Whole 30: Days 1-4

Grrrrrr. Turkey leg!

I've made it through the first few days. It doesn't seem like much, but when you have multiple occasions for social drinking and have a 1-lb bar of dark chocolate in your freezer, it's a little tough.

What I ate:

Friday dinner - tuna sashimi

Saturday breakfast - two scrambled eggs and two slices bacon

Saturday lunch - half of a turkey leg at the renaissance festival

Saturday afternoon snack - small handful of walnuts and 1 sheet of beef jerky

Saturday dinner - sauteed baby kale and baby spinach, with a few bites of rib eye steak

Sunday breakfast - two scrambled eggs

Sunday lunch - mixed greens salad with chicken and balsamic dressing

Sunday snack - 1 Tbls almond butter

Sunday dinner - 3 oz. of steak with four slices of bacon (go ahead and judge me, I just wanted to finish the bacon off before the holiday)

Monday breakfast - one egg, sunny-side up

Monday snack - beef jerky

Monday lunch - steak salad (~2 oz steak)

Monday dinner - steak salad leftovers

I think the hardest thing for me to give up is alcohol. I know that this makes me seem like an alcoholic and I'm really not. I did have a discussion with SD the other week about whether we thought that we could give up alcohol for 30 days, and both of us said no. It's an issue of social drinking and staying out late. Unsurprisingly, it's not as much fun to stay out late dancing at bars or clubs when you're the only sober person and your high heels are killing your feet.

As I mentioned, I survived my first night of saying no to social drinking. It was just dinners, so there wasn't quite as much pressure to join in as if I had gone to bars with friends. So far, alcohol has  been my one caveat to Paleo. Even when I first started Paleo I didn't cut out alcohol. As a 25-year-old, it's strange when you don't drink alcohol. And it's never a convenient time to stop drinking. Seriously, when I told a few people that I had started Whole 30, most people asked Isn't that bad timing? Right before the holidays? Well, yeah it is, but you can always come up with a reason not to cut it out. So if you don't do it now, when will you? For instance, it's Thanksgiving this week. That means a family gathering which you attend completely sober. I think most people can agree that sober family events is not high on the list of Things I Want To Do. I know my mom is reading this and is asking "What do you mean?1?! Are you saying that spending time with your family requires alcohol consumption?" So, I'm sorry, mom. But, it's not that it'll necessarily be bad, but it would just be more fun if there was alcohol involved.

The bright side of no alcohol is no headache or upset stomach the following morning. I woke up bright and chipper on Saturday and Sunday, despite my cold. Most of Saturday was spent at a renaissance festival where I got to listen to bagpiping music and try on renaissance festival clothing. And Sunday was a lazy day filled with a lunch date, browsing at Barnes & Nobles, and Netflixing Battlestar Galactica. Overall it was a great sober weekend.

And while we're discussing alcohol, did you know that the shape of the glass out of which you're drinking can affect the speed at which you drink? My dad found this article a while ago and found it interesting: Raise your glass! It's shape may influence your drinking. If you drink out of a fluted or curved glass, you're more likely to drink faster. So keep in mind those cool looking glasses may be interfering with your attempts to "pace" yourself.