After Whole 30 Strategy?

carrieann8

So, its Day 22 so naturally I'm thinking about what comes after my Whole 30. I still have a lot of weight to lose and I'm nowhere close to healthy yet. My house is pretty much clear of things that aren't Whole 30 with the exception of a few things I haven't touched in 22 days (organic sugar, sugar free jams, regular mayo). So I'm thinking 99-100% Paleo in the house. (Still haven't found a good sub for Worcestershire sauce or a few other sauces with sugar). And more like 80-90% Paleo when I go out.

But what I'm really thinking is what do I want to continue to avoid even when I go out. I know I want to add back in some good Paleo sugars like maple syrup and honey and then some Paleo things I've had to quit due to serious lactose intolerance like Ghee and maybe good grassfed butter.

BUT what I'm thinking about is what kind of non-Paleo foods will I eat out. I have really missed sweet tea and coffee with sugar so I might have to find a way to have those and limit them. I'm also thinking its been driving me nuts not to have my favorite dressing (Thousand Island) on a salad when I go out due to the sugar.

I know my first trip out is going to be to a good steakhouse where I can still have a nice big steak, a salad with Thousand Island, and probably a sweet potato with brown sugar. Maybe a big glass of sweet tea!!! I'm thinking I want to avoid the bread completely until I lose a lot more weight and get a lot healthier.

What do you think? What kind of strategy would you have for After Whole 30 in my very overweight, unhealthy, wide shoes?

homesweeths

In my opinion you'd be playing with fire. Adding in all that sugar?

The one thing that re-ignites my cravings is carbs. Liquid carbs (like in soda or sweet tea) seem to be worse than the carbs from a sweet potato, or even the brown sugar you mentioned. At least, liquid carbs seem to go right to my joints and make me ache for three days. I'm not even tempted to go and get a free Slurpee today at 7-11... though I used to be addicted to those things.

An important thing to understand, if you're looking for long term success, is that the Whole30 is intended to help you re-set your appetite, to where you find healthy foods satisfying and, frankly, see things like sweet tea not as something you're not allowed to have, but something you choose not to have because you like having energy and better health more than you like the temporary satisfaction.

My advice: Let a little sugar go a long way. I have had a dollop of Thousand Island on a salad since going primal. I have to be careful because it's got tomato in it and tomato can trigger joint swelling and pain for me. I have, at the end of a really stressful day, when my carb count was really low, mixed butter and coconut sugar (not the same glycemic impact as brown sugar) together with a few chocolate chips and eaten it like cookie dough. Small amounts -- a tablespoon of each, but satisfying. It took a bit of appetite retraining, but I no longer need the added sweetness of maple syrup or brown sugar (or coconut sugar) added to the natural sweetness of a sweet potato. Actually, I find it very satisfying slathered with butter or ghee, or mashed with coconut oil.

In my case, I used to be addicted to lemon Snapple. LOVED the stuff. But now, if I'm sweltering, I'll go through the McDonald's drive-through and get a large unsweetened ice tea with extra ice. It gives me the same cooling, refreshing effect as the Snapple used to (maybe more, as I used to drink Snapple chilled, but not over ice). I had to learn to like it. It didn't come without some determination on my part. Same thing for coffee. I had to train myself to like unsweetened coffee. Nowadays I whirl my freshly brewed coffee in my blender with a scoop of virgin coconut oil. Tastes to me like a latte.

The nice big steak is doable. Ditto the salad. Maybe bring your own Thousand Island dressing? I made mine with homemade paleo mayo, hard-boiled free range eggs, and a little non-corn-syrup catsup borrowed from one of the teens (I don't make paleo catsup since I really am better off avoiding tomatoes). It was delicious. I have since learned to adore salad with added avocado, dressed with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and good Balsamic vinegar. Even the sweet potato is a good choice. Bring your own jar of ghee and slather that baby, and leave off the brown sugar, or if your sweet tooth is still active, bring some coconut sugar to add to it. (However, if your sweet tooth is still active, I'd advise starving that beast into submission by not feeding it sugar or sweets. You don't have to go so far as I do -- I consider refined sugar, even the organic kind, as poison and eat it very seldom, as part of my 80/20 -- more about that in a minute.)

There are recipes online for paleo-type versions of sauces, mayo, jam, etc. I have looked up and tried a few of these -- mayo, for one, because I love a good chicken salad, and I can't eat canned tuna without mayo, and canned salmon goes much better (to my taste) with a little mayo, and I LOVE deviled eggs!

So my advice, in total? Don't set yourself up to fail. Think of the Whole30 as the first step on a journey to last you the rest of your life, a healthy journey. Find healthy treats to indulge yourself, but also explore all the healthy options out there. (Beware, convenience foods labeled "paleo" probably aren't. Read labels.)

Don't consider yourself deprived! Truly love yourself. You are an amazing person, and you're taking steps to take care of yourself.

It may not be realistic to say you'll never eat a brownie again (or drink a glass of sweet tea, or whatever), but can you see your way clear to cutting out refined sugar and grains and legumes for three months? Six? ...before you try them again? Give your body a chance to heal.

Sorry to go all long-winded on you, but here's how it worked for me:

When I re-tried non-paleo stuff a couple months in, it made me really sick. I was motivated not to "stray" for a long time.

When I re-tried non-paleo stuff after a year or more of paleo/primal eating (yes, I occasionally incorporate dairy,. several times a week but not every day as milk protein can affect me), I found I could "get away" with it, with not triggering cravings or even being ill as a result. Now, I'm not gluten intolerant. I can eat something made with wheat without apparent ill effect. However, I know that it's a delicate balance. I would avoid doing that two or three days in a row, simply because being fat-adapted makes life so much better for me, and I don't want to tip my body back into burning carbs for energy. I don't want the cravings to come back.

So yes, I had a small Cinnebon at the mall in May. I had pizza, Pad Thai, and Chinese food while on our vacation in June (vacation lasted a month, and most of the time I was careful to seek out meat and salad with oil/vinegar or lemon juice, avoiding commercial salad dressings, and I spread these non-primal meals out so that they fell only once or at most twice in one week). I even had ice cream -- it was Amish, made from the cream of Jersey cows and hopefully without preservatives. It tasted home-churned, anyhow -- and a sip of homemade Amish root beer. The key was small amounts, spread out, less than 20% of my eating.

Which brings me to Mark Sisson's 80/20 principle. Here's a good explanation:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-8020-revisited/#axzz375g9oFWi

The most important points I took away from that article were:
- shoot for 100% (if you shoot for 80% you might end up at 50% or something like that)
- reasonable, conscious compromises (deliberate choices, weighing the consequences and thinking about minimizing damage)
- feasibility and access (on vacation, sometimes the best I could do was a grilled chicken salad from McDonalds or Burger King. Far from ideal, but a comrpomise)
- conscious indulgence (Amish ice cream. Pizza with cousins. Being taken out to dinner by one of my kids. I try to make these occasions rare, and I enjoy them to the hilt. I may not get back to Amish country for years, or maybe not ever. If I lived in Amish country, I probably wouldn't indulge in the ice cream more than a couple times a year.)

I shoot for 100%, but I don't shoot myself if I deliberately choose to indulge. Funny thing -- the indulgence usually doesn't taste as good as I remember it! Had a brownie at a potluck BBQ on the 4th of July. I used to binge on brownies by the panful. This one, while gooey and chewy, just the way I used to adore brownies, I was unable to finish. It just wasn't as good as I remember, it was too sweet, and I thought I could taste the preservatives in the brownie mix.

If nobody else is going to eat those sugar free jams and regular mayo, I'd say toss them and start investigating healthy alternatives. I'd even give away the organic sugar, unless you're using it to brew your own kombucha or water kefir. I buy sugar in 25lb bags -- but all I use it for is making my own probiotics. They eat the sugar and give off vitamins, probiotics, and carbon dioxide. It's my new lifestyle version of fizzy drinks.

I have rambled way too long, but I hope you know I'm in your corner, pulling for you.

carrieann8

No apologies necessary. That is exactly what I was asking for and why I sent a friend request. You're right. If I did that, I'd probably be ready to kill someone and eat everything sugar in sight the next few days. Another friend suggested the tea half and half. I could do that and only have one glass. I could also skip the brown sugar on the sweet potato and stick to my Paleo thousand Island at home.

I've got a nice Paleo mayo recipe. (No drizzle!) and I like Silly Little Cavegirl's Thousand Island although I use more pickles and less pickle juice - makes it a little thicker.
http://sillylittlecavegirl.blogspot.com/2013/08/thousand-island-dressing.html

I guess I'm really doing better than I thought. I just really can't wait to go out! But I think with some help and advice I'll be ready for it without foiling my own efforts.

carrieann8

On the positive, I know I'm going to stay away from bread, treats, and stuff like that for at least 6 mos. (Haven't told hubby that yet.) LOL. But the sugar monster is definitely my downfall!

justaspoonfulofsugar

The last thing I would be doing after a whole 30 is to start up again with sugar.
I have completed 3 and each time I have come off,I have failed miserably and sugar is usually the downfall for me.
The little things you miss are the things that got you into trouble in the first place and helped you with your weight gain.
Whole 30,when complete,gives you the opportunity to see what you have problems with,be it digestion,joint pain,dairy intolerance,food allergies,etc.
I believe that lots of people don't tackle re-introduction properly and have a hard time assessing where the problems really lie.
As for taking 6 months off sugar,sounds like a great idea.I think once you have a significant amount of time under your belt,you will realise sugar is not all it's cracked up to be.
If you haven't yet,I would recommend watching the movie fathead.It's fantastic and will give you insight into all that is good about fat and all that is bad about sugar/carbs.
Be proud of how far you have come and keep on this path,it will take you to wonderful places

AbbeyDove

Hmm. I wonder if vanilla stevia liquid would work in your tea? It's not Whole 30 compliant, but it is a zero calorie 'fairly' natural sweetener. Thousand Island dressing has decent amount of fat in it, so it might be safer than sweet tea, which is pretty much just a sugar rush. If I really wanted to indulge after a Whole 30, I'd pick one item I'd been craving, and have that. Or, consider one treat a week? But if sugar is your monster (as it is for me, too), I'd be very cautious about drinking it.