____Emily____

What a wonderful thread! I'm hoping to lose 60 lbs and got off to a great start with my Whole30 that just ended. Hoping I can continue my success like you!

Reintroductions are done and I didn't have any stomach issues for any of the individual food groups! I traveled to visit family this weekend and had to eat out nearly every meal (to include one meal at a baseball stadium). I didn't limit my options, so now my stomach is not happy with me.... I'm looking forward to returning to a mainly Whole30 diet this week and working toward finding a nice balance going forward. Congrats to everyone who finished!

I started early with dairy too. I realized last night that dairy day could mean milk chocolate and got overly excited . I haven't had serious issues though, which is great because one of the things I miss most is a plain latte from Starbucks, and I don't really want to ever reintroduce carrageenan, which is in their non-dairy alternatives. I can definitely feel my stomach being somewhat surprised by the dairy, but nothing that is screaming "avoid this forever!" Just a little bloated (so I'll probably avoid it in large quantities going forward). So far I've had a grande nonfat milk latte from Starbucks, two types of cheese, and carrots with a cucumber garlic tzatziki. Tonight I'm having hot wings with sauce made with standard butter instead of ghee. I picked up a ranch dressing from Whole Foods with only 9 ingredients, all of which I can pronounce and none of which are soybean oil (the number one ingredient in most of the ranch dressings I found). I'm excited to see what the ranch tastes like - the first ingredient is buttermilk.

Good luck with your Whole30! I'll be honest - eating out and going out with friends will be tough. I would recommend not eating out for just the two of you during the program because your options in restaurants are super limited and frankly just don't taste as good as anything you can make at home. Use this program as a chance to get familiar with your kitchen and to learn new recipes, otherwise you will very quickly get bored with your dine-out options. For when you go out with friends for dinner, check out the dining guide on the Whole30 website for ideas on how to navigate that, but what I did was research restaurants that are more accommodating/easier to eat at near me and then I always suggested those places. I had three go-tos (Cava, Zoe's Kitchen, and a place that steams crabs to order). When I met up with people for drinks, I usually ordered iced tea. Oddly enough, the thing I was most excited to reintroduce at the end of 30 days was wine... navigating social drinking on Whole30 is annoying.

I know you mentioned it to be tongue-in-cheek, but "have a cup of tea" is my main suggestion. I like to have peppermint tea and I put my face in the steam coming off the tea while it steeps and smell it deeply with my eyes closed. I instantly feel tension release through that. As for getting away for a moment: I used to work in a more stressful job where I was constantly being bombarded with questions and requests, and sometimes to get a moment to myself I would go to the bathroom. I would sit in the stall and take a few deep breaths. Count 4 seconds in, and 4 seconds out. Don't think about anything else but your breathing. Do this for 1-2 minutes and then go back to work feeling more zen. If you can sit at your desk (or whereever your workplace is) without being bothered, then you could do it there (just close your eyes so you aren't looking at your computer screen).

I would agree about walking. It's such a great exercise, not only for your physical health, but also your mental health. I too find Crossfit intimidating, but enjoy working with some of the crossfit gear at my gym (the ropes, the contraption you load with weight and push, the tire flip thing, etc...) and working with weights. They're low impact, but increasing your muscle tone will speed up your metabolism and also help strengthen the muscles around your joints and prevent injury. I worked with a trainer for about 6 months to learn good form, and now I do group fitness classes for free at my gym (BodyPump is my favorite, but I've been doing a couple of new types of classes lately with a friend and it's been fun). Honestly, the best way to workout is to do multiple types of exercises - walking, yoga, and weights will all have different benefits and will complement one another in your journey. You mentioned having a pool near you - maybe you can go and walk laps in the pool? It'll keep you cool in the heat and make the walking even lower impact as you start out.

It's hard not to compare yourself to someone else, but as the saying goes "comparison is the thief of joy." Awesome job this month!

Were you all eating at Raffertys? There used to be one of those in the town where I went to high school and the croissants were literally the best thing on the menu there. Although I don't remember them having Spin Dip (that was my go-to meal at restaurants, but I remember having the nachos for dinner every time we went there). My recommendation to you would be to go back to Whole30 for a few days and then do a reintroduction by the book (so one day with the one food group and then back to Whole30 for two days and then a different food group). Then you can really pinpoint if it was the butter or the gluten or perhaps something else: Maybe it's an additive on that particular croissant? Maybe something else you ate with that meal gave you food poisoning? Maybe you randomly picked up a stomach bug and the timing just happened to coincide with the croissant? Good luck figuring it out!

Non-gluten grains went well - no stomach issues anyway. Had a chicken curry with rice, corn tortilla chips with guacamole, and sushi. Chips and guac are officially a "food without brakes" for me.. I was so full, and then I made it worse by ordering three sushi rolls (WHY??? well, I know why - I was only getting the basic rolls so getting three cost about the same as my normal order of one special and one basic roll would cost). I gave a few pieces to my boyfriend to keep from eating them all, but I was uncomfortably full at the end of the day.

I'm so excited! I love sushi so much, and I don't tend to use the soy sauce anyway. I'll need to do a bit of research into ingredients to be sure not to get a roll with noncompliant ingredients in it (eel is my favorite, but I have a feeling that it'll be out because of that sauce), but it'll be a good dinner

Hi @Jothika. There's a board for vegetarians doing Whole30 on this forum where you can go for advice. However, I'm not sure I would make that life change during Whole30 just because of the lack of compliant protein sources that aren't meat. Maybe you can spend this time focusing on buying ethically-sourced meats and seafood? Cage-free eggs, Free-range meats, fresh caught (not farmed) fish, etc... Good luck on your Whole30!

Well, legume day went well for me. I had peanut butter in the afternoon, and chili with beans in it for dinner. No issues, except some excessive flatulence after the beans at dinner. However, that's a pretty normal bodily reaction to beans, so I'm not going to take that as a sign that my body can't handle legumes. Now back to Whole30 (except two work happy hours - one today and one tomorrow - where I'll have one drink at each) until I get into non-gluten grains on Saturday. For non-gluten grains, I'm thinking: corn tortilla chips with guacamole, a quinoa dish, and possibly sushi for dinner

Thanks @ladyshanny for the response. I didn't stop for the latte this morning because I was running late, and based off what you say, I think I'll just wait til dairy day to get a regular milk one. I miss my lattes, but I've been without them for 30 days so another week won't hurt.

I wound up waking up early to redo my measurements because I just felt so overfull last night when I did them. -15 lbs -1.5 inches in my chest -2 inches in my waist -2.5 inches in my hips I'm thrilled! @nerdular is right on this. The recommended schedule is legumes -> non-gluten grains -> dairy -> gluten based on how likely the food type is to cause issues, but you can do any order you like. They just caution that if you do a tough food first, you may need to give yourself more than two Whole30 days before introducing the next group to get back to having a clean slate to test from (so the latter ones are more likely to cause longer-lasting issues if you have trouble with them).

About to do my measurements before heading to sleep! I kind of regret having three servings of my spaghetti squash "pasta" tonight (it was sooooo good) because now I feel a bit full, but I never wake up early enough to have time to measure in the AM, lol. I'm getting my weight in the AM, so I'll just post the results tomorrow sometime. Excited though!