Post Whole30 update and other announcements

Well Hello there.  It has been a hot minute since I have posted anything.  Yeah, life gets in the way from time to time.

What I really want to accomplish with this post is my ideas, results, advise on the Whole30.  Also, some fun news after the whole30 business.

In March I did the whole30 and it was HARD.  (That's what she said, hahahaha.  Are people still saying that??) Any who.  I made it. I am still alive and no long term damage done.  Actually no damage at all.  No harm was done to Jessica during the whole30.  (isn't that the message they put at the end of movie or commercial explaining that no animals were harmed during a movie). I am getting way off track here.

So how was it?? Well it sucked to be honest.  Anytime you restrict yourself so much it is going to suck, AT FIRST.  By the end things weren't so hard, they got a little blah, but things got easier. I did have some serious anxiety about reintroducing food, which you can read Here.  I did reintroduce a day earlier.  Big whoop.  If I do it again, I will go the whole 30 days.  But whatever.

The big question is: Would I do it again??? In a heart beat. Why?? keep reading.

My results, well I lost 9 pounds altogether.  I wish I would have taken a pic, but to be honest at the beginning I didn't think I would make it to the 30 days to take an after pic.  I need to work on this confidence thing!! But I Learned that I can say NO to food.  What a revelation that was.  I also realized that I don't have to have that creamer crap in my coffee, guess what folks, Coffee still works if you don't put creamer in it!! I haven't had McDonalds in over 50 days (say what?!?!?!?). I don't miss it. Not even a little. I was in a rut and all about convenience. When you are in that place you need something drastic and for ME it was Whole30. The other thing, I am no longer scared of my oven, stove, kitchen, recipe books, health food isle, weird spices, etc. My confidence grew in the Kitchen.  I will try anything now. Before I hated cooking and would be perfectly happy buying fast food, but because I have a son and think that eating out every meal isn't acceptable for a 4 year old, I would cook.  Now I not only cook for the well being of R, but for myself as well. We still eat out, but not as often. Which doesn't suck!

But the biggest thing I learned is what to eat and what not to eat.  I learned that dairy and I don't get a long.  Let's take a moment to let that sink in.

Folks I LOVE dairy.  It is the truth.  But by the end of the day of my reintroduction of dairy my stomach was so pissed off at me. It was ridiculous.  BUT I did learn that if I take it easy on the dairy aka cheese, I can have a little from time to time.  I notice that Gluten fills me up and makes me a little uncomfortable if I eat too much. Needless to say, Paleo diet here I come. 

Yep that is going to me for a while.  I should say that my focus is 80% Paleo and 20 percent what ever I want to eat. 

I got a little crazy this last week and I felt it. My stomach as been all out of whack. Sigh. So this week I am focusing on getting back to a majority of my meals being paleo. It doesn't break my heart. I have some favorites that I go to when I feel like I'm being deprived. 

YUMMMMY! Sweet potatoe fries (I guess that is what you call them.) I slice up a sweet potato and put some Ghee in there and fry them babies up.  SO GOOD.  I do sprinkle some salt on them once I am done.  R loves them too! So double win. 

Buffalo Chicken with scramble eggs.  This will always be a favorite of mine. 

 homemade Ranch!! Love!! I make this stuff once a week. In fact I need to make more of this.  I also had a friend tell me that she loves it too, that she can't taste the difference. So see, it isn't just us Whole30 folks who like this stuff. Here is the link for the recipe: Whole30 Ranch 

 Carnitas.  I actually took the meat off the peppers and ate them with out.  The meat was so good on it's own.  A friend told me she used chicken.  I will be trying that this week too. Recipe Here

Plantains and guacamole.  I think we need to buy stock in Wholy Guacamole because I buy enough to support the whole company.  I love this stuff, especially the homestyle kind.  

As of right this second my cheat schedule will be on Friday nights when I am stuffing my face with pizza.  I love pizza and I always will. So that is my cheat meal.  I don't really miss bread or sandwiches any more.  I can do without. But ask me to completely give up Beer and Pizza and I might just punch you. Seriously, I might.  I also noticed if I eat more paleo food than not, then having a beer or two doesn't really bug me.  So that is a HUGE plus is my books. Oh also add in a starbucks latte with coconut milk on Friday mornings. Friday at lunch I keep it pretty clean, but you better watch out Friday night because my face will be in a pizza. 

I do plan on doing another whole30 this fall.  My guess is the second one will be a little easier, but I could be wrong.  It might be harder. If anyone is interested in partaking in the whole30 with me just let me know!! Or if you are interested in doing one now or soon please let me know and I would LOVE to cheer you on or share recipes with you.  

I also have some exciting news. 

Too Much?!?!?!?!?! 

Sorry, but I love them all.  

Okay so the big news is ..............................................

Yeah I might have built that up too much.  Any who.  I had my first Jamberry party and I feel in love with them.  So now I want to help share them with you and your family and friends. If you have ever wondered what they were or how they held up please let me know and I would happy to send you some samples or better yet help YOU host a party. They are awesome and they hold up so much better than nail polish. 

These are my nails after 5 days and a CROSSFIT competition.  Folks, I am not easy on my nails.  But these last and I LOVE it.  So if you are interested you can always get ahold of me via e-mail at jessicadavis228@gmail.com or you can look at my website at Jessica has pretty nails.  Tell me what you think.  Also you can order directly from that site if you would like to.  They keep things pretty simple which is one thing that I LOVE about this company already. 

Well folks that is all I got for you today.  I will try to write another post on how my FIRST CROSSFIT competition went.  But I don't think you guys can handle any more information today. 

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!!!!