Let me say HAPPY NEW YEAR and welcome back to my little world! December was a lazy month in regards to fitness and clean eating. October and November were the two months that kind of snowballed into December’s lazyfest. It’s now January 2 and I’m back on it! And that’s a promise. So I’m going ALL IN with the WHOLE 30 program. I need a restart, reboot, do-over. And like a good majority of folks out there I prolonged my start to today! I was dead set on starting yesterday but we got free tickets to The Heart of Dallas Bowl game and well I didn’t plan for that in regards to food prep. So yesterday was my last day of free for all, eat whatever.

This morning was supposed to be my personal re-dedication to NEW and old CrossFit goals. I was even excited for the 20 minute AMRAP because it was all movements I have confidence doing! But my sinuses were killing me last night. I coughed and sneezed all night and ate cough drops like they were the last edible items on earth. I completely forgot to set an alarm and slept through Ernie’s alarm as well. Needless to say I will save my energies and hit the BOOM Box up on Friday. Sorry Coach… I’m just a little behind but I got this! Until then let the WHOLE 30 journey begin!

WHOLE30
Since it’s only the morning of Day 1 I don’t have many details to my “day” as it’s only just begun. So as the days go on, you’ll get a recap from the previous day. For right now I’ll just ramble. 30 days folks that’s all! You can start on any day at any time.

When I started eating Paleo and CrossFitting back in Sept/Oct of 2011 I just jumped in all willy nilly, educating myself as I went. And I did read about Whole30 and all the greatness that comes with it but I wasn’t ready to commit to structure. And guess what it worked for me at that time. I was so gung ho I wasn’t going to let anything bring me down. And that worked pretty well for a whole year. Now I’m a mess! I’m eating DIRTY and not just that, I’m over eating! Eating for comfort, eating for boredom, eating just cause it sounds good. I also reintroduced sugary drinks like SWEET TEA and let go of typical water intake. This is BAD I know but it didn’t stop me.

And today is the reboot. And I chose Whole30.

With Whole30 they are really great about telling you why certain foods are awesome for you and why others that you may think are awesome are NOT so much. For my purposes, I KNOW this stuff. It’s not all shock and awe at this point. I’m the junkie who’s showing up for rehab. So for those of you new to clean eating, paleo, eating REAL food, etc then PLEASE check out Whole30’s site for yourself. Check it out and READ. It’s all very educational and at the very least something for you to really think about even if you think all the rest of us are crazy!

This excerpt below was from “The Whole30 Made Simple Success Guide”

This is a good daily affirmation for my well being and success. Hopefully it can be for you as well.

I was a drone for so long about taking care of yourself, eat clean, do it for you, do it for your kids. Then I laid off because I was the one slacking. But I’m back in full force to encourage you and inspire (hopefully) you to get on it. Start something new for YOU, for your health! I’m BEGGING you to change your eating habits for 30 days. Humor me. Humor yourself! It seriously can’t HURT you. I won’t lie you may feel like a bag of shit for a couple of days, maybe longer but the payoff is so worth it! Energy levels will be up, Pain will be gone and you may even shed a few pounds. Cut out the grains, the sugary drinks, the chemical sugar, the processed foods. Cut it all out! Eat real food. Don’t eat out of a box, can, plastic tray or microwave sleeve. Make the effort. Do the work. Add a little bit of movement and you should be amazed at where this journey will take you.

My note: If you are doing Meal Replacements, Weight Watchers, Nutri-System or anything along those lines and it’s working for you then that is truly AWESOME and I’m happy that you have had great success. I too have had success on numerous plans and diets and I always ended up back at square 1. With that said I am almost back at square 1 now so I’m not one to judge, bash or hold my nose up to you or whatever is WORKING for you. But I can tell you that even though I’ve regressed to my old ways at this moment that I KNOW for a fact that my good ways were the way to go. I KNOW that I was practically headache free for a year. I KNOW that my joints didn’t ache. I KNOW that I didn’t get head colds. I KNOW that I had energy. I KNOW my skin was AWESOME. I KNOW that I got the best sleep ever. I KNOW that I was teaching my kids a better way of eating. I KNOW I lost weight and was feeling great. So I challenge you to take the training wheels off of whatever program you are on and just move on to real foods, no grains, no sugars, etc. If you aren’t ready, then you aren’t ready. But take the time to understand that all of these gimmicky “diets” don’t last forever. The “rules” change, the “foods” change, the “prices” change. REAL FOOD stays REAL FOOD. But make sure it’s the good organic, non genetically modified foods. There’s a lot of marketing out there for “health” and “good heart” stuff and it’s really not. I’m not a scientist/doctor/etc. Just a person who writes about her walk in all of this. So take it for what it is. Educate yourself. Please!

I’ve weighed, taken a picture of myself and although I’m truly disappointed with ME, it’s where I am at NOW and I’m HERE and I have to start over! This time around I’m a little better armed with knowledge so hopefully this will be smooth sailing. For those of you NEW to doing this please KNOW you may slip up. Just don’t quit! Don’t hang your head and give up. Just restart the next day. You may have 3 Day 1’s or 5 Day 1’s, it doesn’t matter. At some point though you have to say enough is enough! You have to shake yourself up. Take a good look in the mirror. Know that heart disease, diabetes, etc are knocking on your door if they haven’t already taken up shop in you. Either way it’s not too late to fix it. It’s not too late to find health. I’m not talking about becoming a super model or fit freak. I’m talking about cleaning your body up, cleaning your mind up and just being healthy. Once you’ve made that decision and found that YES you can commit to good food which by the way doesn’t have to be bland boring food then you can find the path of fitness you desire to be at. I for example have never aspired to be a RUNNER. I won’t be a runner, I don’t want to be a runner. I won’t make my goals to be 10Ks and half marathons. I just won’t do it. Some of you will though. And that’s fine. It’s just not for me. I want to be strong, fit and healthy. For me CrossFit is the path. CrossFit isn’t for everyone’s mindset but it can be for everyone! Everything is scalable, modifiable … whatever you want to call it. You do what you can and your skill level but you push that to the limits and beyond until you see progress. Then you push yourself some more. That’s my cup of tea right there! Find what makes you happy activity wise and do it but jump in the deep end of the pool. Dipping your toe in isn’t going to do diddly squat. Jump in and have fun! Our time here isn’t forever! So enjoy the time you do have feeling GREAT!

As for my food intake today:
Whole 30 suggests 3 meals a day. Not 5 or 6. Snack if you must but try not to. If you are active then they suggest pre-workout meals and post workout meals. They have simple, easy to follow guidelines. I feel like I’ve started off weak but I don’t plan to stay on a weak course.

Breakfast:
1 slice of pork belly
1 over medium egg cooked in left over pork belly fat
1 slice of avocado
1/4 grapefruit

12 oz hot tea, 24oz of water intake so far

Lunch:
6 oz of steak
2 cups of veggies
handful of blackberries
1 slice of pork belly

Possible snack:
2 hardboiled eggs.

Dinner:
TBD

It’s not that hard. Yes you have to buy real food and yes you should ideally cook it. That takes EFFORT (gasp) and TIME (oooohhh) but it’s worth it!

That’s all folks for this now. I plan on taking pictures of my meals, outlining how I feel for the day etc but don’t hold your breath! I’ll still be here posting away, just not sure how ambitious I’ll be. As for the new year I was going to start using a new phrase but I decided against it. It will be another year of AWESOME! At least for now. It could change who knows! So for those of you tuning in as new readers… HAVE AN AWESOME day. Embrace the AWESOME in you and live the AWESOME life. For those of you tired of the AWESOME, I’m sorry. Learn to love it!