Day 9

Exhausted. Lack of sleep. Middle of the night wake up calls.


I love it and hate it all wrapped into one.


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Yesterday was not the best day for me in regards to eating healthy. I ended up going to McDonald's and getting an egg and sausage biscuit for breakfast. There was a battle of good and evil going on in my head -- Get it! But don't! It's tasty! But so bad for you ... You don't do this often! Don't do it!!!!


So I did. Along with a Frappe.


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I almost ordered out for lunch, but a coworker brought in sandwich stuff. I had 2 slices of potato bread with [light] mayo, turkey, pepperjack cheese, and pickles. I enjoyed every single bite of that sandwich.


Making meals on my own this week hasn't exactly happened. So it was nice to NOT eat out and enjoy something far less processed and unhealthy as getting fried chicken -- which was pretty much my first choice. haha.




I ended up having a yogurt for lunch. A friend invited me to her place and we ate papa murphys pizza that had chicken, spinach, feta and bacon. BEST PIZZA EVER. It was also a thin crust, so YUM all around. We also had salad and snap peas with it. She made corn on the cob, but I wasn't hungry for that.


Overall it wasn't awful. It was actually a GREAT day. :)

Day 8

So much has been happening this past week that all the days are blurring together and I am trying to keep track of what I have and have not done.


The 8th started with going to my moms and eating some left over fruit and dip. I don't recall much more of the day. It was my late night at work, so I brought left over meatballs for lunch and munched on some chocolate rice cakes.


I have not been exercising and I am working on drinking more.




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Recently I accepted a foster placement. So that is what has been the main focus of my life the past week. It has been rewarding, yet challenging.


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At this point, I will NOT be running my marathon. I wasn't even planning on showing up, but after checking their website, I can defer to next year, OR switch to the 5.7 mile run/WALK for this year.


I'll see what I am feeling in the next couple of weeks. I have close to a month to decide.


It is hard to make plans with so much unknowns with a baby!


~~


So that's what my Tuesday was.

Day 7

The holiday. September 7th was Labor Day. I didn't go to any big cookouts. I didn't have anything extravagant planned. I went to my moms and we ate left over pizza for breakfast, and homemade sloppy joes for late lunch/early dinner. We also had chips as a side.


We wanted fruit, and I was craving some dip to go with them. Instead of buying pre-made, I decided to try my hand at homemade. I bought cream cheese and vanilla greek yogurt. I mixed those two together with some powered sugar, vanilla extract and orange juice. Perfection.


I drank a bottle of vernors on the way home from the store. I have been drinking more water, but sometimes I just crave that fizzy!


Aside from soda, I have stayed away from the cookies, cakes, candy and other ways of refined extra sugar.

Day 6

I had such a great day on the 6th! I went to visit a lot of friends and ended up hanging out with the mommas. It felt great. I was suppose to help a friend of a friend move, but I ended up going for moral support instead. I ate pizza and sweated. We finally got some air conditioning going and it was much nicer.


After a relaxing afternoon and evening after 4, I went for a walk around the neighborhood. It wasn't overly hot by then, and I enjoyed going from inside to outside.


I don't actually recall what I had for dinner, if anything. I need to get better about what I eat and when.

Day 5

Saturday ... it was a much better nights sleep Friday into Saturday. I ate a salad so late on Friday. I woke up on Saturday and I didn't manage to eat until after noon. I make some French fries and homemade, veggie packed turkey meat balls with sweet and sour sauce. YUM.


I didn't really do much aside from that. I napped in the afternoon from about 1:45-2:45. I went to church with my family.


My cousin brought me dinner which was a BLESSING. It was Panera -- I got a Turkey Bravo sandwich. Since I never specified what side, I ended up with a baguette on the side. A bit too much bread, but I enjoyed every single morsel of food that night.

Day 4

September 4 ... One of the craziest days of my life yet. 

That being said, Thursday night I ended up ordering chicken fingers and fries. My poor bloated belly afterwards. 

I also went to the chiropractor and got some tests run. At least the initial tests show that I'm not crazy and that the pain is very real. 

So onto the 4th -- banana for breakfast, subway for lunch, and salad for diner. Along with chai tea and a bottle if Vernors. 

The chiropractor didn't have the best news. But I got my first adjustment and felt Le 50 pounds was lifted off my back! Praise God!

More to come on that after my meeting on the 10th. :)

Day 3

Until about mid afternoon yesterday, I thought yesterday was the 3rd. Nope, that would be today!


So here I am embarking on the 3rd day of this plan to a better me. I started by eliminating sugars and so far barely into day 3, it has been going well. I continue to enjoy my daily cup of joe and only yesterday I had a second caffeinated beverage of chai tea. I am putting creamer in it.


Last weekend I went camping and I bought some chocolate flavored mini rice cakes. Here I am 6 days later and I still have several left. I was munching on those on Tuesday (day 1). They sit on my desk at work. I looked at the carb count in them, and surprisingly they have less carbs in them then the gluten free spinach wrap that I've been eating! I am ok with this. But yesterday instead of indulging in these light crispy treats, I had a nice slice of pumpkin bread. It was heavenly. It made my look up recipes for pumpkin crepes and pumpkin cheesecake. The crepes I may be able to get away with, but the cheesecake will have to wait. I want to detox and rid of my body from relying on the daily doses of sugar it has become so accustomed to.


My idea of French fries for dinner never happened. Instead the coolest God thing happened.


I went to the chiropractors office for a tour. While there, they were saying that they offer dinners at the restaurant across the street. These dinners are informative, and FREE. While I didn't really have plans to be out last night, God is always one step ahead of me.


My friend and I went to this dinner and learned about the reasons why cutting out sugars is healthy. They discussed the importance of healthy fats and why we should avoid anything that was not made by God.


Dinner was paid for by the doctor, and I ordered a salad with vinaigrette dressing, as well as bruschetta chicken with rosemary seasons red potatoes and asparagus. It was amazing. I even avoided the 99% of the bread and olive oil in the middle of the table. I did break off a tiny bite near the end of dinner just to try it. I usually try to limit my gluten intake due to the unbearable gu bloating that I get from it.


I know I said I wanted to avoid the scale this go, but once again I jumped on the scale this am. When I took a health class at the first of the year, they were talking about trigger foods and how we each have our own. One way of finding what those are, is by weighing every day. Something I ate yesterday cause a 2 pound spike in weight. The culprit was either the pumpkin bread, or something along the lines of chicken, potatoes, asparagus, or tomatoes.


My meals today will consist of a half of a gluten free spinach wrap with turkey and kale and ranch dressing. Soup will most likely be on the lunch menu. And I am thinking about getting some chicken tenders from the church café tonight. But I am trying to remember how my body responded to those the last time I had them 2 months ago ... So dinner is still very much up in the air.


While at the dinner last night, I signed up for an initial evaluation with the chiropractor. I will be getting tests done on my spine and hopefully I can get all of this pain resolved.


At this time I cannot change up my work environment a whole lot, but I can work at the root of things. I can see what's up with my spine and work on correcting that.


Ideas are just that ... ideas. They mean nothing except to those that are going to take them and use the information and turn it into something. Last night was highly informative and I am going to use it to apply it to my life and start healing me from the inside out.


Once again this journey will be far more healing then I envisioned. God is good and He continually opens doors right in front of me. I follow the peace that surpasses all understanding. There was no hesitation about going for an office tour yesterday. There were no reservations about going to dinner. There was relief as I handed over my payment to reserve my spot today for an initial wellness evaluation.


I am so excited for what the next 30 days bring. I can't even imagine everything that God has in store for me to learn!


My life is surrendered. My life is in God's hands. He goes before me as He proves over and over and over again.


Please come on this journey with me, and experience with me the joy of the Lord as He manifests His goodness and presence.

Day 2

I am so desperate for relief. Not very often do I physically feel so bad that I want to scream or cry or even both.


A desk job has its cons. My shoulders and neck feel the brunt of it. I'll be sitting there and my arms go numb and tingly.


I try to stretch. I reach until I can't reach anymore then take it just a tiny bit more. Feel that deep stretch. I bend forward and I feel like my eyes are going to pop out. I bend down and I feel like the pressure builds up in my ears.


All that to say that I am finally going to tour a chiropractors office this afternoon after work. I can't keep doing this.


For so long all I've ever wanted was a deep massage, but I want to work with the very core of what is causing these issues. I need stretches. I need breaks. I need something that will make me enjoy doing what I love so much.


I have tried different chair positions. I have tried removing the arm rests off my chair. I have raise, and I have lowered my monitors. I stopped bending my neck to hold the phone. But now I rest my elbow on the desk. So much pressure everywhere.


At home I don't notice it so much. But when I am driving to work, I can already feel my muscles tighten just in anticipation of what the day is sure to hold.


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So yesterday was day 1 where I didn't consume any cookies, cakes, brownies or ice-cream. I didn't even have any soda. I want to cut soda out 100%.  I don't ever want to go back to fueling my body with the toxins found in it. It has actually been awhile since I've had any anyways, so that I am not too concerned about.


I prepared freezer meals of meatloaf, and cooked up some meatballs which were yesterdays dinner, today's lunch, and maybe tomorrows as well. Aside from the handful of cracker crumbs in the meatballs, I didn't have any heavy gluten loaded meals yesterday. Breakfast was a banana. Lunch was a gluten free spinach wrap with turkey, ranch dressing and kale. Dinner was the meatballs covered in a homemade sweet and sour sauce.


This morning I did jump on the scale because I felt great and not bloated or heavy like I usually do after eating a gluten rich diet the previous day. The scale was down. I felt light.


Breakfast today started with a gluten free spinach wrap with turkey, ranch and kale. Lunch will be meatballs. Dinner I am thinking might be some French fries with taco seasoned meat and cheese. But that is still up in the air.


I want to find some gluten free pasta shells and make stuffed shells or some kind of make, freeze and bake dinner.


I need ideas for gluten free, protein packed freezer meals. I have some stew meat in my freezer, too. Now that fall is almost here, my crockpot will be my best friend.


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Cutting back on sugar will be so very good for me. One thing I also want to work on cutting back on it caffeine. I only drink about 1 cup of coffee a day, with the occasional chai tea several hours later. While I work to eliminate all excess sugar, I am still using creamer. I am afraid to look at that sugar content. I know I use more than the "1 Tablespoon" serving size. But I don't use as much as I used to, either. I have cut back on it and use at least 1/4 to 1/3 less than I was using 3 months ago.


Unfortunately, I am at the point where when I am home on the weekends, I have to do a gas station run to get an iced coffee each day because of the splitting headache. There has to be an alternative while I work on cutting back, to one day eliminating caffeine completely.


~~


Even as I type this my arms are getting prickly. My neck is stiff, and my wrists and finger are pained.


I pray that this ends soon. I pray that I am able to experience some relief. I try not to focus on it because I believe that when I focus on it, it just intensifies it.


There are so many other people in the world with far more pain. I used to have a high threshold for pain. And perhaps I still do. But right now I feel weak in complaining about my aches.


Ah. Sweet relief. You cannot come soon enough. I pray that I find the right chiropractor and that his/her hands are guided and that my eyes, ears and heart are open to suggestions. This journey and this process are surrendered to the Lord. I am ready to take care of me and see what lies ahead.

Day 1

Here we go again.


September 1. Day 1. New month, new me.


One of the catch phrases that went through my mind when I thought about "New month, new me" and how I am trying to zero in on a better me was "Do all the things!!"


Sure there is SO much that I want to accomplish. There is so much that I wish I could just close my eyes, count to three and voila! done. But life doesn't work that way.




So here I am back at Day 1.


I am pretty sure my scale tips 10 pounds heavier then when I started my 30 day shred in June.


But the scale doesn't really matter to me. I would be a-ok if I never even step on it this month.


Instead I want to fit back into my fall and winter clothes. We had a really chilly week for it being summer last week where we were lucky when the temp reached mid 60s. I was in fall clothes heaven. I pulled out sweaters. I pulled out boots. I wore a hoodie. But I also wore shorts. Because my jeans were just too uncomfortable to sit in.


I went camping with a friend last weekend, and I did a lot of physical labor. I was chopping dead trees for our camp fire. I was dragging longer downed trees across the camp site. I went for a couple walks along the lake and even went swimming.


I came home feeling great. I didn't drink as much water over the weekend as I had hoped to. I came home with an extra gallon of water and it sits next to me now as I type. I have 1/2 gallon as a goal to drink up today. And the day is already half over.


Prepping freezer meals is how the month started. I have no excuse for not eating healthy. I prepped meatballs with sweet and sour sauce. I packed those little suckers with zucchini, green peppers, onions, summer squash and carrots. I also made meatloaf with the same vegetables. There really wasn't a huge difference between the two recipes, except that the meatloaf has an extra egg.




Several of my friends have been talking up chiropractors the past several months. I am to the point where I am serious about seeing one myself. I have some names of places to look into. I am hoping that it will help with some tightness in my shoulders from sitting at a desk all day. I also hope it helps me with far more then I can even put into words.


I have just accepted what's up in my life as normal. So if I can only improve and have a better quality of life, I am all for that!


So there is where I start this next 30 days to a better me.


Goals by September 30

• Fit into some of my winter pants
• Find a chiropractor