Will Reintroduction send me over the edge?

[KatieK436]

I completed round 2 yesterday! Now it's time to reintroduce the foods that I feel I might want in my diet every now and then. However, I'm very nervous about this. I love the whole30 and want to stick to Paleo eating. I feel great and I want to see if I can loss more body fat. Yet I love ice cream. I love tortilla chips and salsa. I work for a candy company. Bread is meh I can leave it. There are so many things I want to enjoy but I really want to be Paleo. I'm afraid to try these foods to even see how my body reacts because what if I break down and have treats everyday? The whole30 is not about fearing food. What can I do differently during my reintroduction to enforce the habits I've made and stick to them this time around? Thanks for your advice and support! 

[barty90]

I have found that the reintroduction stage actually reinforced my self discipline! My partner finished the Whole30 with me then went right back to eat everything, no reintro. He is right back to how he ate before and feels he will just re-do a Whole30. I did the reintro properly (the fast-track one) and I found the fact that I had to go one day with non compliant foods then switch to 2 days of compliant food afterwards was VERY hard. It took a lot of discipline to switch back. But, I did it, and now I feel better for it. Mostly because eating one day of food making you "less healthy" usually didn't make me feel good. Then, in the two days I went back to Whole30, I realllllly recognized a change in how I felt (energy, mood, no heartburn, no stomach ache). This night and day feeling from having to go back and forth through all the other food groups solidified my reasoning in eating Whole30 most of the time after the program. Also, about the reactions, I found I only had one really adverse reaction, the rest of the reactions were minor. I hope you decided to try reintroduction. It's important to relax on the Whole30 rules in order for it to be sustainable long term, so the reintro lets you know which of those items your body is okay with having once in a while. Also know, if you start having treats everyday, just go back to do a Whole7 or Whole14 to get a good restart.

 

Let us know how you did and what you did!

 

Good luck!

 

[PatGLex]

The reaction to foods was one of the reasons I did the Whole 30! I had been kind of eating Whole 30-ish for a while, staying away from crackers and chips in general. And I did notice that when I had a snack bag of crackers (Cheez-Its) or pretzels (plain Rold Gold -- no fancy coatings/taste tempters), I felt lousy for an hour or two afterward! That's why I decided to do the Whole 30 -- I hadn't expected the reaction but it confirmed that I needed to find out what I could and could not eat. (I already know I am lactose intolerant -- I've had way too many instances eating ice cream / pizza / cheese and feeling poorly later . . . And I discovered on the Whole 30 that eggplant is a no-no -- I'd had reactions before but wasn't sure it was the eggplant or something else.)

 

My reintroduction starts Thursday; I'll be interested in finding out what doesn't agree with me. The big plus is that I have LOTS of menu options now that don't include the noncompliant categories.