The Whole 30- Results

Hello!

The Whole 30 is done and I can't believe how fast it went by!! It wasn't near as hard as I thought it would be... Once I made it through the first week it was so much easier!! I feel great and although I didn't meet my goal, I still lost 13 pounds and I am not sure how many inches because I didn't measure myself before I started, but I can definitely tell I have lost some because jeans that did not fit before starting this are loose now! It's a great feeling! :) Even though my thirty days are over, I am still going to continue to eat healthy.

The Whole 30 really was a jumpstart to a healthy lifestyle for me. It taught me a lot about all the bad things we put in our body and that EVERYTHING I like to eat has sugar in it.. Even turkey meat that comes from the deli has sugar... Yes, I asked the deli man if I could look at the package so I could see the ingredients.. His response was, "oh you're one of those..." I guess I am one of those now.

The Whole 30 also brought me some new motivation in the gym!! I really enjoy going to the gym now and if you knew me before I started The Whole 30 you'd would agree when I said, I would much rather lay down for a nap or watch some tv than go to the gym.. I love my workout time now and I have noticed a huge change in my workouts since starting.. For example, not dying after only 30 minutes on the elliptical! HA!

The Whole 30 also made me realize that I CAN succeed, if I put my mind to it... I don't know how many times I have tried to start a diet or workout regime and after a couple of days I would just be back to my old ways... 30 days is not long, people. BUT on Day 1 it seemed like an eternity. When I tell you that if I can do this ANYONE can do this, I am not lying. I swear to you, if I can do this YOU can do this.

As many of your know, my FABULOUS parents went on this journey with me. They both were my rock throughout the entire thing and I am not sure I could have done it without them.. Many nights my mom had to make 2 dinners because my sisters were not all for The Whole 30 dinners and we also had to have 2 pitchers of tea in our fridge, unsweet and sweet! Where would we be without our moms!? Mom & Dad had great results from The Whole 30- Dad lost 13 pounds and Mom lost 7 pounds!!

A few more things I learned from The Whole 30 and some helpful tips if you want to try it-

• Keep your fridge full of fresh fruits and veggies! You are basically cutting out the convenient foods... It's a lot easier to go to the pantry and grab a bag of chips, but when you have a bowl of sliced fruit in the fridge you can just as easily go grab a handful of some fruit!
• Healthy food is good!! :) There were so many recipes that we tried, that I absolutely loved!! Just as much as my old foods, some more!!
• During the past month I obviously couldn't eat bread so when we made hamburgers, I would have tomato and lettuce as my bread and believe it or it not it was delicious! Same with tacos, lettuce works just as well as a tortilla!

Ok, I can't think of anything else right now and I am sure you are sick reading this!! Those of you that have followed my blog, thanks for reading and I hope I didn't bore you too much!! Friends, family and co-workers- I wish I could name all of you, but THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all the support, guidance and encouragement you have given me! I promise, you don't know how much it means to me and I love you all because of it!! Like I said earlier, I am going keep eating healthy/whole 30 foods, so here's to the next 30 days! :)

xoxo Lauren

I suck at blogging.

My life is too busy right now and I am so terrible at keeping up with my blog! I guess this has become a weekly update since the last time I blogged was last Sunday.. It seems that every time I sit down to write one I get distracted... I am in the middle of an online class that ends this week (thank the Lord!) I am tutoring two of my favorite little divas, Mallory & Paloma, in their Algebra class and I try to workout everyday after working all day long. It seems like if I am not tutoring in the evenings I am making cake balls, it's seriously always something. By the end of the day I am exhausted, thus the reason my blog has been put on a the back burner!

The good news is The Whole 30 has not been put on the back burner, I am still truckin along.. Today we finished day 14!! This week was much easier than last week and I am not having any trouble saying no to things I cannot eat/drink! Luckily, I don't eat my cake balls after making them (not because they taste bad) because after spending 3+ hours making them the last thing I want to see/think about is a cake ball! SO many people have asked me how I don't eat them.. I LOVE making them for people and I am very thankful that I don't want to eat them :) Which by the way, I have been making them recently for baby showers, parties, ect. in order to make some extra money and if you are interested in having cake balls at your next party, let me know and I will be happy to make them for you :)

Ok, back to The Whole 30.. I want to talk about some of my favorite meals so far... The first week, I loved the dry steak rub, it was delicious! We had it again this week with some asparagus, which has become one of my favorite vegetables. I still LOVE apples and sunbutter it is seriously so delicious! We had "spaghetti" this week, with hamburger meat, whole 30 approved sauce and we served it over squash and zucchini which served as our noodles :) YUMMY! I loved it! I want to make some sort of taco salad this week obviously with no cheese, sour cream, tacos but with lots of veggies and meat and salsa! Sounds delicious!

I feel like I say this every week, but I am so thankful to all of my friends and family who are supporting me through this! I can't tell you how much it means to me/how much yall have helped me! Just with little things, for example, offering me fruit at your house when you have a fresh batch of rice crispies made or last night I was over at Becca's and she made cookies and walked up to everyone in the house and offered them a cookie, but skipped me. That makes saying no so much easier.. Seriously, thank you everyone!!

I am off to bed now, I have a full week of work, school and working out ahead of me! I will try my hardest to blog more than once a week, but I am not making any promises!! :) LOVE YOU ALL!!

change the voices in your head, make them like you instead!

HELLO!!

It has been an extremely busy weekend which is why I have not blogged in the past 2 days!! I am still goin strong on the Whole 30. After today I will have completed my first 7 days!! I hear it only gets easier from here on out and I believe it!! I have learned what I can and can't eat and it is not hard to say no to things like birthday cake! :) This weekend I made cake balls and my sisters birthday cake which I was kind of stressing out about because it was a little extreme!! It ended up turning out perfectly though so I was very happy. Anyways, I didn't have a problem making the cake or cake balls, usually I am "taste testing" everything throughout the entire baking process, but this time I didn't because I couldn't! Instead, any time I had some cake batter, chocolate, icing or whatever it was on my hands I went straight to the sink and rinsed it off. Katie, my sister, was the taste tester during all of this, Lord knows she could use some extra calories ;) haha love you seester!! I am starting to feel refreshed during the days now.. I am seriously not near as tired as I usually am and yesterday and today I really didn't sleep in like I usually do on the weekends!! Those of you that know me know that I LOVE my sleep and I have no problem sleeping in until noon.. This week of work will be the true test though. It's just crazy to me how much what you put in your body affects your energy levels and your mood! There have been many eye opening experiences so far!! I can't believe I have made it to day 7! I will be back to blogging like normal, I promise!! I hope everyone has a fabulous week! I know I will! :) I feel like there is a lot more to update yall on, but I need to get ready for work tomorrow and bed! So until tomorrow, I will leave you with a picture of Emily's birthday cake, that I didn't get to eat... me, my mom and dad ate pineapple instead :)

xoxo Lauren

cruisin' through day 4

Hi Friends!!

Today was a good day! I got a new source of motivation... although it is very long term my family brought up the idea of going on a Cruise during December. If that's not motivation to keep on eating healthy than I don't know what it is! Today was better than yesterday and I am really starting to enjoy this!

Today I ate---

Breakfast: fruit mixture of blackberries, blueberries, strawberries & raspberries!

Lunch: Chicken breast and steamed cauliflower and broccoli

Dinner: Hamburger patty, sweet potato fries & grilled zucchini & squash.

Everyone at work knows that I am doing the Whole 30 and now they too are encouraging me versus tempting me with yummy food! I have had people show me apps for my ipod that helps me keep track of what I am eating and count my calories and people are even sharing recipes with me, according to what I can eat! It's great having a support team all around!!

Tonight I made dinner for my dad and I... When I say I made dinner I mean, I even started the pit, which means I put the coals in the Old Smokey and started the fire and then went inside and made the hamburger patties and cut up the vegetables! Dad was so proud and it was delicious! I am proud of myself!

The sweet potato fries got a little burnt but they were SO good! The great thing about this meal is that it really filled me up AND it was still healthy AND SO delicious!! I didn't workout today (shame on me) but I figured it will be my one day off! I started tutoring Mallory & Paloma tonight and I wanted to get in bed early! So, that's where I am off to now! Goodnight!

Exhausted

I am SO tired today... I am not really sure what it is from, I am assuming because my body is getting used to this change. I still feel great, I am just super super tired!

Today I ate:

Breakfast- fruit w/ almonds & pecans

Lunch- hamburger patty and an avocado

Dinner- hamburger patty with cut up cucumbers & tomatoes!

I am starting to feel the effects of no carbs.. I keep saying that I need substance. I miss rice, potatoes, CARBS. After I finished working out tonight I felt very light headed, like I was going to faint.. kind of scary. I am ready to get used to these smaller meals. My stomach is not used to not having something in it all the time... pretty ridiculous.. It's not that I am hungry all the time, but my problem used to be that I would eat when I was bored and now that I am not snacking all the time I realize that I don't need to be eating all the time! Changes are definitely happening and I am absolutely loving it!! 3 down and 27 to go!! Shout out to Lance & Bradi who have their 30th day tomorrow, I can't wait to hear the results! SO proud of both of you!!

On a side note- I really appreciate all the encouragement I am getting from my friends and family. I don't think I would be able to do this alone! I love you all! :)

xoxo Lauren

I ATE MY FIRST LARABAR & DIDN'T THROW UP!!

Day two is complete and it went well!

Today I ate:

Breakfast: a bowl of fruit with almonds & pecans

Lunch: leftover steak from dinner last night w/ apples & sunbutter

Snack: Apple Pie Larabar

Dinner: Grilled Chicken, squash and zucchini (DELICIOUS!!!)

Some improvements from yesterday:

- today I drank unsweetened tea w/ lemon in it and it made all the difference! I loved it!

- I ate a LARABAR!! the entire thing and I didn't gag or anything!! That's quite an accomplishment because let me just tell you the ingredients in my apple pie larabar... dates, unsweetened apples, cinnamon, raisins, walnuts and almonds. That probably doesn't sound that terrible to you, but dates are on the same level as raisins in my book. GROSS. And they were BOTH in there. I don't like the consistency or the taste.. It had been sitting in Dylan's truck all day while we were at work and I ate it on my way home so it was kind of warm and it was good!

Here's a picture of my DELICIOUS breakfast!!

So, overall today was a great day! I was EXHAUSTED on my way to the gym, but when I got there I got so motivated and I had a great workout! I have learned that working out has actually helped curve my appetite some too because I don't want to ruin what I did at the gym! I wasn't tempted to cheat by anything today and even if there was another cake I think I would have been just fine. This has become more of a competition with myself and I don't want to lose(cheat). So far so good on day 2! 28 more to go! I am lovin this!

xoxo Lauren

"nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"

The title of todays blog is what got me through today. THANKS BRADI!! I honestly think if I made it through today I will absolutely make it through the next 29!

Ok, to start off with what I ate--

Breakfast- 2 scrambled eggs, attempted black coffee....

Snack- handful of almonds

Lunch- (DISASTER) : The plan was to have turkey wraps, but I ended up just eating my cucumber and tomato salad with some avocado chopped up in it. (Explanation to follow)

Snack- before leaving work & going to the gym, fruit!

Dinner- Steak Dry Rub and Steamed brocolli

"Dessert" - an apple with sun butter (like peanut butter, which I hate, but with sunflower seeds) SO GOOD!

Ok, so today started off bad... Black Coffee... BAD. I tried choking it down and I only made it this far.

So, then I decided to make unsweetened tea... still a bad decision, but better. I needed caffeine desperately. On with my day.. I am sitting at my desk and a guy from upstairs walks downstairs with a large cake. He tells me that he is going to put it in the break room for every one to have... I am thinking "Oh YES, oh wait... I can't eat any cake..." Come to find out it is hands down my all time favorite cake in the entire world, yellow cake with chocolate butter cream icing. AMAZING.. It was sitting in the break room which is less that 15 steps from my desk all day long. I did not touch it. That is amazing to me. Here is a picture of it so you all can see how tempting it was..

After all of this, it is finally time to eat lunch and I am seriously so pumped about my turkey wraps.. I bought this turkey that is Whole 30 approved and I took some with me to lunch today.. I get out a piece of turkey put 2 slices of avocado in it and some cucumber and tomato salad... took a bite. Yuck. I was not a fan of the turkey..I mean they looked great, but they just were not for me unfortunately.. don't they look yummy?!

After work I went to workout and I am so glad I did. I had a great workout! I came home and my mom made steak and steamed broccoli, that steak was so delicious! I could eat it everyday for the rest of this journey but I won't there are too many other fun recipes to try! I finished my day with an apple and Sun Butter, which like I said earlier is Sunflower butter! It is so good and I never thought I would like anything remotely close to Peanut Butter (except Nutella of course) but I love this sunflower butter!

Ok, to sum it all up I learned A LOT today. Not just about how these next 29 days will be, but about myself.

1. I learned that I am going to be tempted everyday to sway from this, but I can say no and I am so proud of myself for saying no to that cake today.

2. The Whole 30 seriously would not work for me if I was not prepared and if I didn't plan. That is so important and I can't stress it enough, luckily I was able to eat my cucumber and tomato salad with an avocado for lunch, but I do wish I had a protein or something with substance to have eaten with it. Tomorrow I will be prepared with something I like!

3. I learned that, The Whole 30, is going to be life changing for me. I can't wait for the rest of this journey!!

4. And lastly, I learned that I would not be able to do this without the support from my family and friends! Yall are all amazing and I am so thankful for my mom for helping me through this!! Love you all!!

xoxo Lauren

The Whole 30

Ok, I know I haven't blogged in forever, but I am back at it!! For 30 days at least. :) I am starting The Whole 30 tomorrow (6/6) and this blog is going to keep me accountable for all of my meals! Tonight I prepared some snacks for the week including a cucumber-tomato salad! Tomorrow morning I am going to weigh myself (ew) so I will have a starting point and I will be able to see what progress I made AFTER the 30 days. I cannot weigh myself again until after it's over! I am pretty excited about this! I am not sure I will feel the same way in the next couple of days, but hopefully it will be worth it! I am also excited about being back into the blogging world! :) Thanks Bradi & Lance for introducing this to me and helping me get started! I hope I have the same results that the both of you have! My parents are going to be doing this with me so we can all help keep each other on track and hopefully start a new and healthier lifestyle! Throughout this process I will be working out (hopefully everyday) I joined Lifetime again and I am SO happy to be back. I love that place! Ok, now I have to go to sleep so I am not completely worthless at work tomorrow!!

xoxo Lauren

Cilantro- Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa

This is one of my favorite recipes! I found it randomly one day when I was browsing through the internet and it is extremely easy. I cooked my chicken on the George Foreman Grill, but I am sure it doesn't make that much of a difference how you cook it. I added the link to the website where I got the recipe and also I added the picture I took of my meal after I made it! I hope you like it, if you try it! It is delicous!

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001886432

xoxo Lauren

First Blog!!

I have an assignment due in my online computer science class and we have to create a blog and share it with the class.. I have always wanted to start a blog, but I neve got around to creating one. I am glad we had to do this assignment because it forced me to start one! Thanks to Katie, Caitlin, Katy and Bradi for helping me come up with this idea! I hope you enjoy my reading about my adventures not only in cooking but in life! :)

xoxo Lauren