Positively Weightless: March 2019

I am officially on day 28 of my second Whole30 journey. As I mentioned before I am actually doing it for 48 days this time around, so I still have 20 to go. Honestly this time around has not been even half of the struggle it was the first time I did it. But I will save all that for my post when I finish up. I wanted to take today to talk about the top five items I always like to have on hand when doing Whole30. These are also going to be great things to have if you are trying to be healthier but are not doing a Whole30. So let's get into my top five items to always have on hand!

The first item I want to talk about is a pretty big one. On Whole30 you are only allowed to use certain kinds of oils to cook with. I personally like to always have olive oil and avocado oil in the kitchen. I really like having both of them on hand at all times. They are great to cook with and I also love to make my own salad dressings and I've even made homemade mayonnaise with them too. Olive oil is a stronger flavor as I am sure many of you already know. I like to cook my proteins with it a lot of the time or even toss potatoes in olive oil before putting them in the air fryer. Avocado oil has a much lighter flavor and also has a much higher smoke point so I like to use this for stir-fry. Even when I am not doing a Whole30 I am cooking with one of these oils.

The second item I always have on hand is apples. I especially ate a lot of apples during my first Whole30 since it was during the fall and I live in an area that has a ton of apple orchards. We went apple picking and to the farm a few times so we always had apples on the counter. I personally also just really love them. They are a nice sweet treat to have when you may be craving sugar. I also find them to be pretty filling for a snack. Pair them with almond butter and you have a nice snack with good carbs, protein, fiber, and healthy fats. An extra little tip: sprinkle them with cinnamon! It almost feels like you are enjoying a dessert rather than just a piece of fruit. They are also a great portable snack to just grab on your way out the door. Sure this time of year isn't exactly the same as having apples I picked myself, but the ones in the grocery store are just fine.

The third item on my list is potatoes. This might seem like an odd one but potatoes honestly make this plan that much more bearable for me. You are not allowed really any of the types of carbs we are so used to pairing with meals such as pasta and rice. Potatoes are a nice way to get some extra carbs in for extra energy during my day. As I mentioned before I personally love to toss them in some olive oil and seasonings and put them into the air fryer. Dip them in some Whole30 compliant salsa and you have a healthier version of French fries and ketchup. I also love to add them to any soups I make on this plan. I currently am making some chicken soup for my lunches this week and it will have some cubed potatoes instead of pasta. Sweet potatoes are great too!

Fourth is coconut milk! I personally love coconut but I feel like people either love it or hate it. If you are not a fan of coconut this choice obviously is not for you. I love to add it to my morning coffee when I want a change from the Nutpods creamer. Just yesterday I made my first batch of cold brew coffee and I added coconut milk and a little cinnamon in the morning and it was delicious! One of my favorite Whole30 breakfasts is a mashed sweet potato bowl and I pour coconut milk over that too. The coconut milk really is delicious with the sweet potato. I personally like to buy the reduced fat versions like this one from Trader Joe's, but the full fat is delicious too. Just a little tip when buying the reduced fat make sure you check the ingredients. This one is only coconut milk and water so it is just fine, but make sure there are not any added ingredients you don't like.

My fifth and final item on this list might be a little surprising, but it is a pretty big one for me: Frozen vegetables! I always make sure I have frozen vegetables on hand at all times but especially when I am doing Whole30. I especially like the bags that you can just throw into the microwave and steam. As I mentioned in my Whole30 meals blog a few weeks back, stir-fry is a dinner I make for myself quite often. Frozen stir-fry blends make this even easier. Here are the steps to my easy stir-fry in case you were looking for a quick week night dinner:

Start to cook your protein (I love chicken or shrimp) in a pan with a few teaspoons of avocado oil.

When your protein is about half way done put your frozen vegetables into the microwave and cook according to the package's instructions.

When your vegetables are done, add them to the pan with your protein. Add some coconut aminos and toss it all together. Cook for a few more minutes until the liquid in the pan reduces.

That is it! just put onto a plate and into a bowl and enjoy! Pretty quick and easy right?

All of the items mentioned in this list are things I love to have on hand not only during Whole30 but all the time. The are all fairly healthy ingredients to add to recipes or cook with and I personally find they help me stick to healthier eating when I have them available. It is especially easy to cook up a fast meal after my workout when I have frozen vegetables and avocado oil on hand. I love to make sure I can just grab an apple and head out the door to work in the mornings. Potatoes are a great way to add some extra carbs and calories into a meal if I feel I might not have enough of those planned in my meals for the day. Coconut milk is such a great thing to always have on hand so I can eat a little less dairy too! I would love to hear your thoughts and examples on items you like to have on hand to stay healthy too!

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Emotions are a pretty big part of everyone's lives. Some (if not all) of the biggest events of our lives are filled with so many different emotions or one that overpowers the rest. If you know me personally you know just how emotional of a person I am. I don't really consider that a bad thing, but it can definitely be a frustrating sometimes. I wanted to take today's post to talk about how we can turn our emotions, whether or not they are good or bad, into something more productive and helpful to yourself and sometimes even to the world.

I am sure if you are a regular reader of my page you are going to know exactly what example I am going to give first. If you guessed working out you would be correct! It may sound incredibly cliché but working out is a great way to deal with stress and get out some of the extra energy you may be feeling from it. Recently I heard some bad news about someone in my life. I called my Mom on the drive home from work and she said it was a good thing I was headed to the gym. I could work out some of that stress. It is a pretty great way to focus your attention and time on something else for a while. I am not going to lie, sometimes it is a relieving feeling having an emotion to drive me through a plank or swinging a kettlebell with an angry focus (but in a safe way of course). If you have some pent up emotions about something go ahead and head to the gym, go for a walk, or do something active at home. It doesn't have to be a full body workout or anything, but getting up and moving should help you deal with that stress. Just get those endorphins flowing!

Another great way to deal with emotions is in the completely opposite way. Sometimes when I am particularly stressed at work or worked up about something personal in my life I take some time to just reflect. I personally don't really meditate too much but that is great for this! What I typically do is just sit back or lay down, close my eyes, breathe deeply and calmly, and just think about life and whatever may be bothering me. This is a great thing to do for good emotions too. Sit there and count your blessings just like Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney suggest in White Christmas. You can sit there with your eyes closed and a big smile on your face as you reflect on those great feelings. We feel all kinds of emotions for a reason. They make us human. Take time to embrace them and appreciate them. Emotions mean we are living after all do they not?

My final example for dealing with our emotions and frustrations is the biggest one for me. I am a big fan of using them to do something creative with our lives. I channel so many of my emotions within this page. If I wasn't a highly emotional person I would not be able to keep writing for this page every week. I can think of so many examples of rough days or bad news received in my past that lead to very specific posts. There are probably just as many posts written from happy days as well. I want to encourage you to find something creative to channel your emotions into. Maybe it is painting. Maybe it is journaling (I hear bullet journaling is great and I am fully planning on starting that up myself). Maybe you like to sketch or make up some crazy dance moves. It can be anything! Find a hobby or interest that you can use to release some of the feelings of the events of your life. A fellow blogger has done just that and I want to take a second to shoutout his work. Jason Mackey has a blog dedicated to poetry and putting a positive spin on it. He writes mainly haikus and sometimes tankas and always has some additional text with them along with a picture. Sometimes it is a positive message, sometimes it is a symbolic message through fiction, and other times it is just a fun short fiction story. I highly recommend you check out his work! You can find it here. He also has a Twitter where he shares some of his poetry too. You can follow him here. Whether it is writing, poetry, drawing, or so many other things, using your emotions in a creative way certainly is a great way to handle them.

Do not be afraid or ashamed because you are a highly emotional person. I cried a lot when I was a kid. Ask my parents, I am sure it was incredibly annoying sometimes. I can specifically recall when I was about 5 or 6 crying at a wedding and then every time I heard the song they had their first dance to on the radio I would cry all over again. What 5 year old cries at a wedding? It didn't take much to make me cry... I will be honest it still doesn't. I cry from happiness, sadness, anger, frustration, you name an emotion, it probably makes me cry. It is just part of life to feel happy, sad, and everything in between. Do your best to find a healthy way to deal with that. I promise you will thank yourself for it!

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Happy Sunday and a very Happy Saint Patrick's Day! I had my corned beef and cabbage (yes it was all Whole30 compliant) and that's about it for me, but I hope you all are out there having fun and staying safe, whatever your plans may be. With Saint Patrick's day coming to an end and Easter just around the corner it finally means Spring is almost here. If you live somewhere like I do where the snow seemed to be never ending this season I am sure you are just as happy about that as I am. Spring is a time for new beginnings. New growth on trees, new flowers emerge from the ground, animals come out of hibernation, etc. Sure we do things such as Spring cleaning too but what about other new beginnings?

I have mentioned closing doors many times on this page here. To be more specific I learned myself recently that it is perfectly fine to cut people out of your life if they are a toxic influence. You should never feel guilty closing that door if that is the best thing for you. I want to take the opposite route today and talk about opening new doors. There are plenty of ways new people come knocking at our doors in our lives. How do you react when that happens? Do you open the door right away and let that new relationship flourish? Or do you possibly lock the door and then the pad lock to keep them out?

It is incredibly easy to just shut new people out of your life if you are scared of getting hurt. It only takes one or two toxic people in your life to cause you to start building up the walls around you, not letting anyone else come in. Trust me when I say that I have quite the past of doing that myself. If this sounds a lot like you I want you to take some time to think about why you started building those walls higher and higher in the first place. My guess is you put your trust in someone only to have them make you regret that. Part of cutting toxic people out of your life is realizing just how toxic they were in the first place. Sure it is a relief to regain your independence from them, but I never said they wouldn't leave scars. Once you recognize this, however, you are already well on your way to tearing those walls back down. I want you to do your best to realize that the door was closed for those people for good reason. The door closed on them because it needed to be able to open for new ones. Instead of opening it though are you locking it tighter? Think of the wonderful person that could be standing on the other side of that locked door.

I recently was able to see someone firsthand start to break down the walls they had built around them for a very long time. I want to respect their privacy and trust so I am not going to go into specific details at all. I will say this though- the result of that door finally being able to open seemed like a pretty beautiful thing. Relief from them finally allowing themselves to trust the other person as well as total happiness for the other person for finally being able to get through. I know wholeheartedly that they will not regret letting down that wall. When you finally are able to do the same I am sure the feelings will be similar. If you are keeping someone out, try your best to find the pros for letting them in. Look at the cons as well, but do so with a clear head not a head blinded by the past. A word of advice- asking "what if?" over and over is not a solid con. Open up your heart to those around you before it is too late.

I am not going to lie, we do not live in a perfect world. Sometimes people that are let in hurt us. There are no guarantees in life at all. I can't of course promise you that you will not get burned in the future. You can absolutely be cautious of yourself, but my overall message is to not be too cautious. If you lock up your doors too tight you never know the wonderful person you may miss out on knowing and loving. A new beginning is on the other side of that door, and a beautiful friendship may be standing there, but much like a bus at a bus stop, it wont wait around forever. Do yourself a favor and don't let those people get away from you. Tear down your walls and let in the ones who fully deserve your time and affection. Open yourself up to the world and you are bound to find what you are looking for.

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Another week one of Whole30 is under my belt. As I mentioned last week I decided to do Whole30 for Lent this year. Most people give up one thing (or make an effort to do something more like going to the gym) but not me! I decided to do a meal plan that makes me give up multiple things. I figured I would take today's post to share the food I have been eating with each meal, share my favorites, and give my overall thoughts.

Let's start with breakfast. Breakfast in my opinion is the hardest meal on this plan. When we think of breakfast, we typically think pancakes, cereal, toast, yogurt (etc.) but none of that is allowed on Whole30. I kept breakfast pretty much the same the first time I did Whole30 the entire time. I usually did one of a few different things: Veggies scrambled in eggs with some sort of carb on the side (usually potatoes or fruit), a mashed sweet potato bowl with fruit and coconut milk, or even just fruit and coconut milk in a bowl with some pecans or almonds. This is my game plan this time around as well. As long as I go back and forth between different meals in the morning I really don't get sick of them. I am still trying even with this plan to keep breakfast as my biggest meal of the day. Usually this is fairly easy to do but I will admit on Whole30 it is a bit more difficult. I just try to keep breakfast full of good carbs and healthy fats. My favorite of the week was this broccoli, red bell pepper, and egg scrambled with some avocado oil with cut up apples on the side.

Lunch is always a bit easier for me because I am already so used to meal prepping on Sundays. For me personally I am finding that I have the best luck with lunches when I make soup. This week I made a lemon chicken soup with cauliflower rice and kale, and I already have another soup for my lunches on the menu for next week. I have found that there are also a ton of Whole30 soup recipes online which is great. I had no problem enjoying my lunches this week even on Whole30. Usually I do my meal prep for the entire week but this week was a bit different. Since Wednesday was Ash Wednesday I had to also have a lunch option with no meat. I had to stray from the soup I made and ended up making a salad with some nice mixed greens, red bell pepper, cucumbers, hard boiled eggs, and a great homemade avocado ranch Whole30 compliant dressing. You can see the recipe for the dressing here. Use the internet as best as you can. I have so many saved for lunches on Whole30 that are going to make it that much easier to stick to this plan.

Dinner just like last time really hasn't changed for me from my everyday plan. Since I get out of work at 5:30pm, head right to the gym and workout for typically 45 minutes to an hour I usually don't get home until around 7:30pm. This usually means by the time I get home I really don't want to be spending too much time cooking. Dinner is usually some sort of protein and some sort of vegetable(s) on the side. Lucky for me this is pretty easy to transition into Whole30. To me one of the easiest things to make for dinner is stir fry and as long as you use all Whole30 compliant vegetables (no baby corn in your stir fry!) and seasonings (no soy sauce either. Use coconut aminos instead!) it is a really easy dinner to whip up on the plan. I personally love seafood and chicken so making sure I am getting lean protein after the gym is easy for me as well. The favorite dinner of the week would have to be Friday's. I made a nice piece of cod seared in olive oil with an avocado salad on the side. Nice and filling with a ton of healthy fats, protein, and fiber!

As you can see by my meal examples I have been eating a ton of fruit and vegetables while doing this. That is never anything your body is going to be mad at you for. For snacks I am generally sticking to that same. Carrot sticks, apples, and even some nuts or nut butter here and there. That is the plan this time around! Overall I am feeling pretty good so far. The sugar detox I mentioned in my first week of my first round hit me on Friday, but it wasn't nearly as bad. I miss the sugar in my coffee but am able to drink it all the same and still enjoy it. I will be doing this plan for forty eight days (ending on Easter Sunday) and while I do think that number is a bit intimidating I know I can do it. I am feeling really optimistic and cannot wait for my body to feel better and better every week. I can't wait to share my results with you in April!

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Whenever we embark on new journeys and set goals for ourselves we sometimes hit road blocks. Some are tiny, others are massive. I have talked about it time and time again on my page. It is so easy to get off track. It is so easy to loose sight of what truly matters. It is a lot easier to go the shorter easier path instead of the long rocky one. When we hit these road blocks in our journeys it is a lot easier for most of us to just give up and forget our goal was ever around. Instead of doing this, however, why not try revaluating your situation and adjusting it to hopefully meet your goals even better?

I mentioned in my post last week that one of the things I can be doing better is working on my sugar consumption. I have a sweet tooth. Most people know this about me. I know it is so horrible for you as well. I know that this habit is most likely a big cause in the slowing down of my weight loss results. Instead of just deciding it wasn't worth it and giving up I decided to try something new. For Lent this year I have decided to do another Whole30 journey. This will not only help me with those sugar cravings, but help me get into some healthier food habits again as well. The holidays got me pretty off track and I was not able to fully get back on track prior. I think this second round of Whole30 is going to be exactly what I need.

I also mentioned last week that I need to stay fully on track with my gym schedule as well. This really wasn't suppose to be a continuation of last week's post, but it seems to have slightly worked out that way! My new approach to this is a little bit different though. As I mentioned before, instead of just giving up and saying I will get there when I get there, I came up with a few little fun things to help me out. For one I bought myself a new gym bag. Just something small but that will definitely motivate me to make sure that money was well spent. With the gym bag I also bought a new foam roller that comes with a few other tools to help me recover my muscles post workout a bit better. I have been getting pretty sore especially after seeing my trainer at the gym lately. I have been pushing myself harder at the gym then ever before and I think using these tools will help quite a bit with recovery. Stretching out is extremely important and I know I could be doing more! I want to make sure I not only stick with the schedule I have now, but add to it in the future so I am trying to set myself up to do so.

My last example is going to be a bit different. I obviously like to preach positivity on my page and I know pretty well how hard of a journey that is in the beginning. Most people cannot go from being a negative person to an extremely positive one overnight. You could be on a great track and then suddenly one morning you wake up with just a negative attitude for no reason. I honestly think even the happiest and most positive person there is still has those days. What is most important is how you move forward from this. Trust me, when I first started shedding my negative attitude in life the positive days were less common than the negative ones. I didn't beat myself up when I did have those negative days though. I woke up the next day knowing it was just that; A new day. Don't simply throw away the progress you have made to become more positive simply because you had one bad day. Make sure that even on the bad days, you try your hardest to remind yourself that life is beautiful.

I know giving up is so much easier than pushing forward with your goals especially if you are not seeing the results you want as fast as you think you should. I really thought I would be down in my weight a bit more by now but that doesn't mean I am just forgetting my goal and going back to my bad habits. Tomorrow is always a restart. Just vow to do better the following day. Never let one negative day, one day you ate horribly, or one day of skipping your workout define your entire journey. Nobody is perfect and we all have off days. Push through. Strive to do better when you make a mistake. Reevaluate your choices and do better.

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