What I learned....

Here is what I learned from my Whole 30 Experience.

1. You will lose weight if you follow this very strict plan.

2. I cannot live without my occasional glass of wine (you should all know that by now). I have had beer twice in the las 35 days and felt sick the next day both times.

3. Dairy does not make me sick. With the one mess up - remember the squash soup? AND the two bowls (in a row) of ice cream I had this weekend, I was just fine.

4. Going without something you enjoy makes you eat more of it - two bowls of ice cream anyone? Hmmmm.

5. I can live without my diet coke but not my coffee with now coconut milk creamer (instead of the processed, never expired creamer I was using before).

6. Stop Reading Here if You don't want TMI: This plan messed up my very regular, if not like clock work, bowel movement schedule. I thought the coffee would take care of it, but evidently there is something else I was missing on this plan. Not sure if it is the lack of dairy or grains, but I didn't overdose on either of those before so not sure.

7. I enjoyed about 90% of my meals. I also enjoyed the planning, shopping and creativity.

8. I will not continue to be as picky. I had a chopped salad at a restaurant today and I had to have them take off the blue cheese and the tortillas. I had them leave on the corn. I don't eat that much corn but if I had to take one more thing off my salad, then it would have been a lame salad so I ate corn.

9. I plan to eat gluten free bread. But I must have bread for sandwiches once in a while.

10. I highly recommend anyone doing this challenge. You might think at first that it is impossible to go without. BUT, you will learn so much! Think of it as an adventure. I will never eat like I did prior to this challenge, just like doing the Zone for 30 days changed me. You have to experience it. Remember, food is fuel. Not a reward. Not a treat. Fuel.

Champps Americana and More Thoughts & Ramblings

Last night we got stuck in traffic and as I was inching at less than 5 mph, my blood sugar sunk. We had a crazy busy day and it was one of those where 6 hours had passed and I hadn't eaten anything and then realized my hunger in the car, stuck. Argh. So, I decided that I wasn't about to cook and I needed food ASAP. That is when I pulled off and took the boys to Champps. Did you know that Thursdays are $2.50 draft beers? I did not but was good anyways and had my water. But, I did order a Cobb Salad with NO cheese, NO olives (I really wish I liked olives) and extra egg/avocado with balsamic dressing. This was a huge mound of food. I ate every last morsel.

If you happen to be in a funk with your workouts, I just read a great article in the November issue of Men's Journal titled "The One True Path to Real Fitness" written by Daniel Duane. I love that this author doesn't say that any one fitness regimen (training for triathlons, crossfit or Billy Blanks, for instance) is the one and gives people who workout at "globo gyms" ideas for obtaining true fitness there as well. My favorite quote from this article is: "Most gyms do include a few token free weights, but think about where you find them: around the edges of the room, like fresh fruits and vegetables in a supermarket that gives all the prime middle of the store shelf space to Frosted Flakes and frozen cheese cake." So true, just like the grocery, stick with the perimeter of the gym!

We also get Men's Health and I have to say, they usually have great recipes! However, this month's issue (actually November) included and article titled "I Hate Fat People" written by Richard Conniff. By the way, I hate the word hate! As someone that is about to dive into a study to find out the affects of exercise on borderline Type II diabetes kiddos, it was interesting for me to read this article to get an idea of what obese people experience. I know these kids are lacking self confidence and most likely get teased at school. For some people teasing might motivate them to change their habits. For others, it might drive them to eat more.

So here I am. I want to help people. I get super excited when I see someone at the gym shrinking! These are the peeps that inspire me the most and when they see awesome progress, their smiles get bigger, they want to become more involved in the community and the result is, they inspire others. It is something I get to witness frequently and is one of the things I love most about my job.

Let's keep the following mindset:

Food is fuel. Food is fuel. Food is fuel. Food is fuel. Food is fuel. People, FOOD IS FUEL!!!