Help with a truncated/modified Reintroduction period

[mek402]

Hey all. R1D15 here. Been a crazy journey so far but I'm proud to have made it to the halfway point.

My reintroduction period is landing at a weird time. I'm going to have 6-7 days after my R1D30 until I'm going away for 2-3 days with my girlfriend for her 30th birthday. I won't have the ability to cook nor will I have the desire as we're going to be celebrating her, and I will probably want to eat whatever to enjoy the little getaway. 

How can I optimize that 6-7 days for reintroduction, and then if I eat normally (or even gluttonously...) for those 2-3 days, does that destroy the reintroduction period or can I keep reintroducing when I'm back from the mini-trip? 

Some guidance would be awesome. Thank you!

[Rebecca001]

Don’t know what the official guidance would be but I’d say you’ve got 3 options: 1) think about what you might be most likely to eat during that time away (eg bread, dairy,sugar,  alcohol?) and reintroduce the key ones of those to see how you are; at least you’ll be prepared that eg, beer will give you stomach ache 

or: continue your w30 til you leave and accept you’ll have a few days hiatus and then just return to it as soon as you get home, do a week or more to reset, then do your reintroductions? 
 

Or, third option, which is ‘choose your poison’ and pick your one thing you’re going to have (eg. For me it would prob be alcohol) and try to stick as best you can to W30 while you’re away. That hugely depends on where you are going and what you’ll be doing. 
 

 

[mek402]

On 2/26/2021 at 2:56 PM, Rebecca001 said:

Don’t know what the official guidance would be but I’d say you’ve got 3 options: 1) think about what you might be most likely to eat during that time away (eg bread, dairy,sugar,  alcohol?) and reintroduce the key ones of those to see how you are; at least you’ll be prepared that eg, beer will give you stomach ache 

or: continue your w30 til you leave and accept you’ll have a few days hiatus and then just return to it as soon as you get home, do a week or more to reset, then do your reintroductions? 
 

Or, third option, which is ‘choose your poison’ and pick your one thing you’re going to have (eg. For me it would prob be alcohol) and try to stick as best you can to W30 while you’re away. That hugely depends on where you are going and what you’ll be doing. 
 

 

 

Thank you!! I'd probably do the first one... I'm just not clear about how long to spend on each food. And once I "reintroduce" something, does it stay in my diet or do I reintroduce one at a time? 

 

Is it possible to keep with reintroduction after a few days going off?

[Rebecca001]

I think you won’t really have enough time for reintro if you only have 6 days. You’d ideally introduce the food on eg. Day 31 then see how it affects you for two days, then not eat it again while you’re introducing other things. So eg. You try dairy all day on day 31, then give it til at least day 33 to eat something else but don’t eat dairy again until you’ve finished all the groups. 

personally I’d do option 3 (or option 4 which is go away on your break and not break your w30 at all?) - but I think realistically you won’t manage to reintroduce anything properly. It really depends on your reasons for doing this as well. If you think you’re affected physically by gluten or dairy, would you want to risk that spoiling your holiday? Because you could find that if you go completely off piste for the 2-3 days you are right back where you started and you won’t know what’s caused it. For me I know that I can replace pretty much any food, but alcohol would make or break my holiday so I’d stick to W30 food (and yes, be that fussy eater in restaurants) but allow a glass of wine or two. 
 

it’s a tricky situation isn’t it? Maybe read around the subject a bit on the forum and online; I think you have to exercise your ‘choose your hard’ muscle a bit as well. What’s harder? Going away for the weekend and not eating dessert, or going away for the weekend in bloated digestive agony because you ate dessert? And also maybe read the lit about family and friends; is your not eating x,y,z going to negatively impact your girlfriend’s weekend, and if so how will you deal with that? 
 

and as far as I know you always Start reintroduction from a place of reset, as in you should always do at least a few days straight W30 before any reintro. If you had effects from a food that lasted more than a day or two, you keep W30 until all the effects are gone before trying the next thing. 
 

maybe @SugarcubeOD knows about more on this? 

[SugarcubeOD]

10 hours ago, Rebecca001 said:

I think you won’t really have enough time for reintro if you only have 6 days. You’d ideally introduce the food on eg. Day 31 then see how it affects you for two days, then not eat it again while you’re introducing other things. So eg. You try dairy all day on day 31, then give it til at least day 33 to eat something else but don’t eat dairy again until you’ve finished all the groups. 

personally I’d do option 3 (or option 4 which is go away on your break and not break your w30 at all?) - but I think realistically you won’t manage to reintroduce anything properly. It really depends on your reasons for doing this as well. If you think you’re affected physically by gluten or dairy, would you want to risk that spoiling your holiday? Because you could find that if you go completely off piste for the 2-3 days you are right back where you started and you won’t know what’s caused it. For me I know that I can replace pretty much any food, but alcohol would make or break my holiday so I’d stick to W30 food (and yes, be that fussy eater in restaurants) but allow a glass of wine or two. 
 

it’s a tricky situation isn’t it? Maybe read around the subject a bit on the forum and online; I think you have to exercise your ‘choose your hard’ muscle a bit as well. What’s harder? Going away for the weekend and not eating dessert, or going away for the weekend in bloated digestive agony because you ate dessert? And also maybe read the lit about family and friends; is your not eating x,y,z going to negatively impact your girlfriend’s weekend, and if so how will you deal with that? 
 

and as far as I know you always Start reintroduction from a place of reset, as in you should always do at least a few days straight W30 before any reintro. If you had effects from a food that lasted more than a day or two, you keep W30 until all the effects are gone before trying the next thing. 
 

maybe @SugarcubeOD knows about more on this? 

You're dead on @Rebecca001. @mek402- if you only have the 6 days, I would pick whatever item two items you think you will not be able to avoid and then test them.  Eat one item (dairy?) for a day, stop for a couple days till you feel as good as you felt before you ate it and then do the second one. I get that you don't want to be worrying about this when you're celebrating your friend but try and think about this in the big picture - if for instance you found out that dairy gives you the runs and affects your sleep, when you go to your friend's birthday celebration next year, are you going to eat dairy just because you're celebrating another person and you don't want to be bothered to consider your own context?  I'd hazard no, you would not. I don't think you have to cook in order to manage your intake - lots of restaurants now have great options and if you know where you're going and where you're eating at then do some advance leg work, look at the menu online, call the restaurant during a non busy time and discuss options with them.  But if you didn't test gluten for instance, then don't eat the bread at the table, don't order pasta for your meal, don't eat cake for dessert etc.... If everyone is going for ice cream and you don't want to eat that then you don't have to - again, don't forget that once you do reintroductions, you're going to use that information to inform how you eat and there may be somethings that you don't consume... start owning that now  

[mek402]

Thanks for all your thoughtful responses. Just to clarify, I don't feel any peer pressure to eat freely -- it's just after 30 days of W30, I'm going to want to. I love food, it's one of my biggest passions in life. I've had some hard-to-place stomach pain for the past year or so that I can't figure out what causes it, usually after eating dinner, and that's what prompted me to do Whole30. 

I'm wrangling with the idea of trying to stay whole30 on this trip, which would really bum me out, but I guess my question is: if I reintroduce for a week, properly, and do go "off the rails" for a few days, when I return home, does that just negate my whole 30 and would reintroduction be a total waste? Couldn't I just come home, do w30 for two days, and then reintroduce again? I'm confused at how fast the benefits disappear of the process.

[Rebecca001]

It’s more about knowing what you’re sensitive to, if anything. So you do W30, then gently and gradually reintroduce each key food until you build up a picture of your food tolerances and intolerances. You’ll have some ‘never’ foods, some ‘sometimes’ foods and some ‘free to eat’ foods. You introduce, you monitor the effects and the whole time you consciously steer the process. If you do your W30 (W36/37?) then go away and eat bread, dairy, drink wine and beer, eat desserts, etc you know you’ll feel it, and you don’t have a clue what it is that’s causing it. So when you get Hone if you want to get to day 30 again, you’ll need to be 100% strict W30 again until you are back to that position where you can begin the reintroductions properly. That might be 7/10/30 days- who knows? 
 

there’s no law that says you can’t go on a total food bender for 3 days; Melissa urban isn’t going to hunt you down! But I’d go fully prepared for coming home and being back on it. I also would still operate an ‘on plan when I can’ mentality, so yeah if you go to an Italian restaurant, you don’t have to have pizza- you could have chicken and salad. You don’t have to have dessert. If there is something compliant available, have it. 
 

the thing that stands out for me from your post is that you ‘know’ you’ll have these foods, and you ‘know’ you’re going to want them. I’d do a bit of thinking about that before you travel maybe, because if you tell yourself you wont enjoy your break without them, then you will automatically make it harder for yourself. 
 

[Kimba341]

One thing to remember, you have eaten cleanly for a month.   The first time that my husband and I had spaghetti (sauce and everything else compliant) after W30, he was on the pot for 2 days and I just felt bloated, gassy, and yucky.   I would be super careful what you ate while you were with your girlfriend.   If you are miserable, you aren't going to have or be much fun anyway.

 

For me, in my area, I can normally find something to eat that's compliant except for added sugar (and/or MSG)   Those are the two toughest things for me to avoid when I'm out.

 

Good luck!

[doubledee]

How did it work out mek402? I just read this thread because I had a similar question about an interrupted reintroduction and I was curious how it all panned out for you. Were you able to do a proper reintro of two foods before your trip? And then how did you feel after living it up with your friends for a few days? Hope it was a blast!