Suzy

I just wanted to dip back into this post again. I'm sorry that I was the last person to post in here six months ago. I think of this thread a lot, actually. I am now in a different phase of my health journey and wanted to share with you what is going on and how I feel now. I am now more convinced that most people should only do a whole30 once or twice in their lives, to figure out food intolerances and move forward with that knowledge. I think this is the intent of the Hartwigs, but I think a lot of people use the Whole30 as a way to suppress appetite and lose weight. I abused the W30 for this purpose and I'm now more in touch with how skewed my body image was. I have always thought that accepting oneself is the best way to go, but I didn't follow that advice. Now I'm going to give Golda Poretsky another chance, as well as the link mentioned by HollyBee. I really want to learn to release my food and body image hang ups. Any advice is appreciated!

I'm on the 1/2/14 train with you guys! This is going to be a delicious, satisfying, and healthy new year!

Are you following the low FODMAP protocol? I have to do this. Cauliflower "rice" and I can never be together. But there's plenty of other delicious food to eat out there.

Well, I for one love myself to death and always have. I have always had tons of self-criticisms and fallen prey to negative self talk, but I've always wanted to look, feel, be, live, and give back to others better than I have the day before. I'm saying that I've always been a sunflower craning its blossom to the light. My genes have made it very hard for me to be happy and comfortable; I've had major depressive disorder since I was about 10 and I will always have to deal with it in some form until I die. I hardly ever feel totally okay, so when I felt some relief in my symptoms and a drop in excess fat after Whole30, I was happy about that. I think this program will get your body and your genes right; you're going to wind up where you should be, whatever size that is. I'm learning about epigenetics now and how traditional foods can switch on the good genes and deactivate some the bad ones that cause disease. I'm very interested in this since diabetes, obesity, mood disorders, and heart disease are rampant in my family. I want to give myself and any future children of mine the very best chance at health and positive body image. And I wouldn't change a thing about my body, past or present. I'm so grateful I got to be obese because it led me to seek a better way to eat and live than how I had always done. From there I found good, traditional foods and a whole lifestyle of self love. Thank you, Dallas and Melissa!

Oh yes, Ari, I feel like that all the time. In fact, I'm stuck in a very unhealthy loop right now. I've been eating fast food and lots of sugar for a couple weeks now and I'm not even sure how I got here again. I love the way I feel when I'm eating good food and taking care of myself, yet there's nothing like dissipating nervous energy with super delicious junk food, especially sugary ones. The thing I'm trying to hold on to is the concept of lifestyle. The only way people can deal with bad feelings is to actually let themselves feel them. You can't keep burying your emotions alive in junky food. The best thing you can do is write it all out in a journal every day and then talk about it with a therapist and/or close friend. It really is the only way to go. If you've eaten that junk food your whole life, it's going to take more than a few Whole30s to sort that out. You have to delve straight into your feelings and figure out what they're telling you about yourself. Also, after your done expressing bad feelings, go and socialize in a fun way as often as you can. It sounds cheesy, but stay "up" as they say. Be as optimistic as is comfortably possible. Something I'm finding really helpful is just getting the hell out of my house and having lots of new experiences. Even if you think, say, a trip to a bookstore is going to be totally dull, it's better than bingeing on junk food at home alone. And you never know what wonderful things could happen.

I believe I have this same issue with sugar. Please keep us posted!

First of all, happy Mother's Day! It must be hard cooking pasta for everyone else when you're eating veggies and meat. I'm thinking this is the rough patch that I experienced my first time. If you're exhausted with no appetite, that's a sure sign you need more carbohydrates. My go-tos are sweet potatoes, beets, and winter squash. Get the canned squash; it's great in a pinch.

I like to take apple slices into the theater. Shake a bit of cinnamon on it? Someone told me you can soak carrot sticks in salty water and they become a salty movie snack. I know it's snacking between meals, but for me movies are different. That's not an everyday situation for me, so I allow a compliant snack.

This thread still bothers me sometimes in my quiet moments, so I've gone back to make sure I wasn't persecuting anyone for being fat. I'm pretty sure I wasn't doing that since I was fat, too. Duh. I'm not a "fatist." My friends and relatives are fat, and I love them. I attach no moral judgments to what I deem as excess body fat. Oh, and if weight loss discussion is a trigger for your body issues, maybe you shouldn't click on and follow a post about weight loss, but stick to the other thousands of posts on this lovely forum. I was rereading ISWF, like I do every fortnight and found that excess adipose tissue is actually almost considered a separate endocrine producing organ. They said that if you have excess fat, especially belly fat, you are pretty much guaranteed to have chronic systemic inflammation. If this isn't the precursor to disease, I don't know what is, and my name is f***ing Jenny Craig.

This is the first I've heard of GAPS diet. It sounds very interesting and almost identical to Whole30.

Yeah, I love iceberg. It's crunchy and lightens up heavier lettuces. I like to add it to salads and put ground meat on a bed of it. You're doing the right thing by using what you like. I don't think many people truly love veggies over other foods. Try a lot of cooked veggies finely chopped. You can add them to soups or ground meat.

I want to support you by acknowledging that I definitely know that ADHD is a real condition. I want to say how inspiring it is to see someone take control of his life by going to school and taking his meds. I have it, too but I have not been on meds for any great length of time since the side effects are terrible for my anxiety issues (although, admittedly, I haven't tried them all). I experienced an increase in my attention as well as a general brightening of my mood after W30. Maybe you could do an autoimmune protocol W30 without meds since you'll have that break coming up and see how you feel. They really like to see you on the autoimmune protocol for 90 days, though, I think. Whatever you choose, I wish you the very best.

OMG Moluv, that sounds terrifying. I can just picture that nasty, vanillin stench, hot, corn syrupy smell. Yick. I think I'll use that thought in self-hypnosis, which I've been dabbling in.

I had one starring this giant apple fritter pie thing with icing on it. Comforting how similar all our dreams are. I felt guilty, but also I felt triumphant that I got away with it without actually eating it!

Dear everyone on Earth, This is a reminder that sugar is really, really bad for you. I know you've heard it, but this is such an important message that it is simply almost impossible to overstate it. I've been keeping healthy on my non-Whole30 time . . . except for added sugar. I thought since I'd given up my obvious culprits of flour and dairy that I could have a Coke, or some Boysenberry jam, or lots of bananas, or tons of jellybeans because they're gluten and dairy free. Well, I've been horribly swollen and achy for a month now, thinking it might be the corn tortillas or that I could have fibromyalgia. I figured out it's the sugar. Sneaky, horribly, delicious, horrible sugar.