Back Ache

[Marcella]

I'm on Day 12 of my first W30 and feeling pretty good but over the last couple of days, I've had increasing back pain. Today it's so bad that I took ibuprofen. I'm doing my usual walking and my daily yoga stretches (which I've done for years) but it didn't help. Has anyone else experienced back pain? My husband suggested more calcium...and I just made myself a HUGE jug of water with fresh lemon in it to make sure I'm getting enough fluids.

 

What I don't really get is that this way of eating isn't radically different from how I ate before. I'm not coming from a SAD (Standard American Diet)- I quit grains and most processed sugar a year ago. For me the biggest difference is no dairy and absolutely no sugar.  I know that people coming from SAD can get leg cramps at first;could this be something similiar?

 

Any ideas as to why my back would start hurting so much?  

 

Thanks.

[ShannonM816]

Nothing about Whole30 should make your back hurt. Has anything else changed for you recently -- more or different activity, more time sitting in front of a computer than usual, new mattress, more stress, even more time standing in the kitchen cooking? I would think any of those would be more likely to cause back pain than what you're eating. Also consider things like the shoes you're wearing -- whether you're wearing different ones, or maybe the ones you wear most need replacing?

 

I doubt seriously that it's anything to do with calcium -- if you're concerned about a lack of calcium in Whole30 you might find this article helpful. If you think it's muscle cramps, the usual recommendations are to make sure you're getting potassium and magnesium, you could look up which foods are high in those nutrients and make sure you're getting enough of them.

[Marcella]

Thanks, Shannon 

I am in the kitchen more, so that could definitely be contributing to it. 

I read a lot of different Paleo forums after I wrote this here and several people wrote that back aches could be caused by toxins releasing near the colon.

Drinking a lot of water actually helped. Drinking a lot of water is always good, so I just have to remember to keep it up.

Thanks again.