...The Results Are In!

It seems like everyone these days wants to lose weight without doing anything. They’re looking for some quick, easy fix. I will tell you, this was not quick and it was not easy! I’ve done CrossFit in the past for a solid 7 months and this was probably even harder than that! I only did CrossFit about twice a week, so even those excruciating workouts I only did about 56 of them in that 7 months.  Since January 16 I had worked out EVERY SINGLE DAY for I think around 63 days! Then I might have only skipped one day and went another streak working out every day. And now I’m about every other day, which I think I need to get back to every day again.  

But it was hard, really hard, especially when most of the time I needed to get it done with 2 kids crawling all over me! I’ve spent hours and hours in the kitchen cooking and meal prepping and sending Trey to the grocery store after work for Arrowroot Powder because I needed it for a recipe and I don’t even know what it is. Sitting through a dinner out at a restaurant STARVING and not ordering a single thing besides water because I don’t think anything from their menu is Whole30 compliant. Going on vacation and not having the mindset “Well I’m on vacation, so I’m going to eat and drink what I want” I worked out EVERY DAY I was on vacation, and I went to the grocery store when we got there and bought healthy food and meal prepped. The only way I “cheated” was from drinking (I even tried drinking healthier drinks, no beer) and I think I had 2 cheat meals on vacation. I hear people say all the time “I’m supposed to be on a diet, oh, but ONE wont kill me” (one of whatever they’re trying to justify to themselves, a cookie, slice of cake, ice cream sundae) but guess what, it wont kill you but it will kill your diet and your progress. You need to change that mindset to one WILL kill you! ONE slip up will make all the difference and ruin EVERYTHING you’ve worked for this entire time! At least during the Whole30. Give it the 30 days, and then after you get the results you want, then find a livable option that works for you. I’m technically done today. But I plan on having a little “cheat weekend” that will consist of cheating on healthy desserts, some alcoholic beverages and protein shakes.  Then I’m starting right back with the same diet on Monday, maybe just not quite as strict. I’ll tweak it to how it fits my life, but if I start to notice I’m gaining then I’ll have to cut back on things. I’m going to allow myself a cheat meal on Wednesdays and Saturday (or Sunday, depending what’s going on that week) That way, any time I feel like I want to cheat there’s a cheat meal coming up that I am certain I can save it for then.  If I’ve gone 30 days already I can certainly go 2-3 without giving in to my cravings.

Now I wasn’t able to do this all alone.  I have to give credit where credit is due.  First shout out is to my sister, Erica for introducing me to Whole30, doing the diet first, and showing me it can be done! Then sharing all the tips and tricks to getting by! Pete Nelson the amazing trainer who has busted my ass since January 16 with his awesome workout program I was able to do from home, while cheering us on via the Facebook group. There’s another group starting April 1 and I’m tempted to start it again! Just for the motivation to workout every day again. AmandaCunningham for the clean eating group I joined when I first started and learning about clean eating and getting me on the right path that once I finally did decide to try Whole30 it didn’t seem so bad anymore.

I started watching what I was eating right after Christmas, I stopped eating fast food and just bad stuff in general, but still wasn’t eating very healthy. I weighed about 146lbs. Once I started the 30 day workout Challenge and started clean eating I weighed 141.8 (on January 16) After the challenge was over I weighed 136.4 but was down to about 134 at my lowest. When I started Whole30 on March 1 I weighed 136.8 and finished at 133.8. So between the 2 pictures there is only a 3lb difference, but the results are so much more than a number on a scale! The day I took my “before pictures” that was the only swimsuit that “fit” me. It was the biggest top and largest bottoms (in size, not coverage lol) and I was spilling out of both! Now I don’t even think I could wear those bottoms because they are so loose I’d be afraid they’d fall right down in the pool.

Sorry for the poor quality of these pictures, I never intended on sharing them with anyone, they were for my own person reference, but I just had to share to inspire other! Not to mention the embarrassing "Before" Pic. 

It was weird waking up today and being like, "I can eat whatever I want today!" But it’s like, I still feel nervous to eat anything too crazy. I made a fried egg and paleo bacon for breakfast and treated myself with a piece of goat milk fudge I bought for this specific day. I still drank my coffee black, but one thing I definitely want over this cheat weekend is a good coffee drink from Dunkin or Starbucks! That is going to be a huge splurge for me! Haha!

I still plan on writing more posts with recipes and other info, so keep checking back! 

Foods That Got Me Through My Whole30

This is just a list of things that got me through my Whole30.  It's purely based on my tastes and what I like.  I'm a definite condiment queen, so giving those up was hard because on previous diets I'd smother my diet food in sugar condiments, which I now realize kept me from losing the weight.

Almonds and mixed nuts (unsalted of course with no peanuts)

Mustard. I bought this Cadia brand. 

NutPods.  A Whole30 compliant Coffee creamer (Didn’t discover I could use these till day 20)

La Croix (Pretend its pop at lunch, pour it in a wine glass and pretend it’s a wine spritzer at dinner)

Tessemae’s dressing I discovered it pretty early on but couldn’t find it anywhere, I finally ordered it from LuckyVitamin.com with about 10 days left.  Check the shipping map because I didn’t pay for the expedited shipping even though it recommended me to.  It looked like shipping to my area only took a day. I ordered it on Thursday and received it Friday. The Zesty Ranch is probably the best dressing I've ever eaten, Seriously! Diet or not, I will forever use the Zesty Ranch, I love it! I also got the Lemon Garlic, the Ketchup and the BBQ sauce. 

Coconut covered Date rolls. These fall under the “Sex with your pants on” category.  I didn’t care, I needed a “dessert” from time to time. I found them at Kriegers in their nuts and dried fruit section, but you can find them probably anywhere. 

Sliced banana with almond butter and coconut

Same as above but with apple slices

Cucumbers. I ate cucumbers a lot, as a snack, as “chips” and when I’d get home from work at 3am and wanted something to eat before bed I’d eat cucumber slices in bed.

Dried plantain chips with salt. They taste exactly like potato chips, no joke! 

Fresh Pico De Gallo-I put that shit on everything!

Frozen Blueberries. I don’t know why but these just really do it for me, they have to be frozen though.

LaraBars and Pressed by Kind bars. Still check the ingredients, because the chocolate and peanut butter ones are not compliant.  They say to only use them as an emergency when on the go, which I did, but also when the emergency was, I was hungry and wanted a snack!

Dried Apricots without sulfates. It said to limit dried fruit but it was another one of those quick easy snacks that really satisfied a lot of cravings for me.

The most obvious one of all! Zucchini noodles!! I bought a Spiralizer early on and made zucchini noodles with EVERYTHING!

The last one is also kind of obvious, but multiple, multiple spices and seasonings! I probably doubled my cupboard during Whole30.  Garlic Powder, Vegetable blend, Adobo Seasoning, Sea Salt, Cumin, just added spices to everything and my recipes turned out pretty darn good!

I think that wraps up most of the things that helped me keep my sanity during all this. 

The best advice I can give during Whole30 is, just focus on the foods you like that you can have, and stick to those. I know variety is probably the goal for this diet, but once I just figured out what I liked that I could have, I didn’t really feel like I was giving anything up because I was still eating all foods that I loved. 

I'm on day 28 today, so check back for some favorite recipes and my results in a few days! 

I'm Back and Fitter than ever!

Once upon a time this was a fashion blog, back when I actually got out of pajamas and didn't live in yoga pants and Nike Free Run sneakers. But for now, its my Whole30 experience.

So, I’ve had a lot of people asking me about this Whole30 business I’ve been doing.  I will say that it’s been challenging, but not impossible.  And if you know me I’ve spent my last few years living off Pizza (delivery AND DiGiorno) Ice cream dates with Cambria, Easy Mac and lunch meat sandwiches.  My Cardio has involved chasing Cambria and I haven’t lifted more than her current weight of 28lbs.  I tried giving CrossFit another shot after Cam was born, but had to take her with me, and well, it went exactly how you’d imagine taking a 10-month-old to CrossFit would go…

After getting pregnant with Frankie George I just did the typical mom thing and I gave up.  “I have two kids, I have no time to work out or eat healthy, I’ll never look good again! I’m just going to embrace these hips and mom pooch, eventual FUPA and just rock it in some high waisted jeans.  Thank sweet baby Jesus they’re in style these days!”

I’ve seen a few people sharing success stories on Facebook, with Beachbody, AdvoCare, all that different stuff and I knew I had to do SOMETHING.  I’m not one to just accept the cards I was dealt (hence my once IBT’s are now voluptuous DDD’s) so I knew I needed to do something.  I was saving Lipo and a tummy tuck as my backup plan!

Kellie had asked me if I wanted to join this 30-Day workout Challenge that her CrossFit trainer was starting.  It would be 40 minute, at home workouts that we’d do every day, for 30 days.  So, I decided to give it a try! I needed to start somewhere.  Erica had previously told me about Whole30 and that she was going to try it and upon reading all the rules I said, “NO WAY! that sounds impossible!” I legit thought she was crazy, but she’s also gone Vegan before, so I knew she had better will power than I do. 

I started my 30-Day Workout Challenge and decided to start eating “clean” while I was doing it.   I’ve always thought of myself as a fairly healthy person, who “sort of” watched what I ate.  I wasn’t a huge fast food person, I would check fat and calorie content on stuff most of the time, but this journey took me down a new path of checking ingredients and looking for added sugars and that opened a whole new world for me!

I was shocked and appalled at the foods that had added sugars that weren’t even sweet foods!!! I’ve written a Facebook post about it (Here) so I’ll spare those details. 

I was going on vacation and knew I’d “cheat” a little on vacation, although I did stick to clean eating for most of my trip, but wanted something to whip me back into my healthy habits after some binge drinking and cheese eating, so I decided to give this Whole30 thing a try. 

So, Whole30, what is it exactly? Proteins, fruits and veggies, that’s basically it! No dairy of any kind, No legumes (not even peanuts, they’re a legume, who knew!?) No sugar, real or artificial (not even honey, cane sugar or agave nectar) No grains of any kind, No alcohol (kind of obvious but think it needs to be stated). So that’s it, folks! There’s a section on the website for more detailed allowances.  

I started on March 1, the first day of Lent. Lucky for me I had already detoxed most of my bad habits during my 6 weeks of clean eating leading up to vacation.  So, I didn’t have any sugar withdraws or anything during my Whole30.  But I did wake up on day 5 (of clean eating) with the worst headache and was shaking so badly I couldn’t even hold my phone to text.  I had meal prepped some breakfast (Recipe below) and had it in Tupperware in the refrigerator, so I could get some food in me to get a handle on myself, because I’m not going to lie, I thought I was dying! You will actually feel like death before you feel better, but you must know that it’s detoxing years and years of sugar, alcohol, and carbs, and it will definitely make you sick when you aren’t feeding your gut yeast those things that it thrives on.

Speaking of gut yeast, I suggest a good Probiotic.  I didn’t get one until Day 19 and I think it helped with some stomach issues. Gas to be blunt, from about day 9 and on I was so gassy, but couldn’t quite figure out what in my diet was causing it.  I read in a forum (it’s apparently a common side effect) that it could be your stomach releasing all your bad gut yeast from your body and expelling it. I ended up getting “Garden of Life RAWProbiotics for Women” from a health food store for about $36. Amazon sells them also. After about 2 days of taking them, the gas has finally subsided. Sorry to be gross, but that’s definitely something to be warned of!

Here are the "rules" from their website.  Definitely give it a read, I needed that little pep talk it gives towards the end, about how you can do anything for 30 days, and that it’s not hard.  Yes, it’s true, beating Cancer is hard, choosing the foods you are putting into your body and making smart decisions about them is NOT hard. 

Day 1: I had a breakfast scramble for breakfast (I’ve literally had one every single day of Whole30 thus far, and every day since January 16 and I’m STILL not sick of them, I thought for sure I’d get sick of eggs but I haven’t, and I’m obsessed with them, I actually look forward to breakfast because it’s usually the only thing I have meal prepped and ready to go as of lately, and they’re super-fast and easy to make)

Marcy’s delicious Breakfast Scramble:

6-8 Eggs (depends where I grocery shopped that week if they’re organic, free range all that jazz or just regular old $.89 eggs from Marc’s.)

1 medium zucchini

1 onion

½ green pepper

½ yellow pepper

½ red pepper

1 handful of fresh spinach

½ pound ground turkey or breakfast sausage (If I have it on hand at the time, I’ve made it plenty of times with no meat at all, just make sure the sausage has no sugar in the ingredients section)

1 tsp Ghee (Clarified butter) It’s allowed on Whole30, I found it at Krieger’s and it tastes JUST like butter and is delicious! I don’t know if I use a tsp. just enough to sauté your veggies, I do a lot of guessing and not a lot of recipe following.

Sauté up all the veggies in the ghee then beat the eggs in a bowl and once the veggies seem cooked to your liking (again, just a lot of guessing going on here) add your eggs and I use a spatula (I bought a new one like THIS for making these) and once all the eggs are cooked, throw in the spinach and just toss it around and mix it in until it’s wilted.

I then separate them into 4-6 Tupperware containers and in the morning, I grab one and heat it up, then throw on a little Pico de Gallo and half an avocado and enjoy! Which I have done, every day, for 65 days thus far!

I had a small bowl of strawberries and blueberries for a snack and I was basically starving ALL day! I’m not sure if it’s gotten better as this diet has gone on or I’ve just gotten used to the pain, but I don’t feel AS starving anymore.  It says to limit nuts, but that’s the only thing that’s gotten me through this diet.  I snack on nuts A LOT. No peanuts of course as they are not allowed on Whole30, but I bought some mixed nuts with Almonds, Cashews, Macadamia nuts and I killed that sucker in 14 days! (It had 30 servings in the jar, I suppose an average of 2 servings of nuts per day isn’t THAT bad, but it’s certainly not good) I also survived on Almond Butter (you should make sure what you buy is JUST Almonds in the ingredients, and at $13.99 a jar you’d think I’d have savored it a little longer, but I also killed that sucker within about 2 weeks!) They say that Almond butter should only be consumed “occasionally” and I hope by “occasionally” they mean 3 heaping spoonful’s after every meal because that’s how much I ate and I still lost weight. 

I don’t actually know how much weight I’ve lost because you’re not allowed to weigh yourself on Whole30.  I weighed myself when I started and I’ll most likely post a follow up post when it’s all finished.  But since starting this whole journey (I sound like a contestant on the F-ing Bachelor) I have lost 2 pants sizes! I went from a size 8 to a size 4 in one stores jeans and a size 29 to 27 in another stores jeans (Thank God for leggings, am I right?)

Ok, I have serious ADD and I’m jumping all over the place.  This seems like a good time to wrap up this initial Whole30 Post. Check back for follow ups, recipes and some of my tips and tidbits for getting by if you are thinking about trying it, and I’ll probably start posting a little more frequently about raising hellions, I mean kids, fashion, life, cleaning, beauty, etc.