Whole9 Workshop Review

Saturday, I made the venture over to Iron Tribe in Birmingham, Alabama to participate in the Whole9 Seminar with Dallas and Melissa Hartwig.

Whole9 entered my radar about a year and a half ago. I stumbled across a paleo blog that mentioned them. But, the Whole9 system seemed very strict, which I wasn't ready for. I stored the idea in the back of my head, added both to my regular reads, and kept plugging along.

But, we all know how the last year ended. Hypothyroid. High Blood Pressure. +20lbs. and a lot of other little pesky issues that I just haven't bothered to write a lot about. And the paleosphere was really starting to use the term "systemic inflammation." I started to think - maybe this is part of the problem.

So, around the end of January, I noticed Dallas & Melissa were coming to Atlanta! Hooray! Wait. What's that date? Crap. That's J.B.'s birthday. I can't miss his birthday to go to a seminar all day. So, I looked again. Hmm. Saturday in Birmingham. A little further than I wanted to drive. I did give the option to J.B., though. If he wanted to celebrate on Saturday, I'd go to Sunday in Atlanta. If he wanted Sunday, I'd go to Birmingham. He picked Sunday, and that's the beauty of parenting. You adapt.

When I went bed Friday night, I decided I'd do as close to their Whole9 program as I could on Saturday and then hit the ground running on Sunday. Before bed, I had my last bit of Diet Dr. Pepper (ironically enough, to wash down my blood pressure medicine.)  

I fought tooth and nail to not stop on the drive and buy a soda. That was tough. The seminar started at 9am. Introductions and then discussion about what the Whole9 Good Food Criteria is. We talked about our mental response to food (both positive and negative,) we talked about our body's response to food (hormonal,) we talked about the importance of a healthy digestive system, and then we got to discuss inflammation.

Dallas and Melissa are teaching about building a healthy relationship with food.  Not counting calories.  Not worrying about IIFIYM (If It Fits In Your Macros.)  Not did I get enough protein.  In fact, in the protein/carb/fat sense, other than portion sizes, we only touched on macros twice.  Once, talking about how much carbs to consume in post-workout meals.   Once, as we talked about the Chronic Overconsumption of Carbs.

This one really hit home with me.  I just couldn't stop thinking how that's been the case my entire life.  I can remember coming home from school and my "snack" was six pieces of buttered toast with 2-3 cans of Coca Cola.  It was definitely a ding, ding, ding! moment.

After lunch (which was paleo and very good.), we hit the ground running with discussions about good food vs. bad food. We went through portion sizes, shopping lists, meal structure, and a lot of Q&A. By the end (5pm), I was even more excited. Even with the massive migraine, which was part caffeine/soda withdrawal and part barometric change.

By Sunday morning, the headache hadn't really subsided. But, I was determined not to give into the soda craving (and to make it through J.B.'s birthday somewhat unscathed.) After carefully navigating Golden Corral (where else would a 17 year old boy choose, right? All-You-Can-Eat is a teenage boy's paradise,) chocolate birthday cake, and a trip to the movies (where a large diet coke and Twizzlers would be my norm,) I was feeling pretty good. The headache was starting to subside, so yay.

I dragged James out grocery shopping, and feel pretty good about the choices on the plate for this week. I'm trying to be Whole30 strict, but I have several events that I'm just going to have to do the best I can.

My recommendation: If Dallas and Melissa are in your neck-of-the-woods, get yourself to their seminar! It really helped things make more sense - and took that mentality of "Is this paleo?" off the plate. I'm approaching this with the thought "Does this make me more healthy or less healthy?" now. Trial and error. Day by Day. Looking forward to getting my health back under control!

I Am CrossFit 3

My  box is holding their I Am CrossFit 3 Challenge starting Wednesday.

So, I had to weigh-in this morning.  And while I was weighing in I got to see the starting spot of the last challenge I did.  And it's a 18 pound (upward) swing in 1 year 2 months.  That has really screwed with my head this morning and I'm feeling mopey.  overwhelmed.   hopeless.

Anyway.

Dust Off Your Shoulders

I could write several paragraphs, detailing the reasons why my blog has been lacking lately, but that would be a very boring read.

Let's see.

I worked with Tina Reale for about a month.  Sort of.  I never managed to fully commit to her plan.  That's my fault.  Her plan - top notch.  Her qualifications - top notch.  My commitment to fitness stuff - bottom shelf.  So, I've opted not to continue with her services right now.  I need to find someone who is at my gym and will hold me accountable to show up.  I have a couple of things in the works.

I am signed up for the 2012 Chicago Marathon.  It doesn't feel like it's going to turn out to be quite "The Girls" race I'd mentally pictured, but it's there.   We'll see.  I have a program of basically "couch-to-marathon" that spans about 35 weeks.  I no longer have aspirations of BQ in Chicago (but I already acknowledged that wasn't a realistic goal.)   My goal is to get to the starting line properly trained with no injuries.   Other than that, I think any time goals would take care of themselves.  There's just no way that I can show up trained, uninjured, and closer to a fighting weight and not have a significantly better showing than ING.  (Obviously, things could go horribly wrong, but I think I could plan to have a better race.)

The Meal Movement thing went well for the most part.  We opted not to do a second order right now.  We decided we liked the snackier foods and those didn't really leave us satisfied.  I couldn't get past texture issues with the veggies.  Too much water/liquid that I just couldn't consistently get cooked out.  I would recommend it, overall.  

Speaking of fighting weight.  The Thyroid continues to baffle me.  I've been working out.  I've been eating better.  The weight is creeping up.  Further than it has ever been.  I feel like I'm going to have to be OCD about food journals and heart rate monitoring and all that stuff to make progress.   I'm on information overload with how to handle things.   Comments and feedback are welcome.

Well, that's a good start of where I'm starting from this time.  Let's see if this blogging thing sticks.

Happiness

I was in Vegas for most of this week at a work-related conference.  One of our sessions was on positive psychology.

Basically, happiness.

Of course, because it was a financial planning group, the discussion was somewhat about does money buy happiness?  And, in the absence of money is there a absence of happiness?

And the answer was surprising.  First of all, no money can't really buy happiness.  Secondly, without money, there is not necessarily an absence of happiness, but it can be harder to find.

But when it all comes down to it, the key to a happy life... the key to a long, happy life, is purpose.  Without purpose, we seem to lose sight of our happiness. And, it seems that a lack of happiness has direct correlation to our health, including weight.

Since I had some time on my hands during the evenings, I took a bit of time to do some self-reflection.

• I'm not happy.  In general.  Sure, I love my family.  I'm crazy-in-love with my husband.  I enjoy my job, most days.  I have a few close friends.  But, overall, not happy.  I'm chalking some of it up to the thyroid issue, but it simply can't be all of it.
• I lack purpose.  I don't have anything that drives me.  I don't have anything driving me to be a better person.  I want to be a better person.
• I can be a Negative Nelly.  I don't put a lot of positivity out into the universe.  I don't let my friends know how much they mean to me.  I don't take Mr. Me for granted.  I don't do the things I need to do to take care of myself.

Obviously, if there was a magic wand to fix all this, I would waive the magic wand and say "Poof!"  I would be thin, successful, insanely happy, wealthy.  I would have time to enjoy life - and find things to bring passion to my life.  

Since there is no magic wand, I am going to start doing a series of small things to make me better.

For the next thirty days, I'm going to put positivity out into the world.  Something simple.  Each day, I'm going to pick a Facebook friend at random, and just post something nice to their wall.

Maybe I can bring a little happiness to their day.

Review: Meal Movement

Two Weeks and I wanted to give an updated.

Likes:
1.  It's very convenient.  I can literally grab a protein, a veggie, and a snack running out the door for work in the morning.  It's definitely cut down my lunches out.  Today will be my first lunch out since getting the plan, and it's a client lunch at a restaurant.

2.  The food is really, really good. There have only been one or two things I haven't liked so far.  And that's okay, I just won't order those again.  There have been things that I really like (as in could eat multiple packages of in one sitting.)  I'll just order more of those.

3.  There's a lot of variety.   Mixing and matching veggies with proteins is working really well.  Even when I'm repeating a protein, putting with a different veggie works.

Dislikes:
1.  There is a trick to cooking the veggies.  I'm still nailing that down.  If I microwave them, they retain a lot of moisture.  DH says he doesn't mind, but I have texture issues with veggies and too much water in the veggie triggers a gag response for me.  It's much better in the oven.

2.  The cooking times are all wrong, assuming that you've kept your food frozen.  If I take out of the freezer and microwave, it takes at least twice as long to cook.  The oven is way more than twice.  Breakfasts seem perfect in the oven for 25 minutes on 300 (NOTE:  My oven is often wonky, so don't take my temps/times as gospel.)   Dinners take about 30 minutes.  I've taken to putting the whole meal in a 8" round cake pan and cooking in that.  It works.

3.  The snacks are too redundant.  I'm over nuts at this point.  I'd cut back a lot of the nuts in my diet (it's a control issue for me.)   The cheese snacks are okay (but again, kinda tired of) and I could do without the salami sticks.  They remind me of slimjims.  


Overall, I'm very happy with the experience.  I can see me continuing for a few months.  I think our family agreement is to continue to use for my/DH lunches, order breakfasts, and use to "supplement" dinners.  I'm down about 5 pounds since we started the program.  I am exercising a bit more (and we have been out to eat several times), but I'm counting as a win!

I would recommend this program to anyone.

I'm Going to Vegas for 3 Days

This weeks mysterious breast cancer awareness post on Facebook is a fill in the blank sentence that puts you in some random city for a number of days/months.  Depends on which version you got emailed.

The first day it confused me, as one of my friends posted they were going to St. Pete for 24 months.  Considering I know what she does for a living and she could very well do that in St. Pete. Florida for 2 years (and that would be a possibility with her job) - I was excited for her.  And then, it started popping up on other people's feeds with other cities.

Well, the one that keeps getting me is the ones that got "days" and November is Las Vegas.  Because that puts several of my friends in Vegas with me next week.

Because I really am going to Vegas for three days next week.   Not the Dominican Republic for 17 months.

In other news, I've hired a trainer.  Tina @ Best Body Fitness.  The plan starts today.  She's even got my trip worked into the plan.  So, no excuses.  Embrace the plan.  Trust the trainer.  Do the work.

Placebo Effect or Recognizing Symptoms?

The more I read about hypothyroidism, the more I go "Huh, maybe that's a symptom."

For example, I'm now acutely aware of how exhausted I really am and how foggy my head is most of the time. The exhaustion is, obviously,  not placebo.  I'm genuinely tired right now.  I am just not sure if it's because of the thyroid or if there are other things at play.  I did get about 7.5 hours of solid sleep last night.

The foggy head has actually been going on awhile.  I noticed a few months ago, I have a really, really hard time concentrating.  I struggle to focus at work.  Even sitting down to read a book is tedious at times.  Today feels exceptionally bad - I have so much work I should be doing, but can't seem to get going.

For now, I simply keep watching the clock.