This weekend, my wife and I attended the Texas Renaissance Festival, as is our tradition every year since we met. This was our 14th visit to the festival together, and also as is our tradition, we did it in costume. Last year, we went in Scottish garb; I wore the Marine Corps tartan kilt with accouterments while Sherry made her dress from a pattern of a traditional Scottish dress. Needless to say, we’ve both lost a lot of weight since last year, so we both needed to make adjustments.

For me, I had to buy a new shirt (down from XL to M) and a new kilt (down from 44 to 32). Fortunately, the belts were adjustable and everything else fit properly, if not better (like the socks which were not stretched over my over-sized calves). Sherry had to do more work, as her dress was handmade. She expertly took in the shirt and the dress and they both looked amazing on her!

We had a great time with our good friends Kenny and Elaine. We even had some cider and ate some of the fair food which consisted of sausage, red cabbage, and sweet potato tots. We even split an order of potato pancakes which were delicious! With all the walking we did, we both did great on the scale the next morning; she lost a pound while I stayed exactly the same weight as I was on Friday.

Eating Paleo at a festival like this is pretty easy as a lot of the foods are pretty basic. Sure, there are burgers, hot dogs, quesadillas, etc that are definitely not Paleo, but there were more Paleo-friendly foods than not, which was a nice change.

It’s okay to go out and have fun on Paleo, or even on your Whole30. Just be smart and make good decisions. Neither Sherry nor I felt like we couldn’t enjoy the festival in any way. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the more Paleo-friendly venues to visit. We highly recommend it (and stay for the fireworks show, but get a seat early).