the Scale section of The Whole30(page 95). You can also view some of our free resources online, like our recommendations for business travel or emergency food situations.

 
As always, however, the ultimate responsibility for your Whole30 choices and results lies with you.

 

We’ve personally spoken with the RxBar, Beaver Bites, Yawp, and Larabar teams and advised them of this difficult decision. They have all responded gracefully and positively, and we are grateful for their continued support and friendship. We have already adjusted our Whole30 Approved page to reflect this change. All of the companies affected will be making changes to their websites and product labeling to reflect this new decision. The labeling change will take time, but we’ll do the best we can to continue to communicate this position clearly with our community. (You can also share this post to help us spread the word.)

 

We want to thank all of you for your continued readership and support. We hope this decision will better help you make the best choices you can for your Whole30 program, and reaffirm your faith that the Whole30 team places the efficacy of the program and your success ahead of everything else.

 

Best in health,

Melissa Hartwig & Dallas Hartwig
Co-founders, Whole30

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Today marks 2 weeks of my whole30. I have struggled with autoimmune related issues for years and finally my doctor said this is it - I need to do this diet and get my inflammation under control. I am a picky eater/junk food junky/fast food queen. I've never been able to commit to something like this but realized enough is enough - I need to work at getting better because no magic pill is going to fix my health!

I read this thread and wondered if I am misusing RX bars. I use them as an on-the-go food but I am wondering if I am doing that too often. Now I'm slightly in panic mode.

I work a crazy job where I am constantly running around. Most days I get a good lunch in but others, things come up and don't end up getting to eat lunch until 2 or 3pm. I also get migraines if I don't eat every couple of hours (this seems to be getting better with better food choices) but still happens sometimes. 

I typically will eat an RX bar when I am running between appts or am working late. I don't use them to replace a meal but more as something to sustain me until I am able to eat a meal. 

Am I abusing them? It's going to kill me if I am! 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

@Poppkat The RXbars are not doing you any favors. They're basically a candy bar. So let's see if we can figure out other things you could have instead. No bars are really great to depend on , but Epic bars are less sweet, with less fruit, so they'd be a slightly better option in cases where you needed a bar. Jerky might be a good option too. Individual packs of olives. Occasionally packs of nuts or nut butters. Snack packs of baby carrots. Pickles. Cans of tuna or salmon or maybe even chicken (although compliant canned chicken is harder to find than canned fish, at least near me).

Also consider your meals. You say you need to eat every couple of hours -- but are you making sure your meals are big enough that you could go 4-5 hours without being hungry? This may be more food than you're used to at one meal, so it might take some getting used to, but work on getting there and see if having large enough meals helps keep the migraines at bay longer.

I'd also say, regardless of your job, you are worth a few minutes to eat something to take care of yourself. It may seem impossible, but consider it. Think about if there's any way to carve out a few minutes to grab some leftovers from the fridge. Certainly, there are jobs where there truly is no way to make this happen, and for those jobs, you have to just do the best you can -- but there are other jobs where people have said they didn't think they could stop for a meal or a snack, but decided to try it, and figured out the place doesn't fall apart if they take a few minutes to eat uninterrupted. I don't know what your job is, but really think about if there is some way to take care of yourself, so that you can continue to do that job well for years to come. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...