Kicking myself a little for not planning for Reintro timing - advice?

[JessicaR77]

Hi All - I'm on Day 17 and going strong, but as I am reading this particular Forum I'm getting concerned for the reintroduction phase and mad at myself for not thinking it through better.

 

I planned my Whole 30 for the month of June because we had no commitments or extra stress, and also because it happened to fall just before a planned vacation the week after July 4th.  My thought was, I'll be done June 30th, in plenty of time to really enjoy vacation with better habits but without having to worry about what the in-laws are cooking or that where we go out to eat won't have sugar free salad dressing (for example... not because I plan to go buck wild on vacation eating and drinking like a maniac).

 

But, reading some of these posts, dairy for example, has me not only concerned about cream in my coffee before an 11 hour road trip, but also just plain being miserable for 10 days.  Ya'll are scaring me.  

 

I'm struggling with should I stop the Whole 30 now realizing this was bad timing, do the slow roll reintro for this 2 weeks I have before vacation to be sure I know what may cause misery (knowing I won't have the full effect from the needed 30 days), and then plan another full Whole 30 at another time?  (I really don't want to lose my 17 days progress).

 

Or - do I soldier on, with the hopes that I won't have miserable stomach issues causing a bad vacation and my husband having to pull over every half an hour at a rest stop? 

 

Any happy reintroduction stories out there? 

 

I know you will say it is up to what I feel is best, but I'd really like to know what you would do in my shoes.  Especially from those in this forum that are going through the (painful?) reintroductions.  Would you want to deal with that on vacation or face losing your progress thus far?

 

Thanks all. 

[ShannonM816]

You'll be through with your 30 days a few days before you go on your vacation, right? I'd keep going, and then do reintros of the things you're most concerned about, or the things you know you won't be able to avoid.

 

Gluten containing grains and dairy are the things most likely to cause issues for people, so maybe on day 31, intro dairy -- cream in your coffee, some cheese, some yogurt, or whatever things you think you might have on vacation. See what happens.

 

Go back to W30 eating for a couple of days after that, and if you're feeling better, try bread or whatever form of gluten-containing grains you're most likely to have on vacation. That should cover July 1 (dairy), July 2-3 (W30 eating), and July 4 (bread). That should give you some idea of what to expect. If you had a horrible reaction to dairy or bread, do your best to avoid it. If you normally avoid either of these anyway, don't do a reintroduction of them, just continue to avoid them, and do a reintroduction of something else you're likely to run into on your vacation.

 

Not everyone has a noticeable, immediate reaction to dairy. I didn't. I get more of a cumulative effect as I eat more and more of it over time, and even then it's more aches and pains coming back, and a stuffy nose, not the kind of digestive reactions some people get. Nothing that I did reintroductions of caused really serious digestive distress, although legumes make me gassy, so I generally try to avoid them in public, although really, I never particularly cared for most of them anyway, so that's not too big a deal.

 

I do recommend trying not to worry about it too much, because I know for me, the more I worry and the more stressed I am, the more likely I am to have digestive issues in general, regardless of what I'm eating.

 

Pack W30 food in a cooler for your 11-hour road trip, it'll keep you on track and probably save you money if you're not buying snacks at convenience stores along the way, and it'll give you at least one more compliant day to get back on track after the reintroductiosn. Do your best to pick Whole30-ish food while you're on vacation (choose salads or  meat and vegetables over burgers and fries), but if something really seems worth it to you, go for it and don't feel guilty about it. Hopefully the reintroductions you have done will let you know if you really, really need to avoid something.

 

When you get back from vacation, you can do another W30 and do more reintroductions then.