W1D1 C25K

First day of my couch to 5K training was good, I don’t feel like it was overly hard & it was right with where I am with running. I had a few malfunctions with the app I was planning to use to train but I worked best I could around it & didn’t let it stop me. I did 1.5 miles in just under 30 minutes, so I think that is pretty good to start out with. I didn’t feel right just stopping with my 30 minutes of cardio so I of course had to get some strength training in there, so I put some extra effort into my core. I did a variation of 150 crunches and then a 45 second plank, which is my best time yet! Yea! I have been topping out around 30-35 seconds with it & would love to work my way up to a minute, so here’s to move on up.  I also decided to just use an interval HIIT timer which I preprogrammed and tested, so I should be set to rock & roll tomorrow.

I am Active & Excited

I’m excited. I’m excited today for my workout. Boy, I never thought I would say that! I’m excited today for more than just my workout though, I have set some new goals and changed a few things around for me. I have been doing great with my weight loss, I FINALLY broke under 200!!! It has been years since I have been under 200 & not struggled to stay there. But, now that I am here I am stuck between 197 & 199. I have hit a plateau of almost 5 weeks now. I have not lost motivation or determination; I have tried several things to break it. Working out harder, eating more, eating less, but I remain stuck. I do know that a little part of it is gaining muscle I didn’t have before, which I am so proud of but most of it is just being stuck. Well, I’m DONE! I’ve put on the gloves and am determined to get over this hump.

I have put the scale away in the closet so I don’t have to face the same daily frustrating weigh in. In the last 30 pounds I would weight myself every day for a guide of how I was doing since I wasn’t counting calories or tracking much. I will pull it back out when I do my 1^st of the month measurements.

I have also started back with tracking my diet with Weight Watchers, since it has worked well for me in the past. Since I have been cutting out a lot of processed foods and all wheat I didn’t know if I would be able to make enough Points daily for the program to work. I think after really looking at it and giving it the time, it is going to work just fine for me, maybe even give me a little more freedom. I don’t mind either keeping up with the Weight Watchers Points, but I hate counting every tedious calorie.

The thing I am most excited about is I have planned to run my first 5K on July 4, it is the Independence Celebration run, how fitting, right?! I am starting a couch to 5K program today since I am not a runner and will be aiming for a 30 minute 5K by July. I have 11 weeks to build myself up. It is a big goal but I want something I have to push myself to strive for. I though am not going to be disappointed if I don’t do a 30 minute 5K, I am just going to be thrilled to actually RUN it. Then, in mid August the Hubs and I are planning on doing a 5K mud run. It looks a little intimidating to me, but in a good way. If I could finish the mud run and all the challenging obstacles, that would be the ultimate accomplishment.

So, I’m excited, I’m motivated, I’m encouraged, I’m driven and excited proud.

New Things are Happening

I have started a new way of life, a new way of knowing and understanding food and tried to cut out a lot of unnatural things from not only our family diet but also our lives. It has been an exciting journey so far & I am excited to keep going.

I will start off with the most exciting part of this new life, getting healthier & stronger. I have changed my way of thinking and my visions of stride. Healthy is the new skinny. Instead of striving to look like a current actress or skinny girl, I am aspiring to be like the girl at the gym that can do pull ups, crank out push-ups with perfect form, enjoys cardio, has great flexibility and eats and drinks clean. I want to be strong. I have already done things physically I could never do. I can do 20 push-ups (on my knees, working my way up though) when I could not do one, I can do a 30 second front & side planks and my back doesn’t hate me the next day, I enjoy my cardio – youtube zumba right now or walking, and best of all I have energy after 30-45 minutes of cardio then 20-30 minutes of strength training I still pep through making dinner, washing dishes/house work/ enjoying Landen, getting Landen in bed and can enjoy my evening with my love. I can work hard without dying.

Eating healthy has been fun as well. It has been exciting to try new things & not be scared of calories. Now when I turn a product over I look at the ingredients first not how many calories it has. I don’t mind 300 calories when it consists of fruits, veggies and is packed with protein. I am really proud of what I eat on a daily basis. Fruits and veggies don’t stick around our house too long anymore. I find myself running to the store weekly to refill fresh items that we have ran out of. I have tried new things that I never thought of trying before, that I didn’t even really know were out there & so great for you. Some of our favorites have been star fruit, kale, almond milk, flaxseed, cacao powder, bee pollen, raw apple cider vinegar and tofu.

We have also added some new gadgets to our kitchen.  My favorites have been my ninja blender; it is so easy to use and easy to clean. Now it takes mere seconds to chop vegetables so there is no trouble adding them to our meal due to laziness, and the options for smoothies are endless. One of the best gifts I ever received. I also love my juicer, I have never even thought about getting a juicer, we are not big on juice anyways. But if I could have juice that is not full of sugar, packed with fresh nutrients, free of preservatives and fills me up – I’m game. Carrot juice right now is easy, there is a lot more juice in a carrot than I thought, and it’s cheap, add an apple or orange and bam an instant after work, guilt free pick me up or a late night satisfaction.  A few other things that are not everyday gadgets but super fun to have are our dehydrator, we made some peach, pear, mango and banana pieces to add to flavor up oatmeal or yogurt or just for a snack. We also made some granola bars; they are coconut, date, oats, and nuts bars & are the perfect snack, just enough crunchiness and a slight sweetness to tame that growling belly. These I don’t think are going to last a full week in our house. Lastly our guilty pleasure is our ice cream maker, though not so guilty. It is amazing knowing just what is put into your ice cream, frozen yogurt or sherbet. It doesn’t get too much easier than strawberries, water and sugar or other sweetener.

I am proud of what I am eating and doing now. {Today’s menu: breakfast - ½ cup oatmeal made with almond milk and dried peaches, lunch – purple cabbage and eggs, snack – cucumber and 2 oranges, and for dinner I’m thinking cauliflower pizza.}

As well as changing what I am eating, I have changed items around our house to more natural items. I have jumped on the no “poo” bandwagon and stopped using conventional shampoo and conditioner. I now use baking soda to wash and vinegar to condition my hair so it can natural cares for itself. This is one of the best things I’ve cut out, my hair takes very little styling now and doesn’t frizz in the humidity like it use to. We have stopped buying store made laundry soap but instead started using a very natural and economical homemade mixture, with a few scent beads thrown in. We have started using fabric napkins around the house, though we keep a roll of disposable ones for events or times then it should just be thrown away. This is a major cost savings not to mention less disposable waste. Lastly we have been recycling, which seems like a common thing, but fairly new to us. We actually started not mainly for environmental reasons but because we wouldn’t use as many trash bags therefore saving us money. It does feel good though to use more natural items and to be cleaner, personally and for the world.

More changes and discoveries to come.

Meal time is a little different now

Meal time is a little different around our house now. About 4 weeks ago I had a bad allergic reaction to something; we weren’t sure what though. It started with my ears, they started itching and swelling and then my legs started itching and developing little bumps. By the time I made it home from work it was starting to spread even more, my arms, my neck, my chest, anywhere that would not be covered by shorts and a tank top. Strange. This was Monday that the itching started so we were thinking back on the weekend and the only time I wore shorts and a tank top was to cut the grass Saturday morning. That was a difference in 48 hours though, but we were thinking that it took a while to “bake” in. We couldn’t think of ANYTHING else. Tuesday morning I woke up to my eyes being swollen with what looked and felt like a burn under them, and everything else was worse than the day before. So after dropping off The Boy at school I headed to the ER to see what they could do to help me. They gave me the typical steroid, in pill form, which would take about 48 hours to kick in, so only about 48 more hours of this torture. Wrong!  It did get better, a lot better but it did not go away. All the swelling went down around the 48 hour mark and a lot of the bumps went away, but I still itched, constantly.

Week two, I headed back to talk to a family practice doctor to see what I can do to get this to get better or when I should expect to get better because we are still thinking it was something I came into contact with. The Doc told me to go back to anything I changed, which was nothing, and gave me some medicine to help with the itching temporarily, but I would need to slowly do some detective work to figure out what I reacted to. She also gave me a blood test to check me for allergins that I could have inhaled or came in contact with, such as, grass, pets, woods, etc. The results came back stating that I only had a slight allergy to cockroach, which I already knew. She said with confidence that it will clear up soon that we may never know what I reacted to. I changed and washed everything that week with still not much relief.

So, week three back to the doctor, a different one, still in my same clinic to discuss this detective work a bit more. By this time the itchy rash had subsided to my knees and lower legs primarily and occasionally on my wrist. I asked the Doc about the possibility of it being a skin rash not an allergic reaction to something, especially with the weird locations of the rash, she said that it was defiantly an allergic reaction and could be something I was eating. But at every meal or every day? I still didn’t have a time when I didn’t itch, it just wasn’t as intense. So she put in a referral to an allergist to have the reaction more closely looked at, but said to expect 2-3 weeks for it to process. So I left with not much hope I would stop itching anytime soon.

The only thing that that started about the time I start itching was an increase in my Coke & Pepsi intake, but are people really allergic to cola? I don’t drink caffeine after 1600 if I help it so I can’t figure out why I was itching so badly a night if I had cola only during the day or in the morning. With a little research it seemed farfetched, allergic to cola, Coke or Pepsi products, or caffeine, really? Farfetched & silly. So I figured I would just wait to see the allergist.

Lying in bed one night after having Olive Garden for dinner and then a beer afterwards I started feeling really sick, maybe dinner didn’t agree with me. Then a light bulb went off! Wheat, could it be wheat? It is in just about every meal we eat and is even in the caramel coloring in coke. The symptoms seemed to fit mine perfectly. So the next morning, at the 10 day mark I called to check on the allergist and it had just been processed, so I got the office information and call right away to make an appointment. What great news, an end is in sight. When I called to make the appointment I expected a week maybe 2 or 3 to see to Doc but the offered me an appointment that same afternoon. Who was I to refuse! What a great birthday present, a means to an end is now within my reach.

During my visit I was asked all the expected questions, what have you changed, what have you ate new, that have you been doing or going? I didn’t even have to mention my suspension of a wheat reaction; he recommended that I drastically reduce my wheat intake, including cutting out coke & beer.  So a little worried I wouldn’t be able to eat anything I left his office with some hope that I wouldn’t itch much longer.

A week later being on a gluten-free diet, I do feel better. I itch VERY LITTLE, my ears still itch here & there, but it seems like even that is solving its self. I have had great support from my family with this transition. Meals around my house are a little different, it takes a little more planning to bring my meals with me to work and snacking is a bit harder but I am eating better again and feeling better. I even had a monthly cycle, this may not seem like much, but I haven’t had one since I had gotten pregnant with The Boy, three years ago, and even then they were forced with medicine. I am also on the Depo-shot & have been for two years now, so it is expected that monthly cycles don’t show up at all. This is all either my body in shock or breathing a sigh of relief.

Since everyone asks “so what gluten-free mean you can’t have” here is a small list of the major ones I am finding a little challenging to adjust to:

Beer, pizza, bread, pasta, cake, cookies, muffins, pancakes, breaded fried items, soy sauce, dressings & condiments (ranch, bbq sauce, teriyaki sauce, syrup, etc), prepared & processed foods (seasoned packets of rice, lunch meat, hotdogs, sausage, seasoning mixes, etc.), cereals, crackers, flour tortillas, some chips, prepared coffee drinks, breadcrumbs (meatballs, meatloaf, meatrolls), some milk chocolates and candies, any dark cola, baked beans.

What I CAN have though:

Rice, potatoes, gluten-free cereals (chex and rice crispies have some), bread made with rice or potato flour (tends to have a dryer/stale kind of consistency) meats, dairy, oatmeal, corn and potato chips, corn tortillas, vegetables, fruits, things that come in a natural state and can be prepared at home.

Homemade Monday #4

This week is another work in progress, The Boy's room. I am going for a colorful transportation theme, this past week I was able to get a little work done in there due to a major allergic reaction I had. I was confined to the house due to my spots, puffy face, spots and medicine. Here are just a few pictures.

Handmade Monday (Christmas Project) #3

This week has been a busy whirlwind of production. I chickened out on trying the finger crocheting and went with trying the huge Q-19 needle. I have fallen in love with it, it makes such fluffy, large blankets, quickly too.  I made this blanket to cross off my Christmas list.





I have also been working on a few side projects, a pink & brown giraffe that is still in too many pieces to recognize and a hound dog pillow for The Boy for Christmas. The hound is also still in progress, his legs are made & read to be sewn on but I needed a break from him & they haven’t been attached yet. I hope to do that this week.   

Yet to be finished

We continued to work on our new kitchen furniture and cleaned what was getting to be our very ‘lived in’ house. I thought it would be easier to get down on the floor and scrub all the floors by hand since The Boy insisted on using the shark (steam mop), so I figured getting us both a bucket of water and a sponge would let him help and let me be productive, but now my knees look like I’ve taken a good stumble. He had fun; I didn’t think to ask The Hubs to get any pictures of my little Mr. Cinderella.

I also thought it was time to go through all my coupons. I had about 5 weeks of coupons sitting in stacks, some still in their Sunday papers. I buy 4 papers every week so they start taking over pretty quickly. I have tried several ways of organizing them and storing them & nothing seemed to fit my needs and style. I have seen the file whole inserts by week, use an index box, use baseball cards and tried them all.

The file by week left me with stacks of papers lying around the house & not really knowing what I had, the indexing box would have worked better if I wanted to staple my sets of coupons or if I only bought one paper.

And then there’s the baseball card binder, I used this for a while, even got a special bag to carry it all, ‘all’ meaning what seemed like 10 pounds of it. It was taking me too long to cut all the coupons, fold them and stuff the card inserts, I started dreading Sundays, hence the papers piling up.

Then it hit me, a new way of doing things.

I pulled out all the pages from my inserts that had even one coupon I wanted on it, chucked the rest of the pages (before I would have kept them for a just in case there’s a blow out sale on something I don’t even use, but could make $0.05 on), took me a whole 5 minutes or so. Bought a binder & some regular document protectors, slipped all my pages in & bam! Organized- enough for me, clean, tidy & quick, what more could a girl ask for. I don’t make quick trips into stores in hopes of an unadvertised sale, so I don’t need it to be portable, and I don’t mind looking through it and pulling the coupons as I need them. Perfect! I also added a few baseball sheets to the front for coupons I get in the mail, at the store or clip and don’t use. I am using a few tag post-its to remind me of coupons I don’t want to forget to use as well.

I already planned a large shopping trip & it took me no longer than any other way would have. I think I may have found my fix.

Here is a shopping trip I did not too long ago to help inspire.

All this stuff today for….ready?......$6.76!!!!​!!!!! Summary, (2) men dove deodorant, (2) sargento shredded cheese, a cool blue listerine mouthwash, (4) tostitos chips, (9) bags of frozed veggies, (2) oral-b power toothbrushes, a large bottle of contact solution, (2) Lysol toilet bowl cleaners, (2) fab laundry detergents, and a womans secret deodorant!

Handmade (Mantic) Monday #2

I saw this amazing doily rug over at Someday Crafts and had to find out how it was made. I did a little digging and came across a few instructions on how to finger crochet. It is just how it sounds, you use your finger (whichever one is comfortable) as your hook and start stitching away. It was hard to find pictured instructions on how to do this, but there were a few videos to help me out like this one and this one. It would give the same effect as using a very large crochet hook, a fluffy and loose look. I am going to give a few stitches a try tonight to give a go at something new.

Photo courteous of Knitting and Crocheting Guide  

Side note: It has been one of those technical difficulties, frustrating Mondays, therefore, will be no linky party today. I will pick it back up next Monday with my Homemade Christmas edition.