Whole30 Down Hill Slope; Days 1-19

We are now on the down hill slope of our Whole30 experience. It's been interesting.

First 12 days we were feeling pretty low energy and tired. I especially was and still am having a hard time finding the energy to do my workouts everyday. My joint pain has not stopped in my knees, so I'm thinking that is something Whole30 cannot alleviate, need to get it looked at by a doctor.

Days 11 and 12 I think I was feeling the 'I'm over it' stage. Getting tired of trying to figure out what we can eat for dinner that will make me not loath eating. I am losing my excitement over cooking and eating...it's just boring when you can't be as creative. But then on the night of day 12 I decided to make hamburgers. They were delicious and helped me get out of the rut I was feeling. Though, I believe this is the very definition of 'Sex With Your Pants On' (SWYPO). This is a phrase used in Whole30 when you try to give in to temptation without actually 'giving in'. Your more likely to fail when you do this because having a Paleo-fied hamburger will not completely satisfy your urge to have a real one...but in this case, it totally did! And I actually discovered I prefer my burger over a real one, had more flavor.



ANYWAYS...

So days 14 thru 17 we were in Tucson visiting family, Mark was given time off on Friday due to the 'end of tax' season (though he's not a tax accountant), we went to the Pima county fair which was not as difficult for me as a I thought it would be. It was for Mark, it was pretty hard for him to see and smell all the carnival food that he loves so much. Maybe it's because he's never had to be on a diet during fair time or has at least allowed himself to indulge? Me on the other hand, I've had several fair's that I had diet restrictions, so I was good. I got a hamburger patty and they loaded it with lots of grilled veggies, I'm sure I'm not the first carbless weirdo they've encountered.

Then day 16 I went to TOFW with Tina, lunch time was easy as there are lots of restaurants that provide dishes with just protein and veggies. I had a potato hash with an egg, not too different then what I usually have in my day. However, I believe it had Rye in it...which I'm not sure if its Whole30 compliant....but I don't really like it. After lunch I started to feel really nauseas, and was sitting in the back of the room for most of the last half of the conference. not sure if it had anything to do with what I ate, or my body is just silly. Who knows?!

So now that we survived a mini vacation, I'm pretty sure we can handle the next 11 days. Mark has seen  an improvement in his energy levels and is only 2lbs short of goal (MEN!) I'd like to see my energy spike, I think I need to consume more carb rich veggies to compensate for my workouts, I hate not having energy to lift, squat and run! My workouts are what makes me love living a healthy lifestyle the most and now I feel drained and not recovering as fast. I've also been doing a Whole30 no-no by weighing myself everyday. This is a life no-no as well, but when you're involved in a weight loss competition (which I vow to never do again) it's hard not to obsess about it! The scale weight is not budging like I'd like it too, though I am fitting better into my clothes which is good. My xhema is also gone and my skin is looking great! Just got to stay focused on the non-scale victories, cause that's what in the end really matters.

 

A non-scale victory. These Jeans have not fit me in over 6 months! I was able to button them without a muffin top and no lunges to stretch them out of the dryer. Wahoo!

 

Our yummy inside out burger with mushroom bun. so satisfying.

Lots o'Fun

Summing up the month of April in this post (although it's only the 19th).


First week we went to Tucson to visit family and have Jacobs 9month doc apt. Little man is in the 24th percentile for weight, 97th for height and 57th for head...lean and tall with a perfect head. They'd be concerned about his weight but he has been consistent from the start (kind of like lily, but on the opposite side of the spectrum). We had fun celebrating my moms birthday with her, and going on picnics with Grammy. It was a fun week.

Mom got some serious bling from Ricardo, he's a smart man.

It was a good day to fly her kite with Grammy

Second Week, my sister decided to drive from Utah to surprise my mom in Tucson...so we went to Tucson again. They surprised lily at Costco, hopefully I can upload the video...she was shocked when she saw Ben that she did not know how to react. It was sad when we had to go back home, she loves her cousins so much! We then came back home and we got to watch little Shane Gardner, which was fun for lily to have a friend over to play. Hopefully we can get into a house soon and invite more little friends over to play with Lily.


Third week, we enjoyed the nice weather here and went on a daily picnic in the park. The parks are so great here, lots of trees and grass, makes it feel cooler. Then, we went to Tucson, again. This time Mark had be given Friday off due to end of tax season (something his work does for their employees regardless if you dealt with tax or not). We went to the Pima county fair on Friday, I went to time out for women with Tina on Saturday and then spent the day with Family on Sunday. Time out for women was wonderful, had some really uplifting speakers and others that were just depressing. One of the speakers had a 6 yr old daughter that was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary incident...her daughter sounded a lot like Lily in personality...so yeah, depressing.  I left with a major headache from crying so much but also a lot of  good notes for life. Some of the key things I noted:

• One of the great gifts of the gospel is the ability to recognize truth, in all its forms religious or not.
• Creation started with the lowest life forms to the greatest (eve being the final creation. lol)
• The greater choice is always to choose the greater good for others over self.
• Thru temple work, we can help God in his work to save ALL of his children.
• Don't base your opinion on imperfect people.
• What if my only motive is love? You don't need a motive to be a friend.
• The only thing that will never change is God, cling to him.

Just a couple things that hit me harder then others, but all very good messages.


 The Pima County Fair was lots of fun, Lily enjoyed all the rides and is actually turning out to be quite the dare devil. I cannot wait till she is old enough to go on all the rides a Disneyland, we are going to have so much fun!


We found out yesterday that our Ward has split and we are now in a new Stake, which apparently happens a lot here in Gilbert. So, I had a calling as a relief society teacher, taught one lesson and am not calling-less. It's all good as we are planning to move in two months anyways...but it'll be nice to be grounded in a ward for once and all. We are reaching out to a realtor to see if we can get a house in a couple months, we have found a couple houses in Gilbert and Chandler that we like and are within our price range...but we'll see how realistic that is. I hate moving.

She is such a dare devil, she was rocking the ride just to make it more fun. poor little girl on the ride was screaming 'don't rock it' oye.

Picnics in the park with my babes

Love that crazy hair

This girl has been deprived of sugar, so this was the treat of a life time for her.

She's not a princess, she's a nut!

Our favorite ride at the fair, the foot massager at the end of the night

Lots and lots of rides! this girl had a blast. Thanks Grammy!

We are Two Hands Today

Jakey is now 10 months...getting close to one whole year for the little budders!
He is a man of mischief these days. As I'm typing, he has gotten into the drawer where Mark stores his sports cards, and is taking each one out and throwing them on the floor. Again. for the twentieth time today. oye. Boy has me constantly picking up! Best way to describe it, put a bunch of papers on a desk and place a fan on the table...now try to keep the papers in place! yeah, not so easy.
He has been standing by himself for about 30 seconds and will then lunge himself at you, so he's not as interested in walking as I am in him learning. but why rush things, right?
He loves to munch on pretty much everything, including my arms and legs. We are trying to teach him not to bite, I've asked for advice but have received nothing I'm willing to try (I will NOT bite my child to cause them pain)...so I guess he will grow out of it...or become a vampire. Undead, cool.
He loves to play chase around the house and loves to watch Mickey Mouse. As soon as he hears Mickeys voice, he'll stop playing to watch him. He likes to help me do the dishes by taking each utensil I put in the washer out. And he LOVES water. Going to the pull is a favorite of his and taking bathes with his sister. He also likes to scare us with his screams and wrestle us. it's a lot more adorable then it sounds. His hair is slowly coming in and is looking blonder, and he is only now starting to wear his 6-9 month clothing, but only due to his height. He is my sweet and loving little man. Love our little Jackey-poo!

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He has four teeth coming out on the top, but he is such a stinker, he will never let me show them off!

Sleeping with daddy calls for some fun sleeping positions.

Little Cutie!

Whole30 week1

Whole30 day 1

Well we are going to take our diet up a notch from Paleo to whole 30 beginning April 1. I've heard good things about whole 30 not just about weight loss but about overall feeling in body being much healthier, but also breaking your addiction to sugar. Which I know that I have. I need to be able to think the food as just an energy source not as entertainment! So hopefully this process will help me. I figure it's only 30 days so why not give it a try? The only downside is that we will be going to the Pima County fair next month and we won't be able to eat fair food yet again I think I have not been able to eat food at the fair since Lily was born. But maybe that's a good thing? My hopes for doing whole 30 are to be able to ease some of my joint pains, have more energy in my workouts and of course to drop a few pounds. I still have 10 more pounds to lose before I reach my goal for the weight-loss competition so hopefully I can catch up this last month. And then I can work on never trying to diet again! Just living a healthy lifestyle which is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And not focus so much on weight loss! Just being human will be a nice change for a while. Since we have started eating Paleo from the beginning of the year it has been really awesome to see Lily's  change and how she views food. Today I gave her the opportunity to eat some of her Easter candy and she took a few bites of her chocolate bunny and wanted to save the rest because it was too sweet and she was asking me for water because it was too sweet. She also realizes that sugar is not a good thing for her body. And she knows that her body loves eating healthy food which is great! We had fun making healthy treats together and enjoying other treats that aren't so healthy every once in a while but we know that they are treats! I want her to have a healthy relationship with food that she can be able to enjoy it but also have a realization of how it affects her. I'm really proud of the progress she has made in her health and in gym class she is really loving being athletic and doing good things for her body. If I don't accomplish anything for myself, its at least doing something for her. We make it a tradition that every Thursday after I finish my CrossFit class we go to sprouts to pick out the protein bar usually it is just a fruit and nut bar but it is a treat for her and for me. I do see how much more energy I have during my workouts and tell I'm much stronger. I love exercise it's so addictive. I am going to make it a goal for me to be able to do a pull-up by the end of the year and to be able to do a handstand which would be awesome but I think that will take longer than a year. We will check in from now to see our progress with whole 30 but I am excited to try it wish us luck!

Andrea Starting weight: 205lbs, chest: 38, waist 38, hip:46, thigh: 22, body fat: 35.6%

Mark starting weight: 238lbs body fat 29%

Whole30 day8
So far so good, we've been good about following the rules. Though I think I need to food prep more so we are not finding ourselves hungry with nothing to eat. Which happens frequently since there is no 'pick up and go snacks. Going to Tucson this week was hard cause of all the temptations to cheat, but I stayed strong. Mark is easy to please so he did good this week. So far I've dropped 2lbs, mark dropped 4lbs and only 5lbs from goal (lucky guy). I dont see any other changes other then I'm more tired and hungry. I need to go back to my four days in the box, I only worked out once this week, real bad. We will see if the energy spikes up next week.

Easter weekend 2016

I had intended to post this a week ago...

We had a good Easter weekend. Despite the fact that Jacob was sick with a fever all weekend. I was telling Mark that I think we have had a sick child every Easter since Lily was born or there was somebody with a sickness. I think I was the issue last year being pregnant and having a gallbladder issue…oh well what can you do!
Lily went to a couple Easter egg hunts around town and a primary party. Our ward is pretty good about putting activities together for the kids it's a larger primary than we previously had been in.

our boys first Easter and he felt miserable. Poor baby!

Then we went down to Tucson Saturday night for Easter Sunday the next day. It is always nice to go down to Tucson to visit old places that we enjoyed going to, but I'm not going to lie I really do love living in Phoenix. Just so much more to do! We went to church and my mom's Ward, and then did Easter egg hunt at Tina's house and Easter dinner at my moms. Overall it was a pretty calm Easter. Poor little Jacob couldn't enjoy very much of it because of how sick he felt. He is just starting to wind down from the fever today. Turns out he had an ear infection, poor little guy!

lily enjoyed her Easter egg hunt, she is so adorable. Love this girl!

pics with the Easter bunny were less then perfect... but they sure looked cute.

egg hunt in chandler, rules were to take only four eggs. Of course I made lily follow the rules... but looks like no one else did! Hate when that happens!