Whole 30 (Days 6-11)

It's now day 11 of my Whole 30 journey. The timeline on the website hasn't matched my experience exactly. I've been going through most of what they talk about just not in the same order.

For instance, days 6-7 are when you're supposed to feel the most tired. No matter how much sleep you get, you just want to nap all day. That wasn't the case for me. My energy levels have been fairly constant. However, last night I went to bed around 11pm and woke up at 10am and I still feel exhausted.

Then days 8-9 are when you get a little bloated from the changes and healing going on in your intestines. It's actually a little hard for me to judge this one because it's that time of the month for me and bloating is par for the course. My pants were fitting better about a week ago though. I'll have to see how they fit after mother nature leaves me.

Days 10-11 they say are the hardest days and the days you're most likely to quit. For me that would be yesterday and today. I definitely don't feel the urge to quit. I've had a few cravings but nothing that makes me want to give up the work I've already put in. I've come this far and I'm not about to start over. I don't miss the grains at all. This morning though there was a chocolate bar on the counter and I cried a little on the inside.

So today I guess I'll just take it easy and see what happens tomorrow. I'll be making another Disneyland trip and I might be crying again smelling all the food and seeing all the ice cream that I can't have. But I will prevail.

Whole 30 (Days 4-5)

The Whole 30 website has days 4 and 5 marked as the days that you will be most irritable. They even label it: "Kill ALL the things!". I appreciate the sarcasm found throughout their writing. In reality, though, it was pretty accurate. I didn't necessarily want to kill ALL the things, but I did find myself very prone to becoming upset very quickly. At least they were my two days off of work. Also, I went to Disneyland yesterday which is the happiest place on earth, so how can you be mad there?

I haven't had the waking up at 6:45 phenomenon happen again, but I've definitely been getting up earlier than usual without much of an inward struggle. I have a lot of energy in the mornings, but in the afternoon and evening I get pretty sluggish. I'm assuming this is due to my body learning to use fat as fuel instead of sugar.

I just noticed last night that I've definitely been burning belly fat. My abs are much more noticeable and I even took all of last week off of workouts. The timeline on the website says I might be more tired than usual today and tomorrow. I'm hoping I've already gotten through that part, or that maybe today would be the last day of it.

Another big change for me is in cooking. I do not cook. I mean...I DO NOT cook. It's not fun for me and I don't feel like I'm good at it. Luckily I married a man who loves to cook and I haven't had to do any cooking for our entire marriage so far. (It's ok to be jealous.) But, since starting this program, I've actually been cooking a bit. At least when it comes to breakfast. I LOVE breakfast. I don't have a wide variety of meals I'm good at, but I can make a sweet potato hash like nobody's business. I think that's part of why I'm getting up easier in the morning. I'm thinking about breakfast and bulletproof coffee. 

The food I eat on this program is delicious and healthy. I'm really enjoying the meals I get to eat. I hope it stays that way for all 30 days!

The Whole 30

Even though I'm on the third day already, I thought I should probably start blogging about my experience with Whole 30. If you want more details on what that is exactly, click this link. Long story short, it's VERY strict paleo for 30 days.

Now I'm a fairly healthy eater but I know I could do better. That's why I'm choosing to do this. I'm also really interested in seeing how my body reacts to cutting out grains.

So for my experience so far: the first two days were hard and easy at the same time. The food I've been eating is really good and I'm enjoying the amount of fat I'm supposed to include in my meals. But I've never eaten so many vegetables. I feel like all I do between meals is go to the bathroom. The hardest part is being at work and not eating any goodies that people bring in. I'm just waiting for that box of See's to show up like I know it will.

The most interesting thing that's happened so far was this morning. I woke up at 6:45am automatically and was wide awake. That's never happened before. I'm kind of hoping that will keep up because I always have intentions to get up earlier and I never do.

So... I'll be updating as I go along. Stay tuned. ;)

Creating Mindfulness

Lately I've been doing some reading about the Law of Attraction. If you're unfamiliar with this idea, in a nutshell it's "what you think about, you bring about". You make dream boards, notebooks, and focus your thoughts and energy on what you want to attract into your life. That's an extremely simplified explanation.

I've been trying different practices to implement it into my life and bring some positivity my way. There is definitely something to it. It's almost eerie how you can focus your thoughts on bringing something into your life and suddenly it starts showing up.

I haven't been able to come up with a good explanation for it. Most experts on the subject say its about the universe responding to your "energy" or "vibrations". I have trouble with this explanation because I believe that what comes into my life is a combination of God's will and my own actions.

Last week I started reading a book called The Compound Effect by Darin Hardy. It has nothing to do with the Law of Attraction. It's about how every little mundane choice we make every day will eventually compound to make us successful or unsuccessful. But he did make an interesting statement about the Law of Attraction. Say you buy a new car. Suddenly you start seeing a whole lot more of that type of car out on the road. It's not that those cars have multiplied, it's that suddenly you're more aware of them.

Same thing with the Law of Attraction. When you focus your thoughts and energy on something in particular, you're going to notice more of it in your life. People respond to your attitude and demeanor. So it stands to reason that if you adopt a more positive outlook you're going to see more of what you want in your life.

Try it out. Smile at someone you don't know. Compliment someone in line next to you. Odds are they'll smile back and respond very nicely. Also, you'll probably make their day a little better.

So what am I trying to say here? Maybe this was a little long and rambling today. But the point I'm trying to make is, if you want better things to happen in your life, be a better person. Think about better things. See what happens.

"Success is something you attract by the person you become." - Jim Rohn

What the Heck is Oil Pulling?

A while ago I heard about this thing called oil pulling. I didn't really give it much thought; I couldn't see what the benefits of doing such a thing could really be. So, as a true open-minded person, I didn't research it any further.

Then, just a few months ago, I heard about it again. This time I actually read a little about the benefits. Most of the articles I've read suggest using a high quality, cold pressed, extra virgin coconut oil. Other quality food grade oils can be used as well. Coconut oil seems to be a favorite because of its antibacterial properties.

So what do you do? Well, first thing in the morning, you take between 1/2-1 tablespoon of said oil and put it in your mouth. Then you just swish it around for about 15-20 minutes. The timing is important. The oil is drawing bacteria and toxins through your saliva and leaving it in your mouth longer than 20 minutes can allow your body to begin to reabsorb them. Not cool.

You don't want to gargle it or let it touch the back of your throat because of the bacteria building up in it. And you definitely don't want to swallow it. When the time is up, spit it into the trash or the toilet. Being oil, it can solidify again, clogging a sink drain.

I started doing it 4 days ago. I did it 3 days in a row but didn't have time this morning. I'll do it again tomorrow. I mainly just wanted to see what noticeable changes I would observe. The first thing I noticed was that my sinuses were clearing up. I could feel them draining before I had spit the oil out.

An unexpected side effect for me has been a decrease in allergy symptoms, even from the first day. I have very bad environmental allergies as well as an allergy to my cats. I wake up every morning with an itchy, runny nose and my face is always feeling itchy. On the second day I suddenly realized that I wasn't having allergies. I hadn't even thought about taking my allergy medicine.

So that's my cool oil pulling story for now. I'll update as I go along. I'm interested to see if it will really whiten my teeth!

This One is for The Ladies

Gentlemen, if you're squeamish, now is the time to look away. I'm going to be talking about (drum roll please) that time of the month. But if you have significant others who have a hard time coping with their symptoms, read on.

I've always had a very hard time with my monthly symptoms. Cramps were terrible, mood swings were almost worse, and it was extremely frustrating. It would take a whole day of loading up on midol just to make a small dent in the pain and moodiness. I would pretty much just curl up under a heating pad away from the world until I felt alive again.

When I first started working out, I noticed that my cramps weren't as bad as they had been. And if I continued to work out through the week even if I didn't feel like it, my mood would improve. I still dealt with days of bad cramps but it wasn't nearly like it was before. In researching this, I found some answers. Exercise increases blood flow which alleviates pain. Also, stress can make your cramps worse and exercise is a proven stress-reliever. Makes sense to me.

I also found that other natural remedies include iron-rich foods and vitamin E or omega 3 essential fatty acid supplements. That's where my next suggestion comes in. Exercising helped to drastically reduce my cramps but I noticed the biggest change when I added Shakeology to my daily diet. It has 4mg of iron (22% daily value) and 15 IU of vitamin E (50% daily value) as well as many other vitamins and amino acids. Not to mention the digestive enzymes, prebiotics and whole food ingredients to help your body detox. Since I've been drinking Shakeology I've only had a few months where I've had to take extra pain meds for a day or two.

I'm not saying all this because I sell Shakeology. In fact, I decided to become a coach and start selling it because I whole-heartedly believe in it. So, if you're looking for some natural remedies for your menstrual pain, I highly recommend giving it a try. And get out there and get moving. At least 30 minutes a day of something to get your heart rate up. Walk, swim, do yoga, do a workout DVD. I don't care, as long as you're doing something. Take care of YOU.

Mudder: Volume 2

Since I last updated, I ran another Tough Mudder. This one was much easier in that it wasn't at a ski resort and thus no ski slopes to march up. Some of the obstacles were a little tougher though. Like this one:

Crawling under barbed wire with live wires dangling down. That really sucked. I didn't fall off the Berlin Walls this time, but I only did one. By the time we got to them I had barely enough upper body strength to get over the first one and not enough nerve to try the second one. This one was my favorite:

It was called Mud Mile and we just had to climb over these mounds of mud. It was definitely more fun than getting shocked. The worst part of the Mudder was actually after it. It rained really bad and we got stuck in the dirt parking lot for 4 hours pushing every single car out of the mud. Not fun. All in all though, it was definitely a great experience and I can't wait for next year!

In other updates, I'm starting INSANITY over from the beginning. I'm determined to get my six pack back. This also means committing to a clean diet. I'm going to be honest and say that I haven't been so good at that lately. I tend to eat a lot of carbs. I don't have very much patience for prepping food so I just eat whatever is most handy. So, I'm working on that. Beachbody provides me with a customized meal planner so I'll be trying to utilize that more often.

What about you? What are your goals and what are you doing to work toward them?