Work & Photography

This summer my boss and I are going into the community and having some fun while we promote Bakery On Main. Last week we went to Mission Beach to hand out granola samples. It was great meeting new people! A lot of people were on vacation so we told them where they could find the products in their state. We wanted to do something different with our granola so we used it as a topping on frozen yogurt. I really liked it! We had chocolate yogurt, mango and strawberries topped with our Extreme Fruit & Nut granola. My second picture is at the top of the roller coaster at Belmont Park. It wasn't easy to hold granola and take a photo on that rocky ride but I'm happy it came out clear. I can't wait for our other adventures this summer as we make our way through San Diego spreading Gluten Free Happiness!

MY Passion

I love photography. I'm at a point of my life where I think I want to take it more seriously. I don't know exactly what that means as far as planning for the future, but what I do know is that I want to start shooting more. For example, I want to take more head shots and family photos. When I look back on my most recent sessions, that's what I've been doing. I'm open to any sort of photography opportunity but my current favorite is family photos. Lucky for me, I have the perfect family to photograph wherever I want! A couple weeks ago my amazing friend Analisa, Vincenzo and I went to the park for a photo shoot. Analisa's husband is away at sea right now, but when he comes back next month we will be taking more photos! Stayed tuned.

Whole 30 again..

Recently, my boyfriends mom and sister mentioned that they wanted to do Whole 30, so Danielle and I said we'd do it with them! We started on Tuesday this week and so far it's going ok. You would think since I've done it before that I would't have cravings or miss certain foods because I know the changes my body is going through, but I do. I'm struggling a little. My biggest and maybe only issue is when I don't prep food. ALWAYS PREP YOUR FOOD! If not you'll be in a situation where you're hungry, tired, annoyed because you're so hungry and just feel like grabbing fast food. Ok, maybe I'm the only one that feels that way. That's exactly how I felt last night. I ended up buying $7 pre made guacamole from Whole Foods because I needed something on the drive home from work to keep my stomach happy, and hold me over until dinner. If I brought little snacks to work, or ate a real lunch, this wouldn't have happened. Yes, I'm eating it with a spoon!

Another reason this time around it's only going O-K so far is because the reason I'm doing this again is so I can support Maya and Nada. I needed Danielle so much the first time around I figured everyone needed someone for support. I guess there are people out there who can motivate themselves (obviously I'm not like this) and don't need to rely on others. Nada doesn't eat junk food so this whole 30 hasn't been an issue for her. Maya isn't having any problems either, besides missing her diet soda. Neither of them "need" me and I assumed they would. It's my fault for assuming they would come to me with questions and tips. Waseam tried to comfort me and say that he needs me in his life, which is nice, but my intentions for this 2nd whole 30 was the be someone they look up to. I'll get over it, but I just wanted to share my feelings thus far with my 2nd whole 30.

Post Whole 30

I DID IT! What a great feeling it is to accomplish something I never (honestly) thought I could do.  I said before that i wanted to ease myself into certain foods to see how my body would react and I think it went well! Wednesday was my first day that I could eat whatever I want. I had 3 pieces of See's Candy. I think since I didn't have it for so long eating it again really tasted like the very first time I had it. It made me so happy. I'm not sure if that's bad that candy can make me that happy but I was very happy. In the afternoon I had Jeni's Brambleberry Crisp ice cream. The description from the website says it best.

Buttery, oven-toasted oat streusel and a striking, sweet-tart “brambleberry” jam of blackberries and black currants layered throughout vanilla ice cream.

I just love that I can see and taste real streusel and blackberries. If you haven't had Jeni's I highly recommend trying it. You can order here online. If you need it right now then go to the find us tab on their website then click where to buy & it will bring up local places around you that will have a selection of flavors to choose from. Lucky for me, Whole foods sells my favorite flavor! I didn't feel sick or anything from my first day of sweets, wish I was very happy about! In the past couple of days I've had macaroni, waffle fries, granola, tortilla chips and beer. Everything has been fine and I haven't noticed any problems. I'm not 100% sure how I'll eat from now on but I did love how I felt when I was on whole 30 so I'll try to eat that way as much as possible and still have my sweets in moderation. My sister and I were just talking about this yesterday. I always say how much I love macaroni and cheese but I don't even eat it once a month. It's just one of those things. Yes it's my favorite but I guess I just don't get around to eating it that much. I think I'm ok to eat it when I do because I'm not making it an everyday thing.
I do want to make some suggestions for people thinking about doing whole 30. I didn't read the book before I started but I would highly suggest reading it. I'm sure it answers lots of questions first timers have and is just a great tool to refer back to when necessary. It's important to stay hydrated! I started putting fruit in my water and I really enjoyed drinking water that way. I would put lemon, strawberries, oranges, basil or mint. Another thing I loved using was avocado on top of pretty much everything. I also used olive oil for salad dressings. I want to point out that because I didn't read the book or research a lot before I started, I just ate the same meals over and over. I think the book probably gives many different recipes to try so you can have more variety. I didn't take a lot of time to prep my food so I would just eat broccoli, peppers and onions for most every meal. For me that was fine, I didn't get bored. I know some people need variety so I suggest researching the challenge more so you are aware of every option for eating. Please comment if you have any questions about my experience!

9 Days left!

I'm sorry this post is late! I'm in the single digits people!!!!  There are some things I wanted to talk about. Last week I had a dream I cheated. Don't worry, I didn't. I think dreams in general are amazing. They can seem so real that I really had to question myself when I woke up. I've read that people have these dreams and Danielle said she did too so I'm glad I'm not alone.

I went out of town for a couple days for work and I have a few pictures to share. The first one is hilarious to me. I ordered a street taco so the toppings are pretty limited since it's just a simple taco. After I took away the things I couldn't have I was left with meat, onions and guacamole. It was yummy, it just looks really funny to me because there isn't much food. My second picture is of the salad I ate the first day. I had greens, onions, tomatoes, mandarin oranges, almonds and pecans, avocado and I squeezed a lemon on top for dressing.

Sometimes I just think about life and I can't believe I'm even doing this challenge. I've always said that I have no control when it comes to food. I will eat whatever I want and not say no to food. I've never seen a reason to limit myself or pass on something I enjoy eating. It's crazy because this whole challenge is saying no to everything I really want. I know it's for the better but brownies, cookies and cake still looks delicious. I'm doing something I never thought I could do! I think the main issue here is with myself. I don't give myself enough credit. Of course challenges are done for a reason and I love testing myself to see what I'll put myself through to achieve my goals. It's amazing how great I feel accomplishing something. I think I feel so great because no one is forcing me to do this challenge. I willingly accepted to completely change how I eat for 30 days. That's huge! I can't stop thinking about how happy my body must be right now. I've never EVER given it a break from sugar, let alone dairy and wheat. Sugar is in almost everything. I'm ashamed that I love sugar so much. It's embarrassing because it's not good for me and for some reason I still wouldn't mind eating something with sugar in it. Why would I put my body through that? I'm starting to realize just because I think something tastes delicious doesn't mean I have to eat it. I know that seems like common sense but I'm really starting to understand that. Honestly, who wants to say no to cake or ice cream? I don't, but maybe I'll start to really practice eating sweets in moderation. I can't believe I just typed that. Never did I think I would ever say something like that. I'm seeing with my own eyes that I can make it 30 days without eating how I always have. It's been a great month for me and I've learned so much about myself. I'm down to 9 days and I'm getting excited. What I really can't wait for is introducing dairy, wheat and sugar (at different times) to my body to see how it reacts. I talked to a woman a couple of days ago and she said she got sick after her challenge. Obviously I'm not hoping to get sick, but I'll listen to my body and see if it rejects any of my food choices. The countdown is on, 9 days, I CAN DO THIS!

13 days in!

I'm almost halfway there and I'm feeling great! Sunday I tackled going out to eat and it was such a positive experience. The waitress was understanding of my requests and my meal was seriously delicious and so filling! This salad includes a huge piece of Yellowtail, egg, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, avocado with a side of lemons and olive oil for dressing.

I just threw this salad together because I was hungry but wasn't looking to really cook a meal. I ended up loving it, when I thought it would just be okay. It's romaine, strawberries, pecans and walnuts with olive oil as dressing. My smoothie had watermelon, blueberries, a whole banana, spinach and water.

My Dad is visiting for a couples days so Saturday morning we went to breakfast at Great Maple. Everything looked amazing so I was really looking forward to my meal. I had eggs, cherry tomatoes, bacon, caramelized onions, avocado and basil. I love cantaloupe! I don't know why I don't eat it more often, it's really refreshing!

 Today I took my Dad for a belated birthday Adventure. First we went to the Swap Meet. It was the first time for both of us, so it was wonderful to experience it together. I found a basket I've been looking for, and a blanket. Dad found a plaque with his favorite baseball player on it, a NFL flag, socks and a clock. Later we rode bikes around the bay and went to lunch at Bareback Grill in Pacific Beach. I had grilled chicken, tomato, onions, lettuce, avocado, pickles and grilled pineapple. The pineapple was just the right amount of sweetness.

I was talking to my friend Paige who just finished a 10 day cleanse and she said the days after she was done she slowly added one or two things into her meals to see how her body reacted. I definitely want to do the same thing. My body has never been without sugar, bread, or dairy for 30 days so I'll want to carefully add those in to see if they upset my body. Let's hope not! I'm really looking forward to eating some ice cream and a sandwich. In a couple of days I'll be half way done. I can't wait to see what this next week brings.

We all make mistakes

Happy Friday!

I'm sure you're very curious to hear how how I'm doing with my whole 30 challenge, maybe more so after you read the title of this post. Last weekend I was in Anaheim for the Natural Foods Expo and I cheated. At first it wasn't on purpose. I ate some seasoned peas (the other flavors had noodles and nuts) so I thought that was fine until I read the bag and saw it had sugar in it. I shouldn't have assumed, I should've read the bag before taking a sample. I was running around the expo with my friend Krystal, sampling so many things. She is paleo too but not doing the whole 30 challenge so she can eat things that I can't. I think I was on a high from seeing her (our schedules are both so full we don't see each other as much as we'd like to, and it was a big deal that we were both out of town at the same event so we were excited to see each other) that I wasn't 100% paying attention to what I was eating. I think I ate chocolate covered coffee beans? Something was chocolate covered. Believe it or not I still said no to other things but I did try some kind of PB that was delicious. One night at dinner I had a bite of veggie lasagna that was doused in cheese.  Also, I found out Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream was at the Expo and I freaked out! I've only been one time in Columbus but it was AMAZING! So obviously I cheated on purpose and tried a sample of the 5 flavors they had.

I'm not proud of my cheats, but I think it's important I'm honest with myself and everyone else following my progress. I started my challenge over this past Monday. Today is day 5 for me. I've talked to some people who think I shouldn't start all the way over, but maybe add days at the end. Personally, I wouldn't feel right about saying I finished knowing I cheated. Danielle has been so good and hasn't cheated it all so I definitely owe it to her to finish the right way.
My favorite meal this week was probably the meal I found out I could have at in n out, which I also made at home the next two days in a row. This is how you order it: Double meat animal style, hold the spread, extra mustard and protein style. So there is no bun, it's lettuce instead, and they mustard fry the burger and grill the onions. I think it had pickles too! It was really delicious.
Ok, almost one week down. Go see how Danielle is doing! She should be blogging later today.  I'll make something in the crockpot next week. I keep saying that but I really will. :)