Whole30: Day 4

Woohoo 3 days down and doing great. Husbie, 2 days in and doing great too. I am so so proud of him for doing so good despite his "symptoms" of headaches, cravings and feeling blah. He is going for his own BIA today to get his stats. Confession: we don't own a scale, we never have, so these tests are waaaay better than just weighing yourself since they give you all this crazy data that reflects so much more than the actual numbers on a scale. The number on the scale can't tell you body composition, it can't tell you that your pants are looser, it can't tell you that you are sleeping better, your allergies have improved, your hair is shinier, you have more energy.

Picture this....you do a Whole30 and you start at say 150lbs and when you step on the scale at the end you are STILL 150lbs. If someone told you that would stay the same weight as when you started you would probably not want to undertake something where the number on the scale didn't budge. BUT if you got a BIA and it showed that you went from 7% lean body mass to 13% lean body mass with a corresponding drop in body fat % I bet you would be pretty darn happy even if the number on the scale was the same. You can also take measurements and before pictures as a great marker of progress. The scale just continues to keep us locked into unhealthy patterns. Hell, you could take a 5lb shit and be lighter but all you did was empty your bowels. The scale doesn't know the difference between a turd and your muffin top.

Better ways to measure progress than your overall mass as dictated by a square electronic device:

- How do your clothes fit?  I have/had a large box of clothes that I had become to big for. After doing yoga for a month I started to try the on clothes. Even if they didn't fit at that time I still had a bit of a marker ("this hoodie almost zips up" or  "I can at least get these pants over my ass even if they don't zip up"). I would try the clothes on every couple weeks or every month. I now can fit into that box of clothes (which is awesome since it was full of some of favourite clothes) and some are actually too big!

- How do you feel? Are you sleeping better? Waking easier? Is that nagging pain in your knee/shoulder/back starting to go away or is it gone? When your body is healthy these things are all a natural by-product and better indicators of overall health than number of mass. Husbie just mentioned he doesn't feel bloated anymore, he hasn't had heartburn, no gas...out either end. This is HUGE for him in just a few days (and truth be told his stomach is basically flat now...asshole :)

- If you are doing a Whole30, how are your cravings? At the beginning they are going to be bad but they will get better over time. How is your relationship with food? Are you still turning to a bag of M&M's when you are stressed? (we were big M&M fans in this house)

- If you work out are you lifting more? Running faster? Able to get into a yoga position you couldn't before? (I can get into 3 that I can think of off the top of my head that I couldn't in the beginning) Even if you don't work out...are you still winded when you climb the stairs? Maybe the grocery bags or your toddler don't feel as heavy. Do you generally just have more energy? Those are all very good indicators of health.

- For ladies...hip to waist ratio. Google it and you can find easy calculators where you put in your waist and hip measurements and you get your ratio. The hip to waist ratio is a much better measure of health than say a BMI. Grab a soft tape measure or even a piece of string (dental floss would even work!) and measure yourself.

Enough of that...check out this cutie I saw on the way to yoga

Carrot nose, olive eyes...love it!

He was a snow-dino built on a tiny tiny patch of lawn outside an apartment building

What is this? HOMEMADE MA-YO-NAISSE! So freaking easy and so freaking tasty. If you're not lazy stop buying mayo and make your own! (yes it has raw eggs in it if you are big vagina about those things)

Perfect, delicious and one week's worth of mayo. Yup, this container only lasts a week, eating full fat mayo and still gettin' slim. On tuna salad, on egg salad, on a spoon right out of the jar I heart mayo!

We got some new teas on the suggestion of some lovely ladies. The Bengal Spice came highly recommended. I fucking hate it, husbie loves it. It tastes like those little red hearts which I have never liked even as a kid.

Non-creepy ingredients

 

Sleepy tea...I had a crap sleep last night and the husbie slept for 9.5 hours...he drank the tea, I didn't.

 

More non-creepies

 

 And a peppermint which is uber minty!

I am all over that ingredient list!

Bone broth round 3! I liked the flavour of my first broth the best so I went back to the simple version. A simple broth is a good broth...it's a good thing (do I have to pay royalties if I say that?)

Check out who was keeping a watchful eye!!

I signed up to be a model in a charity fantasy hair show in January. I am super excited. I have done about 6 or 7 hair shows in my day. It's always long hours but always a fun time and I love getting my hairs did by professionals fo' free!! We even got measured for costumes/outfits. EXCITED!

Whole30: Day 3

Day 2 in the books and I still feel great. I went to yoga yesterday for the always lovely Hot Hatha with Leslee. Today I start back up training with a lot more intensity than the previous week. I FORCED myself to take it easy last week as prior to that I was working out at least 2 times a day more like 3 and I was pretty sure I was causing MAJOR adrenal stress and being counterproductive. So I relaxed, I skipped my morning workout all week (gym rats you know how hard this can be with the stupid internal dialog making you second guess your every single move...or not move), I went to yoga only a handful of times, I sewed some cute things, I read...all in all I just tried to relax and recharge. Over training is something that I for sure need to be mindful of because I can admit that I get addicted to the working out 3 times a day then feel disgusting, gross and shameful when I don't. Healing the negative self talk is something I am really really working on...it's becoming vitally important.

Now for GREAT NEWS EVERYONE...my precious darling husband is so wonderful and amazing. Yesterday he committed himself to his own Whole30! I am so so so proud of him and I am his biggest cheerleader. We are both recovering candy addicts...candy is actually how we first bonded on the night we met. We bought a big ass load of candy and ate it together while flirting. Food is more than food...it has all these crazy impacts and hooks in us that we don't even know. But he survived day 1 fully compliant with good balanced meals. He is struggling with all of the hallmark withdrawl symptoms (cravings, headache, lethargy, lack of focus) so I tried to help him with a tea, or a distraction and even a great moment where we really broke down his craving and talked about what he wanted, how he was feeling, was it a real hunger cue (I always use Melissa's benchmark for true hunger cues "Are you hungry enough to eat fish and steamed veggies?" NO? it's a craving"). He loves most veggies and did eat a lot before (in addition to pepsi and candy) so it's not a mega struggle and bless his heart he ate sweet potatoes (one of his dislikes) after I told him they would probably improve his mood (around 3pm he started to have more obvious withdrawl symptoms).

This was his breakfast (he ate a banana first, eating your fruit BEFORE your meal is sooooo important. Fruit is digested almost instantly so when you eat it AFTER a huge meal like so many people have fruit for dessert, the fruit just sits on top of all the other food fermenting and causing bloating I learned this years ago and this is the only food combining principle I follow...PLUS eating fruit after your meal just reinforces the idea that you NEED to eat something sweet after your meal...slay the sugar dragon!). We are working on killing the word breakfast and just going on Meal #1 that way we don't pigeon hole certain foods for certain times...broccoli for breakfast? yes please! I told him he needed a fat with his breakfast especially since his 1st meal contained no meat and he opted for a serving of almonds over what I usually pick, 1/2 an avocado (I love those little silicone bears and wish I would have bought more when I saw them in the summer, so cuuuuuute!)

A sweet potato in the shape of a seal! That was the only reason I bought this sweet potato

MASSIVE local, free range turkey breast, my hand for scale then I checked the package....1.77lbs! holy 'eff! This fed everyone with half leftover for today. This breast was sooo tasty, like grocery store turkey on flavorful steroids (no hormones, steroids or other crap in this bird) also note to self....paint nails and stop slacking on your beauty

We put the Christmas tree up! With my husbie home at last it just felt like home so we hauled out the tree. We managed to put the tree up but never got around to decorating it, today perhaps.

This is one of favourtite quotes and sits on my dresser, but I really looked at it yesterday and it resonated with me all over again. I want to fucking ASTOUND myself! Also....BABY CARROT!

On the stroll to yoga. The Batman has been up for awhile and I have been meaning to take a picture of it because Batman always reminds me of my baby cousin (baby...lol...she's a teenager!) because she looooves Batman! I had to stand in a snowbank soaking my fake Uggs to take this shot. It is also before 6pm in this picture...waaaahhh sunlight I miss you!

Post-yoga dinner... I try not to eat after 7pm since I go to bed @ 10pm and I follow an ayurvedic principle for my dosha (I'm a Pitta!) to not eat 3 hours before bed time (this idea is not specific to ayurvedic medicine) Sweet potatoes roasted in s&p and evoo, turkey, cucumber and sauerkraut. One of my Whole30 goals is to eat more fermented food since of the 4 things that all cultures of the world eat, it is the one I am the most slack on. FYI... 4 things all cultures of the world consume
1.raw/whole foods (check)
2. organ meat (check)
3. BONE BROTH!! (check and loooove!)
4. fermented foods (sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha etc) working on it! I don't love the 'kraut plain. I prefer to hide it under YUMMO homemade mayo and tuna on a lettuce boat.

This is the tea that we are loving right now. It smells kinda like Froot Loops and it is very tasty cold

Caffeine free and a non-creepy ingredients list

This one was in the cupboard and I thought it was good...

NO BUENO! sugar on the pineapple... read your labels peeps!

David's Tea teas are so good but most of them have artificial flavouring...tear

This one is AH-MAZING and part of their winter collection
 

Check out my cute pink socks! These bad boys are my Lulu Method socks. Have you heard of Pure Barre or The Bar Method?? no? It's all the rage (apparently) one of my baddest bitches in the States is a PB junkie. Well my studio is going to be offering Bar Method classes starting at the end of the week. I am sooooper excited. I want that bar to kick.my.ass!

The best part of the sockies...the bar WILL make you shake

But the writing is backwards so you can read it in the mirror...genius!

One of my goals for the Whole30 is to up my lean muscle mass so I will start a heavy lifting routine tomorrow.

Whole30: Day 2

I am happy to report that day 1 was a total success! I feel great and focused. I should note that I don't intend to feel "carb-flu" or like "kill all the things" because I slowly changed my diet over the course of a month and I stopped drinking cows milk years ago (icky!). Most people on the Whole30 go from a SAD (standard American diet...best accronym EVER!) to the Whole30 which is a massive shock to ones systems if you have even moderately been consuming grains and dairy, not to mention everyone's favourite legal crack  INCLUDING MY OWN....SUGAR! Oh and caffiene...which isn't specifically banned on the Whole30 but I gave up coffee a month ago (Tim Horton's you are going to be significantly poorer) and now only drink plain green or black tea occasionally. I drink herbal tea like it is going out of style.

I'll admit that I was slightly stressed out yesterday but not for Whole30 reasons rather, the husbie has been working out of town for almost 2 months and his return home yesterday just kept getting delayed and pushed back and I was asleep by the time he got home so that was stressing and bugging me out. But he is thankfully home for good now AND I *might* have him convinced to start his Whole30 today but of course it is totally his choice...or the illusion of choice since I do all the food shopping and the cooking and threw out or gave away everything that wasn't compliant. If he does decide to do it he will be going from a SAD (working out of town and living in a hotel = bad food choices) so I will extra mindful of how much harder it will be for him if he does choose to do it.

Morning bone broth warming on the stove. I freeze one cup portions in mini mason jars (leave about an inch off the top to allow to freezing expansion) then pull one out of the freezer for the next day as I heat up the day's broth. Very good system, no wasting and spoilage. One crockpot lasts me about a week.

My standard breakfast...I might just stop taking pictures of it because I am pretty sure I will eat this every single day for breakfast because it's fast and easy. One thing I will note: this was 3 cups of food NOT including the avocado and that is too much food. It took me a long time to get hungry again which isn't really smart. I didn't feel like eating again until mid-afternoon so I need to be mindful of portion size simply for hunger cues. I want to make it clear that there is NO counting, sizing and manditory portion control on Whole30, you eat as much as you want when you want but eating like this for awhile has made me more intuitive and I know that this breakfast was about a cup over what I need to keep my hunger cues coming at appropriate intervals. That said, I ate it all and felt full but not stuffed. I never get that stuffed feeling anymore just content and full because I am eating food that sends the appropriate signals to my brain.

I slacked with my camera yesterday because the stressing about husbie had me in a funk but I am out of it now that he is home safe so lots of pictures tomorrow and he is my prep cook in the kitchen doing the veggie washing, dishwasher loading all the crappy stuff that I hate doing on top of cooking and everything else. And since he is home, the good laptop is home with the Grinch on it so I am feeling festive and want to put the tree up while watching all my Christmas cartoons.

Now since I feel bad for short changing y'all on pictures here are a bunch from my very very massive archives that stretch back over 4 years. These are all the things I am missing now that the snow is on the ground.

*sigh* I love fall

This is the cornerstone of a really old church they are turning into condos. On the other side of Love there is a stone that says Trust...love and trust, 2 important corner stones.

Local, picked by me berries...tiny berries, want to NOM

I love this picture and actually husbie took it, this was loooong before we ever owned the big mama jama but still a Canon...always a Canon

Farmer's market produce haul...these pictures are waaaay old since it appears to be in the kitchen in the old house...the counter space you see was literally all the counter space I had only about a square metre. I am getting all drooly just looking at these pictures of delicious local veggies.

'Maters....you won't ever see me cooking with tomatoes...I hate tomatoes, always have,  I try them often just to make sure that I still dislike them. The rest of my household...tomato fiends!

These berries are Saskatoons and they only grow here and only for a very brief couple week window in July. I love love love these berries so much. They are kind of like a cross between a blueberry and a blackberry but not really sweet.

I love asparagus despite the smelly pee

I am missing the cabin!

The eensyweensyteenytiny wild strawberries that grow on the back of the property

This is one on my favorite pictures of Uncle Hutch, sitting on the beaver dam cleaning his riffle like a good Canadian redneck, this just now reminds me that I printed this picture off with the intention to give it to him and never did...Hmmm, I wonder where it is? (as always no Photoshop EVER on any of my pictures, these are all the special fun settings on the baby camera)

Whole30: Day 1

Why do we wait for specific days to make meaningful change in our lives? (NOTE: bear with me this will be a little long)  Why does the date on the calendar dictate what we are going to do? Most people make a meaningless gesture on January.1st to lose weight after a month of literally stuffing themselves from American thanksgiving, through all the Christmas parties, trays of danties brought in by co-wokers. I have never done New Year's resolutions because I think they are bullshit. You can change you life right this very moment if you want to ("But I just opened this Diet Coke!")

I typically get a bug up my ass about changing my life in either April or September (the last 2 years it has been September). There is no need to wait for the magical first of the year to do something big, something really bold! All of this really stems from yoga.

Yoga changed my life...dare I say, yoga saved my life. I got an email from my studio saying come in for a cheap month. With the weather getting cold I though delicious hot yoga would be a great way to keep moving if I couldn't be out on Drake. Soon after I started they offered their signature 30 day challenge...30 days of hot yoga (with a sticker chart...look at mah stickerz!)

 I participated in 30 days of hot yoga not missing a day and attending over 50 classes in the 30 days. I also went to a special workshop put on by my studio in which I heard a phrase which reshaped the way I was thinking and had been thinking for awhile. The speaker said:

"If you are running FROM something, you can run forever...but if you are running TOWARDS something you have to get there eventually"

I got....it made sense for me. I was running and had been for a long long time and I didn't want to anymore. I was going to stop running from something and starting running towards something and that was going to be the best version of me possible. That was in October.

Yoga gave me courage and strength both mental and physical and my amazing friends silently lead by example. A.C sent me the Whole30 link in the summer and I thought "Whoa, crazy pants no way am I there yet" I probably thought this while drinking a beer but now I am ready. Really ready. Ready to stand up and be accountable for myself and my health because I am so worth it

 So without further ado I am making my official statement

*I AM STARTING MY WHOLE30 TODAY WITH 100% COMPLIANCE*

I want to be standing at the top of the mountain (metaphorically...work with me) on January.1st not at the bottom unable to see the top because the clouds are distorting it. Along the way I will share my recipes, goals, struggles and whatever else comes to me all with fun pictures because reading is for wankers but since you are all wankers already and have made it this far...MOAR reading for your wankery eyes.

I did not do this on a whim. I am in fact going against 2 things that the Whole30 people advocate (sorry Melissa & Dallas...don't hate me, I'll make ya proud).  Don't do this...listen to them, they are the experts but I know me better than they do (sorry again!).

#1...they thought it would be unwise to do a Whole30 over the holiday. I have no big family dinner to attend with Aunt Milfred's special lard crack pie. I do not work in a modern prison office building where Jane, Sally and Barb have all stocked the break room table with more grains, sugar and dairy. There is no boozey work party to attend or friends that are heavy drinkers that would be douchebags and pressure me.

#2...they also advocate a "JUST START NOW" approach. I am a planner, a maker of lists, a fan of pondering and writing things down. I have spent over a month preparing for this by reading, reading, reading FOR THE LOVE OF READING, I bought "It Starts With Food" and I read some more,  I slowly cleared my house of tons of food items and totally reorganized my kitchen cabinets, I slowly bought all the expensive shit like coconut everything, acv etc etc etc (there is a lot to buy if you are going for 100% compliance), sourcing good food in various stores, ordering things online, MORE reading, trying out recipes, talking with friends and finally a 99% compliant 6 days prior to today that I never told y'all about. I know full and well I would have failed miserably on the first day without this preparation.  I set myself up to be successful by preparing, by knowing that I can't drink boxed almond milk, knowing that tons of shit contains sulphites and propolyene glycol yackyackyack.

If I don't lose a pound I don't give a crap (probably since I have lost about 25lbs since September) but it doesn't matter. I am going for 100% compliance and my long term goal is to make this my family's way of life which I have already begun to do with no resistance.

In order to gauge progress I went to see K.P at her sweet place of work to get a BIA done. A BIA is a bio-impedance analysis. It tells you specifically what your body make up is...what percentage of you is fat, water, muscle etc. I wish I would have taken one of these in September, I would have had very dramatic results (I have gone down 2 cup sizes and lost over 5 inches off my waist...these are all just casual clothing observations)

The numbers are good...really good, so good in fact I am slightly worried I am about to make a fool of myself and there will be only a tiny amount of change. I plan on taking this test again at the end of my Whole30 so I am able to have something to compare it to.

Apparently K.P says it looks good. My lean body mass is .2 over their mean "norm" and my body fat is .2 under the mean. I am so over judging fitness and healthy by weight (for myself...if you are fat you are probably unhealthy...sorry). I want my lean body mass to go up and my fat mass to go down (but not too low...woman are naturally "fatter" thanks to babies and biology) I don't care if I stay the same weight, I WANT TO BE RIPPED!  My basal metabolic rate which is the amount of calories your body needs just to do the day to day breathing and cellular repair is 1616 which is 200 over their "normal" mean for my age...this is because I have more lean muscle and lean muscle takes more calories to support than fat mass. Yeeehaw muscle!

Ok no more words and science...PICTURES! This was yesterday's breakfast. Everyone I spoke with wondered why the test kitchen was closing...fear not...I am pretty sure I need to eat every single day for the rest of my life and I still have a few things to test out that I didn't get a chance to do this past week. I stole this recipe from Fast Paleo and hacked it to my own liking. I am physically incapable of following a recipe exactly to the letter. I always tweak or change something. Proscuitto eggie cups. I am loving my ramekins. Line with meat

Sautee any veg you like...zucchini is my go to breakfast veggie and mushrooms since we had fresh ones.

3 eggs beaten then dumped on the whole lot

After about 25 minutes of sweet love in the Breville

Mmmm easy and delicious

 

 Veggies loves me and I lurve veggies

I took these 2 pictures at K.P's work

This was on the wall in the test room...my favourite part... "You live inside a body that either serves or limits you"... this sounds so much like what Melissa & Dallas say "The food you eat either makes you more healthy or less healthy...there is no food Switzerland" treat your body well and it will take care of you.