I might quit and need advice

[JAG89]

I am on day 18 of the Whole30. I have done really well. I ate pretty well beforehand so the transition was okay, but still difficult at times. Two days ago I ended a 2.5 year relationship with my boyfriend (now ex). The reason we broke up is causing me endless amounts of sadness and stress. I don't know if I will be able to continue doing this because the idea of cooking or shopping for food makes me feel awful. He was so supportive of what I was doing and helped me out when I needed it. I think of him when I think of continuing this. I can feel my body changing, which i like, but it almost doesn't matter to me anymore. I don't know if I am getting any of the other benefits because I am so depressed. The only reason I was able to stay whole30 the last two days is because I am barely able to eat and had a couple things already prepared. I really wanted to finish this and felt that I could do it. Now I have no idea. I would really appreciate any advice. I just don't know if I am up to continuing. Sorry to seem overly dramatic, I just don't know what to do.

[SugarcubeOD]

You are worth more, even in your sadness than processed crappy food.  Eating junk is not going to make your body feel better and in fact may actually increase your feelings of depression.  I know it's hard and I know that it's hard to do thing that make us think about our past (in this case our very recent past) but you are valuable enough to keep going even if this person is no longer there to support you.  You deserve the best for yourself, even as a single person now.

[ShannonM816]

I'm sorry about your breakup. I don't really know what to tell you that will actually make you feel any better -- it usually just takes some time for you to sort through your feelings and stop grieving the loss of a relationship.

 

I can tell you, absolutely, 100% for certain, that eating junk food or not eating at all will not help, long term. This is a time when you need to take care of yourself. Your stress levels are up, there's a good chance you're not sleeping great (at least, that's one thing emotional stuff causes for me), you're probably not feeling like doing much in the way of exercise, so it's really important to keep the food part as healthy as you possibly can.

 

I can't say that you'll get over this breakup if you finish out your 30 days -- some relationships take a while to get over, and there are some you never get over, really, you just learn to move on. But I can tell you that the extreme sadness and the feeling like you don't care about continuing on with your Whole30 will get easier to deal with and eventually go away, and keeping yourself as healthy as you can will help that to happen faster, and will leave you with fewer regrets later.

 

Definitely take it easy on yourself, but you do need to eat something, so get some easy-to-prepare foods for now. Buy pre-cut fresh vegetables or some frozen vegetables -- those will be easy to cook quickly. For meats, get ground beef that you can brown a pound or two at a time or some compliant sausages or hot dogs (Aidell's, Bilinski's, and Applegate farms all have some compliant varieties, just read the labels). Grab some olives or avocados or even premade guacamole for fats. You can combine those things easily to make healthy, Whole30-compliant meals.

[LadyM]

I completely understand. In fact, eating with my significant others has been such a big part of our lives together that after each breakup I went through a period of completely changing what I ate and my eating routine.

 

So, what you say doesn't sound weird or dramatic. It totally makes sense.

 

And, as Shannon and Sugarcube have already said, taking care of yourself nutritionally is bottom line self care right now. Keep it as simple as possible. Scrambles and stir frys with ground meat and canned fish on salad are easy, fast, nearly zero prep ways to get a healthy compliant meal into your belly. Please don't quit. This is the best thing you can do for yourself right now.

 

I'm sorry you're going through this. But you can always choose YOU even when life feels like it's falling apart. And you're the only one who can make that choice.

[Lesliechapman00]

Do not give up. Do not quit. Do not feed your feelings with food. YOU CAN GET THROUGH THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!