ajkelly444 Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 I'm on day 8 (or I thought I was) and two days ago realized that the smoked salmon I had for breakfast that morning listed sugar in the ingredients (the possibility hadn't occurred to me when I dug into the meal). I figured it was one small mistake that I could forgive myself for -- after all, the total amount of sugar I consumed was minuscule and it was a genuine mistake. The real frustration came tonight when I discovered that the cinnamon tea I've been drinking by the quart (or nearly, it's so good) every night is made using sunflower oil. It's a loose leaf herbal blend with biodynamic, organic ingredients made locally, and the ingredient list indicated it was safe. But it tastes so sweet I couldn't believe there wasnt any sweetener of any sort, so I emailed the company. Their response -- no added sweeteners of any kind, just cinnamon, orange oil, made with sunflower oil from the sunflowers grown right there on their farm, cardamom...wait, sunflower oil? In herbal tea?? I can't drink that! And I have been, in large quantities, every night. This is uncredibly frustrating. I feel like I can't trust anything and no matter how hard I try to be 100% compliant I keep slipping, but not for lack of willpower. This has happened on previous whole30 attempts, with mustard that contains sugar, sneaky dairy or gluten in something at a restaurant, tomatoes and jalapeños in smooth, non-chunky guacamole, etc. I don't want to have to keep starting over -- if I was counting by days I've intended to do the whole30, I'd be somewhere around day 40 by this point, but here I am at the end of day 8 and I have to start over. Yet again. Extraordinarily frustrating and demoralizing. Add all that to the extreme energy slump I experienced Sunday through Tuesday this week (not an adjustment to fat-burning, as I've been very low carb for 11 months), and I'm this close to throwing in the towel. "this" is very, very close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megan M. Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 I feel your pain! On Day 7 of my first Whole 30 I found that the coconut milk I had been using had carrageenan in it & I was unbelievably upset about it. I had worked so hard on prepping, cooking, & cleaning that I felt that it was pointless to keep trying. BUT at the advice of other users, I decided to extend my Whole 30 & now I'm Day 12 of my Whole 37 (which sounds so much better vs. saying I started over). As with anything, there's a learning curve. Mistakes will happen, but then you learn from them. I know reading every label has felt exhausting (my husband calls me the "fun police" since every time he gets excited about something in the store, I usually end up telling him it's off-plan), but then again I'm learning how much junk is put into food we used to eat. It's pretty empowering to know that every time I go grocery shopping, I leave with a little more knowledge about which foods are healthy & which aren't. I understand how frustrated you feel, but you have already made so many great changes that you should be stoked about. This is for YOU & your HEALTH! Stick with it & don't give up! We're all rooting for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Tom Denham Posted August 9, 2012 Moderators Share Posted August 9, 2012 I agree with Megan M. But as to the sunflower oil in the tea, I would not restart based upon that use. I would find another tea, but would not restart your Whole30. Here's why. The real problem with seed oils is cooking with them. We're concerned that bad things happen with seed oils with high levels of heat. The temperature of hot water for tea is probably not high enough to cause problems. Let's get this in perspective. You can eat sunflower seeds during a Whole30. They are not recommended, but you can. The whole seeds include sunflower oil. The oil itself may lean too far to the omega 6 side of things, but a little bit that is not heated to high temperatures should be okay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhmomi Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 It happens to all of us. I threw out some questionable balsamic vinegar yesterday after I saw it had caramel coloring. WTH? Then I treated myself to three new vinegars from WF. I feel better now. I also consider it a small victory each time I swap out a non-compliant choice for a compliant one that I will continue to use forever - Whole30 or not. I finally tried the Applegate Farms grass-fed beef hotdogs and for the price they are a great replacement for the junky ones I bought for the family before! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mk Phillips Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 This is a great topic. I just started Tuesday and discovered I bought the wrong kind of Coconut milk (i.e. "Coconut drink" in a carton) I used in my mashed cauliflower and didn't check the bag of cashews I purchased which has rice bran oil in it. I guess I'll be making tweaks along the way. Probably need to extend my Whole30 until I get this right. I have all of the right resources now so I'll be more careful now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhmomi Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 This is a great topic. I just started Tuesday and discovered I bought the wrong kind of Coconut milk (i.e. "Coconut drink" in a carton) I used in my mashed cauliflower and didn't check the bag of cashews I purchased which has rice bran oil in it. I guess I'll be making tweaks along the way. Probably need to extend my Whole30 until I get this right. I have all of the right resources now so I'll be more careful now. GREAT ATTITUDE MK! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 I love this! I'm Day 12 of my Whole 37 (which sounds so much better vs. saying I started over). I had a couple of accidental mishaps my first few days, and because they were truly very miniscule, and completely unintentional, I chose not to start over. I knew that when my 30 days were done, I would realize it wasn't a "perfect" Whole30, but pretty darned near, and I could be proud of myself for an incredible accomplishment nonetheless. I'm on Day 32 now, and have chosen to stick with W30 eating the last couple of days, making up for those early mishaps. It's a nice transition actually - I don't feel pressure to immediately begin the reintroduction (which is sort of scary), but I feel a little more liberated because I know I can have a glass of wine, or coffee with cream, I'm just choosing not to, yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arabella Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 When I read posts like this or run across an ingredient list with odd things (I saw dairy in chorizo today) it reminds me that perhaps the X food I may have had could have been not wholly compliant but in the end it didn't break my W30. Vigilance is important but you have to draw the line when it rules your life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rascalini Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 I am trying to get a grasp on what I can eat, and when I have that much down - i'll begin my whole30. Though, sometimes, I feel i may never start and just carry on reading labels and saying...nope cant have that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin D Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 I've been struggling with this same issue during my Whole30 as well. My 3rd day in I'm pretty sure I had some chicken slathered in some sauce that had sugar listed as, like, the 10th ingredient (all the other ingredients were spices). I've also had uncured bacon with sugar in it, I think, every weekend. Not all of my meat is grass fed or pastured either. My excuse? I'm not doing this to be perfect, although I am genuinely trying as hard as I can to stay compliant. I'm very busy--I have a 9 month old, I'm married and I'm working--and I'm doing this to get back on the right path 9 months postpartum. I've had insomnia on and off throughout my 20s and 30s, but since I became a mother it's been absolutely awful (I was sleeping 4 hours some nights even though my baby was sleeping soundly throughout the night). Insomnia was ruining my life: I was angry and impatient with my husband and child constantly, I would cry at everything, I couldn't think straight.....I was a mess. My point is, stressing over sugar or whatever sneaking into my food even after I try my very best to be compliant and getting upset about it defeats the purpose of me doing it. The first time I did my Whole30, I did it perfectly (really, I think I did). Now I'm not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the very very good. I'm trying as hard as I can and I've seen some great results, all of which I'll post about when I finish up in 4 days! Okay, that's my two cents! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajkelly444 Posted August 10, 2012 Author Share Posted August 10, 2012 Thanks to everyone for your responses. And in particular to Tom for your explanation of why my life isn't over because I drank some tea :-) I've contacted a few small tea producers, and it seems that tea blends with fruit oils (eg, orange oil, as in my case) are actually made using seed oils. The companies I contacted have excellent reputations for high-quality products, so this seems to simply be the way things are done. Just an FYI for others to be aware of. As for my whole30, I'll continue and see how I feel at the end, deciding at that point whether to extend it a few extra days. I did really want this to be a perfect whole30, but I've given it an honest effort and that's the most I can do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albaworks Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 Could someone please clarify with oils are Whole30 approved/ which aren't? Thx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 I am trying to get a grasp on what I can eat, and when I have that much down - i'll begin my whole30. Though, sometimes, I feel i may never start and just carry on reading labels and saying...nope cant have that! I hope you have completed or started by now, Rascalini. I am not at all thinking of what I can't have, but what I can have and what I choose to have. I am choosing not to eat foods that may be harming me and I will choose to add some of them later based on how I respond physically and psychologically. This is a choice. Day-by-day, I can choose to make different decisions, but I am currently choosing amazing meats, colorful veggies, and yummy oils. I see the smile that you posted at the end of your words, now, but I will still post this in case it is helpful to you or anyone else. We have found amazing tools to help us make choices that can change our lives in positive ways! (P.S. Planning ahead is awesome, but I got hooked on "start now". Oops) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kellyp Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 "This is a choice. Day-by-day, I can choose to make different decisions, but I am currently choosing amazing meats, colorful veggies, and yummy oils." (Nico) When I am asked if "I am allowed to have" something my response is: "I can have what I want, I just choose not to" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hojo Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 I think that was the most surprising thing about reading labels! The amount of CRAP in TEA! Shocking and unnecessary! Green tea with some lemon? Sounds healthy on the box...only to have SOY! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Tom Denham Posted February 28, 2013 Moderators Share Posted February 28, 2013 Could someone please clarify with oils are Whole30 approved/ which aren't? Thx The only oils that are definitely banned are the ones that are banned in their pre-oil state too - corn oil, soybean oil, peanut oil, etc. The oils highly favored in the Whole30 world include ghee, clarified butter, beef tallow, coconut oil, and olive oil. Generally, seed oils are not a good thing - the sunflower, sesame, canola oils, etc. You can use them, but we would rather you use the highly favored ones as they have the best health benefits. This is not an exhaustive list of oils. For example, palm oil is a good one, but not very popular. Avocado oil is okay, but not very common. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MimiBirdie Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 I am traveling (flight delayed) and thought I found a great dinner at the airport! Ate half of it and realized its wrapped in rice paper. *sigh..... Day 9 So now tomorrow isn't day 1, its day 10 of 39. I am not going to let myself get down, I'm going to research harder and keep putting these amazing foods in my body. I am already feeling the benefits. Keep truckin' people! We got this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crastney Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 On 10 August 2012 at 0:39 AM, Rascalini said: I am trying to get a grasp on what I can eat, and when I have that much down - i'll begin my whole30. Though, sometimes, I feel i may never start and just carry on reading labels and saying...nope cant have that! interesting point of view here - if you're trying to go W30 buy buying prepared foods that are compliant - well that's difficult. most pre prepared food has additives and preservatives and stuff added to enhance shelf life and flavour. You might struggle to find a tin of compliant ratatouli, but if you buy tomatoes and other veg, you can go home and prepare a big pan of compliant ratatouli very easily. accidental slip ups - The idea behind W30 is to cleanse the gut of harmful stuff, and the assumption is that it'll take 30 days to heal, and reset. That's just an average number - we're all different. for some it might only take 20 if they were fairly healthy before, for others it migh take 35 days or longer for full healing to take place. If you accidentaly slip up on somethin in the first few days, it's probably not going to be a huge issue, you can just delay the reintro by a few days. If you eat a plate of pasta on day 25 - well that's going to set back your gut healing process. If you find on day 30 that you've been taking a medicine with dextrose in it the whole time, well you'll still have benefitted from a lot of the good things about W30, but you might not have experienced the full affects that others might have. Cutting out all the other sugars in your diet will have a much larger amount than the small bit in 1 tablet a day that you missed. your body will still have become fat adapted. each person is different, and we all approach W30 from our own direction, and we all take from it different things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeadowLily Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 There's a recent trend of slip-ups, intentional or not and then making the big announcement you're going to rock a Whole 30 Forever. No. You. Are. Not. Kind of like W30 penance. If you can't make it through a week, exactly how do you plan to do a Whole 30 Forever. A Whole 30 Forever doesn't exist. If you make one slip the Whole 30 is over. You can't call that anything but your own way of eating. One non-compliant item in 30 days and it's over. You have to start over. Making intentional slips and starting over and over and over is dieting. For the Whole 30 Food Reset there's only 30 consecutive compliant days. If you can't make it through that, a Whole 30 Forever is imaginary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrendaM Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 Hey guys, I'm so bummed! I'm on day 10 of my first Whole30. This morning after my workout (the first in a few weeks) I was feeling great and prepared a nice breakfast (egg, compliant chicken sausage and salad). After a bite of salad, I realized that I'd accidentally used rice cooking wine instead of vinegar. I had been feeling so good about the program and now I'm just feeling so discouraged... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chichi Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 On 1/25/2018 at 9:17 AM, BrendaM said: 'm so bummed! I'm on day 10 of my first Whole30. This morning after my workout (the first in a few weeks) I was feeling great and prepared a nice breakfast (egg, compliant chicken sausage and salad). After a bite of salad, I realized that I'd accidentally used rice cooking wine instead of vinegar. I had been feeling so good about the program and now I'm just feeling so discouraged... You happen to have been on Day 10, as well, a pretty rough day in general for a lot of people. Something about that transition period between the hangover and tiger blood, a couple of Why-Am-I-Here-Wednesdays in a row. Everything seems inordinately frustrating. I really like the empowering rephrasing of day 12 of 42! Not failing/starting over, going forward! Look forward! A good lesson for life after your rules are over, too. I've had some miscommunications about what can and can't go in dinners and found out this tasted so weird because it was cooked in butter... Really, really infuriating. But I think the benefits still outweigh the frustrations. A lot of people will attest to that. I like to use an analogy for mental moments like this: When you trip a little going up the stairs, do you just tuck and roll, tumbling down the stairs, thinking "I'm a failure, I should never have tried!"? Probably not. Probably, you just recover your balance, and commence climbing again, one foot after another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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