Whole30 Day 14 — No Sugar Added BBQ Spice Rub For Pork

Melissa Hartwig, the co-founder of the Whole30, says that the majority  of people who quit the program do so between days 9 and 10. I am on day 14.  Let me repeat that because I can’t believe it myself, I am on day 14.  Not only did I make did I make it through day 9 and 10 without quitting, I made it through 2 weeks of the program.   I am so proud of myself, I could just cry.

Have I seen any changes yet?  Yeah, I have.

1.  The dark circles under my eyes have almost disappeared.  I don’t know if this is because I am sleeping better or for some other reasons.
2. I can breathe through both of my nostrils.   I am always completely stuffed up, sneezing, dealing with runny nose, all the time.  I am not completely symptom free yet but as I can’t remember the last time I could breathe through my nose at all I count this as a win.
3.  My work pants went from fitting comfortably to almost being too loose.  I’ll never know how much I have lost because I didn’t weigh myself or take measurements before I started.  Weight loss was not my purpose for doing the Whole30. It is   just a bonus.
4. I definitely have more energy through out the day.  I don’t come home from work so exhausted I am ready for bed at 630 pm.
5. I am sleeping through the night.  It is too early to tell if this is totally because of the Whole30 because I go through cycles where I sleep just fine.  However, before I started I was in a particularly nasty cycle of sleeplessness, where I was up two or three times a night for hours at a time so, again, I am counting sleeping through the night a Whole30 win.

Last weekend I made some bbq sauce for pulled pork. I had a little sauce left over from that so I decided to make some ribs. I usually use a spice rub on my ribs before  I cook them but all my rub recipes have sugar in them so  I needed to find a new rib rub recipe.  I dare you to say that 10 times fast, ha!  I had the same problem finding a no added sugar rib rub recipe as I did finding a no sugar added bbq sauce recipe.  Every recipe said no sugar added then had honey, molasses, maple syrup or some kind of artifcial sweetner in it.  I did eventually find a couple to try.  I will post them as I try them.

No Sugar Added BBQ Spice Rub

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

2 TBS paprika

1 TBS garlic powder.

1 TBS onion powder

2 tsp kosher salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp allspice

1 1/2 tsp oregano

In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients together.  Store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place.  

BBQ Dry Rub

John Lennon said “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” Last week was  a perfect example of that.  I planned a series of posts for the week as I always do but a glitchy computer, a very ill rat, and several nights with about three hours of sleep a night kind of put an end to that.

I felt about bad not posting last week.  I cooked every day but it was just everyday comfort food. Not food that was not at all blog worthy or had already been put posted on the blog.  The only new, remotely interesting thing I tried  was  a new dry rub.

I was skeptical this rub would work with the large amount of salt and sugar but it is a very pleasant rub. The recipe has a large quantity left over. This is because I have decided to make this my general, all purpose rub.

• Difficulty: Easy
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Ingredients
7 TBS kosher salt
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 TBS onion powder
1 TBS garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
3/4 tsp crushed red pepper
3/4 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper

Combine all ingredients together, mix well. Store in an airtight container
In a cool, dark place.