What's the root of my poor choices post whole30?

[limecats123]

I just finished my 2nd whole30. After the first one I started the second after ten days because I had gotten so off track. I was eating tons of sugar, gluten and other things I didn't even want. It's not even a week after finishing my 2nd whole30 and I've gotten myself into the same boat. One bit of sugar turns into a full on binge.

My question is...what do some of you find is at the root of overeating or eating things that make you feel physically bad? Part of it for me is that I don't like telling myself no. I'm hoping if I can understand my compulsion better then maybe I will do better eating clean even when I'm not formally doing a whole30.

[GFChris]

There are likely multiple possible root causes of overeating.

 

Have you explored attending an Overeaters Anonymous chapter in your area for possible support?

[missmary]

One thing that helped me, is to recognize that this will happen. For whatever reason, knowing that I am likely to crave more off plan foods after eating something off plan helps (I don't know if it is the dairy or gluten or sugar for me--but it happens way less now that I never ever have gluten or dairy). 

 

Basically, now that I know it is a biological response of some kind--a mechanism where my body will crave more of this irritating food--I'm able to resist. I know feeding the craving leads to more and more craving, so I just power through the first round and move on. AND, to be honest, I think knowing this helps me resist eating off-plan foods in the first place. I'm not interested in dealing with cravings like that so I focus on eating nutrient-dense, non-irritating foods instead.

[GlennR]

They're delicious. Honestly, that's how they were designed, concocted, formulated, and engineered: to light up our taste buds, exploit our natural human cravings for fat, sugar, carbs, etc., and make us eat a ton of them, never mind the adverse effects. And they're ubiquitous: they are what our culture makes widely available and encourages us to eat. You might say that the odds are stacked against us resisting these things.

 

So we learn and adapt and resist anyway (what Whole30 is about); but I believe part of the adaptation is giving yourself a little bit of a break and not go at once to the thought that this is about some character flaw. Be gentle with yourself.

[Beets]

Great advice here. This isn't a moral failing or necessarily about Overeating capital "O." This is in big part to do with how we react to troublesome food. One of the indications that a food is a problem for you is that is makes you crave more of it and more unhealthy foods.

I agree with Miss Mary that this is a great reason to stop eating those foods, knowing that it won't be one bowl of ice cream but days of cravings and downhill spiral eating. But it takes practice.

Also I find that talking to myself in moralistic language (being "bad") only makes things worse. I punish myself for eating crap by eating more crap so I can feel even worse. So, yes, as Glenn said be gentle with yourself.

I'm stuck in a spiral myself ATM and it's hard to dig out. I know that eating a lot of fat helps, eating mini template meals helps.

[Noelle]

The root cause of overeating, for me, is most often undereating (either accidentally or on purpose). And it's much easier to overeat certain foods, for all the reasons mentioned above.

 

The root of eating things I know mess me up is, without a doubt, stress. Always stress. When stress happens, my cravings "flare up," and it's hard not to slip back into certain food-habits. I'm finding that certain habits—for whatever reason—are easier to break than others. My "hard day = alcoholic beverage in the evening" habit is dead and long-gone. But my "hard day = 'I deserve a treat' = sweet food" habit still takes a lot of conscious effort to resist.

 

If you're really feeling lost as to what's going on with your cravings, or why you eat certain foods the way you do (or in certain situations) journalling might be a good jumping-off point.

[LisaLulu]

I just don't worry about being 100% compliant anymore but try to stick to the general idea. I added white potatoes back in, since I'm not trying to lose weight. I will eat things with added sugar or non compliant oils or ingredients- like sausages or tuna. It just opens yourself up to more options and makes it less restrictive and easier, that way you have more choices on a daily basis and don't go into deprived mode. Also I plan out my compliant meal and tell myself if I'm still hungry after eating it then I can have whatever I want when I'm done. I'm usually full and satisfied after eating and forget about it, but the option is always there. 

[amy3509]

I think what causes a post-whole 30 binge is such a personal thing, but it seems to be very common.  I can't say what the issue is for you, but I know that I have wondered the very same thing you posted about myself after every whole30 or 21dsd I've ever done.  

 

For me it is a couple things.  FIrst, it is about having a time limited challenge and, whether I intend it or not, it sets it up in my head as a temporary change.  After it's over I start having just a little here and there and then my addiction to sugar is brought to the forefront and gets out of control.  Second, I struggle with emotional eating, particularly during times of stress, and once the focus of the whole 30 was over something would inevitably crop up in my life that was difficult and I went into "survival" mode, where it felt like my commitment to paleo no longer mattered.

 

A few months ago I decided that a more long term approach was necessary for me.  I committed to a set of personal 'rules' and decided I would follow them long term - for at least a year or until I felt like moderation (with sugar in particular) might be possible.  My rules include: no grain, bad oils only when I have no other choices and am hungry, no sugar/sweetener of any kind (yes, including stevia etc), no more than 2 servings of fruit/day, and moderate full fat dairy intake.  The only exceptions to the sugar rule are when otherwise compliant meat is cured with sugar and has no grams of sugar listed on the label.  For me this feels different than a 30 day challenge and more of a personal choice.  Sometimes being in a 'challenge' can lead to a prisoner mentality - where you can't wait until you're "allowed" to have just a bit of chocolate or whatever again.  Now it feels like a choice I am making and I dont' feel 'deprived' like I once did.  I don't have difficulty being around sugary foods while others are eating them - it is damned amazing given my history.

 

I share this to illustrate that in order to be successful with a change in your relationship with food, it is important to be honest with yourself about what is tripping you up (your post is a great first step!) - what is really going on for you and what commitment you are prepared to make.  Ultimately you can choose to eat whatever you want, but with that you are getting both the positive and the negative of that choice.  Sometimes shifting your mindset so that you don't feel like you are being deprived but rather are making a choice can be key to lasting change.

[Coffeeandshoes]

It happends to me too, as in I was gonna eat one thing to reintroduce and wham, it all happened at once.

[GoJo09]

For me, it's sugar - I don't have a problem with anything else, but sugar just sets me up to a] eat anything and everything I can get my hands on, and b] have days and days of cravings (which generally just means giving in and eating everything...). If I stay off the sugar (and I've been 6 weeks now) I'm all good and don't feel deprived at all.

 

Note that, for me, this doesn't mean things like sauces or bacon, where sugar is a tiny percentage of the product, it's specifically things that are sweet treats, like chocolate, ice cream, lollies, etc. I still try to keep other added sugar to a minimum, but I don't stress over it at all.

[pjena]

It's all about sugar for me.  One bit and I'm done for.  So, I am working hard on just eliminating sugar and only making exceptions for something fabulous and controlled.  So, dessert on date night at a restaurant is ok because it happens very rarely and is controlled.  I'm not going to order another dessert.  If I go to a party, though, I generally put myself under the absolutely no dessert rule because faced with a table full of sweets, I know I won't be able to stop if I start.  It's easier to not start.

 

Same note for me as GoJo - I'm not on W30, so if there's sugar in something, I don't care.  It's sweets/desserts/sugar bombs I'm concerned with.

[PNWBookGrl]

I've found post whole30 that taking it one meal at a time helps.  If I can eat a compliant breakfast, I start the day feeling good and increase the chances that I will happily eat a good lunch, and so on.

[motovegg]

This is really some great information! I love sweets, mostly baked goods. My initial thought was to make things like this for special occasions and bake them myself using "better" ingrediants....but I think that it may be a fool's paradise. The sugar dragon doesn't care if it's almond flour or stevia in those cookies.(And what do I do with the leftovers after I make a batch? Who am I kidding?)

 

I think the best plan for me would do as so many said, which is to buy 1 perfect, beautiful cookie from a great bakery and really enjoy it as a decadent treat. Or a date night dessert shared with a loved one.

 

My re-introduction starts tomorrow and I'm beginning with dairy. Does dark chocolate fall in with dairy? Would chocolate be all by itself, do you think? I haven't read that anywhere.

[hockeymom]

I find that if I'm not getting enough of my good Whole30 type foods, I am opening myself up to all the other stuff. When I am truly eating to the point of being satiated, I don't tend to crave or even want the sugary stuff.

 

Maybe get back to your template and make sure you're still incorporating all your good Whole30 stuff that you love? This is coming from a place of positivity (nourishing your body) rather than negativity (i.e. punishing yourself for "slipping").

[Brewer5]

My re-introduction starts tomorrow and I'm beginning with dairy. Does dark chocolate fall in with dairy? Would chocolate be all by itself, do you think? I haven't read that anywhere.

I'd put dark chocolate in a category all by itself.  & the darker the better, so you are getting less sugar involved.  After cutting dark chocolate out for my Whole 30, it was plain to see when I had it again that it does not do me any favors!

 

Dairy, on the other hand, I do tolerate better.  Not saying it's great for me -- I am on my 2nd Whole 30 now and need to do a proper re-intro this time around.  But it is completely different than dark chocolate, in my experience.

[missmary]

Does dark chocolate fall in with dairy? Would chocolate be all by itself, do you think? I haven't read that anywhere.

 

I would look for a dark chocolate that doesn't have dairy or soy (Theo's makes some like this). 

[Heidih]

I think I'm an all or nothing kinda girl...I loved being on my first whole30...i felt great, I wasn't hungry, slept well, felt stronger at the gym, looked better in my clothes...life was grand..first day after my whole30 had an ice cream sunday (which isn't typically my go to junk food) nacho dip and cheesies...fine I had it, it tasted great life goes on...then the following night at work (I work nights) it was chips, cookies even a few crackers...I didn't eat crackers before whole30 why the heck am I eating them now...and then the downward spiral was full fledge.  its been almost a month after finishing my first whole30...every night I come to work with my fruits, veggies and protein and every night some sort of junk makes it way into my mouth! 

 

So I'm thinking I need to be all in at all times...here's to my next whole30 to get me back on track and then only allowing dairy back into my diet!

H

[jennor]

Dark chocolate with 70% or more cacao mass does not contain milk, but the lower the cacao mass the more milk powder and stuff is put in there. Chocolate is one thing I will spend good money on and always buy top quality. Unfortunately many high quality chocolates still contain soy lecitine, so beware of that when you introduce it.  

 

For dark chocolate affecionados who don't want to feed their sugar dragon I have to recommend this amazing 100% cacao mass chocolate from Amma. It is free of all soy and milk.  It contains no sugars or sweeneters at all, so it is more like fine wine or espresso than candy, be aware of that. It does not make me crave sugar, rather the opposite. http://www.coolhunting.com/food-drink/diego-badaro-amma-chocolate.php

 

I love a few pieces of it with a de-caf espresso when my kids have gone to bed and the house is quiet.

[Kristina Wright]

I'm feeling the same way right now. All I want is to be able to enjoy a non-paleo meal fully and completely, without guilt or spiraling out of control and diving headfirst into crap foods just because they're old habits and they're easy. Yesterday I was five days into a total binge after having pasta and bread to test the gluten (I did it first because I didn't know any better). One dinner turned into more bread the next day, a PB&J sandwich the next, and the next...

 

My bread dragon is evidently the bigger, meaner, more persistent cousin of my sugar dragon, and he's armed with much better sounding arguments. And those bread and sugar dragons are reaaally persuasive when you don't have a 100% paleo household and those crap foods--which so far almost everyone has admitted they don't even like--are easily accessed. That's my house in a nutshell.

 

I halted the binge yesterday when I had a big spoonful of frosted flakes in my mouth. I don't even like frosted flakes, and I wasn't enjoying the flavor of the cereal and my only feeling was guilt. I spat it out, dumped the rest, washed my mouth out, and made a big, hot cup of tea. Then I opened up these forums, opened up my daily food journal (I write down my food, my workouts, how I feel, how I slept (sometimes) and my symptoms/pain), and reflected. I still can't come up with ANY reason why this happens. It's like I get stuck on autopilot. I want there to be a day when I can have a nice meal with a delicious hunk of perfect, bakery-fresh bread slathered in butter... and then eat normally (I'd like mostly-Whole30 to be my "normal") the rest of the day and the next day without feeling like I failed, like a particular food is something I deserve or don't deserve, or like I have to "make up" for eating something that's less healthy. I have looked over the Whole9 off-roading flow chart a dozen times and I love it, I want to be able to decide for myself "fine, eat it, but suffer the consequences" ONE TIME without it turning into a crap food fest that's then wrought with guilt until the next "Well, a sandwich is faster than putting a salad together, and I'm getting tired of canned fish..."

 

I am climbing out of the rabbit hole by taking it one meal at a time. I had a banana and a quick salmon salad with homemade mayo mixed up with leftover frozen spinach for breakfast. I didn't want to waste my efforts by not having my next meal be healthy, so I had a great leafy salad with oil-packed tuna, some halved grapes, and capers dressed with olive oil and lemon juice. Since I slide back into old habits relatively quickly when I don't have something easy to make, I'm going to need to start doing the same just-in-case preparation that I did when I was on the Whole30. That way, there's no excuse to dip into crap food on an every day basis and I can limit myself to actual indulgences, not just "I'm lazy, break out the peanut butter."

[MeadowLily]

. Posted by Tom Denham on Yesterday, 05:23 AM

Satiety signals are sent, but we don't notice them.

 

Years spent eating foods with no brakes and years spent in an environment that teaches us to view food as reward, comfort, stress relief, etc. means that we develop habits in our eating. When we begin to eat real, whole foods, we do not immediately lose all our old habits around food. So we eat more than we need to satisfy our physical needs; we eat to achieve comfort, stress relief. We eat according to habit.

 

The Whole30 invites participants to eat according to the meal template consciously for 30 days to establish better habits and to create a habit of mindfulness with a view towards breaking old patterns and establishing new ones. Many of us need more than 30 days to establish healthy patterns of eating because we have so much baggage from the past on our plates. 

 

When we eat real, whole foods consistently with mindfulness, after awhile, we begin to notice the satiety signals more accurately than we have in the past. 

 

[missmary]

What's the root....because you didn't go back to the well and read the reintro chapter of Melissa and Dallas' book?

 

Perhaps, you didn't read any of the reintro forum threads - pages and pages of examples?

 

Another root?  Maybe you didn't engage your head during the process, starting with Day 1?

 

woah, Meadow, we need a little compassion here.

 

One thing I've learned is that there is a complex set of factors at work, and they are not just a failure of the rational mind. We have lizard brains and hormones and deep psychological impulses and they can't always be controlled by willpower alone.

 

For example, I know that I have a sensitivity to gluten and dairy. I also know that if I have any gluten or dairy, I will crave more. I don't understand the science behind this, but because I know this is true for me, I am better able to resist. Most of the time I resist by not including those foods at all.

 

For Kristina, I think it would make sense to take a step back and evaluate. You say  "I want there to be a day when I can have a nice meal with a delicious hunk of perfect, bakery-fresh bread slathered in butter... and then eat normally (I'd like mostly-Whole30 to be my "normal") the rest of the day and the next day without feeling like I failed" To me, it sounds like you think you "should" be able to eat those foods without consequence, but the reality is right now you can not. Whether the consequence comes as a physical reaction to an allergen or is a purely psychological response does not matter. Your job is to acknowledge the consequences and decide if you want to face them. Making that decision doesn't make you a bad person, but choosing to indulge while hoping this time the consequences will not be there is setting yourself up to be disappointed.

[Demobhappy]

For me, it's sugar - I don't have a problem with anything else, but sugar just sets me up to a] eat anything and everything I can get my hands on, and b] have days and days of cravings (which generally just means giving in and eating everything...). If I stay off the sugar (and I've been 6 weeks now) I'm all good and don't feel deprived at all.

 

Note that, for me, this doesn't mean things like sauces or bacon, where sugar is a tiny percentage of the product, it's specifically things that are sweet treats, like chocolate, ice cream, lollies, etc. I still try to keep other added sugar to a minimum, but I don't stress over it at all.

I am exactly the same. I gave up sugar about six weeks before I started the Whole30, and I was already in cravings-free land by the time I started. If I eat sugar I eat and crave carbs constantly - not just food with added sugar, but potato chips, bread, you name it! I would heartily recommend a sugar-free week or two to see if that helps you to stay on track. Tiny bits of sugar, eg in shop-bought mayo, don't set me off, but anything sweet (even if it's made with agave syrup or coconut sugar) does, I used to think I had psychological problems with comfort eating, but it all goes away if I stay away from the sugar and sugar-substitutes!

[dizzo19]

I also struggle with this "all or nothing" mentality.  But doing the whole30 has made me aware of how much stress (even in tiny amounts) affects my cravings.  I started my first whole30 when I was on summer vacation from school.  The last week of my whole30 was the week that school started and it instantly became 100x harder for me to stay on plan.  I completed my first whole30 but have been struggling since then.  I've been trying to get back on a 2nd whole30 and I have failed twice.  I feel your pain.  Binging on sweets after eating clean for so long does not feel good.  I need help and support in this battle.

[Californiagirl]

I am about halfway through my first whole 30. I admit that I rolled my eyes a little when hearing over and over about the "psychological reasons" and looking at the "emotional" reasons we want to eat snack. While I still maintain that I'm not an emotional or even stress eater eat in the sense that I don't generally eat to deal with sad/angry/anxious feelings ect. I have discovered a few triggers for snacking that I was unaware of

-feeling like I deserve a treat or reward

-procrastination (eating to avoid starting an unpleasant task)

- bribing (similar to reward, pairing a treat with an unpleasant task "I'll treat myself to a latte and drink it while I'm studying")

- hoarder/scarcity mentality. "I should eat it because it's free, then I won't have to buy dinner" "I can't let this go to waste"

These are psychological factors that are a little less obvious than drowning your sorrows in a tub of ice cream. The last one I know will be the hardest for me to overcome. Any strategies that people have used are appreciated : )

Also, several others have already addressed the conditioned hyper eating in which processed foods are designed to trigger a "once you pop you can't stop response"

[LisaLulu]

I can totally relate to the last one. I have a thing for free food and against wasting food. I hate when my mother in law brings over bags of food when we have a party or dinner and then I feel the need not to waste any of it, even though she refuses to listen to us and buys unhealthy things we don't eat. I'm trying really hard to 'use up' non compliant foods we have lying around on the kids before I'm done this whole 30 so I won't be tempted to eat them to save money. I think that we're just going to have to make our parties and gatherings 100% paleo despite the cost or what others 'want' because the leftovers always get to me, and if it's all good food then leftovers will just be.. food!