CRAVINGS!!!

[Tink03]

So I just started my first Whole30 and am on day 4... yesterday and today i have had the worst cravings!! I am craving a big bowl of kashi/special K cereal with almond milk the most!! And for some strange reason I am also craving bread, like wanting a sandwich. This is odd because I usually dont eat much bread, only every once in a while do I have toast or a sandwich, but yesterday and today Panera sandwich has been on my mind ( when Im not thinking of that bowl of cereal)!! How do i deal with these cravings?? 30 days seem so long right now....

[Physibeth]

Best way to deal with cravings is to put your head down and stay the course. Make sure you are complying with the meal template for all 3 meals. Make sure you are not going to low carb as you seem to be craving carbs. Your body is mad that you are changing your fuel source so it is trying to get its way. Just hang in there, it gets better.

[CAK911]

I also personally find it helpful to frame it as "I am not going to have that for 30 days, I can have that someday later." For me, for many foods, that "someday later" never or rarely comes in the end, but it helps me get around obsessing over things in the interim.

[AllyB]

I had BAD cravings and still occasionally do.  Mostly mine are just for sugar.  It does get better.  I think the craving period is prolonged if you give in to them.  So try to hang tight.  Keep yourself busy right after meals and that seems to help distract from cravings.

[NatalieJ]

I'm on day 5 and the last 3 days have been horrible!!

I'm feeling the same... 30 days is SOO long.

 

I've been craving dairy!

 

It's messing with my head and hard to keep focused, I keep thinking is it really that important to do this to my body?!!???!!!

[Physibeth]

I'm on day 5 and the last 3 days have been horrible!!

I'm feeling the same... 30 days is SOO long.

 

I've been craving dairy!

 

It's messing with my head and hard to keep focused, I keep thinking is it really that important to do this to my body?!!???!!!

 

Hang in there! In the course of your whole life 30 days is not that long. It's a blip. If you want feedback to see if there is something you might change that will make you feel better than post a couple days of your food log.

 

That all said here is a little reminder:

 

 

It is not hard. Don't you dare tell us this is hard. Beating cancer is hard. Birthing a baby is hard. Losing a parent is hard. Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard. You've done harder things than this, and you have no excuse not to complete the program as written. It's only thirty days, and it's for the most important health cause on earth – the only physical body you will ever have in this lifetime. - See more at: http://whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/#sthash.XF8NdNPk.dpuf

[lyndy]

Yep..it seems to me that the harder you crave, the more important it is for you to continue Whole30. I'm thinking people don't crave as hard unless they were really dependent on the substance they've given up. Like any other addicition. JMO.

[nikki5577]

Hang in there, it does get better - and on day 18 I can say it is worth it.

 

Someone told me before I started "It's just 30 days; you have the rest of your life to eat/drink <fill on the blank>". It really gave me some perspective. I would definitely post some of your sample meal plans. Sometimes just making sure you are eating enough/eating the right stuff really helps.

[IanB]

Know that it gets better - it really does! I can't believe that I'm just not bothered about cheese any more - I was SO angry that I couldn't have it in that first week! It took a while for the dairy cravings to subside, but they did, they all did. 

 

And it's probably best you don't tell yourself 'never' - just that you'll not have this for 30 days, and after that you'll see. I was convinced I'd be drinking beer and eating cheese the second the 30 days was up. That thought kept me going at times. But now the 30 days is up, and I'm not. No alcohol, no cigarettes, no chocolate - I've been 'free' for 4 days now and I'm just not bothered about that stuff - it's SO worth it! I did try milk and cheese but I'm not sure that I like it any more, or that it likes me - never thought that would happen.

 

So hang in there - it gets better, and it's worth it, honest!

[AllyB]

Haha!  I'm dreaming about my first post-Whole30 beer.

[misskrissy27]

Yes, it does get better!  I as well could probably go without cheese now for the rest of my life.  I was never a BIG cheese eater, but enjoyed it on a salad or something...but eh, I can do without!  I probably will going forward as well.  I am Day 16 and doing very well.  The only thing I have been craving or really wanting is, Special K Berries cereal.  I also dream about soft serve ice cream, eventhough, I actually don't even really care for it   The mind is a funny thing.  Keep up the good work and Day 30 will be here before you know it.

[toriellie]

Oh, cheese...  how I loved thee... 

 

I could make a dinner of a package of fondue and a loaf of good bread.  In fact, when I was single, this occurred more often than I'd like to admit. 

 

After my first W30, the first time I walked over to the cheese case at my local co-op, all I could smell was sour milk.  I was like...  really?  All I want is some cheese, and now it's going to smell revolting?  Great. 

 

While I do still occasionally have cheese while at a restaurant (I eat meat at home, when I know where it came from, but I am still vegetarian at a restaurant), it's never JUST cheese.  It's usually cheese enchiladas - something I can eat when I go out with friends and as long as I don't do it often, I have minimal side effects. 

 

One of our more frequent dinners used to be "snack night."  We would have good bread, crackers, three kinds of cheese - whatever I had in the fridge, salami, olives, nuts and dried fruit, and some cherry tomatoes or carrot sticks or apple slices.  I used to crave snack night - now I don't even think about cheese.  I used to eat bleu cheese and crackers for lunch - until I couldn't eat another bite.  Now?  Meh.  Not interested.  Had a few bites of bleu cheese the other day and it just tasted like salty sour milk.  Not bad, but nothing I'd sell my first-born for. 

 

I am not sure I will ever lose my love for Haagen Dazs Peanutbutter Chocolate ice cream, though I will continue to love it (mostly) from afar. 

 

Okay, perhaps I don't crave cheese anymore but apparently I can still get caught up in talking about it for much longer than people want to listen!  lol

[AllyB]

I still have cravings.  I'm on day 24 and I thought they were mostly gone, but had a bunch yesterday.  They were triggered by a trip to Target to shop for a bathingsuit for our upcoming trip to FL.  I stood in the checkout line drooling at all the brightly colored packages of sugary sweets.  I longed for the mega pack of Reese's peanut butter cups.  I left the store cranky because I thought I was over the cravings but evidently not

[lillysdogma]

I'm on day 6 and my cravings started to come out last night.  2 stressful days at work may have triggered them, and having restless nights.  I'm still determined to continue, but Iliked it better when I didn't have them.  Just ate my salad w/ 2 eggs, lots of veggies and now I wish I could have coconut chobani for dessert. I'm surprised my cravings haven't been about gummy candy which had been my go to. 

[jennor]

I finished my first full whole30 on Jan 25th, and my challenge was chocolate. Many nights I got through by telling myself all the chocolate would still be there 30 days from now. I think I learned that it is not going anywhere. You can have it later.

 

And lo and be hold, when my 30 days were up I was much pickier about what chocolate to eat. I remember standing in the grocery store looking over the chocolates, looking for "the one" to be my first and feeling ... nothing. I left without bying any. Two days later I went into a chocolate store and carefully picked out 5 Vahlrona pralines. And forgot to eat them later that night!

[Shamu]

I'm on day 9 and this weekend was craving bread, milk and sugar.  I really really want a glass of milk for some reason.  And I want a sandwich instead of salad.  I need some chocolate because I'm perimenopausal.  But the cravings eventually pass and I'm good again.  I planning on doing this - 30 days!  I actually do feel better, more alert and my family is doing good too.  It will be interesting to see how things affect me during reintroduction.  Let's hang in there together!

[1Maryann]

And I want a sandwich instead of salad.

I still occasionally do, even though I have never added bread back in.  Lettuce wraps just don't cut it.  They are too delicate, only hold a smidgeon of food, and have to be held too carefully so as not to have everything fall out the other end.  Then I discovered collard greens!  Big, sturdy leaves that can be wrapped like a burrito, holding everything in and allowing you to pick it up in both hands like a sandwich.  Try it.  It satisfies my need for something I can pick up instead of something to eat with a fork.