Posts

The AIP

I know, it's been a long time since I've written! It's been quite a roller coaster for me the past month or so, the winter usually is. I had a very busy February and then March started off hectic as well.. which means that I haven't really been staying on track all that well either. I've been losing weight, but just here and there - not in a steady purposeful way. Anyways, I'm here to talk about the Autoimmune Protocol and what it is..why I think it might help me..and what I have to do.  For the past few months I've been dealing with what I thought was just dry skin, I get eczema every winter but this was different. It was hives showing up every single day  all over my arms, stomach, legs... etc. I'd scratch because good gravy were they itchy and then they'd break. I called my doctor and he gave me an eczema cream, I made an appointment with a dermatologist - but not until July. I have been taking Benadryl just about every day to keep the hives fro

January is almost over..now what?

If you've been following along, you know that I've been doing a challenge in January of no sugar/alcohol and squats/push-ups. Well this challenge is almost over and now we're moving into a new month so today I want to focus on what worked in January and what didn't as well as what my progress was. Then I want to go into my plan for next month and to keep the momentum going. First, I want to say that this has been quite eye opening for sure, eliminating added sugar has changed how I feel as well as made a huge impact on my weight. I will be honest when I say that some days I really want a piece of chocolate, but the cravings have for the most part subsided. I have a good protein powder and when I really need chocolate, I'll mix that with some yogurt and that helps to subside the craving. I've felt a lot better since controlling my calories and focusing on what I'm eating, I've also been within my calorie range almost every single day of this month. Doin

Weekly meal plan and update!

First things first, the Patriots are going to the Super Bowl AGAIN! The game yesterday was super stressful and I did not sit down the entire 4th quarter. Somehow, Brady and the boys pulled out a win again though. Can't wait for the Super Bowl! We really are incredibly spoiled in New England. Also, can we talk about how precious the hug between Belichick and Patricia was? I think we all said "Aw" at the same time haha!  Anyway! Back to the point of this post. I weighed in this morning and lost another 1.8lbs! Woohoo! My guess is that the exercise is really helping, I worked out 5 times last week which was my goal and something I haven't done in...almost a year! I kept my calories in check and made good choices last week. I have a little over a week left in my January challenge and then we start to move onto February. I've got a good challenge for my group in mind and am looking forward to it. My bigger challenge is going to be reintroducing sugar into my diet, ho

Building a habit and this weeks meal plan

Another week and I'm a few days late, whoops! Last week went really well, I was able to stick to my plan though I did have pizza on Saturday. I didn't give myself a hard time about it though, I just enjoyed that pizza and then picked up on Sunday and got right back to it. My treadmill has been great and I'm on week 2 of C210K. I'm halfway through my challenge for January - no sugar and no alcohol. I've been doing great! I had a few slip ups with the no sugar, but mostly I am sticking to it completely. I've also stuck to the workouts which have been push-ups and squats and I've noticed I'm getting better at push-ups every day. Eventually I want to work getting back into the gym with the weights into my schedule, but I'm taking it one day at a time so far. I really just want to focus right now on finishing up this challenge and get into a good routine with running. They (who is they anyways?) say it takes about 21 days to build a habit and I'm al

Meal Prep..Wednesday?

I had a goal of writing on Mondays but this week kind of got away from me. I had a pretty great week last week and have been losing weight. I've lost 8.8lbs since right after Thanksgiving and am calling that a WIN. I've also been keeping in line with my no sugar or alcohol challenge and completing the exercises. I'm in a few different challenges so that's keeping me motivated too! Anyway, onto the meal plan for this week. I will also review what I've made already. These all came from the SkinnyTaste fast and slow cookbook. Sunday: Lasagna soup. I LOVED this one, it was a big hit! The only change I had to make was that I made it with pork sausage instead of chicken which added a little bit more calories to it. I will definitely be making it again though. Monday: Chicken Dumpling Soup - this wasn't my favorite, I'm not sure if it was an error on my part or what but the dumplings fell apart and the soup didn't have a lot of flavor to it. I also made

Hello, 2018.

I've been really crappy at writing the past 6 months (ok maybe the past few years), but I'm really hoping to get back into it with 2018. I know a lot of people look at New Years Resolutions as silly, why wait until the first of the year to start fresh? I'm not sure why, but it's always been good for me, I've always really liked having that ability to look forward and be positive about the new year. So, with that being said, I want to talk about some of my goals for 2018 and beyond. I'm going to be snagging some ideas from my girl Kelly at Rejectingordinary.com as well as throwing some of my own in. The first thing and something I really love that Kelly talked about in her blog is MealPlan Mondays, where she posts her meal plans for the week. I love this idea! It will keep me accountable for doing meal plans every week (and hopefully sticking to them). So my goal is to post a meal plan each Monday with what we're having for dinner for the week.  Next, I&#

Improving!

I haven't blogged in awhile, mainly because I've been busy with work/home life but I'm back! A few weeks ago I started really cutting down on my gluten and my dairy, just to see if that would have an effect on how I was feeling. Don't get me wrong, I really want to lose weight but I also just want to feel better, I've been quite miserable for awhile now with how I'm feeling so I needed to change something. I knew if I just dove right in head first, I'd probably give up within the first week, so I started slowly. It's been tough and there's been some headaches, tears and I've definitely gone off the wagon a few times but it's been helping. So far I've lost 6 pounds! Not only have I been losing weight but I've been feeling better and that's the drive that keeps me going. I'm adding a lot more vegetables into my diet and trying things I've never had before: Coconut yogurt for example, not coconut flavored yogurt but actual da