katyroq Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 I'm going to start my reintroduction log. My whole30 was officially over on Tuesday Feb. 5th. I was not in a hurry to begin reintroduction, but Thursday 2/7, I decided to start with grains. 2/7 made some rice in the evening and ate it. 2/8 at lunch I ate rice, and dinner included corn tortillas and rice. Throughout the day I was very hungry. No stomach issues. I ate a small amount of chocolate (compliant except for sugar) as well. And drank a cup of decaf coffee each day (after not drinking it during the whole30--I know, not smart timing). I already know that sugar and caffeine affect my anxiety, but I am not sure how small of amounts. Those really need to be separate reintroductions. 2/9 - Saturday morning I woke up early (needed to sleep in but couldn't) and was extremely anxious. I felt tension in my shoulders and could not settle my worrying mind down. Later, I celebrated chinese new year with friends. Traditional chinese dumplings are one of my favorite foods I've ever had, and I only eat them about once a year. So I ate several dumplings and a few Sun Chips. I also ate a small piece of brownie (ugh, more sugar to complicate things!). After teh big party, finally got to sleep around 1:30am, but was awake again at 4:30 having had anxious dreams. I was just generally anxious for a while before I could fall back asleep. 2/10 Today I ate a compliant breakfast. My stomach felt very upset this morning after last night's meal, but now is nothing more than a bit gassy. Lunch I did not feel like eating much because of the stomach upset, so I ate some raw vegetables. I'm really anxious. And that is making the whole reintroduction so much harder! I'm anxious about how anxious it's making me, and how restrictive my diet may have to be for the long term. I would not say that the level of my anxiety is high. It's low grade, but it is disproportional to the events going on. I needed to take a nap this afternoon to make up for all the lost sleep, but I'm too anxious. So, in the last hour or so I have gotten rather hungry (since I didn't eat much lunch), and ate a banana, almonds, and then ... SUGAR! (dark chocolate, marshmallow...). Now my stomach is very rumbly... So yeah... At this point I can't say it's grains causing the anxiety, but I'm pretty sure it's food related somehow. Seems like I still have a sugar dragon to slay. So really I need to eat clean again and see if things get better. If they do, then I need to do things more systematically. Because once I unleash the anxiety, it's hard to make good decisions. Unfortunately, I have NO food for the week (except leftover Chinese dumplings....), and the grocery store closes in 2 hours, and I am anxious as all get out so it's ridiculously overwhelming for me to think of trying to find recipes and shopping and cooking this evening. I will "buck up" and do what I need to. Because this anxiety is awful and I want to eat better and feel better. Anyone else have anxiety/food issues? I read somewhere that any drastic change in diet can cause you to be emotional or anxious/depressed. Anyone experience an initial onset of those, then with further eating of whatever, it gets better? Another question about reintro. Is it normal to have a very rumbly stomach adn general upset after adding new foods, simply because I haven't eaten them for a month? Or is it seen as a sensitivity? Everything I've added i've had stomach issues but not severe at all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpketz Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 @katyroq. Gung hay fat choy! I'm not a moderator but it sounds like mixing the re-intro foods might be making it hard to tell which ones are affecting you. As for anxiety, I started a topic back in January asking for feedback from folks who experience anxiety/depression and how Whole30 has impacted them. Here's the URL (not sure this will get you there but a search should work) http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/6400-depressionanxiety-any-whole30-successes/. This wasn't so much for me but for my 26 year-old nephew who has major anxiety issues and also some pretty powerful food addictions. He's expressed reluctance about starting a radical dietary change for fear the same reason of increasing his anxiety. It's a bit of Catch 22. I'm pretty sure changing his eating habits would help him, but just the idea of it makes him anxious. Good for you for doing Whole30 in spite of the anxiety around it! Anyway, I got several responses to the forum topic, all of which were helpful to some degree. You may find it useful. I'm on Day 2 of my re-intro, starting with dairy, and am having stomach issues as well. I'm pretty sure it's a sign that digesting cow's milk is an issue for me, maybe not a deal breaker, but something to watch. I do plan to all but eliminate dairy from my eating regimen, possibly with the exception of cultured products like yogurt and kefir, which I seem to tolerate better. Ice cream...ah ice cream...that's the potential derailer, though. That'll be a work in progress. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katyroq Posted February 10, 2013 Author Share Posted February 10, 2013 Thanks jpketz, for the link to the other thread! I was having trouble finding much myself, but that was quite helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyS Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 I take medication for my anxiety, and for the most part, when I'm eating Whole30 my medication works better. I posted that same info over on jpketz's thread as well. I do find that sugar is a huge huge problem for me with anxiety. I feel anxious, so I eat or drink something sugary (and for me that may or may not, but often does, include caffeine). That makes me feel REALLY good and energetic - not anxious - for about 30 minutes to an hour. Then I feel icky, miserable, jittery, upset, anxious, sad, and hugely self-critical. The answer? More sugar. And so the cycle continues. I have realized that the same applies to any grain - so breads, pastas, that sort of thing, give me the same feeling. It's hard to go around feeling so anxious. It will pass, and you can definitely keep telling yourself that because it is true. It will pass. I actually started my latest Whole30 a day and a half early because I just couldn't handle the anxiety anymore. It was tearing me up. You will feel better soon. Really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katyroq Posted February 11, 2013 Author Share Posted February 11, 2013 2/10 continued - dinner - veggies, leftover dumplings. The dumpling filling is just meat/veggies so I planned to eat only the filling and leave the wrapper. My roommate asked me while eating if I thought maybe all this anxiety and stomach upset was just "in my head". At that point my anxiety was just so high that it wasn't even possible to tell.... I ate the dumpling wrappers... Although I wasn't feeling as overwhelmingly anxious later in the evening, I had trouble falling asleep. 2/11 - woke up with stomach cramps, general abdominal discomfort, rumbly stomach. Anxiety levels are not terrible today. Planning to eat clean today, come home from work and make some recipes for the rest of the week! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katyroq Posted February 12, 2013 Author Share Posted February 12, 2013 2/11 continued - Compliant day *Sigh of relief* Feeling much better. I even ate dumplings without the wrapper to make sure it was the wrapper, not just something with the meat in the filling causing my stomach issues. My stomach felt fine. Anxiety is also more manageable. Cooked compliant food for the rest of the week... I'm going to have to try grains again in a more controlled way in a while. But first I've got to get through the next 2 very stressful weeks. I don't think it's a good idea to mess with things that I believe cause anxiety when I already have quite a bit of natural reasons for increased anxiety. I have not read anything about soy/legumes causing anxiety so I may reintroduce them next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krista Billows Rodriguez Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Did you miss grains? If you suspect they're harmful for your brain and you didn't really miss them during the W30 is there a reason to reintroduce them a second time? I had a return to my negative worry filled thoughts after I retroduced wheat Monday night, between that and the stomach ache, that's reason enough for me to say bye bye to gluten. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katyroq Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 Did you miss grains? If you suspect they're harmful for your brain and you didn't really miss them during the W30 is there a reason to reintroduce them a second time? I had a return to my negative worry filled thoughts after I retroduced wheat Monday night, between that and the stomach ache, that's reason enough for me to say bye bye to gluten. No I didn't really miss grains. I did miss some of the chewy textures like pasta, but I could do without bread/cake texture. I'd like to be able to at least know more precisely what effects grains have & how much is tolerable, just for the convenience in certain situations. I'm a grad student, and there's a lot of food provided at different events, so it would just be nice to know. In general, I'm with you though. Between the stomach ache and the brain stuff, I'm totally okay with gluten free... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katyroq Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 2/12 - another compliant day....well until the very end. After my dinner, I still felt hungry! I crave texture more than taste, and last night I just needed something with body to it, chewy but not crunchy. I had tried eating some nuts and raisins (which have sort of the right texture), veggies, etc. It really didn't work. I had a few dumplings leftover from chinese new year, so I decided to eat the filling out of them - cooked ground meat/veggies, so kind of the right texture. After eating the filling and still not being satisfied, I caved and ate the wrappers from 2 of the dumplings. It was a very small amount of grains, and I didn't notice any ill effects afterward. Oh, and as soon as I ate them, the cravings were gone. Strange. I'm not sure what it was.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katyroq Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 2/13 - I've been really hungry/having food craving after dinner lately. I must not be eating enough at meals. Last night I had some all-natural peanut butter for a snack. I think legumes are coming back into my diet, and I'm excited! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katyroq Posted February 15, 2013 Author Share Posted February 15, 2013 2/14 - Had peanut butter with dinner. Then had a fruit smoothie at Freshens. I opted for the "no sugar added" kind, but about an hour later, my stomach felt tight (up under my diaphragm, not really my stomach) and I was bloated and uncomfortable. Either it's the peanut butter or there was artificial sweetener in the smoothie. Really wish I knew, but it didn't even cross my mind that they would add artificial sweetener to the smoothie. I couldn't find that info anywhere online, so I might call them today, just to see. I had a bit of peanut butter this morning, and I will have some mroe at lunch (small amounts each time, so I want to make sure it "accumulates"). I'm feeling pretty bloated. From reading the forums, this has happened to others with peanut butter. Not sure about the sweetener though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katyroq Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 I have determined that peanut butter causes tummy trouble, but other beans are fine. I'm excited to have my diet expand to include beans! Also, white potato and grains (not necessarily gluten) increase anxiety. I ate too much potatoes yesterday and was very anxious all evening and through the night (tense dreams). I haven't tried corn yet, but I wonder if it's too starchy as well. Fortunately, I really don't have a taste for these foods at all. I've known for some time that sugar affects my anxiety, but I have actually noticed more of an effect from potatoes/grains. Maybe it has to do with the amount, since I have so far only eaten a few small pieces of chocolate at a time, but more volume of grains or starches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpketz Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 @katyroq. I'm not an expert—just very interested and fairly well read, and only spitballing here but it sounds like sugar spikes may be increasing your anxiety, as what you're listing are high glycemic foods, like white potatoes and rice. I would also guess that corn in all it's forms and gluten (wheat in particular) would also send your blood sugar skyward, resulting in hypoglycemia which is a well-documented anxiety trigger. Since white potatoes have almost twice the glycemic impact of sweet potatoes, (111 vs. 55 on some charts) it might be worth testing them against each other to see how you respond. Dark chocolate, on the other hand, is very low glycemic comparatively (23), so volume may not play as much a part as the relative effect on your blood sugar of high GI potatoes vs. low GI dark chocolate. Milk chocolate is still pretty low GI but contains more sugar and less fat, so the darker the better as far as GI impact. Although beans are have a relatively low impact on blood sugar, they have some other "features" that the Hartwigs spell out in detail in It Starts with Food. Not to say that all legumes should be off the list for everyone but after I read it, I waved goodbye to my last tofu burger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katyroq Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 @jpketz. Thanks. Great connection to Glycemic index...I think it makes a lot of sense. I'm sensitive to sugar and have alwasy struggled with rapidly changing blood sugar levels, so that could be it. I have eaten sweet potatoes almost daily on the W30 and beyond, and I have never noticed anxiety issues. But definitely the white potatoes. Hmm, I will have to read more about beans when my book arrives! Just googled "glycemic index and anxiety" and one of the first articles said "Most who struggle with anxiety are insulin sensitive." The article is mostly talking about balancing high GI foods with low GI foods, but I thought it was an interesting sentence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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