I make mistakes on a regular basis. Like, it would be fair to say that I do something dumb pretty much every day.

Here’s some proof:

Yep. I forgot that I put a Tupperware on top of our oven and then turned it on. Whoops.

In the last week or so, I’ve burned my finger, gotten my leg caught in the chair at my hair stylist’s salon, packaged up leftovers but forgot to put them away in the fridge, melted that Tupperware lid, and about a dozen other really dumb things.

Here’s the take-away: I’m never going to not make mistakes. The important thing is to learn from them, and to learn how to recover and rebound when you do make them.

This time yesterday, I was about halfway through writing a blog post about how The Husband and I found a few restaurants we could order food from and still eat within the rules of Whole30. We’ve done this exactly three times in 23 days, which is a HUGE improvement from how often we were eating out prior to starting Whole30. The first of these three times, we got salads from Chipotle.

I had done a little research on Paleo diet-friendly restaurants, and what you could order at each one. No, Whole30 and Paleo are not the same thing, but they are the closest you can get when comparing most nutrition guidelines. Y’all don’t know how excited I was when I saw Chipotle on the list. Salad, no dressing, double chicken, pico and guac. Yes, please!

I told The Husband and he was as excited as I had been. We made big plans for a Friday night “date night” that included a little Chipotle action and binge-watching the last season of Game of Thrones before the new season starts. (HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS IT STARTS THIS SUNDAY. CAN. NOT. WAIT.)

We were standing in line for about 15 minutes, it seemed, and The Husband asked me if we could have the fajita veggies. I told him I didn’t think so, but I wasn’t positive. He got out his phone and looked it up. No dice – the fajita veggies are grilled using rice bran oil, a Whole30 no-no.

I have to take a quick second here to applaud Chipotle for the transparency of their website. You can find out every ingredient that goes in to every item on their menu. They have a whole page dedicated to allergen information. Their nutrition calculator allows you to basically build your meal and find out fat, sodium, carbs and protein info before stuffing a 1,600 calorie burrito in your face. I wish more chain restaurants took this website as their model.

Fast forward to yesterday, when I’m sitting here typing, retelling this same story. I couldn’t remember what kind of oil they used that made the veggies off-limits. So, I pulled up the Chipotle website … and discovered they use rice bran oil to cook their chicken, too.

WHAT.

THE.

HELL.

Alright. So, there goes that one. I deleted the entire post, said a few choice words, and beat myself up a little for not doing my homework beforehand.

I consulted my Whole30 book last night, to see what they recommend doing if you slip up. Was it deliberate? No. Is it a food that I would eat emotionally or for comfort? Absolutely not. (If I’m eatingrice bran oil as my comfort food, I’ve got other problems.) And in my opinion, it wasn’t one of the major criminal offenses. It wasn’t sugar, dairy or alcohol.

So, the big question, am I going to start my Whole30 all over because I ate something cooked in rice bran oil?

Um, FUCK no.

If I was eating Chipotle chicken three or four times a week and getting double meat on each order, I might acknowledge the need to push reset. But honestly, if chicken (that they brag about being “responsibly raised”) is the worst thing I eat in 30 days, I’ll be just fine.

Last night, when The Husband got home from the gym, I told him about my discovery.

“Love, I have something I need to tell you.”

“Uh-oh.” Something you have to know about him: Not only does he have incredible willpower, but he is a rule-follower, to the letter. Two traits I find very appealing in a husband.

I broke it to him easy: “You remember when we had Chipotle last week? And how you looked up the fajita veggies and found out they were cooked in rice bran oil? Well, I don’t know how to tell you this … but … so is the chicken.”

“Yeah, I know.”

WHAT?? “You knew?? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“We were already in line.”

Yep.

Looks like we’ll just be sticking to home cooking for the next seven days.

Note: This is a re-post from the Tumblr version of this blog. It originally ran on April 19, 2016.