Cheating

[Velar Fricative]

Those of you who did Whole 30 before...

Did you cheat? How often? How extensive was the cheating each time?

Asking because I did eat out today for lunch (it was with some other GBCNers, so it was all worth it dammit!). My salad had entirely compliant ingredients except I couldn't remember if walnuts were compliant (the salmon was walnut-crusted) and it was likely cooked in actual butter. 

I sound silly and this shouldn't impede my progress (I hope?) but it did make me curious about your experiences. I figure as long as I'm not choosing the bacon cheeseburger and fries and trying to stick as closely to Whole 30 as possible when I have to eat out is still a great thing and shows some psychological progress...right?

[y4m]

This is one of my concerns too. I travel extensively for work, and I am not going to be asking for ghee in front of customers and colleagues. Tell me that doesn't make it pointless.

[wambam]

If you go into this thing planning to cheat, then you may as well not do it.

If you have to bend the rules slightly because you're dining out, I think that's okay (the walnuts for example. Bread would not be "bending")

$0.02

[Velar Fricative]

Aug 7, 2014 15:32:01 GMT -5 wambam said:

If you go into this thing planning to cheat, then you may as well not do it.

If you have to bend the rules slightly because you're dining out, I think that's okay (the walnuts for example. Bread would not be "bending")

$0.02

Awesome, I managed not to eat the delicious bread in the bread basket.

It's not so much "planning" to cheat, it's more about being realistic with myself so that I don't throw my arms up in the air after one trip-up. There may be times I can't order a meal not cooked in butter, for example. I'm just curious how often this happened for people and whether there were major consequences.

[Velar Fricative]

Aug 7, 2014 15:26:53 GMT -5 y4m said:

This is one of my concerns too. I travel extensively for work, and I am not going to be asking for ghee in front of customers and colleagues. Tell me that doesn't make it pointless.

The program does say certain kinds of oils, while not ideal, are fine because people are probably going to eat out during the program. I do prefer mom-and-pop restaurants overall but I find that chain restaurants tend to be more flexible. I don't know if chains are ideal for business lunches or dinners though so I say if you have any say in where you're eating, maybe do some advance research on Paleo-friendly places if you're visiting cities that may have that option (even though Paleo =/= Whole30, I feel like places like that might be more flexible).

If that's not possible and if your meal has to have butter in it, I would try to ask if they could go light on the butter, or sub with the oils on the list.

[carifly]

When I've did it before, I did not cheat intentionally, but I also didn't stress if I was eating somewhere and couldn't control what oil something was cooked in, for instance. Anywhere I could control what I ate I did, but sometimes there were situations (like eating out at a business dinner) where I did the best I could and made the decision to not stress about what I couldn't control.

As wambam said, this doesn't mean I ate the bread on a burger, but it means that I maybe ate meat that might not have been properly sourced, or I had something that might have been cooked in an off-limit fat occasionally. I still think I gained so much by having done the program regardless of minor variations.

Also, while I agree that if you are planning to cheat regularly it decreases the benefit, I don't think that if you end up having a lapse it means the whole thing was pointless and you should give up. While much of the benefit is internal, I think I got even more just from the changing of habits. And that's part of the point (hence no paleo-ified desserts during whole30 even if the ingredients are all compliant- the point is to break the habits).

[wambam]

The mods on the W30 forum usually say that if you get an unintentional non compliant oil or sugar exposure, that is not cause for restart. If you get a gluten or major dairy exposure, that warrants a restart.

[carymac]

No cheating here because I don't think you get the mental benefits of a Whole30 if knowingly cheat.
They have a lot of resources on the website that help you navigate eating out. Knowingly eating something non-compliant is an automatic restart, but if you eat something non-compliant and don't realize you don't have to start over.

[Velar Fricative]

I guess cheating was the wrong word to use. I am thinking more along the lines of meat cooked in an off-limit oil, etc. where you're making the best choice you can with the options you have but it still may not be 100% compliant. And dammit, I really did swear I saw walnuts were okay. Won't make that mistake again.

So far it's been easy for me ask for no cheese, no beans, etc. on meals or to not bring out the bread basket; when you're eating out, it's easier to leave off ingredients in that manner than to select, say, a meat cooked in a compliant oil if they otherwise don't have the compliant oil, but the meat is what would help fill me up so I'm not binging later on sooooo...yeah. I'd like to know how people navigated that challenge, how often they may have been tripped-up by off-limits ingredients and if they were still happy with the results that they saw after the 30 days.

[wambam]

Aug 8, 2014 9:49:36 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

 when you're eating out, it's easier to leave off ingredients in that manner than to select, say, a meat cooked in a compliant oil if they otherwise don't have the compliant oil, but the meat is what would help fill me up so I'm not binging later on sooooo...yeah. I'd like to know how people navigated that challenge, how often they may have been tripped-up by off-limits ingredients and if they were still happy with the results that they saw after the 30 days.

Talk to your waitstaff. You'll never know if they can easily sub canola oil for olive oil if you don't ask. If you truly can't get something compliant, then make the least "bad" choice. But it requires communication with the people at a restaurant. Obviously, be polite and courteous, but don't be afraid to ask them questions.

[Velar Fricative]

Aug 8, 2014 11:53:35 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Aug 8, 2014 9:49:36 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I guess cheating was the wrong word to use. I am thinking more along the lines of meat cooked in an off-limit oil, etc. where you're making the best choice you can with the options you have but it still may not be 100% compliant. And dammit, I really did swear I saw walnuts were okay. Won't make that mistake again.

So far it's been easy for me ask for no cheese, no beans, etc. on meals or to not bring out the bread basket; when you're eating out, it's easier to leave off ingredients in that manner than to select, say, a meat cooked in a compliant oil if they otherwise don't have the compliant oil, but the meat is what would help fill me up so I'm not binging later on sooooo...yeah. I'd like to know how people navigated that challenge, how often they may have been tripped-up by off-limits ingredients and if they were still happy with the results that they saw after the 30 days.

They allow for non compliant oils when eating out because veg oils are hard to avoid. That said, I would definitely ask for food to be cooked in oil vs. butter because avoiding dairy is a biggie for the program. Also, did you ask if the walnut crusted salmon had any flour? Typically nut crusted meat *will* have flour and obviously gluten is a huge no-no.

Personally, I am not going to beat myself up if I accidentally eat something non compliant but I am going to make every effort to stick to the plan. That includes talking to servers about what's in my food when we're eating out. I figure I am paying for it and can politely ask for it to be prepared the way I need.

Fuck. Looks like this is turning into the Whole 34 for me.