Feeling terrible on whole30 - day 29.

[Getwell]

Hello. I would like to share my experience with Whole30 and see if anyone is feeling the same as me.

I have been compliant, however I have had a smoothie  (with added fats) sometimes because I've been too sick to eat. I mostly had them in the first 2 weeks then stopped. Then I had one about 2 days ago as I was ill and could barely eat. 

I started whole30 as I have very severe fatigue and issues with dizziness and motion sickness. I had no digestive issues other than little episodes of gas like anyone, and I tended towards being a little constipated at times. 

Since day 4 of whole30, my digestion has been a mess and it gets worse and worse. The last few days have been 24 hour diarrhoea and stabbing abdominal pain like trapped gas. The diarrhea doesn't relieve it. Sometimes I go 5x a day. 

Also as far as my symptoms I started whole30 for, they are even worse. I am so exhausted I cry every single day and feel like my life will never regain any normality. I can barely go for a walk and work is torture. I was overweigjt but fairly fit before whole30 and could walk and jog. But I did have long term fatigue but I didn't feel like I was dying like this. I have been tested for lots of things and my iron dropped a bit and my thyroid stimulating hormone is a bit low indicating my thyroid is over functioning, but my thyroid hormone levels are fine and negative autoantibodies. I am seeing my GP, a naturopath, acupuncture, psychologist. Before this I had never even paid for a massage, but I feel I am having an extreme health crisis. I'm contemplating quitting my job and not getting out of bed anymore. I have no idea what is happening to me. The digestive issues have been the cherry on top and I fear they won't stop when I stop whole30. I've never had digestive problems like this. 

As I said, my meals have not been always perfect template (smoothies, sometimes skipping meals) as I'm so ill and doing what I can to survive at this point. I also do rotating roster shift work which makes my whole life hard and is part of my fatigue issues. But I try to follow recommendations otherwise and am eating plenty of veg, appropriate protein and plenty of fat from avocado, olive oil, home made mayo. I have stopped eating ghee, nut butter 2 days ago, as I never ate nuts before, very rarely. I've stopped having eggs apart from the bit of raw egg in my mayo. I was having a lot before, but I ate a lot of eggs in my regular duet too. I still eat 3 serves of fruit instead of the recommended 2, because my tummy wants fruit and plain foods, not fatty rich foods.  

Example of my common meals  lately would be minced chicken breast and zucchini burger patty with roast potato/pumpkin, a salad and home made mayo.

Or mackerel fish with pan fried potato hash brown patties (grated white or sweet potato) and a salad with mayo and a bit of hot sauce. 

Or beef chow mein style - cooked with cabbage, carrot, curry powder, garlic etc on top of sweet potato noodles. Always compliant ingredients and seasonings. I make all my own food. I never had an issue with hot sauces, curry powder or anything lije that before and mainly eat modified versions of what I ate before. Only other thing that's increased on the diet for me is root vegetables like potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, squash and extra use of garlic/onion powder for flavour.

Whole30 has been such a bad experience, I feel like I'm having a physical breakdown. Has anyone else felt this and did you find the cause? 

[Tarrantrl]

@Getwell, I'm so sorry to hear that you're feeling this ill! Starting a new eating protocol can result in some digestive distress, especially if it's significantly different from how you were eating before. However, feeling so sick that you think you might need to quit your job seems (to me) to be way beyond the possible side effects of a whole30. It's possible that you aren't eating enough, which could definitely contribute to fatigue. I don't think that the level of digestive distress you're experiencing is expected as a whole30 side effect though. Maybe you're allergic to one of the foods included in whole30 that you weren't eating much of before? Or maybe another healthy issue has arisen independently of whole30, and it just happened to occur around the same time? I'm glad to hear that you're working with your doctor on this one. Let us know if you figure out what's going on!