On the first day of my second whole30 I was challenged with choices. Breakfast was a delicious egg tortilla. It is funny because every time I tell people I had a breakfast burrito they give me that puzzled look. How do I have a burrito when I don’t eat grains. Well, you use the egg as the tortilla, the egg tortilla is what you stuff all the veggie goodies into.

See!

So the challenge came at lunch time. My wife had a doctor appointment in Tulsa and we like to go out to eat when we visit Tulsa. So we had to use Whole30′s dining out guide. We decided to go to Ruby Tuesday because they offered steak and quite a bit of different selections of steamed and grilled veggies. They even had spaghetti squash.

I used the “a” word, allergies, to help the waitress understand why I was asking questions about how their food was prepared. So I ordered a sirloin steak with grilled asparagus and steamed broccoli. It tasted pretty good. The real challenge came as we were finish our entrees. You see normally at this time I would start looking for the dessert menu. My wife picked up the wine and dessert menu and I saw her eyes get big as she showed me the pictures of the cupcakes. MMMMMM, but I decided it wasn’t worth it. We both decided to pass on the cupcakes and stick with our second Whole30 challenge…I mean it was the first day!

In the evening I made our favorite Chicken and Kale using some chicken I bought from US Wellness Meats..good stuff! This weekend I will try to keep myself busy because the weekends can be tough. The weekends are usually when we relax on our eating and get sweets and treats. But I made the choice to do another Whole30 so I can get another reset on my eating. I want to lean out some more and really get back on track with my health.

What are some tactics you use when dining out to stay paleo?

I was working out in the yard (hopefully soon to be garden) and I flipped over a rock and noticed some movement.

Yeah, I am hoping that these ants are not a problem when I actually get the garden going.

I was in a meeting at work the other day and I told everyone I was doing another Whole30 and someone made the remark, “Did the first one not work?” I chuckled and then it really made me stop and think. Did he understand what I was doing the first time I did a Whole30? Did I understand what it means to do a Whole30?

It has been a little over a month since I ended my first Whole30 and I learned a lot about how I cook and to look at the ingredients of the food I was eating. I would say I have been eating about 80% paleo but I have had a few sugar binges that I am not proud of…the sweet stuff has so much control over me. I have been going through some very stressful stuff with my family and I have turned to food as my stress-reliever. I am starting to feel some weight come back on, we won’t even go into the direction the scale has gone. I am starting to feeling sluggish and not as energetic as I was before and I really think it is because of the junk I have been reintroducing into my diet. So, when a coworker of mine asked about the paleo lifestyle I gave him some material to read and told him that when he wanted to do a Whole30 I would do it with him. This turned out to be good timing because I think it is time for me to challenge myself again with my nutrition.

So I told my coworker that yes, the Whole30 worked because I gained so much knowledge from the experience. But now it is time to take it to another level and learn even more about what it takes to a whole and healthy person. You see, when I am 70 years old I don’t want to be cooped up in a chair or unable to run around with my grandkids. I want to be outside enjoying life with them and I know nutrition is what part of the equation that will get me there.

Guess what I bought from US Wellness Meats?

Yep, some beef lard! I am going to try to cook with this for awhile to see how I like it.

Do you cook with beef lard?