Eating so much and so badly 5 days after Whole 30

[Mvardama13]

Hi,

5 days ago was my first day off of Whole 30 and I have eaten so much and so badly everyday since then, worse then I did even pre-Whole 30. I am talking almost two pizzas, 3 cupcakes, cookies, 6 glasses of wine.

I have 14% body fat and am not overweight. Pre Whole 30 I was 16% body fat and not overweight. I drink a lot of wine usually, and eat a lot of sugar. I love food.

I am really stressed that after doing Whole 30 I am not going to be able to control my eating habits and eat like I have been for the past five days and gain a ton of weight and lose control of my relationship with food.

I feel like crying I feel so stressed out and my pants are tight!!

[MeadowLily]

That's alot of worries only 5 days out but it is actually very common. Many have completed a Whole30 and fallen back into some variation of what you're doing. But it will level out as you think about your choices and consequences going forward. You didn't say how long your Whole 30 lasted but think of your very next meal as your 'reset'. Don't wait for another day or two to pass you by. Resume your position of being in charge. Turn around and go back to the Template, template, template. Follow through with a Reintro Phase and move forward thoughtfully and slowly.

[Mvardama13]

I lasted 28 days

[MeadowLily]

You choose, you decide if you want to start over. Only you would know if starting over would cause more angst over food.  If so, you may want to take a break until you feel comfortable with the process.  Whatever you choose, this is a judgment free zone.   

[Mvardama13]

I don't feel like I should restart now. I also am not beating myself up for not completing the 30 days, and resent the negative feedback (not from you) for "only" doing 28 days. I feel horrible about my eating and myself right now, though, apart from Whole30.

[MeadowLily]

No way would I judge anyone for completing 28 days or 128 days or 328 days. If I would point a finger at anyone, I would have 4 pointing back at myself. You have to do what's best for you.

The greatest lesson that I've learned is that you have to declare a truce with your body. I've only completed one round of Whole 30 in 4 years. I won't do another one because I had to draw a line in the sand, declare that truce and completely surrender.  That's when I turned my life around from a lifetime of binge eating and dieting and I had to reach out for some help. 

[kirbz]

I can relate and I'm sorry you're going through this. I had such high hopes of my Whole30 establishing new, lifelong eating habits.  But it didn't. I reverted back to old ways after just a few weeks.

This may seem obvious but it wasn't to me. Did you have a clear picture in your head of what you want your long-term eating to look like? Because I didn't for a long time and I think that made things more difficult. I just thought Whole30 would eliminate my cravings and then I would just eat healthy forever after that. But I didn't define what that looked like for myself. Whole30 is not intended to be sustainable long-term. No one is expected to live this way forever.

So, maybe that would help? Whole30 can help you establish good habits, reduce or eliminate cravings, and figure out what things bother you. But you still might want to have a vision of what your long-term plan looks like. 

Hopefully that helps! Don't beat yourself up too bad. This is an experiment and a learning process. That's part of what I love about it so much. So keep learning and keep experimenting! You'll land somewhere great eventually! 

[MeadowLily]

The W30 did help me see myself. I had a group leader who had a very good read on everyone in his group. He really cared, reached through the screen, tapped us on the shoulder and said, you've got to care about yourself. There was something extra special about that group, we all felt it and we still talk about it. I now know what that special factor was.  It kept me going for a long, long time. It was a time to remember. There's much more I'd like to tell you but we simply haven't got the time. Oooo, and there was a special moderator who carried us through with that same quality and factor. Never going to forget either one of those men.  

[Mvardama13]

Thanks for all the support. I’m still really stressed. What if  I’ve lost my ability to control myself around food and wine/alcohol? What if I can’t ever indulge in moderation like I was able to dobefore whole 30? My skirt doesn’t fit anymore and I’m really upset.

[SugarcubeOD]

On 2/6/2018 at 8:58 AM, Mvardama13 said:

I don't feel like I should restart now. I also am not beating myself up for not completing the 30 days, and resent the negative feedback (not from you) for "only" doing 28 days. I feel horrible about my eating and myself right now, though, apart from Whole30.

Gosh, sorry to hear that you're feeling so badly.  I read through this thread and I don't think anyone gave you ANY negative feedback for only doing 28 days... we're really not here to shame people so if there's a specific post somewhere that you think was uncalled for, feel free to report it and we'll take a look.

1 hour ago, Mvardama13 said:

Thanks for all the support. I’m still really stressed. What if  I’ve lost my ability to control myself around food and wine/alcohol? What if I can’t ever indulge in moderation like I was able to dobefore whole 30? My skirt doesn’t fit anymore and I’m really upset.

You haven't lost anything... this happens to the best of people.  Did you do reintroductions?  If not, that's quite a key here because you end up with data on your own body that helps you make decisions about ice cream and cookies and wine.  If you knew that ice cream makes you super itchy and bloated then next time you feel out of control, you might be able to call on that piece of data and stop before you eat it.

In the meantime, I would just do the next right thing... make your next meal match the template, forgive yourself (because you did nothing wrong) and then move on and keep trying.  Changing your relationship with food is not a one and done type deal, it takes work, it takes some starts and stops and ups and downs... you can get there tho!