Is it a cheat if it wasn't intentional?

[swainy_26]

I am currently on Day 8 and wasn't thinking straight last night and didn't prepare anything for my lunch today - thought I would go buy something as a treat for myself.

 

Went down to the local spot that offers all sort of good food choices thinking it would be easy - I was wrong. Wow. I never realised how many foods I would've just choosen before without thinking of things other than 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' could be detrimental to my health. This place does a lot of gluten free and dairy free options but things were marinated already etc. etc. so I went for a plain steak sandwich omit the bread and cheese...now I am thinking I probably should of asked them to omit other things too...I asked for extra lettuce and some tomato and they served it up to me in salad bowl so that was great but it also had beetroot and onion relish in it. I am not sure whether the beetroot was fresh so I don't know if it wouldv'e had any preservatives in it if it had been canned and I had no idea what was actually in onion relish until I got back to work and Googled it!

 

Would this be considered as a fail for me and have me having to start the 30 day process again? I really hope not as I have done so well to get this far and I really thought I was making a choice that was good for me and the program and isn't that part of the point?

 

I started this program as I have previously had experiences with IBS and was able to 'cure' it using Herbalife products and I was wanting to start having more whole foods over products. My main intolrence is dairy but I am feeling so much less bloated only at day 8 so I think reducing grains etc. has been a big bonus too!

 

Help?!

[theheywhohaa]

Not sure what the mods will say on this one, but I think you are ok. Next time avoid the ingredient you are suspicious of. Perhaps you might consider adding a few days at the end of your w30 in case there was something inflammatory in the relish, but I doubt it. Keep very close to the template for the next few days (no snacks or overdoing the fruit or swypo) and see if you have any reaction to what you ate. If not, it was probably ok.

My 2 cents.

Rose

[MrsStick]

If you think you were just exposed to sugar, which is excluded because of your mental connection to it, that would likely not require a restart. If it was one of the body-disrupting things (soy, etc.) then you'd need to extend/restart because your body NEEDS at least 30 days without for you to see your reactions on reintroduction accurately.

[Tom Denham]

What you are describing is not a cheat. Cheats are choices you make and there is no room for cheating during a Whole30.

 

The issue is that you ate some food where some ingredients are unknown and you are worried that you went off-plan. How you should handle that is up to you. Eating some off-plan foods means that your body hits the reset button on healing whether you acknowledge it or not. I honestly don't know what you should do.

 

Personally, I would probably keep going. Of course, I extended my first Whole30 to 4 months. You might consider extending too.

[swainy_26]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for your advice....The two things in relish where sugar and wine; I don't think these things have any affect on my body and it was a very small amount - I think I will continue on and might make it a Whole 35 as then I fly back to my hometown and whilst I still anticipate I will be following some sort of 80/20 paleo guideline I don't want to be as strict on myself as with Whole30.