let myself down AGAIN

[Jess30]

Finished Whole 30 18 pounds down and feeling eh... I never got the crazy energy, infact I had ZERO energy. Docs said I wasnt eating enough.. and I knew that... but...was still proud of myself for not eating off plan foods for 30 days. Well, the day after the whole 30 our whole family came down to visit for the weekend and against my better judgement, my husband and I went crazy. Ate whatever we wanted. Monday came around and hubs went straight back on whole 30, meanwhile.... i found myself lying and eating whatever I wanted behind his back. all. week. I just cant muster up the motivation. This is what got me on the whole 30 to begin with... this kind of obsessive food behavior. Not sure why I'm posting here other than to vent. I'm going to re-read It starts with food and try to get in the right space again. 

 

[Tom Denham]

Eating enough is critically important and many people don't, at least at first. When you are ready, make sure to never eat less than the meal template minimum and to err on the side of eating more. 

 

How much to eat

http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-meal-planning.pdf

[Xandra]

You also learned that you and your husband react differently to binges. It's great that he can get right back on track again. It's harder for you, so you need to blaze your own trail rather than follow his lead on this.

My partner and I are both following somewhat restrictive eating plans, but he allows for different foods that I don't, primarily dairy. We're finding our grooves together but they aren't the same grooves.

[SugarcubeOD]

Finished Whole 30 18 pounds down and feeling eh... I never got the crazy energy, infact I had ZERO energy. 

What other non scale victories did you have?  Did medical conditions get better? Hair skin and nails are healthier? Sleep is better, mood is better etc...?

 

Perhaps if you spend some time writing a list of things that were victories on the Whole30 you would be motivated to eat better in order to regain or further improve some of the improvements that you felt.

 

The one thing I will say to echo Tom is that if you are not eating enough, you are not going to see good results.  Nutrition is cumulative so it may take a while for you to feel benefits even when you do start eating proper meals.

The meal template is the bare minimum of nutrition that any adult human needs per day... hacking the Whole30 by restricting may get you a significant amount of weight loss but it will not last and is not a sustainable way of eating/behaving.

[azcoolmom]

You're being really hard on yourself! It's ok. You admitted that it was "obsessive food behavior" that motivated you to undertake a whole30. It sounds like by not eating enough, you never really dealt with it. You just went the other way. I'm a terrible "scale addict" and I recognize what drives us. An 18 lb loss is a LOT in one month. You'd definitely feel tiger blood and deal with the stress food causes if you follow Tom's advice and eat lots. One of my favorite whole30 memes was the one that said that 1200 calories is a recommended amount, and it says "is that breakfast or what?" & "it's not a diet people". You're more than halfway there. You've got the tools. You'll rock your next whole30...when you're ready!

[Mistyfire]

I've done 3 whole 30's and learn something new from each one, so I do the next one (including the reintros) in a different way. The first one taught me to stop tracking calories and weighing myself daily - leading to beating myself up over my perceived failures. After the second I saw how easily I could slide back into wine at night. After the third - well that's been about watching technically compliant snacking (think spoon in almond nut butter jar) and keeping food with no brakes in my house (think coconut ice cream and dark chocolate). It took me a while to learn bad habits; I figure it'll take me while more to learn new ones. It's not all or nothing- it's a journey.

[Em42]

I just did the exact same thing. On day 22 I got the stomach flu and had crackers and gatorade. So I obviously never reached tiger blood and day 30. After the stomach flu I got a cold. Then I binge so bad on total crap food. I'm trying so hard to muster up the desire to do the whole30 again. I saw so many amazing results in just the first 2 weeks. This crappy food really has a hold on me. I just wanted to tell you that you are not alone in the struggle. I'm going to re read the book and get back on track too! We can do this!