Fighting Through and Staying True (or Eating the Bacon)

[rhevion]

It was a dark, cold, stormy night in the city of Miami. Seriously, when the weather hits 55 degrees Fahrenheit, us Miami folks start to dress like the people in Times Square on New Year's Eve. Boots, fur coats, and all.

 

So, with a cold (debatable) night as the backdrop, my wife called me at work and said, "Soup. I want soup. A nice hot soup for dinner." Now, my wife isn't on the Whole30... yet.... but she's been eating the meals that I've been preparing, so I found a recipe in Melissa Joulwan's Well Fed 2 (amazing, inspired, scriptural even). Sweet Potato Soup with Bacon. Heaven in a bowl. So I headed over to Whole Foods in search of on-plan bacon.

 

Looking at the meat case, I found a glimmer of hope. Two bacon cuts: one with ingredients listed (added sugar so no dice), one without ingredients listed (could it be?). I asked the butcher/meat attendant if that was just the pork meat, no curing seasoning, and they said yes! You might be saying, "Adam, you naive first-time Whole30er....." but I'm a very trusting person, until I got home, opened the bag and took one whiff the beautifully tragic bacon... First thing I thought was, "That's not just pork meat." Second thing I thought was, "Please Google god, hear my ingredients-search prayer." It turns out the Google god is not omniscient. I couldn't find any list of ingredients for my pound of "Southern Raised Pork Bacon."

 

So with the bacon already frying down in the pot, enticing me down the path of plan reset with its sizzling whispers and its heady, smoky perfume, I was faced with two choices: Claim ingredient ignorance, eat the soup, and give my mind an out during the next temptation ("You already messed up with that bacon, you know. Eat the cake.") or stick to my Whole30 self-experiment rigidly and eat something else.

 

My wife loved the soup, and I loved my Cuban burger (Well Fed 2 again), cauliflower rice, lettuce leaves, and Day 7.

 

So to all those who might be having a tough time, keep pushing on. It's worth it.

 

-Adam