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Whole30 - Reintroductions, Part 1

Vanessa here. You know, that girl who finished Whole30 ten days ago. (Wow!) I'm here to tell you a little secret. Are you ready? Whole30 is longer than 30 days. Oy. Well, ok, that's not really a secret. It's all outlined in the program. If you do it right, you are not going to order a double bacon cheeseburger with a pint of beer on Day 31. The Whole30 plan is only step one. On Day 31 the fun actually begins; Reintroductions. What that basically means is that we add those no-no foods slowly back into our diet, one at a time, each on their own and see how our bodies react. It's pretty interesting actually because I am already reacting to things that I would bet my life on were very benign.

So here's what we know so far:

Day 31 - Alcohol. Woo hoo!! I made us a celebratory dinner on Day 31 - A delectable steak with shrimp to go nicely with our bottle of red. The old me would've been on glass 2 by the time dinner was served. The new me poured the glass, started eating and nervously stared at it for about 10 minutes. (Husband dove right in!) Finally, I indulged. Ahhhhh! Seriously. About halfway through my thoughts got a little fuzzy though which I thought was hilarious. I stopped myself at one. Husband had a few. The effects were not surprising. I fell right to sleep only to wake up a few hours later, and then every few hours after that. And in the morning, I woke up with the worst cottonmouth in recent memory. No headache or hangover though. But, I wondered what I would've felt like had I drank my normal lot. Husband said he felt groggy.

Day 34 - Non-gluten grains. Step one: look up what the hell non-gluten grains are. lol So we could have rice, quinoa, oatmeal, corn, popcorn...  This was a category I was sure I would have no problems with. These foods were a normal part of my diet before. Oatmeal is one of my faves - that's why we chose it for breakfast. Umm...yeah. My oats betrayed me. I felt uncomfortably bloated, gassy and very tired. Sad panda. I will not be eating them in the near future. That night, we were invited to a birthday party for a good friend. She said, "It'll just be pizza and cake. Easy." My heart sank. We were the kids who showed up with our own dinners, baked chicken and rice and vegan fudge - that I made from scratch and was amazing! Another couple at the party just happened to bring gluten free corn chips and homemade salsa. Compliance! Chips and salsa = bliss. Nothing to report except feeling full. We haven't really snacked since this thing began. Slippery slope indeed.

Day 37 - Soy/Legumes. It is a first day of school tradition to go for sushi, which our daughter calls "swooshy." Love it. So this reintroduction was timely. We started with the miso soup and edamame. nom nom nom And then completely destroyed a sashimi platter. We left feeling full in that sushi way - I won't be in an hour - but completely satisfied. Later that night, I got a headache which are rare now and it lasted almost the entire next day. Also, my back was aching something terrible for the day as well. Does soy cause inflammation in me? That's the only thing that was different. I wasn't doing any heavy lifting or exercise so it seems to be the culprit. Does this mean no more "swooshy?" Say it ain't so.

Tomorrow I get to have bread for the first time in 40 days. I'm so excited I could cry. Stay tuned.

Bonus: I started the gym again today. It felt great but man, it was tough. My breakfasts are much different than they used to be and I burned right through it. I left the gym absolutely starving and borderline lightheaded. I think I may need to up my calories in the morning.

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