MFJ v0.6 || Summer

It has been so nice to have the Summer off where I can focus on my eating and exercising. I don't have an excuse for not finding time to exercise, nor to be unprepared for Whole30. I've used my time off to my advantage, except for one full weekend and the odd day here and there. I haven't started another full round of Whole30, but I generally eat compliant. I spent 4 days in Banff and Canmore, Alberta for a bachelorette party which didn't involve any compliant meals or drinks. I also let myself have some wine and chips for my birthday party. Now that both of those events are over, I have longer periods of time between big events to focus on eating clean. 

There's a full 18 days in between the bachelorette party and the wedding, with a camping trip in between. It's easier to stay compliant during the camping trip because I could just bring my own Whole30 approved hot dogs, and bring some vegetables to roast over the fire...but I probably won't. I'm making the conscious decision to drink wine, eat s'mores, and eat whatever anyone else is bringing for the whole group. I'm not going to go overboard, because I know how I'll feel physically and mentally. I beat myself up for a while after my birthday party because I gained 9 pounds of bloat that took a whole week to go down completely. I went overboard and suffered the consequences. 

My friend, Allison, and I have made an agreement. We have to hold each other accountable by sending each other pictures of our meals and photo evidence that we exercised. Yesterday and today have gone well, though yesterday I overdid it. I ate 3 meals like usual, but I exercised in the morning and in the evening. I ended up dehydrating myself pretty badly and woke up Tuesday morning at 4am with a blinding headache and extreme thirst that I almost woke Rob up to take me to the hospital. It was agony, and even after Advil and lots of water and some food, my headache lingered until 11am. I've been eating clean, drinking tons of water, and sipping on coconut water to help me rehydrate. So far, so good. 

All of our Summer events are over as of August 9. We drive home from Canmore, Alberta that day so I still won't have any compliant food with me. August 10 I'm officially starting my 4th full round of Whole30. I hope to go longer than 30 days, but you never know what will pop up.

I shared some of my meals above. I have a whole head of iceberg lettuce and I'm finding good use for it before it goes bad. Tried to make lettuce wraps that ended up just being a gluten free version of sloppy joes. I've been putting my eggs (fried with EVOO and seasoning salt) on the lettuce too, and adding Frank's Red Hot Sauce on top. So good! Whole30 meals were daunting at first, trying to make sure everything was compliant and that I had enough food, but now it's easy and second nature of what to throw together.

Have you done Whole30? 

xo. Nicole

Embracing July

Having the Summer off is something that I look forward to again. Working in a school definitely has it's advantages, whereas working in retail doesn't really offer a whole 2 months to lay around and do nothing. The dogs are certainly enjoying having me around all day. 

I've spent a lot of my days just hanging around the house, doing the odd little job. I have a big list of things that need to be done before I go back to work, but it's really hard to find the motivation to sand, prime, and paint when I could be laying on the couch watching Netflix. It really sucks when I finally do do a job, like painting the office, only to have one wall look like utter crap and have to redo it (note to self: sand drywall before painting). 

I've been complaining about the length of my hair for a while now. It got so heavy that it would give me headaches when it was in a bun or a ponytail, and would get stuck in things when it was down. It was also pretty dead and would knot SO easily. For my birthday, Rob let me go spend all that $$$ to get my hair cut. I wanted it died a really light, ice blonde, but it didn't turn out that way. I'm going to get it done again before going back to work, I'm thinking bright purple or fire engine red! I'm in a love/hate relationship with my hair right now, too. I thought I wanted it shoulder length, but I wish I got it a bit longer. It hits my shoulders and curls outwards right now because of the length. Oh well, you live and you learn!

We had a huge heat wave pass through a couple weeks ago, and now we're getting a bunch of storms. It was really nice to get rain, considering the agricultural disaster that was declared in Alberta. I used to love storms a lot, though I still somewhat enjoy them. Now I have a house, a husband, and our fur babes to worry about in the event of a natural disaster, so I always get some anxiety when I see clouds like the ones above rolling in. A funnel cloud touched down in Calgary last week (that's about 3 hours from my house), and a super cell 1km wide tornado lasted almost 3 hours in Manitoba (far from here...) last night. The prairies are being hit pretty good this Summer and it's only July.

Spencer is fitting in just right here. Him and Gunner play each other out, and seriously love each other. It's like they really are brothers because they do snap at each other from time to time, but always turn it into playing again. We're having a hard time controlling his barking, so we're attempting to muzzle train right now. Our last resort is a bark collar, and we don't want to have to go there. He's a mom-suck though, always cuddling me! They're also like leeches. You can't walk around our place without both of them following you to see what's up. I love having him be a part of our family! 

This weekend, Rob and I are going camping to his dad's fiancee's lake lot about 2 hours from here. I'm pretty excited! I'm going to try to eat Whole30 style (kind of doing another round...more on that tomorrow!), but I know it's not completely realistic for me. I'm bringing wine and I've been craving a really good sandwich, you know, the kind with lettuce, tomatoes, and all sorts of condiments that totally aren't compliant on Whole30. This weekend also marks my Summer being half over, and it's bittersweet. I miss the routine of work and I'm looking forward to meeting all the new children in our classroom, but I'm enjoying the lack of stress right now.

Also, does anyone know how to make my sidebar picture NOT blurry?! I've tried everything!

Are you enjoying your Summer? What has it included so far?

xo. Nicole

Colour Me Rad 5K

This past Saturday, July 4, I participated in the 2015 Colour Me Rad 5K. I didn't get to run the entire 5, but we did some sprints. Next year I'm planning to run the whole thing, but this year was still fun! I have a 10K that I signed up for with a friend for October, so lots of training to do until then.

This time last year, I totally would have never done this...and if I did, it would have been straight walking and out of breath if I did decide to run. Sometimes it's crazy and overwhelming to think of my progress.All I follow on Instagram now are people who are also doing Whole30 and who work out. I need the motivation! While on Summer vacation, before I go for a run in the mornings, I browse Instagram and The Berry's Daily Motivation while I have a quick bite to eat and some coffee. Works like a charm ;)

What is motivation for you? 

xo. Nicole

Week's (Month's?) End || July 6

SNAPSHOTS:

1|| My friend and I started our own little book club that no one else wanted to join...so we're both reading Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins. I'll post about it when I'm done, but so far I seem to read 6+ chapters at a time. When I find the time to read, I go hard and the book's pretty good. Next, I'm hoping to read a book on Autism.

2|| My first official day of summer vacation! I mean, I had the weekend but does that really count if I already get every weekend off? ;) It was soo gloomy, cold, and wet that day that even the dogs were lethargic. 

3|| Our office/future-nursery-one-day wasn't painted when we did the rest of the house before we moved in because it's where we had all of our painting supplies, haha! I thought I completed my first Summer project, but it turns out I should have sanded the one wall before painting...ugh.

4|| My younger sister arrived last night from BC. She drove all by herself for the whole 14 hour drive, and even brought tea. She won a gift basket so we tried some of the tea - and it's Whole30 compliant! Win-win :)

Well, a whole month went by without any blogging. I mean, random ideas pop in to my head to post about, but then I forget to write them down and I forget them. I've also had a huge writer's block and I've been so busy with trying to find time to exercise and to keep actually cooking my meals. I'll find a balance but it's taking a long time.

xo. Nicole