Mike5858

Great info and awareness here! Sounds like drinking for you is going to be like pasta for me, "special occasions" or as they say in the "Food Freedom Forever" book, when I decide the consequences are worth it. Glad to hear you're doing better. I feel 100% better today after going back to W30 compliant yesterday. We will be trying wine on Saturday. Nothing special, just the same Merlot we always enjoyed. I hope it goes well, as the weekend drink and relaxation that goes with it, is something I have really missed. Have a great weekend everybody! Mike

You bring up some great points. It can be tough to stay on track when things are not readily available or cost effective. One thing I will be working on in the coming weeks, is sourcing meats locally. Mail order meat is just silly expensive, and I refuse to do it. I've got a connection out in western Missouri, and I'm going to look into buying grass fed beef in bulk. Chicken (free range) is not as bad, and pastured eggs seem to be to be on sale now and then. Fish is an issue living here in St. Louis. Wild salmon is ok priced, but I wish there was more variety. I'm learning to make more meals with shrimp, as that's a good option here. Salt water fish is just crazy expensive here in the heartland, and I just can't eat Tilapia or catfish. Nice list of NSV's Corgilover! I am impressed with how you made your road trip work. Just takes a little work and seems to be well worth it!

Food Freedom Forever is an outstanding book. The simplicity of what Melissa is saying is incredible, but right on. I'm about 60% done with it, and wish I had finished it sooner. You can skip over the part where she explains what is "reset" is and how Whole 30 and others work, you've already done that! If you have this book, read it, you'll be very glad you did. Awesome job on those SRV's by the way! You really rocked this program!

I'm doing much better now, it was just a rough few hours this morning. Thanks for the well wishes, and I hope everyone is on the rebound soon. This reintro is like a cruel joke! LOL Work hard for 30 days and come out feeling great, only to wreck it in one day! Lesson learned for me. I learned to really enjoy the W30 compliant meat sauce I make over spaghetti squash, no need for pasta. I think going forward, my choice when it comes to pasta (one of my all time favorite foods, by the way), will be to only indulge in good restaurants. Fortunately we have several here in St. Louis. I truly believe this (pasta) might turn into a 2-3 times a year thing. I'm willing to do that, if I can feel the way I did two days ago, forever! The great pizza experiment will be coming in a week or two, and we will see how that goes. Being honest with myself, I have to say that getting a pizza is at least 80% of the time, because I'm too lazy to go to the store or cook. Pizza Hut, Domino's, Papa John's, that sort of thing. Now that I've found I can make a healthy meal pretty quickly, I need to re-think my actions. A fabulous, one of a kind family owned pizzaria pizza, is one thing to be treasured. I can give up the "McPizza" I eat too often. Thanks for reading my rant, I'll let you know how that works out in a week or so (it will combine dairy and gluten, so I need to figure that out). Tonight is a nice steak ka-bob on the grill and some roasted sweet potatoes.

Thanks dmrob2009, and back at you, hope you're feeling better. Wow, alcohol is next up for reintro on Saturday for us. Hope it's not that bad! I was surprised at my reaction to the gluten, but then again, maybe I shouldn't have been as a pasta meal was never followed by much more than sitting around by me! I now wonder if I missed bread or the ease of making a sandwich. In any case, gluten, for now has been put into the "is it worth it?" file. Maybe special occasions, but I don't like the way I feel today, that's for sure. It's getting better, but the only difference between now and two days ago is the gluten. Portion control would probably help too, since I was eating like a man going to the electric chair until I caught myself!

Good morning everyone. Well, day 1 of the reintro was interesting. I chose to start with gluten containing grains. I had whole wheat bread with breakfast and lunch, and whole wheat pasta and Italian bread for dinner. Somewhere along the way it didn't totally agree with me. I felt a little bloated after dinner last night (to be fair, I over ate, and ate too fast, things I need to work on) and later in the night I was actually having some stomach cramps. Not terribly severe, but I had not experienced these during my W30. I'm not 100% convinced it's all because of reintroducing grains, but it's certainly a watch out, as I still feel "off" this morning. It's back to W30 compliant meals for a few days. My wife, although not having the same issues with grain I did, said she did feel a bit bloated. She said what she really felt was guilty for some reason. We had been so good, and were both feeling so much better, that it felt "weird" to go back, at least a little, to our old ways. We talked a lot about it, and agreed we need to figure this out. As I was continuing to read "Food Freedom Forever" last night, a lot of these topics were covered (eating too fast, making decisions, feeling of guilt after the program is over). I guess I should have started the book a lot sooner! LOL I highly suggest the book. It's almost like Melissa is talking to me. It's exactly what I've been looking for in strategy to improve my relationship with food. Although she talks about doing multiple W30's if you need to, that's not my goal. It's good to know that it's an option, but I would much prefer to do a "mini reset" now and then (two weeks or less). We will see what works for us I suppose. How did everyone else's reintro go? Have a great day! Mike

Feel better soon. As has been said, Day 30 will be here quicker than you realize now! I can honestly say that I never really had what I thought "Tiger's Blood" was going to be. I have done a lot (most of it, because I was moving and "had" to) more physically, but I'm not ready to do 20 mile hikes in the mountains! Maybe (and this happens to me often) my expectations were too high. What I do know is that I feel much better than I did. I also have learned a ton about nutrition and myself. I have no doubt, that if I can stay the course and stay 80-90% Whole 30 compliant, over time, I will feel Tiger's Blood at some point. You will too! Hang in there.

I started the Whole 30 journey on Sept 18th and finished the first part yesterday. Today begins the reintro phase, and I'm ready with a plan. The 30 days were easy or tough, depending on the day, but I learned SO much through this experience. I feel confident as I move forward to "Food Freedom Forever". I would like to say that I had the help of a fantastic group of people online who started W30 on Sept 18th with me. Our group dwindled as time went on, but ended up with a dedicated group at the end that was there for each other. I owe a big part of my success with the program to the accountability, fellowship, encouragement, and humor I found with this terrific group of people. For anyone reading this who hasn't started or finished, I highly suggest your participate in the forums. It keep your mind in the game, and gives a sense of community that can be lacking otherwise in the real world. last, but most importantly, i want to thank my wife who completed this journey with me. We are continuing on this road to health and food freedom together, holding hands. I wouldn't have it any other way! I did not weigh or measure myself before starting W30, so I have nothing concrete to report on that. Some of the highlights, that are not connected to a scale or tape are as follows: I feel my eyes are brighter, my stomach is flatter, my clothes fir MUCH better, I have less bloating and much more "lean" appearance. I have less shoulder/back/and knee pain, as well as less gas, bloating, and diarrhea. I am much more happy day in and day out, more patient, less stressed, have fewer sugar cravings and have much more self confidence in my future of my health and appearance. I am not binging on food anymore, have a healthier relationship with food, have learned how to cook much better, no longer use food as a reward, can identify cravings vs. hunger, and have much more nutrition in my diet. I think more clearly, and am generally more productive. I sleep more soundly, and with less snoring. Overall, my energy levels are higher. Whole 30 was not a "magic pill" for me. I'm not ready to climb Mt. Everest, or become an underwear model. What I DO have is a solid foundation to begin to change my relationship with food and my health for the rest of my life. I now see, how just 30 days of clean eating can change things so quickly for the better. I have a lot more to learn now that I'm in the reintroduction phase, but I'm very happy with the results and learnings I got from my first Whole 30!

Toast....glorious toast! Good morning everyone. I started my day by making Potato Patties with Shredded Beef and Poached Eggs with Salsa Verde (It's from the Whole 30 Cookbook and uses leftovers from the slow cooker Italian Beef, so it's pretty easy, and very elegant for a Wednesday morning!), but my reintro item was grain in the form of whole wheat toast. Put a little Ghee on it and it was very good. I had missed it for sure. This was a VERY filling breakfast. I'm going to put a post in the "Success Stories" thread, outlining my SRV's, but one I'll share here is I've learned to cook much better and how to do more things. I've always been pretty good on the grill, and my inside claims to fame were spaghetti sauce and chili. Everything else was hit or miss. I've learned a TON from Whole 30 and my kitchen confidence has grown in leaps and bounds. Might not sound like much, but this morning was the first time I ever made a poached egg. I screwed up the first one, but the next two came out perfect! This mornings breakfast was as good or better than anything I could have had out (and was 100% Whole 30 compliant to boot!). Not sure what I'm having for lunch, I made my wife a turkey sandwich, and I may do that as well. Tonight is whole wheat pasta with meat sauce. I'm running out in a minute to grab a loaf of rustic Italian bread from a local bakery to have with it. Everything other than the bread and pasta is W30 compliant for tonight. We will go back to 100% W30 until Saturday and see how it goes. Have a great day everyone! Mike

Thanks for doing this. I feel better about reintro already! I will see you here along with the others I hope, tomorrow!

Has a "reintro" thread been started for this group yet? Congrats to your kids for going along with a Whole 30. That says a lot about them (and their parents!). I sure would have had some BIG problems at that age with this!

Happy Day 30 Everyone!!!!! I wasn't sure I was ever going to be able to type that at a few points in the journey, but to be honest, the last 4-5 days have been pretty easy for me. I will take Kirbz's warning though, that the next few days could be full of temptations. I plan to start re-intro (I'm assuming I get through today compliant, how awful if I didn't?) with bread and a little pasta. Following the ideas from the book, I'll have toast (I use sprouted grain bread) with breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and pasta with meat sauce and Italian bread from the bakery. Then totally W30 compliant Thursday and Friday to see what happens. Saturday is alcohol (I was kidding my wife about have mimosa's with Saturday breakfast to beat the rush!) We should be free to start our journey to "Food Freedom" starting this time next week. Someone left a link for the Paleo Leap website and the Primal Blueprint. I'm trying to mess together a conglomeration (with the help of my sister in law, who knows this stuff inside and out) of those two plans, plus W30, added exercise (joining the gym this weekend), and an occasional "treat". I'll stay in touch and let you how it works for me. I just have to say how proud I am of all of you that stuck it out for the 30 days. Your support, struggles, empathy, and humor helped me get through more than any of you will ever know. We started out with a really big group (I think I counted 25-26 at one point in the first two days), and it dwindled down to a handful. I hope some of those we didn't see again, just chose to stop posting and finished on their own, but I don't believe that to be the case for most. I wish them all the luck in the world if they chose to try again. Those of you who did finish, deserve a huge pat on the back! I don't care what the book says, this IS hard. I get the whole "fighting cancer is hard, drinking your coffee black isn't" jingle and slogan, but changing your relationship with food, even for just 30 days is monumental in my opinion. Your interactions with your family, friends and co-workers is hard. The struggle and panic of simply having a meal out of the house for the first few times is hard. Missing celebrations, or leaving early, or just not being comfortable when everyone you love is having the same drink you've enjoyed with them for decades and you can't, is hard. You know what though? YOU ALL DID IT! Congrats and let's stick together through reintro at least. Have a WONDERFUL Day and be PROUD of yourselves! Mike

Good Luck Tj V, it sounds like you have a solid plan, backed with a lot of thought and research. Keep us informed of your progress! I do want to take a moment to thank you for inviting me to this group and this thread. I truly believe that without the daily accountability, and support provided by this thread and it's members, I would not have made it through the entire 30 days. Thank you for that! I plan to be here for awhile, so I hope you'll stay in touch! Mike

It's in the Whole 30 cookbook (pg 202), not the recipe section of the "book". The cookbook is well worth the $$, I think the recipes are better and more interesting than the ones that come with the regular book (not that those aren't good).

I was going to do the same thing. the program has not been a complete "miracle" for me, but it has helped a lot in many areas. For example, I used to sleep good one or two nights a week, now it's like 5 or 6! So, although ideally, I love it to be seven nights of great sleep, I'll take 5 or 6 nights over where I was anyday! I'm going to fill out the full list on Wednesday morning. I didn't weigh myself before we started, so i really don't know where I am weight wise, but I must be down some, because my pants and shirts fit better. You're doing great, hang in there!