Cruising Along

I cannot believe it is already January 11th! I feel like so many people set big goals for the New Year (myself included!) but it is tricky to stick with them.

Katie and I went cross country skiing! 

I have been doing pretty well at my goals. Last week I worked out six days, only drank h2o & La Croix, and I attempted the elimination diet.

Protein balls:
1T water, 1C oatmeal, 1/2C peanut butter, 1 mashed banana,
 2T chia seeds, 1T honey, 2T chocolate chips, 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder.
Mix all ingredients, roll into balls and place on cookie sheets,  store in the fridge.

Key word attempted. So, I was all ready and prepared for the first few days. It was not terrible, but I was sort of crabby. Then one day I wanted to eat the whole kitchen so I decided to make protein balls. These held me over and were only “clean” ingredients (I hate the word clean). BUT then I realized after I ate about five there were oats and chocolate chips that probably had dairy. Ahh shoot!

The rest of the week I ate well (no dairy/gluten/followed elimination diet) and then I had cauliflower pizza. I had to run to the bathroom so quick, I thought I was not going to make it. The next day I STILL had a bathroom problem. Annoying. I honestly felt leaner and more flat, but I still LOVE cheese.

A beautiful snowy morning on the Gateway! 

So today? Well I decided to introduce gluten back and dairy. SLOWLY. And only high quality foods/organic. I am only going to have dairy once a day to try and decrease bloat. I obviously did not do the whole two weeks of the diet, which I am honestly OK with. I want to give it a go when school is done, I have a month “off” from parties, I am not going up to see Kyle, etc. You can call it an excuse, but I am still happy with trying it and realizing now is not the right time for it.

We found that running on snow is just as tricky as running on sand! 

Hellllo 2016

I have a lot of exciting things to look forward to in 2016; some trips, college graduation, starting my first ‘big girl job’, weddings, races, etc.

My goal for a long time has always been to find balance in life. This is something I am STILL working on and I believe I will be working on it for life. That is OK with me.

I am going to try hard to break 2016 in to months, starting with January. For the month of January I am going to try to workout six days a week, which will look something like this: push, pull, total, legs, downtown Stillwater workout, six mile run. I really want to stick to this for FOUR weeks, by golly four weeks is NOT long, I can totally do it! Week one of four was today and I already completed my workout. BOOM.

Another goal for January is the elimination diet (similar to Whole30). I want to start it early January and stick to it. I have to do more research but I think it is only two weeks at first? It is a way to see what your body is allergic to. So for those two weeks you eliminate food from your diet and then slowly introduce it again. Hard? Heck yeah! But my family wants to do it so I will suck it up and do it with them. I know in the end it will benefit me. Who knows I could be allergic to dairy, nightshades, gluten, citrus fruits, etc. **this is not something you do to lose weight, instead it is something you do to see if your body gets inflamed from any foods**

My final goal for January is to only drink water and La Croix. I am not a huge drinker and I honestly have yet to find a drink that I find super enjoyable. Wine is good but I am picky. I will be honest that since my 21^st birthday I have been drinking more diet-soda than ever, sometimes I drink it instead of alcohol so I have something to sip at the bars but it is not worth it. Maybe I will have a vodka soda when I celebrate Catherine’s birthday. Shoot, my goals are already falling through hahaha!!

Alright 2016, lets do this!!! (Insert the guns emoji here)