Whole 30 Day 22

Oh, boy, am I ready for this to be over. At the beginning of this Whole 30, my family was 100% on board. They were going to traverse this path right along side me. Never mind the candy after lunch (kids) and ice cream after dinner (husband).

By day 22, they are openly salivating over their french fries, gluten free buns and chocolate. And waxing poetic about how delicious said foods are.

In reality, I knew I would be going through this alone, but the thought of having my family play along was very enticing so I chose to believe it would really happen.

Thankfully, I have you! I know you want to see some changes in your own lives and you’ve made the commitment to see through the 30 days to the other side.

At day 22, it sure is tempting to say, “Twenty-two days was great! I think I learned all I need to learn.”

That wouldn’t be wise, would it? At this point in my journey, I am going to stick it out through the full 30 days, through a vacation and other special occasions, just out of sheer will. I know I will kick myself till next week if I throw in the towel now.

And so, here are my very Whole 30 complaint meals for day 22:

Breakfast: one piece of overnight egg casserole (recipe in my book) and black coffee.

This was not enough food. I am not snacking before bed (most of the time) and I am not stuffing myself at dinner either. This feels good. I don’t like that overstuffed feeling, but I am hungry at breakfast. This is a Sunday for me and Sunday mornings are rushed getting ready for church, but I think that because I’ll just be sitting in church for a couple hours, I don’t need to eat much, but all that rushing around gets my metabolism running. Next Sunday, I will eat more.

Lunch: We had lunch at Smashburger today. Smashburger has a very thorough website that lists all the ingredients in the various components of their foods. Let me just tell you, I hope that by now in your Whole 30 journey, you are an expert at reading labels and can spot non-food ingredients a mile away. Looking in-depth at the ingredients that make up restaurant foods is eye-opening. You may never look at eating out the same way after your Whole 30 experience.

That being said, after reviewing the menu and ingredient options, I chose:

The Cobb Salad, minus the two kinds of cheese, plus a burger patty cooked plain. They sprinkle a seasoning full of all kinds of non-food ingredients (including sugar) on all their meat and cook everything in butter. So I asked to have my burger and egg cooked plain and just hoped for the best. I forgot to bring my own salad dressing so I chose their Chipotle dressing, which had non-compliant oils and all kinds of other preservatives, but it didn’t have sugar so it seemed the best choice.

The funny thing was that I got my water from the soft drink machine, took a sip and it was most definitely not water. You know how the water and lemonade are typically on the same tap and you just push the little water lever underneath the big lemonade sign? What was in my cup was like carbonated lemonade mixed with sprite. I quickly dumped it out and managed to get pure water next time. I looked at the kids, with apparently a horrified face, and they very seriously and compassionately said, “That was not a cheat, mom.” I guess they’re being supportive after all.

Dinner: orange chicken over sautéed cabbage and broccoli

Dessert: applesauce with a few almonds on top. I thought the Instant Pot was a worthwhile buy just for making broth, but no, it is worth it for this applesauce. Seriously!