Life...As I Know It

Shoo! Anybody out there still? I can't say I wouldn't blame anyone for taking me off of their Reader. Gotta update every once in a while, right?

Alright, so here I am again. Completely inspired by my friends who update on a regular basis so I actually know what's going on with their lives. Sorry. I can't promise I'll be back to what I use to do, but I figured updating more often than every 6 months would be a step in the right direction!

There's been a few events that have happened since I last updated that have kept me a bit busy. Some of these events happened before my last update, but I never got around to blogging them. I realize EVERYONE is busy, that's my I give major kudos to all of my friends who are able to do this on a more regular basis. So, those events...took a trip out to California to see our niece, Noa, got a attend a training on classroom management...in Disney (tough life, right?), we gained another beautiful niece, Avery, I won Teacher of the Year (yay!), started going to a new church, the husband started (and is getting ready to finish) paramedic school, I went into full drive with school and graduated with my Masters (woo-hoo!), and I celebrated my 7th year of marriage (hard to believe).

Didn't know where to start back into things so I'm going to continue on from my previous post and give you a little more about our switch to Paleo. I still get questions all the time about it, so I'm going to share some personal effects it has had for our life.

First change we made was getting rid of our microwave. WHAT?!?! I know, I know, why would you get rid of that? We weren't using it when we eat everything fresh and let me tell ya, that sucker was taking up a lot of space on our countertop. Look at life without it...Huge shift in our lifestyle change was getting rid of all things non-Paleo from our cabinets and refrigerator. You all know I love to bake so that was A LOT of stuff. Here is the cleaned out spice cabinet in our house....

That shortening shouldn't be in there, but everything else is Paleo-friendly.

Now, I had a hard time throwing it all out since a lot of it was brand new and I was worried that we may change our mind and then I'd have to go back and buy all of these flours and supplies again. I stuffed them all up in the top two shelves of my cabinets (the tea is Paleo-friendly) but I can honestly say I've only had to get something down 2 times and that was when I pulled out the rice to put in a bowl to dry out the husband's iPod when I washed it. Oh wait, did I say 2 times...that would be because I also washed his cell phone. Oops! We are all about cleanliness here....or just not checking our pockets.

Since then, we have stayed pretty strict on Paleo and have not had many of the side effects that many get from going Whole30 but I believe that's partly from going gluten free for some time initially. Anyway, I wanted to share the results of going Paleo/Whole30/Raw...whatever you want to call it. I don't have a bunch of great pictures mainly because I didn't want to capture my weight gain over the years, but let's take a look at the changes.


This is me at the heaviest that I weighed in the summer of 2009. I really got myself to a point of being apathetic. In my head, I had "tried everything" and eventually just decided that God had made me this way and I didn't need to feel unhappy so I should just quit trying to fight and enjoy life.







At the end of summer 2010, I gave up gluten and started working out my husband training me.  I did end up losing a little over 20 lbs over a year's time which was so exciting, but I could not get under a certain weight hurdle.  I hit the wall and I hit it hard.  That spring, gluten started creeping back into my life slowly and things got busy so the gym was low on my priority list.  I ended up gaining about 10 lbs of my original weight back.



So, this past summer, we switched to a  Paleo lifestyle, as I have already described, started making the gym a regularly occurring event (2-3 times a week), and started making sleep a priority (6 hours crucial, 8 hours preferred).

Flash forward 6 months and I have lost those 10 lbs again and have kept going an extra 20+ lbs before my graduation.  These pictures were taken in December and I've actually lost an addition 9 lbs since then (5 lbs thanks to Whole30 January).  So, if you're keeping track, that's 53 lbs. since those Summer 2009 pictures.

First off, I look back and am extremely grateful that I have a husband who loved me regardless.  He still saw me as beautiful everyday and always let me how much he loved me.  I am so thankful for our friends, the Cracrafts, that showed us how Paleo fits for us.  I am an avid "foodie" and my whole view of food has grown and matured since I've started using food primarily as fuel.  The husband and I say all the time, "Man, we eat REALLY good!"  Seriously, finding enough to eat is not a problem (blog to come).

Finally, I am so thankful that I didn't settle with the thoughts that this was all God had in store for me...a terrible metabolism where I was just going to have to deal with the cards I was dealt in life.  I am not saying that I could not be happy without the weight loss, but there was a tugging after a while that I was personally using that excuse for me to eat what I wanted and not to give God the glory for who He made me.  I got my life in order and God has been able to bless me tremendously since then...extra energy, a strengthened marriage, a renewed appreciation for life, and a renewed appreciation for Him.