kayten

Hi! I'm about to run into a similar situation with my reintroduction (finishing my Whole30 on October 2, and Thanksgiving weekend is October 5-8)... Was wondering what you ended up doing? Do you have any recommendations?

Hi all! I wanted to start a thread about Canadians competing their Whole30 on October 2nd, because the reintroduction period will overlap with our Thanksgiving! I'm completing my 4th Whole30 on October 2; however, this will only be my second proper reintroduction. My first Whole30, I did a by-the-books reintroduction, but by my second and third rounds, I told myself I would do slow roll, which turned into "eat pizza a week after your W30, feel crappy, not know what it was particularly, and just go back to Whole30 eating"... lol, exactly what you're not supposed to do, I know. I am DETERMINED to do a proper reintroduction period this round! I think I might just do dairy on October 3 (butter, yogurt/kefir, milk... no cheese yet though) and then just wait a 3-4 days until my mom's turkey dinner, and test gluten then, since there will definitely be wheat all over that turkey with the stuffing situation. If I'm remembering back to my first reintroduction, as well as the times I happened to test those dairy products properly during the slow roll attempts, those shouldn't cause me too many issues. My strategy to test those first is that they will probably also be in the turkey dinner, so if I test those first, then at the dinner with gluten cross-contamination, I'd have a better idea at least of what was making me feel crummy (because I fully anticipate the gluten to not go well, but who knows... maybe I'll be surprised!) After turkey dinner, I think I will give it a good 5 days of regular W30 eating, and then start with the prescribed 14 day reintroduction on October 13th. What are the other Canadians out there strategizing for the upcoming holiday on reintroduction? Are you just planning on Whole30'ing during family dinner? Extending the Whole30 and not reintroducing until after the holiday? Eating Whole30 up to your turkey dinners, then running wild for one meal, and hopping right back on the W30 afterwards? I'd love to hear what others are thinking!

My not Whole30 eating basically looks exactly like Whole30 eating, with the exception of adding in some GF grains into my post workout/sport snacks and probiotic dairy (plain kefir and yogurt) a few times a week, which probably works out to like 90% ish? I follow a program designed for me by a dietician when I'm not Whole30'ing, and it's very interesting to note that although she is very pro-dairy and pro-grain, my days look almost the same! It just goes to show that you can truly get a full nutritional scope on the Whole30

This is my 4th Whole30 since January 2017 - it's been a very iterative process for me. Every single time, my old habits eventually come back, but that's ok when they do! Take the opportunity to reflect on why that happened, and just hop on another Whole30 when you can. Each round, you'll maintain your zen eating a bit longer, and each time it'll last a bit longer. It's all about learning and adjusting, and it will probably take some time and a few rounds. The Food Freedom Forever book has a great section on how old eating habits sneak back into our lives (they had different situations and outlined each in detail). I found that really helpful following my third Whole30. You'll eventually learn which foods trigger cravings/symptoms, and will be able to evaluate whether it's worth it to eat (weirdly enough, pizza seems to trigger my sugar cravings lol). One thing that I think is important to note is the "mini-reset" idea that is floating around. After I completed two Whole30s, I started attempting mini-resets, and never succeeded to follow them for more than a few days. I found that I needed the full Whole30 to commit. I recently found a blog entry by Melissa that discussed how mini-resets are a tool to be used after you've done at LEAST three Whole30s Maybe you'd be fine to do mini-resets, but I wish I'd found that article earlier to save me a lot of strife and negative feelings of failure! I'm also thinking about extending to a Whole45 - I agree that I am feeling so good, and want to put off feeling gross during the reintroduction days just a little bit

Sounds like you might be starting to hit it! The Whole30 site describes Tiger Blood ultimately as a feeling of self-efficacy - like you are in charge and feeling pride and empowered by your success! It'll probably just keep getting better and better too

Day.... 17?!?! When did that happen??? How's everyone feeling? Any plans for the dreaded food boredom of week 3? After seeing how many people on the forum were raving about the Fast and Easy cookbook, I decided to treat myself last week and bought it... And I'm so glad I did! So far I've made the alfredo sauce (with spaghetti squash, turkey breast and mushrooms for a "fettucine" night), chicken and zucchini skillet, kale and potato sheet pan meal, and crunchy garlic pepper beef (listed in order from most favourite to meh-in-my-opinion). All have been super fast and easy indeed! And quite inexpensive ingredients to make it, which is a major plus I realized when I was planning out my running and workout schedule that I'm out of town for the next 3 weekends, and was out of town last weekend... Quite the time to do a Whole30, when you're out of town on the weekends for a month straight I'm already working on next week's meal plan so we can do groceries on our way back into town and meal prep real quick Sunday night. Thankfully, I'll have a bunch of leftovers to bring with me for this upcoming trip as my husband is out of town and I'm overcooking like crazy! We travel a lot, and the inability to settle into a weekend routine has been a major detriment for me in the past. If anything, I'm kind of grateful for all this craziness during my Whole30 - I'm really showing myself that there are no excuses, and if I'm committed enough, travel doesn't have to interfere with nutrition!

Thank you! I'm excited to go find this!!!

What brand were the chicken sausages? I haven't found any compliant sausage and would love to as it would really add variety to the easy weeknight dinner rotation! I've been noticing my bra and belt are looser, and my mother said I look slimmer than when she last saw me, so that was pretty neat! More importantly, my energy levels are high and steadying out how about you???

Day 12 folks! Another few days and we are halfway! I think my tiger blood hit yesterday! I have all the energy to do all the things now! Sleeping deeply and waking alert before my alarm. Does anyone else who as completed a Whole30 before find the energy kind of overwhelming? I get kind of twitchy and find it really hard to just sit still and relax - I'm constantly jumping up to throw in a load of laundry, clean the windows, do some dishes, organize a shelf, etc... Every time I've done a Whole30 it's been like that for about the first week of tiger blood. I do my workouts around 16:30, so am wondering if that energy pump just takes a while to get used to once I'm fuelling my body correctly, as opposed to dragging myself through the day. I'm still having random cravings (this morning at 07:15 was vanilla ice cream ) but am feeling good enough that it's becoming less and less worth it to consider ruining this. I'm considering extending to a Whole45, as I have an autoimmune and have heard it can be good to do a bit longer in that case. @ErikaA I think you said you were on Day 44 a while ago? How have you found Whole30+?

Good for you! That is so hard to catch yourself when you're already in the "screw it!" mindset, nicely done! One thing that I've found takes food from 'good' to 'amazing!' is black truffle salt if you can find it (I get mine from Evoolution). It adds such an intense depth of flavor and umami - it's particularly excellent used in Nomnom Paleo's Crackling Chicken recipe

I just found this during a Canada search! Not sure if you're still doing Whole30, but naturamarket.ca is amazing! Free shipping over $49, it has changed the way I Whole30. Also, Kirkland brand low sodium bacon at Costco is compliant. It's not humanely raised, but with my husband going back to school we really can't swing humanely sourced meats while I'm on a Whole30

Guys. Remember how I said that I've been sleeping like a baby this Whole30? Last night they were doing snow removal with construction equipment right on the street my apartment is on until past 3 in the morning... I start work at 7, and I am LAGGING today. I'm a little worried, Day 10 on Valentines Day is not the day to be off, and I find that when I'm tired I am like 3000% more likely to make decisions I will regret instantly. I don't even really have a plan, another warning bell, because my brain is literally too tired to think farther than 10 minutes into the future. Hoping I can just slog through today and get a good nights sleep tonight. Also - has anybody used coconut manna before? I'm trying to decide whether to get it on my naturamarket order right now... I'm curious to try it but am not sure if I'd really be able to use it much.

Ya! A friend clued me in a few months ago, and I literally stood in that aisle comparing the ingredients against the Whole30 additives sheet for like 10 minutes because I couldn't believe it!

@april_espi I'm not familiar with that festival either! We just had our Canada 150th celebration, and the government made all national park admissions free for the year... So I was actually avoiding Banff with a 10 foot pole last year haha! It was super busy

As I was reading through that I was about to suggest kombucha, but I see you already thought of it! Costco sells a ginger kombucha that is perfect for an upset stomach! Oh and PS - Kirkland brand low sodium bacon is compliant