Whole30: Staying the Course AND Serving my Country

I had my first challenging day with my Whole30 yesterday.

I had jury duty.

Ugh.

This is my first time ever being called for jury duty. 

I would not mind doing jury duty at all except my employer does not pay me for doing my civic duty.  And the average trial in Los Angeles is 5 to 7 business days.

Yeah, that would be 5 to 7 days of work that I would just not get magically paid for.  I could use my vacation time for this but 1.  who REALLY wants to use their precious vacation time for something stressful like jury duty and 2.  I have already paid for a vacation that is happening in September which will use up what vacation I have left.  

I don't know about any of you but that's a lot of money to just give away.  And the $15 a day that Los Angeles provides (starting on the second day natch) doesn't really cover much. 

But I digress.  This is NOT a post about the injustice of my employer (or probably most employers) not paying me for jury duty.  Wait, one more complaint.  Government employees give unlimited days of jury duty paid.  UNLIMITED.  They should just be required to cover all jury duty requirements.  End complaint.

This is a post about what to do when life throws you a curveball.

So I had jury duty yesterday.  And since I've never served before, I had no idea how I was going to survive food wise.  So instead of hoping that things would swing my way, I planned on having to provide for myself.

So what did I do?

I PLANNED!

I pretty much knew I would NOT have access to a kitchen so anything I took had to be good sitting in my purse.  And since I was using public transportation to get to the courthouse, I had to make sure it wasn't too bulky.

I knew I couldn't take full meals but snacks were completely doable.  I figured if all else failed, I would eat my snacks and just wait til I got home to eat a big meal.

And that's what I did.

I packed an apple, 2 larabars, a bag of baby carrots, almonds and a bottle of water.

When I got there, I found a cafe right outside of the jury assembly room.  So, I went in there during one of our breaks and I kid you not, not a single thing in there was compliant.  Actually not a single thing in there was even healthy.  It was bags of candy, bags of chips, sodas, pizza, hotdogs, nachos ... you get the picture.  It was like a little gas station in there. 

I also checked out the menu for the cafeteria in the courthouse and again, nothing.  If I wanted an iceberg lettuce salad with tomato only maybe I could have found that but otherwise, everything was a no go. 

Now, we DID get an hour and a half for lunch, and downtown Los Angeles has great restaurants within walking distance, so in all fairness, I'm sure I COULD have ventured out and found something.  But I'm so glad I packed my snacks.  I ended up only needing the apple and one larabar.

I'll be honest, I was SO STRESSED about getting picked for a panel and losing my pay that I wasn't really that hungry. 

And while it was one the longest, most stressful days I've had in awhile.  I managed to make it thru 9 hours and not get called.

Service done!

Today's Menu:
B:  paleo casserole:  eggs, sausage, onions, sweet potato, coconut milk
L:  tomato soup, almonds, apple
D:  mushroom stroganoff, cauliflower rice