Whole30 Diaries: Day 1

Yes, I hopped on the Whole30 bandwagon. The girl who said “I could never give up cheese” gave up cheese. (It’s only day 1, we will see how that goes)

Although I’m not completely through my first day, I thought I should start documenting my progress and status. (No, I haven’t eaten cheese…yet).

I will say, I did not have my normal after lunch slump, like I normally do. I did run to the grocery store and get a few things, so I walked around quite a bit. I also had a salad for lunch, sooooo.

One of the items I was looking for at the store was a compliant salad dressing for said salad. You know my local grocery store has about 235 different salad dressing options and I found TWO that were compliant. WHAT. I think the biggest thing I’ve taken away is that sugar is just in everything…..that was the dressing issue. All the dressings I looked at either had sugar or honey added. I even went to grab some tuna packs to keep at work in case I forgot a lunch one day and the ones I grabbed had sugar added!

Overall, I’m somehow in a good mental state about this. We spent most of the weekend prepping and shopping. And I still have even more prep work to do still! A lot of the reading I was doing mentioned prep work–and how it’s the biggest inhibitor of success. Which, totally makes sense. Even when I wasn’t doing Whole30, if I forgot to bring a lunch I just jumped across the street to the cursed ‘Golden Arches’…. Even though it’s only day 1 I feel….cleaner? If that makes sense? And if that’s even possible? We shall see how the next 29 days go 🙂

How My Freezer Saved Me $200 in Two Months

I have a VERY small freezer, and I don’t mean the typical fridge freezer. I think that my apartment complex went out of their way to find the smallest freezer possible. However, my freezer is a bank. I never realized how expensive food was until I started buying it for myself. I realized further how high food costs were when I started throwing it away… I can’t begin to fathom just how wasteful Americans are. So, I vowed to put an end to wasting food in my home and I want to help you to do the same. Here’s some tips/tricks to get you going!

1. Meat-The first thing I do with all of my meat when I get home is FREEZE it. Unless you know you will be using it that night or the next, just freeze it. There’s a lot of hoopla regarding frozen meat and how disgusting it is…I don’t think these people are right in the head. I will say, if you’re buying low quality meat, it going to be sub-par. But that’s because of the quality…not how you store it. My mom started purchasing meat from the meat market and would store frozen beef for weeks, then make a burger, and they were the best burgers I’ve eaten. Another reason this habit is smart is because life happens! One week I’ve purchased $40 worth of meat, intending to make meals, and then some crisis came up and I didn’t cook almost all week. If I wouldn’t have frozen the meat, that would be $40 from my pocket to the trash.
2. Casseroles/Leftovers-Usually casserole recipes are designed to feed armies. And that’s fine! But be weary of this when cooking for two. I’ve cut casserole recipes in half and STILL had leftovers. What did I do? Freeze them. After two days having leftovers and no one eating them, I simply threw the remainders in serving sized Ziploc bags and there’s a frozen meal on a busy night. On the flip side, we’ve made recipes that have declared it serves 2 when really it serves 27, one recipe being a chimichanga recipe. We froze the filling and thawed it in the microwave one night to make quick tacos!
3. Fruits/veggies-Bananas are the biggest culprit here. My mom and I would always buy bananas thinking “We’ll eat this as a snack!” Then they sit on the counter and rot. When the bananas are brown and you know no one will eat them, peel the banana, put it in a freezer bag and start a banana collection. Once you have 6, you can make banana bread! **PLEASE NOTE: Always peel the banana first!*** I have also bought 12-15 bananas at a time and added them to freezer bags for smoothies. When you use frozen fruit, you don’t need to add ice to your smoothies. Onions are next up–my mom would buy an entire bag of onions for ONE onion. It drove me nuts! They sprouted and took up counter space, etc. So, one day I did the same thing, bought a bag of onions for one onion because they don’t sell organic onions individually. Great. Now what am I gonna do? I remember how annoying it was to chop onions, but most recipes call for chopped onions. So, I chopped up the bag of onions, some I bagged as half an onion, some as a whole onion and now I have ready made bags of onions for recipes, you got it, in the freezer! I have also frozen spinach, which you wouldn’t be able to use for salad, but it’s great for pastas!
4. Other-Leftover pasta sauce, chicken and beef broth, pizza sauce, ricotta, black beans, it can all be frozen! We all have smart phones. If you’re unsure of something, all you have to do is google “Can you freeze sriracha?” It will give you detailed instructions on how to freeze the product and how long it will last. I recommend always measuring and labeling the product before freezing. For example, when I made a recipe that called for 6 oz. of beef broth, I knew I wouldn’t be making anything with beef broth soon, so I measured the remaining broth and put it in a bag “3 cups beef broth 4/2/16”.

I think that $200 is a low estimate when I say how much my freezer has saved me. However, even with this great tool, I’m still not where I want to be. I still throw things out and it KILLS me, but I’ll get there. And if you start now, you’ll be keeping pace with me in no time 🙂

How to Catch BETTER Zzzz’s

Recently, many instances have come up regarding some of my friends being grumpy, anxious, even having sore muscles and headaches. More interestingly, these friends all complain of being sleep deprived. Coincidence?

Sometimes our bodies do these weird and annoying things (headaches, muscle aches, panic attacks, weight gain) and when they happen we instantly think “OMG something is wrong with me!!!” Now, I’m no sleep doctor or nutritionist or any expert by any means, but I have done quite a bit of digging on this topic, and if you know me, you know that I love learning about being healthier. What I’ve found is that more likely than not, your body is probably just asking for something simple–BETTER SLEEP!

Please note this blog is titled “How to Catch Better Zzzz’s” meaning I’m talking QUALITY over QUANTITY. Still keeping up? Okay, moving on… 🙂

The American culture is full of zombies. Literally, we are the walking dead. Okay…so what does this have to do with sleep? Just stay with me! Most of us wake up everyday and have an agenda–go to work, come home, eat dinner, clean house, go to bed, repeat. My guess is that most of us also wake up in the morning thinking “UGHH WORK AGAIN?! I can’t wait to retire!” and then throughout the day we count down the hours until we get to leave work–again, the walking dead. What if we all went to be feeling accomplished with ourselves and woke up excited to accomplish something new? Would we feel groggy? Achey? Sore?

Now, I’m going to leave that topic there for a moment and give you some real advice on what you can physically do at night to help you sleep better. But don’t worry we will talk about zombies again!

1. Create a routine-Humans are creatures of habit right? Think about all of the habits you have in your life; biting nails, how you wash your hair, Starbucks…(yes Starbucks is a habit). As I always tell my mom, it takes 21 days to form a habit. If you were to create for yourself a “nighttime routine” what would it to for you? Creating steps to get you into bed tells your body that it’s time for sleep! Imagine that! Which means less time laying in silence, tossing and turning and glancing at the clock thinking you’ll never fall asleep. For instance, before I created a nighttime routine, I would go up to my room, sit on my bed, play in my phone a bit, turn on Netflix…etc. I wasn’t doing anything to let my brain know that it was time to shut down. Now, I take my makeup off (something I never did, EVER and I’m 23..), brush my teeth, pin my hair back, put coconut oil in my hair (LOVE this stuff), spray lavender on my pillow, apply stress relief lotion, light a candle and breathe. I now fall asleep within about 7 minutes. Now, this may seem like a lot of steps (it takes me maybe 10 minutes), but think about what you do before you go to bed. If you’re like most Americans, I can answer that for you-you play on your smart phone/tablet/computer for 45 minutes. No? Then you’re watching Netflix. Gotcha! This brings me to my next tip…
2. UNPLUG-Don’t get me wrong, I’m on my phone ALL the time, and I don’t know what I would do without it. But I’m making a conscious effort to stay off of it more. ESPECIALLY before bed time. Let me also add, that I’m very aware of how difficult this is in our day and age. When I first started to try and “unplug” before bed, I thought “Okay, no phone. That’s fine. I’ll watch some TV. Wait… Okay, okay, so I’ll do some homework. Except almost all of my classes require me to use my laptop…” IT’S NOT EASY, PEOPLE. But it can be done. Even if you cut a little bit of electronics out of your life, little by little. Or even just 20 minuted before you sleep. Trust me, you will see a huge difference.
3. Create something to be excited about-Do you remember when you were a kid and Christmas Eve (or a holiday you’re really excited about) you slept maybe 3 hours but woke up at 6am feeling on top of the world? Why is that? Because you were engaged! Let’s bring back the zombie example. We wake up dreading what we’re going to have to do that day, maybe not even dread, but we’re not excited about it. How do you get out of bed when you have no motivation to? CREATE motivation to. Now, something like a shitty job is not going to change easily. However, create little treats for yourself for when you rise-a yummy breakfast, some great coffee, morning yoga, whatever! What ever you do, DO NOT JUST LIE IN BED.
4. H2O-Yes, you got it. I’m taking this time to preach to you about what your doctor and Disney channel have been saying for years–DRINK MORE WATER. Dear Jesus I cannot convey how important water is. I drink a bottle when I wake up and when I go to bed. I won’t go into all the scientific details of why it’s so good for you, but I will tell you that since I’ve been challenging myself to drink almost a gallon a day, my headaches are virtually gone, I’m almost never bloated, I rarely have muscle pain and my appetite has suppressed quite a bit. AND….BINGO I sleep better!
5. Miscellaneous-Now, if for some reason, none of these work for you, I have two ideas: either A.) You’re not actually following the tips. (i.e. “Oh well I kind of stay off my phone, but I really need to read my emails at 9pm” …NO!) or B.) You need a little bit more help than just what I listed. I would suggest an adult coloring book. These things have changed me forever, they’re wonderful! After a stressful day where I can’t get my mind to shut down, these have been my savior. I mentioned spraying lavender on my pillow-YES. Essential oils are so powerful, especially lavender when it comes to relaxing for bed time. Sleep Trackers like the app “Sleep Time” can be really helpful in ensuring you wake up at the best time and gently (research REM cycles if you don’t know what I’m talking about). DO NOT NAP. If you really must nap you want to rest for no more than 45 minutes and you want to do this between 1pm and 3pm. Again, look it up.

So, now that I’ve given some things you can do to (fairly easily) improve your sleep, I know you’re wondering about the zombies. The Zombie Syndrome is not something that is going to change easily. We have all really turned into robots–just doing what is expected of us, day in, day out. CHANGE IT PEOPLE. Now, again, I’m not perfect, I’m preaching this to myself at the moment. In simplest terms, if we make ourselves more engaged (less zombie-like), we will have better health better sleep, better LIVES. And this brings me back to QUALITY over QUANTITY. If we go to sleep engaged and wake up engaged, does it really matter how much sleep you get? To the people who say “Oh no, no, no! I need at least 9 hours of sleep! Prove me wrong, if you’d like, but I disagree. Not to stay that you can function everyday on 4 hours of sleep, but…just think about my Christmas Eve/holiday example.

I apologize for my zombie tangent, but I felt that it complimented the topic of better sleep. 🙂

Questions and comments are always welcome! Sleep easy, my friends!

Organic-What’s the Big Deal?

Okay so what seems like forever ago I wrote up something on Paleo, an eating habit that’s gained a lot of attention lately. Well I stuck with that for a while then of course tailgate and football season came and Thanksgiving and Christmas followed and then the cold harsh winter, and wouldn’t you know? I fell off the Paleo horse.

Now I’m here to preach something else to you–organic…wait don’t run away yet, just listen. There’s two types of people in this world when it comes to organic foods. You have the “Sure I’d like to do that but it’s too expensive” folks and then you have the “Organic? Yeah right that’s just a scam to make more money” group. Well I’m here to argue against both sides.

To the money-conscious side: is eating organic expensive? HELL YES, but is it worth it? Absolutely. I used to be in your shoes. I don’t make $70,000 a year (HA!), and I’m a college student who’s responsible for her own expenses. Budgeting and planing are key, here! Step 1: Pay your bills for the week first and if you already have something planned, set aside some cash for that. This way, you know what you have to spend on groceries. Step 2: PLAN your shopping trips and meals! Don’t just go to your local Whole Foods and start throwing things in the cart that advertise “organic”. Start slow, I would recommend first transitioning your grains and some fruits and veggies, then dive deeper into the organic lifestyle. ***Something to keep in mind: you don’t have to by organic to cut out processed sugars. I’ll go into this later…

So now for the grumpy guzzards who thing organic foods are part of some conspiracy: stop. just stop. I can empathize a little because there really isn’t a lot of scientific proof that organic eating is healthier for you. Okay, touche. However, I feel like living proof, that organic food does something good for your body. I started on a Tuesday (9 days ago) mostly because I wasn’t prepared on Monday. Since then, I’ve still been able to live a little. I’ve had buffalo chicken pizza from Tony Saccos, a glass of wine, frozen yogurt, a small bite of birthday cake and I’ve been eating 4-5 times a day. Now, mind you, the pizza, wine and frozen yogurt were my cheat meal (yes cheat meal, not cheat DAY) and since that Tuesday, I’ve dropped 9 pounds. In case you’re not good at math that’s 1 pound per day. I’ve done a hip hop abs video once and I am on my feet a lot at work, but that’s the only exercise I’ve completed. So why is that, conspiracy theorists? Why did I lose that much weight suddenly?

Now I’ll go into my “Why?” portion. Earlier I made a comment about processed sugars. Bread and pasta and other grains are the biggest culprits. When companies produce un-organic grains they add in loads of fake sugars for taste, well guess where that sugar goes? Straight to your fat storage system. When you purchase organic pasta, no processed sugars are added in and I think that makes a huge difference when eating to not only lose weight, but improve your health. Not to mention-antibiotics and pesticides that are added into un-organic foods. No substantial research has been done on whether or not those can effect someones weight or health, so keep that in mind. On the money side of things-think of the many times you grab something to eat or stop somewhere quick, or grab that $5 coffee beverage because you didn’t plan enough. You could be using that money for your better food fund! It adds up quickly.

Moral of the story-give your body the food it deserves! Your body works so hard to keep you alive everyday and the least you can do it repay it by properly nourishing it. It takes will power, but pick a friend to help keep you liable and you’ll be a lot more successful.

Tea Tree Miracle Oil

Wow, so it’s been a while since I’ve posted obviously and I have a good excuse, I swear! The past month has been a whirlwind for me. I had been working two jobs since January, as well as doing photography…I know I’m a crazy person. So, I quit Starbucks. I miss is a lot honestly (although my wallet doesn’t), but I’m hoping this new job is a better opportunity for the future. With all that being said, my acne has been out.of.control. So,

let’s talk about Tea Tree Oil.

OH.MY.ACNE.

My mom bought this stuff because my little sister was still getting something similar to cradle cap…at age 13. So then we hear that you can use this stuff for acne…bring it on. I’ve been to a dermatologist for my skin before and it was a terrible experience. I’m almost sure the lady was a fraud. She told me she “couldn’t change my genetics”…well you don’t say. I did some research on my own an was able to control my acne, to an extent.

So anyways, I was breaking out pretty bad when we got the vile, go figure. That night I applied it directly to the problem areas and I woke up feeling like a new person. Sometimes I’ve applied spot treatments and the pimples look WORSE when I wake up…not this time. Sure I still had zits, but they felt and looked a TON better. I was honestly in disbelief. I’ve spent my whole life trying to decide which store bought, chemical filled acne product was best for me, and then this natural plant oil comes along and steals the show?? Now I apply the tea tree oil twice a day. It’s a life saver! It can be a little pricey, but I’ve been using it for a month now and I’m not even halfway through the vile. Whatever bargain you find, make sure it’s 100% Tea Tree Oil. Let me know how it works for you!

Here’s a link to Nina Nelson’s article on DIYnatural.com on how she uses tea tree oil at home…genius! http://www.diynatural.com/uses-for-tea-tree-oil/