In my last post I wrote about why did the Whole30. It’s now been several weeks since I finished the program and the reintroductory period. I waited to write this post because I wanted to see how things went once I’d returned to a “normal” diet (and because I’m lazy). The quick hit summary is that I spent much of January in a state of hanger and that I’m not giving up any food group, but I do think I have some sensitivity to dairy and gluten. For the details, read on!
The First 30 Days
I started out feeling pretty good despite the significant change in the foods I was able to eat. I didn’t notice a sugar hangover or feel like I wanted to kill everyone in the first week. I did find the smoothies in the morning to be helpful and kept me feeling full till around lunch time. I had done a little meal planning and had a few recipes at the ready which I can’t stress doing enough. I should have been better at this.
Week two was also not bad but I did start to feel fatigued by the amount of cooking I needed to do and by the amount of meat I needed to eat. I don’t eat meat very often and it was not something I enjoyed or felt ethically good about. I did use a lot of egg but you can only eat so much egg in a day. On the upside, I did notice more regular digestion, I was eating salad again, and I didn’t feel fatigued like some people do. About half way through the 30 days I thought it was going to be really easy.
About halfway through the third week I started to hit my wall. I was sick of cooking, bored with my recipe selection, sick of meat, sick of salad, and I never seemed to feel full. I was officially very VERY hangry and I stayed that way for about another three weeks. It’s about this time that you are supposed to feel your “tiger blood” come on but I never did. I only felt hanger. I think the only positive thing I felt in the last half of my Whole30 was lighter. I was visibly dropping weight and feeling less bloated throughout the day. To be fair to the program, I could have done a much better job of meal planning. That would have made the hanger easier but I was so put off by my options that I almost preferred the hanger to my food choices
Tiger blood thing aside, I found the second half of the timeline very accurate. I was very tempted to check my weight, I was REALLY over the program (but I stuck with it), and I did consider giving in a day early. Luckily, I realized that I had miscounted my days and was actually on day 31. I decided I would start the reintroduction on day 32.
Reintroduction
As the reintroduction schedule suggests, I started by bringing wine back into my life. Having completed my 7th Sober January, I know alcohol is not a trigger for me. THANK GOD!
Next was legumes, which I love. I was so excited about this because lentils and hummus are a BIG part of my diet. I will often have a dinner that is just veg and hummus. I think I made shepherds pie with lentils and felt full for the first time in weeks. I was SO much happier that night. A few days later I added in quinoa, corn, and rice. No problems here and that was no surprise. I was not expecting to have any issues with any food group.
Good things don’t last and a day or two later I was hanging out with some friends who had ordered a pizza. I had switched back to the Whole30 diet (except for the wine, that never went away again) and was feeling hungry. I successfully denied myself pizza for a few hours, but towards the end of the night I caved and had three slices of buffalo chicken. I was giddy with pizza joy!
I woke up at 3 that morning and felt very sick. My stomach was raw for the next day or two. I don’t know if it was too much wine, the cheese, gluten, spicy chicken, or the combination of all the things. I went easy on my stomach and kept to the Whole30 for a few days. I knew that too much dairy was likely to be an issue but there was not enough dairy to cause that bad of a reaction
A few days after that I tried beer. I felt a little bloated that night, but that’s drinking for you in general and it wasn’t enough of a reaction to make me think anything was a real trigger. A few days later I had some pasta and didn’t have issues. I decided that most likely I had just overwhelmed my system with the combination of things.
Most recently, about three week after going back to a normal diet I drunkenly binged on double stuffed Oreos and I have never experienced stomach bloating like that before. I was in SO much pain for 24 hours that I really thought I might explode. And then just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. I ate a box of mac and cheese a day later without issue. I can’t figure it out.
I have noticed that I am a little bloaty when I do eat larger amounts of gluten, but ultimately, I love pasta and pizza and PB&J. I will do my best not to binge eat Oreos in the future,
Food in the Future
My ultimate conclusion is that, while gluten and dairy might pose some issues for me, I love them and am not willing to give them up. I would rather be a little bloated than stop eating pizza or drinking beer. Cheese is sacred. I will probably start to reduce my intake of them a bit, but unless they create issues on the level of the great Oreo binge I don’t see myself making major changes.
I did drop about 5 pound over the course of the month but that is mostly because I was operating at a calorie deficit. I’m pretty sure I’ve already gained a pound or two back. I’m ok with that since weight loss was never the goal of this experiment.
The biggest change that I have maintained from my Whole30 is my breakfast smoothie. Since January 4th I have had a smoothie almost every morning and I think it really has been good for me. I don’t crash in the mornings for lack of food, I have even noticed that I feel hungrier in the morning for solid foods.
On the whole I’m not a big fan of this program and I’m not likely to repeat it, but Maybe I will feel differently in a few years and give it a second try. For now I’ll drink my smoothies and cross my fingers that I don’t run into more buffalo pizza or Oreo issues.
What changes have you kept from doing the Whole30 or other programs?
Rainy Day Rags 