Second time was even easier

[LisaLulu]

Today is the last day of my second whole 30. I did my first one in April/May this year and it was amazing. I had tiger blood for almost the whole thing. But reintro gave me some confusing answers and I wondered if I should reintro everything again, but there were too many social events all summer so what ended up happening was off roading at parties/on vacation AND trying to eat large amounts of reintro foods at home as well to 'test' them. It ended up just turning into me eating non compliant most of the time.

 

I decided I needed another whole 30 to reset and test foods again. Once again the tiger blood came early on and I felt great. In the early days I told myself 'I'll just do it for one more day, then stop' but then one day after another went by and here I am at the end already. During this one I realized that the symptoms I was having during reintro last time were actually menstrual cycle hormones and me catching a cold, because the same thing happened to me this time during the exact same part of my cycle even though I was eating 100% compliant (and now I have a cold as well). Anyway, I decided that this time there will be no reintro. I will just off road when the time is right.

 

What I've realized is that I'm not sensitive to the non compliant foods, but to eating a high starch or sugar diet in general. It's not that wheat or rice is inherently bad, but that it fills me up and displaces better foods from my plate. The side of rice pushes out the vegetables I would have eaten in its place to fill me up, and of course the vegetables with all their nutrients will give me more energy.

 

I feel better knowing I'm not doing reintro this time. It means I can focus on just eating compliant and only eating things that are 'worth it'. I plan to have cupcakes from the fancy local cupcake store on my birthday tomorrow, and a meal and cake at the joint family party on the weekend. The weekend after that I am going to a wedding and will eat dinner there. And then I'll go from there, hopefully keeping on track.

 

One thing I've realized is just because you're socializing doesn't mean you have/get to eat everything there when you're off roading. You can try to order mostly compliant at a restaurant, unless something totally amazing catches your eye. You can do the same at parties. Instead of wasting your stomach space on potato chips and crackers just because you 'can', you can buy a good quality chocolate bar for yourself to eat at home when you really really would love one. After the first one I used to think off roading was just 'eat it out of the house, but not at home'. Now I see it as 'eat it when it's worth it and you really really want it regardless of setting or circumstance'. 

 

Thanks whole 30, for another great month. I'll see how well I can stay on track so I don't have to come back for a 3rd one

 

(I've also noticed that I would probably do well on a whole 14 reset. It takes me 4-5 days for tiger blood, and 14 days is much less daunting and easier to fit in the calendar!)