Reintroduction after whole30?
May 23, 2017 6:47 AM
I'm currently on Day 29 of whole30. According to the rules of the program, I should spend the next ten days reintroducing foods to see if I have a reaction. The problem is, I don't feel much different (other than a little bit of weight loss)... so should I even bother?
I would love to get some advice from folks who have done this with good or bad results. I am not on a tear to suddenly eat everything I couldn't eat for the last four weeks, but I am frustrated that a program called "whole30" is actually "whole40" where I have to spend 10 more days obsessing about certain ingredients. This is compounded by my fear that I will spend 10 days trying this and that and see no results.
I feel like I did learn a lot about myself, and one of those lessons is that I don't really miss sugar. What I also learned is that obsessing over ingredients is very time consuming and cuts down on how social I can be since nearly every restaurant lacks compliant options.
I would love to get some advice from folks who have done this with good or bad results. I am not on a tear to suddenly eat everything I couldn't eat for the last four weeks, but I am frustrated that a program called "whole30" is actually "whole40" where I have to spend 10 more days obsessing about certain ingredients. This is compounded by my fear that I will spend 10 days trying this and that and see no results.
I feel like I did learn a lot about myself, and one of those lessons is that I don't really miss sugar. What I also learned is that obsessing over ingredients is very time consuming and cuts down on how social I can be since nearly every restaurant lacks compliant options.
You know that analogy about the frog in a pot of boiling water? Changes happen gradually, which is why the program is 30 days long and not one week. The idea of the reintro is to reintroduce those things SLOWLY, in the event that, say, after 30 days without cheese, it turns out cheese really does upset your stomach. You won't know until you try to eat the eliminated foods, but if you eat them all in one go and get sick you also won't know what caused it.
I mean, no one is forcing you to do the reintro, just like no one forced you to do Whole30, but IMO you won't be getting the full benefits of the program if you skip the last part.
(Three-time Whole30-er here. I skipped the reintro on my first one.)
posted by Brittanie at 7:28 AM on May 23, 2017
I mean, no one is forcing you to do the reintro, just like no one forced you to do Whole30, but IMO you won't be getting the full benefits of the program if you skip the last part.
(Three-time Whole30-er here. I skipped the reintro on my first one.)
posted by Brittanie at 7:28 AM on May 23, 2017
Yeah, in my experience with it, coming from a lightly low-carb lifestyle to start with and so not having what felt like dramatic changes during the program, it was in the reintroduction phase that some stuff became more obviously clear to me: dairy definitely has some digestive consequences, and gluten certainly left me puffy-faced the next day, and things are digestively a little better for me with moderate legumes.
That's how an elimination diet works, it's often not really about the going-off except to let your body forget about them a little so you can see what happens with the going-on. It's an allergy test, basically. That's why you only try one thing at a time.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:04 AM on May 23, 2017
That's how an elimination diet works, it's often not really about the going-off except to let your body forget about them a little so you can see what happens with the going-on. It's an allergy test, basically. That's why you only try one thing at a time.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:04 AM on May 23, 2017
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posted by BuddhaInABucket at 7:17 AM on May 23, 2017