Whole30 Day 21

I’m over the two-thirds mark of my Whole30 experiment!

Here’s more of what the Whole30 Timeline said I would likely experience:

• Days 8-15:  Boundless energy. Now give me the damn Twinkie.
• Days 16-28:  Tiger Blood

As I mentioned earlier, I felt a bit nauseous and unsettled on Day 7, and that carried over into Day 8. Other than that blip, I have felt well and have had great energy. I have consistently slept very well, and I love that!

Beginning on Day 15, though, I noticed a rash. Small patches of skin on my neck and at the base of my spine were rough and a little red. The patches grew a bit over the next couple of days and my lips began to feel quite rough and chapped as well.

In looking at my food journal to see if anything jumped out as a possible cause for this rash (assuming it wasn’t a detox effect), I noticed two things:

1. I had cashews on Days 14-18 as a snack, and on Days 14-16, I also had them as an addition to an Asian chicken dish I had made. After checking further, I discovered the ingredients listing on my can of cashews included “peanut and/or canola and/or cottonseed oil.” These are all excluded on Whole30. I had thought they were raw. Ah,oh!

2. I had 1-2 cups of red raspberry leaf natural herbal tea (ingredient: red raspberry leaves only) on Days 14-18.

I wouldn’t have expected either of those to cause a rash, but they were the only things that were new to my Whole30 diet at that point. Plus, as soon as I eliminated them, the rash began to improve. I didn’t have cashews or red raspberry tea on a regular basis in the past, but I did have that kind of rash reaction two or three times pre-Whole30…and I had no idea what caused it.

Now I’m wondering if the rash was caused by peanut, canola and/or cottonseed oil. All of these can be found in restaurant food, as well as in so many processed foods. Plus, pre-Whole30 I used canola oil in baking.

For now, I will continue to eliminate cashews and red raspberry tea, as well as these oils, while I wait for the rash to heal completely.

Other than overlooking the oils in the cashews, I believe I have been totally compliant with the Whole30 rules.  I’m glad, too. This has given me the opportunity to really see how my body reacts in this experiment.

Stay tuned for the results of the last one-third of my Whole30. I’ll offer my opinion of its overall success then.

(Photo Credit: Health Organic Wellbeing)