CA2003 Reintroduction Planning

[ca2003]

So today I am on day 30 and realize that I should start mapping out my re-introduction.  I also realized I am backing up against a trip that I know I will not be able to be compliant for so I am not sure what I should do.  I will be taking a 3 day trip with my friends starting Friday, May 2nd - Sunday, May 4th.  This is the first time in years that I am going away with just the girls and I know there will be drinking and non-ideal food choices. 

 

So if I start my reintroduction tomorrow, my reintroduction days would be Mon 4/21, Thurs 4/24, Sun 4/27, Wed 4/30 meaning I should be compliant Fri 5/2 which is the first day of my trip.  I know that I can be compliant most of the day 5/2 (I can eat breakfast before flying out and bring hard boiled eggs and do a salad for lunch but once we go out that night I will probably drink...).  Will this totally screw up my reintroduction?

 

Could I just do 3 introductions and then do 4 full compliant days before I go on my trip and then go on my trip (which won't be compliant) and then come home and do 7 compliant days and test the last group for reintroduction?  Would 7 compliant days after my trip be enough to "reset" myself?

[Tom Denham]

If you get back to feeling good after 7 compliant days after your trip, you could try more reintroductions. If you still feel kind of wasted after 7 days, you might need to give it 14.

[ca2003]

Thank you. 

 

So this is what I was thinking for my reintroduction schedule.  Does anyone have any suggestions? 

 

Legumes (I don't eat peanuts / PB):

Breakfast: Eggs w/veggies and sausage/sweet potato hash with some hummus (instead of guacamole)

Lunch: Add some peas in with my veggies

Dinner: Add some beans in with my dinner (possibly chicken, salsa, black beans) or have a soup or chili I have frozen that has beans in it

 

Dairy

Breakfast: Eggs w/veggies and replace the sausage/sweet potato hash with plain yogurt and fruit

Lunch: Add some cheese to whatever I am eating

Dinner: Would more cheese be appropriate? My other thought was to have some milk.  I'd prefer not to have ice cream and keep it simple with the dairy products rather than having sugar as well (I know I will eat ice cream in the future but it would be more likely for me to have milk/cheese/yogurt)

 

Grains

Breakfast: Eggs w/veggies and sausage/sweet potato hash with corn incorporated into the veggies

Lunch: Incorporate quinoa with my protein and veggies

Dinner: Incorporate rice with my protein and veggies or have a homemade corn tortilla (would this be too much corn - I'd prefer this over rice).

 

Gluten Grains

Starting out I know I would prefer to not have grains in the morning for the most part so would just introducing at lunch and dinner be okay?

Lunch: homemade sprouted tortilla

Dinner: Pasta

[ca2003]

I wanted to update with how my reintroduction has gone so far. 

 

Tuesday 4/22 - Reintroduced Dairy

Yogurt with breakfast, raw swiss cheese with lunch and a pint of raw milk around dinner time.  I felt pretty good all morning but by the afternoon I was a little gassy and slightly uncomfortable - nothing horrible but I realized I hadn't felt like that in the past 30 days.  I wasn't sure if it was the yogurt or cheese so I decided to reintroduce dairy again 2 days later and skip the yogurt.

 

Friday 4/25 - Re-Reintroduced Dairy (I also ended up at a crappy diner for lunch and I had a bowling party that afternoon with work and had a food truck event that evening - which ended up with me eating other non-compliant food items)

Raw Swiss Cheese with breakfast, feta in an omelet for lunch, some raw swiss cheese in the afternoon, some Caesar dressing on a salad in the afternoon, for dinner I had a beef brisket / pork belly breadless sandwich and I told myself I would try the fried cheese curds that my husband got by pulling off the "batter" - that didn't work and I ended up eating 3 of them, batter and all.  I also had an ice cream cup (was glutton free) and I had some warm milk later that evening.  I didn't notice any side effects from anything I had and since the first part of the day I did only have cheese as dairy and didn't experience any issues I think I may be okay with cheese

 

Monday 4/28  - Reintroduced Beans

I had some homemade hummus with my eggs in the morning, some frozen peas in my salad at lunch and then a soup with white beans for dinner.  I did have a headache (my first headache in 2 weeks rather than 2 a week!!) as the day went on Monday that continued into Tuesday and only subsided overnight Tuesday once I took my migraine medication (I did start my monthly cycle today and my headache has been creeping back up so it could be related to that along with the extremely wet weather we have had the last 2 days).  I felt a little gassy / bloated yesterday.  Is it more likely that this was from the peas or the beans or is it really a toss up? 

 

In addition to the above reintroductions, I have allowed myself to have some of my homemade coconut oil chocolate that I have in the freezer and a few Enjoy Life mega chips - I've tried to only have that on the days I've reintroduced other foods to avoid having it too often.  Though I've found a new bite sized chocolate at the health food store that doesn't appear to have an added sweetener - not sure if it could be in the cacao butter (http://www.righteouslyrawchocolate.com/bite-size-maca.php) and had one Saturday and yesterday. 

[beespajamas]

I would be worried about adding extra foods on days you reintroduce.  The whole point of reintroduction is to isolate possible offending foods to see what is really causing you problems.  As you noted, other factors (weather, monthly cycle) could also be at work, so that makes it even more important not to add anything that may muddy the detective work you are doing.

 

Reintroduction is really the heart of the Whole30 process in my opinion.  It needs to be approached as strictly as the Whole30, or it won't give you accurate results.