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.

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. 

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.

Allow Me To Introduce Myself

My name is Christia. I have always struggled with my weight. Always thought I was too fat, too wide, too this, too that. After the birth of my third son, Owen- he’s 4, I decided to start running. My dad has run his first marathon and I thought, If he can run a full marathon, I can start running too. So, I did. I started with the Couch to 5K app. It’s amazing. If you have desires to learn to run, I can’t recommend it enough. I feel like I finally started to understand how my body works. Why counting calories worked. What foods were off limits for me. I set realistic goals and celebrated as I met them. I was making leaps towards fitness and then the unthinkable and completely unexpected happened. I got pregnant.

After my daughter, Emilia- she’s 2, was born I knew that there were certain things that would allow me to get back to my goal weight. Running worked. Counting calories worked. Eating lots of veggies worked. I knew what worked, or so I thought. I quickly shed the baby weight and was back to my pre-E-pregnancy weight quickly. I still wasn’t satisfied.

It wasn’t about the number on the scale. It was more about how I felt mentally. How I looked in the mirror. I didn’t, don’t, want to be skinny. I want to be healthy.

Fast forward to December 2014. I’d heard a lot about paleo, and whole 30 and thought that there was no way that I could successfully complete something like that. No dairy? No grains? No gluten? No sugar?!?!? No soy, either? What the heck could I eat then.

December 1st I decided I would do a whole 30. Holidays be damned. I was stronger than sugar cookies, and chocolate chip cookies, and candy canes and…well I mean you kind of get the picture, right? I wasn’t. It’s a horrible time to attempt my first w30. I did like a full 11 or 12 days before my husband’s work holiday party. They had beef wellington, I just ate the beef, none of that wellington. Salad, fresh veggies. I tried so hard to stay true to the plan. To not eat anything ‘bad’ for me and was doing pretty decently. Until dessert. They had coconut cake. My one biggest weakness in life is coconut anything. So I ate it. And I felt SO incredibly nauseous afterwards but did that stop me from a downhill slide right towards batches of sugar cookie dough? Nope.

January 1 I vowed to start again. This time I prepared by reading the entire book, It Starts With Food If you’re considering, even entertaining the idea, of starting or doing a Whole 30, I highly encourage you to read the book. It’s so good. So informative without being overwhelming. Scientific without being boring. It’s a good read and I’m so glad I did read it. It made the w30 seem doable, and worth it. To retrain my body into wanting real and wholesome food vs. manufactured and processed garbage.

Tomorrow I’ll share with you my progress. This is me. This is my journey. I’m trying to be whole.