Currently…

I decided to start a blog series!  As part of my bullet journal, every Sunday I create my Weekly Spread and as a way of recording what’s going on in my life I always write down what I’m currently loving.  So, of course I thought that was the perfect idea to share!

 

Every Monday, I’ll post all of the things I’m currently doing and loving.  

 

Currently, I’m…

 

Reading…

I just started reading Along the Infinite Sea (The Schuyler Sisters Novels) by Beatriz Williams. It follows the lives of two women, but in two different eras.  One, Annabelle Dommerich is married to a Nazi but has a Jewish lover during the 1930s and 40s. The other, Pepper Schuyler is unmarried and pregnant in the 1960s.  The two meet when Annabelle buys a car that Pepper has just restored and the author unravels their stories.

 

Like I said, I’m still reading it, but so far I love it! I’m a sucker for period novels and films so this book is right up my alley.  

 

Watching…

Last week I just started watching the latest season of The Goldberg’s.  My nine year old decided to watch it with me a couple of nights ago and now he’s hooked.  So together, we started watching it from the first season.

 

This show is to me what The Wonder Years was to my mother (and in the 80’s she and I watched that together, too).  It reminds me of all the things I loved and hated about my childhood – neon fashions, New Kids on the Block, big hair and trying to fit in at school. The parents make the show – the hilariously overbearing mother and loud pant-less father! It is laugh-out-loud funny.

 

Listening…

I have been enjoying listening to books in my car on my way to work.  Last year, I fell back in love with the library and one of the things I love about it is getting books on CD that I can turn on during my 20 minute drive to work.  I just finished Outlander: A Novel (Outlander, Book 1) by Diana Gabaldon which has been my favorite book on “tape” so far.  Now, I’m listening to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millenium Series Book 1) by Stieg Larsson.  The beginning was slightly confusing but now (on disk five) it has really captured my interest.  Also, mysteries and suspense books are my favorite to listen to since I have a hard time reading them.  I’m late to the game on this one since it has already been made into two different films, so I’m excited to find out what happens next.  

 

Planning…

I started my latest round of Whole30 a week ago, so of course, last Sunday I wrote out what I thought was a pretty good meal plan in my bullet journal.  Monday came around and while I still ate Whole30 and what I ate was on the meal plan, it wasn’t my my planned meals for that day. And in true “me” form, the same happened the rest of the week.  I’m not giving up however. I tried it again yesterday and even meal prepped a little. Plus I found this article and I’m going to try a few of these tips to get better. My goal is for meal planning to help me stay on plan and on budget.

 

Eating…

Last week I ate a buffalo chicken stuffed sweet potato as one of my meals and I’m having it again tonight for dinner.  It is literally my favorite Whole30 meal and couldn’t be simpler: take some compliant cooked chicken (I roast my own, but you can get a rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods to be quick) and shred it. Then toss it with some compliant buffalo sauce (TesseMae’s makes a good one, but this recipe from The Real Food Dietitians is my favorite) and stuff it in a baked sweet potato.

 

Drinking…

I finally tried Bubly sparkling water.  I love the strawberry flavor! It was so good with my GT’s cherry kombucha as a mocktail.

 

Loving…

Even after only seven days, I am loving my decision to do another round of Whole30.  I feel better already. A week ago, I was feeling bloated, foggy and just meh (what is that feeling?).

Today is day eight and my mind definitely seems clearer and I love how mapping out what I’ll be eating has gotten rid of that 5:00 pm anxious scramble of trying to figure out what’s for dinner.  I still have some time before my skin is clearer and my bloating completely subsides and let’s not forget about that Tiger Blood(!), but I can’t say enough good things about Whole30.

 

What are you currently loving?

 

10 Reasons I Love the Whole30

I started writing this blog based on the fact that I love my Whole30 lifestyle.  There is no denying the health benefits – they are exactly what the book promises. Still, since I’m human, there might come a day when I start slipping (God forbid!), so I’ve made this list of all of the reasons why I love the Whole30 reset. And if anyone ever reads this blog, maybe I’ll convince someone to give the program a try.

Here’s my list of why I love this new life:

1. It’s not a diet.

On Whole30 I’ve never looked at a nutrition label to see how many fat grams or calories a food had. I’ve never added up every food by calorie count or points in order to keep within a daily limit.  My focus was never a number on a scale (in fact, you don’t weigh yourself at all during the 30-day reset).

2.  But I did lose weight.

That’s right. I lost weight, as most people do, especially on their first round.  Last year, after my first 30 days, I lost 14 pounds! I couldn’t stop looking at myself in the mirror! Truth be told I did gain a few of that back (which other rounds of W30 helped me lose) because in the aftermath, I didn’t focus on what I learned about my body and how food affected it.  So when the holidays hit, my sugar dragon came back in full force along with around 4 pounds.

3.  It’s easy.

No really.  It is.  When you read the plan for the first time it sounds hard, and maybe for a few days it seems hard.  But when you find your groove, prep your food, and know the rules, you find yourself cooking Whole30 versions of your favorite recipes like you’ve been cooking them that way all your life.

4.  It’s delicious.

Turns out, fresh, whole foods just taste good. Plus, I’ve found so many fabulous recipes from the Whole30 book and community.

5.  My pain in the neck is gone.

I’ve had some nerve pain that causes neck, shoulder and arm pain, not to mention numb fingers.  When I’m doing a Whole30, that pain goes away.  I’m in the beginning of the reintroduction so I’m hoping I’ll figure out which food was causing the inflammation so I can avoid it and the pain all together.

6.  My energy levels are through the roof.

Before I started, I read that a benefit of the program was an energy boost and was delighted when I experienced higher energy levels.  That energy has made it so much easier for my late night roller derby practices and for mid-week workouts. Along with the boost, I’m also thinking clearer which has been great for work and helping with the kids’ homework!

7.  My skin is clearer.

My skin looks great! I swear, even my makeup seems to last longer.  My skin’s moisture has seemed to balance out so that it’s neither too dry or too oily.

8.  It taught me about myself.

Doing four rounds of Whole30 and generally choosing to eat within the guidelines of the program has taught me about myself.  I now know I can make big changes to behaviors (like eating and food choices) that I’ve lived with all my life.  I can also be pretty creative in the kitchen in order to stay on plan.  And of course, the program has done what it was created to do: it has taught me what foods work for my body and what foods don’t.

9.  It’s made me more confident.

First off, I already said that it helped me lose weight and made my skin look fabulous.  Who doesn’t feel more confident when they know they look great?  But here’s the real good stuff: I am more confident because I know I have control over my health.

10. I’ve learned to love myself.

I’m a mom, so I’m not at the point that I’m putting myself first, but I’ve made the conscious decision to think about me. I buy foods that are just for me. I’m making time to work out and attend derby practice.  I’m also making time for hobbies – like this blog.

Somehow I’ve become an evangelist for Whole30 and I’m okay with that.

 

 

Welcome to The Whole Bettie!

Welcome to my new blog! Starting a blog is a step out of my comfort zone, but my primary goal is to share some of what I’ve learned (and will learn) on my Whole30 journey (if you don’t know what Whole30 is, check back! I’ll do an overview in an upcoming post).  My secondary goal is to keep this blog to keep myself accountable in my food choices, fitness goals and other parts of my healthy lifestyle.

It’s no coincidence that I start this blog just as I’ve finished my October Whole30.  This last round was particularly hard because I wanted to give up so many times. I thought that since I’ve done this three times before, I was a pro at making good food choices and therefore didn’t need a reset.  But I’m so glad that my smarter voice won out! I reminded myself that it is only 30 days.  I reminded myself of all of the non-scale victories I would get out of this.  And I did. My skin looks great, my energy is through the roof, I have no bloating and even some chronic neck pain I was having has subsided. Oh, and I lost 7 pounds.

If I just completed my fourth round of Whole30, than you know what today is: Reintroduction Day 1.

Confession time:  Though this is my fourth Whole30, I’ve never done a proper reintroduction period. I know, I know.  It may seem kind of pointless to have done Whole30 and not do it to plan – after all, that is the point! So, I’ve made the commitment to do it right this time. I have a plan and this blog is part of it.

I’m a bullet journaler, so I started by adding a reintroduction page to my bullet journal.  I plan on keeping track of what I ate, both on the reintroduction day, and the monitoring days that follow. Then I’ll track how the food I ate made me feel.  We’ll see. Maybe I’ll find that I’m good with everything, but I have the sneaking suspicion that gluten makes me bloated and dairy gives me a cough.

I’ll check in here to give a summary, too. See? Accountability. So, here’s to day 1 and legumes!