Day 11: still craving pizza!

[MorganLouise]

I'm on D11 of my first Whole30. I've been feeling pretty good so far, finally reached a point where I have more energy and am starting to see major NSV! No joint pain since I've started, my nose is less stuffy, stomach isn't as bloated, all great things so far! My question is when do I stop craving pizza, cheese, bread, delicious things I can't eat!? I have no intention of giving up on the program, but can I expect these cravings to go away within the next week or so? 

[ladyshanny]

Hi MorganLouise,

 

There's no one exact day that the cravings go away, unfortunately.  A lot can depend on what your intake was like before Whole30.  It can also depend on how you are composing your meals and how you are working out your meal timing.

 

Can you give us a run down of a couple typical days for you, including portions, timing, fluids, exercise etc?  We can take a look and see if anything stands out.

[ShannonM816]

I can't tell you for sure you will never have another craving ever if you keep eating Whole30 style. I can tell you that these cravings are much less intense and easier to ignore if you make sure you're eating plenty of healthy, nutrient dense, flavorful foods. 

 

I can also tell you that it can be helpful to not focus on the things you can't have, and spend more time thinking about all the things you can have. When you think something like, oh, pizza sounds amazing right now -- try to catch yourself, and instead think about some Whole30 recipe you want to try, or your favorite meal you had recently, or browse through Whole30 recipes online (try here or here if you don't know where to look) and look for something that looks just as amazing as that pizza sounds.

 

If these cravings are really strong, sometimes it's actually that your body is telling you it needs more of something -- more fat, more carbs, more food in general -- not necessarily more pizza or cheese or bread, that's just what it knows. I don't know your background, so this may not apply to you, but many, many people come to Whole30 from a background of restrictive, calorie/fat gram/point/carb counting diets, and that is so ingrained in their mindset that they sometimes continue to restrict their portions when they don't really need to, and then feel like they're craving things, when it's really just that they're hungry. You'd think we'd all know what being hungry feels like, but if we've spent years ignoring our hunger signals to eat a certain amount of food each day, sometimes it takes us a little while to figure out how to eat enough.

[MorganLouise]

Hi MorganLouise,

 

There's no one exact day that the cravings go away, unfortunately.  A lot can depend on what your intake was like before Whole30.  It can also depend on how you are composing your meals and how you are working out your meal timing.

 

Can you give us a run down of a couple typical days for you, including portions, timing, fluids, exercise etc?  We can take a look and see if anything stands out.

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

My typical day is up at 5am, I have a small piece of chicken and about 6 almonds and maybe a glass of water before I head to CrossFit. Post workout has been a little tricky for me because I have about 45min from the time I leave the gym until I have to be at work at 8, so I've been doing either an RXbar or some more chicken and carrots because of time I've got be be able to eat it in my car. I've been doing a frittata for breakfast with plenty of veggies that I can just heat up at work, around 8:30 probably. I put sausage in it last week too, but I was getting so full so quickly, so I kept it to just the eggs, coconut milk and veggies this week.  I also have a cup or green or chai tea with breakfast. Lunch (usually 12:30ish) and dinner (6-6:30ish) both consist of some sort of large veggie serving (brocolli, sweet potato, brussels sprouts, etc.) and the recommended palm size of meat (chicken or steak) plus a half an avocado or olives for fat. I usually knock back 96 oz of water throughout the day as well.

 

I've been trying to stick to the recommended serving sizes and the 3 meals per day, but sometimes I'll have plantain chips and almond butter or a handful of olives as a snack in between if I'm feeling hungry. 

 

Before Whole30, I was working out at least 5x a week, and I'm still doing that now. My eating habits were about 70% paleo, however the last few months of the year I definitely over indulged more than I should have which made the first few days pretty rough, but I'm feeling pretty good now minus the cravings.

[ladyshanny]

 

............and the recommended palm size of meat (chicken or steak) plus a half an avocado or olives for fat. I usually knock back 96 oz of water throughout the day as well.

 

I've been trying to stick to the recommended serving sizes and the 3 meals per day, but sometimes I'll have plantain chips and almond butter or a handful of olives as a snack in between if I'm feeling hungry. 

 

You might consider bumping up your protein at meals.  The template is a range of 1-2 palm portions of protein.  Since you are hungry between meals and are snacking on plantain chips (non compliant if they are commercially produced) and nut butters, you probably aren't getting enough to eat. This will lead to increased cravings.

 

The entire meal template is a range and can be modified up or down depending on how you're doing meal to meal.  If you are making it 4-5 hours between then you are right on track. If you're not, you either need to make your meals larger or you have a larger gap between the meals that probably calls for a mini meal of at least two of the three macros (eg, protein and fat or protein and veggie are your best choices).

 

You could try subbing out your post workout carrots for some cooked sweet potato which is a heavier source of the starchy veggie that your body is needing post workout.  Could be why you are craving more carbs.  Our recommendation for most people is to have a fist sized serving with at least one meal a day which is in addition to whatever you have after your workout.  Maybe play with that a little too.

[ultrarunnergirl]

Overall you're doing great. Nix the RXbar though, it's ONLY allowed for emergencies. The chicken and carrots is a great choice, keep that or some chicken and sweet potato are perfect PostWO food. Sometimes I use hardboiled eggs - I eat the yolks as preWO fuel, then eat the whites for post WO.

 

You're probably needing more like 2 palms of protein if you are in the gym regularly.