Dining on out the Whole 30 and a Running PR!

Well hello there!

It’s amazing what a good night sleep can do. After my 0300 wake up yesterday, I was in bed and passed out at 2100 (9pm). My neighbors probably think they live next to an 80 year old, seriously.

So I had great sleep (which makes me happy) and pretty much didn’t budge until my alarm went off. Then I had to kick it in to high gear so I could make it to work by 0630.

I know. I’m insane, right?

Well, the Significant Other flies in on Thursday night, and so I’m trying to fit in some extra hours between now and then so I can leave early on Friday. I’d have stayed late yesterday, but, well, 0300.

I know…you know. 🙂

So needless to say, I had to come up with a quick breakfast that I could take with me and eat at work. I hate doing that, by the way. I used to bring my breakfast to work all the time, but I’ve found that you can’t really enjoy your food if you’re also trying to check email and answer the phone and take notes all at the same time. Plus, my breakfasts consisted of yogurt or instant oatmeal or a bagel with cream cheese, and I’d always, ALWAYS, be hungry two hours later. But, desperate times call for desperate measures (and I’d rather go to work early than stay late), so I grabbed two hard boiled easter eggs, some brown kumata tomatoes, and remember the Italian chicken burgers from Saturday?

Hello, breakfast.

I realize there is no way to fancy this picture up, so sorry about that 🙂

Maybe a different angle will help?

Yeah, you’re right. Not so much. Let’s move on, shall we?

I had originally packed leftover spaghetti and meat sauce for lunch today, but I completely forgot remembered too late that my office was going out to lunch for a colleague who is leaving later this week. The good thing is that she picked the restaurant in advance, so I was able to do a little pre-planning. (Side note #1: do you know if you hit spelling suggestions for pre-planning, “pee-planning comes up? Say what?)

DINING OUT ON THE WHOLE 30

The key to navigating a restaurant on the Whole 30 is to research in advance, if at all possible. Choose a restaurant that has options that you can eat or tweak to make Whole 30 approved. Also good to know: you will most likely NOT be 100% compliant, so don’t beat yourself up! Make the best possible choices you can and move on.

A couple good restaurant options are burgers without the cheese or the bun (load ’em up with healthy toppings like lettuce, tomato, onion, avocado, and mustard!), as well as some salads — as long as you watch out for the dressing and unhealthy toppings. Also: most restaurants will substitute a salad or steamed veggies for the french fries, so ask your waitress! (Unless it specifically says in the menu “no substitutions, please”. If that’s the case, my advice is find another restaurant!) With so many allergies and intolerances and sensitivities and health-consciousness, it’s perfectly normal (and allowed) to ask for a substitute, or for something “gluten-free”.

However, according to Dallas and Melissa Hartwig of the Whole 9/Whole 30, they say here (www.whole9life.com/2012/11/dining-out-whole30/):

“The first step to navigating a restaurant menu is accepting that you’re going to have to be “That Person”. You know, the one who asks questions about everything, makes about a thousand substitutions, and still has to send something back? Yeah. That might be you.”

 

If you want to go this route, by all means feel free! Me, personally? While I am OK with requesting veggies instead of fries or asking for a burger with no cheese and no bun, I am NOT going to be “That Person” described above. No, thanks. I’ll take my meal without the side of spit, thanks. (Side note #2: this may stem from my prior life as a waitress. My response to the customer described above is, “If you want to be that picky, stay home and cook it yourself.”)

But back to the matter at hand. I knew in advance we were going to “On the Border”, so I scoped out the menu in advance. That way, when we showed up, I knew exactly what I was going to order. I only wish I had thought to take a picture of it for you! I ended up with the chicken fajita salad — with no cheese or sour cream, and the dressing on the side. (See? That’s perfectly acceptable!) So my salad had mixed greens, shredded carrots, the fajita chicken, sauteed onions and peppers, guacamole, and pico de gallo. All whole 30 approved ingredients! Now, I’m guessing the chicken was cooked in butter (again, this is from my former life as a waitress), but overall, I made a good choice that I was proud of. The unlimited chips and salsa, however, were nearly my undoing. Do you have any idea how hard it is to pass those down??? Seriously, I deserve a medal or something.

In other news — when I got home from work today, I was in a bad mood and the LAST thing I wanted to do was go for a run. Am I the only person who is totally sick of this ridiculously windy weather we are getting on the East Coast?? So, I snarfed as I changed clothes, I snarfed as I laced up my sneakers, and I snarfed during my warm up when the wind was FREEZING COLD.

And then I ran 2.5 miles in 22 minutes, which is an 8:54 minute mile pace.

This is HUGE. A definite PR for me – to date, my fastest pace has been somewhere around 9:20. I have no idea if it was because the wind was at my back, or maybe it was an easier trail, or maybe because I only ran 2.5 miles instead of my usual 3, or maybe it was because I was totally ticked off and didn’t realize how fast I was going! Either way, I rocked that run! Go me!

And I just now realized that I left my lunch bag sitting in the refrigerator at work. Guess I know what I’m having for lunch tomorrow! 🙂

Have a great day!