I only want to reintroduce wine! Is this ok?

[mavsmom]

Hello! I've just completed my first ever Whole30 and I feel amazing. I truly don't miss any foods, and don't really have the desire to reintroduce any (yet). The only thing I miss is red wine! I would like to stay Whole30 compliant food-wise while reintroducing red wine slowly - thinking a glass while cooking dinner tonight, and over the weekend, and then back to no wine at all next week. Then reintro for foods. If I do this though, am I just completely sabotaging my reintro? I don't know if this makes a difference, but my sugar dragon doesn't feed off of sweet sugary foods, but it rages for savory carbs (pasta, rice, potato chips). Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[ladyshanny]

You're not necessarily sabotaging your reintro by doing this.................if this is what you do. Anecdotally though, almost every single person on the forum that decided to "just reintroduce wine" has crashed and burned their reintro mere hours or days later. Alcohol can cause you to make funny choices and often opens the floodgates to "eat whatever, start again later". Just my experience in my years on the forum. Every time I see someone say that wine is their first and/or only reintro, I cringe. Sorry. 

[AnitaC]

9 hours ago, mavsmom said:

Hello! I've just completed my first ever Whole30 and I feel amazing. I truly don't miss any foods, and don't really have the desire to reintroduce any (yet). The only thing I miss is red wine! I would like to stay Whole30 compliant food-wise while reintroducing red wine slowly - thinking a glass while cooking dinner tonight, and over the weekend, and then back to no wine at all next week. Then reintro for foods. If I do this though, am I just completely sabotaging my reintro? I don't know if this makes a difference, but my sugar dragon doesn't feed off of sweet sugary foods, but it rages for savory carbs (pasta, rice, potato chips). Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Girl, I hear you. I cannot wait for a glass of wine (day 28). I gave up smoking years ago because I didn't want that disgusting habit in my life but there is no scenario I can imagine where I'll give up red wine for the rest of my life. I can't wait to reintroduce it but I'm scared because too much wine leads me to make a giant bowl of pasta or stuff my face with salty chips. I was thinking of eating compliantly all day and then I can have wine because I'll be full and won't be tempted to inhale every salty, greasy, carby thing I can find. That might be naive and the veterans of w30 and mods might be chuckling at me.

My questions to you are: Do you think you can be strong if those are your triggers? Can you stop at just the one glass while cooking? (Not calling you an alcoholic, I am projecting because I know I couldn't stop as I'd want one with dinner also).

I miss having a glass of wine while cooking.

[TJHigh]

I’m currently reintroducing and in spite of the dire warnings, yes, I’m starting with wine.  Here’s what is working for me- buy half bottles! They provide a nice, natural stopping point.  You still need to be very vigilant that the two-ish glasses don’t trigger cravings and resulting weakened willpower, but for me, part of what led me to drinking too much was the thought of “wasting” the rest of the bottle (wouldn’t want that, better finish it!)

Good luck!

[AnitaC]

I buy those too!!!!!! Same reasoning.

[mavsmom]

Thank you all for your honest replies! I went for it tonight and sipped a half-ish glass while cooking, then another half while eating. I made a fully compliant whole30 dish by Paleo Gourmet. The combo was glorious but I felt so good about the progress I’ve made over the last 30 days that I didn’t feel I needed any more wine than that. I’m drinking ginger tea now before bed! I love the idea of buying the smaller half bottles as a way to curb temptation. Thank you for that suggestion, I wil absolutely do this in the future as a safeguard.

[purplepadres]

I also did wine as my first reintro. I think it depends on your context, etc. This was my 4th Whole30. I eat mostly Whole30/paleo year-round, and am pretty disciplined, but like most people, too many "extras" made their way into my diet between Halloween and the new year. I had two glasses of wine with dinner, as did my partner, and we had no problem stopping, and no cravings to add anything else non-compliant either.

[hotwheels]

I am glad I'm not the only one in this boat. I had a half glass yesterday while making dinner and a glass with dinner. Luckily, there were 3 of us drinking and there was no more to be had because I am pretty sure I would have had more. I also noticed that it made me crave dessert, which I had not wanted for a few weeks, and I did not cave. Big eye opener for me. It was a nice evening, but I think I will go back to no alcohol for the next few weeks and do a normal reintroduction of other foods before I try alcohol again. Good luck to all of us on this journey!

[tifferlee]

I would think this totally depends on your goals. If you want to have the knowledge of how different food can impact you, if at all, then a complete reintroduction would be super helpful information for you.

[dianne m]

When I see above people talking about drinking while making dinner, that seems dangerous to me.  I learned years ago that one of the reasons you should always drink with food, is that you will feel hungry before you are actually hungry, and will possibly eat more.  

[hotwheels]

1 hour ago, dianne m said:

When I see above people talking about drinking while making dinner, that seems dangerous to me.  I learned years ago that one of the reasons you should always drink with food, is that you will feel hungry before you are actually hungry, and will possibly eat more.  

I think this is a possibility, but it is so nice to have some while cooking! I planned my wine reintro with a fully compliant meal, and I had my first 1/2 glass of wine while cooking, and because I was already hungry (it was dinnertime after all), I don't think I ate any more than I usually would have, but even if I had, it was all compliant and I don't think a few more bites of veggies or protein would have been that bad, not like a bowl of chips and salsa or chicken tenders and fries. I think if you are careful and plan well, you can safely reintro wine if that suits you. But I also agree with the recommend doing a reinto of the other stuff too, because this is your chance to test with a clean slate.  

[arrowbirth127]

I think this thread is a bit older but I just came across it....I'm on Day 10 of my second W30 and already thinking about my first W30 reintro. I did a *horrible* job at reintro last time and went out for my BFF's bday on day 35 and drank wayyy too many spikey seltzer waters (sparkling water with alcohol in them), and had a MASSIVE anxiety attack the next day, vomiting and all, and the anxiety lasted on and off for days. It was so bad I had to pull over (I was driving on 95) and get a hotel overnight instead of driving 90 minutes home. Awful all around. 

Anyhow...I'm toying with the idea of not drinking permanently after this W30, but I'm wondering if this (or something similar) happened to anyone else? I plan on doing a slow roll reintro this time around and (if I do choose to) add alcohol - do it at the very end of reintro and see how I do, (and not have 6+ drinks), yikes. As others have mentioned, a night like that pre W30 would not have been out of the norm for me but after W30 I was shocked to see how badly the alcohol consumption affected me. TIA!

ps...I am a pretty clean paleo eater all of the time and my "Sugar Dragon" is really a "wine/spiked seltzer/vodka dragon", on the weekends. Once I have a drink, I crave more and generally lose my appetite. I blame it on having four young kiddos and a stressful job but have realized there's obviously way more to it than that.