What to do after cheating during Reintroduction

[alauritson]

I followed the Whole30 program perfectly with no cheat days or slip ups (insert cheering here). After Whole30, I reintroduced rice into my diet on one day, followed by 4 days of Whole30 only approved foods. Felt great! Then my best friend had his birthday party. I ate pizza, cake, goldfish crackers, and corn chips. 

 

I felt like death afterward and for 2 days had some seriously uncomfortable repercussions. 

 

Regardless, since that day I've been back to the Whole30 and trying once again to start my reintroduction phase, hoping to incorporate beans soon.

 

Did my birthday cheat day ruin all my Whole30 progress since I reintroduced too many food groups at the same time? Do I need to do an entire NEW Whole30 to detox that in order to genuinely reintroduce each singular item? Would it be just as beneficial to simply do Whole30 for a few days and get back to my reintroduction schedule?

 

My goal from Whole30 was to figure out if I'm allergic to dairy (I get stomach pains a lot). Hoping this didn't set me back and I can jump back on track for reintroduction!

[ladyshanny]

You didn't technically "cheat" in your reintro, it's yours to do with as you please.  What I am reading that you learned is that going bezerk right after a successful Whole30 is not your best choice for maintaining your good feelings and in fact actively makes you feel "like death".

 

You didn't completely ruin the Whole30 but you may have done it some damage depending on what your digestive and cellular reactions are to the foods you ate....which you don't know because you didn't do a proper reintro.

 

Go back to Whole30 full stop.  Until you feel better.  And then add a few days longer of compliant Whole30 eating to allow any residual gut damage or inflammation to heal.  THEN, keep your head on your shoulders and do a proper reintroduction so you can determine how you react.  Between each reintro eat Whole30 and leave enough days in between each experiment that you can see what causes what.

[drshrpr]

Glad you said that, I did the same thing, finished my first whole 30 two days ago and brought red velvet Oreos home and ate them?! Don't know why, did not crave them, I guess psychologically I did, I am going to continue with my whole 30, and continue to work on this, my problem with the whole 30 is I work 6-2, I do not have time to eat 3 full meals, so I have to break breakfast and lunch into two fifteen minute breaks, and I feel like I was not getting enough to eat, I work out 6 days a week, any suggestions would help!

[alauritson]

 

Go back to Whole30 full stop.  Until you feel better.  And then add a few days longer of compliant Whole30 eating to allow any residual gut damage or inflammation to heal.  THEN, keep your head on your shoulders and do a proper reintroduction so you can determine how you react.  Between each reintro eat Whole30 and leave enough days in between each experiment that you can see what causes what.

 

Ladyshanny,

Thank you for your quick response. Is there a certain number of days you recommend before starting reintroduction? Doing Whole30 full stop until I feel better, plus a few more days, is so hard for me to gage. Would you recommend the numbers of days be in the ballpark of like 4 or like 25? Have some kind of a finite idea would help a lot!

[ladyshanny]

Ladyshanny,

Thank you for your quick response. Is there a certain number of days you recommend before starting reintroduction? Doing Whole30 full stop until I feel better, plus a few more days, is so hard for me to gage. Would you recommend the numbers of days be in the ballpark of like 4 or like 25? Have some kind of a finite idea would help a lot!

Haha, I get that. It's so hard to tell. I guess I would go until I felt better and then add 2-4 days for optimal healing. It's pretty impossible to determine what your body is doing on the inside, so once you feel better for a few days, you should be good to start testing again.

[zBeverly]

I completed W30 with 2 restarts (incidental, not willful disobedience).    I am in reintro.  I did a different dairy product for 4 days (one each) all to learn that the only thing that didn't bother me was milk kefir.  Then 3 days of W30 compliance.  Today was tough.  I chose to examine gluten grains.  Had a piece of dark rye toast with eggs this morn and was pretty ok, a wee bit of a headache about an hour later.  Midday was a whole grain bagel from BreadCo (Panera).  Dinner included 1/2 c brown rice.  Today I fought the sugar dragon and it almost won.  I gave in to some dry roasted almonds but nothing else.  My husband's cookies were singing a siren's song as I did the dishes (normally he does them but he had surgery).  I threw myself into games on my phone as a not-guilty pleasure and made it through.  Don't feel so great at this moment.  I think that I learned that a true rye bread is mildly ok as a rare indulgence but the rest is too much, especially all in one day.  

I think once we reintroduce the things we've cut out it sends out signals that it still exists.  This was the first day I had actual CRAVINGS, since January 1.  I've had urges or nudges but these had me in the pantry in search of something........anything.......and there were choices.......but this is for me.  I'm the only one who will watch out for this body so they are not allowed to win on this day.  

[Physibeth]

I completed W30 with 2 restarts (incidental, not willful disobedience).    I am in reintro.  I did a different dairy product for 4 days (one each) all to learn that the only thing that didn't bother me was milk kefir.  Then 3 days of W30 compliance.  Today was tough.  I chose to examine gluten grains.  Had a piece of dark rye toast with eggs this morn and was pretty ok, a wee bit of a headache about an hour later.  Midday was a whole grain bagel from BreadCo (Panera).  Dinner included 1/2 c brown rice.  Today I fought the sugar dragon and it almost won.  I gave in to some dry roasted almonds but nothing else.  My husband's cookies were singing a siren's song as I did the dishes (normally he does them but he had surgery).  I threw myself into games on my phone as a not-guilty pleasure and made it through.  Don't feel so great at this moment.  I think that I learned that a true rye bread is mildly ok as a rare indulgence but the rest is too much, especially all in one day.  

I think once we reintroduce the things we've cut out it sends out signals that it still exists.  This was the first day I had actual CRAVINGS, since January 1.  I've had urges or nudges but these had me in the pantry in search of something........anything.......and there were choices.......but this is for me.  I'm the only one who will watch out for this body so they are not allowed to win on this day.  

 

You might want to go back to Whole30 until you are feeling more like you did at the end and try your gluten grain introduction again. The reason I say this is two fold. First brown rice is a non-gluten grain not a gluten-grain so you want to do that on a different day. Second that bagel has a LOT of ingredients including quite a bit of sugar and soybean oil. It's hard to know whether gluten grains triggered those cravings or if it was something else. Ultimately this is up to you and what you might want to eat again. The clearer our picture of our reactions the easier to answer the question "Is it worth it?"

 

From Panera's website:

Detailed Ingredients

Unbleached enriched wheat flour (flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, grain blend (cracked wheat, rye meal, whole spelt flour, whole amaranth, oats, flax ground, citrus fiber), rolled oats, bagel base (sugar, salt, malted barley flour, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, molasses powder [molasses, wheat starch], yeast, soybean oil, ascorbic acid, enzymes [wheat]), honey, vital wheat gluten, brown sugar, yeast (yeast, sorbitan monostearate, ascorbic acid). 

[Marissa2411]

Do you have to do the reintroduction phase or can you just start eating non-compliant foods?

[MeadowLily]

Yes.  You can just start eating non-compliant foods.  No reintroduction phase is required.

 

So what are you planning for your Day 31?  

[jmcbn]

What you choose to do post whole31 is entirely up to you, but if anyone honestly thinks they can go back to eating the way they did pre-whole30 (particularly if you ate SAD) without any major repercussions they haven't really got the point of the whole process, which is to llet your body heal, then listen to it as you reintro old foods & see how it reacts so as you know what to avoid.

Sure, go ahead & just launch into non compliant foods on day 31 - no doubt we'll see you back in a month (or 6) with your tail between your legs wishing you;d done things differently...

Just sayin'!

[lgt2013]

What you choose to do post whole31 is entirely up to you, but if anyone honestly thinks they can go back to eating the way they did pre-whole30 (particularly if you ate SAD) without any major repercussions they haven't really got the point of the whole process, which is to llet your body heal, then listen to it as you reintro old foods & see how it reacts so as you know what to avoid.

Sure, go ahead & just launch into non compliant foods on day 31 - no doubt we'll see you back in a month (or 6) with your tail between your legs wishing you;d done things differently...

Just sayin'!

Ha, this is exactly what happened to me. So here I am, finally doing proper reintroductions after my third whole30. If I'd done them the first time, I'd know exactly how small amounts of dairy or corn or black beans affect me. And I am definitely doing it right this time, because I really don't want to have to do another official whole30 any time soon (I hate being "that person" in restaurants). So I would say just do the reintros right the first time -- you owe it to yourself after working so hard to get everything out of your system.

[kirkor]

Do you have to do the reintroduction phase or can you just start eating non-compliant foods?

Why have you asked the same question 3 times?

[MeadowLily]

Ha, this is exactly what happened to me. So here I am, finally doing proper reintroductions after my third whole30. If I'd done them the first time, I'd know exactly how small amounts of dairy or corn or black beans affect me. And I am definitely doing it right this time, because I really don't want to have to do another official whole30 any time soon (I hate being "that person" in restaurants). So I would say just do the reintros right the first time -- you owe it to yourself after working so hard to get everything out of your system.

The meticulous attention to every last detail

Staying compliant for 30 days

Determination not to eat one spaghetti noodle while fixing dinner for the kids

Finding soy lecithin in your favorite tea and thowing it away

Making your own mayo

Mastering zoodles

Fighting off every sugar craving with vegetables

Making plans for a food explosion on Day 31

Extending the food explosion into 7 days that might turn into 7 months

Restarting another Whole 30 immediately on Day 8 or 8 months later

It's our choice and we choose

We learn....another food bender is not a cure for an addiction to food triggers

[MeadowLily]

Tom Denham

Whole9 Moderator/First Whole30 May 2010

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Posted 17 July 2014 - 06:40 AM

I ate 4 or 5 pizzas without any noticeable consequences last year. A new place with a wood-fired grill opened near my house and I helped them get established by eating their food until they got so busy I quit trying to go there.   I have been eating Whole30-style for over 4 years and that was my first pizza since 2009-2010. I did not have a problem. 

 

Some people can get away with eating conventional food occasionally, but some are more sensitive. You have to eliminate foods for at least 30 days and then add them back carefully to figure out how your body reacts. Of course, overeating and getting fat is one consequence of eating some conventional foods. Lots of conventional foods do not make you feel full and they trigger cravings so that you keep eating them. So even when you do not feel bad when you eat them, you may have problems including them in your diet. Unfortunately, a lot of people (teenagers) eat a lot of those foods. 

 

The Whole30 is meant to be an introduction to the world of eating good food and to entice you into eating more meat, fish, veggies, and fruit and to reserve other things for special occasions. Conventional wisdom says that every day is a special occasion and you should eat pizza, french fries, and ice cream every day. Conventional wisdom lies! Every day is not a special occasion in the sense that you can eat problematic foods daily and not suffer consequences. But you can eat anything every once in a while and be healthy. 

 

[MrsStick]

I'd say stop thinking of it as cheating - cheating means guilt and feeling like you aren't good enough. Cheating means that you deserve to be punished because, let's face it, you cheated.

 

So you didn't eat how you were supposed to during reintroductions. Okay. Eat Whole 30 until you feel better, then do reintroductions for real.

 

Bottom line: you didn't cheat; cheating attaches morality to your food. Your food doesn't have morals, you do, and you can tell your food to deal with it.