Happy January everyone!
Did you make New Year’s Resolutions? How are you doing at keeping them?
I made promises to myself to make some big life changes, out of necessity to my physical health and mental sanity. This very important motivation made it easy for me to stick to my goals, so far. These last couple of weeks have been about getting back on track with my eating, so I restarted The Gut Makeover eating plan on January 2nd. In November and December I got way off track with my eating. I was a bit depressed, to be honest, and had a lot of personal stuff going on. When we are stressed or depressed it is the most important time to take care of our physical shells, but, like most do, I let it slide instead. I ate a lot of gluten-free baking, processed food and indulged in drinks. My gut started to complain, my joints hurt, my bowel movements were a mess, I suffered from cystic acne again and I had no energy. I came back from our time in B.C. with the WORST cold (I’m a big baby) and determined to get my health on track.
Once my cold was almost gone, I put aside my millions of excuses (I thought of every reason not to start), and began day 1 of The Gut Makeover. I decided that it was the best one of my life changes to start at for the new year, but I do intend to add in all of my plans for 2018, slowly but surely. If you missed my post about it, Giving Less of a F*ck, you can read it HERE.
I’m on week 3 of The Gut Makeover tomorrow! In the first two weeks the biggest restrictions are: no beans, no grains, limited raw honey as your sugar (I believe 1 Tbsp a week?), no alcohol, no dairy and no rice. You’re to focus on getting a lot of variety in your veggies and eating good quality meat- meatballs on a bed of mixed greens, for example. Week 3 is exciting because I can add tamari sauce, Roquefort cheese and kefir.
So how has The Gut Makeover gone this time? Um, it’s HARD. I didn’t do the prep week before jumping into the full first week- bad decision. I should have done the prep week! The prep week, 
where you cut down on things and get used to eating at certain times, really primes your body to be ready for the full deal. I was extremely cranky the first week. I missed sugar the most. I had eaten so much baking that I was jonesing for something sweet all week. I dreamed of eating M&Ms and gluten-free cookies. One night I dreamed I was eating a loaf of white gluten-filled bread, something I haven’t had for years! In my dreams, I would see the food somewhere, like a party buffet, and start shoving my mouth full. Someone would come by when my mouth was crammed to the fullest and say, “You’re not supposed to be eating that.” and I would spit it out all over the floor. So realistic, hey? Oh, dreams. After the first week, that feeling faded and so did the dreams- thankfully. In week one, I tried to get rid of this need for sweets by tricking my taste buds. I was craving jam one day, so I microwaved some frozen raspberries until soft, then mashed them into a paste. I put that on top of The Gut Makeover’s blueberry banana bread and it nixed my craving for real jam! It was a bit tart but otherwise really good. I’ve been using this trick and others to get through the sweet cravings- Five Minute Cinnamon Baked Apples have also been a lifesaver.
The second week has been easier. I eat 3 meals and a small snack before 8 pm, then fast until 8:30 am the next day. I crave the greens we have in the fridge, instead of M&Ms, but I still want dark chocolate. Josh’s company year-end party happened this past weekend, during the second week, and I managed to stay away from the free red wine and the candy buffet. I drank club soda with a lime wedge and made sure to pile up on salad at dinner before I got to the protein. The only thing I did that was a cheat was a couple of balls of mozzarella cheese in the tomato and mozza salad- and paid for it. My stomach felt off all night! I drank a lot of bone broth and ginger tea the next day to rid myself of the effects of it. Once you are on The Gut Makeover, it’s important to take her words to heart and add things in gradually- at the end, when your gut can better handle it.
But it has been easier. I found this round harder to get into….perhaps because I skipped the prep week and maybe because I feel like I need it less this time. I will stick with it until the end. My sleep is better, my skin is better, and my digestion is improving. Once again, it’s worth it.
I have even started to exercise again. I do twenty minutes a day on our brand new exercise bike (thank you boxing week sales!) but I’m hoping to add more time and weights next week. Week 3 of The Gut Makeover is usually when it starts to feel easy. I am more full between meals and my energy peaks, so it is a great time to add in longer workouts.
I hope that your January has been great so far.
If you want to share your 2018 life changes, ideas or goals in the comments, I would love that!
Don’t go. More great posts for you to read:
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