Whole30: Day 22

Summer is here: it was such a gorgeous morning when I went to walk Ellie that I took her for a walk, came home to grab sunglasses and my credit card so I could buy cold brew across the street, and then took her down to the boardwalk to walk near the beach. (I wanted to take her out on the beach and down to the water, where she loves to run around, but there were some cops when I got to the boardwalk and I decided 9 am on a Saturday wasn't early enough for the beach to still be empty enough that no one would get upset about her being there.)

After the walk, I biked to meet a friend for brunch, just winding through the residential streets between Abbot Kinney and Lincoln, and I took a similarly wind-y route back, because it was such a beautiful day and I love looking at all the houses in that area. When I got home, I promptly left on another walk (I may or may not have been playing Pokemon Go), and headed up to the border with Santa Monica, where I noticed my phone battery was dying and so I turned around and walked back, but in the ocean, which was fantastic. I got home, charged my phone for a bit, and then went out again, heading south to Windward, out to the ocean, and back up along the water again. The beach was packed, tons of people were out, there was a concert in the park there, a contest of sorts near Muscle Beach where music was blasting and two different guys were going back and forth doing things that require incredibly impressive muscle strength and discipline on an elevated bar, and plenty of other things that I didn't happen to see. It was a busy summer Saturday, and I was so happy to be out in it.

I wish I'd worn more sunscreen, though. Whoops.


How I felt: Good, walked everywhere. Just wanted to be outside, enjoying the sunshine.

Brunch: I met a friend at Superba Food and Bread for brunch at 10. Even though 'bread' is in the name (and it is oh so good there), they had one breakfast that both of us could order: eggs, potatoes, kale, and bacon. (My friend, while not doing Whole30, has been avoiding gluten and sugar since December.) The kale wasn't great--I think I just don't like curly kale--but the eggs, bacon and potatoes were all excellent, as was the cold brew, my second of the day.

Dinner: My brother and I have birthdays three weeks apart, so my parents had us over for a birthday dinner. My mom was going to cook one of my favorites of hers--chicken and dumplings--until I informed her that we were doing Whole30, which threw a bit of a wrench in things. (Sorry Mom, I decided to do Whole30 before this dinner was planned!) But she figured out that steaks, veggies and potatoes were fine, and so that was what we had: some excellent steaks cooked on the grill, red potatoes that... I don't know how she cooked them, but they were good...and artichokes, with olive oil for dipping rather than butter. Some veggies to snack on before dinner (turns out I like raw sugarsnap peas more than I expected), and Perrier to drink. She even scoured the store for a dessert we could have so she'd have something to put a candle in! (Turns out we couldn't have the ice cream she got, but it was a very sweet thought.)