Day 23 and can't stop thinking about SWEETS!

[AmberWill]

I am on day 23 and feeling great.  Overall I have not struggled near as much as I anticipated and I am happy to say that I am planning to keep many of the Whole30 ideals in my daily life.  But, the last couple of days I have been cravings sweets like crazy.  I looked at the timeline to see if this is "normal" and don't see anything indicating that.  It has me wondering if I may not be getting enough of something else or if my body is just like, "Hey lady, enough already where's the sugar you used to give us EVERY DAY?"

 

Thoughts, suggestions, and words of encouragement greatly appreciated.

 

Amber

[ShannonM816]

This could be a few things.

 

First, are you by chance coming up to that time of the month? Because during the week or so leading up to that, it's pretty common to crave carbs. It's a perfectly normal thing, and if this is a possibility, try eating more at your meals, specifically more fat and more starchy vegetables.

 

A second possibility is a thing called an "extinction burst" -- explained here in the second question she addresses.

 

Another possibility is that this is food boredom, common around this point in a Whole30 -- food just really doesn't sound good, you don't know what you want. I think for many of us, our bodies just think the sugary stuff we used to eat will make everything better. I know when I hit this point in my first Whole30, I had a Larabar from my emergency stash instead of the perfectly acceptable Whole30 dinner I had just prepared, because that dinner didn't sound good. (For the record, "dinner doesn't sound good" is not actually an emergency, and this is why I personally would always recommend not keeping an emergency stash of Larabars around.)

[AmberWill]

Thanks Shannon,

  This makes me feel better.  Funny how just knowing that this is not something out of the ordinary or something only you are facing makes all the difference.  And, I have to agree about the emergency stash of Larabars.  I had to move the ones out of my desk drawer at work so they wouldn't tempt me even though they had been there for weeks with no temptation at all.  

  The extinction burst makes total sense to me too.  I was most definitely a sugar addict.  I love the control I have over food now rather than feeling it is the other way around.  I don't feel I am or was at risk of giving in but it sure was maddening to feel like I had come this far and just now started to feel like it was really really difficult.

Thanks again!

[Lacey13]

Jumping in to say that I am on Day 23 and dealing with this same issue.  I never hit the "Kill all the things" phase and haven't had crazy cravings.  I have them now.  I'll get more sleep and try to refocus.