My Path to Outer Skinniness

After my hangover day this last week, I did a bunch of searching to figure out why. There were lots of helpful thoughts and suggestions on the Whole30 forum. I think for me, I probably wasn't eating enough - especially for breakfast. The meal template (which I never even heard of the first round) suggests that your protein at each meal should be the size of the palm of your hand, or fit in the palm of your hand. For me, this means 3 eggs rather than 1 or 2. I also started to add more fat to my meals because I'm supposed to be using a thumb sized amount in each meal. That's really a lot when you think about it. Making some small adjustments to my meals has helped. I read through some of my blog posts about going through this the first time around this same time. It's interesting because it wasn't better. For some reason my memory has me believing that 20 days in, I was cruising. I'm so glad I had this record to look back on. It reminds me that it's not as m...

I wish this post had as much positive enthusiasm as the last, but it's been kind of a difficult week. I woke up this morning with a mild headache feeling like I had a hangover. I couldn't think straight and  just felt worn out. I put in for a sub for the morning and went back to bed. After some cold brew and Tylenol I forced myself to teach my afternoon classes, but I'm tired and still feel the pressure on my skull. Yesterday I woke up in a rage. Rage over the grocery shopping I spent the ENTIRE weekend trying to take care of. Rage over the food I couldn't eat to calm the rage. Rage over how I can't control anyone but myself. Rage over the stupidly over-positive encouraging crap in the day-to-day book I've been using. Shut up book! I'm mad and I want to be mad! I don't want to be told how I can fix it! I just want to be mad! These seem to be the monologues that keep going around and around in my head. Angry Feminist Monologue When did all of the g...

Today was an important day. Today, just now actually, I realized that my energy levels might be better. Here's a highlights list of things I did today: got up when my alarm went off - wut? ate breakfast at my desk rather than at my kitchen counter where I... updated the opera on tap website prepped and packed my lunches for the rest of the week made a phone call I'd been putting off to the dress/tuxedo company  packed and put return dresses in my car to take to the post office re-taped numbers on my middle school students' chairs (helps me yell at them more efficiently - you go to chair 10!) wrote a sight-singing exercise on the board 15 minutes before my students showed up (usually doing this when they walk in) ate kale salad while teaching my class and didn't cave and show a video updated the lcrmea website sent an email about solo and ensemble got my paperwork turned in to set up my account so I could send the email about solo and ensemble rewrote a s...

I'm five days into my second whole30 and I am thrilled at how much easier it has been than the first round! Here are some ways that it has been better: I have pretty much memorized what foods I can and can't have this time so it's much easier to shop and plan.  I have a clear plan with my kids that helps me stress a lot less about how to include them.  I established a lot of food routines the first time and can just replicate my breakfast and lunch plans now. I know better which restaurants I can eat at and how to plan for what I can eat.  I am a lot more gracious with myself because I know I don't have to be perfect to get good results. I also know that these restrictions will not last forever and that I haven't said goodbye the croissants and chocolate for the rest of my life. It doesn't feel as permanent this time as it did last time. (sorta like a first pregnancy versus a second one) Considering what a junk-food junkie I was the weeks leading up t...

Happy New Year! I am so relieved to see 2017 come to a close. It was a long, tough, satisfying year and I am happy to be done. I think the two things that were the most life changing last year were moving into our new house and the first Whole30 I completed. It's been four months since I finished my first Whole30. I remember my delightful barista, Kristina, saying "It's so hard, but so worth it." And I couldn't describe it better. I have tried so many things to lose weight and keep it off and nothing has ever permeated my consciousness like this has. I think about what I'm eating basically always. I haven't gained any of the weight back that I lost even though I haven't considered myself on a diet since September. I am also hyper-aware of how foods affect me. December was sort of a free-fall. We went to Disneyland and I made the conscious decision to enjoy myself. Disneyland is already a sugar wonderland most of the year, but add in the Christmas t...