Feeling AWFUL after cheating

[Kristanzak]

I was 12 days in to Whole30 (and feeling great!) and had a planned cheat night for Xmas drinks with my BFF. I didn’t eat off plan, but had several whiskey cocktails...and had the WORST hangover of my entire life the next day. (And this is not typical for me.) It took a full day to recover physically, and even two days later, I am not feeling quite right. Is this a normal experience? I’m used to having a headache after a night out if I don’t drink enough water, but NOT used to vomiting, the full-body death feeling, etc. 

[ShannonM816]

Going without alcohol for a while can make you more sensitive to it, though I'm not sure 12 days is long enough to notice any effect. 

It's possible there was something else in the cocktails that added to the reaction. Even sugar might have some effect, since you haven't had any for 12 days, and if there was anything else off plan in them, that could've affected things.

There's some disagreement online about gluten in whiskey, with some saying the distillation renders it gluten free, but others saying people who are particularly sensitive to gluten may still react to it. (That's assuming your whiskey was wheat, rye, or barley based, I think it can be corn-based as well which wouldn't have gluten.)

It's also possible you picked up a really badly timed stomach bug, and are suffering from a combo of that plus the alcohol.

[Kristanzak]

Thank you. I think it must have been the sugar in the cocktails, because I wasn’t drinking straight whiskey. And because I didn’t feel well, I didn’t eat much the next day, which probably made things worse. I only started feeling better today after I got some food (and some healthy fats) into me.