Insights from "treat" days - lessons learned!

[LindaLee]

The last few days, I've allowed myself some treats. When I have cravings, it's really for ice cream and not much else, but I had those thoughts I'm sure we all have about being able to eat "normally" (read: SAD). I realized I wasn't the least bit interested in having sandwiches or anything like that. So, when I went to the store I pondered at length and ended up with the following:

1 pint Ben & Jerry's Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream

1 pint Haagen-Dazs White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle

1 Freschetta four cheese pizza

The first night (Thursday), after Crossfit, I had about some of the B&J's. Unlike the past, I got full pretty quickly. It was pretty late, so I didn't have anything else other than a piece of chicken and an organic hot dog.

What I noticed shortly thereafter was the aftertaste. This is not a flavor or perhaps brand filled with particularly natural ingredients, and it tasted very waxy in my mouth.

Day 2: I already had been pretty sore on Thursday from Wednesday's Crossfit - we did a lot of warmups involving our calves and hams, and it probably was the sorest I'd ever been. Clearly my post-workout "meal" was not the best for my recovery.

I had fairly typical meals during the day, though I did have a couple of cookies. I have to admit, those weren't bad. When I got home that night, I had some of the pizza with my husband and a whole lot of the HD ice cream...the pizza was "meh," and the ice cream was worth every spoonful.

Day 3: just polished off the HD ice cream. Had a few bites of the B&J, then thought: "Why am I doing this? It isn't even that good." Tossed the rest of it out, though I admit I had eaten most of it over the two day period. My husband had the last of the pizza...I truly had no desire for any more of it. It was too much crust and not enough of the cheese.

Also made some paleo pancakes. Those were not bad, but I didn't include the baking soda. Again, not so amazingly good that the thought of them would make me go off-rails in the future. They were good with raspberries and bananas, but I thought: "Why not just have the raspberries and bananas?"

Still incredibly sore in my hamstrings and my back. It is incredible how I am feeling even this small amount of indulgence. I'm thinking it wasn't so much the sugar (though I'm sure that didn't help) as the influx of preservatives and artificial stuff after eating mostly clean for so many days. I feel puffy, swollen, and just generally bleh. I wanted very much to go to Crossfit yesterday but just couldn't get past the soreness and stiffness.

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So. Overall lesson learned: NOT WORTH IT. I couldn't believe how much worse I felt after just a few days of eating some SAD things - I mean, it's not like everything I ate was off-rails, but apparently enough of it was. It was headaches and stiffness and a bit of nausea - much worse than I had after just eating the HD earlier this month. I think the only thing I would want for a future treat day would be the HD - it's all natural ingredients so it doesn't seem to bother me as much.

I had the last of my paleo pancakes for breakfast today, but last night when we shopped it was for straight Whole30 stuff, and I'm planning to spend the next few days (I'm on vacation this week) cooking up a storm.

Just wanted to document this for myself as well as others, so the next time I have a craving, I can find this and remind myself: NOT WORTH IT. If I had really, really, really enjoyed it, it might have been worth the aftereffects, but honestly? I really didn't enjoy it that much.

[Colleen Roy]

Right there with you! We went to a BBQ/Bonfire last night. I made sure to bring compliant food-enough for us and to share. Everyone tried my Espresso Balsamic marinated steak tips, chipotle sweet potato fries and salad and loved them-said they could totally eat this way. I said no to corn on the cob (that was hard...it looked SO sweet!), but we did say yes to vodka lemonade...too many times. Felt like absolute CRAP this morning. UGH. Seriously SO NOT WORTH IT! We were having a good time without the vodka lemonade...didn't need it at all. First thing out of my husband's mouth this morning: "Know what I like best about whole9? Not feeling like $*#% when I wake up in the morning. That was stupid." Yup. I agree.