Rough day

[TXN11]

Today I went out with my wife and our friends to play top golf for a few hours. I had a good breakfast, but we had a 2 hour wait before our slot opened and by the time we were playing, everyone was hungry and we all had lunch. I looked all over the menu for something compliant, and there was nothing. Zilch.

So I ordered a salad minus a lot of items, and while everyone was eating pizza, burgers, guacamole and queso dip with chips, I was eating a lettuce-only salad with balsamic dressing. B-O-R-I-N-G. And I don't even think the dressing was compliant, it likely had sugar in it. I asked for balsamic thinking that all it had was balsamic vinegar and olive oil, but nope.

Here I was, drooling over greasy burgers with melted cheese oozing over the sides of the meats, the creamy texture of queso and guacamole, and pizza, well... pizza is pizza. I wanted to throw the W30 out the window and eat everything on the menu. But I didn't. And I was sad that I couldn't have it.

Needless to say, a couple hours later, I crashed. Big time. No protein, no fat. And lettuce has probably the lowest nutritional value of all veggies out there, plus the sugar in the dressing doesn't help at all. Major insulin spike and blood glucose takes a swan dive - I could literally feel it happening.

Once I got home, I raided the fridge harder than a S.W.A.T. team ever could. Ravenously stuffed protein down my throat - any protein would do - along with any veggies and fruits I could get my hands on - raw or cooked. Even pulled out a big fat spoonful of ghee and gulped the thing down my throat.

Felt better, but man, this is so hard. As Han Solo in Star Wars would say, "You call this easy??"

Let's be honest. This isn't sustainable in terms of a lifelong commitment. And I'm starting to doubt that I can make it to 30 days. I even broke down and complained to my wife about how difficult this is and how much cooking and preparation and planning I have had to do, and to her credit, she said "well you made it to 16 days, you're more than halfway through."

You see, I've already slipped up 3 times (all by accident, but could have been avoided if I was smarter about restaurants and reading labels). The mere thought of adding extra days due to these slip-ups even makes me almost want to cry. And I rarely cry. I know y'all don't need to hear this, but man, I want my beer and nachos!

[Susan W]

That does sound rough txn. I am wondering why you didn't order one of those greasy burgers with no bun no cheese and ask what is in their guac or just ask for avocado or even slices of tomato.

[TXN11]

Hmm. How do they cook the burgers and what oil do they use. If they used the wrong kind of oil (like canola or something), should I have ordered that anyway?

[Physibeth]

You can of course ask those questions of the server. If you are polite and explain you have some food sensitivities you can often get things prepared special. I would read up on some of the post on the whole9 blog on eating out on Whole30 and write down some questions. Once you have done the best you can do then just enjoy and hope for the best.

[Tom Denham]

The Whole30 does not ban canola even though it is not a healthy oil because it would make eating out almost impossible. As long as the place isn't using soybean, corn, or peanut oil to cook, you are okay eating out when it comes to oils used.

[Susan W]

Hmm. How do they cook the burgers and what oil do they use. If they used the wrong kind of oil (like canola or something), should I have ordered that anyway?

Canola is not banned on W30. It's a simple fact that 99% of restaurants use it. It's not desireable and I would never use it at home. I doubt anyone has gone Canola free unless they didn't eat out once during their W30. I think torturing yourself like that is worse than a little canola on the grill. In fact, you should have had 2 patties.

[TXN11]

Oh wow, I had the wrong impression about canola being banned... if I had known this, I would've ordered double burger with no bun.

Oh well, now I know. Thanks for setting me straight

[TXN11]

Another rough time at the restaurant yesterday, on Mother's day.

We went to Casa Ole with some a friend and her mother. This place was a Mexican restaurant. I wasn't about to just order a salad like the day before. I wanted some meat. So I ordered beef fajitas with veggies, and a salad with avacado on the side (instead of rice and beans).

I made sure (politely, of course) the waiter understood that the cook is not to use vegetable oil or soybean oil. I asked if they use canola oil, and to my surprise, they do not use canola. They only use vegetable oil (read: soy). I said, no don't use that, and asked what else they use. He went to check with the cook, and came back and said they also have olive oil. I asked him if they could use olive oil to cook the meat and vegs, and he said he'll go back and check with the cook.

Then a different waitress (?) comes back, and tells me that the cook is refusing to cook the meat using olive oil. So I told her, just cook the fajitas without any oil whatsoever. Use olive oil for the vegs. Asked for olive oil "on the side" for the salad. She said ok and went.

Then the restaurant manager comes to our table and asks why we are making all these changes to my order. I explained that I'm on a "special diet" (I know, I know) and that I can't have certain oils in my food, nor can I have any beans, cheese, etc. He tried to explain that the meats have already been cooked with vegetable oil, and the cook told him to tell me that. I told him that I want my meat cooked with no oil whatsoever, and I'm willing to wait. He said ok, and left.

About 40 minutes later, my meal arrives and the fajitas was good but quite salty. Maybe TOO salty. Saw that they added seasoning. I forgot to tell them no seasoning, because there were so many other things that I needed subbed. I have a suspicion that the seasoning contained MSG. And to top it off, they put shredded cheese on the salad. Ugh. But I didn't make another scene, I just picked the cheese apart and ate the lettuce and avocado. They also forgot to bring olive oil on the side.

Sometimes you just can't win at restaurants. I hate to be a downer on here, but I am really mightily struggling with restaurants. I feel like I'm under siege against non-compliant ingridents.

[Susan W]

My advice is to choose a restaurant that has steak, chicken or shrimp that can be dry grilled. Mexican is TOUGH!! Mexican and Thai are both tough. You did your best and not under an easy situation. I really dont like how the restaurant handled it. For the manager to come over in defense mode would have bothered me. Steak and fish houses are your friends. Dont give up.

[TXN11]

Yeah, I had a bad feeling about Mexican going in, but it was an invitation from our friend, whose mother was with us on Mother's Day.

You're right, I did the best I could... so I shouldn't get all bent out of shape over it now.

The restaurant snafus during my W30 have been an eye-opening experience, and I'm not exactly liking what I'm seeing. I'm sure this is like the "initiation" into the Whole 9 community, eh?

[Susan W]

Lol...yes, you have officially been initiated. There are times when things are out of your control and you can only do your best. Dont be hard on yourself...nobody expects you to stay home.

[Jeff VM]

I whole-heartedly agree with Susan on patronizing a restaurant who will dry grill your protien of choice.

This is my first post...but felt I had to reply and spread some hope. I started my W30 May 1st, and have eaten at a restaurant once since. Mentioning Top Golf, Case Ole, and your handle (TXN11) may I geuss that youre in the DFW area? If you are, or in almost any city in Texas, give Saltgrass Steakhouse a shot.

There were 3 of us that started our W30 all on May 1st and we went into Saltgrass on day 5 still learning the ropes. We were especially vigilant making sure we didn't run off the rails. Our waiter was nothing but curteous, friendly, and extremely patient with our barrage of detailed questions on what additives were in the food as well as preparation methods. He even complimented us on chosing to eat healthy. I assure you that it was the most succulent delicious steak I've had a in a while. While its no Ruth's Chris, after several days of grilled chicken salads and sauteed greens, I couldn't believe a better steak was ever grilled. My order included the Maudeen's filet cooked medium rare plus, with a good slathering of thier house spice mix (no banned ingredients, they even give you the shaker for the table), large baked sweet potato with salt/pepper, large portion of steamed veg inlcuding broccoli, cauliflour, carrots and squash. I also had a salad wth a splash of vinegar and their house seasoning on it (omit crutons and cheese)!

Of course, everyone skipped desert and we asked them to take that delicious bread away after the other non W30 diners had a few bites! That bread is one of my weaknesses, but we W30 devotees dutifully abstained.

I hope you find continued success and keep up the positive outlook on any comprimises that come your way!

[Susan W]

Jeff that is a very encouraging and helpful first post.

[TXN11]

Jeff I agree, good encouraging post. Close but no, I live in Houston. I've done Saltgrass and it is by far the easiest restaurant I had to deal with... had prime rib steak medium rare. Waiter was great.

[PamH]

I know this might not be the best reply, but this is my gut feeling:

When you are in those situations where you can predict a rampage through the kitchen later because you starve yourself... I would have ordered a burger without the bun regardless of what oil they used. I would have asked for a side of guacamole and slathered it on top with a side salad. No dressing.

Although some of us can avoid eating out or eating at homes for holidays for an entire 30 days, not all of us can. You do the best you can do, and you avoid the horrendous foods like the buns, fries, fried foods, sodas and desserts. I am 100% like you in this situation, the ordering of a burger would have been far less damaging than all the food that went down when I got home (yes, I have done the spoonful of ghee).

I'm sorry the Whole30 made you cry.

Congratulate yourself for not eating butter, chocolate chips and brown sugar sandwiches! At least you binged on protein and vegetables. Tonight is my husband's birthday, and I need to resist the flourless chocolate torte I made for him. It will be torture, and I hope I can avoid eating way too much of everything else in the process.

Speaking of process, that is what this is. Perfection would be great, but it just isn't always possible. Hang in there and you'll be OK.