Happy Tuesday!

I know I said we'd be starting our #Whole30 challenge on April 1st, but after feeling like poop yesterday we decided to start early.  So today's the day!  Woohoo!
I'm not going to post pictures of my food except for this:

Trader Joe's stock up

And not unless I come across an amazing recipe that I wanna share.  

Sidebar: I found some great jarred spaghetti sauce at Albertsons yesterday; no added sugar, preservatives, gluten, soy, etc.  Looked wonderful, so I grabbed it.  Went and rang up my order... It was $10!!!!!  Um, I don't think so.  I'll make my own, thank you very much.  

Also, as promised, no daily pictures of my muffin top.  I will share a before/after pic when we're done (If there's a good difference!) and share my before/after stats at the end; weight, measurements, etc.  

It's day 1 and it's early, but based on my breakfast this morning and what I have planned for lunch and dinner tonight I think this is going to be a piece of cake!  We actually think the hardest part is going to be not weighing ourselves.  Did I mention that?  No weighing in until it's over.  So we weighed and measured last night for comparison's sake.  And boy do I need this! LOL

Good luck to us!!! ;)

♥ Holly ♥

Hello there bloggisphere!

I guess you can say I've been on a bit of a hiatus. Hiatus from blogging aaaaand hiatus from dieting. For realz tho. I've let myself fall into some really bad habits and the effect on my body has been tremendous. I say tremendous but I've really only gained another 5 or so pounds that I didn't need. I'm at an all time high (not including any prego weights cuz they don't count). I'm embarrassed to say that I let myself get up to 145 recently.

As a reference, after my 90 day Visalus challenge I got down to 129. After children I've been floating around the mid 130's. My ultimate goal in life is to get down to the low 120's. I'm 5'3" so this is not unreasonable. According to the BMI scale, I'm inching my way towards obese for my height/build.

At any rate this has inspired me to do something about it. I joined a gym that specializes in training boxers. Daniel has been doing the same at a different gym and you can really see the definition in his muscles since he started about a year ago. I've only been 3 times so far and have been pleasantly sore after each session. But I know that it takes more than exercise to transform your body. You've got to do it from the inside out.

So, with that in mind, Daniel and I will be doing the Whole30 challenge.  Check out the site if you'd like detailed information on it but in a nutshell you have to stick to a strict Paleo diet for 30 days.  No gluten, soy, dairy, alcohol, etc.  We can have all the organic meat, nuts, fruits and veggies we want and even coffee (black).  "Can't you see we talkin', white."  Sorry, when I see a chance for a movie reference I take it. (Zack and Miri)



My friend Rachel over at LoveFitLife inspired me to try  do this Whole30 thing.  Of course this led her to start using organic soap from soapur.com.  Which led me to want to use organic soap and shampoo.  It's a slippery slope. LOL  So I went to Walgreens yesterday and got an organic soap called SheaMoisture.  It was the best I could find.  I also got an organic, gluten free shampoo by Hask but discovered last night that it has soy in it... Damn. Gotta keep looking.

Embarrassing admission: I have a bad scalp condition on the lower back half of my scalp.  It itches and flakes constantly.   So you may have noticed me scratching the back of my head a million times or so.  It started when I hit puberty I believe.  I just remember being about 14 when it started.  It is horrible.  I hate it.  Daniel hates it.  He's always telling me to stop scratching.  I have been to 4 doctors and a dermatologist and tried all sorts of treatments, all to no avail.  I am fervently praying that these changes help it.  Rachel said that only after a week of the Whole30 and about 3 days of natural soap that her eczema is gone.  Completely.  *Fingers Crossed*

I used my new soap and shampoo this morning and had a terrible realization when I got out of the shower.  I don't have organic face or body lotion!  Ugh, I'm so dried out right now.  Gotta grab some today.  Dude, even my deodorant has soy in it!  Which is not allowed on this challenge.  I figure why avoid eating it if I'm just going to get it into my body another way... right?  Luckily I had another deodorant that didn't list soy as an ingredient. 

We'll be shopping at Trader Joe's this Saturday and starting the challenge on April 1st.  It's amazing the things that have sugar added to them.  My unsalted, whole almonds even have a gram or so of sugar added.

I'll be posting, probably once a week, about my progress on the challenge.  Some people have had amazing transformations in just 30 days, from losing weight to having ailments cured.  The point is not to lose weight, but it happens usually.  It should, I mean, you're putting a ton of healthy stuff into your body.  The point of it is to heal your stomach and re-set your body for eating. 

That's all for now, folks!  Wish us luck!

♥ Holly ♥

Good morning! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Ours was productive. But before I get to that I have to tell you that my guest post for Elizabeth at the Chasin' Mason Blog on being a mom to boys is up on her site! Here's the link. Go check it out. ;) On Saturday Daniel and I (I was mostly his gofer) installed new laminate flooring at my mom's house. My grandparents are coming down for Christmas so she wanted to cover up the concrete that was left after she pulled up her nasty carpet. We installed the darker stuff. Eventually she'll do that throughout the house but it's better than what was there, for now. Only took us 6 hours to do but man were we exhausted afterwards. If that weren't productive enough, yesterday we finished painting all our kitchen cabinets!!! Hooray! Just need to touch up a couple spots by hand and attach the pulls on the pantry doors and we'll be done done. After Christmas we'll tackle the back splash which should only cost us about $40 and should be able to be finished in one day... That's the plan anyway. LOL You know what they say about "best laid plans" though. We're making headway on our kitchen remodel on a dime, thank Gawd. I'm taking till after the new year to relax and enjoy the fruits of our labor. I think we've earned it. Anyway, that's about it for now. Probably won't hear from me till after my "vacation". Until then, have a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! With love, Holly