Lazy Daisy

i don't know what happened. I mean, I do. Life. We are selling our home. We are moving to FL in less than a month. Barry works a lot. I can give you a gazillion reasons but not one valid one. I've been lazy. I've been distracted. I've put myself on the back burner. My diet has been out of control. My exercise nearly non existent. I've put on a few pounds in the month since we have been home from Florida.

I'm commuting now to be better. Not perfect, because perfection doesn't exist. I am going to run tonight. After the kids are in bed I will take that time that I usually spend doing who knows what and focus on me. I know it'll be hard. I will be discouraged because I used to be so much faster, stronger, have so much more endurance.

I know that I will be stronger after running than I am now. I will feel better. Have more focus. Sleep better. For me if I exercise my diet follows. One without the other doesn't work.

Tonight I have a date with my treadmill and that lifetime movie I dvr'd.

Let's talk about...

...joint pain.

So, this weekend was a horrible weekend for eating. I didn't even track my food. It was THAT bad.  It involved lots of fast food, hotels and energy drinks. My husband had drill in Jefferson City and our house was on the market and we had expected lots of traffic.

Yesterday I noticed my hand felt tight. It's hard to explain. Not a shooting pain through my hand but more of a dull and consistent ache. Is this gluten? Has gluten/dairy/disgusting processed food caused this? I'm kind of feeling like there's a connection.

A friend from my due date club with Emilia started a whole 30 on May 1 and I decided to join her. Obviously starting today, 5/4. I need to restart. I need to recharge and now that my house is pending inspection I feel like I have that time. I have a bunch of delicious meals planned for this week.

So tell me, have you noticed a decrease in joint pain since starting a whole or almost whole diet? What other health improvement have you seen as a result of this way of life?

I personally noticed a better quality of sleep. I slept hard. I had more energy for exercising, living, cooking. I really need to tap into that reserve as we plan our move to Florida.

Mental Health?

I had a girls night last night. It was terribly needed. I went to the mall with Mariah. We pretty much talked about Florida the whole night.  

We shopped a little. 

Thank you forever 21 for making me feel like a 27 year old again. I totally got all three of these things! (Sidenote, I swear the yellow top is actually cute IRL. It doesn't photograph well!)

Then we ate. A lot. 

I had diet coke. Chips and salsa. Guac (Totes w30). and a chimichanga. 

So good. And it was so needed. Today will be spent hiking with my kids. Eating celery and water. Kidding. 

Breafast yesterday was 2 hard boiled eggs, clementine, 5 prunes and coffee.

Lunch-salmon with lemon, rosemary dill, potatoes and onions, broccoli and blueberries!

w16d3&4

Yesterday, my husband was home. Like all day.

He's a 3rd year family medicine resident. He's also in the Army National Guard and moonlights at urgent care. He's NEVER home. So we spent the day doing what normal people do. Weeding, repairing door knobs, and hinges, and folding doors. I mean that's totally what normal people do on their only day off, right? Thought so. (Operation House On The Market!!!)

I took pictures of my foods, and yesterday was kind of a bad food day. I was also having some gastro distress...too much Natural Calm.

Wednesday-Day 3 (Mostly compliant!)

Breakfast was 4 Jones Natural Sausages (not pictured because they were cooking and I was STARVING), 2 hard boiled eggs, a cutie and 5 prunes.

Lunch was spent at Ikea. I was pretty excited about a compliant-ish meal. I didn't eat the brown rice but grilled chicken over mixed greens, cucumber and grape tomatoes. Bowl of fruit including grapefruit, pineapple and orange.

Dinner was rotisserie chicken from Costco shredded with a whole cucumber, salt, a littttttle pepper ;), and balsamic vinegar. It was delish. Also the chicken is being buried by the cucumbers. I promise that there is a lot of chicken in there.

Thursday-Day 4....

It started off great! 3 eggs scrambled with mushrooms and cholula sauce, a cutie and 4 Jones sausages. 

Barry brought Chipotle home. How can I say no to the deliciousness? I mean I know corn isn't compliant but he didn't...I totally ate the delicious corn. (And as an effort of full disclosure 10 of the kids' corn chips because they're delicious and were about to get thrown away!!!)

Dinner was salmon with lemon, dill, and rosemary. Steamed broccoli and lemon onion and potato.

Snacks....this is where I went OFF the rails. I had saved 2 snack size/mini Coconut Twix that I'd purchased after Easter. Those who know me know that coconut is my weakness. When dinner was cooking I ate those because I was dying. Then the sweets floodgates were opened. I had a handful of Reeses Pieces Eggs and finished off my pint of Ben & Jerry's The Tonight Dough. (That ice cream is Jackie's fault...)

Back at it today. My intestines feel less angry, so that's a definite plus! I'm thankful that I don't feel sick from my short ride on the wild side. 

w16d2

Day 2 is in the books!

Successful and oh man, my dinner was so good.

Breakfast- 2 hard boiled eggs, cutie and 5 prunes and 4 Jones Sausages*. (black coffee)

Lunch-Leftover stuffed pepper stuffings and mixed green salad with olive oil & balsamic vinegar. Added copious amounts of salt and pepper.

Dinner was an experiment. 

I chopped up 2 white potatoes and 1 sweet potato and 1 sweet onion and lined the bottom of my cast iron casserole pan. Coconut oil first, then onions, white potatoes, sweet potatoes. I seasoned them with salt, pepper, paprika and red pepper flakes. And then put in the chicken breasts. Seasoned them with salt, pepper, paprika and red pepper flakes and cooked for an hour at 375º. It. Was. Delicious.

I had 1/4 cup of mixed nuts and banana as a snack.

*So here's my thing. Could I make my own sausage that's 100% compliant? Yes. Do I really have time to do that? No. So I compromise and eat these sausages and call them close enough to compliant. The ingredients are as follows: pork, water, salt, spices, sugar. So judge my compliant-ness if you will but these make my life easy and they're delicious.

As promised. Here are my w16 BEFORE pictures :) I am excited to see the progress I can make in these two weeks. 

I see things that I wish weren't there but most of all I see the progress I've made.  One day I'll share my true before pictures. Even though that's not me anymore they are still hard and make me feel extremely vulnerable. 

Whole 16

We are moving to Florida! OMG! It still doesn't seem real. In less than 90 days we will be moving. My husband and I leave in 2 weeks for a kid free house hunting trip! I don't think it comes as any surprise that I want to be in decent shape and feel confident while we are there! I decided to do another whole 16...I can't commit to eating 100% whole while we are traveling but I sure can commit to being as healthy as possible before.

Yesterday was day 1 and despite an almost automatic drive through experience I maintained a whole day.

Breakfast was 2 hardboiled eggs, a cutie and 5 prunes.

Lunch was rotisserie chicken and cucumber. (It also looks like not a lot of chicken but it's hidden under the cucumber!)

Dinner was Practical Paleo stuffed peppers. (SO SO SO good! I love that cookbook so much!)

Snacks, not pictured, banana and 1/4 cup of unsalted mixed nuts (almonds, cashew, pecan, pistachio)

I will post my w16 'before' pictures later today! 

New Goals-Update-Revalations

So, last time I posted I was having trouble figuring out SMART Goals for the next 8 weeks. I came up with a few thanks to the help of some of my good friends.

1. Perfect Points.
Not only is it achievable and based solely on my choices. Perfect points refers to the 8 week challenge group I'm a part of. There are certain categories you must meet each day. Enough water, exercise 45 minutes/day 5 days a week, eat 3 servings of vegetables a day, 2 servings of fruit, keep a food journal (I use My Fitness Pal- ChristiaP add me!), and contact with a team mate each day. (I think there are more but I can't remember off the top of my head.) You get BONUS points for perfect point weeks and we have a HUGE pot to split between the top winners.

2. Improve my endurance.
I've been running for years now but I'm not getting any faster. I dreamed that I had run a 5K with a 9:31 pace. So now that's my goal.

3. Stop obsessing over what the scale says.
Pretty self explanatory. The numbers displayed on the scale do not define me. I define me.

That's what I have for now. I'll probably change or tweak these as the weeks go by.

Now for the update.   2 weeks ago I was dx with strep throat. (Right at the start of the challenge, yay me.) I finished my antibiotics on Tuesday and had a rash on my foot Tuesday night. Wednesday night it was incredibly itchy and miserable and by Thursday it was covering my arms and legs. Apparently I'm allergic to keflex. So that's been fun.

My big boys' birthdays are 3/16 (Julian) and 2/27 (Gabriel) and we had a joint Minecraft birthday party for them yesterday. I tried to stay strong and resist all of my favorite treats but I just couldn't. I consumed more than a few of my coveted Swedish Fish, a tiny sliver of chocolate cake, and 2 slices of pizza. (I ate healthy for breakfast and lunch...) I am trying to find balance. Eating strict w30 every day of my life isn't exactly realistic for long term. I'm trying to find what works and what doesn't work for me.

I know for a fact I have an unhealthy relationship with sugar. I mean the fact that I couldn't say no to Swedish Fish is a huge red flag for me. I know I get bloated as heck when I eat foods with gluten. Corn seems to bother me. I've not done straight dairy dairy since my first whole, but I've done bleu cheese with no impact as well as some regular cheddar. I think it's about finding a balance point where you're still eating whole, healthy foods and also able to enjoy life.

That's all for now. I'm attempting to blog more regularly so we'll see if that actually happens.

Maybe a DITL of me. Because I know you're curious.