Our Whole30 journey is complete! I'm glad that we took the extra time to experience the reintroduction phase. It was really hard to resist going bananas on Day 31 by eating everything we were desperately missing. But then the past 30 days of restraint and discipline would have been for nothing, and we wouldn't have learned nearly as much. The reintroduction phase was definitely enlightening.
To catch you up... Hubs Mike and I are doing the Whole 30 for the month of January, with a reintroduction phase in early February. I'm doing it to identify food sensitivities, following my GI doc's recommendation. Mike is doing it for solidarity's sake (best hubby ever). Here are the first five articles: Getting Ready, Week One Recap, Week Two Recap, Week Three Recap, Week Four Recap.
Reintroduction - During reintroduction, you introduce one eliminated food group at a time, eating something from that food group at each meal for one day. Each reintroduction day is then followed by two days of Whole30 eating and paying attention to how you feel. In this way, you may discover how certain foods affect your health and well being.
Day 1 - Dairy
I had milk at breakfast, cheese for lunch and dinner and butter at dinner.
Neither of us noticed any changes the day we ate dairy foods, or the next day. But the third day I had tummy cramps and gas (sorry y'all, this is def going to be a TMI article so stop reading now if you can't handle reading about fartiness). It wasn't long lasting, but I thought it was strange for it to be so delayed. Also, I cheated and ate one french fry, stolen from my kids dinner the night before. I can't imagine just one french fry would cause this, but...hmmm. My cheese lovin' scientist self is going to need some more evidence on this one. As totally ridiculous as it sounds, Ima blame it on the fry for now, k?
I do want to mention that Mike *tried* to stop me from adding sugar to my coffee on day 2 of reintroduction. "Tried" being the key word here. He put his hand over my coffee mug as I was about to spoon some sugar into it, and almost lost his hand. Yeah, I don't think Whole30 killed my sugar dragon. I mean technically, you ARE supposed to go completely back to Whole30 compliance for the two days following a reintroduction day, I think. This is a little unclear to me, because there is no official "sugar" reintroduction day. It's one of those try-to-avoid-permanently foods. Plus, Mike didn't read the book, so what does he know? I decided to interpret the lack of official sugar reintroduction day as, I-don't-care-what-you-think-I'm-having-a-little-sugar-inmadam-coffee. So there, give me the side eye if you want to. I'll be enjoying my sweetened coffee over here.
Day 4 - Legumes
Peanut butter for breakfast and after dinner. Black bean soup for lunch.
Again, neither of us noticed any changes the day we ate legumes. Mike never stopped being gassy the whole thirty of the Whole30, so yeah, I'm talking about changes here people. The next day for me though.... yikes! Of course, you always expect some gas with beans right? After all, "beans, beans, the musical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot," right? However, I did not expect for my entire gut to fill up like a twisty, party balloon animal. That was fun to experience for an entire day! Note to self, limit the legumes!
This is the day that Mike decided that since I was having sugar in my coffee, he was going to have a sliver of pizza. Since we have typical kids who won't eat black bean soup, or just about anything else we make that has a nutritious molecule in it, and we are typical parents who are so over that battle, we made them frozen pizza. It smelled SO GOOD. The kids were flaunting it in our faces too. I resisted. I tried to stop Mike. "Don't mess up your reintroduction, you worked so hard," I said! I nearly lost MY hand this time. I decided this makes me the winner, right? Last woman standing? Yes, I think so. I know you will side with me here. Mike's opinion doesn't count, since I'm the one who read the book and, therefore, I am the interpreter of all the rules. Commence victory dance.
I was so excited to be able to eat something besides eggs on non-gluten grains day. I had oatmeal with ghee (clarified butter) and almond milk.
Day 7 - Non-gluten containing grains
Oatmeal for breakfast, popcorn at lunch, and white rice for dinner.
Yay! A food group I can eat without any issues. Again, no changes for Mike, and I was all good for non-gluten grains day and the following two days. This was also the day we got a "so-worth-it" chance to eat our first real dessert in over a month. I ordered some chocolate truffles from Itsy Bitsy's BonBons in Alabaster, for Valentine's gifts, and we got to try some! And yes, it was SO WORTH IT! I mean, just look at them! They smelled heavenly and tasted a bit like brownie batter on the inside. All four of us were fighting over who got how many (parents triumphed, don't worry).
Chocolate truffles from Itsy Bitsy's BonBons in Alabaster, Alabama.
Day 10 - Gluten containing grains
Toast for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and spaghetti for dinner.
This one had some interesting consequences. If I was going to react to something with GI issues, I would've expected it to be wheat gluten. But, nope! However, surprisingly, the next day I woke up with my nose stopped up and my ears full of fluid. Now this is something I've had off and on forever, and often gets me into trouble a few times a year, when I get a bad sinus infection. I've had allergy testing done and nothing came up. The doctors called it "non-allergic rhinitis." But you know what? Looking back, I realized the whole month of January I didn't notice any stuffy nose or clogged ear symptoms! The Whole30 book did mention that lots of people don't even realize certain things are gone until they rear their ugly heads again during the reintroduction phase. Could wheat be causing me congestion? Certainly looks like I should be watching this closely from now on!
On the second day following gluten reintroduction, I noticed the little bumps on my arms got a whole lot worse. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's so annoying. I'm not sure if they were gone (I didn't notice if they were) and suddenly reappeared, or just got worse. And when I googled "bumps on arms dairy," because I would've guessed that's what caused it, several articles about diet popped up and they mentioned dairy, gluten AND sugar as culprits. So, at least one mystery yet to solve. Nice to know that clean eating might help this minor annoyance anyway!
Spaghetti with our favorite garlic bread for gluten reintroduction day.
Final Thoughts on our Whole30 Journey
In the weight loss department, I lost almost nine pounds from start to finish, and Mike lost an incredible, twenty-three pounds! Reintroducing non-compliant foods definitely had an impact on the speed of our weight loss efforts!
As for non-scale victories, I definitely learned that I am, indeed, negatively impacted by some non-compliant foods. Though, I think I will need to continue experimenting to determine how much I can get away with, and the exact cause of certain symptoms. A little gassiness is easy to live with, and worth having dairy and legumes occasionally. But, if I can figure out if gluten is for sure causing my chronic congestion, that will be life-changing! I may be able to prevent the ugly sinus infections that plague me a few times a year, if I can keep my sinuses and ears clear.
Mike didn't notice any changes with the reintroduction phase, as far as certain food groups impacting his health. However, he does feel like overall he is sleeping much better and feeling better (heart burn is gone, fewer stomach issues). I was most proud of him for kicking his Diet Mountain Dew habit. I hope he can maintain that from now on!
We both are glad we did it and definitely want to continue eating more healthfully. We'll be the first to admit is a difficult diet to complete perfectly, but well worth the effort! Thanks for following along on our journey. Send a shout on Facebook or by email if you do a Whole30. We'd love to hear how yours goes!
Disclosure: Thank you to Itsy Bitsy's BonBons for the wonderful samples! No other compensation was given for this mention, we just love them is all! Another great, local mom-owned company!
----------------------
Get a FREE kid-friendly event calendar for families living from downtown B'ham and south to Alabaster full of festivals, fairs, activities, events and more! Sign up by clicking HERE!
Macaroni Kid South Birmingham is a free weekly e-newsletter and website focused on fun family events and things to do with kids in the South Birmingham region. We gather together all kinds of local family events and activities each week, and add useful information about classes, family-focused businesses, book and product reviews, recipes, crafts, school and camp guides and more. We proudly serve families in downtown Birmingham, Mountain Brook, Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Hoover, Pelham, the Oak Mountain and 280 area, Helena and Alabaster.
