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OOOOOPS! Lesson Learned!


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Since before I ever started my Whole30, I knew I wanted to end on Easter. So, in what turned out to be a total of 37 days, I stuck strictly to the Whole30 principles, then began re-intro yesterday. (Stay tuned for my results to be posted under "Sucess Stories", because it was definitely a success!)

 

I'd been flying high on tiger blood, so when my beloved Easter Brunch came around yesterday I was feeling a bit invincible. Thinking that was mistake #1. Mistake #2 was giving away my ISWF book to a coworker and thinking I could just "wing it" during re-intro. So instead of coming up with or sticking to a plan, I just told myself I'd take it nice and slow. At brunch I helped my self to a salad with sugary dressing with soy-bean oil, little appetizers made with quinoa, and a bite of a cookie, which I didn't even enjoy. I felt ok, but not awesome.

 

Today I still hadn't come up with a re-intro plan, and thought--for whatever reason--that I could handle the pressure of the abundant bounty of Whole Foods for lunch today. That was mistake #4. DUMB. I know you're supposed to do it one ingredient at a time, but when you fail to plan, you plan to fail (ugh!). I wound up having lots of non-gluten grains, sugar, probably some dairy, and half a cookie. All at once. I IMMEDIATELY felt a dense brain fog come on, along with a strange, buzzing headache. A few hours later I burst into tears at the slightest provocation. Overall, I just felt like total crap. 

 

So now I'm considering going back to plan for at least a week then taking the time to re-intro correctly. I mean, I'll pretty much be eating Whole30 the rest of my life, but I want to know what and how I react to the specific things I've cut out of my diet. Because if I can have a tablespoon of grass-fed whole milk in my coffee and a glass of red wine with my steak and still feel sharp and be healthy, that's worth it to me. :-) The rest of it? Sugar? Soy? The greatest of all evils--WHEAT? They're just not worth it. Lesson learned. 

 

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Ugh I'm sorry this went down the way it did, but at least you know what went wrong and why. Your instinct to go back to strict Whole30 for a week and then do re-intro correctly is a good one. Making a careful plan is definitely key. And seeing as you have given your book away I'll give you the skinny on reintro again to refresh your memory. Pick one thing and have it at all 3 meals on day 1 of intro with the rest of the meal compliant. Follow that with 2 days of fully compliant eating and note anything and everything (physical/emotional/etc) you experience that is different. Repeat until you have experimented with everything you think you might like to have or might encounter again. When you are done take your data and formulate what riding your bike looks like to you. One thing I did was do separate introductions for the types of grains I wanted again. So I did corn and rice on different days.

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I feel your pain - I'm kind of scared to start my reintroduction (yesterday was my day 30) because I don't want to end up eating a bunch of crap. Today was so tempting at work too because from first thing this morning I had a clear vision of all of these Easter treats (homemade cupcakes, cake, cheesecake) - they were on the cabinet right outside my cubicle and at one point this afternoon I almost caved and had a cupcake but I went for some applesauce with coconut instead.  Then I stopped at the health food store on the way home and almost had one of the pieces of super dark chocolate they sell. 

 

I am going to reintroduce dairy tomorrow and hope that will keep me on track because I really want to see how I react to it and if I have any issues without blurring the results with another food group.

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Thank you Physibeth (I like your screen name). Your feedback is very helpful. That's exactly what I'm going to do. Still not feeling great today--the brain fog and negative emotional response yesterday then became tummy troubles last night--so I'm super motivated to get back on plan and feeling better again. Sheesh, I'm finding this whole re-introduction thing more tricky that the rest of it. Wish me luck! 

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Thank you Physibeth (I like your screen name). Your feedback is very helpful. That's exactly what I'm going to do. Still not feeling great today--the brain fog and negative emotional response yesterday then became tummy troubles last night--so I'm super motivated to get back on plan and feeling better again. Sheesh, I'm finding this whole re-introduction thing more tricky that the rest of it. Wish me luck! 

 

Reintroduction can be tricky, but it is well worth it. Make a great plan and you will be fine. Yes good luck!

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Yes, what Bethany said! Reintroduction is definitely worth the hassle. 

 

I also found it waaay more challenging than the actual Whole30. One thing I did "wrong" was introduce off-plan foods and sugar at the same time. I think that made things more confusing. Testing oats via gluten-free oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies? Not the best plan. And I knew I wanted to eat rice again in the future, but I tested it with sushi rice which is (surprise, surprise) loaded with sugar. Was it the grains that mucked me up, or the sugar? (Turns out, it was both, but I had to retest them separately to figure that out!)

 

Best of luck!

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