Exhausted and I don’t know why

[sholmes]

Hi everyone,

This question is more about food freedom after finishing a W30. During my W30s, I’ve always felt amazing but typically, I slide back into old ways. After my last W30, I continued to keep the foods out that upset my system but I did add back in rice and popcorn as it didn’t seem to have any ill-effects in reintro. I’m now a couple of weeks in my food freedom and I’m feeling pretty exhausted if I’m honest. I’m not eating rice or corn every day so I’m not sure it’s that. I’m wondering if it’s because I’ve moved off the meal template and, maybe, my body doesn’t have enough fat or carbs to give me energy? Has anyone else found this?

I guess my other question is, when you add foods back in your plan, should you still be following the meal template and what serving size should we be aiming for with the “added” foods.

Thanks for the help in advance!

[Kay47]

Hey Sholmes,

There are so many factors in Food Freedom and life in general that could cause exhaustion. Stress or lack of consistent sleep could contribute. Moving off the meal template, not eating enough food or enough fat/carbs could also contribute. You could try going back to the structure of the meal template for three meals a day to see if that helps. If you've stopped reading labels, you might also be unknowingly consuming non-Whole30 compatible ingredients. Maybe there's maltodextrin (aka sugar) in your popcorn or soybean oil in your cashews. Lastly, I find that quantity/frequency of non-Whole30 foods affects me. For example, I can tolerate rice for 2 or 3 days. But my stomach is affected if I eat rice every day for a week. So what "serving size" of the added/reintroduction foods is personalized to how much you can have before you see negative effects. If you're still exhausted when back on the meal template and checking food labels for sneaky non-compatible ingredients, you can always return to a reset. Maybe a 3, 5, or 7 day reset would be enough to restore your energy. Hope this helps!

Kay