Slow Roll Reintroduction - Eric Rau

[W. Eric Rau]

My husband and I felt great after finishing our Whole30, which began on June 1. Yesterday, July 1, we began our Slow Roll reintroduction with beans, in the form of Cuban style black beans, and garbanzos/chickpeas, in the form of three different flavors of hummus from Trader Joe's.

 

It did not go well. Although there may have been coinciding factors apart from eating the beans and hummus, we definitely felt ill effects. We will not be including beans and hummus in our eating from this point on.

 

My husband suffers from migraines but was migraine free during our Whole30. Although it may have been barometric pressure related due to a major monsoon storm we had, he had a migraine yesterday afternoon that knocked him out for hours and, since he hasn't had the same response to other recent storms, we think it came from the beans and hummus.

 

He has found relief during the Whole30 from significant digestive discomfort and problems (with no known cause despite recent colonoscopy, endoscopy, stool samples, celiac testing, and blood testing) and felt bad yesterday for the first time in weeks. He also had an afternoon bowel movement in addition to his normal one in the morning, which is not usual. 

 

I felt digestive upsets after each meal yesterday, with abdominal sloshing and rumbling that reminded me of a washing machine agitating a load of laundry. I felt nothing like this at any time on the Whole30, even after eating salads filled with raw vegetables. I have also had a single bowel movement each morning of the Whole30, but after a normal BM in the morning before breakfast (and before reintroducing the beans and hummus) I had to run to the bathroom with diarrhea after lunch. I had two BMs this morning, one almost immediately after I got out of bed and the other before breakfast, both of which were gassy, crampy diarrhea. 

 

I also felt sore over my whole body this morning, which may be due to having moved in a small loveseat by myself, but since I didn't feel any pain or discomfort during or after moving in the piece, I'm going to blame inflammation from the beans and hummus as at least a contributor to the soreness, if not the cause.

 

We're going to be back on strict Whole30 compliance for at least a few more days and will then reintroduce peanuts as a separate, stand-alone legume (since we think they are different enough from other legumes to merit their own experiment) to see how they affect us. If black beans and hummus are any indicator, peanuts may end up off our menu permanently, too...

 

[SherriC]

Hi! Black beans & hummus have been staples for my family as well. I am planning to reintroduce both (my day 30 was 6/30) but am taking it slowly and have introduced some other things first. I am hoping to be able to incorporate some vegetarian meals into my diet (and my family's), but we'll see. How disappointing (and painful) for your husband to have a migraine return, but at the same time, what powerful information, if avoiding legumes keeps them away! Sorry to hear about your GI upsets. Hope you were able to relax and replenish over the holiday weekend. And hope you are done moving furniture! - Sherri

[lunawishs]

I also started my reintroduction today with legumes. I added 1/4 cup of black beans in my breakfast and a tablespoon of peanut butter with my lunch. So far, my stomach feels ok but I've been feeling kind of sluggish after my bfst and lunch. I'm not sure that's because I didn't sleep well last night or it is from adding legumes on my meals.

[W. Eric Rau]

On July 5, Day 5 of our Slow Roll Reintroduction phase, my husband and I added cooked frozen peas to our regular Whole30 menu. We did three days of Whole30 compliance after our bad experience with black beans and hummus on Day 1, so we had resumed feeling good before trying the peas. Although we don't adore peas and recognize that there are more nutritious options, we like them well enough to occasionally eat them in small quantities in the future, either alone or as part of another dish, so we thought it was worth giving them a day of experimentation in the Reintroduction.

 

We each consumed a pretty fair quantity of the peas (sauteed with ghee), enough to give us a sense of their impact on us. Two days later, we have had none of the unpleasant symptoms we attributed to trying black beans and hummus - no migraine for my husband, no joint aches for me, no abdominal distress and running to the bathroom for either of us. Based on this experiment, we feel pretty confident that small quantities of peas consumed on a few scattered occasions will not adversely affect us, so even though we won't seek them out, they will not be on our "NEVER" list.

 

Within the next few days, we plan to experiment with our next legume subgroup: soy. We will try edamame, tofu, and perhaps something else with soy to see whether soy products affect us adversely and whether they go onto the NEVER list along with beans and hummus...

[Tom Denham]

Sounds good.

[W. Eric Rau]

Monday, July 11 was Day 11 in our Slow Roll Reintroduction period and my husband and I experimented with soy products. Our breakfast included two flavors of soy yogurt and a tofu, egg, soy milk, and vegetable scramble. Lunch was pork tenderloin and vegetables with soy sauce, a green salad with tofu pieces, and some dried edamame. Dinner included more edamame plus pot roast, avocado, and a compliant mayonnaise, horseradish, and mustard sauce, all wrapped in butter lettuce.

 

I had more of an adverse reaction than my husband did. He had some stomach upset in the evening after dinner, but nothing more. I experienced a weird, soapy indigestion all morning after breakfast, which sounds as bizarre as it was. Basically, if felt like my stomach and esophagus were experiencing a reflux from lavender or some other delicate soap, but the discomfort and weird taste were coming up from my stomach and not my mouth, if that makes sense. I think it may have been due to the soy yogurt in particular.

 

After lunch, I had significant stomach and esophageal irritation, similar to what I experience when I eat a lot of spicy foods like green chiles, jalapenos, habaneros, hot sauces, and salsas. The difference was that I didn't enjoy the taste of any of the soy products as much as my beloved spicy foods, so there wasn't any mouth payoff for the stomach irritation. I also had an afternoon bowel movement after lunch, whereas I have had only one morning BM throughout my Whole30 and the fully compliant days of the Reintroduction period.

 

After dinner, the meal in which I had the least amount of soy, I still had stomach discomfort and irritation - basically, the uncomfortable sensation of having eaten something that didn't agree with me, but without feeling nauseated. Dinner was the one meal that gave my husband stomach problems, too - maybe the soy straw that broke the camel's back for him at the end of the day.

 

Our conclusions? Continue to avoid soy as much as we are able. Not nearly as extreme an adverse reaction as we had with black beans and hummus on Day 1, but still a notable difference from how we felt every day of the Whole30 and during our compliant days of the Reintroduction period. Not necessarily a "Never" but definitely an "Almost Never"- nothing delicious enough to find its way onto our "yes, it's worth it" list.

 

Our final Slow Roll experiment in the legumes food group will be peanuts and peanut butter, which we will probably do on Friday, July 15 (Day 15) or Saturday, July 16 (Day 16) - that will give us three or four days of resumed full compliance with Whole30 before we try peanut products. We are not going to be surprised by whatever good or bad experience we have at this point but are looking forward to learning more...

[W. Eric Rau]

On Friday, July 15, which was Day 15 of our Slow Roll Reintroduction, my husband and I experimented with peanuts. We had Trader Joe's organic peanut butter with breakfast, some Trader Joe's Old Fashioned Blister Peanuts and a Peanut Butter Cookie Lara Bar along with TJ's organic peanut butter with our lunch, and peanuts after dinner (we had W30 compliant Greek food dining out with friends, so had to do a little bag of Planter's peanuts as a snack from the concession stand at the theater we attended after dinner). Peanuts in blister form (boiled, then dry roasted), roasted in peanut oil, crushed in a bar, and ground into peanut butter - let's just say we had a representative sample of the food type!

 

Our verdict? No good for us. My husband experienced an upset stomach and a recurrence of joint pain during the day, specifically his knees, which had gone away during the Whole30 in June and had not occurred during the Reintroduction until we ate peanuts. I didn't have any joint pain and major digestive disturbance as I had with beans and hummus, but I felt stomach discomfort after eating the peanut products at each meal and also got a headache after lunch, the meal in which I ate the most peanut products. The stomach discomfort wasn't quite of the same intensity as it was with soy, and it dissipated after a couple of hours following each meal, but it was still noticeable and unpleasant, and very different from how I feel on compliant days.

 

The next three days of Whole30 compliance didn't reveal any lingering problems, but that one day of unpleasantness was sufficient to show that we react badly to peanuts. And neither of us found the peanuts as tasty as we used to, pre-Whole30 - we like other nuts much better now (particularly macadamias and raw cashews) and we now enjoy compliant almond butter, cashew butter, and sunflower butter much more than we do the Trader Joe's organic peanut butter, which we used to love. So, based on their "not worth it" status, peanuts won't be a part of our diet following this experiment. 

 

Today, Day 19, our Reintroduction experiment moves from legumes to non gluten grains. We're eating corn and corn products at each meal. I'm eager to see how I do with the organic popcorn at our favorite art house cinema tonight - I think they even clarify their butter, so I may get an extra treat! I'll post our corn results in a few days...

[W. Eric Rau]

On Tuesday, July 19, which was Day 19 of our Slow Roll Reintroduction, my husband and I reintroduced corn as the first of the non gluten grains. We had organic corn tortilla chips with breakfast, the same kind of chips with lunch, and canned corn with ghee with dinner. We also had two different types of popcorn in the evening, Trader Joe's Olive Oil Popcorn and a large bag of the organic popcorn with clarified butter that I got from our favorite art house theater.

 

We had no physical problems from the reintroduction, apart from the fact that the large quantity of popcorn I ate in the evening made me feel gassy and a bit bloated. My husband did not experience this, but he ate much less popcorn than I did.

 

My takeaway from this experiment is that I may occasionally eat something with corn in it if it appears "worth it."My opinion at present is that popcorn - particularly the organic popcorn from the theater - is "worth it" to me despite the gas and bloating. However, although it doesn't present physical concerns, it does present a psychological one for me: popcorn appears to be a food with semi-functioning brakes for me, so I will need to make very careful choices with it.

 

I think that I will avoid popcorn in general just as I will avoid corn in general, but will have it as a special treat when we go to that theater, and will limit myself to the free small serving that my husband and I each get as a perk for being paid members of the theater. The member popcorn size is smaller than the small size that is sold at the concession counter, but is still a perfectly reasonable serving for me. It will be enough to enjoy the deliciousness of the taste without overindulging or causing more than minimal gas and bloating. And, as I do more Whole30s and Reintroductions in the future, I can reassess that decision.

 

Our next reintroduction day will probably be tomorrow, Day 24 - we'll be doing white rice, which we're experimenting with separately from brown rice.

[W. Eric Rau]

Sunday, July 24 - Day 24 of our Slow Roll Reintroduction - was our day for white rice. We had jasmine rice with beef and vegetables for breakfast, a Mexican Rice at one of our favorite restaurants for lunch, and a Jasmine rice pudding made with coconut cream, cinnamon, and raisins with dinner.

 

Neither my husband nor I had any noticeable ill effects from our white rice consumption that day or in the days that have followed. He greatly enjoyed all of the rice dishes we ate and will probably choose to eat white rice on occasion after we finish the Reintroduction.

 

I, however, appear to have lost my taste for white rice thanks to the Whole30. I thought the well-prepared dishes were all "meh," even the Mexican rice at lunch, which used to be my favorite in town (and there's a lot of Mexican rice to be found in Tucson, so that says something), something that I would order a double portion of - with no beans - pre-W30. No more. And it wasn't a bad batch - my husband said "the rice is exceptional today" while I was toying with it on my plate, not enjoying it at all. I won't be bothering with it from this point forward - it's no longer a "worth it" item for me.

 

I must say that the majority of foods that we've reintroduced so far, with the exception of corn, tortilla chips, and my favorite movie theater popcorn, have not been nearly as appealing as they were to me before we started the Whole30 and will probably not be something I choose to eat in the future. My tastes have definitely changed, as promised, so it will be interesting to see how I experience the rest of the groups in the Reintroduction, especially my beloved dairy products. At the rate we've been reintroducing, I expect our Slow Roll to continue through August, which means a Reintroduction phase of two months after we did the Whole30 in June. I'm contemplating doing another Whole30 in September, but my husband is pretty happy with the "relaxed Whole30" at this point.

 

We'll reintroduce brown rice in a similar fashion tomorrow or Saturday - I don't have high hopes of liking it any better than I did the white version, but we'll see...

[Staggolee41]

I must say that the majority of foods that we've reintroduced so far, with the exception of corn, tortilla chips, and my favorite movie theater popcorn, have not been nearly as appealing as they were to me before we started the Whole30 and will probably not be something I choose to eat in the future. My tastes have definitely changed, as promised, so it will be interesting to see how I experience the rest of the groups in the Reintroduction, especially my beloved dairy products. At the rate we've been reintroducing, I expect our Slow Roll to continue through August, which means a Reintroduction phase of two months after we did the Whole30 in June. I'm contemplating doing another Whole30 in September, but my husband is pretty happy with the "relaxed Whole30" at this point.

 

I've been having a similar experience with my reintroductions. I used to put cheese on everything - like it was a condiment! - but now I can only stomach it on select dishes. I also used to really love beer, but the one I've had since I started - which admittedly wasn't my favorite before Whole30 - wasn't enjoyable from a taste perspective and resulted in an almost instant headache.

[ladyshanny]

Good Morning, please see that I have combined all of your reintroduction topics into one thread and moved it to the Post Whole30 Log section of the forum. We love that you are documenting your reintroduction but would request that you not create a new thread every time you post.  As your posts are a "diary" of sorts, I've created this thread for you to continue to update as you go through your plan.

 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let one of us know.

[W. Eric Rau]

Friday, July 29 - Day 29 of our Slow Roll Reintroduction - was our day for experimenting with brown rice. We used Trader Joe's Organic Brown Rice in the pre-cooked, frozen packets at each meal.

 

I used to enjoy this particular rice a great deal, pre-Whole30. My husband didn't experience any immediate issues, but I did not enjoy the taste or the texture anymore, just as I experienced with white rice, and found that I had gas pains in my lower abdomen and bloating at bedtime, which was a more extreme reaction than I experienced with white rice. Since I haven't had this symptom on the fully compliant days between reintroductions and since I didn't eat anything non-compliant yesterday except for the brown rice, I can only assume that the rice was the culprit. Nope - not a "worth it" food that I will be interested in again...

 

We are probably done with the reintroduction of non-gluten grains - we did organic corn products (corn is a yes, in moderation), white rice (no), and brown rice (no), which are the only non gluten grains we'd be likely to eat on occasion. We're not interested in experimenting with gluten free oats, quinoa (the unrequested inclusion of a small amount of quinoa in a restaurant custom green salad on my Whole30 Day 26 was the subject of an earlier post on another thread - I chose not to start over but I'm still a bit hostile to quinoa, LOL, though the restaurant sent a gift card and a nice note as an apology), amaranth, buckwheat, or other similar foods. 

 

Dairy will be the next food group we begin reintroducing later this week...

[W. Eric Rau]

Wednesday, August 3 - Day 34 of our Slow Roll Reintroduction - was our day for experimenting with full fat Greek yogurt. We had yogurt with fresh mango (I added Tajin, a Mexican chile lime salt) with our breakfast and lunch, and then I had a chilled yogurt and cucumber soup (kind of like a tzatziki sauce but with raisins and radishes and dill and walnuts) before dinner. We experienced no ill effects - digestive or respiratory - and enjoyed what we ate. Full fat greek yogurt may be an occasional part of our diet going forward...

[W. Eric Rau]

Saturday, August 6 - Day 37 of our Slow Roll Reintroduction - was our day for experimenting with butter, cream, and sour cream. We had a baked potato with organic butter and sour cream with our breakfast, a smoothie with organic heavy cream and fresh mango with our lunch (mixed vegetable salad with protein), and then mashed potatoes with butter and sour cream mixed in as part of our dinner.

After the lunchtime smoothie, my husband had abdominal cramping and diarrhea. I had no effects at that time.

Before dinner, I ate some Boulder Canyon avocado oil potato chips and some guacamole that we had to make a.s.a.p. before the avocados we had turned bad. The chips (recommended by a friend who loves them) made me sick to my stomach, since it was the first time I had had anything fried like that since I started the Whole30. The guac was also a little tangy, in a way that was not a good thing.

My husband had a miserable night of abdominal pains, cramps, extremely foul gas, and multiple trips to the bathroom. Since he had a strong adverse reaction to the smoothie from lunch before he had any of the potato chips and guac, we're pretty sure the full fat butter, cream, and sour cream were the cause of these problems for him.

I also had lots of digestive gurgling, cramps, and trips to the bathroom after bedtime, although nothing like what my husband experienced and much later in the evening.  The dairy may have been the culprit. However, because I was already feeling sick to my stomach from the avocado oil chips and ate more of the possibly-turning-bad guacamole than my husband did before we had the mashed potatoes with butter and sour cream at dinner, and because I had no reaction to the smoothie at lunch like he did, I can't clearly distinguish what caused my digestive distress.

My husband feels a strong enough aversion now from his bad butter, cream, and sour cream reintroduction that he will probably be done with dairy entirely, unless he chooses some Greek yogurt, which did not cause him any problems on its day.

I, on the other hand, have decided to have more days of strict Whole30 compliance this week and will then repeat my butter, cream, and sour cream reintroduction on Friday, August 12. I will make sure not to have any stomach-sickening chips or going-bad produce on that reintroduction day so that I can rule out any other cause if I experience similar symptoms. That way I'll know whether I'm done with dairy like my husband or can continue my Slow Roll Reintroduction process with cheeses, milk, and ice cream...

[W. Eric Rau]

Friday, August 12, Day 43 of our Slow Roll Reintroduction, I re-reintroduced butter, cream, and sour cream to confirm whether it was the dairy or the Boulder Canyon avocado oil chips with borderline-bad guacamole that caused such digestive havoc with me. This time, I had no digestive problems that day and nothing in the three fully compliant days afterward, so it was not the dairy that made me so sick. As an aside, I now cannot tolerate even the thought of potato chips - my stomach turns when I think about the Boulder Canyon chips.  Next reintroduction: hard (ripened) cheeses.

[W. Eric Rau]

Tuesday, August 16, Day 47 of our Slow Roll Reintroduction, I reintroduced hard cheeses at each meal. I ate a LOT of cheese that day, much more than I would have pre-Whole30. Even with the quantity consumed, I had no ill effects (even constipation was not an issue) but found that my beloved cheese has mostly lost its appeal for me.  It wasn't bad, but definitely did not add anything to the delicious grass fed burger with avocado and tomato, wrapped in Bibb lettuce, that I had for breakfast. At lunchtime in my office, I did make "cheese cookies" as part of my lunch - basically cheese slices microwaved for about a minute on a glossy, non-stick paper plate, melting, sizzling, and solidifying and turning into a lacy, crisp "cookie," and they were delicious. However, they were not delicious enough to justify buying cheese just for the sake of making them, so I think cheese will not be something I will buy to keep in the house - I can do without it. At dinner, we went to our favorite pizza restaurant (the location of our pre-Whole30 "last supper," which we had not visited since May 31) and I had a slice of my fave with the mozzarella and cheddar cheese, Buffalo and ranch sauce, and chicken and scallion toppings pulled off of the crust. It was fantastic - a "worth it" food for me, hands-down. I also had a small Cobb salad with bleu cheese. I didn't mind throwing the crust of the pizza away and would be happy to continue doing so when we pay an occasional visit to the restaurant.

My next Slow Roll Reintroduction will be soft cheeses like cottage cheese and cream cheese, probably on Monday, August 22.

[W. Eric Rau]

Tuesday, August 23, Day 54 of our Slow Roll Reintroduction, I reintroduced soft cheeses at each meal. As I noted previously, my husband has stopped dairy completely and is not continuing the dairy reintroduction experiment with me.

With breakfast, I had Cultured Classics Old Fashioned Garlic and Herbs cream cheese on my grass fed burger, with part of a container of Daisy 4% milk fat large curd cottage cheese (the only brand I could find at Sprouts health foods market that doesn't contain carageenan - interesting) as one of my sides. I split my normal 12:00 noon lunch into two meals. At 11:00, I had the remainder of the Daisy cottage cheese with fresh pineapple. At 1:00, I had grass fed beef topped with Crooked Creek goat cheese with chives and onion. With dinner, I topped a baked white potato with more of the Cultured Classics Old Fashioned Garlic and Herbs cream cheese.

First, I must state that my taste experience with the soft cheeses reflected my experience with hard cheeses the week before: meh. I used to love everything that I reintroduced this day, but none of it was particularly enjoyable anymore. 

More importantly, I had more of a physical reaction to the soft cheeses. I did not experience any bloating, cramping, gas pains, flatulence, or diarrhea on that day or in the three days since. I did, however, experience a LOT of loud stomach and abdominal gurgling after each meal (which is apparently actually due to gas in the intestine indicating a problem digesting the food) - not as much as the "washing machine" sensations and noises I experienced when reintroducing beans and hummus, but definitely noticeable and very different from my postprandial digestion on the hard cheese reintroduction day and on my Whole30 compliant days.

In addition to the gurgling, after I had the pineapple and cottage cheese half of my divided lunch, I became incredibly tired and sluggish in my office and actually dozed off for a few minutes in front of my computer. I have not had such an experience with any lunch - Whole30 compliant or Reintroduction - since I started this program. I did not get sleepy and sluggish after consuming cottage cheese with my breakfast, so I checked the sugar content of fresh pineapple to see whether that may have been the culprit rather than the cottage cheese. No, pineapple is actually relatively moderate or low in natural sugar compared to other fruits, plus, when I finished the fresh pineapple by itself later in the afternoon, I had no reaction. Thus, the pineapple was not to blame. It was either the second helping of cottage cheese by itself, or the cottage cheese in combination with the natural sugars in the fruit, that pushed me over the edge into torpor. I did not have any similar symptoms after eating the goat cheese in the second half of my lunch at 1:00 or after eating the cream cheese at dinner.

My take on this? Cheeses of all kinds just don't ring my bell anymore, and the soft ones make me gurgle loudly enough to know that my digestion doesn't like them very much. Not enough of a bad reaction to avoid cheeses like an allergy, but I won't bring them into the house and will avoid them 99% of the time when dining outside the home.

Since time is running short until I begin my second Whole30 with everyone starting September 5, and since I want to complete my gluten grain experiments also, I will probably reintroduce Ricotta, milk, and ice cream on the same day on Saturday, August 27, to finish out my dairy part of the Slow Roll Reintroduction. I had originally planned to do Ricotta on its own day, because it's different from most other cheeses (fairly high in lactose but low in casein and high in whey protein), but since I have not seemed to react poorly to the casein in hard cheeses and since the whey in Ricotta is less likely to be problematic than casein, then I'm really just testing it for the effect of the lactose. I already suspect that it will make my stomach gurgle, but I think I can test it sufficiently at brunch only (my husband is going to make me a crustless Ricotta quiche with meat and veggies as part of a brunch we're hosting) and then reintroduce milk and ice cream at lunch and dinner to see how I handle the lactose in those.

Sad to say, I'm preparing to have ice cream disappoint me as much as cheese has...

[W. Eric Rau]

Saturday, August 27, Day 58 of our Slow Roll Reintroduction, I reintroduced Ricotta cheese, re-reintroduced cream cheese (which I had tried on Tuesday), and reintroduced Cotija soft cheese, gelato and ice cream. My husband tried the first two of those items, despite having otherwise taken dairy out of his reintroduction experiments.

We hosted a brunch, and my husband made delicious crustless mini quiches and a Ricotta and vegetable quiche with gluten free crust. I ate the Ricotta and vegetable filling but left the crust, and I enjoyed the taste and texture. One of our guests brought a crustless, gluten free lemon cheesecake that was very lightly sweetened, which was fantastic - a nice, light finish to the meal, and good enough that I want her recipe. My husband ate these items also, and enjoyed them as much as I did.

After lunch, I had some peppermint gelato from Frost Gelato, an amazing local gelateria. Peppermint has always been one of my faves, and Frost produces it only two times a year, Christmas-time, and around the Fourth of July. I actually bought the hand-scooped pint at the beginning of July, when we began our Slow Roll Reintroduction process, and held it in our freezer awaiting our dairy experiments. After almost two months of waiting to try it, it was very good, but I didn't love it like I used to. I only ate a small amount and put the rest back in the freezer.

For dinner, we dined out at Guadalajara Grill, a local Mexican Restaurant. I had a Mexican Chopped Salad with shredded chicken, avocado, olives, salsa, vegetables, and soft, fresh Cotija cheese crumbles. It was nice, although the cheese was not a "wow factor." After dinner, we went to Baskin Robbins, and I had two scoops of some of my long-loved favorite ice cream flavors, Nutty Coconut and Jamocha Almond Fudge. They were very rich, but still tasty - again, as with the peppermint gelato, I enjoyed them, but didn't love them like I used to. I wouldn't say I was as disappointed as I was with cheese, which I had been preparing for, but there has been a lessening of my affections.

Physically, I experienced no adverse symptoms from any of these dairy products. The two scoops of ice cream did not cause any sort of sugar coma afterwards, either - we came home, and I busied myself shelving and arranging books and knick knacks on a large shelf unit we bought that afternoon, and was able to sleep well that night with no increased heart rate or blood pressure or any other sugar-caused problems. I didn't feel any Sugar Dragon emergence from the cheesecake or the gelato or the ice cream - no cravings for more at that time or since. That is a HUGE gift of this Whole30 experience!

My takeaway from the Slow Roll Reintroduction of dairy products is that I do not appear to be lactose intolerant or casein intolerant, although soft cheeses can make my stomach gurgle. Dairy products for the most part have not impressed my like they used to, so I don't need them in my life and will not buy them for home consumption, except for ghee, of course. I may have them on occasion while outside the home, but in small quantities and with thoughtfulness about how "worth it" that particular item is to me in the situation.

Tomorrow I will do a first reintroduction of gluten grains, which I plan to reintroduce in two separate experiments on Tuesday, August 30 and Friday, September 2. My husband plans to rejoin me in this part of the process and we're looking forward to wrapping up our Slow Roll Reintroduction in time to start the September 5 national Whole30 for our second Whole 30.

 

 

 

[W. Eric Rau]

Tuesday, August 30, Day 61 of our Slow Roll Reintroduction, we reintroduced gluten grains.

At breakfast, we had our grass fed beef patties with Melissa Joulwan's Well Fed mayonnaise, tomato, and avocado on small (party size?) Everything bagels. At lunch, I had field greens salad with half a Caprese Grilled Cheese sandwich on multigrain bread at Harvest restaurant, followed by part of a piece of Triple Chocolate cake. Later in the afternoon, I had a Cochito (aka Cochinito), a pig-shaped gingerbread-like Mexican pastry from La Estrella bakery. For dinner, we went to our favorite pizza place, Serial Grillers, and I had a slice of my favorite thin crust pizza and a small piece of cheesy bread (yes, I had cheese with the gluten at lunch and dinner, but have done enough Slow Roll experimentation with hard cheeses and other dairy products recently to know that it will not confuse my assessment), and a bit of an unfrosted chocolate cupcake after dinner.

Both my husband and I just felt a little sluggish and a little "off" throughout the day. Gluten makes my husband very gassy very quickly. I didn't experience any gas until the evening, after a day of eating gluten products. I had a little lower abdominal discomfort around dinnertime, and when we got home from dinner, I went into the bathroom and passed gas on the toilet in one single, continuous, very long passing. I had no more gas after that. I slept fine but woke up with some sluggishness - not a Tiger Blood morning.

Meh. Everything tasted okay, but like so many of the eliminated foods that I have reintroduced, "okay" is not nearly good enough to make these foods worth it to me. The bagel added nothing to the yummy burger. The delicious sandwich fillings would have been just as good without the bread. The one piece of cheesy bread was too doughy (we used to LOVE it) and we threw the rest out when we left the restaurant - didn't even want to take it home to freeze it. The thin pizza crust was fine, but I actually like pulling the toppings off and just eating them without crust just as well. The partial piece of Triple Chocolate cake at lunch and bite of chocolate cupcake after dinner were rich and not appetizing beyond their initial tastes. Gluten grains are not going to be off the menu entirely, but they're not going to be on the menu very often and we definitely won't do them multiple times in one day as we did for the reintroduction experiment.

We plan to remain compliant with a "relaxed" Whole 30 until we start our second Whole30 on September 5 - there isn't really anything left to reintroduce that interests us, and we're looking forward to experiencing the Whole30 again with a long Slow Roll Reintroduction under our belts. I will resume posting in this log after October 4, when we begin our next reintroduction. 

[Teach2read23]

This thread has been so helpful! Thanks for sharing. 

[laura68]

Thanks for sharing.  I plan on doing a very slow reintroduction and I've appreciated your comments. 

[W. Eric Rau]

My husband and I finished our second Whole30 on October 4, with everyone else who was participating in the #SeptemberWhole30. We did very well once again and have been feeling great. The numerous NSVs continued, which would be sufficiently wonderful even absent any weight lost, but - although my results may not be typical - I think that it also bears mention here that I lost another 15 pounds and 2" off my waist during our second go-around - my total since starting our first Whole30 on June 1 is 55 pounds lost and 5" off my waist, while eating plenty of delicious food and always feeling satisfied and energetic.

Apart from my having half a scoop of homemade New Orleans Praline Pecan ice cream on Day 31 while remaining otherwise fully compliant while traveling in Charleston, SC (my work trip was cut short due to the city's evacuations for Hurricane Matthew, but I did therefore get to return home a few days sooner to start reading my new copy of  "Food Freedom Forever"), we both waited until Saturday, October 8 to begin our Fast Track Reintroductions. Having so recently done a very slow Slow Roll Reintroduction of individual foods in July and August, my husband and I both agreed that we wanted to do the Fast Track this time and get started riding our own bikes on the Food Freedom Forever path.

Ordinarily, we would have started with legumes, but since our separate Slow Roll Reintroduction of beans and hummus, soy, and peanuts in July produced such unpleasant physical symptoms without significant taste enjoyment, we decided not to bother with legumes this time around. They're never going to be worth it.

Instead, we did non-gluten grains as our first reintroduction. We had organic tortilla chips and salsa on the side of our breakfast, Mexican rice, corn in calabacitas, and tortilla chips with our late lunch, and organic popcorn with clarified butter from our favorite art house theater in the evening. No physical, mental, or emotional disturbances occurred, which is consistent with our Slow Roll experience over the summer. I'm still indifferent to the taste of rice, so I won't bother with it in most instances, but my great love of the popcorn from The Loft Cinema will make it very worth it, at least at this time. In "Food Freedom Forever," Melissa Hartwig says that Reintroductions are an ongoing, lifelong process of continually evaluating whether something is worth it and what the consequences are of choosing to eat it. I'm looking forward to this lifelong learning!

We plan to reintroduce dairy products on Tuesday, October 11...

[W. Eric Rau]

Our dairy reintroduction took place on Tuesday, October 11. Neither my husband nor I experienced any noticeable negative effects, though my husband will probably continue to avoid dairy due to his bad digestive experiences during our Slow Roll Reintroduction during the summer.

For breakfast, we had a vegetable frittata with added organic cream and cheese. As part of a late lunch on the road, I had two jalapeno cheese sticks. For dinner, I had cheese on my bunless burger with some leftover frittata from breakfast, followed by a scoop of Three Twins Salted Caramel ice cream and a couple squares of Nestle Damak, a high quality milk chocolate and pistachio bar made without soy lecithin. Everything tasted fine, but the ice cream and chocolate were underwhelming - not special or delicious enough to meet the first "Food Freedom Forever" criterion.

I didn't experience any digestive disturbances or upset stomach, and had no problems with joint pain or noticeable inflammation. My mood remained fine. As I noted with the Slow Roll Reintroductions, dairy products don't don't seem to be problematic but don't thrill me anymore, so I will continue to pass them by.

 

Next reintroduction: Gluten grains on Friday, October 14.

 

[W. Eric Rau]

Our gluten grains reintroduction took place on Friday, October 14. The only adverse effects I experienced were from combinations of gluten and sugar.

For breakfast, I had a compliant meal with a small piece of homemade banana bread that my husband had received from a coworker.  I brought donuts to work from Young Donuts, one of Tucson's best donut shops. Mid-morning, I had one of the donuts, a cake donut with orange-flavored glaze. It was delicious for the first 3/4 of the donut, but them tasted overwhelmingly rich and sweet. I should have thrown away the remaining 1/4, but I finished it. Mistake.

I felt sick to my stomach and sluggish and out of it, to the point at which I cancelled going to lunch with coworkers to an excellent restaurant to celebrate a big milestone for our intern. I felt too ill to eat lunch until 2:30, more than four hours after the donut, when I had a can of V8 juice and a turkey Epic bar from my office stash.

I had dinner at Welcome Diner, a wonderful new southern-style diner that recently opened. I had macaroni and a "Koko" sandwich, which is fried chicken breast on a biscuit with tomato, arugula, and a housemade chipotle ranch dressing. The food was delicious and I had no problems with the gluten grains in it. The problem came from the dessert I ate later.

I was too full from dinner to eat dessert there, but I'd heard such good things about the diner's desserts that I decided to take something home for later. Mistake. I got a piece of their Lemon Chess Pie with blackberry sage compote and pistachio brittle crumble, which several friends have loved. I took it home and, while my husband was at a meeting and get-together, ate it by myself at 8:00, two hours after I left the diner. I really loved the blackberry sage compote, but thought the Lemon Chess Pie was much to sweet and rich for my tastes (which have changed significantly since the end of May over our first Whole30, then two months of very slow Slow Roll Reintroductions, then our second Whole30 and a Fast Track reintro) and the pistachio brittle crumble was downright sickening. I wish I could say that I successfully employed Melissa Hartwig's "one bite rule" but I did not. My brain said "I'm hating this, but I paid $6.00 for this piece of pie and I'm not going to throw it away!" So I ate the whole thing. It made me feel ill and nauseated and tired. I tried to go to sleep at 9:00, but still felt sick to my stomach and woozy. My husband returned home to find me throwing up in the bathroom, so I ended up wasting the $6.00 cost of the pie anyway, plus suffered the unpleasantness it caused me, which I could have spared myself if I had thrown it way. Lesson learned, I hope...

We are done with our Fast Track Reintroduction following our second Whole30 and I have finished reading "Food Freedom Forever," so I scheduled two fully compliant days on Saturday and Sunday to reset us following our gluten day before we take the training wheels off on Monday, October 17 and start working our Food Freedom Forever program for life!

[W. Eric Rau]

Almost a week has past since we started working our Food Freedom Forever program, and it has gone very well. I have stuck pretty closely to Whole30 compliance each day and am still feeling great, but have had tortilla chips on a couple of occasions, and sour cream and butter on a baked potato paired with a bunless cheeseburger when we went out for dinner on Wednesday night.  On Friday, lunching at a favorite cafe, I had a steak salad that included shaved parmesan, crispy (i.e., gluten) smoked onions, and creamy shallot dressing. It was amazing and delicious. No problems physically or emotionally with any of this week's choices, and no feelings of guilt.

Yesterday (Saturday, October 22) was probably my most significant off-plan eating day. For breakfast, I had plain Greek yogurt with blackberries, fresh pineapple, and a dollop of apricot Simply Fruit (no sugars added) jam. Normally, I have vegetables, protein (usually beef), and avocados or another healthy fat - my two Whole30s and the long reintros have made that type of Meal 1 my new normal, unlike the bagels and cream cheese or McDonald's drive thru Sausage McMuffin and hash browns that I literally ate every day pre-our first Whole30 in June.

Although my yogurt and fruit breakfast yesterday tasted great, it wasn't very filling - my usual breakfast keeps me very satisfied until lunchtime, and the yogurt did not. When I got my haircut at 11:00, my stylist gave me two homemade cookies that his girlfriend had just baked, one peanut butter and one crispy butterscotch. Although I would have preferred them not to have sugar sprinkled on top, which was unnecessary and too sweet for my tastes now, the cookies themselves were delicious, not overly sweet, and didn't make me feel bad physically or emotionally. I was a little concerned about awakening my Sugar Dragon because after eating the second cookie (the crispy butterscotch one), I thought "I'd really like another one of those!" But I didn't have one - after I left the salon, I got some bottles of water to drink, went shopping, and had a late lunch at 1:00.

I ate at Poco & Mom's Cantina, a New Mexico-style Mexican restaurant that my husband and I love, and enjoyed my late lunch immensely. I had tortilla chips and salsa, Christmas style (with both smoky red chile and hot green chile sauces) green chile ground beef flat enchiladas made with blue corn tortillas and topped with melted cheese, and sides of home fried potatoes and calabacitas (cooked zucchini, corn, onion, and tomatoes) instead of refried beans and rice. No ill effects and no guilt.

Our neighborhood had its annual Neighborhood Watch organizational meeting and Chili Cook Off in the evening from 5:00 to 7:00. My husband made a green chile chicken and white cannellini bean chili that earned him a gift card for Honorable Mention. I sampled small tastes of about 12 different chilis - beef, chicken, sausage, and vegetarian were all represented - and had small pieces of various cornbreads (also part of the competition) and a very small piece of lemon loaf cake for dessert - the cake itself was fine, but its glaze on top was way too sweet. I determined during our Slow Roll Reintroduction of beans and legumes last July that beans are NOT my friends and I had not eaten them since, but this event was special enough to make an exception, and I must say that every entrant in the contest was at least good, and some were excellent, so my taste buds enjoyed the experience even though my gut did not.

At 8:30, we went to a friend's Early Witching Hour party (basically, celebrating Halloween a week early) and I had a few cocktail weenies in barbecue sauce, meatballs, and pieces cheese on crackers - basically a small party plate of non-compliant food. I enjoyed them all. I also took two Halloween Oreo-type cookies on my plate. I tried the chocolate part of one, but didn't care for it, so I left the frosted half of it and the second cookie on my plate - getting a bit better at employing the "one bite rule," though I'm still very much a work in progress!

I had lots of digestive discomfort after going to bed (as did my husband, who had the same reaction to beans and legumes as I did when we did our Slow Roll reintros) and actually woke in the night from the discomfort and had to go into the bathroom in the middle of the night to pass a tremendous amount of gas - I felt much better and had much less abdominal rumbling after that and slept fine after that.

I don't regret anything I ate yesterday, but it's definitely not how I prefer to eat anymore and I could feel the difference in my body at the end of the day. Going back to full compliance for the next few days to reset myself - today's breakfast is a grass fed ground beef batty with homemade Melissa Joulwan "Well Fed"-recipe mayonnaise and stone ground mustard, green beans with ghee and a yummy Penzey's seasoning, sliced tomato with avocado oil and seasoning, and a sliced avocado.

Food Freedom Forever!