Whole30 - Final Stretch - 2 Days Left

It took a LOT of willpower to sit back while my family pigged out on burgers, fries, and cupcakes for my husband's birthday.

I am almost done with my second Whole30 and for all the reasons I started it, I feel great. I feel like I have less stress, less cause for stress, and more control over my body, my mental health and my choices (both with food and otherwise). I wanted to feel like this, and I'm very happy I do. The only thing that makes me anxious is the possibility that when I'm done, I'll immediately go back to my old ways with food (I still crave junk food), which will end up erasing all this progress.

But I have a plan, and I'm feeling confident about it.

Only one indulgence a day (as small as a hershey kiss or as large as a cookie from Barnes n Noble, but only one...everything else I consume on said day has to be healthy and nourishing). Alcohol only on Fridays or Saturdays...even if I have a super stressful Tuesday, that's no excuse to crack open a bottle of wine. Every other meal/snack throughout the week should be nutritional.

I'm not gonna lie, I am very excited to reintroduce indulgences like a pastry or a glass of wine, and I'm feeling strong and confident that I'll be able to keep the indulgences in the parameters of the above plan. I'll also reintroduce sweeteners in my coffee/tea, because I really can't handle a cup of tea without honey or a coffee without a little bit of creamer. They'll be within reason and I think I can manage cravings otherwise even with a lightly sweetened English Breakfast tea at the book store.

Other benefits I've had from this Whole30...I've lost weight and inches. Maybe not as much as I did the last time I did Whole30, but I was breastfeeding then and weighed more when I started, both I think helped contribute to 10 pounds lost...this time it might be about half that much, but I'll report the total when I'm officially done on Monday morning.

It's nice to know I can come back to this "reset" every time I feel out of control. Now if only I could focus as much energy on other areas of my life (writing/jewelry)...I know I can, I just wish it was a consistent thing for me...like, my ideal life would be to have 10 extra hours per day so I could evenly split my time between family, work, writing and jewelry.  But sadly, that's not likely to happen.  If I could commit to allotting my time and making a habit of spending a little bit of my free time every day towards writing and building the jewelry shop, I'd feel accomplished. But it's so difficult to dedicate that kind of time every day. I've come to the conclusion that while my kids are young, I basically have to just stay up later than my husband and the girls, but when 10 PM rolls around and I have to decide between staying up an hour later than everyone to write or going to bed, bed usually wins out.

I'm going to boost my shop up again because it's easier for me to do jewelry related things with distractions than it is for me to write or edit.

Hoping this healthier mindset keeps me motivated and focused!

Tonight was a really good night

I went out for a run yesterday, hoping to go 8 miles, but on Saturday evening I may have partaken of a few too many glasses of wine (if that is even close to being grammatically correct, I'm throwing myself a party).  So the run got cut down to 6 miles..with a bit of walking thrown in, which always bums me out.  So I planned to run tonight for 8 miles to make up for yesterday's run/walk.  Then tonight came and as I put the girls to bed, I looked outside and saw some really ominous storm clouds right in the path I planned to run.  I put on my running clothes anyway...screw rain, right? And possibly lightening and hail...but whatever, I'm a freakin runner.  So after getting all geared up I grabbed my ipod...but even though it had a full battery yesterday, the damn thing was bone dead tonight.  Could there be anymore reasons for me to skip the run?  So I did skip the idea of running 8 miles...and ran 5 instead...picking a route with less scary rain clouds.  And I did it with no podcasts, no audiobooks, and no music.  And it turned out great.  I ran my fasted 5K ever and my first 5K in under 30 minutes.  29:10.  WooHoo!  I even literally threw my hands in the air and whooped like I was at the finish line of my own imaginary race.  And though it was raining pretty big drops for most of my run, it never turned into a real downpour.  And my brain had a real chance to shut down for 45 minutes.  It was a really great run.

I got home and almost immediately had a sale in my jewelry shop.  Another thrilling moment because it was a ready to ship bangle I made last year.  It has been waiting to be worn ever since and I'm so glad it'll have a home soon:

I have been boosting up my jewelry and that was my third sale today.  Three totally different types of sales...one of the new bangles I'm launching:

One of my footprint keychains (it has been a huge Father's Day seller this year), and the bangle bracelet I sold after the run.  The last one was the sale I was proudest of...I'm always so much happier to have a piece of jewelry waiting in a drawer for someone to want it bad enough for the purchase.  And I happened to glance at that particular one last week and felt sad that it was still waiting to be worn.  

So that was my night...then I watched the season finale of The Detour with my husband (very good show!) and now I plan to head up to the living room with my book and a second cup of tea.

Really, really great evening.

I love long weekends

Long weekends are so sweet.  I've had time to work on the major amount of orders in my jewelry shop, I've been able to read a lot of Nicholas Sparks' new book (it's a really poorly written one...like the worst of all of his books...but it's a quick read and I love when a book makes me feel like a fast reader, which I am definitely not).  The girls have been (**knock on wood**) super good and we took them to the Garden of the Gods yesterday...oh my god, I've never seen a more beautiful park.  I couldn't even describe it with words.  And so perfect for our kids...flat trails throughout with short detours into the most peaceful and beautiful little clusters of trees and logs.

I might take the dog there for a short walk/run today...it's only about 25 minutes away from our house.

I'm really excited about my jewelry shop right now.  I wanted my 33rd year to be filled with writing and trying to get my book published but my motivations are kind of shifting toward getting the jewelry shop to be successful enough to justify only doing that.  Father's Day has been as big as my Christmases usually are, which is so inspiring.  I'm going to add these bangles today and tomorrow:

I've made a half dozen more charms to swap out of the stainless steel bangle and there will be the option to add charms.  I really love working on new ideas like this.  I'm hoping my non-holiday months can become more successful with these types of anytime options, that might make doing only this a little more realistic.

I'm going to get back to reading and editing some images so I can turn them into stamps for the metal clay (footprints, kids' drawings, handwriting...one for the husband who wants me to make a keychain for his friend who just made Master Sergeant in the Air Force)...Busy, busy, busy...but a really good kind of busy.