• coffee creamer and an occasional latte
• ViSalus shakes with nonfat milk (half the time coconut milk) and sometimes a little bit of peanut butter
• Homemade popcorn (sometimes with a little butter)
• Mom’s night out I had cream cheese in my stuffed mushrooms and I ate a slice of gluten free chocolate torte

Some of our favorite dinners:

• burgers without the bun (with bacon and grilled onions)
• chicken fajitas (without tortillas)
• anything with chicken shrimp or beef
• omelets with bacon, sausage, bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms

I feel like I did what I set out to accomplish, eating less food that I knew wasn’t good for my body and pretty much eat no sweets. It was very difficult at times, but overall I’ve even had dessert today and had a small piece (with a large bellyache). I also still packed my vegetables today for snack and for lunch at school we had a chili cook-off so I had some of the prize winning chili and chili verde with a little white rice. No chips, no cheese, and no cornbread.My only problem with Paleo is for some reason I’ve felt gross off and on. Bad heartburn. Upset stomach. Yuck. No, it was never the flu, it was just something that was consistent. I read a few articles that pretty much said it could be a whole host of things, but it now comes and goes. My body could just be detoxing and still trying to weed out the nasty stuff that’s in my body, but the stomach aches and burning throat = no fun!

 

Now that I’m officially done with being strict, it is definitely not fun eating things that I’ve been missing. Last night I had a dinner meeting for work and had a little spaghetti (about 1/3 of the portion size) and felt so gross. It made me not want anything pasta. Today at lunch I had a gingersnap cookie (small one that a co-worker made) and I’ve had a stomachache for three hours. I definitely think that I’m going to be going easy on the gluten and trying to non-gluten items when I can which isn’t too hard because there’s a lot that is offered.

Overall, I’m proud with what I did. Aaron and I did a week detox a few years ago that pretty much consisted of raw nuts, fish, veggies and fruit for a week. I think I can try something like that for a week again just to clean out what’s in my body. (But not for a long time!) lol

In other words, tomorrow is the Clam Beach Run in Trinidad. I’m so excited to run this race with my good friend Rachel. It’s hard to find a consistent work-out partner that will constantly push me. I convinced her to do the 8 3/4 mile race tomorrow morning at 8am. SO early (usually this run is at noon, they moved it this year), it will be cold, but no rain. Now I’m trying to convince her to run the 10 mile Foggy Bottom with me and do the April 6th mud run in Carlotta.

The GREAT news is that tomorrow will mark running my 100th mile since January 1st. I really wanted to push myself to see how much I could run this month and Bella and I have had quite a work-out. Rachel and I also have met for a few six miles, and even seven mile run. I never thought that I would like running, but there’s something about being outdoors (0 miles on the treadmill), in the quiet, with my thoughts to myself, and running against the wind that just feels amazing. I love creating new goals for myself and pushing myself to work hard and to reach a goal.

My number one goal is to be healthy, to have energy, and to maintain a lifestyle built on balance. I enjoy working out, lifting weights and running. I enjoy being sweaty and buying work-out clothes. I love how I feel after realizing I ate something healthy. In now way is this a way to lose weight, I probably only lost two pounds this month anyway (if that and it’s pretty much from eating so much in Nov/Dec; Aaron probably lost 10 pounds and he cheated a lot; BOYS!). This is about building a life where my kids see the importance of eating good and staying active. When my son asks for cut-up vegetables for his lunch and asks for seconds on salad at dinner, I know I’m doing something right. My parents are in the process of planning their next biking trip (previously it was Vietnam, in September it will be Croatia). They also went skiing for the weekend of their birthdays. That makes me excited. Enjoying life together. Staying active and no matter how old I get, always enjoying the most out of life.

My challenge for you is take time to get a little sweaty, work-off that stress, spend time praying, and eat something healthy. It’s amazing what things will happen in your life if you add this in. There’s a bazillion excuses and reasons that there’s no time to do this, but when you make time, the satisfaction, energy, and endorphins will make it worth your while

 

Source: This is the Life