Is this what it feels like?

[Cadence]

I stopped my Whole30 at Day 21ish because I realized at day 20 that I hadn't been following the guidelines as strictly as I thought I was (eating bread at church each week for religious purposes - something I didn't even think about while on the program). That wasn't something I was willing to give up, so I loosened up my Whole30 restraints a bit. I tried a piece of fresh organic Galician cow's cheese a few days ago and it tasted heavenly. Then I went really crazy last night at a pizza party and had a couple pieces of pizza. Other than that, I've maintained a "clean" diet. I did fine after that small piece of cheese, but we're going on 24 hours after the pizza and I feel completely wiped out! Last night I barely made it to my bed I was so tired - like I had taken a prescription pain reliever or mega-dose of Nyquil. If this is what eating refined flour feels like now, no thank you!! Would whole grains have the same effect?

On another note, although I didn't finish the Whole30, I'm amazed at the results after just three weeks! I thought I would be so anxious to eat the "forbidden" foods again. But I'm not! I realized that I missed the idea of certain foods, but not the foods themselves. I'm a life-long popcorn eater (I could live on the stuff) and before and during Whole20 I had such a hard time passing it up. Now I don't even want it. The same goes for Greek yogurt and (gasp) dark chocolate! My relationship with food has completely changed. So I would definitely say the program was a success for me!

[oishi]

iz may be the gluten in the flour (and yes whole.grain will have the same effect) or lactose intolerance... the only way to figure that out: start over, make a clean 30, and then slowly reintroduce foods one by one. (although I would stay off anything with gluten / grains anyway).

[Cadence]

That's the problem. I can't/won't do a completely clean Whole30. But like I said, I've taken good things away nonetheless

[Renee Lee]

There isn't a consensus among the paleo folks about this, but I personally think that (barring serious metabolic issues), white refined grains are "less bad" than whole grains. A lot of the problematic proteins are concentrated in the protective covering of the grain, which is removed in the refining process, so whole grains are worse in that perspective. Most of the folks coming to the whole30 do NOT need an otherwise useless calorie bomb in their diet, so it's definitely discouraged...but that's my opinion.