Struggling

[Mlynn]

Hello there,

I started the Whole30 strong and went for 7 days. Had one small compromise and it was the end of me. I'm really struggling to get back to it. I know that when I do and if I do this will definitely act as a leptin reset. My husband is totally on board but I keep sabotaging myself. It's like the harder I focus on the WHole30 the worse I get. Any suggestions?

Mel

[Krista Billows Rodriguez]

What was the incident? Was it a hunger thing, i.e. not planning enough food? Was it a social setting? A stress response? Boredom? Anger? It's hard to say without knowing more about what happened.

As far as starting anew, just do it. Today, not tomorrow, right this minute. Doesn't matter what you ate before this minute, it only matters what you eat after you decide you're in. If you haven't cleared out the house of temptations, do it. If you haven't planned a menu, do. Don't worry about planning every little meal, but make a list of five W30 complaint meals and write them down. Make sure you have good healthy ingredients in your fridge. The old saying if you fail to plan you plan to fail is never truer than on a W30. It takes work, but YOU ARE WORTH THE EFFORT!!! I've seen so many restart threads, you are not alone, you are not the only person who got side lined by whatever food it was you consumed. And really only you know why you ate it. But it doesn't need to define you. If you're ready for this and you're serious about changing your life and improving your health then pick yourself up, dust yourself off and just jump back in.

[Guest]

Krista is kind and brilliant!

In addition to planning, think about your motiviation...your goals. When you plan those five meals, maybe you could also give yourself 5 reasons why you want to do this and how you will get it done. You can go back to the food list when you feel stumped and you can go back to your goals when you need a reminder to stay the course.

If you didn't before, think about signing up for the Daily30 e-mails. I found them to be informative and motivating.

[Krista Billows Rodriguez]

the emails are definitely worth it! Nico's right, know why you're doing this. What are you trying to achieve? It makes the effort much more worth it.

[Susan W]

I agree with all of the above.

Writing things down brings things into clarity for me. Maybe write down your goals so you can glance at them. Frame what happened and move forward for a healthier you.

[Mlynn]

Thanks for all the great help! I think that it is emotional. I have been an emotional eater. I will strive to make the next right choice for my Whole30...Its going to happen!

[MelliebuStacey]

Welcome, Mlynn These forums are a wonderful place to start--I've found everyone here to be helpful, loving, and supportive, and I'm hoping that I can help you out, if even in a small way. Krista, Nico, and slw are all lovely fountains of inspiration and information, and I agree wholeheartedly with everything that they've said so far.

One thing that I have to add to what's already been said is an elaboration on what slw has suggested to you above. I've been journalling again in regards to not only my diet and exercise lately, but my emotional responses to both. I have a new, pretty journal (it's Tiffany blue and faux-croco and makes me smile--maybe I'm crazy, but I wholeheartedly believe that this should be a happy place for me to be writing my goals, successes, failures, and ideas in ) My fiance was worried about me doing this--I'm a recovering anorexic and have for years struggled with finding a way to visualize my food and exercise without stressing over calories (I recently broke up with MyFitnessPal and have never been happier!!), and what's been working for me is simple--my daily journal looks like this:

Sleep--how much I got, how high quality it was, whether I had nightmares, and any other notes regarding such

Workout of the Day--what I did, how I felt doing it, and any additional notes on it (I do lots of various HIIT circuits, I've been writing them down here for future reference, too)

Food--simply a list of what I ate at each meal; no caloric breakdown, however, since I'm post W-30, been circling the things that are off-roading/out of the scope of my W9life plan so that I can be aware of food without brakes for me personally

On the next page, I devote three sections to HOW I FEEL today--physically, mentally/emotionally, and other things on my mind.

This is so so SO much more than a diet--we are all worth this; in fact, isn't it more work overall to treat ourselves like crud and to eat garbage and to feel less than worthwhile all the damned time? I'm coming off of three months of falling off the grid (forget off roading, I was out of the atmosphere!), and I've decided to devote myself to myself. I'm worth it, and you are too.

Don't give yourself any reasons not to do this right now. We're here for you, and more than happy to help you out. The things that you can learn about yourself through devoting yourself first to a W30 then to a healthy and balanced whole9life post W30 are simply magical.

Best of luck to ya sweetie, let us know what we can do to support you on this journey

[JJB]

WI've been journalling again in regards to not only my diet and exercise lately, but my emotional responses to both. I have a new, pretty journal

I think this is super helpful advice. I have never tried journaling, but I think I should. I'm on my 2nd W30 (week 2) and I have been obsessing over food lately. I don't even know where it came from, because I was doing so well for several weeks. Now all of a sudden I keep daydreaming about my next meal, getting "hungry" way too early, eating fruit every day (I used to be happy with just a few times a week, and that's my goal), and having to practically sit on my hands to stay away from the nuts/LaraBars. I'm so tired of this back and forth, I just want to not CARE about food so much! I will try this for awhile, and maybe I'll buy a pretty new journal too.

[MelliebuStacey]

I think this is super helpful advice. I have never tried journaling, but I think I should. I'm on my 2nd W30 (week 2) and I have been obsessing over food lately. I don't even know where it came from, because I was doing so well for several weeks. Now all of a sudden I keep daydreaming about my next meal, getting "hungry" way too early, eating fruit every day (I used to be happy with just a few times a week, and that's my goal), and having to practically sit on my hands to stay away from the nuts/LaraBars. I'm so tired of this back and forth, I just want to not CARE about food so much! I will try this for awhile, and maybe I'll buy a pretty new journal too.

Thanks It's been working really, really well for me. I'd only like to chime in that rather than not caring about food so much, I think your ultimate goal should be not to be worried about food. We should all care heaps about what we're putting into our bodies, and I think good part of the journey is learning how to have fun with good, satiating, healthy fuel rather than being stressed over eating suboptimal crud