The end of Whole30

Well, today would be day 30 on my Whole30 journey, BUT I decided to start reintroducing food groups today.  Why?? Well because my anxiety was getting the best of me.  Yesterday I pretty much had an on going anxiety attack. Why is my anxiety so high? Because I'm scared.  I'm scared that if I eat anything sweet that my sweet tooth will return IMMEDIATELY. I broke free of that already. And so some of you are saying, "well just stay away from the sweet stuff."  And that would be a great idea except that there is SUGAR in almost everything.  Seriously, take a look at your ingredient list.  Even bacon and lunch meat have sugar in it, so it is a slippery slope. 

So with yesterday being so bad I just decided to jump in.  So today I am reintroducing dairy.  I had some Pineapple Chobani for breakfast before Crossfit. 

And then on my way to work I stopped at Starbucks and got this: 

And no, that is not a black coffee.  It is a skinny Caramel Macchiato.  

So how do I feel right now.  Alright I guess.  The yogurt really didn't taste that good. And the macchiato didn't taste as good as I imagined.  This is a good thing.  It doesn't mean that I am going to go running to the nearest candy store and buy them out of Reese's Peanut butter cups. 

I really thought this would be me at the end. 

Now, I will admit that I do have a Reeses peanut butter egg with me.  Am I going to eat it??? Ummmm, I am not sure.  There is a part of me that wants to, mainly to see if I can eat it and say "well that is good, but I don't need another anytime soon." But then there is the worry that I will end up like this:

So there is that too.  But I don't want to live in Fear either.  So here is my plan as of right now.  If I get urge to eat it, then I will eat it.  If not, then it stays in my desk.  To be honest, I looking forward to Easter Sunday more than anything.  My family is getting together and there will be really good food.  So a part of me is telling me to just wait.  The good food is coming!! 

So there you have it. I made it 29 days.  I'm perfectly happy with that. The anxiety is pretty much gone.  Like I said, I'm still nervous about some foods, but it is much better than yesterday.  And what I am experiencing is pretty normal.  I think this is why some people go longer than 30 days.  There are people who do the Whole45,60,100!!!! They are my heroes. But you can read more on the anxiety of introducing foods here Whole30 day 29-3.  It explains why people have anxiety over this.  I think I let mine get a little out of control. But in the end the stress wasn't worth one more day. 

To be honest it really hasn't been that bad.  Other than the stress at the end and the headaches at the beginning. I will give a full review at the end of the week and what my plans are from here on out. 

Have a fabulous Monday!! 

That is R running during our walk last night.  We are doing something right with that kid!! He loves to be active! 

Good Changes

Well I am on day 22 of the Whole30 and I am feeling pretty amazing.  Here are some of the things that I have noticed in the last 22 days.

 - I don't crave chocolate or sweets. 

 - I don't need to eat every 3 hours. 

 - I sleep SO MUCH better

 - I have A LOT more energy

 - Less foggy

 - My muscle recovery is MUCH faster

 - My taste buds are changing for the better

Let me break these down a little bit more. 

Chocolate/Sweet Cravings

Like I said before, I would feel the need to buy candy at the store and then eat it on my way home.  I don't really miss that. I can go down the candy isle and not really feel a tug towards anything. To be honest I am scared that once I start reintroducing sugar to my food that those cravings will come back. 

Eating every 3 hours

So maybe one of the reasons I don't crave sweets is because I am not hungry ALL the time.  Before the Whole30 I was fueling my body with crap (just being honest). I thought having a Luna bar in the morning would get me to noon. NOT HAPPENING! Now I eat my breakfast at 5:00 am and I'm not really hungry till 11:00 or noon. I also don't get light headed or shaky if I go more than 4 hours of eating. I didn't realize how bad that was until it went away. I don't want it to EVER come back. 

Sleep!!! Everyone loves sleep!

I fall asleep so much faster now and when I do sleep, I sleep hard! I love it.  Before this, I would be a light sleeper and had a hard time falling asleep.  Those days are gone.  When my head hits the pillow I have to struggle to keep my eyes open (I like to play on my phone before bed, but I almost can't do that now). I also find it easier to get up in the morning for my 5:30 am workouts too. 

Energy

Now, I don't have the energy that I was hoping to gain from this. I was hoping I would be that crazy lady just running a million miles an hour, didn't happen.   But I do have a lot more than I did pre-whole30. This is with only having one cup of coffee in the morning. If I have 2 cups it is usually because I'm treating the second one as a treat. If there is something that I want to eat, but can't then I have my second cup of coffee.  That doesn't happen very often though.  

Foggy

I feel that I can concentrate on things better. Now, I do think there is still room for improvement here, but it has gotten better. I am hoping to see a little more improvement by day 30. 

Muscle recovery

I started going back to crossfit at the end of week 2 and I will say the soreness in my legs and arms doesn't linger around like it before.  I still get sore, but day 2 would be when things would get pretty painful.  Now once I get through day 1 of soreness it is pretty much gone by day 2. A huge plus.  Also, I worked really hard today and I don't feel that sore at all. I think all the protein and water is helping with that. 

Taste Buds

The things that I find AMAZING I probably only thought they were okay before.  And certain things don't seem so appealing anymore.   One of the things that I use to love to eat was bread with some butter on it.  I don't really want that any more.  I would rather have some fruit or something with guacamole, or nothing because I am not hungry. 

Here are some of my favorite things right now

I threw some chicken breasts in a crock pot along with some Frank's hot sauce with Apple cider vinegar and Ghee (basically made buffalo chicken). This picture is actually of left overs which I scrambled eggs and threw the chicken in it.  Then put some homemade ranch on it (see below).  this is my FAVORITE meal right now.  I honestly could eat it for every meal. SOO GOOD! 

Homemade Ranch.  I wish I would have made this earlier.  It is so good.  I am still surprised that I made it. 

Baked Plaintains and guacamole. So stinking yummy.  I usually have this if I can't come up with a good side dish. 

R is always one of my favorite things.  But I love how cute the dogs are with him. Gobi really wanted his mac n cheese.  Kali could care less. haha. 

I love the sunsets from our house.  Especially now that the warmer weather is here. 

That is all I got for ya.  I hope your Monday is going GREAT. Just think Easter is right around the Corner!! How on Earth did that happen, I feel like we are breezing through March. 

What are some of your favorite things right now?? 

What a difference a year makes.

Although we have not had them for a year, the pups will be turning a year old on Saturday.  CRAZY I know.  It seems like yesterday they were like this:

Now they are all:

Whew, it has been a long road though. 

Let me first tell you the story of how we ended up with TWO puppies. 

After Sahara died (this statement still brings tears to my eyes, I miss her dearly!) the house was REALLY quiet.  I dreaded coming home from work.  This is huge for me because I LOVE to be at home. 

I really thought we would need a puppy ASAP for R because that kid was connected to Sahara at the hip. 

I love this one.  He was always hanging on her some how. 

But any ways, I thought R would have the hardest time with her being gone. BTW he was not there with us when she passed, it was just Jed and I.  I didn't think he would understand what was going on. For crying out loud it was devastating to me, I can only imagine what would have been going through his head if he had been there to see it. 

But to my surprise, that kid bounced right back.  I actually thought about NOT having a dog for a while.  But the house was just too quiet, it didn't feel like home any more.  This had me depressed for a while. 

So I asked around to see if anyone had any yellow labs.  I had mixed feelings about getting another lab but in the end the fact that Sahara was a lab won me over. So a lab it was.  I found a litter about an 1 1/2 hours away.  This worked out great because R and I would be in Omaha for my nephew's birthday and we could come back through that town to pick up the puppy.  I was pretty excited. 

While R and I were busy celebrating my husband had time to think about things and thought it was a GREAT idea to get 2 puppies. His argument was that we hated leaving Sahara at home all day by herself. This is true, I hated leaving her at the house all day by herself, she seemed so sad whenever I got ready to leave. :( Once again I think that dog thought she was human. haha. Maybe it is because we treated her that way. 

So I thought about this and my answer was "we are not ready for 2 PUPPIES." And my husband's response was "Think about it over night, before you make any real decisions." I promised him I would think about it.  And I did, and I came up with the same answer, we weren't ready for 2 puppies. 

So R and I hit the road back home and arrived at the house where the puppies were at.  There were 2 puppies left. And well, it broke my heart to leave one behind. So I asked if I could buy the second one. And of course they said YES. So now we have 2 dogs. 

And here is what they have been up to since that day:

This was their first day at our house. So small!!

Oh these two LOVE to wrestle.  They still do. But back then, they were so rough. They would cut each other up with those puppy teeth. 

Tried leash training, that didn't work very well. We need to get back to doing that. 

first car ride. 

It is so HOT outside. She was the first one to figure out that vent blew out nice cold air. 

They learned to sit pretty early.  Although at this point they only want to sit unless they know you have food. Smart dogs. 

Gobi (male) loves his toys and loves to cuddle with them. 

They still lay like that a lot. Kali (female) will eventually move, she likes her space.  But at some point, Gobi will go find her and basically lay on her.  It is pretty comical to watch them.

Kali trying to help Jed out in the barn. (I think she secretly wants to go for a ride)

And they LOVE to play with R and vice versa. They use to knock him over all the time, but they have gotten a little better about that. 

R loves laying with them.  He use to do this with Sahara too. 

Yep, they ended up at the Shelter for running off. We bailed them out, but they now how a different collar to keep them at home.  What rascals. 

one of their many victims. Sigh. 

Another victim.

Gobi thought our friend needed some company. 

Photo bomb. 

We named them Kali (short for Kalahari Desert) and Gobi (Gobi Desert), we thought we would keep up the tradition. 

It has been an adventure, that is for sure.  They have been a lot of work, but I can't imagine our house without them now. 

Happy Birthday Kali and Gobi!!!! 

Confession time

So we had a wedding to go to on Saturday. And to be honest I almost had a full on panic attack thinking about this day.  

1.) There would be non-compliant Whole30 food.

2.) There would be alcohol &

3.) CAKE!!!

So come Saturday morning, I started to think about the food I could take with me. I did a pretty good job, I took a Lara Bar, A red bell pepper, and baked plantains with Guacamole (which by the way is freaking amazing, one of my new favorite foods.) 

I was starting to feel better as we headed that way (it was an hour and 45 minute drive). I did good the whole way there and through the wedding. Then came the dreaded reception where all the food and alcohol would be. 

So let me start with the Good.  My eating was on point and I did GREAT in that area.  Where I failed was in the adult beverage section. I broke. I had 2 margaritas and a glass of wine, WOMP WOMP.  

I felt pretty bad about it. And then I thought of all the improvements I have made in the last  13 days. I have done pretty darn awesome. So instead of just saying "Oh f@ck it, I'm quitting and eating what ever I want." I actually said "Okay, I hit a bump in the road, but I am NOT falling off this wagon." And that is what I did.  I woke up Sunday and made my breakfast and then joined my family at IHOP where they all had pancakes, eggs, and french toast.  I had a bowl of fruit. Not easy, but it was much easier to say no to that than the cake from the night before, I REALLY WANTED THAT CAKE! I'm still impressed that I said no! 

The rest of the day went just as well as breakfast did.  Then I woke up this morning and went to Crossfit. Yep, I started to add that back in. I went twice last week and I'm hoping to make it 4 times this week. But I feel great. I'm not going to fret about the 3 drinks I had this weekend.  I should technically start over, but my mind can't handle that right now. So I'm going to keep going. I'm thinking that sometime this fall I will do another one and hopefully that round I will have a PERFECT Whole30.  

 I am starting to feel the good energy coming from this program.  I am also not as hungry as I use to be.  I don't need to snack. I woke up at 5:00 am this morning and had my breakfast (boiled egg, a homemade sausage patty, and a quarter of a bell pepper) and wasn't hungry until about 11:30 am.  I didn't get light headed (which was something I was experiencing before starting this). I felt pretty great. I still do.  So I'm going to keep going. 

I did have fun at the wedding.  It was pretty emotional, but I'm glad I went. I'm not going to go into it much, but this was probably one of the hardest wedding I have ever been too.  I kept having flash backs of another VERY BEAUTIFUL wedding. So many emotions. But in the end happiness is all I felt. I'm happy for the newly weds and I hope that their marriage is full of laughter and great memories. They are a great couple. 

This is me, Emily (Cousin of the Groom), and my lovely mom!! 

Then this happened today

Don't worry, they were for work and I had a total of ZERO pieces! Pizza is a huge weakness for this girl. But not today.  It didn't even smell good. 

So there you have it.  The honest truth. Some people would say "No one needs to know all the dirty details" But I think they do.  This isn't a very easy diet (I hate using that word, but it is hard to NOT use it). I want to be completely honest with you folks because this is here for me and if I can't be honest here then why do I keep writing. So I want you guys to know it is HARD.  It is hard to constantly say no.  It is.  I am human and I made a mistake this weekend, but I'm not going to let one little mistake ruin my Whole30.  I may even do 31 days to make up for that one.  No I don't plan on drinking through out the rest of my 30 days.  It was a mistake that I don't plan on making again. My goal these days are: To be better today than I was yesterday! So here is to that! 

Have a great week everyone. Today is day 15, I'm officially at my halfway point.  Here is to another 15 great days!! 

#whole30 #day11

Well..............................................................

I fell off the wagon

JOKING!

Nope, not this time.  I am on day 11 of the Whole30 program and to be honest life isn't so bad.

This last weekend wasn't all that great, it was HARD to say no to certain things, but I made it!!!

Here are some of my favorite things to eat right now.

This is one of my favorites right now, I did NOT eat the pickles, they are not compliant. 

I learned how to make homemade hash browns for this breakfast. And it was worth it, I wish I would have learned to do that earlier because it was EASY and yummy.

Just a simple Chicken Salad with salsa instead of dressing. It was okay, but I think next time I will make some ranch dressing and put that on there. 

This is Reid having Popcorn.  I LOVE POPCORN. We went into Target and Reid wanted popcorn. I asked myself "Can I handle this?" YEP. So Reid had popcorn and I had NONE! A HUGE WIN FOR ME!!!! 

So let's talk about what I am missing/craving!

A latte from Starbucks sounds about heavenly right now. 

 Oh How I miss sitting outside with one of these babies in my hand. I know I sound like an alcoholic, but there is something about having a beer after a long day of work. 

Oh Reese's, you and I have a love-hate relationship.  I love to EAT you, but I HATE how you make me feel. 

The reality of all of this.  Do I miss those items, yes. BUT not as much as I thought I would. It has been pretty empowering to say NO. I hold my head up high walking past the end cap of Reese's peanut butter eggs.  I feel amazing when I wake up in the morning, not sluggish from the 2 or 3 beers that I had the night before. And I no longer NEED that second cup of coffee in the afternoon.  I am down to one cup in the morning and that is it.  I also don't need the sugary stuff in my coffee anymore, it is just coffee now.  These are all amazing things.  I use to go to the grocery store and buy Reese's peanut butter eggs and eat them before I got home.  And yes I said them, I would buy 2 and eat them both in less than 10 minutes.  That is sad! I use to think I was more fun or relaxed if I had a few drinks.  Not the case.  I'm pretty awesome without it! And last but not least I would reward myself with frothy goodness from Starbucks. You have all seen this before, right?  Well it is true. 

Now let me explain something first.  I believe there is something to be said for:

Going to the gym 4-5 days a week and working hard

Nailing your diet/dietary goals for the week

Hitting your weigh in goals 

At this point if you want to go have pizza on Saturday and some beers, then go do IT!! 

My problem would be: 

Go to the gym

Then find something yummy to eat!! 

(EVERY TIME) 

OR 

Yay, I reach that deadline at work. Now I deserve that latte from Starbucks. after missing my workout that morning. 

NO!!!! I think for me, if I reach any kind of goal, small or large, I would reward myself with food and drinks. That isn't necessary. There are other ways to reward yourself, like clothing, shoes, gym accessories, new lip gloss, a pedicure, etc. Some people reward themselves with little things and then I have seen people set a big goal and then reward themselves with big rewards like vacations and expensive purses. I personally have a hard time setting a goal and a reward for meeting that goal. I think this is something I need to work on. So here is to day 12 being better than day 11!! I feel like it keeps getting better from this point on.  I CAN DO THIS!!! 

What do you reward yourself with?? 

Whole30 update: day 3

Oh Man, yesterday was booger. I'm glad that one is in the books. I did really good, but man was I grumpy. It is also that time of the month so I really don't think it had to do with my food, more like my hormones. But I will say this, I am pretty darn proud of myself because normally I would have had a glass or two of wine.  That thought never really crossed my mind last night. SO YAY to me.  I know, small step but hey it is step.

Today so far has been completely different.  I feel pretty darn amazing!!! (note to self, re-read this when things get rough). On day 2 and 3 they say you may wake up feeling like you are hung over.  I have NOT had this happen yet. It is your body's way of detoxing the sugar and other crap.  I am pretty thankful to not have this happen. Here is what I should feel like the next few days:

I feel like day 4-5 is what I was experiencing last night, but like I said I think it was more hormones than anything because I wasn't mad because I couldn't eat the stuff R and Jed were having.  It was more annoying because everything seemed so darn hectic. I couldn't concentrate on one thing at a time, instead I was needed in about 4 places at once.  I hate when that happens. BTW - I had spaghetti but instead of noodles I had spaghetti squash.  If you are interested in doing a Whole30 remember to get sugar free spaghetti sauce if you aren't making it yourself. It was actually really good, I couldn't tell the difference to be honest. Jed didn't even notice that I changed the sauce, so I would say that is a win. 

Another win for me is, Wait for it..................................................

I had straight black coffee!!! SHUT UP!?!?!?!

Yep, that is right.  I can drink my coffee without creamer, milk, sugar, etc. It isn't the most AWESOME thing in the world, but it is okay.  So I'm pretty happy with that. 

So there is my update. I hope everyone is having an excellent Wednesday.  If you aren't, then cheer up because for those folks in KS our weather is getting ready to warm up!!! YAY!!

Adios muchachos. 

Hello again

I am going to TRY to keep this short and sweet.  I have not blogged in FOREVER, but hey that is okay. I have been going through some stuff this last year and to be honest I have been busy. I wasn't sure that I would ever blog again, but here I am.

So the reason I am writing this is because I am starting the Whole 30 program TODAY. You can get more information here http://whole30.com/  This is a pretty strict diet for 30 days. Here is the list of no no's for the month:

•  No added sugar of any kind, real or artificial
• No alcohol in any form
• No grains
• No Legumes
• No Dairy
• No carrageenan, MSG or sulfites
• and No re-created baked goods, junk food, or treats with "approved" ingredients. 

This won't be easy, but I fill like I owe this to myself. The reason I am doing the Whole 30 is because I honestly feel like I have a food allergy, but the problem is I don't know what it is.  At the end of the day I am so bloated that I am completely uncomfortable, I have constant headaches, My head feel foggy at times, sleeping at night is inconsistent, and I feel tired all the time. From what I have read I truly believe this is the best way to see if I am allergic to gluten, dairy, or certain forms of sugar.  I honestly don't know which it is.  At the end of the Whole 30 you slowly add these things back into your diet and you see how your body reacts. To be honest, that is what I'm looking forward to the most, I want to know what it is that makes me feel so bad. 

There are other reasons I would like to complete this.  I would like to lose some weight and be in better shape.  I am still going to Crossfit, but not as often as I would like. With that said, I totally forgot to weigh myself this morning or take any measurements.  I will try to do that tomorrow. There are also other reasons why I would like to complete this program, but they are a little too personal. There are somethings I am not ready to explain to all my friends and family yet. It isn't anything horrible or life threatening, but it something I have been dealing with for a while now and I am hoping that this program will help me achieve the goals and dreams that I have.  

I am going to do my BEST to keep you guys updated on how things are going.  I know this isn't going to be easy, but I think I can I do this.  It is only 30 days, right?!?!? My family won't be doing this with me so I will have to find recipes that I can incorporate their food with mine.  There will be nights that I make something and the whole family will eat it and there will be nights when I just add rice or spaghetti to their plates. I realize this isn't for everybody so that is why I am not forcing this on anyone. If I make something amazing, I will definitely let you know.  For the most part I am going to keep things pretty simple. 

My hope is that with blogging again this will help me stay on track these next 30 days. Ohhh and if you are on my instagram feed and all you see are food pics, I apologize for that in advance.  It helps me stay excited about the food choices I am making. I think I am going to need all the help and motivation I can get.  Wish Me luck!!!