July Whole30 Update: Day 13 (or is it Day 4?)

Well, it's about halfway through July. Time for an update on my Whole30 experience!

I kicked off my Whole30 on July 1, and experienced the familiar "I'm eating right" signs: much reduced bloat, and higher, steadier energy.

One thing that really surprised me, since I've never gone dairy-free for an extended period: My skin looks so much better. Zits went down to negligible levels, and the oily/dry difference (T-zone anybody?) has evened out a lot. Why, with results like this, I'm starting to consider trying out the oil-cleansing method.

So far, the hardest things for me to give up have been:

• Giving up my coffee with heavy cream. Old habits die hard.
  
• My pastured butter. However, in the absence of butter, I've found that a modest drizzle of macadamia oil is a great dairy-free substitute for butter in topping veggies.
  
• Cheese
  
• Honey, and plain whole fat yoghurt with honey

Hrm, noticing a pattern here? Obviously I loves me some dairy. But so far, I have noticed that overall I feel noticeably better without tons of dairy in my daily diet.

Now, here is where things got interesting.

Late last week, my husband and I remembered that we had a hefty gift certificate to a high-fallutin' fancy-schmancy hoity-toity French restaurant. Said gift certificate was a very generous gift from my parents in honor of our fifth anniversary.

Guess what? We recently celebrated my sixth anniversary. In other words, we're the parents of young kids and managed not to make it to this restaurant in the last YEAR. Yea, we don't get out much.

To complicate things further, the gift certificate was set to expire 7/31.

So: keep my 10 days of Whole30 purity going and forfeit a multicourse haute cuisine date out with my husband? I was dedicated to my Whole30, but not so much that I'd give up an opportunity like this.

So we went. I even took the opportunity to wear my first pair of heels in ages: some black peep-toe pumps. I did notice that my ability to wear heels has sharply declined; I used to wear them all day in the office. Now, two pregnancies later, that I'm an at-home mother who goes barefoot or wears minimalist shoes most of the time, I nearly killed myself trying to walk in the aforementioned heels. (Note to self: find some hot-date shoes that don't endanger my life.)

We ordered the chef's tasting menu. I tried my first-ever round of fresh oysters. We had braised pork belly on a bed of risotto so good that I had to remind myself of our elegant surroundings so that I didn't lick the plate clean. There was also beef, fish, and lobster soup. And yes, a made-our-tastebuds-sing apricot souffle with a Grand Marnier cream.

Was it worth it? Three hours of daylight without changing diapers or fetching snacks, catching up with my husband over gourmet French creations?

Ohhhyea.

So now what? Since that one errant meal, I've been back to my dairy-free sugar-free grain-free Whole30 menu. I'm not sure if that makes today my new day #4, but I'm willing to make it that way to try out the full 30 days. After that I'll blog my concluding thoughts. In the meantime, you can check out some of my day-to-day Whole30 details by following me on Twitter.

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