Whole30 you SUCK! GRIT, we'll see if you suck

Yea that was not for me. I came, I saw, I basically gave up and just started eating a CLEAN diet. I've been doing great so far. No major changes but I feel good. There's an article going around on facebook about how a woman describes her "whole food shopping journey" and OMG can I relate.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-maclean/surviving-whole-foods_b_3895583.html

Hilarious!!
I'm staying away from gluten as much as possible. Except the occasional beer and I have only had once since starting this. Yay. And any and all added sugar! That's been kinda tough considering I had once cup of coffee each morning with creamer and sugar. I'm anxiously awaiting my next lab appointment to see how my thyroid levels are and to see if change in diet has helped at all. This last appointment will be a major game changer and will determine if I will be getting my thyroid surgically removed! If my levels are normal, I will continue on my medication. If they have raised or dipped at ALL, out with the ol thyroid. Eeek

I start a class at the Y on October 1st, (what a lovely birthday present I have given myself) GRIT. I'm taking it with a few friends and actually convinced Alicia she needed to do it to, so for now, she said she was going to sign up....we'll see. Wish me luck






The LES MILLS GRIT™ Series is for you if:




Hudson had his 4 year well check today and I made daddy take him :( 4 shots and he called me after his appointment. As much as he tried to act like it was ok, he was so pouty and made me cry even though I wasn't there to see it for myself. Poor baby! 42'' tall and 41 lbs and of course in the 95% for height and weight. Whata champ. Daddy is taking him for ice cream as we speak.                                                                                       

Coffee.

I want coffee. With cream and sugar, not black!
Wahhhhhhh

Whole30 Challenge

Eeek. Just the name alone scares me.

September 28th will be my 1 year anniversary living with Graves' Disease. When I was first diagnosed, I had no idea what Graves' was or the role my thyroid played. I have done so much research in the past year, I should have a degree in research! Graves' is such a weird disease. Before I was diagnosed, I had a few heart palpitations, I was hot alllll the time, I would just bust out sweating for no reason and I had some serious brain fog. When the Dr. told me I had Graves' and explained it, it all made sense but I asked myself, "now what?" I had three options, radioactive iodine, medication, or a total thyroidectomy (surgery) All of those scared me but the meds seemed like the route to go. Taking the iodine would mean total isolation for 3 or 4 days and no guarantee that it would actually "kill" my thyroid. So I started out on 10mg of tapazole twice a day and would meet with my Dr. in three months for labs and to see what my levels were. First visit back was good, my levels were in the normal range and I was feeling pretty good. I have read other people's journey with Graves' and I felt extemley blessed because some of them had experienced "Thyroid Storm" where they had to be rushed to the hospital because their thyroid was going bizerk causing the rest of their body to shut down. I prayed and prayed that didn't happen to me. I got back in the gym and started eating a healthier diet. Of course, I was selfish and indulged more than I should. I love CARBS and SUGAR and couldn't give up my coffee or bread. I've always been a thin person with high metabolism, I'm thankful I've never had to diet or really watch what I eat but as I get older I am more conscious of what I put in my mouth. Especially having an auto immune disease. I added more veggies, more fruit, more protein but still couldn't MAKE myself give up the tablespoon (is that bad?) of sugar in my coffee or my bread! I purchased several books about Graves' and read in one of them that Celiac Disease, an auto immune disease of the small intestine, means eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye, can cause intestine damage and cause other auto immune diseases. I don't remember being tested for Celiac.
So...
I found this Whole30 book about completely changing your diet and 1. feeling amazing and 2. a cleaner diet helping with lower blood sugar for diabetics, allergies, AUTO IMMUNE DISEASES and a wide variety of other things. So I was interested and bought it on my Ipad. When I got through the first 3 or 4 pages, I was asking myself, WHY AM I NOT EATING A CLEANER DIET!??! I though about all the food I consumed in a day and realized how much of that was processed and contained so much added sugar. I had posted on Facbook that I needed recipes and had a friend message me. She asked why I was needing recipes, that I was already thin and didn't need to lose weight. I told her I wasn't doing it to lose weight, I wanted to rid my body of added sugar and anything processed. I have been working my booty off in the gym and can tell but changing to a cleaner diet I will be able to see more changes and hopefully make an improvement in my auto immune disease and eventually be off medication and not have to worry about having my thyroid removed.

http://whole9life.com/2011/06/whole-30-v4/

I'll be trying to keep up with my progress here. I am trying my hardest to follow this as best as I can and not have any cheat days!

Here's what I had for breakfast:
September 16th
Scrambled eggs, with spinach, smoked salmon and bananas. Naked juice instead of coffee!

Wish me luck! If you have any recipes for WHOLE30, please send them my way!!

4 years old!

So Hudson turned 4 on Saturday and woke up that morning saying, "I'm 4, did I grow?" He kept saying "When I was 3 I did this..." We kicked off the celebrations on Friday night when some family came in town. We went to eat at Chito's and told the waiter it was Hud's birthday. They came out shaking spoons and forks in plastic cups singing happy birthday! They attempted to put a huge sombrero on his head but he didn't like that idea, shook his head and hid his face :(
Then turned around and ate ALL the chocolate covered sopapilla!

Cody's cousin Scott, Christie and the boys stayed the weekend with us and the boys got some quality time together. They are the best, most protective older cousins ever. They played, wrestled, went fishing Sunday afternoon and had the best time.

The party was a SUCCESS! It was probably the smoothest a party has ever gone. The Grand Texan was such a great place to have it. We rented a suite and just let the kids swim, play ping pong and putt putt.
it had a massive slide that I thought he would love but half of it was completely covered and dark. Plus it was super high and I think that scared him. He actually went down ONCE and we missed it.

Carlene's Cakes made his cake for the second year in a row and it was absolutely awesome and delicious! Look her up on Facebook if you ever need a cake. We were so blessed with so many family and friends coming to celebrate with us, thanks to all who came. We sure did miss one beautiful smiling face though. Gram was truly missed but we all knew she was smiling down singing Happy Birthday with us.

After the party we all came back to our house and started cooking! We had a full house. Cody made steaks, chicken, corn, poppers, potatoes and rolls and it was all so GREAT! We played games after and let Hud and the boys play with all his new toys.

Thank goodness Monday was a holiday and I had time to clean the house and get his toy room organized. I ended up bagging 4 HUGE trash bags of toys he has outgrown or never plays with. Donated those bad boys to Goodwill. We met my mom for lunch and did a little shopping. Hud had some gift cards to Toys R Us so we let him do a little shopping. Bet ya can't guess what he bought?!?!? Stealth Tech Ninja Turtles, all 4. He had just enough :)
Hudson is already talking about his 5th birthday.....Lord help us.
Back to the grind! Our Odessa Step Out walk is in *19* days!

Cody & I will be leaving to Fredericksburg this Friday to celebrate 6 years of marriage :)))
xox


"When you lead your sons and daughters in the good way, let your words be tender and caressing, in terms of discipline that wins the heart's assent." -Elijah Ben Solomon