A new kind of yum!

Growing up at dinner time you'd find my plate about 1/4 meat, 1/4 vegetable (usually starchy), 1/2 starch and that was the formula I stuck with until I started to educate myself.

Times certainly have changed and I wanted to share with you the recipes that have been keeping me whole30 compliant this week.

Also, I must mention that today is day #6 of my whole30 challenge and I've been sleeping like an absolute baby and waking up feeling extremely well rested. 

I'm also beyond excited that I can now make proper zucchini noodes (zoodles) because The Beef got me this for my birthday. 

Italian Breakfast Bake

So easy in the morning before work when I don't have much time, I just take it out of the freezer, put it in the microwave for 3 minutes and I'm good to go. 

Thai Curry

My absolute favorite thing so far, and the dish that introduced me to my newest addiction of ricing cauliflower.

Crockpot Sausage & Peppers

I've always been in for any opportunity that lets me eat spaghetti squash and this is no exception. It was really hard finding whole30 compliant sausage but totally worth it. Thank you Whole Foods! 

Cauliflower rice & Avocado scramble

I made this one myself because I had things I needed to use in the house, it's 2 eggs, half an avocado and a fistful of cauliflower rice. It's light, delicious and kept me energized and full during 2 hours of working out.

A new way of life.

A few things happened around me recently that set off an amazing chain of events that I know I will be so grateful for in the future.

1) I started to care about my level of fitness.

2) A good friend of mine turned 30 and embraced it as a welcome new beginning, not a negative.

(Today is my 29th birthday.)

3) Curiosity finally got the best of me and I researched the paleo diet*.

[* I say diet as in this is the food I eat, not diet as in I'm going on a diet.]

Off the recommendation of my favorite paleovangelist I read The Paleo Coach which I felt like was directed at me personally. Hungry for more I picked up It Starts with Food where I found concepts that made so much sense to me that I have purchased several copies of the book to gift to loved ones. 

After suffering my entire life with digestive issues I finally feel like I'm doing something right. I feel like a million bucks. I also don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

Now there's something I must mention, if I hadn't spent the last few months investing so much time into my body fitness wise I'm not sure how I would have taken to changing my eating habits. After seeing what my body is capable when I push it I have so much respect for it and myself. This is a mindset that it took me almost 29 years to come by, before that any dietary changes I tried to make never stuck for long.

I'm a very all or nothing person, I have trouble with grey areas so I decided that if I was going to go paleo than I was going to go all the way. Enter the whole 30 challenge. Created by the authors of It Starts with Food it's been the perfect spring board for me. Their tough love attitude hooked me right away. What jumped right off of the pages for me was this:

Here comes the tough love. This is for those of you who are considering taking on this life-changing month, but aren’t sure you can actually pull it off, cheat free, for a full 30 days. This is for the people who have tried this before, but who “slipped” or “fell off the wagon” or “just HAD to eat (fill in food here) because of this (fill in event here).” This is for you.

It is not hard. Don’t you dare tell us this is hard. Quitting heroin is hard. Beating cancer is hard. Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard. You won’t get any coddling, and you won’t get any sympathy for your “struggles”. YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE not to complete the program as written. It’s only thirty days, and it’s for the most important health cause on earth – the only physical body you will ever have in this lifetime.

Don’t even consider the possibility of a “slip”. Unless you physically tripped and your face landed in a box of doughnuts, there is no “slip”. You make a choice to eat something unhealthy. It is always a choice, so do not phrase it as if you had an accident. Commit to the program 100% for the full 30 days. Don’t give yourself an excuse to fail before you’ve even started.

You never, ever, ever HAVE to eat anything you don’t want to eat. You’re all big boys and girls. Toughen up. Learn to say no (or make your Mom proud and say, “No, thank you”). Learn to stick up for yourself. Just because it’s your sister’s birthday, or your best friend’s wedding, or your company picnic does not mean you have to eat anything. It’s always a choice, and we would hope that you stopped succumbing to peer pressure in 7th grade.

This does require a bit of effort. If you’re cutting out grains, legumes and dairy for the first time, you have to replace those calories with something. You have to make sure you’re eating enough, that your nutrients are plentiful, that you’re getting enough protein, fat and carbohydrates. You’ll have to figure out what to eat for lunch, how to order at a restaurant and how often you’ll need to grocery shop. We’ve given you all the tools, guidelines and resources you’ll need, but take responsibility for your own plan. Improved health and fitness doesn’t happen automatically just because you’re now taking a pass on bread.

You can do this. You’ve come too far to back out now. You want to do this. You need to do this. And we believe that you can do this. So stop thinking about it, and start doing. Right now, this very minute, tell someone that you are starting the Whole30. Tell your spouse, tell your best friend, commit on ourWhole30 forum and prove to us – and yourself – that you are committed.

It is exactly the way I need to be spoken to when I'm feeling receptive and I've soaked it all up like a sponge. I care so much about this and have let it become so important to me that I stayed on the program during my birthday, where we had a celebration at a bar because I planned ahead and I don't need to consume alcohol or eat crap "food" to have a good time. 

So be prepared because I have many new recipes to share with you!

My thoughts on weddings.

The above picture was my response to a text message stating "I'm guess that you weren't one of those girls who pinned a pillow case to her head and pretended to be a bride as a child."

I realize that when talking about weddings I often come off as a jerk insulting everyone I know. Honestly, I don't mean to. It just so happens that my personal philosophy is that weddings are a waste of time and money. It's my opinion  I'm not judging you, I'm just saying it's not for me. If I stroll into a court house and give them $30 I am just as married as someone who threw a $100,000 wedding so why should I put in all that time, money and effort?

That being said I've already had to swear to my mother that I will not elope. This is a shame because I have a really great secret pinterest board full of really fun elopement destinations and ideas.

I love my mother to death but if it was just her request I'd probably still be eloping. However, it takes two to tango and I'm not the only one getting married, The Beef gets a say too. He doesn't want to start our married life together with sulking parents and has been looking forward to celebrating with friends.

Also, there's the small fact that I have 14 wedding planners who only take payments of alcohol and cupcakes that are dying to provide their services. 

Marriage is about give and take so this wedding business has proven to be a very good exercise in just that philosophy.

My dream wedding would be to hop on a cruise ship for a fabulous vacation and just so happen to get hitched while in between shore excursions and then go about my vacation business. 

Compromise: Kick ass cruise honeymoon.

My dream wedding would have no one but those legally necessary looking at me because I absolutely loath being the center of attention.

Compromise: A limited gathering of our nearest and dearest to celebrate what should be the quickest "ceremony" legally allowed. Which basically turns the even into a social gathering where we happened to get married.

See where I'm going with all of this? As I said to my father "we want to make as little of a deal out of this as possible." That's my philosophy. I don't want to have to stress over anything. No fuss no muss, no pomp and circumstance. Just friends and fun. And potato salad. Boom.

Which way to the gym *flex*

Back in November I acquired the complete Insanity DVD set from a friend. I didn't really know anything about the program except for the fact that it was supposed to be really hard, it took sixty days to finish and according to the infomercial it produced great results.

I didn't start it right away because I just wasn't motivated. Even when I went on a fitness kick like I do every January I still didn't give it a try. I think I was intimidated, I was afraid to fail.

I did P90X once for about 2 weeks a few years ago with someone else but they gave up and so did I. I hated working out in the house I lived in, everyone could hear me, the entire room shook when I jumped. I was working really long days with a really long commute. I surrounded myself with excuses. 

Since then the only other program I've tired was Jillian Micheal's 30 Day Shred. Honestly, I've never done 30 days of it. I always get bored and give up. 

So that's what I was dealing with going into this. I did cardio every day, I was also doing yoga and somehow I figured that wasn't enough of a base to take on Insanity but then I went thought a bit of an emotional time in my personal life and thought a distraction might be nice. 

So on March 19th I just randomly decided to start it. No preplanning involved, I just went at it. 

And you know what? It was hard, it was the hardest thing I'd ever done. No one, not even I thought I could get through it. But eventually one week turned into two and I started to love it. I wasn't miserable during my workouts I was focused, I was determined and I felt like a fucking rockstar every day when I finished. 

I'm not going to lie, I didn't love it all the time, towards the end of the first month I started to get bored with the repetition, but then it when up a level and I was fine and excited about it again. The same thing happened at the end of the program, that's part of why it took me an extra day to complete it. 

But that's what I did, I completed it. 

That smile of my face is of pure unbridled joy. If I didn't just get engaged I would say that it's been a while since I'd done something to bring out that smile. I even took to facebook where I hardly ever post anything to brag about it. That's how pumped I was. 

Everyone wants to know what my results were, like maybe if the results were good enough they might try the program to. *eye roll*

Well let me tell you something, the amount of awesomeness I discovered in myself is worth actually buying this program. It doesn't matter that my clothes are all too big for me now, it doesn't matter that I don't look like I'm being silly because you can actually see something when I flex, what matters is that I stuck to it and I finished it and I've got a bit more pep in my step because I feel like a certified badass.

What happened to my body might not happen to your body so weights and measurements are a non issue here. Getting hung up on that stuff will absolutely kill your motivation anyway.

What I can tell you is that the fit test is the ultimate in measurement tools. You do it every 2 weeks throughout the program and there's where you see your results.

I will share some of those results with you. Listed below are each of the moves that you perform for one minute each used to judge progress during the fit test. The number next to them is how many more I was to add to my first go around with the fit test.

Switch Kicks - 54

Power Jacks - 23

Power Knees - 41

Power Jumps - 24

Globe Jumps - 3

Suicide Jumps - 8

Push up Jacks - 17

Low Plank Oblique - 13

I'm not sure how good you are at math but that's 183 more moves. 

Oh Hell Yeah.

So yeah, I'll start my next program on Friday and I'm sure I'll be talking about it way too much to anyone who will listen and also posting the crap out of it on Instagram. Whoo Hoo! 

The Story

Back in March I confessed to a friend that I suspected The Beef was planning to propose during my annual birthday camping trip. A few weeks later he accidentally confirmed it.
Ever since it's been the elephant in the room.

Mother's day weekend was insane at work, we were short staffed, tons of extra people were there to visit their mom's and it was sweltering. Easily the worst weekend I've ever worked at my job. Monday wasn't much better and I ended up working late because the next shift was short staffed. Knowing I had Tuesday & Wednesday off from work I embraced my workout rest day and had some *cough* cocktails with friends.

When I woke up Tuesday morning I was wondering if the bus that hit me survived. Aside from hanging out with one of the cutest babies on the planet and cleaning my car I didn't get much accomplished except for laying on the couch. This meant that my workout rest day turned into two rest days which was bad news because I'd been hoping to squeeze in an extra workout in on my day off to finish the program earlier.

This sets up the scene for Wednesday where I figured if I spaced them out right I could get three workouts in. I woke up bright and early and completed the first insanity workout without my brain even knowing it was awake yet. After some breakfast and chores I still wasn't quite up for working out so I did more chores. After a light lunch I hit my next workout hard and it hit back even harder.

I decided I'd need a hell of a rest if I was going to move further. So when The Beef got home he found me in my red plaid snuggie in all of my post workout stank glory on the couch crying for my mommy conserving my energy for the next go around.

I hate working out when there's someone else in the house so I was relieved to find out that he'd be going over to a friends to mow his lawn. At this point I was getting anxious to workout and he was taking his sweet time leaving the house. All of a sudden he plops down on the couch next to me and comments that his pulse is racing and asks me to check it.

Sure enough his heart is about to beat right out of his neck. My mind starts spinning wondering if he's been bitten by something or if he's had some medication that's suddenly showing horrible side effects. Dr. House I am not, so I started to go numb in the brain, which might explain my confusion as he pulled a small hand carved wooden box out of his pocket and said, "I got you this."

I took the box in my hand and stared at it in shock. I knew this was the ring box that he made me because I'd seen it before during his accidental proposal confirmation. Still, something in my brain wasn't working and I asked what it was and if it was for me. As I opened the box and saw the ring all I could do was stare, shocked in silence and ask again if it was for me. He took it upon himself to officially pop the question and finally my brain started working because I was able to say yes.

And if you must know shortly after the proposal he did leave the house to mow the lawn and I got my 3rd workout it. It was business as usual until a few hours later when we visited my mother to share the good news.

So what happened to the camping trip proposal? 
To be honest, it's not completely that he got the ring and just couldn't wait, though that's the romantic conclusion every seems to jump to. I knew it was coming and as he put it when could he possibly do it?
Not before we left: I'd be getting home from work and in a hurry to hit the road.
Not on the drive up: We might crash and die.
What about the first night: The high likely hood of alcohol consumption wouldn't go over well, failure to consume alcohol would cause suspicion.
The next morning: Button is not a gracious person in the morning.

Etc... See where I'm going with this? How far into the weekend could he have gone before one or both of us had gone crazy. Visions of him chucking the ring box at my head shouting "HERE TAKE IT" filled my head.

So even though he blew the initial surprise he still managed to surprise my sweaty ass.

So when's the wedding?
None of your business! Honestly, the fact that this is the first question everyone asks (even people with dementia) is creepy. I don't even like weddings (more on that later).

OMG SHOW ME THE RING!!!

So there it is, THE STORY, in print. Hopefully I can stop telling it now.

Oh, I remember this :)

I confess...

That posting on instagram about my fitness is the best thing I have ever done, I feel so accountable to my internet fitness friends it guilts me into working out whenever I'm supposed to. I never had this kind of luck with sparkpeople, wowy, or other websites or groups I joined. Maybe it's because it's pictures in realtime. Who knows? Who the heck cares, I'm just glad it's working.

I confess...

That sometimes all I want to do is talk about working out and all things fitness related. I understand that this makes for a very annoying conversation companion so I keep it bottled up inside until someone else brings it up and then I can't help but word vomit all over them which makes for some very awkward moments.

I confess...

That my first camping trip of the year is a week from today and I am so pumped for it it's not even funny. I feel like it's been forever since I've gone camping. Weirdest part? I'm dying for the scents that go along with camping, that's where all my memories are held.

Sure there's the obvious like the smell of the campfire but it's so much more than that. It's the way my gear (tent, sleeping bag, storage boxes) smell, the smell of the woods in the morning that always seems to include someone cooking bacon a few sites away, the smell of the lake in the afternoon when you're walking through town, the smell of The Beef when we're snuggling close after a long day outdoors,  and of course the smell of victory on the mini golf course.

I confess...

That I am full of acceptance and blissfully happy with my life right now. I'm no longer preoccupied with what I could have that might be better than what I have now. As it turns out my life is pretty freakin' great as is and there's no need to waste time wishing for things. I'm crazy in love, I live in an awesome cabin by a lake, I have a job that leaves me feeling fulfilled and quality people to share my time with. Absolutely no complaints whatsoever. 

I confess...

That as much as part of me still missing having a dog so bad it hurts I've made peace with the idea that I just don't want one at this stage in my life. I enjoy the freedom that being a pet free person gives me. 

Oh, hi there.

Well hello friends. Long time no blog. Ooops!

My absence this time wasn't due to anything bad happening (still employed, still madly in love), it's due to the fact that I have no idea how to handle change in my life.

Back in February I switched shifts at my job so I'm working the day shift now instead of evening. This threw off my entire life and I'm finally getting around to figuring out how to deal with it. 

Here's what my day used to be like:

Wake up

Wandering around the internet a little

Workout, maybe

Gather things for the day

Go to work

Be at work

Get home

Stay up all night unwinding and blogging

Go to bed super late

Now my life is like this:Wake up

Go to work

Be at work

Get home

Workout

Do something fun

Go to bed super early

I don't have hours and hours and hours of free time anymore and so the blog has suffered. 

I have become seriously addicted to working on my fitness though (and documenting in on instagram) I've become a disciple of beachbody and I'm currently on day 52 of Insanity. It's banana's, I'm completely obsessed. As the program winds down I've already ordered my next adventure which is actually my crazy ass doing Turbo Fire & ChaLEAN Extreme at the same time once Insanity is over.

You don't have to click those thinks, I'm not a beachbody coach, I'm not here to sell anything, I'm just yammering on about something that I'm currently really passionate about. 

I did yoga for a while and really really loved it but as the Insanity program amped up I just couldn't do both anymore, I was risking injury from fatigue. I was going 3-4 times a week for a while though and I'd love to find a way to fit it back in my life. I try doing a few poses at home and it's just not the same, I really loved the studio I was going to.

So yeah, that's what I've been up to. 

I don't see myself having a full blog schedule again anytime soon but I'd really like to keep posting here, it's always so much fun for me to go back and read what I was up to once upon a time. 

I hope everyone is well.