Reintroduction - Week 1 (and then some)

Day 1 - Celebrated my successful completion and the return of my dear friend to Anchorage with some red wine.  Just a couple glasses, enough to give me a feel for it without going overboard.

Day 2 (and this is where I screwed up) -  Experienced some stomach issues, which I think had more to do with the sugar in the wine than the alcohol itself.  And yet I still drank some rum and sparkling water with natural coconut flavoring.  Again not enough to get anywhere near even tipsy, and later felt the same stomach issues.  Since I honestly have never had digestional issues from mild drinking before, I am attributing this to the sudden inclusion of sugar and alcohol into my now clean system.  And since I stupidly rushed things, I'm not entirely sure how day 3 should have gone.

Day 3 - Now I understand why there's a 2 day period between reintroduction.  I was trying to fast-track the fast track, and never had had issues with alcohol before, so I figured jumping right into legume would be fine.  It was not.  I ended up just having a slathering of peanut butter on an apple, and felt that same stomach sick from the days prior.  And I don't know if it was the sugar, residual alcohol, or peanuts themselves that caused it.  My guess once again is sugar, and I regret not getting a natural peanut butter to try with, or just having some black beans or something.  Next round I'll do better.

Day 4 - back to whole eating, which has actually become my comfort zone.  Stomach still in flux.

Day 5 - Whole eating, stomach feeling better, still a little sketchy.  Ready to vow off sugar forever.

Day 6 - Reintroduced tortilla chips (non-gluten grains).  Stomach felt good, and continued to feel good throughout the day.  A successful reintroduction!  The only problem was they were delicious and I wanted to keep eating them.  Portion control is my next demon to wrangle.

Day 7 - All's well!

Day 8 - So far so good.  My challenge today will be two-fold; I'm making treats for a baby's birthday party tomorrow, and attending an adult birthday party tonight.  This will be my first time making something that I'm not allowed to taste-test, so I'll be fighting instinct a lot.  Navigating the party and explaining why I'm not eating much or drinking anything will also be a challenge, but one I'm a bit more used to now.


These last few days are really important for me to get right.  Dairy will be reintroduced tomorrow (Day 9), and was one of my suspected culprits in digestional issues, so I'm really interested in how I'll react.  Gluten comes in the 13th, but I'm nervous about that as the 14th I will be on a plane for hours and hours, which is no fun with a bubbly stomach, so I may hold off on it until I land in Curacao.  Or maybe do a muffin early in the morning on the 13th and nothing else the rest of the day and gauge how I feel, and hope any unpleasantness has passed by the time I get to the airport the next evening.

Overall I'm really pleased with my Whole 30 results.  I lost 15 pounds, feel strong, feel capable, and definitely can see myself doing this at least once or twice a year.  My next goal is to start and complete Couch to 5k, so maybe I'll keep the blog going for that.  It's been good to keep my thoughts and progress organized and accessible.  I dig it.

Day 30!!!

The question people most often ask when I tell them I'm doing Whole 30 (and subsequently explain what Whole 30 is all about) is 'How do you feel?'   And the answer honestly and truly is "Powerful."  Not just physically, but mentally.  I have completely proven to myself that I always have a choice in the foods I eat, and no craving is stronger than my willpower.  That I can go 30 days without sugar or grains and feel all the better for it.  That, yeah, sometimes it's hard, but in the end it's about how my choices affect my quality of life.

Plus I climbed a fricken mountain.  

So yeah, I'm going to go with 'powerful'. 

Tomorrow starts phase 1 of Reintroduction.  As I said earlier, a huge part of why I wanted to do this was to give my stomach lining a chance to heal, and then weed out what foods had been making me sick.  

I've prepped for this by rereading portions of Whole 30, making a calendar, and dedicating a journal to keep my food-body evaluations in:

Again, the idea is to reintroduce triggers and possible inflammatory foods one at a time to see which ones are causing which problems.  So I'll introduce, then go back on Whole 30 level eating for two days as I play science experiment on myself and evaluate my bodily reactions to them.  Sounds like a blast!  This will essentially take me up to the day I arrive in Curacao, so hopefully at that point I will have a solid understanding of foods and their affects on me, and thusly have a safe and digestionally friendly vacation with mah ladies. 

And on this Day 30 I do want to give a HUGE shoutout to all my cheerleaders!  You guys are amazing, thank you for helping me be strong and supporting my endeavors, and know that if and when you want to take on the challenge I am SO there for you!!!  Love you all!!