changethetape

 

Weight: 157.4 (0)
Pain: 4 out of 10
Cravings: 5 out of 10
Mood: Eh
Energy: 3 out of 10

ENola Virus

I’m just going to pretend Week 3 didn’t exist. Who’s with me? 
Fine, but you’re only getting the high (low) lights.

• I returned from Les Mills Quarterly with the ENola virus. Thank you, PleatherB, for naming the plague that struck not only me, but many instructors upon our return from New Orleans. I think along with Fitness Magic, New Orleans delivered sore throats, sinus infections, coughs, colds, body aches and general malaise. Maybe they looooove Newton’s Third Law. Action:Reaction? That’s the only thing I can figure. In order to have THAT MUCH FUN, you must then be SO SO MISERABLE. 

• Being that sick lead to cravings. Not just your average, “I could go for a piece of chocolate right now.” or ” “Man, I wish I had some ice cream.” cravings. No, no, no. I’m talking about Comfort Food Cravings (CFC). CFC’s are only one step above hangover cravings and one step below pregnancy cravings in the Cravings Hierarchy. All I wanted was Friendly’s Chicken Noodle Soup with 1000 Saltine crackers crumbled into it, my mom’s baked mac n’ cheese – specifically the edges with the crusty cheese bits, and raisin bran cereal with whole milk; 6-10 small bowls because everyone knows if you pour too much at a time it gets soggy and soggy cereal is gross. My amazing husband, Mark, and my partner in all things fun, Jaime, will disagree, but they are wrong. Don’t listen to them. DO eat your cereal quickly. Now, I did not eat any of those things. I did, however, INSIST that Jaime bring me UTZ Sour Cream and Onion potato chips. With ripples. This product lovingly referred to as crack in our home. Feel free to judge us for being insensitive to those with actual crack addictions but then also feel free stop taking things so seriously. I digress. We rarely have crack, but when we do….God it makes me happy. I know what you’re thinking. “But Elizabeth, sour cream? You’re dairy free!” Well this might just hand you the surprise of your life, but there is no actual sour cream in this product! There are potatoes, though. I checked.

Week Four, Week Schmour

Week four was better. Having recovered almost completely from the plague and getting back on track with my sleeping and eating made for a much more pleasant week. Here are a few recipes we tried out this week. All got the thumbs up – #1 was the carbonara!

Deconstructed Spaghetti Squash Carbonara

Easy Mexican Salad

All Meat Veggie Chili

I MUST have been feeling better because I also ventured a little farther into the DIY recipes. Below is the ghee we made – crockpot butter for 3 hours on low and strain. Incredibly easy.

Cashew milk is DELISH and also super easy to make. So easy, in fact, that we made WAY too much so if anyone would care to try some, just message me anyway you know how and you can get some this week! 🙂

I Miss Cheese

This week also wrapped up my 2 week completely dairy free trial period. I wish I had some wonderful epiphany to share about the clarity a cheese-free lifestyle brings or an interesting anecdote about how much better my joints feel, but I got nothing. In fact, I’m giving it one more week to see if I feel any changes since I was so sick the first week of the experiment and so far I don’t feel much different. Cashew milk IS making it a little easier already – I will say that!

I had at one point, maybe a week ago, been able to claim I had lost five pounds. I can no longer claim that. I’m about even now and while I would LOVE to rattle on about how this is not about weight loss for me….I’d be a big, fat (pun intended) liar. The obsession continues. I should know better by now than get my hopes up about losing weight on any plan. Maybe I will continue to feel better. Maybe I will continue to be more motivated and driven. And those are GREAT things – do not get me wrong. But this is HARD. Every time I go somewhere and there is something I “can’t” have, I try to re-frame it. I try to remind myself, you will feel better without it. You are choosing to eat what will fuel your body instead of strip it down. Cheese isn’t THAT good. Sigh… I’m not giving up, though! It’s only been a month. Maybe month two is the month I finally SEE changes. 

WARNING: Shameless plug below.

p.s. BodyJam Launch this Sunday at 11:40am on the basketball court at XSport Merrifield. Be there.