It's Going...

It's not going perfectly as planned, but it's going.

I have been riding my bike outside several times a week but not doing any weight training. I need to get back on that. I also need to get back on my fitness pal and making sure I'm eating enough, because I don't think I am.

The great news is that I'm wearing a size 16 pants. They are a tiny bit snug but after an hour they fit perfect. In a few months hopefully they won't fit either.

School is becoming interesting to deal with. The only painful part of school is the ride there. I would say that I-35W was developed by small children but that would insult the intelligence of small children. I don't understand it. I love this campus so much though that it's worth it. It's just hard finding time to do everything. My house is getting insane. I guess finishing school and working on my health is way more important than if my house is perfectly clean.

Tomorrow I start leadership academy. They got Jason's Deli for lunch, so no lunch for me. Stupid food allergies...

She's a Running Fool

I took the dogs for a long walk tonight with Forest. Around my block is .4 miles so I've been going around 3 times, I will up to to 4 soon. I ran about once around but had to stop because my asthma was really starting to flare up. I feel like I am coming down with a cold or something. I sure hope not. I want to get up to running an entire mile without stopping before December, I think I can do it! There is a 1 mile run at my school on December 1st, I'd love to do it!

I am going to a diabetes seminar tomorrow, it is for those that have diabetes or are at risk and I am absolutely at risk. Maybe I'll learn something new.

I'm off to make my lunch and go to bed!

School Days, School Days...

School has kept me very very busy the last few weeks. Last week I attended a Student Success conference and one of the seminars was about becoming more involved at school. I found out that there is a gym on my campus with a pool! Also, they have bikes to rent and there is a trail all of the way around Marine Creek Lake, just next to the school. This is what I would get to ride around:


This campus is beautiful and I just love it. It's a bit of a pain to get to with the traffic on I-35 but completely worth it. I've been going to the Northeast campus for the last year and a half and haven't been involved with anything. Now I'm at the Northwest campus and I've already been more active there in the last three weeks than I had been at Northeast.

I joined the Leadership Academy, which gives me a continuing education credit if I attend at least 4 of the seminars this and next semester. Next month there is an overnight retreat at Camp Grady Spruce near Possum Kingdom Lake. I've been on these kinds of retreats before, but they were mandatory and with High School kids...so most of them didn't want to be there. Thankfully this will be students who actually want to be there and will enjoy themselves so I'm very excited. It's completely free, including food and even when I voiced my concerns about my food allergies, they said they are totally able to accommodate me, it happens quite often. I thought for sure I'd have to pack my own food! I am quite a few hours over my "yearly budget" because of Grace's weekend here earlier this month, so I'm able to take some days off and go to these seminars and this retreat.

My diet is still going really well, I have cut out pork and red meat and am sticking with chicken, turkey and fish. As for the exercising, it's been very hard to find time to do it officially, but I've been doing a lot of walking at least. Now that I know there is a gym in my school I may just have to take advantage of that!

I had to go buy new pants this week, I am down to a size 18! I was wearing a 24/26 at one point so this is amazing!

Off to bed soon, it's been a long week and I want all of the sleep that I can get. Goodnight!

Weekend at Jenny's!

I woke up early this morning again, thankfully. I made myself go to bed early! I got showered and ate a wonderful breakfast that I also had for lunch yesterday, spinach and egg pie!


It's my new favorite thing, although I added an avocado to the mix. So yummy. And also something I'm addicted to, Van's French Toast Sticks. Totally gluten free and full of lots of good carbs. I almost cut out all carbs but I was getting hungry pretty quickly after breakfast. No more! Now, on to the rest of my day...

Gracie is here! Gracie is here! Well, Gracie has been here several times of course, but never overnight. We are so excited to have her! Today after we picked her up, we came back here and she spent quite a bit of time trying to escape.


I think she was expecting to go somewhere more exciting.


That's more like it! Gracie LOVES albino American alligators!

We took Grace to the Children's Aquarium in Dallas. She likes aquariums and this time she got to pet a sting ray. She just giggled and giggled.

Taking care of Grace all day is like marathon weight training so I didn't do any formal training, but we did walk around a lot. I'm being bad and eating Sweedish Fish, but only a serving instead of the whole thing!

Off to put Gracie to bed and I think I might sleep myself.

Jump Start

I got up not-so-early today because I didn't get to bed very early last night. I'm up kind of late again tonight. I need to get to bed but knew I owed it to myself to blog today!

So, after finally arising, I got dressed and took the dogs for a walk. It dawned on me after about 1/2 mile that I was dying of thirst and realized I hadn't had breakfast or had anything to drink since I woke up. I was so pumped about getting up and going I forgot! So I cut my walk short and went home and fueled myself. I got so much done today before work afterwards, I had to prepare my house for this weekend!

Tomorrow I am picking Gracie up and she's coming to my house until Monday! She's never had a sleepover anywhere but her Grandma's house and that has only been a handful of times. I've never stayed with Grace overnight although I have taken care of her all day while her parents have been out of town. We're going to the children's aquarium tomorrow and then to Six Flags on Monday. It'll be an adventure, that's for sure!

I need to be getting to bed, goodnight y'all!

New Beginnings

I decided to start something instead of writing about it. It's started, it's rolling down the hill and I don't think I can (nor do I want to) stop it.

(Just to let you all know, GF = Gluten Free and DF = Dairy Free)

Where to really start? Lots of changes came about in the last few years and there were reasons for making this huge decisions, so I'll start when I decided to stop eating dairy two years ago. I don't have the normal symptoms like lactose intolerant people do, but instead I feel like Chuck Norris round-house kicked me in the ribs when I eat most dairy products. I think I have a pretty high pain threshold but it is NOT fun to wake up in the middle of the night and feel like you shouldn't breath because of how badly it makes your side hurt. Milk was not worth that bullet and now I don't miss it at all. I have been bad and have cheated here and there, like Braum's ice cream doesn't bother me and I'll have a few bites, but now I know I shouldn't be eating it at all, it's not worth the risk and it's full of sugar, something else I am avoiding.

However, breaking up with cheese had just not been cutting it (no pun intended), I knew it wasn't enough and that I still didn't feel as good as I needed to. In May I tried an experiment and stopped eating all gluten. I accidentally had a little bit twice and the results were catastrophic. Before the experiment I was getting migraines quite often that generally came with dizzy spells and a foggy feeling for a half a day or so after. Then it got to the point where the dizzy spells and fogginess were nearly everyday occurrences. That stopped in the first week after going GF.

After being GF for a few weeks, I wasn't careful at a Mexican restaurant and ate about half of a flour tortilla before realizing it wasn't corn. It was hard and crispy and slathered with beans and guac! I wish it hadn't taken me that long to notice! For three days I was having those dizzy spells and the foggy brain. Although the first morning gave me a pretty painful headache, thankfully after that it was mild for a few days. Three days of my life in a gluten-induced stupor over half of a flour tortilla. I've been vigilantly gluten free ever since.

I cannot explain the difference it has made in my life. For as long as I can remember I've suffered from back and joint problems and all around unexplained pain. I was never able to lose weight and although my PCOS is to blame for a lot of that, I always hid behind that excuse. I didn't eat terribly, but not great. I was always so tired and in some kind of pain so I didn't exercise nearly as much as I should.

Now I have to plan my meals and make sure I have a backup. This is forcing me to eat healthier than I have probably ever eaten before. I think about food so differently. Before my trip to Orlando this summer I called every park we were going to and made sure there was SOMETHING I could eat in the parks. There isn't anything I can eat at Six Flags Over Texas so I was very nervous. I had no problems finding several restaurants with amazing food. We ate at the Three Broomsticks in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and I got to enjoy a wonderful meal there. Most of the menus signified what was GF/DF. They were so awesome. But, I have to plan these things. Anytime we go out to eat, we have to plan. I end up making much better choices when I plan.

Also in May, I was involved in a completely lame car accident. The post before this one chronicles it a little better, but I was pulling out of a parking lot onto a highway and decided not to go because there was a car speeding by. The guy behind me was busy doing something on his phone and gunned his van to go as well, knocking into me. I ended up seeing a chiropractor and my back was nice and messed up. Thanks to four months of treatment, my back feels so much happier than it did even before the accident. Taking care of a 50 pound child who doesn't walk will mess with your back apparently.

I'm back in school now, I just finished my first week. I am taking 3 classes 4 days a week. I've been waking up at 5:30 every morning and I never thought my body would be fine with that. I've been doing strength training and cardio 6 days a week. Tonight I actually RAN almost a half of a mile and it felt great. I'm starting slow of course but we'll see how that goes in the next few weeks. I have no idea how much I weigh right now, I need to get out my Wii Fit I think. Then I'll update on the side, because I know it's under 285 just from my very first doctor visit after my accident.


It's 11 pm (past my bedtime!) and I'm exhausted. Thankfully I don't have school tomorrow but I am gearing up for a very very fun weekend...but I'll talk about that some other time...

One Year Later

It's been a year since I started this blog, started a journey. Sometimes things don't turn out the way you would have liked them to. But, like I said a few months ago, when you fail, you can try again.

There have been some changes in my health that have caused me to again evaluate the steps I need to take to feel better and be healthier.

In April, just two weeks after we bought our "new used" car, I was rear-ended in it! It wasn't a big accident, just a bump, but the next day I started to feel very sore and weak. I went to see a new chiropractor and my back and near were injured pretty badly. Who knew that a bump could do that much damage. I felt absolutely terrible for a week and while I'm feeling better, I'm still not healed. I know that my weight has a lot to do with why my body is achy and tired, but it is also what I am eating. Between school, work, callings at church, running the house and just life in general, we have gotten into a bad habit of eating out, eating quick, eating cheap and it has definitely taken it's toll on me.

I started to get migraines a little less than a year ago. I only had one prior to this and it wasn't severe, but starting last year they have been awful and quite frequent. I tried to see if there was a trigger and I think I've found it - gluten.

No big surprise, since it's been proven in studies that most people with a dairy intolerance will also not tolerate gluten. So, here I am...another wrench in my diet. The easiest way to go GF is to stop eating out, so we have done that. I have such a great support system here and many friends that have gone gluten free (and dairy free) and I'm so blessed to be able to pick their brains.

Starting tomorrow I am going back to the gym because I haven't been exercising since my accident. My doctor doesn't want me doing anything crazy and he doesn't even want me walking for very long periods of time, my hips are in bad bad shape. I can go on the elliptical machine and that's it. It's a start!

Here's to a better and healthier tomorrow.