Strawberry-Banana Bread

Strawberry-Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3/4 pint strawberries

1 banana (can use a frozen banana)

1/4 cup coconut butter

1 cup almond flour

1/4 cup coconut flour/shredded flakes

2 eggs, whisked

1 Tbls coconut oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease the bottom and sides of a loaf pan with coconut oil.
2. Rinse the strawberries and cut off the tops. Dump into a food processor/blender and process until smooth (you can leave a few chunks if you like).
3. Remove 1/4 cup of the strawberries and set aside.
4. Chop up your banana and add to the food processor until fully combined with the strawberries.
5. Add in your coconut butter. Once combined, followed with the almond flour and coconut flour. (You'll probably need to grab a spatula and push the mixture down from the sides of the processor.)
6. Mix in one egg at a time.
7. Transfer to your greased loaf pan and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until the center is firm.
8. Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan.
9. While cooling, heat 1 Tbls coconut oil on the stove. Once hot, add the 1/4 cup of strawberry puree that you had set aside in step 3. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. The mixture will turn a deeper red and start to clump together.
10. Slice up a piece and top with the warm strawberry mixture.

Pork Roast and Sauerkraut

During my New Year's trip to Jamaica, I spent much of my time laying by the pool and reading. While my friends were reading what I assume were mystery and romance novels, I was learning about cholesterol, blood sugar, and omega-3s via It Starts With Food by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig. In the book, they mentioned that eating fermented foods is good for you because it introduces probiotics to the gut. Yay for healthy gut bacteria! One popular fermented food is sauerkraut, something that I have always STRONGLY disliked. My mom loves the stuff and I remember hating being in the kitchen when she heated up a batch of sauerkraut. I disliked the smell so much that I had a hard time convincing myself to even try it. Well, after reading It Starts With Food, I decided to give it a try. The result was...

Pork Roast with Sauerkraut
1 large jar of sauerkraut
2.5 lbs pork roast/loin
salt and pepper

1. Rinse and trim the pork roast as necessary.
2. Spread ~1/2 cup of sauerkraut over the bottom of a crock-pot.
3. Place the pork roast on top of the sauerkraut and dump the rest of the sauerkraut over and around the pork roast.
4. Set crock pot on low for 8 hours. Leave during the day or overnight.
5. Remove the pork from the crock-pot. Pull out a couple forks and start pulling pork so you get the nice shredded look.
6. Serve hot with your ideal amount of sauerkraut. It tastes good with Dijon mustard.

I recommend storing the sauerkraut and pork separately, especially if you're like me and still have questionable feelings toward sauerkraut. I admit that the pork with sauerkraut tasted good, but I think that sauerkraut will be an infrequent visitor to my dining room table, which is an improvement over my previous sauerkraut ban.

Alcohol and Meat Roll-ups

Last Thursday's workout took roughly 45 minutes. I drew from my one CrossFit experience of Fran:
Warm-up: 20 lunges, 20 pushups, 20 squats, 10 minutes elliptical

Thrusters (21-15-9@ 50 lb)

Assisted Pull-ups(21-15-9)
Reverse Curls (2x20 @ 10 lb)

Cycle - 30 minutes

Last Friday was Rabbie Burns Night, so my friends and I went to a Scottish pub to celebrate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxIBqpryG0&playnext=1&list=PL76C25FB248957F10&feature=results_video

I drank cider (yes, I know it's not compliant with Whole 30, and I am a terrible person). I had fun though, so I don't feel too bad about it. I did feel bad the next morning when I realized that a few ciders over the course of four hours wasn't even to get me drunk but it apparently was enough to give me a hangover the following morning... or at least hangover symptoms - I woke up at 8 on Saturday with a screaming headache. As a result of the headache, I gave in to medicine and took a couple Advil before crawling back into bed to sleep away the headache. Two hours later, my headache was down to a dull ache and I had started considering how bad alcohol really is for my body.

If three drinks leaves me clutching my head the next morning, is it worth it? I don't have the answer to that. Sometimes I think that alcohol isn't worth it; other days, I wonder what to do when I meet up with friends during the week. Usually we meet up for drinks, but if you're not drinking and you go to a bar where you don't want to eat any of the food on their menu, what do you order? I don't often drink soda (though sometimes I'll let myself have soda water or gingerale), so I probably won't order a soda at the bar. What does that leave me with? "May I have a water, please?" I always feel weird going to a bar with friends who intend on drinking alcohol and then being that one person who isn't drinking because I choose not to for my health. Not to mention if you go to a bar and meet someone new... they'll eventually notice that you're not drinking and then you end up getting into the whole story of why you're not drinking alcohol, because apparently "I choose not to" isn't always a good enough reason for some people. This always leads to me feeling like I'm preaching Paleo.

Anyways, as I had posted previously (http://adventurepaleo.blogspot.com/2012/12/whole-30-peer-pressure-and-alcohol.html?m=0), maybe there are better types of alcohol to drink. Red wine always seems to be at the top of the list for the least-bad-for-you-alcohols. But again, it's one of those things where you personally have to decide if you're okay with consuming something that's still technically bad for you, but just happens to be the healthier option. That's like saying, I'm allergic to dogs AND cats, but I'm more allergic to cats than I am to dogs, so I'm going to get a dog, because I'll still kind of be able to breathe out of my nose instead of becoming my cat-induced mouth-breather alter-ego. Neither the dog nor the cat is a wise idea, but the cat would be MORE harmful to my health. Does that logic make sense to you? Hopefully not. But then again, maybe you REALLY want a pet. Maybe that pet is going to be good for your mental health because you'll have something to take care of and something to love you unconditionally (in the case of the dog at least).

So, to share some lunch love... I had this for lunch at work the other week. I bought some Prosciutto at Trader Joe's, along with some mini heirloom tomatoes and mixed greens. I sliced the tomatoes in half, placed 4-6 halves on one prosciutto slice with some of the mixed greens, and rolled in up. The result? Meat Roll-ups! You can also do this with other types of sliced meat... It was DELICIOUS. Prosciutto is yummy! And to round out my lunch with a little bit of sweet, I added a small handful of blackberries.

Paleo Pizza and Tuesday/Wednesday Workouts

Because my computer decided not to post this when I planned to, you get Tuesday and Wednesday wrapped into one. Lucky you!

Tuesday's 5 am workout took about 45 minutes to do.

Warm-up: 20 lunges

Side-to-Side Squats: 2x20, 15 lb

Straight-Arm Raises (Front/Side): 2x20, 10 lb

Step Back Lunges: 2x20, 15 lb

Inchworms: 5

Punches: Jab-Cross – 20 each side, Hook-Uppercut – 20 each side

Wall Sits: 1x1 min, 2x30 sec

Bench Press: 10-8-6, 50 lb

Angled Leg Press: 20 @ 120 lb, 20 @ 180 lb

Abs (Lay flat on your back. Lift your legs about 6" off of the ground and rotate to the right. Rotate your legs over your head and then to your left, returning to your starting position. Switch directions. Repeat 20 times - 10 in each direction.)

Cool-down: Stretching

By Wednesday morning I was so sore from my recent reintroduction into weight lifting, that the effort of  ignoring my muscles to roll over and turn off my alarm was almost too much. I had a very serious debate with myself over whether I should just let the alarm keep going off. I mean, it'll turn off eventually, right? Instead I turned it off and went back to sleep until my next alarm.

Sitting at my desk for the day at work was rough, too. Because I sit on my ass for most of the day, my muscles, such as my hip flexors, like to tighten up so that when I do try to stand up, it becomes a very slow process of stretching out my muscles first. Therefore, my exercise for the day was to go for a nice relaxing walk... outside. It was wonderful getting fresh air.

And you know what else is wonderful? Pizza. Especially pizza with a yummy crust, like the one from the picture below. So keep scrolling for the recipe. Yum!

Paleo Pepperoni and Sausage Pizza

Pizza Crust

1 cup almond flour

1/2 cup shredded coconut 

2 Tbls flax seeds

2 eggs, thoroughly whisked

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp ground pepper

sprinkle of salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease the bottom of a round cake pan with coconut oil.

Mix the ingredients together and transfer to the cake pan. Use the back of a spoon or your hand to spread the mixture evenly across the bottom of the pan. It'll be pretty sticky.

Bake for 20 minutes or until top is browned and crust-like.

Topping

1/2 cup pasta sauce (like this one I found in Whole Foods)

6 pieces of pepperoni

1/2 cup sausage crumbles, precooked (I used mild Italian sausage)

5 basil leaves, chopped

1 green onion, chopped

1/2 cup sliced cherry tomatoes

Once the pizza crust is made, spread the pizza sauce over the crust and sprinkle with the basil and green onion. Spread the meat across the sauce...

... and top with the cherry tomatoes.

Bake for 15 minutes (this is basically just to heat the meat and roast the tomatoes).

Slice into quarters and serve hot.

Monday Workout

I finally started working out again on Monday after a bit of a hiatus (I worked out every day I was in Jamaica, but otherwise haven't regularly worked out for a couple months). What did I start back with? Well, I knew you would be interested, so here you go.

Warm-up: 20 squats

Deadlift: 2x15, 50 lbs

Military Pushup: 2x15

Balancing Squats: 1x20

In and Out Bicep Curls: 2x20, 10 lb dumbells

Weighted Squats: 2x15, 10 lb dumbells

Upright Rows: 2x15, 20 lb

Curtsey Lunges: 2x20

Bench Tricep Dips: 2x15

Leg Extensions: 2x20, 70 lb

Abs (Ab Ripper X)

    In and Out (25)

    Bicycle (25)

    ReverseBicycle (25)

    Crunchy Frog(25)

    Wide Leg Sit-up (26)

    Fifer Scissors(26)

    Hip Rock and Raise (25)

    Pulse Ups (25)

    Roll-up/V-up(26)

    Oblique V-up(25 each side)

    Leg Climb (12each side)

    Mason Twist(50)

Cool-down: 3 sun salutations, quad stretches

The whole thing took about an hour, but by the time I finished work, working out, and cooking, I ended up eating dinner at 9:30. And my late-night dinner left me stretched out in bed, thinking "Ugh. Soooo fullllll!" Word to the wise, people... don't eat right before bed.

Whole 30 and Dairy

So I'm starting the Whole 30 plan again tomorrow. I feel like I need a bit of a detox/kick-start after Jamaica and getting back into work mode. And this past weekend really made me want to stick with hard-core Paleo. I don't think I ever mentioned how Whole 30 went for me last time. My body just felt better - less upset stomachs, less headaches, etc. And I managed to lose 7 lbs over the course of one month (even during Thanksgiving). The two things that I cut out for Whole 30 in comparison to how I usually eat were alcohol and natural sugars, such as maple syrup and honey. What does this tell me? Apparently I consume a lot more alcohol and sweets than I thought.

So a few girlfriends came over on Saturday night to have a sleepover. Yes, we had a slumber party. Don't judge us. We watched Winning London, Dhoom 2, Pitch Perfect, and Jodhaa Akbar (though I think KAOS was the only one who lasted through that 3.5 hour-movie). Anyways, we ordered pizza for dinner; KAOS and I shared a gluten-free pizza with pepperoni. It tasted okay; nothing to write home to mom about. Unfortunately, by the time I fell asleep, it was misery: pounding headache, achy stomach. It was a non-Paleo food hangover. And it stuck around all day on Sunday with a pretty hefty dose of lethargy. So that's another reason why I'm sticking with Paleo. Because grains and dairy are bad, evil things. Evil, I tell you!

I got into a discussion with one of my friends about Paleo and dairy. I follow the type of Paleo where I don't have ANY dairy, including ghee/clarified butter or heavy cream. My friend said that he mainly follows Paleo, except for the weekends, but he does have dairy, like cheese which is a bit easier to tolerate from a lactose stand-point. He theorized that people who follow Paleo are making themselves lactose-intolerant by not eating dairy. I understand what he was saying. Trying to reintroduce dairy  products after eliminating them for a long time can be very unpleasant. The way I see it (non-scientific view) is that by continuing to eat grains, dairy, and legumes, your body has to maintain a defense against these foods. When you cut them out, your body gets the chance to relax and eventually stops being paranoid that you're going to do something mean to it. It gets used to your clean diet. When you reintroduce the evil foods, your body freaks out because it has forgotten how to handle those foods.

I think that he has a point, but only in the fact that I feel like you may feel more intolerant of dairy the longer you go without eating it. If you're like me, eliminating dairy makes you feel much better. So when you consume dairy again, the resulting stomach upsets seem that much worse in comparison to your new healthy baseline.

I've read articles and seen TV shows that claim that we as humans were not built to handle dairy. I agree with them. I've even seen the stat that 75% of humans are lactose-intolerant. Milk contains hormones that are intended for infants (of the respective species). Babies grow at much faster rates and don't have the teeth necessary to eat food that adults would eat, so milk helps deliver nutrients to aid growth and immune development. Here's an analogy for you...

Breast milk : babies :: cow's milk : calves.

Cow's milk is not meant for human babies, much in the same way that human breast milk is not meant for calves. Calves stop drinking milk once they are weaned. And I don't see any adults still drinking their mom's breast milk. So why do we consume something that's meant for babies of a difference species? Think on it...

Here's summary from the National Institute of Health (NIH) on lactose-intolerance:

http://consensus.nih.gov/2010/images/lactose/lactose_finalstatement.pdf

Some other articles to read about dairy:
http://thepaleodiet.com/healthy-eating/qa-with-dr-cordain-milk/
http://whole9life.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/cordainbastosdairy.pdf
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/dairy-free-dairy-6-reason_b_558876.html
http://paleosimplified.com/milk-no/

Bacon and Veggie Frittata

The last morning that I was in Atlanta, my parents made a frittata for me. Aww, aren't they just the sweetest? I don't know exactly how they prepped everything, so I'll just tell you what I would do.

Bacon and Veggie Frittata

1 cup kale, ripped to pieces

1/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup orange bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup yellow bell pepper, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1 cup roasted cauliflower (precooked)

5 strips bacon, chopped

8 eggs, whisked

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place your uncooked and chopped bacon into a large pan over medium-high heat. Cook for 5 minutes or until the pieces are crispy. Remove bacon pieces.

Add the onions and cook until starting to turn translucent. Toss in your kale, stirring to coat with the glorious bacon grease. (If you're not using grass-fed bacon, you could remove the bacon from the pan and pour out the bacon fat. Instead use coconut or olive oil for cooking the veggies.) Cook for a couple minutes before throwing in the rest of your veggies. Remove from heat and stir the bacon bits back in.

Transfer the veggies and bacon to a greased 13"x9" baking pan. Pour the eggs over the veggies and bacon, making sure that the ingredients are evenly distributed. Bake for 25 minutes.

Spaghetti with Roasted Grape Tomatoes

I finally got a spaghetti squash to taste delicious. The first two times that I attempted it, the result tasted horrible. Seriously. LMR and I coated it with more and more pesto trying to get it to taste good, but it didn't work. It was still terrible. This one is much better. And it's so colorful!

Spaghetti with Roasted Grape Tomatoes

1 spaghetti squash

2 cups shredded kale

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 cup chopped carrots

1 1/2 cup broccoli

1/2 cup each of chopped red, yellow, and orange bell peppers

2 cups grape tomatoes, sliced in half

4 Tbls extra virgin olive oil

Cooking supplies:

2 baking sheets

2 frying pans, 1 needs a matching lid

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Cut the spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and brush the flesh with extra virgin olive oil.

Line a baking sheet with tin foil. Place the spaghetti squash face down on the lined baking sheet.

Place into the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes or until the skin is squishy when poked.

While the squash is cooking, start on your veggies. Prep all of the veggies (rinsing, shredding, chopping, etc.). Heat 2 Tbls of olive oil in large pan. Put the kale, broccoli, and carrots into this pan and stir to coat evenly with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. The kale will turn dark green, and the carrots and broccoli will be soft.

In a separate pan, toss in the mushrooms and peppers. Stir occasionally.

Remove from heat after 10-15 minutes, or until the mushrooms have been cooked down. Mix in with the kale, carrots, and broccoli, and cover to keep warm.

When there is roughly 15 minutes left for the squash you can start working on the tomatoes. In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes with 1 Tbls olive oil and a couple shakes of salt. Spread the tomatoes onto the second pan and put into the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove the squash from the oven and flip over. Drag a fork across the flesh and the squash will come off in strands. It will look like spaghetti.

Scoop the "spaghetti" into your serving bowls and mix with the veggies. Stir in some of the roasted tomatoes and top with as many extra roasted tomatoes as you want.

Interesting Things to Think About

I did a boot camp a little over a year ago. Because of that, I get monthly newsletters from the company, even though I don't want to go back to waking up at 4:20 in the morning to go to boot camp. Anyways, in the latest newsletter, they included the following formulas for determining your appropriate calorie intake (for maintaining). I'm not recommending that you use this and I have no idea where it came from, but it's something that caught my interest, at least temporarily...

Women: (665.10 + (9.56 x weight in kg) + (1.85 x height in cm) - (4.68 x age in years)) + 200

Men: (66.47 + (13.75 x weight in kg) + (5.0 x height in cm) - (6.76 x age in years) + 200

--SUBJECT CHANGE--

My car insurance company sends out a quarterly magazine. While I was taking a break from knitting last Friday night (yes, I stayed in to relax, knit, and watch The West Wing on Netflix), I read a small article about saving for your future. Apparently, people who see age-progressed photos of themselves tend to save more for retirement. Is it true? I don't know, but if you want to check it out for yourself, you can use the following apps:

AgingBooth

HourFace

Oldify

Age My Face

Enjoy.

Bacon Brussels Sprouts

What Brussels sprouts really look like...

Looks kind of funny, doesn't it? If you have the time, go ahead and buy the stalk. However, if you're not on vacation like me and generally short on time, just buy a bag of the buds, because it definitely takes some extra time to pull the buds off of the stalk and then pull off the outer leaves. Also, rinse thoroughly, because when my mom and I were working our way through the stalk, there were some tiny black bugs crawling around (shhhh, I didn't point them out to my mom at the time because I didn't want her to freak out).

I've mentioned cooking Brussels sprouts with bacon before, and I really need to emphasize this fact. It's delicious! And in case you need step-by-step instructions to realize this for yourself...

Bacon Brussels Sprouts
1 stalk Brussels sprouts (or 1-2 lbs of buds)
5 slices bacon
2 Tbls EVOO
2 tsp garlic salt (or use a combination of garlic powder and salt)
1 1/2 tsp fresh-ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Rip the buds off of the stalk and pull off the top two outer leaves (I always do this, but it's not necessary). Cut the stem off and then cut the bud in half. Place all of the halved buds into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and add the EVOO, garlic salt, and pepper (other seasonings can be used as well). Seal the bag and shake well.

Using a sharp knife, chop up the slices of bacon. Cook in a pan over medium heat until crispy. Scoop out the bacon and transfer to the bag with Brussels sprouts. Remove the pan from the stove and let cool for a couple minutes. Then pour the bacon fat over the Brussels sprouts, seal the bag, and toss to coat. If you don't let the bacon fat cool, you could end up melting the plastic bag, which is bad. I said the Brussels sprouts were good with bacon, not plastic. Even bacon can't make plastic taste good.

Cover a baking sheet with tin foil. It works best if you use a baking sheet with edges. Spread out the Brussels sprouts and place in the oven. Cook for 20 minutes before flipping the sprouts over. Cook for another 15-20 minutes, then remove and serve.

Chorizo Sausage Frittata

The thing about my parents' house is that they have an incredibly well-stocked fridge and pantry. And I mean incredibly... to the point that every time we went grocery shopping, we had to spend a little while rearranging the fridge to fit everything in. And why are they so well-stocked? Sam's Club. My mom likes to buy in bulk. It's both good and bad. On the one hand, you get food for a cheaper price per item/unit of measurement; on the other, you get more than you can eat at any given time. So when we chopped up three bell peppers, we used some for our Christmas Eve salad, and then placed the rest into Tupperware. This turned out to be very handy for us because when breakfast rolled around, all I had to do to make a frittata was to toss all of the pre-chopped veggies into the pan to cook and then transfer to a baking dish and add scrambled eggs. For our morning after Christmas breakfast, we did just that and tossed in some chorizo pork sausage that I bought from Whole Foods. So here's a total list of what went into breakfast:

Chorizo Sausage Frittata

2 links chorizo sausage

8 eggs, whisked

1/3 red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, chopped

1 cup mushrooms, chopped

1 1/2 cup broccoli florets, chopped

1/2 cup of chopped carrots

1 cup of chopped kale

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Heat 1 Tbls olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the kale, toss, and cover with lid. Cook for 5 minutes until kale becomes a darker green. Add carrots and broccoli and cook covered for another 5 minutes. Remove lid and set aside. Add in the mushrooms and peppers and cook for 3 minutes. Transfer veggies to an oiled baking dish.

While the veggies are cooking, cook your chorizo in a separate pan. Start by cooking the full links on each side over medium heat until browned, about a minute per side. Then remove from the pan and slice into pieces. Return to pan and cook for about 2 minutes per side. 

Mix chorizo sausage with the veggies and pour the whisked eggs over the top of the meat and veggies. Transfer to the oven and cook for 25 minutes or until the eggs are firm. Remove from oven and slice into 8 pieces.

Here's the resulting frittata served with leftover potato sausage and a handful of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

After eating breakfast, my parents and I finished up this cute puzzle:

And just to finish off, I want to give everyone a warning about bread in the microwave.

NEVER EVER PUT BREAD IN THE 

MICROWAVE FOR THREE MINUTES!!! 

One of my co-workers did that today with a hot dog bun and OMG does the it smell terrible! The burnt smell has permeated half of the floor so far and someone called our safety manager to report a fire. Yikes.

Christmas Food

Let’s review some of what I ate while I was in Atlanta with my parents. Obviously, I didn't photograph everything. How obsessive do you think I am while on vacation?

For Christmas Eve, my mom made a pork loin pot roast with sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, and potatoes (which I avoided), and a side salad made with red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, cucumbers, mushrooms, carrots, etc.

(Doesn't my mom set a pretty table?)

Christmas day was somewhat unusual. Instead of waking up super early and opening presents like I've done every other year of my life, I slept late and my parents and I ate breakfast together before even considering opening presents. We didn't open presents till the afternoon. I guess my inner child wasn't too concerned with opening presents early.

And for Christmas dinner, we had potato sausage, lefse (Scandinavian potato bread), and salad. I don't know if you picked up on the trend, but there's a serious love of potatoes. Because this meal is a tradition in my family for Christmas, I made a Paleo-xception, and heartily enjoyed it. I don't have photos for the entire meal put together, but below is a photo of the potato sausage being cooked in the pan. After cooking in the pan, we transfer it to oven-safe bakeware and bake it for another 20-30 minutes in the oven. The result is delicious!

Post-Vacation

Well folks, I’m back. I know it's been quite some time since I've consistently posted. And I blame vacation and being lazy. Prior to vacation I was working like a madwoman to meet deadlines. And once I was visiting my parents in Atlanta I was too lazy to take the time to post. It was pure laziness. Instead of typing up paragraphs of wit to share with you, I watched movies and did puzzles with my parents, walked the dogs, and hung out with friends. After a week of being lazy with my parents, godparents, and friends, I returned to Houston for a day so that I could pack for a trip to Jamaica. Yep, I got to spend a week of glorious sun and warmth with my friends. Anyways, what I’m trying to say is that I'M BACK, BABY!!!

Because I'm still not in the swing of blogging again, this is going to be a short post containing just photos. But they're exciting. Why? See below...

I don't think I mentioned this, but I went to an Apocalypse Party on December 20th that was hosted by my friend KAOS. Everyone was told to come as they want to go... So I wore a prom dress. My high school junior prom dress to be exact. Yeah buddy. I fit into my junior prom dress. SWEET! So I have to say that Whole 30 (and cutting out alcohol) worked quite well. I'm thinking of doing it again soon!

I didn't dress up this nicely for New Year's Eve though. Alas, a prom dress wouldn't fit in my luggage to Jamaica. Strange, right? Those photos will be coming... just let me get through the Christmas holiday first. Stay tuned for the next episode!