Did you find yourself sweeter and kinder after Whole30 reintro?

[MeadowLily]

“when the liver and muscle glycogen stores are full. In the case of full glycogen stores, the liver then turns the glucose into fat—specifically, a form of saturated fat called palmitic acid (!)—which could be used for energy but is more likely (because you’re a sugar-burner and not fat-adapted) to promote elevated triglycerides, leptin resistance, and insulin resistance and to be added to your fat stores.” 

― Melissa Hartwig, It Starts with Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways

[MeadowLily]

“Sat-Fat Myth #4: Saturated fat promotes insulin resistance and inflammation. True. Some forms of saturated fat (particularly the “long chain” versions) do contribute to insulin resistance and, by extension, inflammation in the body, which does increase your risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke. Palmitic acid (PA) in particular is the type of saturated fat most correlated with insulin resistance and inflammation. But the form of saturated fat that gets all kinds of ugly in your body doesn’t come from eating saturated fat. The harmful kind of saturated fat comes from eating too many refined carbohydrates.” 

― Melissa Hartwig, It Starts with Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways

[MeadowLily]

Living on refined foods comes with no rewards.  There are those living in poverty who feed their families things that stretch.  My heart goes out to children living in big cities who don't even have a grocery store but live out of the mini-marts.   Sodas and chips and candy.  Heartbreaking.

 

I support school breakfast clubs and weekend/summer backpack programs for hungry kids.  Children are refugees from Heaven. 

 

My former life of refined foods came with no rewards.  Pain and sickness and misery is the wake-up call that keeps on driving you to take a good hard look at things we continue to ignore.

 

I don't want to live in the past but I must look back to my past so I do not live to repeat it. There was nothing about carrying 80 extra pounds that came with rewards.  My joints, feet, pancreas, heart and brain were carrying the pain.

 

When you feel better,  fat cell memory banks and deep brain grooves will do everything to help you forget the struggle to breathe walking up the stairs or trying to do anything.   There was no quality of health.  It was gone.   

 

Food Freedom requires telling the truth UP in here.   Wearing long coats in the summertime was hail on earth.   Black was the only color in my closets.  There were no rewards.  Not one.   I didn't feel alive but I was going through the motions with T2.

 

Pain and sickness is the handwriting on the wall of what's to come.   I can't go back there.   I was only existing.  Every mellow was marshed.   

 

Here's a slice of advice from a three-layered clue-cake,  our rewards come from eating whole foods. They give you the will to live an authentic life and change everything for you.

 

Returning to the scene of the crime is a common mistake.  Thrill eaters do that.  After years of being on that gerbil wheel,  I have to remind myself what my feet felt like and my knee joints.  I taped up everything just to do common tasks.   Athletic tape strips on my feet and my knees were taped all around with KT tape.   I remember what it felt like to walk.   Hiding in my car and crying on the way home from the grocery store.   

 

I am not going back there.   Sit down with someone.  Face to Face.   They can help pull you out of a tailspin before you nosedive and end up taking a dirt nap.   I was there  but I'm still here.  Intact and hinged.

 

Now go eat two Brazil Nuts with your tuna fish.   T.D. says so.   My heroes have always been cowboys and super mods who really know their stuff.   They helped me.  So much. 

[MeadowLily]

[MeadowLily]

You can't sneak up on a W30 or slowly edge your way into it one SWYPO at a time.  It doesn't work that way.

 

If you're secretly dieting your way through, the truth will find you out.  On Day 31, without a reintro... things do not magically change.  You can't slide back off the goose into all of the old loosey goosey habits without consequences.   No siree.  Rebound will be found.  

 

Even if you try to do a W30 for months on end,  thinking you can fall back into bowls of pasta, pizza, bread, carefully tuned snacks and highly engineered to be craved foods - that kind of planning will inevitably lead to making a mess out of everything.

 

Desperado.  Why don't you come to your senses.  You've been out tearing through fences for so long now.  With negative repercussions.  

 

This is not my first rodeo.  All I have to do is put in the consistent effort and every day is filled with so worth it moments.   W30 limits don't sux.

 

W30 is time for renewal, reassessment and a reassertion of what you want out of your life.   Be willing to plumb the depths of your soul without overthinking everything.   

 

Search the dark corners and ugly places of the ego and super ego.  Uncover your secret keys and let them change everything for you. 

 

Sugar = Approval and Cheering and Love.   It's not a lasting love but a fleeting crush that's only comforting for 5 minutes.  There's only consequences.   Firm up your strategy before Day 31.  

[MeadowLily]

When you look back over the years or your Whole 30 days,  what do you remember.  

 

I only remember the straight as an arrow bottomline.  I don't remember the mushy, gushy anything. Throw mamby pamby up against the wall and it doesn't stick.

 

The words that ring in my ears are the heartfelt words of truth.    

 

When the Mod pro, T.D.  gives it to you straight, it does not to be touched.   Let those words stand and walk away.   Don't muddy the waters.   Those words will stand up to the test of time.

 

You have to be able to handle the truth without rationalizations about anything.  Take full responsibility for yourself.  Let freedom ring and T.D's words stand.   Those words are from the cluegun.  Take a slice of advice from the three-tier cluecake.   

 

The old days were much tougher.  Straight forward.   Two years later and I can quote by rote the tenets will really make a difference for anyone.   

 

When the spoken words are filled with truth,  they're anointed.   Extra special.  Nothing else needs to be added.   Let those words of wisdom into your body and mind like a soaker hose with all of the little holes.  

[MeadowLily]

"I wish that those calorie tracking websites and apps would blow up. What nasty, insidious brainwashing tools! I am going to recommend that the next version of the Whole30 explicitly says, ‘Do not track your food with Myftinesspal, Fitday, MyPlate etc.’. The information you get from such counting programs encourages you to ignore your body and conform to false standards. Now stop using Myfitnesspal and stop counting calories. It makes you nuts, stresses you out, and does nothing to improve your health."

[MeadowLily]

"The common mistakes I see people making after a Whole 30 is indulging in anything that sounds good at any time.  I think you have to commit yourself to eating meat and veggies most of the time and to eat other foods only rarely.  By rarely, I mean no more than once or twice per week.  And those times should be reserved for occasions when it is really difficult to find anything else to eat."

[MeadowLily]

Posted 21 June 2012 - 09:18 AM

"Drop it.  During a Whole30, we want you to practice listening to your body.  Counting/tracking gets in the way.  You don't even need to keep a food log.

 

A log helps so that we can spot when you might need to eat more protein, fat, or carbs, but a log should not be a substitute for tracking/counting.

 

Your body may not be giving great signals now, but ultimately, your body is more authoritative than any record could be."

[MeadowLily]

"Some people use bulletproof coffee to avoid eating food, a way to stave off hunger with fat calories and caffeine. This approach is nearly opposite of what we want you to do during a Whole30. We want you to eat a substantial breakfast within one hour of waking in the morning.Eating a real food breakfast when you wake up does good things to your hormonal rhythms and sets you up for better digestion and better sleep. We don't ban bulletproof coffee during a Whole30, but if you are looking to maximize your Whole30 experience, I can assure you that bulletproof coffee will not help." 

[MeadowLily]

12 Sep 2014
"There is no such thing as a cheat meal for Whole30 people. You eat anything that you want to eat. It is not cheating. 

If you eat Whole30-style most of the time and go off road occasionally, you are likely to experience great health (at least as far as the difference food makes in your health). If your going off-road includes foods that are a problem for you, that will be an issue. However, if cheese does not cause you problems and you eat some cheese every once in a while, you will be fine. You can have a beer, eat ice cream, etc. occasionally and be fine unless one of these items causes special trouble for you. 

Off-roading and staying healthy works if off-roading really is a minor thing... occasionally. If you ate cheese as your meal 4 times per week (that would be roughly 20 percent of your 21 meals per week), you would suffer health consequences. If you eat a piece of cheese once or twice per week, three times while on vacation, you would be fine. 

Lots of people talk about eating 80/20. They mean they follow a Paleo or Whole30 plan 80 percent of the time and indulge 20 percent of the time. I like to break that up into number of meals to make a point. 80/20 is close to 17 meals composed of real, whole, nourishing, non-inflammatory foods and 4 meals composed of foods that spike insulin, disturb gut health, provoke inflammation, etc. You really can't handle 4 meals per week of problem foods, but you can eat a bit of anything you want a few times per week and do well."

 

[MeadowLily]

 

There's really no need to identify yourself with the over 40,  50 or 60 over the hill gang.  Why do that to yourself.   No one needs another label.   All of the identifiers are clipped off when you enter into a W30.  Only the SAD sad need to feel sadder.   Forget your age bracket.   The only thing that matters is how fast your body and brain is aging.  

 

Take note of those who've been doing this longer than 30 days.   They look 20 years younger than their age group.  I'm not slapping myself upside the head with any more labels or cramming myself into another box.   I'm not going out like that.   Neither should you.

 

Ali was a beautiful man.  Ageless.   I'm going to fight like hail just like he did.  No rope-a-dope for me.   Ahhhhh, heck-a-toot noooooo.

[MeadowLily]

I didn't find a Whole 30 difficult or experience the KAT.   Do you what's difficult? Rewarding yourself with food,  like a dog.  Binge and thrill eating.   Cramming food into your mouth because you're attempting to stuff all of your emotions down.  That's difficult and very, very sad.

 

There's absolutely nothing rewarding about binge eating.  It messes with everything.  I do remind myself where I've come from.  I don't ever want to live there again.   That state of mind was my undoing.

 

My sister told me that her lifelong friend made a snarky remark about our entire family.  I'm gobsmacked.   She said, your family lives to eat and my family eats to live.  We're thin and fit and your family is filled with lard@$$es.   This really hurt my sister's feelings and I want to snatch that girl baldheaded.   So maybe that's a touch of the KAT right there,  I don't know.  

 

Many of my family members and ancestors practially starved to death.  For real.   Now, we've fed this girl many aday.  She was always over at our house eating supper.  Maw is a wonderful homecook. Girlfriend's mom didn't cook meals.  She was always on a diet, counting calories and apparently counting our calories, too. 

 

I didn't start on the road to thrill eating until I left home and started dieting.  That was the road to ruin.   Dieting and worrying about what everyone thinks of you.   Starvation diets, fasting and over-restriction leads to binge eating.   

 

People judge you by your looks and appearance.  It is shallow waters but still reality.  Body shaming sux.

 

No one needed to tell what I already knew.   

 

Good food fixes everything.    If I see 'girlfriend',  I will let her know that.  Whole foods are healers.  

 

Kindness and good taste never goes out style.  

[MeadowLily]

One of my group W30 newbies already went offing after a few days on the W30.  She did not take a slice of advice from the cluecake,  she went for the real thing.   Today,  she feels defeated.   

 

"There is no such thing as a cheat meal for Whole30 people. You eat anything that you want to eat. It is not cheating."

 

Whole 30 removes all value judgments about food.  There is no crying in baseball and no such thing as a Cheat Meal for Whole 30 people.   Whole 30 is a judgment free zone.  

 

No good girl or bad girl.   No naughty or nice.   Cheating or Dieting. 

 

However,  you have to complete 30 compliant days or you can't call it a Whole 30.   I believe the Reintro Phase should be followed as written after 30 days.   I think you're setting yourself up for over the top expectations of perfection if you think you can complete a 150.   There is no such thing as a Whole 365.

 

One non-compliant bite and your Whole 30 is over.    Anyone can be compliant for 30 days but having your cake and eating it, too....during the course of a Whole 30 requires a restart.  The rules are non-negotiable.  The principles of W30 are for a valuable Reintro process.   

 

Reintro is one of the greatest rewards of a W30.  It is the information you need to move forward with your own positive food management plan.   

 

When you complete a compliant Whole 30 days,  you feel a sense of accomplishment.  Then you can be loud and proud.   But constant restarts are a sign that you're not all in.   No one can catapult you into the stratosphere of completion.   You have to want this for yourself with every fiber of your being.

 

I always go back to the original intentions of this program or return to the well.  It is the source of truth UP in here.   Eating cake and budgeting the weekends for offing during a Whole 30 is a bunch of hooey. It is temporary Happy Horsesheet. 

 

In the old days,  people were told they must start over.  Now that decision is left in your own hands.   I see few who actually start over.   I think my W30 newbie was probably drinking the koolaid, for real. 

With cake and crisco/powdered sugar frosting.   My multi-crapOmeter detects another fly in her ointment/story. 

 

No one can make you do anything.  You have to want this more than daily multi-crap food rewards. There are no rewards for binge eating.   Not one.   No comfort.   It only adds to the stress.   

 

People without food issues eat their meals without counting, tracking and logging their food.   I don't log food or count one single step I take or calorie.  I'm not constantly tweaking food or biohacking my life into micro minutiae.   

 

I do encourage myself.  There is no one else who can do that for you outside of sitting down Face to Face with a counselor.  We can't lean on others, they become worn out with their own struggles.  You can blather on and foam at the mouth with family members and friends.  But that dazed, distracted look in their eyes signals complete boredom.  Meh.  

 

Bottle up your enthusiasm and let your freedom flag fly.     Few may care about what you're doing but I do.  I'm going to give W30 newbie a hiney kick with sweetness and kindness.  I practice being humble. It's hard to be humble when you've found relief from binge eating.  

 

I have regrets that it took so long to get here.  The years filled with thrill eating are a complete blur.  I cannot remember one single reward for it.  Not one.  I speak to myself every single day so that I do not return to the scene of the multi-crap crime.  The center aisles of the grocery store. 

[MeadowLily]

"The common mistakes I see people making after a Whole 30 is indulging in anything that sounds good at any time.  I think you have to commit yourself to eating meat and veggies most of the time and to eat other foods only rarely.  By rarely, I mean no more than once or twice per week.  And those times should be reserved for occasions when it is really difficult to find anything else to eat."

[MeadowLily]

Here's another meaningful W30 blast from the past.  The comments are superb and first rate.

http://robbwolf.com/2011/01/19/nutritional-relativism/

 

I remember spending my 30 days trying to figure out what in the world could I do after the Reintro Phase. I didn't know how to create my own plan.  I searched through every nook and cranny, knowing what I'd always done would get me what I'd always gotten.  

 

That was 2 years ago.  I have a food counselor/doctor.   I often wonder if the Dog Whisperer could help me, too.  Cesar teaches balance.   I am a human on a leash.   I used to give myself dog treats and food rewards.  

 

The Dog Whisperer balances the dog so that training is much easier to complete.  Cesar tries to balance the human as much as he balances and trains the dog.  He gets dogs to do the things that humans want.  Dog training is created by humans but dog psychology is created by nature. 

 

I was nothing but a junkyard dog.  Yakking on a bone.   Now, I'm ready for the Westminster Dog Show. I'm not the fancy schmancy dog with all of the right papers,  I'm the junkyard dog who grew up on scraps from the garbage heap of life.  

 

I've had a bath and my coat is nice and shiny.  I can do tricks but I won't do them for treats and dog rewards.   I will do them for free. 

 

[MeadowLily]

The highway you take to get here may not care about you but I do.  The highway  doesn't care if you go left or right or if you're all alone on the long journey.   The highway don't care if you go straight or take detours.  You've just gotta care about yourself.

 

[Hutlifr]

Your posts make me laugh... And are food for thoughts. Keep them coming!

[MeadowLily]

Your posts make me laugh... And are food for thoughts. Keep them coming!

Hellooooooo Hutliiiiiiffffrrrr

 

 

Just when the weed whacker gas motor is flooded, the frickity frick frick lawn mower is flooded, the irrigation ditch is flooding and I'm responsible for all of the flooding,  you hear from a friend.  Bear is fishing/camping and I'm doing lawnwork....I've been working my head off.  I take comfort that you're out there in the Alps,  just a hop, skip and a jump away.    

[MeadowLily]

Whole 30,  I haven't got time for the pain.  Those lyrics were running through my head all day long.  When I think about choices and consequences,  I haven't got time for the pain.   

 

Focus on being present and enjoying the present moment. That's mindfulness. 

 

Every day I do remind myself that I haven't got time for the pain.  The pain of the past filled with thrill eating.  Eating in the moment and not thinking about the consequences until the pain came.  

 

It's not difficult for me to remember what it felt like to live in my body and I mostly remember the pain in my joints and low energy level.   It felt like I was walking with about 4 bowling balls attached to my body parts.   Pain while walking, standing, sitting and wondering if I was going to wake up in the morning.   

 

One day, as I was bending over to vacuum, the small still voice told me if I didn't make some changes,  I wouldn't wake up in the morning.   It scared the hail right outta me.   I remember the pain and how every chore and activity felt like I was working on the railroad in the Sahara Desert.  Some days I was on my hands and knees looking for support to hoist myself back up.  

 

I haven't got time for that pain anymore.   But I know if I take my eye off the prize for too long, those old brain grooves would be back in biz in no time.   They're still there and those fat cells have photographic memories.  Wily coyotes. 

 

Binge eating doesn't bring you joy and bliss....just consequences of pain.  Every single day.

 

[MeadowLily]

Whole 30 works very well with my Recovery Plan.   On the road to recovery from thrill eating,  I sat down with someone Face to Face.   Someone who's the leader of the pack and manages a large rehab/recovery place for eating disorders, alcoholism and so on. They're at the top of the heap.  It saved me from a lifetime of pain and misery.   I highly recommend it if you cannot get off the gerbil wheel by yourself.  If you've been at this for years and years, only to return to the scene of the crime - your recent full on food bender food explosion blow-out.

 

Thoughts always precede behaviors.  Destructive thought patterns lead to poor eating, overeating and destructive lifestyle choices.

 

It will take longer than 30 days to break the UP and down cycles of binge eating.   When you have the equipment you need...new cognitive behavior skills - they will give you confidence. 

 

On my road to recovery from thrill eating,  that thrill only lasts about 5 minutes and then it creates more stress - you have to lay down all huge rationalizations and excuses.   This is right in tandem with Whole 30.  

 

You no longer get to blame your babies, kids, spouses, relatives, friends, creepy ex-boyfriends or faux foes.   You don't get to say well I guess that sugar dragon is harder than I thought to get rid of.  Binge eating is really hard.   You know,  the same things that are said about a Whole 30 days....the very same rationalizations and excuses.   You don't get to keep speaking those out over yourself or to others.

 

The buck stops here.   You have to draw a line in the sand and you have to mean it with everything within your being.

 

The first thing I did for new cognitive behaviors was create a Pain List.   I had to focus on 10 things about binge eating that gave me pain.  I could fill a secret eating closet and tractor trailer with the things that caused me pain.  There were no pluses.   None.

 

I posted that pain list where I could see it every day.   I had to actually read it instead of glossing over it or looking the other way.   It's a great activity for anyone who wants to Experience the Change.

 

I did many other things but this is the one-takeaway that I still use on a daily basis.   I haven't got time for the pain.    

 

Cesar the Dog Whisperer creates balance for dogs.   I am a junkyard dog who has found balance.  I lurve Cesar,  the dog's advocate.  

 

Go back to the well.  Actually read   It Starts With Food.  Don't rely on others to do all of the hard work for you.   Embrace it,  it will make you loud, proud and give you self-confidence.   Find a counselor/doctor/therapist for the really tough stuff.  

 

These new cognitive behaviors are not difficult to adopt.  It just takes practice, practice, practice until they become your skills.   In your wheelhouse.

 

There is nothing about the Whole 30 that I whined about.  I didn't.   Not one single post have I every boohooed over the non-negotiable rules.    I needed to be reined in.  I have always been a free wheeling spirit.  Flying by the seat of my pants.  Eating for the moment = binge eating has consequences.  Serious ones.

 

I still read the rationalizations and excuses here.  I can see myself and how I sounded to my circles.

Whole 30 will help you break through eating disorder behaviors and uncover truth about yourself.

Logging your food doesn't do that but being willing to plumb the depths of your soul, the ego and super ego.  

 

"Let Food Be Your Medicine".   Hippocrates.

 

Good food fixes everything.   I needed a food pro for brain barriers.  I still read my pain list.  It keeps me honest and on track and reminds me that making huge rationalizations for binge eating for the rest of your life will cause you great pain.

 

You don't get to make excuses for it.  You have to be willing to let a Food Reset help you create the Brain Reset.   

 

I call it returning back to your original factory settings.  The settings before dieting, fasting, over-eating and all of the UP and down cycles of food disorders causes so much pain that you have to face it.  

If you forget that,  you can Groundhog Day it until it's time to take a dirt nap.  The pain you ignore is your wake-up call.  It's nature's way of getting your attention.   You can't gloss it over and pretend it will go away.  Mental or physical. 

 

Huge rationalizations and excuses for thrill eating.  I'm not going out like that.

[MeadowLily]

There's something strange in my neighborhood,  who ya gonna call....Ghostbusters.   Actually, people from near and far are no longer reading the signs.  They're no longer interested in preserving the wonders either.  Signs and wonders.  

 

People aren't paying attention to the signs and ignoring the warnings.  It's broader than my neck of the woods, it's everywhere.   Why are we ignoring the signs.   Sigh and alas.   

 

It's the same thing with your personal relationship with food/exercise.   You have to pay attention to the pain or end up over-extending your muscles and joints.  Continuing to run with joint damage is not good common horse sense.

 

Continuing to stuff yourself when you have a faulty shut-off valve that's not worked properly in many moons is a throwback to binge or thrill eating.  Binge eaters are after that stuffed to the brim feeling. It's not about quality but quantities of food.  

 

Here's the good news, you can eat 9 or more cups of vege aday and not do any harm.  None.   I can also eat 1-2 servings of berries at the end of a meal without any noticeable uptick in blood sugar.  Using Vege is a great tool to step off the gerbil wheel of food addictions. 

 

Eating the greatest variety of vegetables gives you more bang for your bucks.  Vege are the replacement food that I've used to stop the thrill eating.   I have replacement activities that I now use for food addiction routines.   

 

Reading the signs along the highway and boardwalks ....falling rocks up ahead.   Old mellow marshers in the center aisles of the grocery store.....move along, there's really nothing there to see anymore.   It's another Christmas miracle.

 

Don't ignore the signals and signs your body is giving you.   Keep your eyes wide open.

[MeadowLily]

[MeadowLily]

I have two elders who've decided to fast every other day.   This really gives me a pinch because they already look like a couple of plucked chickens. Someone in their winter snowbird community told them this was the way to go.  They've been on a diet as long as I can remember.

 

One did Medfast for a long time, lost her gallbladder and marbles.  Atkins, cabbage soup, ww, food delivery and now fasting.   Dial it on down until you're eating catfood through the feeding window. Skipping meals every day is not intermittent.   It's self-imposed starving so you can be the skinniest snowbird. 

 

Starving when you need to be thinking about preserving muscle mass and bone density is not a good look...internally or externally.    Years of dieting, losing muscles mass,  skin elasticity...has resulted in more of a sharpei look.  I know that's not what they were going for.   

 

I remember when they told a dying relative how good they looked because this person had finally dropped over a 100 lbs with a terminal illness.  Oooo, you look soooo good.  My relative died shortly thereafter.   Obsessions with fasting, dieting and looking like a twig go back and back in a family.  

 

Apples don't fall too far from the tree.   Everyone's already talking about the next family reunion and how they have a year to get skinny.   Trying to get skinny will keep you fat.   They don't know that. Those closest to us often aren't interested in experiencing a real change.   

 

They'll keep doing what they've always done and getting what they've always gotten.  I have to look away from the plucked chickens.

[MeadowLily]