Past Halfway - Whole30

I feel so much more mentally strong at this point. I'm hardly craving anything at this point...once in a while I get a very brief, very tameable urge for something like a 5th Avenue candy bar or a bite of my kids' cereal, but they are more like muted suggestions now. Like my "sugar dragon" (that's what Whole30 calls it), is now more like a cute little puppy I can easily say no to. I'm starting Day 16 today and I've learned more tricks this time around than I knew back in 2014. For instance, in 2014 I bought Ghee and it grossed me out every time I used it. This time I made clarified butter and it's much more tolerable. I also started following Whole30 on Facebook and set it so their feed shows up first when I go on...which has led me to discover even more helpful tips to get me through this. For instance, they advertised a compliant brand (Primal Kitchen) of mayonnaise and ranch dressing and I found a local grocery store that sells it. They both taste like the regular stuff...well, except the fact that the ranch dressing is WAY better than Kraft. I'm already almost a third of the way through the bottle in just a few days. 

 

I can tell I've lost a descent amount of weight and inches because my clothes are all looser and my belt is down more than a belt loop. I have steady energy every day and my emotional state is much more stable, which was really my main motivation for doing this. I'm not stressing out over little things as much and I'm able to move on from minor issues quicker. 

 

In other, unrelated news, my sweet husband got me an Apple Watch (I may have done quite a bit of badgering for it, because it wasn't like I needed it, I just really, really wanted it). My Garmin VivoActive HR was and is awesome, but I love gadgets, and I love Apple products because they offer reliability and functionality and good quality (if you're saying to yourself "I love my Samsung Galaxy, it has always been reliable" then you're either lying to yourself or you're a lucky anomaly). The only thing that has been making me hesitant about purchasing the Apple Watch was the battery life...and I've finally just gotten over it. The Garmin lasts up to 6 days, which is awesome, but the fact that I can download music/use Siri/set reminders/check my email/scroll through Twitter updates/play games/etc. with the Apple Watch finally outweighed my issue with having to charge it every day. I don't use the sleep function on my Garmin anyway...it never seemed accurate since there were nights I knew I woke up at 2 AM and couldn't fall back to sleep, then looked at my stats the next day and saw it reporting that I slept until 7 AM. I can monitor my sleep quality/quantity without a device. 

There are some limitations with the Watch that I wish were more accessible. For instance, you can really only put music on the Watch itself, so if I want to go for a run sans phone (since there is GPS), I can't listen to a podcast or audiobook, both of which I love listening to while exercising. I found a workaround though. There's a free app called WatchPlayer that lets you find and download single episodes of favorite podcasts, and it also allows file sharing on iTunes so you can drag and drop mp3 audiobooks.  I had a bunch of glitches with it yesterday but today I wiped it and slowly downloaded files (patiently, it takes a while) one by one until I got the latest audiobook I'm listening to on there along with about 7 episodes of podcasts I listen to. I plan to listen throughout the week, then wipe it again next weekend and add fresh stuff. If I get this to work, and can get a good music playlist on there, it's going to be so perfect. Even if I don't, I still love it a lot. 

Now I need to go parent and clean...husband gets back from a Vegas trip in about an hour and I plan to take the girls to see Beauty and the Beast in theaters today. That smell of popcorn is gonna be rough.