Whole30, Trying Again

January 5 Michael and I started our first Whole30 adventure. I made a meal plan for the month, prepped food like crazy and jumped in. I LOVED it, I felt amazing, had so much energy, slept like a rock, and lost weight. Michael also loved it! He realized he was super addicted to sugar, did a lot of emotional eating and healed his gut in amazing ways. But, my dirty little secret is that on about day 12 I cheated and had alcohol, and then I drank again on about day 18. After that, I pretty much quit Whole30. Since then I have been eating everything in sight, pizza, fast food, beer, wine, the list goes on. And to be quite honest, as I sit here writing this, I feel like complete crap.
I woke up with a huge zit on my chin this morning, I can't tell you the last time that happened. My stomach hurts, I'm bloated, my face is fat, and something has to change. My New Years resolution was to lose 30 pounds by June 1,  I need to get serious about my diet and exercise if I have a chance in hell of meeting that goal.
My birthday has come and gone, I have had more than my fair share or indulgences, and starting tomorrow I am embarking on my first, full Whole30 adventure. It is easy to focus on all the things that I am giving up, but I am going to try to focus on how horrible all of those foods make me feel, and how good Whole30 makes me feel. That should be motivation enough to stay on track, but for some insane reason it is not enough of a deterrent to keep me away from foods I know I shouldn't eat. Here's to taking it one meal at a time.

The Last Four Daily Non-Negotiables

In an effort to avoid creating one way too long blog entry, I have broken this list in to two. Here are my last four things I do every day or close to it to keep me happy.

5. Set Myself Up for Success Tomorrow

To be fair, this is partially because I am lazy, and love to sleep as long as possible in the morning. It is also because if I don’t prep for tomorrow today I know that I will be making some questionable food and exercise choices. Every weeknight I make my breakfast and coffee, pack my lunch, un pack and re pack my gym bag, and pick out my clothes for tomorrow. This way there is minimal thinking and time required in the morning and I know I have everything I need to have a healthy day. One weekend nights I will often prep everything for coffee the night before to make things quick and easy in the morning.

6. Read

Whether it is blog posts or books I feel more centered when I take some time to read for pleasure each day. Sometimes in the morning, at my desk, with my coffee, I click through some of my favorite blogs. Other days I read a chapter or two at night before bed. Reading is a simple, quiet, hobby I love. Michael and I also read to each other. We are currently reading Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, with hopes of reading the whole series, but it is slow going since our time together is limited.

7. Enjoy the Pets

We have two cats and a dog who are incredibly snuggly and sweet. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I get to live with these loving, cuddly, adoring animals and I should take more advantage of that. Calling the cats out of their hiding places and scratching their bellies makes their day and mine. Playing fetch and walking Stella are treats, not chores. Loving on them makes me happy and I always think about how therapy dogs and cats must help lift the spirits of the sick or elderly so much. I am young and healthy and it can totally change my mood.

8. Spend Time With Michael

On days when he is working a long shift and I am on the soccer field late it is easy to miss each other’s calls or have short conversations that aren’t very whole hearted or meaningful. I try to send him a sweet text, remember to have a longer conversation even when I am ready to get off of the phone, or leave him a voicemail. He is my gravity, he keeps me sane and centered, and even though spending time together is tricky when we are apart it is still so important to our hearts, minds, and marriage.

                                                         

Four of My Daily Non-Negoatiables

In an effort to clean up my act and get back in a routine of healthy eating and exercise I have been putting some thoughts into what things I do every day that helps keep The Lauren Brain ticking. I came up with six daily non-negotiables, things I do every day without thinking, I rarely skip them and regret it when I do. In no particular order…

1.  Be positive and spend time with positive people

This time last year I had really embraced my inner Bright Side Bitch and was putting a lot of effort in to reframing negative thoughts with positive ones. I still do this, but a reminder to keep positivity on the front burner never hurts. Additionally, I try to give a wide berth to negative or dramatic people and situations. I have a co-worker who gets so bent out of shape when schedules do not go as planned, details slip through the cracks, and things are not as organized as they could be. Don’t get me wrong, I think those things are irritating, but we work in a small, poorly managed, division of local government, and we work with a lot of strong personalities. I try to keep my head down and let all of the irritation roll off of my back. It is small potatoes. I come to work, get the things I can control done, get my lunchtime run on, get out the door at 5:00pm. Getting wrapped up in negative thinking and chatter is not something I devote any thought or energy to.

2.  Saying “No” to Stress

I also try to focus on the things I can control. Anger and negativity are no fun to be in or around. A couple of weeks ago my hard drive at work crashed and I lost everything I’d done professionally for the last 3 years. Frustrating-yes. Out of my control-yes. (Well, sort of, I’m not so bright for not backing anything up, but that ship has sailed). Small potatoes-also yes.

3.Morning Coffee

Morning coffee is the warm (or cold, depending on the season) treat that I look forward to each day. I love the ritual of making and drinking coffee on the weekends, I love choosing my favorite real or travel mug to use for the day. And I love what I think is pretty much a placebo affect from sipping it. (I know coffee is caffeine and caffeine gives you that get up and go feeling, but when I miss a day I don’t get a headache, so it is safe to say I don’t neeeeed coffee as much as I like it).

4.Move-it Move-it

Whether it is taking Stella to the park or on a walk, Running Club, lifting or a hike I feel so much better when I intentionally move during the day. Insanely better, happier, less staby, more grateful the list goes on. Movement makes me a better Lauren. Running specifically makes me a much better Lauren, Bishop Park Running Club is helping me get back on that horse.

The Truth Is

The truth is I am not going to be competing in the body building competition I was training for in March. The truth is I wasn’t really training much at all. There were a LOT of missed workouts, a lot of half assed workouts, and even more cheating on my diet.

The truth is I didn’t train for or run the Athhalf.

The truth is I weigh 25 pounds more than I did this time last year. My clothes are tight and unflattering and I feel self-conscious and terrible in my own skin.

The truth is I haven’t been taking very good care of myself. Too much wine every night of the week, lots of take out food, lots of skipped workouts replaced by hours on the couch with Netflix.

The truth is I’ve had enough. It is time to get my act together. I have a 7 mile “goal race” in February that I’m eyeing, I’m running 3 miles 3 days a week, I’m trying to walk more with Stella each day.

The truth is it is not enough. I have to stop drinking 8 days a week and stop justifying all the junk food.  I just feel so defeated, like I’ll never lose the weight and making little changes won’t add up to anything. I need to remind myself that is not the case. I’m just having a hard time staying motivated and on track. But I’ve seen the light, reached the tipping point, and am trying to get back on the horse. It is time to try harder.

I now present to you My Running Blog

I often flip flop around about what kind of blog I want this to be. I feel like a faker writing about running because I am not a hardcore runner, but I have been running more and I have thoughts about it and this is my blog, so I'm the boss and I say I write about running.
Last week I wrote about running after work, and I did it. It was the first run i'd been on in 11 days and it went okay. I had to take 2 walking breaks. The first was because the girl I was meeting for dinner called to cancel and I needed to talk to her. The second time was because I was going up a hill and was out of shape. But all in all it was okay. I was proud of myself for going after work, and in the heat. The only major bummer was that my running app did not save the run. This is not really a big deal but I like to be able to look back on my weekly mileage total/pace.
Thursday I lifted weights and called it a day. Friday I had another run to get in. I knew we had plans that evening so I wanted to get my run in before work (ha).  I turned my alarm off for my morning run like I ALWAYS do. Never once have I got up for my morning run. never. Friday was no different. So, I had to go after work and at 3:00pm on Friday it was 90* and felt like 97* so I ended up on the treadmill. I actually had a surprisingly good run. I was able to zone out and just crank out 3 miles. The last .5 I even turned the pace up fairly high and really pushed myself because I was feeling strong and had a lot left in the tank.
Friday night we had Jody and Zoe over for dinner. We had burgers (I had black bean), sweet potato rounds, corn on the cob, and frozen balsamic veggies from Trader Joe's (which were awesome and I bought them again this week). We chatted and listened to country music while I cooked. The night was to celebrate Michael passing all of his nursing school tests and classes so I manned dinner and just wanted him to relax.
Our grill has been on its last legs for a while now, it was a hand me down and has treated us well but it is old and has been well used. One of the burners shoots fire straight out the back of the grill, and last night another one could not be turned to high or low-just one flame level, and the grates are crumbling etc etc we really should just let it rest in peace, but we are stubborn. When I took the burgers off of the grill they were rare so we put them back on. After several more minutes 2 of them were still rare and the other 3 look better. Jody took one for the team and ate the 2 rare burgers. ew.
Later we went out to the cul-de-sac and set off some small fireworks that were leftover from the rainy 4th of July. Yay! Roman Candles! Our neighbors love us...
Then it was early to bed to get up for my "long" run Saturday morning.

Memorial Day Weekend

Ahhhhh. What a lovely long weekend. Friday night and Saturday we spent time at Michael’s parent’s house in Kennesaw. On Saturday we hit up the 20% off sale at REI and I ended up spending $150! Yikes. But, I got 4 tech tees and a wicking skirt. I really needed the shirts, I am so sick of working out in cotton shirts and just being wet the whole time.
Saturday night I went over to my dads for beer, pizza and baseball. It was nice to see him. We ordered one of the new Artisan Pizzas from Dominos, one of the ones that you can’t change or add to, and it was eh. It wasn’t really a pizza, but more of a flatbread with toppings.

Sunday I went out to Last Resort for a brunch date with our house guest, Hisanthi. I had the special frittata with tomatoes, basil, Italian seasonings and ricotta and a salad. It was awesome! (Apparently this is a food blog now)

Sunday night I went out to Watkinsville for dinner and puppy play date at Carrie and Patrick’s. They celebrated Memorial Day by buying a huge, awesome, new grill that we tried out while the pups played.

At first Munson wasn’t so sure about Stella’s size, but I think they are going to be good buds.

Yesterday I grilled out again, made potato salad and on a whim dipped strawberries in chocolate.

Needless to say, this was a food filled weekend. I ate and drank more than my fair share. It is time to get back on track so, I decided to join the Run Streak Runners World challenge. You commit to running no less than one mile a day, every day beginning Memorial Day and ending July 4th. I started yesterday with a little over a mile with the dog. I stupidly went at 12:30 in the afternoon and it was blazing hot.

Today I am back to the grind, gearing up for my first week of summer camp on Monday.

What did you do this holiday weekend? Did you eat too much like me?