July 1 was the first day “off” of the Whole30 Nutritional Reset… So began our Whole30 Reintroduction Phase! The plan suggests that after your 30 days of a stricter paleo diet, you reintroduce typically troublesome groups of foods one at a time and then evaluate how they affect your body. The benefit to this method is that after a Whole30, your body is basically at a “ground 0” in terms of inflammation. Because you haven’t put one iota of anything that could be irksome to your gut, hormones, or psyche, you’re at a good place to test the waters.

After being on this rigid diet, going “off plan” is a little intimidating. And you want the off-plan food you eat to be worth it. I’m not just going to throw a pop tart in my mouth and see what happens. So instead, I made delectable Sweet Potato Biscuits! Since you have to test one food group at a time (this group obviously being gluten), what would typically be cream and butter in this recipe is replaced with Whole30-approved coconut milk and ghee- yum! These fluffy biscuits definitely made eating gluten again exciting!! For the full recipe, click here!

I was so focused on making and photographing these delectable treats that I didn’t really focus on actually eating a ton… SO I had a pretty nasty headache all day. Yes, this headache totally could have been an effect of the gluten. Only time will tell if gluten causes headaches for me. The real downer was the day after we ate gluten. I felt like I was living in a hazy, zero energy dream. I remember lying on Ella’s floor while she played in her room- I was THAT tired. Exhaustion for no reason= definitely no bueno. So for me, gluten is going to be something I try to avoid almost entirely. I feel like a great piece of bread, bagel, you name it every once in a while will be the perfect balance. I’m also eager to see if other types of gluten that are usually lower on the offenders chain, like sourdough bread and sprouted grain bread, affect me the same way.

Have you had experience with the Whole30 and reintroducing gluten? Did you feel this icky too? Comment below!