The Flergers!

So, doubtless most of you have seen my numerous food posts on Facebook over the last month or so and have seen the hashtags regarding the Whole30 that I've been talking about.

I've never been on an eating plan or made special concessions regarding food choices in my life--its just not something that I've ever had to do or wanted to. So when a coworker (Hi Dack!) told me about the Whole30 back in late January I thought "Pshh. NO FREAKIN' WAY I could do that!" No sugar? No dairy? No alcohol? That's a one-way-ticket to Crazytown, and I'm not boarding that train. I put it in the back of my mind and let it collect dust.

If you only even know me a little bit you know that I LOVE FOOD. I do. I love to cook it, to eat it, to talk about it, to think about it, to plan for it, to make it important, etc. Ever since I was a kid I've been baking or cooking for my family and it is my first love. But for a while now its become a frustration to me. And since I had another baby and we moved and my time got spread super-thin, food had just become a hassle. It was just "one more thing" I had to worry about for myself and my family and I started to resent it. I didn't really feel like cooking (I did it, but often begrudged the task) and I'm sad to say that for a while we were relying heavily on fast food, take-out and cereal. I am not knocking this as a lifestyle choice--its just not the norm for me or my family and it was not a good thing for us.

None of the things I talked about in the previous paragraph have anything to do with WHY I decided to do the Whole30, but they will come back into play, so stay with me.

Several months go by and I learn that my beloved friend RoseMary has been talking to her daughter about the Whole30 and she and I started talking about it again. This time, instead of thinking negatively about it, we started asking questions and reading about it. We talked to Mr. Dack and found out what it did for him and how he felt afterwards. We started pinning recipes to Whole30 Pinterest boards and drooling over potential dinners. We joined a support group on Facebook for inspiration, guidance and to know that others were doing it too.

WHY did I have a change of heart about it? Ya'll--I'm 38 but for a while now I've felt like I was 65. I have had aches and pains in my joints for no reason, especially in my knees and shoulders. I haven't slept well in years, and when I got a good night's rest it was thanks to a sleep aid because that was the only way I could stay asleep. Towards the end of the school year my eating habits had gotten really bad and I felt like crap all the time. I was eating nothing but sugar and carbs (but not from vegetables) and drinking more regularly than I probably should have. My brain felt foggy all the time, and I'd compensate for the fogginess and lack of sleep by drinking coffee off and on all day. My hormones still felt all out of whack post-pregnancy, and my PMS and periods were really bad. I had an upset stomach and felt bloated more than half of the time and just figured that was how things were going to be and that I would just learn to live with it.

Or not. Because lets be honest...I'm a control freak and I'm not content to just sit here and feel like crap. I'm gonna do something about it!

The more I read about the Whole30 and talked to people the more curiosity I about it. I read a lot of amazing testimonials online and in doing this I found people I knew who were coming out of the woodwork who had also done this. These are the people that I leaned on for support until I felt ready to take charge myself. I got the book "It Starts With Food" on my Kindle and started reading it, and then the Whole30 cookbook came out and I grabbed that one too. I scoured Pinterest for things that sounded "doable" for a Whole30 newbie and started making a menu plan and grocery list. I decided that I was going to do this even if I was the only person in my house who was.

The first thing you need to know is that this is VERY doable. It is NOT a diet but it is a "reset" for your metabolism and a "do-over" to help you with your relationship regarding food. You can read more about the program on the Whole30 website (which is a really good resource and I highly recommend starting there if you are even thinking about doing this.) I also highly recommend reading the first book, "It Starts With Food" to fully understand what you are getting yourself into and to understand the WHY behind the foods we eat and what they do to our bodies.

The rest of my adventure was posted online daily, even while I was traveling with the kids to New Mexico and during the week while we were there. I worked very hard to stick to my eating plan and to make real food that nourished my body.

Because of the Whole30, my relationship with food has changed. I have a renewed sense of joy when cooking and I am excited about making food for my family again. I get excited about trying new marinades or eating a vegetable I don't normally cook. This brought back the love that I had lost with cooking and it feels good to be back!

As for how I feel? This is the best part!!

Now, while I didn't enter into this for a weight-loss plan, it has been a perk. I've lost a little over 11 pounds, most of which I discovered was bloat (I just thought it was leftover tummy from my pregnancy with Gable.) My mid-section has curves again (not rolls) and my tummy is flat again! I weigh the same now as I did before I got pregnant with Lucas...I haven't seen that number on the scale in a long time. I can see my hipbones again (just slightly.)  My favorite jeans fit again and I can breathe in them!!

The achiness and inflammation in my knees and shoulders has gotten significantly better and I don't feel like an arthritic 65-year-old. I have a lot more energy now as well. Even on days when I don't nap with the kids I can make it through the day just fine (and I don't have to load up with caffeine to do it!) Speaking of caffeine, my relationship with it has changed as well. I still like to have my cup of tea or coffee in the morning but I don't use sugar now or feel like I need to. I've grown to love it with coconut milk and that's it. I did discover "bulletproof coffee" a few days ago and oh lordy it is good, but I don't make it every day.

While I was still emotional during the PMS stage of the month, my cramps and bloating have been virtually non-existent this month and my emotions have felt a bit more in check. That is huge because things were pretty miserable before now. And I've never been more regular in my whole life (sorry if that is TMI, but its a perk, and one I feel worth mentioning.)

The sleep thing has been one of the other great improvements I've noticed. I had a little trouble sleeping the first 4-5 nights while my body adjusted to its new metabolism, but since then I sleep beautifully. Even if I have to get up in the middle of the night, I don't have much trouble getting back to sleep. And I haven't taken a Unisom or Tylenol PM since before I started. :)

I've been off plan for 3 days now but I haven't changed much of what I was doing while I was on the Whole30. I'm going to slowly incorporate foods back into my diet to see how my body responds to them. I'm starting slowly with small amounts of non-gluten grains and then will slowly try legumes, dairy, and alcohol. (I did have a glass of wine on my birthday I'm holding off as long as possible with anything gluten related because that is one of the biggest culprits of inflammation.) So far, I don't really miss bread and I'm feeling okay without it. I'm not adding sugar to things that I don't feel need them but I'm not going to stress out if I eat some ketchup with it in it.

From here on out, I think I'm going to try to follow a largely Paleo diet and stick to what I've learned about what I can eat, what I need to eat, and what I shouldn't. I am having a lot of fun learning more about eating real food and I look forward to more cooking adventures!

If you are thinking about giving the Whole30 a try, let me know. I will gladly share my meal plan that I used, cheer you on, and be a support system for you! I intend on doing this again each summer (or if I need it before then, like maybe after Christmas) and it really does help to have someone to talk to about what you are doing.

This is going to be a series of blog posts because to be honest, I don't know how long this project will take. When we had Lucas we transformed the guest bedroom into a nursery and since then we've not had a place for guests to stay. The second bedroom has been mostly crap storage and what counts as my craft room for the past 5 years (though pretty much 4 of those 5 years it has sat virtually without a cool space to actually do any crafting or sewing because I was either pregnant, a new Mom or in grad school.)

So, the kitchen tends to get kinda messy because it is linked to the door that goes to the garage. And since we park in the garage and come through that door, the first dumping ground is likely to be the small kitchen table or the countertop nearest to the door. Not to mention that during the week we are super busy and usually wait until the weekend to pick up our most dreadful messes, only stopping to clean up the dirty dishes and cooking utensils used during the week. Over the holidays the countertops were a disaster as I was very busy making a variety of goodies and needed some items to remain close-at-hand so that I didn't have to keep pulling them from the cabinets. Today I finally got the time and the drive to clean up the disaster kitchen, and I'm very proud of the results. I got rid of the knife blocks, which are a counter hog and kept only the magnetic knife rack (gosh I love Ikea!) All surfaces were completely ridded of their occupants, thoroughly scrubbed and sanitized before anything went back on the counter. Almost doesn't look like the same place!

I'm off to tackle the red cabinet in my kitchen and fix my cookbooks...again. I'll keep you posted!

Okay, I'm back now. The red cabinet is very dear to me. My mom bought it for my first apartment when I moved to Lewisville. It is very cute, very me, and holds some of my greatest treasures---my cookbooks. I know I have a ridiculous obsession with them, but I come by it honestly. My mom too is a collector, though she swears now that she's not going to buy anymore. Guess I'll be loaning her mine! Anyway, the red cabinet isn't too bad as far as clutter goes. There honestly isn't a lot of space for clutter to fit but on occasion a few small things end up there, which is why I decided to include it. I had to reorganize the inside of the cabinet a bit, so I showed the closed door and open door versions of how the cabinet looks now that its all prettified again!

Hi. My name is Amy and I am a Clutter Queen. I view it as one of my least favorite quirks to be honest. It somehow makes me feel like a failure in some ways--I mean, I'm a Home Economist...shouldn't I have a better grasp on my own home?

At any rate, I've decided to confess my clutter sins so that I might feel more accountable for them. I also hope it will help me be more aware and strive to de-clutter more often because seriously folks...this is ridiculous.

Pretty much every surface in my house was covered with CRAP this morning. Mail crap. School crap. Food crap. Non-food crap. Reading crap. Newspaper crap. Crafting crap. Christmas crap.  I broke out the camera because I thought it might help me come to grips with it. If I could see the "before" and "after" I might be willing to keep up with it.

I took pictures of the most commonly cluttered places in my home and I've worked all afternoon to try and rectify the situation. (Insert Jesse joke about "rectify" here...) <-----------------

The problem is not that I'm lazy. Mostly its just that I'm pre-occupied a lot of the time because I'm a Mom! :) If I have the choice between going through 3 weeks of mail and snuggling with a cute little dude, you know I'm going to choose Option B everytime. I work during the week, we come home, eat dinner, bathe a dude and put him to bed, and then I want to do something fun (not clean up all the crap!) But its actually gotten so bad now that I'm afraid that if I don't get ahead of it now that someone who loves me is going to submit my name to Hoarders and I'll end up on National television. No thanks.

Okay...so trouble spot number one...the piano. Its the first flat surface you see when you come through the front door. Monday-Saturday I go to the mailbox, come back in, and drop the mail in a little basket on the piano. The basket is relatively new.  I put it there thinking it would help about a month ago which it has, but only slightly. Before the basket all the mail, newspapers, and other crap that people leave on our doorknob got thrown on my beautiful, antique piano which I am sad to say does not get played as much as it gets dumped on. I need to quit that. My husband paid a lot of money to get it tuned up and shiny for me last Mother's Day and I enjoy sitting at it with Lucas, playing and singing to him. I moved some of the pictures so that I could re-arrange a little bit and I think it looks much nicer now. I also gave it a nice treatment with some furniture oil to re-shiny it a bit. Don't you think it looks pretty?

The second trouble spot is just past the piano on the way to the livingroom. Its actually an old record player that Jesse's grandmother gave him but it doubles as a buffet table and is a great place to hold framed pics. Trouble is, I needed a place to deal with the mail and I didn't have one until today. I went to Dollar Tree and bought some cute little baskets and some colored index cards and made myself a place to organize the mail immediately. I find that I need 3 categories: File, Bills and Coupons (which could include coupons from the paper, the mail, or discounts and weekly mailers that I like to use.) I also put the shredder (you can see it above in the bottom piano pic) somewhere close so that I can open the mail, categorize the stuff I need to, and shred all the other crap (that might otherwise get put on the buffet and left there for weeks until I get annoyed an finally sit down to sort it.) Here's the before and after shot of trouble spot number two:


This next one is not a horrible one but often things get set on the fireplace and that is where they go to die. Boxes and plastic tubs will sit there for weeks until they are covered in dust and pet fur. Lucas's toys get set there a lot but that's a rotating mess and you never know what will be there from one day to the next. I really just need to be more aware of this space. It looks so nice when its clean!


Okay...the following two tables are the bane of my existence. The one in the kitchen is the worst crap-catcher in our whole house. Its where we unload all of our junk when we come through the garage after work, shopping, etc. It almost ALWAYS looks similar to the before picture, just with different crap. I'm really proud of the after pic though. I decided that each of us needed a bin so that things that end up in the kitchen (that don't belong there) will have a place. Lucas's bin is probably going to be full a lot because he's a kid and is always moving his stuff from one room to the next. I hope the bins will help us to put things back where they go, even if its a few times a week.


The second table is our gorgeous, Ethan Allen cherry wood dining table. Yes....isn't it pretty without all that crap on it? This one gets used daily. Its where I fold laundry, use my sewing machine and wrap presents. Its the table I put stuff on that I don't want Lucas to grab (he's so dang tall that most of the surfaces in our house are not safe for that purpose.) When we eat here, I usually just scoot the crap to the other end of the table so that the 3 of us can fit on the end without our crap dipping into the gravy (or red chile, as the case may be.) I love this table. It was my grandmother's table and she gave it to me. I have GOT to stop using it as a catch-all.


So...that is my progress so far. I still have much more to do tomorrow so check back then! Until then, this is the Clutter Queen signing off. Goodbye.