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I Did a Thing

So, I did a thing. I joined Weight Watchers. Amy was talking about doing a mini-reset this month, and I decided I was going to join her. And then in the back of my mind I was thinking that I will probably just undo everything I do on the reset within a week of it being over. That is pretty much what always ends up happening after I do a round of Whole 30.

I want to point out that I love Whole 30. And when I am trying to break a sugar addiction, need to get back on track, or if I am having skin or stomach issues….it is my go to! I have done it every January the past three years, and I plan to do it again this January. I am actually following some of it now, and making whole 30 meals most of the time…it is just that I don’t want to restrict myself 100% of the time. Amy is an amazing Whole 30 inspiration, and I have done all my rounds with her. She is actually a certified coach now, so if you are looking to get started with it….I highly recommend her!!! I am constantly stealing meal ideas from her. Follow her on Instagram if you aren’t already. The amount of food porn she posts is incredible. I feel like everyone should do a round of Whole 30 at least once.

The thing is, right now I am trying to make a lifestyle change. That isn’t a sustainable lifestyle for me. I like cheese burgers and beer and I want to indulge in a macaroon or cookie from time to time. It is summer and I want to take Zoe to get frozen yogurt and popsicles. I don’t want to miss out on any of those things that make life more enjoyable. I had seen variations of this quote floating around a few places lately…

And it clicked in my mind. What the fuck am I doing wasting away this precious time?!?! Logically, I know that there are only 18 years of childhood. Duh. But when you put it like this, it makes all the difference. And Zoe might not notice this year that I am not indulging in the ice cream with her, but eventually she will. And I don’t want her going through life thinking that she cant have this or that. Or that something she really enjoys is “bad.”

That is my problem with Whole 30, paleo, keto, whatever else is out there that cuts out food groups. Everything is ok in moderation. So when you want to enjoy a cheeseburger on a Saturday, you should be able to do it without the guilt. Without you “breaking” your diet. Or eating an “off limits” food. Or at least, that is how I feel. That is what I love about Weight Watchers. I am given a set amount of points each day. I can spread those points out how I would like. I can hit or stay under them all week long and plan accordingly if I want to have fun on a Saturday and have that burger and beer. Or take my daughter for cookies at the mall. Because that is what life is about. Living!

I signed up for three months online because they were running a deal where there was no membership fee and I could get a month free, spread over the three months. I figured that was enough time to see if I like the program and if I am actually going to track my food. I am closing in on the end of my second week, and so far I am really liking it. Seeing how many points some things are that I was consuming daily was eye opening!!! Like the peanut butter coconut perfect bar is 13 points. My daily allowance is 23. Are you kidding me?!?! It has really changed the way I think about certain foods. Also, it is making me control my portions. That is something I struggle with. On Whole 30, as long as something was approved…I would eat however much I wanted. That doesn’t work for me long term. I really need to keep myself in check!

The Freestyle plan that they offer now has 200 free foods. Meaning, they are zero points towards your daily allowance. So if you are hungry in the evening, you can grab a veggie or fruit and not go over your points. That has really helped me as well! I find myself snacking on cucumbers and frozen cherries, not chips and salsa. I am also not eating whatever Zoe leaves behind on her plate, or snacking while I cook dinner.

Here is my referral link if you want to play along! If you sign up with my link and do it for two weeks, we can each get a free month! I have already seen the scale drop a few pounds, so it has been encouraging. I have also been showing up for my workout every weekday since I have joined. Dare I say my mojo is back??

July 25, 2018 by Nadine

fitness, health, Whole 30

Back on Track

Today is the day that all the regular gym goers groan as the crowd of good intentions enters for the first time since the end of January 2016 when they gave up on their resolutions, am I right? But in all seriousness, I feel motivated and rejuvenated in January to get my life back on track after Christmas. Don’t you?

Of course I have plans to finally clean out our spare room and turn it in to my office and purge my closet again and what not. But my main focus right now? Getting my body back! I spend last year as a pregnant vessel to grow a healthy baby and I was totally fine with that. But now that she is here, I want my body back! And if I am being honest, I had several pounds to lose before I got pregnant! I am not putting pressure on myself with numbers or a time frame for my ultimate goal weight…but I would like to finish shedding the extra pounds to at least get back down to my pre-pregnancy weight in the next few months.

My goal for January is to join the thousands across the country for another round of Whole 30. I completed my first round last year and it worked really well for me. I lost weight, I felt great and I got my eating back under control. You can read some of my posts on it here and here. And if you want to see some of the recipes that I enjoyed last time and plan to use this time as well, you can see those here.

My six week postpartum appointment isn’t until the middle of January. As you all know, I had a c section so I am still recovering. I wont be adding workouts in until I am cleared.

Whether you are getting back on track with your health and fitness, or getting your life back in order…Link up with Amy and I today and every Tuesday for the month of January and get Back on Track!!!

[inlinkz_linkup id=687926 mode=1]

January 2, 2017 by Nadine

fitness, foodie, health, recipe

Healthy Recipes

I promised many of you that I would share the recipes that I enjoyed on Whole 30. I wanted to call these healthy recipes and not Whole 30 recipes because they can be enjoyed by everyone! I am only sharing the ones that I have added to my regular rotation! There were a few recipes that I tried and didn’t care for so those wont be included.

Just click on the name of the recipe and it will take you to the link to pin that specific one!

Healthy Paleo Nachos

Sloppy Joe’s

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Jalapeno Popper Chicken Chili

Spinach and Meat Zucchini Ravioli

Italian Meatloaf

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken

Tandoori Chicken

Buffalo Chicken Tenders

Italian Turkey Burger Soup – Delicious!!! I really enjoyed this one for lunch at work.

Turkey Burgers – This is just ground turkey, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and whatever else I felt like sprinkling in! I cooked it on the stove in a skillet with some olive oil for a few minutes on each side. I served this up with roasted potatoes which is olive oil, salt and Italian seasoning in the oven at 425 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. And don’t forget the ketchup!! (See next recipe)

Whole 30 Ketchup– This stuff is seriously legit you guys!!! Chris actually requested this several times with our turkey burgers even though he wasn’t Whole 30.

Whole 30 is:

What’s your favorite healthy recipe?

February 16, 2016 by Nadine

about me, fitness, health, Whole 30

Whole 30 – Why I Am Doing It

Normally on Mondays you come to my blog preparing yourself for food porn. Well not this Monday my friends. You see, this weekend I continued on with my Whole 30 journey and I managed to not hate life. Imagine that!

So you might be asking yourself, why Whole 30? The obvious answer is because it is healthy. Because it detoxes and resets your body. I might shed a few pounds. There is a chance I have a food allergy and this might shine light on that. All of those answers are part of the reason. But I like to be real with you guys. The real reason why I am doing Whole 30 is to prove to myself that I can. To prove that food doesn’t control me.

I have a 40×40 list. You can see it up there below my title. It is still a project in the works as I have been adding on to it for the last year. Well, this weekend….I added Whole 30 to the list. You see, I wanted it on there last year when I started my list. It was the very first thing that came to mind (after Disney). The truth is, I didn’t have faith in myself that I could ever do it.

My mind has really started to change over the last year or so. Sure, I have been regularly waking up at 4:35 am five days a week for my workouts the past two and a half years. But working out was never really a problem for me. It has always been food. It probably will always be food. But something has changed in my mind.

I can be good Monday through Friday morning but then Friday at lunch I will go with friends. Friday night I will come home and snack on pizza or nachos. Saturday we hit up World of Beer where I have two or three beers then we are off to for a burger and fries. Sunday I am making cheesy pasta or chicken fingers and fries. It’s pretty much been that way since I came home from the beach this summer.

Everything is ok in moderation, right? The thing with moderation for me though, is that it is hard to walk the line. There is always that gray area. Say Tuesday I am really not wanting what I brought for lunch. I had a bad morning and I want to get out of the office so I go down to Jimmy Johns and have a sandwhich and chips. No big deal, it was just one meal. But then I get home that evening and while I am trying to cook our healthy dinner, I am starving and snack on chips and salsa. Wednesday morning while making Chris’s lunches, I play the one slice of cheese for his sandwich one slice of cheese for me to eat game. Thursday morning I am tired and swing by Starbucks for a grande nonfat caramel macchiato (my drink of choice.) Annnnnd I have already shared what Friday-Sunday typically look like.

All those little things add up. And for what? Did it make my week better? Did it bring me joy? No. Not really. That is why I need an all or nothing reset. Whole 30 doesn’t allow for those foods to even exist. You flat out can’t have them.

So my thoughts on Whole 30 after the first full week? I am alive and still positive about my experience. I haven’t intentionally tried to cheat. There was one day last week where I was unaware that I was consuming something that had an ingredient I wasn’t supposed to have.

On Wednesday I was a little more tired than usual. Some asshole left donuts and brownies in our break room and I wanted to go punch them in the face. So perhaps I was a bit cranky that day. On Thursday evening Chris ate chips and guac in front of me. I was wanting that chip so bad. I even jokingly asked him if it was cheating by just licking the chip. I didn’t do it…but that was how bad I wanted it.

Every day that passes by, I feel more and more confident in myself that I can do this. I can go 30 days without sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, and yes friends….I can even go without cheese.

I would like to give a shout out to Laura who is doing this with me. G-Chatting with her daily about wanting to lick tortilla chips and punch people in the face every time they open a diet coke has been quite helpful.

Amy and Laura are also great hosts on having the #breakupchallenge2016 and answering any questions I have. I wanted to link up with them tomorrow, but it’s book day so I am posting this a day early!

Oh, I lied. I did have a burger picture to share with you!!! My turkey burger, roasted potatoes and “ketchup” that I made with compliant ingredients. Boom bitches!!!

I probably wont link up every week to check in, but I will do a recap post on my thoughts and results at the end of the 30 days. You can follow along with me on Instagram to see some the #whole30 meals I eat! I hope you all have a great week!!!

January 11, 2016 by Nadine

fitness, health

Food Does Not Control Me

Food does not control me, or something like that. That is what I am trying to tell myself these days. I was doing so good with the whole grain free, dairy free, no processed shit kick that I was on. And when I let off a little so I could enjoy our beach trip, then my birthday, and well you know….life…I slowly started retreating back to old habits.

A bag of M&M’s somehow got in to my cart the past two weeks. Surely I wasn’t the one who put them in there, right?? A handful here and there, they don’t count. It’s not an entire serving. A frappucino because it is Tuesday and I hate Tuesdays? Why not!

Yeah, that’s what I am talking about. Those little choices that I used to not even be tempted by during the week are back and I am putting an end to them right now. Or well, after I finish the rest of these M&M’s I have.

Last week I confessed that I was able to purchase a pair of jeans in a smaller size. That was a great feeling. I rode that high for a week. Then yesterday I grabbed a pair of jeans by accident out of a stack of clothes that used to fit not because I was in a hurry. I literately threw them on and ran out the door. All day yesterday I was miserable, they were tight and uncomfortable at the waist. And the thing is, the legs and butt fit. Damn you eating!!! I thought to myself, yeah Nadine…eat some more of those M&M’s. A fat lot of good they are doing you.

The holiday season is quickly approaching. It is time to get back on track before it gets too out of hand! I want to be able to enjoy a slice of apple pie or a cup of hot chocolate during my favorite time of year. I cant enjoy those things if none of my clothes fit!

I am going to clean up my eating again. This past weekend I didn’t have an ounce of alcohol. That is the first thing I cut because drinking empty calories is the worst. We already have our meals planned out for this week, which aren’t terrible by any means…but two nights are not grain free. So that means starting next week I am going back to grain free during the week. I had so much success with that and I felt awesome when I was doing it. Why would I not want to feel awesome?

I also plan on cutting back down to just two cheat meals on the weekends. No mindless snacking on tortilla chips and salsa. No Whataburger at 10pm just because stops. Nada.

As far as work outs go, I have been getting up and working out every day. But besides the days that I run, I am not really pushing myself. I need to be giving my all and then some. every. single. workout. What’s the point of waking up at 4:30am if I am not giving my all? Back to structured weight training instead of free styling it like I have been doing.

So who is with me? Who is taking back control before the holidays?

For those of you who need some encouraging words…

October 27, 2015 by Nadine

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