Confessions

I'm linking up with Jess at The Newly today for my weekly confessions...

I confess... that we spoil our kitties like crazy. Brandon's favourite new discovery from this Whole30 is frozen berries topped with coconut cream. Tucker loves this discovery too since he usually gets to lick the bowl out after :)

I confess... that I am feeling great now that we're in the 3rd week of the Whole30 but I am really anticipating being done as well. So much food prep, so many dishes, so many eggs. Plus, I would love some dark chocolate and wine right about now. 

I confess... that I am a mega procrastinator. I generally only write up my plan for my fitness class I teach Thursday nights on Thursday at lunch hour. Thankfully, it always seems to work out!

I confess... that I am over winter at this point and icy sidewalks. We had a pretty nice winter compared to typical Manitoba winters but I am just ready for no snow, more daylight, and maybe a bit more motivation to get out of bed!

I confess... that I am very surprised by what I've been craving on this Whole30. If you asked me before I would say that I primarily crave salty snacks but since the Whole30 began, all I can think about is baked goods and chocolate. Hurry up March 9th!

I confess... that this week has dragged on and I am beyond ready for it to be the weekend already!

The Little Things in Life...

To be honest, some days I feel like time is flying by at lightning speed. The days blur together full of work and other adult responsibilities. Brandon and I both work full time plus I teach my fitness classes Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 5:30-6:30. We also usually hit up the gym after work and then make/eat supper. By the time supper is finished and the kitchen is clean, I have zero energy left. I usually either plop on the couch to watch t.v. or I jump in a bubble bath with a good book and then go to bed before 10. As well, 9 times out of 10 I get mindlessly lost on my phone either scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. and I want to get better at this. From now on, I am choosing to be more mindful of how much time I'm spending on my phone. Life is passing me by while I am being sucked into other people's lives on social media. How sad!

All of this to say that when Brandon asked me to play crib with him last night after supper, I jumped at the chance. We set up the crib game on our coffee table (yes, we have a bowling pin crib board lol) and he made us each a cup of tea and all was right in the world. I joke that we are like an 80 year old couple but I wouldn't want it any other way. I love that we both enjoy the little things in life and I am so thankful that spending just a little bit of time together brings us both so much joy.

And for the record, he whooped my butt! He thought at one point he was going to double skunk me but I pulled off a couple big hands.There will be a re-match one of these days and I will get my revenge.

I will just leave you with a little reminder.

Happy Wednesday! :)

Whole 30: Week 1 Review

So once again, it's been awhile since I've blogged. Life has been quite busy lately and it feels like I haven't had a spare minute to sit down and type out this post. I have however been keeping a journal of what we've been eating and how we've been feeling so far on the Whole30. We are currently on Day 12, so almost half way there. Yahoo!

We are still trying to get into the groove of things and I won't sugar coat it and say it's been easy. There have been a couple times when I just wanted to quit and dive head first into a mountain of chocolate. There has been some confusion about what is or isn't acceptable and it has definitely been a struggle adopting the over Whole30 mindset. Brandon and I have always been snackers. Before Whole30, I would eat breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, supper, and often times a snack in the evening too. On Whole30, you are only supposed to eat 3 meals a day. Big meals but still only 3 meals. This has been challenging for sure and I often find it hard to eat enough at my meals to tide me over. It's also been hard figuring out the balance of carbs, proteins, and healthy fats in order to satiate me well. I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of it in week 2, so we shall see!

Overall, I have been feeling pretty good. On day 2 I woke up and I honestly felt like I had drank 3 bottles of wine the night before. I felt groggy, head was pounding, and I had zero appetite. Thankfully that quickly passed and other than a few headaches and yucky feelings, I am slowly feeling better. My sister promises me  that around or after day 15, we will start to feel the "magic" or the "tiger blood" of whole30, so I am anxiously awaiting this.

Workouts

Before Whole30, I was working out 6 days per week at a moderate to intense pace. In the first week of whole30, my energy was pretty non-existent. I think I worked out 2 days total and otherwise at night I vegged on the couch or snuck to bed early. Thankfully my energy is slowly coming back. I miss my workouts and I need to get back into the gym groove!

Food

Week 1 Breakfasts

Most breakfasts this week looked pretty similar. A combination of eggs, hash browns, avocado, and fruit. I quickly realized my breakfasts need a bit more substance so thankfully we found compliant bacon and sausage this past weekend. This is almost impossible in Canada, FYI, so I am very excited! I must admit I am missing some typical breakfast foods such as cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, and bread. It's funny because I didn't eat these foods that often before whole30. Also, we started having frozen berries/fruit with coconut cream which is amazing and fills the sweetness void.

Week 1 Lunches

I made a huge batch of cabbage stew on Sunday which lasted until Wednesday. To be honest, I got very sick of it and had to force myself to eat it come Wednesday. Brandon made butternut squash and carrot soup on Wednesday which we ate Thursday and Friday. Saturday and Sunday we ate leftovers. Apparently I didn't take many pictures of my lunches, so this one photo will have to do lol. We also found apple chips at Costco and they provide just that little bit of crunch whenever needed :)

Butternut squash & carrot soup, chicken salad, apple chips & a banana

Week 2 Suppers

We ate burgers on a lettuce bun and baked potato wedges on Monday. Tuesday we had chicken drumsticks,plantain chips with guacamole, and cucumber.tomato/blueberry salad. Wednesday we had Pecan Apple salad with avocado/dill dressing.Thursday was beef roast with potatoes and carrots. Friday was leftover roast over a baked sweet potato. Saturday was leftovers. Sunday was Valentine's Day and Brandon made me a delicious steak supper with shrimp, asparagus, baked potato wedges, and mushrooms/onions, it was amazing!

Burger in a lettuce bun with baked wedges

Chicken drumsticks, plantain chips, guac & veggies, and tomato/blueberry sald

Pecan apple chicken salad. So yuimmy!

Slower cooker roast with potatoes and carrots

My sister finally showed us how to use our spiralizer!

Steak dinner for Valentine's day! :)

On Sunday we didn't pre-plan when we knew we'd be out most of the day in Winnipeg. We let ourselves get too hungry and we didn't know where to go for a compliant lunch so we picked up larabars and had carrots dipped in guac. Not the best on our part but at least we didn't give in to fast food!

Lifesavers

There have been a couple life savers for us on Whole30. Instead of our nightly snacks which we were used to prior to Whole30, we have been making delicious tea to sip on while watching t.v. instead. Celestial Seasonings has a few teas that are compliant and they are delicious. We love the Bengal Spice and Sugar Plum Spice and I've also been enjoying lots of mint green tea as well! :) As well, like I mentioned before we both really like berries&coconut cream, we've tried a few larabars (coconut cream is my favourite!), and on the weekends we both enjoy coffee with coconut cream & a dash of cinnamon.

I think that's a wrap on our first week! It's hard to believe we're almost on week 3 now... sometimes it seems like time is flying and other times I can't believe we still have 18 days left haha.

Would you ever consider doing a Whole30?

Do you have any tips or suggestions for our last 2 weeks?

Hope you have a lovely weekend! :)

I Confess...

Linking up with The Newly today

Welcome to all of the jumbled thoughts going on in my mind this week! 

It's been awhile since I've checked in, simply because life seems to be busy, busy lately. Brandon & I are on Day 4 of our Whole30... so that's been consuming most of my time this week. Anyways, let's get on to the link up...

This week I confess that...

So far, this Whole30 doesn't seem as hard as I expected. My energy has definitely dipped lower than normal but overall, I feel pretty good. I'm just waiting for the hangover or angry phase to begin (watch out Brandon!).

I am super happy for my sister who won $15,000 worth of merchandise & services towards her wedding last Sunday! The weather was super bad and she got storm stayed at our place for the night but we are SO glad we went anyways :)

I could really use some dark chocolate right about now or maybe a brownie or a donut (I don't even like donuts!). #only26moredays

I am really missing the gym this week, however I just can't muster up the energy at the end of a busy day. I will get back to it next week!

Taking my kitties to the vet sucks. Especially Maggie because she hates loud noises & strange people but she did really good this week. Tucker was said cause he wanted to go on an adventure... what a silly guy!

Silly kitty!

My mom is the cutest snapchatter of life. I love when she takes selfies, they just crack me up beyond belief! She's adorable.

Last week, Dave & Cathy (future in-laws) and I did a workweek hustle on FitBit. I only won by like 1,000 steps but I averaged 15,000 steps per day which is pretty amazing for me! However, this week... I am slacking and in last place. Womp womp! I blame Whole30 for my lack of energy!

I think my kitties are adorable and I am just a litttttttle obsessed with them :)

This upcoming weekend is a 3 day week in Manitoba and I am so, so thankful!

Bring on the weekend! :)

I'm Doing My First Whole30

So let's start out by saying that I hate the word diet! Diet is a word that I try to keep out of my vocabulary all together. It seems too restrictive and it automatically makes people cringe. I feel that it's much more important to focus on LIFESTYLE changes including food choices and exercises/activity levels as well as mental and emotional well-being. This brings me to the Whole30 Program. 

So what is Whole30 you ask?

The Whole30 program was created in 2009 by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig. It is explained in detail in their book It Starts With Food. I am almost done reading this book and I've got to admit it's pretty fascinating and makes me very excited to see what changes happen for me!

Essentially, the Whole30 is a 30-day program in which you remove food groups that have been shown to have negative or inflammatory impacts on the body. The idea is that by stripping them from your diet completely, you are able to let your body heal and reset. After the 30-day period, you go through a re-introduction phase in which you test the food groups that were introduced one-by-one to really understand how they effect your body.

Why are we doing it?

Brandon and I are starting our first Whole30 on Monday February 8th. I have heard about this program for many years now and did dabble in reading articles and lots of blogs on it. However, the thought I always had was "that's impossible, I can't give up all the foods!". Then last October, my sister Ashley decided to do her first Whole30. I encouraged her along the way and asked her endless questions about her experience, what she found difficult, cravings, and her results. FYI, she lost 14 lbs in 30 days (she is not overweight by any means and already ate pretty well before) and she also reported feeling much better with more energy and less mental fogginess. My sister is a rockstar and a huge catalyst in me jumping on the Whole30 bandwagon! I've had digestion and skin issues for many years, so I am excited to see how positively this experience effects me.

Most people when I tell them about chosing to do this, look at me with a crazy expression on their face or they simply tell me "that's insane". I've also heard uneducated people say things like "well, what CAN you eat for 30 days?". You can eat vegetables, fruit, protein, and fats for 30 days. Sure you skip out on sugar, grains, legumes, dairy, and alcohol but I am discovering that the meal and food ideas are truly limitless.

Brandon and I planned out our first 2 weeks roughly and made a grocery list last night and I can honestly say I'm excited! Yes, I am a bit anxious about it, especially in social settings but I am determined to do it. It's only 30 days after all. This weekend, we will do before photos, measurements, and weigh-ins and I will try to share some of my recipes and thoughts along the way.

I just wanted to end by saying that I truly believe that food is medicine and it plays a tremendous role in how we feel, look, and perform on a day to day basis. I would recommend reading the book and doing lots of research and planning before starting though, otherwise you might set yourself up for failure. 

Here's to testing my willpower and showing what I am capable of in only 30 days!

Would you ever consider doing a Whole30? What would be the hardest food for you to give up?