February Whole 30

Holy moly! It has been FOREVER since I have posted a blog. With working full time, going to school full time, planning a wedding, and raising a threenager, I can barely find time to shower! 

After my Facebook post about whole 30, I have realized a lot of people are interested in finding out more information and had some questions, so I thought I would share my experience with those interested. 

My background with fitness and food: 
First of all, I have always loved food. Pizza. Ice cream. Nachos. Candy. Chips. Dutch bros. You name it. In high school, I never watched what I ate because I was a three sport athlete and burning thousands and thousands of calories just from one practice. I graduated high school weighing about 140-143 lbs. Right after I graduated, I stopped exercising as frequently, and my eating habits got even more excessive. Plus throw in all the beer and alcohol I was consuming? Yikes! It makes me sick to think about as I type this. These terrible habits followed me through college. I would jump on the gym bandwagon on a weekly basis, and started exercising more, but never changed those nasty eating habits. I graduated college in 2012 weighing between 174-177 lbs! I am only 5'4, so that's a lot of weight for my small frame and height to be carrying around. Three months after graduating college, I found out I was pregnant with Ri. Throughout college and my pregnancy I KNEW I needed to make a change, because whatever I was doing, clearly was not working for me. I was the heaviest I had ever been and was SO unhappy, but just couldn't seem to make my health a commitment. On March 27th 2013, the day I had my precious little monkey, I stepped on the scale at the doctor's office and saw that it read 225 pounds! Yes, I was pregnant so gaining weight is a given. But 50 pounds? That was an all time low. 

Shortly after Rilyn was born, my relationship with my fiance ended and I decided to completely turn my life around in every aspect, with my daughter and health being my number one priority. My best friend, Shianne, encouraged me to try some workout classes with her and that helped spark my passion for working out. Over the next 3 years, I became extremely dedicated to working out, going to the gym 5-7 times per week. I also began researching healthy eating habits, and changed my eating around completely! I got down to 150 lbs! I loved how I felt and was really excited about all the positive changes I was noticing physically, mentally, and emotionally. Regardless of some huge changes to my diet and lifestyle, I still loved to indulge in pizza, ice cream, and treats more often than I should. Life got busier, I got more comfortable in my relationship with Ben, and I noticed myself starting to fall back into some nasty habits. I was failing to make my health a priority again and could definitely notice some changes happening to my body in a negative way. I was fluctuate between the 155-160 range again. Yes, I know that the scale is just a number. However, it was severely affecting my self talk and overall, I felt like a bag of poop.  I knew I needed to make a drastic change because I did NOT want to see myself fall into the same pattern I had seen in the past. Clearly whatever I was doing was NOT working. Even the months I would work my booty off in the gym, my eating habits were not great, and I was not seeing the results I wanted. 

Why Whole 30? 
Like I mentioned above, I knew I needed some drastic; something I had never done before, to get myself back on track. One of my really good friends completed her first round last summer and I was so interested and impressed! I asked her about it, even borrowed the Whole 30 book. However, mentally, I was not prepared. I told myself, "There's no way you can do this. It's too hard." This past January she talked about doing another round, and after stepping on the scale and looking in the mirror, feeling my clothes getting tighter each week, I decided this would be my drastic "thing" I needed to do! 

The thing about Whole 30, is that it IS really hard and you definitely need a support system to make it through. It is recommended to do with a friend, so I thought it was perfect timing. My friend, Brittany, had tons of great advice, helpful tips, and was a great motivator. I even encouraged my BFF Katelyn to get on board. It helped a ton to have people going through the process with you. :) 

Okay what the hell is whole 30? 
I am in NO MEANS an expert or even an intermediate level whole 30er. There are two great books that I need to get, by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig, that go really into depth about it. If you are interested, google "whole 30 books" and they will pop up! :)  Basically, it's designed to be a 30 day reset to your body, eliminating dairy, legumes, soy, processed anything, gluten, any form of processed sugar, and processed additives. You eat whole foods for 30 days. It sounds like you can't have anything, but you can actually eat a TON of food and there is no caloric restriction since you are eating real, whole foods. I ate a ton of fruit, vegetables, potatoes, meat, salads with compliant dressing, almond butter, almonds, lara bars. You will most likely lose weight if you follow the guidelines, but it's not JUST about losing weight. It's also designed to help you figure out your relationship with food and what food groups work with your body, and which ones don't. 

For me, I learned that I do not need dairy in my diet what-so-ever. It was killing my stomach on a daily basis and I feel sooooo much better without it. I also learned that for the past 6 years I thought I was a "coffee addict", turns out- I was a "sugar addict". Sugar addiction is actually a very real thing that most people don't realize. There are SO many foods that have some sort of sugar or processed sugar in them, like ketchup, dressings, barbeque sauce, bacon, sausage just to name a few. I learned that I can drink my coffee without a bunch of crap in it and survive on one or two cups a day, instead of 5 or 6. I also feel like I have much better self control around desserts and treats. Before, I would binge eat 8-10 cupcakes if we had them in the house. Now, I can eat one and feel satisfied and I want to KEEP it that way! 

I eliminated certain food groups prior to starting whole 30, which I think helped a little bit, but headaches and fatigue are not uncommon for the first few days on whole 30, as your body is detoxing from sugar! It's crazy to think that some of our bodies have been addicted to sugar for years, or even our whole lives! 

What is life like after whole 30? 
I am just speaking from personal experience, but I have still been eating whole 30 compliant meals and food 90% of the time. You are supposed to do a reintroduction phase where you reintroduce foods back into your diet one at a time and see if there any effects. For me, I know that I do not want dairy in my life, so I am not going to reintroduce it. I will slowly reintroduce whole grains here and there, and of course have an occasional treat (like the sushi I destroyed last night). 

But overall, I feel I have much more control over my relationship with food. Not to mention, my clothes fit loosely, my skin has cleared up, I don't feel bloated and gross all the time, AND I happened to lose 11 pounds! :) 

I plan on doing another round in May, and will try to be better about posting my meals to social media for those who are interested. If you're not, sorry! :) This is honestly something I definitely recommend to anyone and everyone who is interested in living a healthier lifestyle. 

There's no place like Idaho....

 
Let me preface this by saying it's been way too long since I have blogged. Sweet Benjamin bought me a new laptop so I can take some courses online for my Masters Degree-which I fully intended to take advantage of for blogging/social media purposes. Clearly this has not happened and this summer has flown by, mostly since we spent a whole month in Georgia with my brother and his fam bam.

Sooo first.... an overview of our trip:

Traveling:

I am not an experienced flyer so I was very nervous about flying with a 2 year old. On our way to Atlanta, our flight in Denver was delayed for almost 2 extra hours, which made for a very long day. We left our house at noon to head to the airport and didn't get to my brother's house in Lawrenceville, GA until after 1 a.m. Ri was such a trooper though! On our way back, we had a layover in Phoenix and although it was a super long flight, Ri stayed busy on the iPad and did great. An old lady that sat by us even complimented her. She slept for most of the flight back to Boise so that was nice.

While in Lawrenceville:

Rilyn is the spunkiest, funniest little human I know. She has always been super outgoing and extremely independent-which has been both a blessing and a curse. (Let's just say- it's her way or the freakin highway) Rilyn never quite warmed up to my brother and wasn't quite herself for the month we were in Georgia. She absolutely HATED sharing her ma maw with her angel cousin (ha!) Amaya. It seriously turned her into this crazy, uncontrollable child. It was super frustrating, although she had her sweet, "normal Ri Ri" moments.  The South was beautiul- so so so green! I couldn't believe my eyes. The humidity was definitely not my favorite, nor were the mosquitoes. The traffic was unreal- I will never complain about Idaho traffic ever again. It was a nice visit, but I couldn't be happier to be back in boring, old Idaho. :)

WARNING: Picture overload 



Headed back to Idaho with her penguin.

Unicorn & scorpion!

Ri Ri got a bumblebee. She actually loved
it despite the scowl on her face.

Headed to the splash pad

She seriously loooooved this scooter.
Definitely going to have to get her her own.

Ma maw bought the kids a little pool to play in.
Didn't get as much pool time as intended on account of
the ridiculous mosquitoes!

The look on her face says it all.

Slide fun at Kidz Up!

All ready for the 4th of July.

How cute is this swim suit?

Twinning!

I miss them already!

Cousin time on Aunt Sammy & Uncle Jason's bed.

One of our movie nights!

Dinner & drinks at Tin Lizzy's before the Braves game.
By far the BEST margarita I've ever had and
delicious food. Not to mention, I am a huge
fan of MLB games! Soooo much fun. :)

Love this sweet girl's smile.

Selfie before the Braves game.

Took a weekend trip to Nashville to see my BFF from college.
Missed her so much!

The Bluebird Cafe from one of my fave TV shows "Nashville."
Totally not what I expected.

Creepin on Dierks Bentley's house. Oops

Hangin with Dolly & the gang.

The house the film in "Nashville". SOOOO beautiful!

One of Rilyn's sweeter moments.

We BBQed one night and watched the fireflies outside.

Doggy pile! WWE style.

Sweet swim goggles.

First time on the airplane weeeeeeee!


 






 









18 Month Monkey

My sweet little angel is almost 18 months! She is so full of energy and spunk. Some days I question if she's even my child. But she is the best blessing I could ever imagine and I am so thankful every single day for her. Now down to the cool stuff.

YES PLEASE!

• Dogs
• Cereal (just like her mama)
• Singing
• Dancing
• Being outside
• Snuggling stuffed animals and blankets
• Car rides
• People watching
• Hitting/biting/throwing fits

NO THANKS!

• Naps/sleeping in general
• Being told "no"
• Getting scared
•  Diaper changes
• Baths (off and on)

Yummy in my tummy:

• Corn
• Carrots
• Ranch dressing
• Cereal
• Noodles/pasta
• French fries
• Grapes
• Applesauce
• Oreos
• Veggie straws

Milestones/Cool stuff:

•  Saying more words like: shirt, shoe, dirt, juice, hello
• Jibber jabbers constantly
• Pretends everything is a phone and says "lo!"
• Stands on her head  
• Gives extremely tight hugs (especially to poor Daisy)
• Climbs stairs and up and down on mom
• Throws balls, toys, anything she can get her hands on.
• Combs her own hair
• Brushes teeth
• LOVES books. Wants someone to read to her all day long. I LOVE it! :)

 

She's super cool with her Dutch Bros

Eating her oreos in her moo moo pjs.

Grandpa and Ri Ri playing in the water with her new truck. Such a tom boy! :)

Big girl in her big girl chair!

 

Ri, the Crazy Dog Lady

My monster  angel baby is currently sleeping off a crazy weekend so I thought I'd write a new post about my daughter's obsession with DOGS! She can now officially say "dog". Before, I was just kind of guessing that's what she's saying, but now it's for sure. Ri will point at everything and say "dog!" even if it's a lamp. It's so adorable. Last Thursday, we checked off one of our summer bucket list items which was: go to the Boise Zoo. The weather was perfect and my momma joined us, so it was an amazing day. It was so cute watching Rilyn get so excited over every single animal (even the fake ones) and pointing to the tigers and snow leopards and saying "dog". I am so grateful to have time this summer to take her to do fun stuff. Here are some pics from our fun little experience together:

DOG!

DOG!

Riding a "dog"

My sweet little angel eating some fruit snacks



 

 

 



On Friday, ma maw and myself took baby Ri to the Canyon County Fair (also a bucket list item YAY!) . I was SO excited because first of all, who doesn't love fairs? And secondly, I hadn't been in like four years. We started our afternoon by enjoying some delicious fries and strawberry lemonade. Then we walked around and looked at the 4H exhibits and different vendors that were there. I was stoked for Ri to ride the carousel because she loves those almost more than ketchup and that's a lot. Unfortunately, the rides didn't open until like 4 or 5 and it was only 2. Womp womp. Mom fail. :( We saw all the animals and Ri got to pet some goats and look at the stinky piggies. She got put back in stroller jail because she tried giving all the goats kisses and I was a little nervous she was going to end up with a  bloody nose. And of course she kept getting all excited and yelling "dog!" at all the goats. Her love for "dogs" (animals) is so  dang sweet. We ended our trip with the purchase off a stuffed pig I named "Peppa" for her (yes, after the cartoon). She hasn't parted with it since we left the fair and I think it's becoming her second best friend (her first would be Daisy).

Not so happy about having to take a picture while there were dogs waiting for kisses

Little love bug

Delicious fries

Naughty Ri Ri

         I thought the title of this post was fitting considering my child is literally a monster. Literally. She is the definition of a sour patch kid, and although sometimes (most of the time) I just want to rip all of my hair out, she's a hoot. She's got such a personality and is a little entertainer. I was really thinking hoping she would be like me as a little kid. Shy, calm, scared of getting in trouble. Nope. Didn't happen. She will walk over, hit me, kiss me, then put herself in timeout for a few minutes. It's really hard to discipline such a cute little stinker.
         She's starting to get into cartoons more which is fun for me. Her favorites so far are Doc McStuffins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Tickety Tock, and Chuggington. She loves trucks, trains, and tractors & can make better car noises that I can. We have spent a lot of time this summer being lazy, playing in the water (crab pool, Lakeview Water Park, & Settler's Park), staying cool at Jabbers, and having play dates with friends!   
         

Accomplishments:

• WALKING! Ri has been officially walking for about a month or so now. She doesn't look like such a drunken little monkey, so that's been nice. Since she's started walking, she thinks she runs the house (which she does) & has quite the attitude about it. Awesome. 
• Completing 2 weeks of swimming lessons. 
• Saying new words like dog, daisy, stop, don't, shut up, and shit. She's an angel. 
• No more bottle! Yay! Up until about 13 ish months, she would have a bottle before bed and naps. Now it's just a sippy.

Yes, please:

• Food. She will eat mostly anything. Her favorites have been: fruit snacks, pizza, French fries, watermelon, grapes, and KETCHUP!
• Playing in the water. 
• Snuggling with anything soft. 
• Dogs  
• Singing (still)
• Sitting on Daisy 
• Her new book with farm animals
• Jabbers play dates 
• Cars 
• Opening/closing doors (aka slamming her fingers in doors and crying, then doing it again)

No thanks:

• Listening to mom 
• Sharing 
• Getting her diaper changed 
• Having her hands/face wiped 
• Playing with other kids (kind of a problem)

  

  Playing in her sweet crab pool

Having a snack break (if you give her a half cheese stick-which is all she will eat-she will throw it on the ground. Has to be a full one. Spoiled baby.

She LOOOOOVES dogs.

Snuggling and watching morning cartoons

Her first timeout experience with mom. So sad. But also a little cute. (oops!)

Tickle fight! She loves her cousin, Xavier.

All ready for some 4th of July fun!

 

One of our many Jabbers play dates. Mowing the yard.