the2beths

Well it is time to get off my butt and set some goals.

As I mentioned the other day, I was particularly inspired by the retreat I went to on Friday. I think I was ready to hear what the leader had to say to us. The part in particular, which I also already mentioned, was the part where he said that if you want to be a certain type of person then start doing it! Don’t wait for a particular feeling or motivation.

A couple of months ago I made a list of things in my life I wanted to be versus what I was currently doing. And let me just say they didn’t match up at all. As somebody who does most things out of the feeling part of myself, I realized I needed to be more practical about my life to meet the goals that would make me proud of myself. I am not sure if this makes sense so I’ll try to be more clear.

I want to be a healthy person meaning I exercise regularly, and eat healthily. I want to be a church goer. I want to read more and spend a lot less time on my phone and social media. I want my house to be clean and less cluttered. I want to have better lesson plans and spend more time and effort on my job. There were a few other things but these were the main things. Now I don’t want to be perfect at everything but these were things I wanted to work on.

So I hatched a plan to meet these goals, and before I word vomit them all over this blog what I am planning I’m gonna try it out this week and I’ll let you know how it goes!

I hope you all have a great week! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Well, I’ve been very sad lately. The loss of my former student, Carly has been really difficult for me. Grieving is different than depression for me because I am not beating myself up mentally about it but rather beating myself up by stuffing my face with unhealthy shitty food that makes me feel even more shitty. I decided yesterday after a particularly effective staff retreat that I could be sad and grieve and still take care of myself and my body. In fact, I owe it to Carly to honor my body. So today, I went to my classes I love at the gym. And I felt like I was going to puke the whole time due to the crap I’ve been eating, but I trudged on. I remembered the words our retreat leader said yesterday – if you want to be a certain type of person, you need to act like that type of person until it becomes who you are on the inside. You should not wait for the feeling to come to you. I want to be a healthy person so I’m gonna take it til I make it!

Craig, henry and I are heading to the Columbus Zoo for their Boo at the Zoo. I’m looking forward to it!

Have a great weekend everybody.

Xoxoxox,

Beth WA

Basically, in a few words, I miss the Whole30.

I didn’t follow their reintroduction schedule, and I ate about 65% compliant, but a bunch of symptoms returned right away. Night sweats, stomach aches, bloating, gas, fatigue, lethargy, skin issues, my face gets red spots and puffy and that’s just what I can think of off the top of my head.

So, I’ve decided to try to maintain a W30 type lifestyle. All of the food I have planned for next week is compliant, and I hope to be feeling better in a few days. Non compliant foods are a slippery slope for me. I am not somebody who can eat in moderation, at least at this point in my journey. I feel like I have an illness – and Whole30 is a treatment for that illness.

I’m getting back into the groove at the gym, going to Body Pump classes and I am glad to be back. I like the way that class makes me feel. And I’ve been working on getting my 10000 steps and have done better in a while for the last three or so weeks. Normally, walking hurts my bones and joints but on Whole30 that wasn’t the case.

The only exception is going to be my morning coffee. I am going to have 2 tbsp of my cream. I tried substitutes but I just don’t enjoy them. And when I have iced coffee I’m just going to use almond milk. That works fine for me.

Anyway, onto other topics. Our school community is still grieving the loss of Carly, obviously. My heart is constantly heavy, but I’m trying to keep going and just honor Carly with the way I live my life.

In other news, I love weekends. I especially love three day weekends. I had to take Monday off to be with Henry because my mom is in Texas. I kinda needed it. It’s been hard to be “on” at school when you have lots of things on your mind. Also, it will give me extra time to meal prep, and take care of some things around the house.

We are having really warm weather lately so Craig and I took Henry to our local reservoir to do his favorite things which include throwing rocks in the water and driving his monster trucks in the sand.

Also, Henry found some tiger bones…

😂😂😂😂😂😂

He said the big one is the head.

I hope everybody is having a good weekend.

Xoxoxo,

Beth WA

Well, I did it! I made it to day 30.

I am very proud of myself.

This past week was rough. Really rough. But I just followed the rules and did the best I could and made it through about 95% compliant. This included eating out twice, and the luncheon after the funeral yesterday. And 0 meal prep.

It’s funny, that once I get past the initial reaction of wanting to eat all of the comfort foods and desserts and just eat what is nutritious, I feel so much better after I eat the meal.

I had so many non scale victories on the Whole30.

AND I had some major scale victories.

I lost 16.2 lbs, and my measurements all went down, some dramatically.

Upper Arm. -0.25 inches

Right Thigh. -2.0 inches

Right Calf. -0.25 inches

Waist. -3.0 inches

Hips. -3.0 inches

Neck. -0.25 inches

Bust. -4 inches

I was really shocked by my measurements. I kinda knew about my weight because I had cheated and weighed myself. Oops.

In other news, yesterday was Carly’s funeral. I was one of the people who delivered a talk/eulogy and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done but I loved Carly so much, and I love her mom so much I knew I had to be strong for them. And last night we went to the football game as we were honoring Carly there.

I woke up this morning with an emotional hangover. I was supposed to go to my classes at the gym but I didn’t really feel like being around people. I have a headache and I just needed to chill. It’s a beautiful day so hopefully I can get a walk in later today.

I know Carly is in a better place and not suffering but it is still really hard. And I can’t get her mom out of my mind. My head actually winces with pain when I think about her mom. What can I do for her? Any suggestions?

Love you all.

Xoxoxoxo

Beth WA

Carly, you are missed already. Rest in peace, my sweet girl.

😢

For a while (days 12-17) this Whole30 seemed really long and now I can’t believe it’s almost over. Weird.

One of the reasons I started it was to get better sleep and my sleep this week has been crappy because of outside things, (HENRY), but I still feel good throughout the day. So that tells me that I would probably feel really awesome if I was actually sleeping.

Yesterday was a really rough day for me, one of my special students who is in 9th grade, and the daughter of my OBGYN who is very special to me has leukemia. Last night she had major complications due to an infection as a result of the chemo and coded 4 times and had to be intubated. She is in critical condition and the next few days are crucial. If you are somebody who prays, pray for her please.

After I heard the news I had to go to the grocery and get my food for the weekend and next week. Before Whole30 I would’ve gone straight to the donuts and cakes and bought myself an afternoon binge. However, I didn’t even feel like that. And I didn’t want to quit my Whole30. And all of the food on Whole30 is delicious but not binge food. Also, I heard on a podcast (Half Size Me) that when you are sad because somebody you love has a body that’s failing them you need to honor them by taking care of yours. So, I came home and drank a kombucha and eventually went on a 45 minute walk and listened to an Oprah podcast. It felt good to have Oprah’s voice in my ears for 45 minutes.

Well, I have to go drink my coffee because I am going back to Body Pump today. I’m nervous and excited. In honor of my return my instructor who is my good friend is doing my favorite one, which is Body Pump 96!

Henry is at the boat with my parents this weekend and having the time of his life. ❤️ And sleeping like a champ. Of course. 🙄

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Remember to pray if you will!

Xoxox

Beth WA

I honestly can’t believe that it’s almost over. I’ve learned so much about what food helps my body function the way it should. And eating three meals and one snack has been going well this week. I’ve made some elaborate recipes and I’ve thrown stuff together at the last minute. It’s been a learning experience and more than anything it taught me to believe in myself again. I never thought I could do something like this. I am actually going back to the gym this Saturday and I am really ready. I am also going to go on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I told my husband it’s important to me to make this work as best as we can. He is very supportive so that should be good. Even if I can’t make it to class, I am still going to go to the gym. I think I will feel even better than I do now when I get back to Body Pump.

This is kind of a jumbled mess of a post but mostly I wanted to check in and say it’s all going well still and now I’m just thinking about what I’d like to do after Whole30.

This is a delicious breakfast casserole I made for this week. I put wholly guacamole on top this morning and it made it even better.

Ok, I’m going to relax.

Xoxoxox

Beth WA

I’m still doing my whole 30. It’s actually going quite well despite being exhausted still. Like really tired. I am gonna take my blood pressure regularly the next few days and see if that’s the culprit. I took it tonight and it was lower than usual for me.

This is a breakfast I really enjoy but never feel like making on school mornings.

So I am going to make a sweet potato, bacon, egg bake that I found a recipe for to eat during week day mornings. So I can just heat and eat.

Here is my dinner; mashed sweet potatoes, Aidells chicken apple sausage and zoodles in ghee with TJ’s Everything but the bagel seasoning.

The mashed sweet potatoes were amazing with Madagascan Vanilla Bean Ghee mixed in. Yummm.

I am really glad I did something dramatic like this to overhaul my relationship with food. It is really making me find foods that work for me and making a variety of healthy recipes instead of the same thing over and over. It is hard, but worth it.

Well, I am off to bed. I’m exhausted even though I took a nap. 😩

Xoxoxo

Beth WA

I’m about to go to sleep but I had the day off today and meal prepped and made a delicious dinner.

I’ll share it all tomorrow.

Xoxoxo,

Beth WA

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

When they made the timeline they were correct. Day 10 has been the hardest so far. Especially when I realized my coconut almonds were NOT compliant. I had a sneaking suspicion when I kept craving them and wanted to over eat them. There has been no food on this Whole30 that I’ve wanted to overeat even though I’ve loved what I’ve eaten. I have no clue what I read when I was at Trader Joe’s as the ingredient list. I must’ve just spaced out in that moment. But even though I made a mistake I am not starting over. It was a mistake. I did throw the bag all in the garbage because I was wanting them all day and I didn’t trust myself. The rest of the day I didn’t do great with meals. Everything I ate was technically compliant but I just kept snacking and it wasn’t balanced. Tomorrow will be better. I worked on grading ALL DAY LONG and I didn’t do any meal prep at all. I am off work tomorrow and plan to get that done so it’s a better day.

Breakfast was my only real meal and the only thing I photographed.

I planned to go to the gym today but it just didn’t work out. I found that my gigantic bin of fall clothes actually got water in it during our flood and the clothes smelled so nasty. Some were ruined but I salvaged most. Thank goodness.

Have a great Monday, friends! ❤️❤️❤️

Xoxoxo,

Beth WA