"It Starts with Food" book review:

I read this book and just finished my 1st whole30. What an experience. The book said "...if you're still feeling the same way about food after your initial thirty days, if that relationship is still too dysfunctional to feel healthy ... hang in a little longer."  Because i feel this way, i am going to "hang in a little longer". My relationship is better, but also "too dysfunctional to feel healthy". I will keep going and although i had a lot of great benefits from accomplishing the whole 30 days (wahoo) i was bloated and in pain almost all the time. So i'm starting again tomorrow but this time i'm going to add in Kefir in the morning (for probiotics) and fish oil, Vitamin D3 and Apple Cider Vinegar. I hope these things aid in digestion and that i can feel good this time around. I'm going to be very strict as far as my snacking goes also (i relied too heavily on fruit and nuts between meals, not because i was hungry, but because i was CRAVING) so, here is my plan.

Breakfast meal: Apple Cider Vinegar 15 mins before meal (because haven't you heard, Apple Cider vinegar is SO good for you! Read about all the health benefits here). Vitamins with a large meal of protein, veggies and fat AND a kefir based green drink. 

If i need a post work-out snack this can be fruit with almond butter OR veggies with Almond butter (or any other carb/protein combo). 

Lunch Meal: Apple Cider Vinegar 15 mins before. Vitamins with my meal of Veggies, protein and more fat. (probably a large salad)

Dinner Meal: Apple Cider Vinegar 15 mins before. Vitamins with my meal of Veggies, protein and more fat.

I will be avoiding most fruit and nuts because of the pain they cause my belly. A few nuts sprinkled on top of a meal is fine, but not by themselves. Also, some fruit with meals is fine but snacking on fruit is not allowed. 

Remember no scale. Weigh yourself before. Measure yourself before. Take before pictures (you'll be grateful you did) but then forget about it because it ISN"T ABOUT LOOSING WEIGHT. Its about CHANGING YOUR LIFE and it CAN be life changing. 

I will continue to do a lot with resistence training and of course training the 4 days a week for our half-marathon in July! I'm excited for the next 30 days! (and probably will extend it to 60 to make sure my gut is healed before i SLOWLY reintroduce dairy, legumes and perhaps some grains) I love that this is such a great eating plan for most ALL people! Overweight, underweight, pregnant or nursing.  If you're feeling adventurous PLEASE JOIN ME! It will be loads of fun and i will continue to post many meals to Instagram so you can have ideas of what to eat too. 

Remember, Whole30 is NOT about loosing weight. Its about changing your life AND your relationship with food. Lets get healthier and happier together!

A good day, a crazy day, but a good day

Wow, can i just say, its been a bit of a crazy day. The hubs and i went on our run early in the am, home to breakfast of sweet potato, ham and egg scamble (my latest favorite) and i don't think i've stopped since.

I made Martha Stewarts Graham Crackers (they are simple and yummy, my kids love them)

Then i made homemade strawberry fruit leather.

It was my plan to spend today making good, healthy snacks for the kiddos but unfortunately i burned the graham crackers.... kinda of a fail. But the fruit leather is great!

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Also, I'm kind of a rare sort of lucky lady because i get to go to work with my husband, whenever i want. He just works outside our home, so today the kids and I went out to help him in the beautiful (yet extremely windy) sunshine. It was all fun and games til my 3 year old decided to take a swim in the pond. It was actually pretty scary, she can't reach and she can't swim (and i can't blame her, she is only 3). So i gracefully threw everything i was carrying to who knows where and ran over, dived into the dirt and mud to rescue my daughter. But we didn't let our dirty, muddy, wet bodies ruin our day outdoors,since there was still some of the above mentioned sunshine, we decided to paddle around the pond before we went home to bathe. It was a good day, exciting, but good.

And here is my youngest after the much needed bath (because he may, or may not have also taken a quick swim in the disgusting pond water). I believe that face tells it all. (man he is dang cute, if i do say so myself)

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So remember Simply Sadie Jane? I'm doing her at home CrossFit workouts...well today she finally posted a video of what a warm up should look like.... did you watch it? Its CRAZY! This warm up is going to make my workouts TWICE as hard! Seriously, she's hard core and tomorrow, i will begin my workout with this warm up, we'll see how it goes along with the 10 min of AMRAP BURPEES! AND 10 Rounds of 10 pushups, 10 situps, AND 10 lunges... its going to be a rough day, but i can't lie, i'm kind of excited.
I don't know why i get such pleasure out of ALMOST KILLING MYSELF! I must not be wired correctly.

Well, I hope you didn't have quite as exciting of a day as we did but that it was still one to remeber.

Cheers,

-elise-

Exercisin' makes me happy

I LOVE to exercise! Let me rephrase that, I LOVE how i feel after i exercise! 

I don't always enjoy the process but the after, when all those endorphins are released and i KNOW i did something good for my body....well that just makes me happy!

So, John --my fit, hot, handsome cowboy-- and myself are training for our first ever half marathon!!! Its in Bryce Canyon in July and should just be GORGEOUS! I'm actually quite excited, but we've been training for it. In case you're curious we're mostly follow Hal Higdon's Half Marathon Training Program, 

This week it looks like this:

Monday: 3 mile run

Wednesday: 2 mile run

Friday: 3 mile run

Saturday: 4 mile run

Our Saturday long run will continue to get longer and longer and as you can see we still have a LONG ways to go! We're going to run the Scandinavian Festival 10k next month (wahoo! Shout out to Ephraim) and hopefully by then we'll be well on our way to the Half!

Anyway, besides running i've also found a new love. I don't know that i can actually call it CrossFit but its close. It is (drum roll please) SimplySadieJanes at home CrossFit work out and IT IS KILLER! It is so, so, so, so, so, so (did i get enough so's in there?) HARD! But i seriously LOVE IT! Something about doing something so stinkin' hard is so stinkin' rewarding! I know, maybe i'm weird, but i get the whole crossfit craze, i feel stronger, i feel healthier, i'm happier with my body. I happen to be very glad that STRONG is the new SKINNY, cause, lets be honest, i never pulled off skinny very well ;). 

So I don't actually know this Sadie Jane chick-a but I've sort of turned into a groupie! She is RAD. She can do a pull up....she can do lots of pull ups...i'm still working on one....but i am getting closer! so go check out her (truly inspiring) webiste! 

Is it making sense?

A couple days ago i shared a little bit of my story. Because of my condition, at an early age i began to find ways to improve my health. Just hoping/praying/wishing that SOMETHING would get me back what i had lost. Guess what. I'm still bald. Guess what, I'm not incredibly mad about it because maybe nothing helped with my hair but one thing that it did do is made me aware. This body i have, it may do things i don't want but if i treat it well, then i can still be happy, my life will still feel fulfilled.

Because i believe  know that when i'm in shape and fit physically i can live a more fulfilled life, it has become my quest to find a way to live a healthy lifestyle, and to make it stick.

My story

Many many years ago (6 years i think) i posted this to my first ever blog. i'd like to share it here. It gives my story. This story is the reason for my health obsession awareness. This is the reason i care so much about health, not just fitness but total, all encompassing HEALTH. Read on...


(written August 16, 2008)

Well, this morning i decided something as i was running, that something was that i HATE to wear wigs! For those of you who don't already know, i wear a wig because i have alopecia, but this wig keeps me from doing all the things that i love to do and i'm sick of it! Its annoying to run because the plastic on your head just makes it sweat like crazy, I can't swim without worrying the whole time that it might come off, i can't enjoy myself at Lake Powell because i'm afraid to show the real me, i can't tube down high speed rivers like i would love to because i'm worried i'll get tipped and then loose my hair, i get scared at amusement parks, not because i'm a sissy but because i don't want my hair to fall off on some insane rollarcoaster, i can't enjoy myself at any beach because the waves would definitely take it right off. I can't pull my hair back and get it out of my eyes up into a ponytail. And I'm even worried around little kids that they might accidentily pull it off. This all may sound stupid but its real. There are so many things that i would love to do, that i'm dying to do, but i don't dare because of my hair.

This morning while i was running, i decided that i'm through, sure i'll still wear it to work (they didn't hire a bald girl), to church, to stuff like that but i'm sick of it being some big secret because really, its who i am, i sure don't like having this disease but honestly, there's nothing i've been able to do about it in the past and i doubt there's much i'll be able to do about it in the future. For those of you that had no idea that i wear a wig and are wondering what in the world alopecia is, keep reading...

When i was 11 years old, my hair started falling out, it began with just a really high hairline in the back but then continued falling out in different spots all over my head, it would usually fall out, and then grow back. All through middle school and high school i did my best to cover the bald spots with the hair that i did have but by the time i was a senior there just wasn't enough and i had to get a wig. When this was all happening i had started dating John. He always knew that something was wrong with my hair but never pushed it, and i didn't tell him for a while. At the beginning of our senior year, i finally told him and the cool thing was is he didn't care. When we decided that it was time that i needed to start wearing a wig, John was the one that shaved the hair that i did still have so that the wig would fit better. He was there for me through everything and he loved me anyways. I've actually been so blessed with great friends and family who were always supportive and loving of this thing that i was always so embarrassed and angry about. Doctor's always told me it was stress related but who doesn't stress out when their hair keeps falling out? I've always wanted to know why this had to be my trial, why did i have to go though this? I mean, most people go through trials and then their done, but my trial is never ending, it doesn't get over, it just gets worse. Its been a hard thing in my life but when i look back, i realize how lucky i am to have my family and friends around. I'm grateful for my parents, for spending all the money they did on different doctors to try to find the source of the problem. I'm grateful for them for spending $850 every 8 months or so because i needed a new wig. I'm so grateful for John for always being by my side and understanding when i just can't take it anymore and i'm grateful to him for marrying me when he realized what a high maintenance person i have to be because of my hair. But you know what, i don't want to spend $850 anymore on wigs, i'd much rather use that money for something else, i don't want to be sad and embarrassed anymore because of something i can't control. Everybody else still loves me and i guess it's time i start loving myself and learning to live with the things i've been challenged with.

I'm not going to be afraid anymore to go running without my hair, i'm not going to be afraid to enjoy myself no matter what i'm doing and i'm going to start to live my life to the fullest. Its time to let it go and i hope i can do it. So here i am, no secrets, no nothing, just me.

my current angle

So, i happen to be on a path. A path to better health. A more fulfilled life. My current path is with whole30. "It Starts with Food" by Melissa Hartwig and Dallas Hartwig. I read the book and it just makes sense. I am on day 19 of my whole30 journey. It has had so many ups and downs...probably more downs than ups honestly. But as of today, this day, on my journey i'm feeling really good. I'm feeling healthful. And for me, that's a good thing.

What is whole30? Its a way to gain control of your health. It changes your relationship with food. It gives you power. You really should read the book. but i digress...

What have i learned so far in my journey? I've learned that food needn't control me. Food doesn't make me fat just as spoons don't make you fat and guns don't kill people. People kill people. I make me fat. But the good news? I can make me healthy too. We have the power to decided who we will become. Lets decide together, and lets decide to make health our style!

Control

In my life there are more things that i can't control than i can count.

So why not take control of the things that i can?

This is where my health comes in. I LOVE health and fitness, not because i want to look amazing (although that's always a plus) but because IT IS SOMETHING THAT I CAN CONTROL. Maybe i'm a control freak? But i don't care. I love feeling in control instead of being controlled. I love letting my heart and my mind drive my body instead being subject to my bodies wants. I can't control the fact that i'm bald (more on that later) but i can control how i feel. I can control my health.

Its mind over matter. We're all capable of it. It is always a choice. I choose health.

Introduction

Hi, I'm Elise. I'm just your average momma with a passion. Here, i want to share that passion.

My passion is health. Not your cliche, average health and fitness guru but maintainable health. No counting calories. Not even restricting calories. Finding a way to be healthy and happy and to maintain it. Thats my passion.

I believe this maintainable lifestyle comes when you fix each part of your life. But mainly the part where your aren't in control...yeah, that part has got to be fixed. Then, and only then can health be maintainable. concrete. viable. attainable. Able to stay that way. forever.