Whole30: Day 26 (you're so vain)

Only 4 more days until my Whole30 is over (just rolling into my Whole60 but I am still going to celebrate). My calves are lovely and sore today which is awesome since I never feel like they get worked out since they never get sore. I like my calves and never have to work on them, my triceps on the other hand are awful and I need to beat them into even the most remote semblance of muscle and not jello.

I changed the pictures on the right hand side! But apparently blogger is lame-o and has changed the size of the picture on the side bar to microscopic...sucks balls. So the picture is itty bitty but that's me, now like very recently within 8 hours of posting this. I was overdue for some decent pictures of me at my current size AND I even straightened my hair which is a total rarity now as my hair is usually soaked from sweat and just done up in a "yoga octopus" (a half pony right on top of my head, it looks like a bleached octopus).

I forced hubby to take a bunch of pictures of me. I am so damn picky that we take like 150 to get 1 or 2 decent ones. Thank god for 32G memory cards. Now for fabulous current pictures of myself. My Mama said as we took the pics "Have you ever heard that song "You're so vain?" Yes Mama, I love Carly Simon. If you don't feel like looking at a few dozen pictures of me just voguing look away now...y'all have been warned.

Ignore my 2 toned hair, the hair show is at the end of January so only another month and my hair has grown almost 6 inches in a year which is crazypants. Shirt is a medium Dickies with thumb holes (LURVE THUMB HOLES!) and large AA zebra leggings that are too big now. I  have bad ass posture now...thank you yoga!

Downward dog action. I love seeing what I look like in various yoga poses. I always (still) feel like a spaz in some poses but my heels fully touch the ground so that is awesome.

I'm not even sure you can call these "roots" at this point when they take up almost half of the length of my hair

Look at my baby bicep! These guns are a work in progress, I want to be ripped!!

Smooch the bicep, it actually looks like I am kinda smelling my own armpit but whatevs

This shortie hoodie vest is a small and is only for style, not warmth. I got a few bucks knocked off of it because it was missing a button.

I have no idea why I was scowling but it got captured...thanks babe!

Collar bones! So stoked to see these bad boys all the time.

These are my 27 inch waist jeans that only fit me for a short time before being banished to a box then given away to K.P last summer when I was fat. After I exhausted all the tiny clothes in the box I asked K.P if she still had them, she did and she said I could have them back since they never fit her right...fucking score!

Pay attention because this will be the only time I will ever say this on here...I have had 2 babies rather recently. Having babies is not your excuse to get and maintain a fat ass and if you haven't had kids, I have no words for your abuse and neglect of your body.

And now because y'all are bored of staring at me...stare at my sexy sexy better half

ONE LOOK!!! dear lord will I weep when that beard has to go away (no joke, I'll cry big fat crocodile tears)

And his sexy sexy stomach...I'll probably get in trouble for posting this but whatevs....he's sexy and flat tummied!

If you didn't like this post you can kiss mah sexy grits!

Whole30: Day 25 (Christmas!)

Ahhh Christmas...8 weeks of hype for one day of my whole house being thrased. Yoga was closed and so was the gym but did that stop me? FUCK NO! I workout on Christmas Day....LIKE A BOSS! I live in a massive concrete high rise which means there is a built in work out system..the stairs. I have done the stairs before but I cacked out on one round (this was 2 years ago). I was up bright eyed and bushy tailed before the sun was up, I also got hubby to move the Bowflex weights into the living room so I could damage my arms after the stairs. I didn't fail because I had a plan. I knew I wanted to work out on Christmas morning so I made a plan and stuck to it. I had my water and my mp3 player and I was ready to go. I always work out first thing in the morning so I never worry about what my hair looks like (see: a squirrely mess). Hello stairs!

Hello me on the stairs early in morning while the rest of the block snoozed with visions of sugar plums. I wore long sleeves because I thought it would be cold in the stairwells, it was but I was sweating after 5 minutes (note squirrely morning hair)

I started on my floor which is past the mid-way point and went to the roof then down to the basement, then back up to my floor. That was one round, where I cacked out before but I dominate now so I did 3 full rounds of that; from my floor up to the roof down to the basement and back to my floor. I was feeling it by 1 and a half round and my legs were shaky by the final round but I did it because I fucking rule. 28 flights one way and I am no good at math so do it on your own....hmmm let's see...a fuckton of stairs!

An awful awful picture of me but check out the sweat! I was dripping! I usually sweat a lot when I work out no matter what the work out is. I left my DNA on those stairs!

Sweaty shirt and tanned, toned shaky legs

After the stairs I pumped out a quickie arms circuit quietly while my house slumbered, I was feeling the tiger blood! As I sit here now the one part of me that never hurts no matter what I do be it yoga, a killer legs day, Barre, swimming whatever is sore...my calves are sore. I will be feeling the stair love tomorrow morning....bring on the buuuurn bitch, I feel you and fear you not.

I napped for almost 2 hours in the afternoon. I napped yesterday too. I am thinking this is just a phase so I am letting me nap while I can because all this free time with husbie around isn't going to last forever so I need to yoga and nap it up while he is still here.

Now for my SUCCESSFUL or should I say OUR successful Whole30 100% compliant Christmas dinner recap. We brought our own food which is why we were successful. Chicken, sweet potatoes, salad, raw veggies, mayo, nuts and raisins for the beasts. There was a fucking delicious looking danties spread which I just totally avoided. I didn't even go into the kitchen while it was out. There was no reason to subject myself to that so I didn't. I took pictures of my cutie niece and enjoyed family time.

 At dinner there were guests that asked polite questions about the paleo thing. One was pre-med so I informed her and she seemed to nod along with all the points I made. No one said anything weird but my MIL did wonder why husbie wasn't eating her "special meatballs". I was so proud of him, not a sweet or pop or meatball or anything non-compliant passed his lips but I caught him eyeing up the danties tray AND the Turtles which probably have all 5 non-compliants in them but he never wavered and stuck to his commitment. I am sooooooper proud of him. We enjoyed our healthy and colorful dinner and felt great afterwards. No bloated, tired or fat pants feeling. I could have gone for a run right after if I wanted to I felt fantastic. I only felt a little tempted by the sweets but I am in control now so it was easy to avoid them. I was happy to share the paleo word and my SIL is so sweet she had a raw veggie spread and she was so cute when she said "LOOK, IT'S COMPLIANT!" She's not paleo but she totally tried and I love her for it. I even snagged 2 big spoonfuls of the cooked carrots for us before she did them up for everyone else.

I made a chicken bone broth with my heritage chicken carcass and chicken bones we save and throw in the freezer. I am not crazy about bird bone broth but if I have bones and carcasses I am not going to waste them. When we were out doing out meat shop last week I came across a bag of chicken feet! I was stoked! Chicken feet are great for making your broth more jelly like. So I chucked a few in my bird bone broth so I am hoping it will be more gelatinous than my last one. Husbie was not sold on the chicken feet, he doesn't like organ meat or chicken feet or other "strange" things. His loss.

$3 for 4lbs....less than a $1/lb! What a steal of a deal!

A foot in the broth. They were very strange looking but I haven't seen disembodied chickens feet often before now but of course that is changing.

I hope everyone had a happy holidays and you didn't indulge too much. I am looking forward to a photo shoot with my Mama tomorrow. I am OVERDUE for some decent pictures of me looking slim, healthy and foxy. My Mama knows her way around a camera and brought her tripod just for the occassion, I am a lucky gal. I am also headed to yoga tomorrow on what I assume will be very very sore legs.

Whole30: Day 24 (Christmas Eve)

Oh the festivus for the rest of us!! Christmas Eve is here. Now granted all the sparkly magic is gone out of Christmas and has been gone since about the 8th grade AND my nail polish is chipping pretty bad but I'm not being a mega scrooge. The tree is up, the presents are wrapped and husbie and I spent 3 hours making dinner for tonight, Hungarian goulash....paleo and compliant of course we LOOSELY followed THIS recipe and of course hacked the shit out of it suit our own tastes. We added about 5 extra cups of veggies since it basically had none. This might end up making it a beef stew but whateves. We made the paleOMG meatloaf (loaves?) again and added raisins and cinnamon this time like it called for and I.was.NOT.a.fan. I have had cinnamon in 2 savory dishes (meatloaf and chili) and I don't like it. Cinnamon has waaaay too many strong holds to sweet goods for me and while it's not a trigger or anything I just don't like the flavor of cinnamon with meat specifically. Cinnamon is spicy cookies, cakes and buns. The meatloaf wasn't awful and it was devoured by all but I will not be adding the raisins or cinnamon the next time we make the loaf which is turning out to be like once a week. And I added 100g of pureed liver to the loaf and it was totally undetectable. If you want to start your foray into organ meat I highly suggest adding a small pureed (since I don't have a meat grinder) or ground up portion of liver to anything with ground beef (meatloaf, burgers, meatballs etc). Then you can work your way up to heart, pate, tongue etc. Let 2013 be the year YOU dive into organ meat (not literally of course).

We cooked up our heritage chicken so we didn't have to do it tomorrow (so we can nap the whole afternoon away). We are bringing our own waters, teas, food and snacks and speaking of snacks I still feel snacky and blah! I am patiently waiting for this phase to pass because I know it will but I TOTALLY believe in the 4th week "sugar extinction phase" (I can't take credit for that phrase) which is basically your body's last ditch attempt to get you back to sweet sweet sugar. Sorry brain, not gonna happen I love you so I don't want to keep you addicted plus we are fat adapted now so let's not fuck this up (I got this brain, no worries)

One thing I want to keep real with y'all since I keep it real is my increased rage. I didn't know if I even wanted to share it with y'all but I'm not here to blow smoke up your ass. I have always been an "angry" person. I don't know why, maybe it's just me but since doing the Whole30 I feel my rage increased exponentially. After not going to yoga for 2 days and not working out on those days either I figured out that I need to work out and/or go to yoga twice a day to keep my rage monster at bay. Another life time ago I smoked pot (and did a bevy of other drugs but I digress) which calmed the rage monster but living clean for me personally has unlocked the rage. I tell you this because I want y'all to know of all the shit that has happened to me during my Whole30. I want to be clear that this is NOT a normal side affect of the program and in fact most people report feelings of calm and chillness. Not myself but everyone and every body is different. I am hoping that the chill will happen eventually or I might just need to move my body twice a day everyday as a vent to the rage or risk flipping my shit. Don't judge me....I just keep y'all up to date on my PERSONAL Whole30 and this is what has cropped up for me.

Now for some lovely fall pictures that I never shared with you. Fall is my most favorite season all crunchy leaves and hoodies.

I love love love this picture. I got poked in the butt by some grass to take this picture and I was on a serious incline

There is a random pagoda in this park and when when I got my SIL's Christmas card for this year, she had her family pictures taken here in the fall...great minds.

Another failed tree berries shot, it was kinda windy...yes, windy that's why the shot sucks

 FIRE LEAVES! I was smitten with these and their colours

Can you spy the pecker?

I had a hitchhiker

Tree fungus waaaaay up high