No cravings, but struggling with amount of meat

[Drebird]

Pescatarian here. The Whole30 has me going from fish once a week to almost every meal. Yuck! Talk about being aware of signals from your body! Mine has been telling me loud and clear to lay off the fish & eggs. I cut back to having eggs once a day, and fish once a day or every other day.  I feel MUCH better, but not surprisingly, I'm hungry in between meals and leaning on nuts. I've read the forums & guidelines so I know this is not ideal. I've also read about the Whole30 for vegetarians. Here's my dilemma: I feel great & have no cravings to speak of. I don't really want to bring in dairy or soy (the vegwhole30 route) as dairy is one of the things I suspect has been causing me problems. Reducing the animal proteins to one  or two a day at most, and eating 4 smaller compliant meals/day feels SO much better. I'm looking for support for managing a Whole30 that is compliant, but with a lot less meat/eggs. I'm on Day 7. No cravings, headaches, or crabbiness so far. Just struggling with so much meat. 

[ladyshanny]

You can technically do a Whole30 by eating bananas and dates for every meal for 30 days, washed down with a fruit smoothy.  You will not get the best results this way.

We will, of course, support whatever you decide to do, but please be aware that most of the troubleshooting that we do encourages people to attempt to use the meal template for every meal and we help tweak from there. It will be nigh impossible to troubleshoot lethargy, energy, headaches, emotions, mood swings etc without telling you that you are under eating.  It will be even more difficult to troubleshoot digestive issues if you come across them without pointing out that excessive nut consumption will have you running for the toilet eighteen times a day.

So yes, we will support whatever you decide to do, providing that it remains Whole30 compliant. Just be aware that there may be a limited amount of help that we can give you, knowing you are choosing not to eat as much food as you should be and in the combinations that are optimal.

If you want to try and increase your consumption of animal proteins we can probably give you some tips and ideas on how to ease that transition. If you don't want to do that, that's fine too. 

What signals are you getting from your body telling you to avoid eating protein?

[Drebird]

Thank you for your swift reply! So in the first couple of days  when I was following the template in terms of meat proteins, I felt heavy, sluggish, and generally gross after eating, and it was difficult to finish a meal.  ( My normal eating habits before W30 were smaller, lighter meals, more frequently throughout the day.) I'm consuming a lot of food, and I don't feel deprived at all, just wanting one more small meal in the day.  In fact, I feel great, and am looking forward to reintroduction to identify what wasn't working before.  I guess where I'm stumped is that if the big picture is to eat with more awareness, and listen to our bodies, my body is telling me it doesn't want as much meat as the program advises, but I don't want to set myself up for pitfalls in the coming weeks.  Is it possible that a Whole30 with less meat could be just as beneficial, and achieve the same goals? And have others been successful in doing so? Or am I in some Day 7 delusion? Thanks!

[ladyshanny]

I think where you might be tripped up is that you might be confusing poor digestion with "intolerance". For example, many people, when they eat something like wheat or dairy after a long period of not eating it, have an intolerance to digesting it. This is more an issue of the gut not tolerating the item and trying to rid itself of an irritant. 

Animal protein, on the other hand, can also be hard to digest by people who have not often been consuming it but it's because of the lack of appropriate gut bacteria that have died off due to lack of their food. This can cause these heavy, sluggish feelings and make it feel like you aren't digesting...........because you aren't. Humans are omnivores so unless you have an actual allergy to a certain animal protein, your body actually is meant to digest it. You are just missing the correct gut bacteria.

Is Whole30 without adequate food as beneficial as a Whole30 that follows all the rules and recommendations? No, it couldn't be.  Is it more beneficial than doritos and red bull? Probably yes.  Will you achieve the elimination/reintroduction portion of Whole30 without eating to the template? Yes, if you don't eat non-compliant items, you will probably be able to do a reasonable reintroduction (bearing in mind digestive issues from over consumption of nuts and general energy issues from under consumption of energy).

Although you may be feeling fine now, undereating to this degree for a continued period of time is going to wreak havoc with your hormones, slow your metabolism and mess with your moods, sleep, headaches etc. 

If you are open to it, I would recommend you get on board with a digestive enzyme to help your gut repopulate with the correct bacteria for an omnivorous diet.  This will aid in your digestive woes. You could also try some probiotics such as kombucha, sauerkraut (the raw/refrig kind, not shelf stable) or compliant kimchi.