Rewind: What is the Whole30?

The Whole30 is about freeing yourself from the tie to food and unhealthy attitudes towards eating out/processed food we have. As well as focusing on transitioning to a life as part of the Whole9…but I will get into that when I transition out of my Whole30, right now this is more then enough to focus on.

Food restrictions are that you can NOT have any of the following:
1) Added sugar of any kind, real or artificial
2) Alcochol
3) Grains
4) Legumes
5) Dairy
6) White Potatoes

However none of these things should be considered permission to start gorging on fruit. A couple of servings a day is fine but the main focus relies on balanced meals of vegetables, protein, and fat. This is a very Paleo mentality for those keeping track of all the new things surfacing in the nutrition world. This Whole30 program allows your body to try to heal from any foods you are eating which may not agree with you. Hence at the end you just done go back to living life as before the program, but instead work to introduce all the above (if you chose to) and know how they will affect you to make an educated decision on how much of each you want to put into your body. Two groups I don’t think I’m going to be reintroducing at all are gluten and then legumes/peanut butter. The best thing is no tracking and no scale – you finally get in tune with your body’s cravings vs. when your actually hungry and need to eat. It Starts with Food is a fantastic book that I recommend anyone read to understand the hormonal science behind the clean eating and life style its program promotes and focuses on.

Right now is Day 5 and my stomach is already like wow – what are these vegetables doing in your diet again. Which is great, I hope this helps prevent anymore visits to the gastroenterologist until I’m at least in my 40’s.

Tonight we went out to dinner unexpectedly and I got a delicious Ahi Salad – which was blackened tuna, a couple Granny Smith apple pieces, sunflower seeds, avacados, over a bed of baby greens, I asked for it with just olive oil and balsamic vinegarette as opposed to the house dressings, you never know what they put into those such as sugar. It was surprisingly delicious! I am happily content and full.

Hopefully I will be able to start combining this new healthy mentality towards my food with yoga soon! I went and got x-rays done Thursday but the doctor is out of town and will be back to look at them on Monday and the office is going to call me. Please keep your fingers crossed – its officially been 3 months and I have only been out of a walking boot for 10 days in total over these 3 months.

Hope you are all enjoying to the first weekend of 2014!!

Happy New Year; Present to Myself – Whole30 revisited

In order to help myself get back on track to a healthy mindset after a period of stress both mentally and physically I was thinking about going back to do a Whole 30. Initially I thought to myself, oh well I will do it when I can start working out again in a couple weeks, then I pulled it in and said I would as a New Years resolution. Finally I was looking at the Whole30 Daily and really thinking about why I was waiting and decided to start it on December 30th. So today is day 3, last night we went out to dinner for New Years Eve and I was really tempted by the thought of fried ice cream to break plan and return it today. I opted against it though realizing it was my sugar need talking and I feel much happier with my decision today then I would have if I had caved. Definitely struggling with a detox day though, headache, cranky, kind of tired, lightheaded, etc. I know I will be better for it in a couple of weeks though – so it is what it is. Whole30 Timeline The good news is that all these things are normal from the post above. I’m more excited this time to be doing this now because I look forward to reintroducing my food properly and know that in a short while when I move I will be looking at having a routine again and also having more control over what’s in my environment then I’ve had in a long time. All good things – another good thing right now would be a nap 🙂

I also gave myself for Christmas a Vitamix which has already been spoiling me by letting me make homemade sunflower seed butter, mayonnaise, raspberry vinegarette, a delicious smoothie, and sunshine sauce for the pad thai I just finished eating. I definitely spoiled myself with it a little but I am definitely happy with it already and think it is a great investment in my health as far as enabling me to make the soups and all those good things I miss. To clarify I did used to have a food processor that broke about a year ago that I miss dearly, to replace it with an equivalent quality was a little less then the Vitamix and after witnessing one in action – I wanted it. Costco has the best deal on them that I have seen by far, $375 for the 5200S – this model straight from Vitamix $450, on Amazon and elswehere $475-500.

Tomorrow I have xrays and my final follow up with the podiatrist as well! Updates to follow – I hope everyone had a safe an fun New Years Eve Celebration; still working on my focuses for this upcoming year!

So close yet so far…

Is anyone else struggling with the fact that Christmas is in the middle of the week this year? A lot of employers have chosen not to give their employees Christmas Eve off or even a half day. I find this greatly disappointing – just because I think that we all work so hard and to not offer people to enjoy just two days with their children and families seems crazy. Everything is to turn a profit or for the almighty dollar. I have Christmas Eve off fortunately but almost everyone else in my life is working on the holiday in some respect. I will probably end up working it too realistically mostly just because of the shear amount of work that I’ve been struggling to focus on or catch up on after surgery.

Speaking off – things have been going really well! I found out why I was in so much more pain this time, one of the pins came through the bone and was poking the sole of my foot from the inside. Pins and stitches are out – 5 week appointment is scheduled for January 2nd, I will have xrays then to assess whether I am on schedule to heal as expected and will learn when I am due to be out of the boot. I had a picture of my right foot and although its directly after surgery and my foot is still swollen you can see the huge difference below:

With time the swelling and bruising will be out and I am trying to treat the scars on both of me feet closer to surgery this time to make them softer and less painful.

Merry Christmas to all who run across this and I hope you get to enjoy as much time with you loved ones as possible!!!

Tomorrow is the big day!

I will probably still be in a boot for 3 more weeks, BUT tomorrow is the moment of truth all the stitches and pins come out. I will also be on vacation the 18th, 19th, and 20th. Vacation is always a lose term in my job but I have a hair appointment scheduled on Thursday, and I will be able to take a real shower on Friday which is also exciting. This is going to be a good week before Christmas…looking forward to the holiday as well. 🙂 Anyone else have any big things to get done before the holiday?

Good times with Old Friends

In the past two days I have spent about 3 hours on the phone catching up with a couple of friends from college and it has been so good. Its been nice to find that connection with people again. I am determined to try and keep it up, and like anything I think I’ve learned at this point that if you don’t make an effort to make keep up contact its very easy to lose people all together. Yes there will always be friends that you can go months without talking to and be able to pick up right where you left off like nothing ever happened, but I guess you have to ask yourself if you really want to be that estranged from the life of people that you care about. I have put a couple of phone dates on my calendar as a reoccurring meetings to ensure that I catch up with some of the people I care about that aren’t here on at least a monthly basis. Sometimes texting, emailing, facebooking, its just not the best form of communicaiton, sometimes you just get a lot more done putting aside an hour and just chatting. Chatting with some of my old friends has kept me sane at a time where in the past 5 days I have only left the apartment once to go to a doctors appointment. I don’t think they know how much it means to me, but I appreciate the time and continued effort they have also put into these friendships. Its easy to let people come in and out of your life, and too many people use this as an excuse not to foster relationships with people they care about, but lament the loss when they are gone. So thank you to those that keep in touch with me, whether its as simple as reading this blog, tweeting me a message every once in a while, making a couple of minutes to chat with me, or texting me when something in life happens that you want to share.

Hump Day – Dr Follow up

I had my 2nd check up after surgery today and all looks well. My body is rejecting the pins a little so they are sticking out of my toes more then usual. *Fair Warning, I will post a picture below from my appointment today* Having the pins sticking out further then usual means that I haven’t been able to sleep in the shoe this week while I’ve been at home by myself because the blankets hit the pins. Sleeping in the boot just means that I don’t sleep well unfortunately. Its officially one week until my last set of pins/stitches come out, then I get a week off of appointments, the week 5 check up with be with xrays and I will find out how I’m healing at that point and when I can expect to be out of the boot. Today I also finally had an in depth discussion with him when I can start to pick activity back up. He said if the bone has healed I can start activity 6 weeks from the date of surgery, which would put me starting January 7th. Even if I need an extra week that still means I can pick at least yoga up by the middle of January.

 

I fondly refer to this as my Frankenfoot – you can see there was more extensive work done on my right foot then on my left due to the stitches below as opposed to just the one scar on the left.

Work has been good but I thought I was doing so good catching up post surgery and I got an unpleasant reminder email from an Account Manager today reminding me of a deadline that I had promised and proceeded to miss because I had forgotten to write it on my to do list. It makes me sad that so much will be changing at the beginning of next year. I hope that Brian chooses to keep in touch, along with Myrna and Kim. My job was unaffected by the layoffs but I can not say that I as a person was not affected by the layoffs. Also, the Christmas schedule came out and I’m covering almost the entire week. Which does not make me upset as most people would think. I work on a team of 4 other people, all of whom are either traveling for Christmas or have children to celebrate the holiday with, neither of which are true for me at this particular point in life. So I’m happy to hopefully provide other people a holiday that they aren’t super stressed during and can enjoy their families.

I got to have a 1.5 hour call with one of my good friends and sisters Amanda today which was good.  We both work for GE and both found our way to faith separately but around the same time.  Its nice to have a friend that I can discuss life and work with in terms of faith, especially from someone who has known me so long and understands my history before this point.

Almost there….

These are the infamous words that any hiker is familiar with as they ascend the mountain while others have already conquered and are headed back down. Any hiker worth their salt also knows that this is never usually true, and that’s hows I feel about getting the pins out of my toes after the second surgery, I am now 1 day past halfway to that beloved appointment and I keep telling myself “almost there” to get through the next little bit. It may not be true but its what you need sometimes to get you to the summit or to keep you sane until you can walk again after over 2 months of almost being almost completely inactive and what will be about another month of the same. I will say that now with my left foot almost completely healed I would tell anyone that this surgery has been worth it. I don’t experience random pains when I’m barefoot, my shoes also don’t cause me discomfort anymore, and I don”t have shooting pains throughout my foot that wake me up in the middle of the night. Yesterday I wore my Boston chucks all afternoon, walked around Best Buy for an hour and went out to dinner and I didn’t have to take off my shoe under the table to try and relieve the pain in my foot. This may seem like a small thing to a lot of other people, but when you are constantly playing the battle of taking your shoes off under your desk, in your car when you’re driving, at the movies, out to dinner, etc. The worst part is that you can take the shoes off but once the nerves are upset there really is no relief, and putting them back on is the most dreaded part of the night. Constant pain barefoot or with shoes on, before after and during a run, before after and during a hike/backpacking, and even trying to stand in the kitchen to cook is something that eventually you learn to live with. The day that I went to get my orthotics replaced after 6 years and the nurse started to ask me about it, I started to pay attention to it again and I realized that even barefoot around the apartment all day I was dealing with discomfort and pain in my feet. So I decided that it was probably about that time, add this to the fact that my deductible was already met, and as my dad says you heal better at 25 then you do at 30 of after. The doctor also let me know that in my right foot there was already erosion of cartilage in my big toe, so hopefully by having the surgery so young I have prevented the potential arthritis in my foot that would have led to.

Now I’m just hoping that after the incisions heal and I can kind of come out of the boot that my doctor will okay me to go back to yoga as a low/no impact activity at the beginning of January.

Officially wrote my email letting the first know I resigned from advising a executive position, which was tough I feel better now that its done though. I think looking forward to the end of this year and beginning of next year. This next little bit I will reflect on the things that happened this year and the goals I will have for next year, but after the end of this year, I’m done with all the hard things that happened in it. I’m going to look forward to my move (still in Phoenix) and the changes in life it will bring, taking my GMATs, and settling back into a schedule. But all that is for another day when I can actually do anything about it. 🙂

Second Surgery – Day 2

I need to start writing again to take my mind off of what is going on in my foot right now. On October 4th I had my first bunionectomy as well as my claw toes repaired. Which involved cutting bones near my big toes and having them screwed back together as well as a wedge cut out of my big toe and a staple put in to straighten out the bone. Also the tendons were released in all my small toes and then they were pinned straight for three weeks. I was in a walking boot for six, had 10 days out and then went back yesterday to have the same torture done to my right foot. Only this time he shaved some bone out of the tailor bunion on the outside of my right foot too. The first surgery I was comfortable and mobile almost immediately and I made the mistake of having the same expectation with this surgery. Huge mistake already, I was uncomfortable when I woke up and they definitely sent me home with way more painkillers in my system then I think I needed. I felt nauseous and don’t remember the better part of things that actually happened yesterday. I slept 20 hours of the 24 after surgery. I was up and about today trying to get ready to head out for Thanksgiving and life in general, now my foot aches more then anything else. First check up is December 4th, so hopefully I can survive the next few days without freaking out too much.

I’m looking forward to this Thanksgiving for the first time in a while though, I am spending the holiday with the family of the man I have unexpectedly found myself in a relationship with. It’s funny how after I sorted out my faith and spiritual piece of my life everything else has fallen into place. I think this man was sent to me at a time when I am going through surgery in a place where I only have friends but no family and I was starting to feel like I didn’t belong. He has definitely served as my support through this time and he accepts me for who I am, loud, obnoxious, overly affectionate, all the things I’ve never really been able to show anyone all at once. He also has kept me focused on my goals and has helped me realize that I can not and should not expect to be able to do everything. Indeed to focus on work in light of recent layoffs, I also want to take my GMAT and work towards getting my MBA (I already paid for the exam so now I have to take it). I order to actually move forward with these things I recently had to resign from advising on the executive board of my sorority at ASU. There was just not enough support and it was taking up too much time from work, recovering from surgeries, and trying to foster my personal life. Sometimes I can’t say no and in this case I just had to admit that I can’t do everything; at this time in life backing away from the sorority is not quitting, it’s just something that needs to be done for me to move forward.

There are also some financial goals that everything that recently happened at work have help me put into better focus. I need to have a safety net in place as well as the fact I want to start to put away money for a down payment on a house. I guess it’s time to grow up and figure it out. I’m happy with where life is headed and going to continue to look to God to help me find my way.

Day 4 – Where are my GRAINS?!

This week has been going alright food wise – not so well in the rest of life, but I’m letting the beginning of the week go and hopping today was the beginning of a better end. Today is day 4 and I miss grains/sugar. I am probably eating more fruit then I should be due to it but that will be a focus for next week when my energy levels are back to normal. I haven’t had a stomach ache in 4 days and my digestive system is functioning more normal without medication to help then it has in a couple weeks. In only 4 days I’ve seen a few of the changes I was hoping for and I’m looking forward to the end of the first week when my body has become better adjusted to all the things I just cut out. This week I ran on Monday, went to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu on Tuesday, and yoga this evening, trying to remain active without stressing my body out.

The sleep front is getting better but I still haven’t gotten 8 hours, I’m working my way up from about 5 hours a night and trying to cut out my early evening naps. Maxed out at around 7 hours so far and the least I’ve gotten was 6 in one nights sleep, so I’m moving in the right direction. I took a few pictures of my delicious meals this week to show some of my friends it isn’t all bad! Homemade guacamole goes a long way with some spaghetti squash, and salsa chicken made in the crock pot. For dinner a little Asian seasoned ground beef, broccoli, and clementines was an excellent choice. I also have fallen in love with watermelon topped with balsamic vinegar. I ate out this week once too and got to choose the location so I went for the easy one with chipotle. We will see come cinco de mayo how I can do to make it work! Eating out can be the biggest challenge on the Whole 30

Today I booked a day permit for Mt. Whitney again for this year, myself and the tallest peak in the lower 48 are due for a rematch. This time I will bring my inhaler and probably fare much better because of it. :). 22 miles, 6500 ft of elevation change…I’m ready for you this time!! Also headed to Havasupai next weekend for a backpacking trip, I’m a little concerned on the food front for making the Whole 30 work but I think it will just take some research and preparation in the upcoming weekend and I will be fine. As I get more comfortable with the food again I will start posting recipes/concoctions/ pictures as well. Up through day 4 has been a success and is making me contemplate continuing my whole 30 for more then the 30 already. :).

Reboot!

It’s about that time I would say for a reboot in pretty much every portion of my life. I am starting a new job (with the same company), looking to move at the end of May, and have recently resolved some outstanding issues with my personal relationships. I took this weekend and forced myself to say no to a lot of things I would normally say yes to for the sake of getting my thoughts and life together a little more. My official start date for the new job is tomorrow and I officially move June 1st – in an effort to get myself more prepared for all of these things I have decided to do a Whole 30. Also, my stomach has not been happy with the way I’ve been treating it and I think it’s time to focus on getting healthy, not competing for BJJ or running a race but just being healthier for the sake of caring about myself. For anyone not familiar with It Starts with Food for 30 days I have committed to NOT consume any of the following:
1) no additional sugar
2) no legumes
3) no alcohol
4) no grains
5) no dairy
6) no white potatoes

Basically it brings the focus back to eating really clean and the meals will be comprised of fruits/veggies, fats, and protein. Hopefully when/if I decide to reintroduce things at the end I can figure out what sets off my stomach. Other focuses of the program are getting 8 hours of sleep a night as well as staying away from the scale. I think this is a far better way to start the change you want to make in life versus all these other “cleanses” I’m seeing people do as summer approaches. So my blog will be dedicated to a) life and b) this journey I’m on for my health. I don’t look forward to the tired sugar withdraw period that came the last time I did this but I will just have to remember to rest as needed. I am going to track food (mostly to be accountable for not eating the things above, no calorie counting this month), water, sleep, and mood.

Starting weight 164.6

Side and front before pictures:

I think another thing that everything that has happened lately has made me realize is that it’s time to figure out the spiritual piece of my life. In my last relationship I felt like it wasn’t something I could really do due to fear of judgement – I think I’ve been single long enough to realize that this may be a journey for just me to make but I do intend to blog my thoughts about it, so bear with me on this front as well if you can. 🙂

Tomorrow’s game plan is to focus on getting enough water and 6PM yoga – I will report back on both!!