I had every intention to try to stick to the Whole30 plan while we were on our trip to Austin, and I failed pretty spectacularly.

There was pizza. And cupcakes (from a food truck! Oh, Austin, you so quirky). And a pineapple upside-down cake that even my health nut uncle had like 3 slices, it was THAT GOOD.

So, that didn’t work. And one of the rules with Whole30 is that if you cheat on the plan, you have to start over on Day 1. So that’s what I’ve done. I’m now on Day 3 of this second round, and so far it’s pretty good. I sort of feel like since I made it to Day 10 the first time, I kind of know what to expect now? I’ve found a few recipes that I really like, a few more I still want to try, and it feels manageable.

That is not to say that I don’t miss the hell out of bread and cheese, because LORD do I ever. But this is temporary. And I’m really curious to find out if my diet affects some of my other health issues, or maybe they’re completely unrelated, who knows.

Really, the hardest thing is that you’re not allowed to weigh yourself until you complete the program – the theory seems to be that you may hit a plateau, get discouraged, and quit, so it’s better to just do an overall before and after. But I’ve been in the habit of getting on the scale every day before I shower. Is that obsessive? I don’t know, it’s just part of my daily routine. I moved the scale to the other bathroom so I won’t forget & weigh myself by accident, but now I feel like I’m forgetting something. (I have my watch, my make-up is on, what’s missing…? Oh, right.)

It’s a small thing and it’s dumb, I know, but it’s weird.

On the exercise side of things:

Since the half-marathon last month, I haven’t been able to run more than about 3 miles or so. The plantar fascitis in my left foot has been hurting too much, and I didn’t want to risk making it worse, so I’ve been taking it easy. But we’ve been having such gorgeous spring weather here, and my foot was feeling a lot better, so yesterday I ran 4 1/2 miles. First time I’ve done that since the half-marathon, and it felt really good. My foot hurt a little afterward, but not too bad.

And I’m still enjoying the Betty Rocker 30-Day Challenge workouts. I try to mix them up – sometimes I just do the recommended workout for the day, sometimes I’ll do 2 of her workouts back to back – but I try to keep it so that I’m always doing something different every day. It’s been a pretty effective way to kick my own butt.

I admit, though, I don’t really care for her workout videos, she’s a little too perky for me (she’s one of those people who claps a lot when she talks), but I just program the moves into the SecondsPro app on my phone, and do them on my own. I prefer that, because I can also use my own music. It’s kind of fun.

So, yeah, we’ll see how this little Whole30 experiment goes.