Visions of Crashing and Burning...

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

So... just successfully finished day 13 of our first W30.  I will be honest.  I am not feeling great.  Yes, I had a crazy amount of energy today, but my cravings are terrible and EVERYTHING has turned into food with no brakes!  Seriously... if it's there, I eat it.  Sweet potatoes, fruit, nuts, turkey, boiled eggs, steamed cauliflower... just anything yummy at all.  Compliant?  Maybe... mealtime?  Nope.

 

Ugh... at first I was having no trouble eating proper portions and stopping, but for some reason I am just losing it half way through!  DH and I both are still having crazy cravings, and I know it's normal at this stage, but I am getting concerned about reintro.  I think we'll stay compliant and make it through the thirty days, but I have visions of crashing and burning at the end and just wasting all our hard work.

 

Right now I can say no because it's not compliant, but after that? Self regulating?  Oh boy... I don't know how this is going to work.  I know he's going to want to indulge in something right away, but that's not how proper reintros work!  And we'll just go back to the same old thing we were doing before.  But how can I convince him to do basically another two weeks or so of deprivation after the thirty days is over?  (One day of getting cheese at each meal and then back to W30 for two days isn't exactly his idea of better...)

Help?  How can I plan for this so we don't totally lose it when this is over? 

[Physibeth]

First of all you are not even half way through. I wouldn't worry so much about Day 31 right now. Seriously. You are stressing yourself out. It might take more than 13 days for you to start feeling the good feelings. 

 

Now if that isn't enough for you this is what I did. I had a rough idea of how I wanted to do my reintroduction period based on previous Paleo experience and my own schedule. I wrote it down and made it part of my program (what I committed myself too) and moved along with my Whole30. I ended up changing it a little when I got there but I had a plan. 

 

Even if on day 31 you fall face first into chocolate cake you will not have wasted your time. When this happens to people we often recommend they go back to compliant for a week and attempt reintroductions again.

 

As for the deprivation...I encourage you both to focus more on all the good food you are allowed and less on all the stuff you are not. I also encourage you to think of reintroductions as a science experiment. You have a nice clean system to compare to. It isn't about depriving yourself more during that time period it is about having a real idea of how things affect you so you can then go on your merry way making choices knowing how they will affect you.

[anzadel]

I am on day 27 and I feel the same. I don't want to reintro anything, hubby is not doing it with me and had been mostly supportive. However he thinks once I in am past day 30 I can eat whatever. It was actually his idea for me to go gluten free and soy free. Searching that lead me to W30. But he had no idea what than means I terms of eating out. I do Since I have worked in restaurants, both in the front and back. He doesn't get why I just can't go out to sushi and not be difficult.

However the other day I went off the hook with dates. Huge sugar high, then crash and burn. I seriously felt Hungover, it ruined my entire day. Then i thought about how i felt crappy all the time. It was so awful I never want to do that again. It will be easier to stay on track then you think. I almost ate some pizza then other night with family. ThenI thought about how crappy I feel and it was easy to eat my packed dinner instead.

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Could you maybe tell him that you think your body just needs more time to heal and jump right into another Whole30 or 60 even?  Or just say you need more time to heal and continue doing what you're doing, with the occasional indulgence but mostly compliant.

[anzadel]

I dunno. I'm over talking about it with him. I just pack my own meals and order soda, we don't go out that much. I did compromise saying we could do one night out a month and I will eat at whatever restaurant picks and not be difficult.

I'm going to start another w30 Feb 3rd tho! He wants to lose weight so maybe he will join me, he's convinced its too much meat. But he can tell I feel much better, and have way less GI distress.

When you get closer to the end hopefully your cravings will be down. And you will see how poisonous sugar is when its in a clean system. Its like when junkies go to rehab and get clean they often overdose when they relapse. Their tolerance is down. I think our bodies are the same with sugar and to some extent grains. At leasst we cant die from a sugar overdose. Not in one day anyway. So even if you fall off the wagon be confident you will want to hop right back on, I sure did. And I only OD'd on dried fruit.

I don't want to renintro anything but soy and white rice. And that's just so I can have sushi once a month.

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Thanks for the encouragement!  I do hope we are closer to that mindset at the end.  But I just need to relax and not worry about it if we're not.  From reading the forums I've learned that it takes some people two or three or more Whole30s before they can get to that point, and I have to remind myself that if that happens for us that's ok too!  It's not the length of the journey that matters as much as the fact that we just finally decided to get ourselves on it.