Michael Hymen is a member of the Customer Advocate and Sales team. Here, he writes about his second week doing Whole30®.
It’s been 2.5 weeks since I started Whole30®, and much like the last blog I wrote, I am still optimistic about what’s to come!
Right about now I am on Day 19 and still going strong and feeling strong. My cooking has been very formulaic, and my snacking has been minimal. In reality, I am just looking forward to the cake I’ll be eating when this is all said and done. Looking back, Week 2 was challenging. I was in Baltimore for six days and it wasn’t until this work trip that I truly understood how hard it is to keep up with something like Whole30®. Luckily, compliant foods weren’t hard to come by in Baltimore. Let’s take a look back at my second week, shall we?
Doing Whole30® While Traveling
I attended Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore with other Vital Proteins employees in mid-September to preview upcoming product launches. Next to one of our booths was a waffle company that was Whole30® compliant, which I didn’t find out until the end of the show. A few stations over was my favorite cauliflower pizza company. If you thought, “Wow that sounds awesome! There are so many snacks that you can eat,” you thought wrong. It wasn’t until I started doing Whole30® that I realized how important it is to read labels. For a Natural Products Expo, there sure were a lot of unnatural additives in these products. That wasn’t even the worst part of it all though! The worst part about working around all of those snacks and foods was that because we were working so hard to make sure we had a good show, I found myself losing track of time and forgetting to eat a lunch.
RELATED: How My Whole30® Experience Was Almost Cut Short
If you have done the Whole30® before, you know that making sure you eat your meals properly, is very important. After Day 1 of the show, I made a promise to myself that I would set alarms and make sure I’d eat lunches at a normal hour. Now was I able to keep that promise? Not one bit. Eating on the road is a difficult task to master and I definitely did not master it. Most days I was able to order food that was compliant and was able to eat said meal at an appropriate time. But as soon as the food arrived, my co-workers and I would get busy and forget about the food we had ordered. Don’t let that bog you down if it happens to you, too, though. Whole30®, like anything in life, is about learning from these experiences.
On the Bright Side
Now feels like a good time to start telling you about all the ups from traveling while on Whole30®. It’s astounding to see how far we’ve come in this world. I remember going to dinner with my sister, who I thought was being irrationally picky at the time. I told myself I never wanted to be that person who needs to ask for separate things on their meal. But once I started this Whole30® journey, I understood how important it was to ask questions to make sure I wasn’t eating anything that would inevitably make me sick. The difference this time vs when my sister used to do the Whole30® is that everyone has been so accommodating.
Places like Chipotle or Jimmy John’s have also been incredibly convenient when trying to find something quick to eat on the go. For snacks I reached for LÄRABARs and RXBARs most of the time and would eat a fruit cup when available. I have really gotten the hang of this Whole30® and I am excited to end this thing on a strong note. I am headed to a wedding this weekend and going to be in New York to celebrate my niece and nephew’s birthdays. Just another day around temptation! After those, it will be the home stretch!