Day 13 - I miss cake...

     Sweets are a really hard habit to kick for me. I love donuts, cake, pie, candy bars, cupcakes, ice cream and numerous other calorie laden confections that lack any real nutrition. No matter how full I am after dinner, I still crave dessert. It's crazy to think that something as seemingly innocuous as sugar could hijack a brain so easily. That's part of what the Whole30 does, it makes you realize how much sugar is in absolutely everything we eat: ketchup, bread, yogurt, BBQ sauce, spaghetti sauce, granola, protein bars, vitamin water, canned soup, broth. The list goes on and on. We eat so much sugar every single day and we don't even realize it.
     I am 43% of the way through this detox, and I'm starting to get both bored and creative. Last night I had a taco salad with lettuce, pulled pork, guacamole, pico, grilled fajita veggies, and compliant ranch. It's the first time in almost 2 weeks that I honestly didn't miss the cheese and sour cream. It was delicious all by itself. I would have to say that the biggest drawback to to this whole thing besides missing certain foods is that I have to cook EVERYTHING. It's nearly impossible to eat out or get convenience food. Think you're getting a grilled chicken breast at a restaurant? Think again. It's highly probably that it was cooked with butter or some sort of non-compliant marinade or oil. This means that I have to cook or prepare 3 meals a day and no matter how much meal prep I do, it's still work.
     We didn't eat out that much growing up. Mom always made dinner and even into my first years of college, I still cooked at home because I couldn't afford to go out to eat. Where did it all go so wrong? When did I give up being in the kitchen for ordering a pizza or Chinese? Even writing about it is making my mouth water. We live less than 5 blocks from a Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Burger King, Sonic, and a local hamburger house. I think that as long as this food is so readily available, and easily accessible, it will always be a struggle. It gets easier to say no as our fundamental habits change, but at the end of the day, it will always be work to stay healthy and avoid the temptation of taking the cheesy, deep fried, delicious way out.