Dazed and confused

[Really!]

So I am day 7, and I have some thoughts, first was the eerie ghosts in the machine, when I woke this morning at 12:30 a.m. and found myself after about 40 minutes of trying to go back to sleep staring at my computer screen and reading my Whole 30 Day 7 email.  It was all about slips and cheating and here is where it gets eerie, they talked about overeating grapes and nut butters.  Before I had shuffled my way over to the computer, I had stopped in the kitchen and grabbed a handful of grapes and a generous tablespoon of unsalted almond butter, so there I sat staring at the words meant to admonish me for sitting there with my cheeks stuffed like a squirrel with grapes and licking the last delicious smudge of almond butter of the spoon.  Awkward!!

 

2nd thoughts this morning are "mind games".  I kind of think this Whole 30 is a big mind game, don't get me wrong I am not being a hater, I am choosing to be let myself go on the ride, but really what is the difference between the physical and psychological trauma of my food issues and the people on this forum and the authors of the plan exhorting a rigid eating plan.   I mean really...what is the difference between being controlled by my addiction to certain foods, and trying to change my eating behaviors by following a rigid eating plan that is being dictated to me by people that I don't know.  Is it choice? The book tells me that my past food choices have created a dynamic where I don't have a choice, but by following their eating plan-that takes away choices, I am exercising a choice to break the bonds of sugar addictions and food allergies.   But following the plan means I feel punished and have to start again if I slip and eat sugar, or cheese or have a graham cracker.   I completely understand if you have food allergies the need to adhere to strict eating plan, I get the reasoning behind that.  It just feels this morning like this is a rigid ideology that seems to me to be just a different albeit healthier form of enslavement to food and my relationship with it.   Or is this some mind trick that my addictions are playing on me this morning?

 

[GFChris]

I'll go with mind trick ...   

Remember, they're not advocating eating this way forever. It's for 30 days to see how/whether you feel better by eliminating foods that can cause physical and psychological issues. Whole30 is also based in research and science, not made up stuff.

"Rigid eating plan" is one perspective to take. I choose to look at it as an expansive way of eating lots of real, delicious food that is good for my health. For me, there's freedom in that point of view.

"Punishment" is another perspective. Instead you could use terms like learning experience, lessons learned, etc.

 

Yes, the mind is a big part of this process - I guess that's part and parcel when the goal is to change your relationship with food (ultimately for the better).

[WunderHase]

I'll give you my two cents on the subject. I'm no expert on Whole30. I'm not even getting those e-mails everyone is talking about! What the what? Where do you get them? :-) I bought the book on Kindle, read it (OK, OK, I skipped some parts a bit that were fairly familiar to me) and then started. I have been compliant with the foods, but my timings and portions aren't quite compliant. I hate eating breakfast. I tried, I still hate it. I might still try a bit more, as I have a bit over one week left, but I'm fairly certain at this point that I'll not continue eating breakfast. It's my own choice and I take the responsibility of that choice.

 

I have been non-compliant couple of times: once I ate a bunch of dried coconut which had 1% sugar in it and once I had a pickle that had some artificial sweetener in the brine (the pickles over here aren't as sweet as they are in America, so I doubt that the amount was a lot). Did I start over? Hell to the no. The pickle isn't going to make my body go out of control and neither is that 1% sugar. I did eat the coconut, because I let myself get to a state of being ravenous, so that was my bad. Lesson learned, now let's just move on.

 

Specific diets can indeed be mind games if you let them be. I have taken the approach that I'll take the information given to me, I will give it a try to stay as compliant as possible for 30 days and after that I make the decision how I want to eat. I will not let someone else dictate me how I'll eat, but I do want to make informed decisions. I want to hold that power over what I eat, carry the responsibility, but also be informed. Information is power. I appreciate what I've learned during this experiment, even though I'll not continue eating this way. I will say from physical point of view though, that I think that once you've weened yourself off certain addictive substances, it's easier to make coherent decisions. If you are "under the influence", you don't hold that power anymore to make informed decisions, because you're physically obsessing over some particular food or drink.

 

I think you are right that even eating healthy can be unhealthy, if it spawns from mental obsession and fear. We go from one extreme to another, going from excessive consumption to total deprivation. Everything has to be perfect, and failure is frowned upon. I spent a great amount of time on this one diet forum once, and the characters there were scary. "I'll eat nothing but boiled chicken for two weeks" and surprise, surprise, that lasted one day, until she devoured half a jar of peanut butter. Another man tried to diet, failed and then decided to only drink water for a month. The sheer stupidity and craziness was just unreal and it was horrible to watch these people torture themselves mentally. And it was mental torture more than physical. I haven't been much different myself, but I'm getting away from it, because I'm just too tired of the food drama. That's why I also steer clear from the Paleo forums, because there's plenty of obsessing over there as well.

 

I would like to say thought that I appreciate the Hartwigs' approach of reintroducing items to your diet as well as the idea of not trying to make "Paleo friendly" fast food dishes. When you try to carve macaroni from a sweet potato, then perhaps something is a bit wrong :-) Macaroni is macaroni, sweet potato is sweet potato and both are used for different types of dishes. I also think that they didn't intend the diet to be too "strict". Unfortunately people want leaders and those who tell them what they should do, and not having to decide for themselves, so there needs to be some guide. "OK, this is what you can have and this is how much you can have it" feels safe to a lot of people and it feels tyrannical to others.

 

In my opinion, we should take the information and feel more confident in our decisions, but to not feed our obsessions.

[GFChris]

I'll give you my two cents on the subject. I'm no expert on Whole30. I'm not even getting those e-mails everyone is talking about! What the what? Where do you get them? :-) 

The emails are called the Whole30 Daily. 31 days of support for $14.95. Details here: https://daily.whole9life.com/

[WunderHase]

The emails are called the Whole30 Daily. 31 days of support for $14.95. Details here: https://daily.whole9life.com/

 

OK! Got it. Thank you :-)

[jent103]

I hear what you're saying, about feeling bound either by sugar (or whatever) addictions or by the Whole30 "rules." BUT: as GFChris pointed out, the Whole30 is not intended to be a permanent way of life. It's a temporary phase intended to, among other things, help break you of those addictions. The "rules" are not lifelong (whereas if you don't break that sugar/grain/whatever addiction, it might well be). That's key for me. There were times during my Whole30 that I found it very restrictive - mainly when trying to eat out or socialize. There were more times when I found it really freeing to realize how tasty and sweet things like in-season peaches are without those sweeteners; to realize that I could feel like a meal was complete without needing a side of bread or rice; and most importantly for me, to be eating as much nutrient-dense food as I wanted without worrying about calories a single bit.

 

I don't think any of those positive things had happened yet by day 7, though. Your brain and body are still going through withdrawals. I'd encourage you to stick with it the 30 days and see how you feel. You may find that you don't end up wanting sugar or cheese or graham crackers. Or maybe not, but if you do the reintro, you'll know how they make you feel and can make informed decisions about when to eat them. The freedom for me comes in having that information and making guilt-free choices to have things when I really want them, knowing the consequences. (Gluten, as it turns out, doesn't upset my stomach but does make me feel like a zombie. Not worth it for a hamburger bun at a cookout, but worth it for amazing house-made pasta from one of my favorite restaurants? Absofreakinlutely. No guilt about it.)

[Really!]

Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful support, it was so eloquent and soulful.  I feel so much stronger for it.  I don't really want to give in to the cravings because I do notice some differences in the way I physically feel.  I am noticing that I feel lighter, not less chunky, but my tummy feels like it isn't really there, if that makes sense, I don't notice any bad tummy feelings and that alone is worth it today.   Please accept my gratitude and a virtual hug for helping me through the day.