getting healthly – NourishingWhole

Whole30 Pork Sausage

I am doing another round of Whole30, this round I am doing with some friends. Well, we are spread all over the place, but we are doing it together. It is really fun to be able to share with the others.

This is not my first Whole30, nor my first January Whole30. One thing that I have noticed with Whole30, is that there are THOUSANDS of recipes. Of those thousands of recipes, most of them call for some random hard to find, unicorn ingredient.

SERIOUSLY!?! Isn’t Whole30 about eating real food, and making real food accessible to busy people? So why does your recipe call for salt mined by virgin unicorn breeders?

This has been something that has been frustrating for me. I find a recipe, it sound delicious, but it calls for some ingredient, that I can not find or is only available at speciality places. I am not one to order or drive hours away to get the one ingredient. So I just don’t make the recipe.

When I am not Whole30-ing, I will play with the recipe, maybe use a similar, yet not compliant ingredient in place of the specialty. One of these experiments lead me to make my own complaint substitute. AND IT IS DELISH!

I really enjoy spicy foods, so this pork sausage has a bit of a kick (I think it could use more, but Mr. Wonderful says it is hot enough). It is great for Italian dishes or with just some sauted zucchini or carrots. Plus, since ground pork is cheaper than pre-made sausages, it is cheaper! So save a little and try this!

Note: I use a mortar and pestle to grind up the fennel seeds. Mr. Wonderful does not like fennel, but if I grind it up, he doesn’t notice it. You can leave it whole if you wish.

Whole30 Pork Sausage

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

15 mins

In need of a simple sausage recipe for a Whole30 meal? Try this pork sausage.

Ashley Teare: Ashley Teare

Serves: 2 pounds

Ingredients

2 lbs ground pork
Spice Mix:
1 tsp Italian Seasoning (OR ½ tsp basil, ½ tsp oregano)
2 tsp Fennel seeds, crushed
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp parsley

Directions

In a small bowl, stir together the spice mix.
In a large mixing bowl sprinkle over the spice mixer and mix until well combined.
Divide into 1 pound portions, use or freeze.
To brown: Over medium heat cook, using the back of a spoon to break up. Cook until no pink remains.

Egg Yolks

Last week I shared with you my basic gluten free bread recipe. If you got a chance to try it, you got left with 3 egg yolks! I hate having wasteful recipes. I know that eggs are not that expensive of an item, but 3 yolks is a lot just to toss.

One great use for egg yolks is homemade Mayo. I do not have some amazing recipe. But I have a few I love:

The Kitchn: Immersion Blender Mayo (uses 2 yolks)

Nom Nom Paleo: Mayo (uses 1 yolk)

Our Paleo Life: Lime Mayo (uses a whole egg, but I think next time I bake bread,I am going to try using all three with this technique.)

These three recipes, are similar, but use different processes. I haven’t made mayo in my vitamix, only because I don’t really want to clean it afterwards (I am lazy, and it doesn’t go in the dish washer.)

I know this isn’t my own recipe, but I think everyone should know, or at least attempt to make their own mayo! It just adds something extra to anything you us it for.

90 Days In

April 1st, marks us at a just over 90 days into the this year. While I never came out and posted my goals for the year, I made some. There is the classic lose weight and get healthy, be more organized, and don’t go crazy. But I didn’t want to set myself up for failure with some crazy, lose 60 pound goal. I wanted to actually feel that I was making changes for the best.

This is the year that I get healthy, lose weight, and enjoy life.

Side plank, couldn't do this last year! — Side plank, couldn’t do this last year!

I then broken down this overall goal into small stages, with evaluating at the quarter. The first quarter, January through March, is over and I am not sure how I feel about it.

One thing I wanted to do, was a 90 day Whole30, made it 30 and crashed and burned. I have been meaning to do another 30 day round, but with the move, my mind has been elsewhere. (Have I not given details on our cross country move? I will have to work on that.)

I also wanted to finish Jillian Michaels 90 day Body Revolution. But I also want to run. Doing both, keeping a running training schedule and doing an intense daily workout program, was hard and I needed to listen to by body and not burn myself out.

With running, I have a goal to run 500 miles this year. Right now I am at, 48 miles, which is way under where I should be. (I should be logging 125 miles a quarter, about 40 miles a month, 10 miles a week, and running 4 days a week puts me at needing to run about 2.5 miles a day. To catch up, I neeguarwd to up to 4 miles a run day.)

The other thing that I am doing is trying to follow the recommendations of my doctor, taking the supplements that I need to for my deficiencies and not eating all the foods to which I have intolerance. I am not suppose to eat; gluten, dairy, legumes, corn, and sugar. (Basically, Whole30 is what I am suppose to eat all the time.) My original plan was take one out a quarter, compounding it. Gluten first, followed by dairy. Gluten has gone well, I have not willingly consumed gluten (I might have accidentally eaten some, but never on purpose.) Dairy, is going to be hard.

Overall, quarter one, was good. Workouts happened, and health changes are happening. Looking forward to improving and continuing onward.

Fight like a Cactus

A few days ago on Instagram, I posted this picture:

I talked a little about postpartum depression, and I wanted to talk a little more about it.

First off, IT IS REAL. It manifests differently in people, and in some people it triggers other things. For me it was this weird fog that was consistent for almost 3 years! I was just kind of existing. I jumped into a bunch of parenting groups thinking it would help me find myself. Instead, it just made me crazy busy and exhausted. Parenting groups are great, I learned a lot and make some really great close friends.

But what I was missing was finding myself after baby.

This is something that isn’t talked about, how to find yourself again after baby. I don’t think I could do this topic justice. I want to share how I got out of the fog.

NUMBER ONE: You, not someone else, needs to recognize you are being true to yourself.

Going to get help, because someone else is telling you, can make it harder for you to see that you need help. If you are like me you just dig your heels in and fight back.

NUMBER TWO: Find the help that works for you.

This is hard. I tried what I thought was everything; acupuncture, counseling, essential oils, medications. Nothing really helped. Then I tried, just being healthier; diet changes, exercising, and just getting outside. This helped the most. It wasn’t until an underlying medical issue was found, that the fog lifted.

NUMBER THREE: If it works, DON’T STOP!

Seriously. Why change what works? I know we get bored, but stick with it.

Fighting for 3 years, is a long time. I am grateful Mr. Wonderful didn’t walk away, I wasn’t best wife or personal to get along with. Am I 100%? Nope, I am still working on getting back to my old self. Everyday I get closer, and it helps me to see the improvements that I have made, just like my little cactus.

Body Revolution Phase One: A Review

Phase one is over, two weeks of workouts 1 & 2 and two weeks of workout 3 & 4. It has been hard, but I am impressed by my results.

I started this program Jan 4th at 214.6 pounds. Sunday Jan 31, I am at 202.6 pounds. 12 pounds!

I have been following the workout schedule, mostly. I try on the Cardio days (Wednesdays and Saturdays) to go for a run. Sometimes the weather doesn’t allow for that, so I will do the video. And when I am extremely sore on Sundays, I do a Yoga video.

The program comes with a food guide which limits you to about 1200 to 1400 calories a day. But I am not following that. I am doing Whole30, and try to stay under 2000 calories. I have been averaging right around 1600-1800. I am not sure how accurate calorie counting is, or how helpful it is. But it has helped me to keep from just binge eating, just because I think I am hungry.

I have been posting on instagram almost daily, follow me: @ashlgetsfit.

I haven’t seen any miraculous changes yet, but I have noticed, my pants not being super tight, a tighter tummy!, and I and feel muscle building in my arms and legs.

I am mostly enjoying the workouts. Sometimes I wish they would just move a step faster between sets. So I sometimes will just move ahead, or take a breather.

Workouts 3 & 4 are a big step up for 1 & 2, so I am nervous about phase two, but it will be good.

January Whole30: Day 26

I can not believe that this January Whole30 is almost over, and I have not been writing about it. Let me give you a brief overview of the things we, as a family, learned so far this month.

Mr. Wonderful learned that changing your diet is HARD!

He was really surprised that at work he was finding himself jealous of people eating non-compliant foods. He told me he never realized how hard it has been for me to make these changes and developed a new appreciation for how hard I try.

Vegetables are CHEAP

I have been really surprised at our last few grocery bills. When I try to keep the bill under $100, I usually don’t make it. But our last 3 trips where right around $80. And this month, was the first month that we didn’t blow out the grocery budget. (I will say that we did go over, but only by $4.74!)

Workouts

Other rounds of Whole30 have just been purely about the food. This time I have been working out too. And I have motivation to go workout and I am finding that I am pushing myself. And the scale, whoa! It is moving! (Yes, I know weighing yourself is breaking a Whole30 rule, but I am doing a challenge with some friends and we have to weigh in weekly.)

Cooking Creativity

This came along as I was either lazy about preparing dinner or because I chose not to get something because of cost. Sweet Potatoes are great bases for almost anything.

Children model our behavior

I think most of us know this already, but it has really been shown to us. Mr. Z turns 3 soon and is pretty good about eating vegetables. He has even told Mr. Wonderful he needs to eat more!

It has been fun and an interesting experiment for our little family. I am glad I decided to do this as a family. I know it will help make the next two month easier.

January Whole30: Day 4

Four days down and 26 more to go. I really find these first two weeks to be the hardest. Last night after dinner, I wanted to eat a giant fluffy chocolate chip cookie. Instead I just ate another serving of dinner, with more gravy, and some grapes.

Grapes, why do they still sell grapes with seeds! Seriously, can we at least label them?

Otherwise this round of Whole30, which is the fourth I have started, is going great. Mr. Wonderful is doing well with it. He was a complete zombie Saturday and Sunday, he took 3 hour naps BOTH DAYS! This morning he was up and ready to start the day while I was still hitting snooze…

As for Mr. Z and his Whole30, that ended Saturday, when he couldn’t keep anything down for hours until we got him some saltines and apple juice. Also, telling a 3 year old, “No, you can’t have Cheerios for breakfast, how about eggs?” Only works until he sees the box of Cheerios… But we don’t have any milk, and so he just eats it dry. At least he is off dairy.

I have been doing daily workouts. Currently I am doing Jillian Michaels’ Body Revolution. It is a 90 day program, with 30 minute daily workouts. (Sunday, is technically a rest day, but I am going to be doing Beachbody’s 21 Day Fix Yoga Fix to have a more active stretching rest day.) I started on the first, but since it was a Friday, I have officially started today which makes my projected finish date, April 2. At the end of the month, I might repeat a week or two of Phase 1, depending on how strong I am feeling.

I am obviously not following the prescribed diet plan, since I am doing Whole30. I am planning on doing Whole30 for the whole 90 day program. I do have a “cheat” meal planned though. I promised Mr. Wonderful that on the 31st we would have homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner. (This is the recipe I will use–>HERE)

Budget Tips:
I told you that I would share budget tips as we progressed through this January Whole30 so here is one that requires some time, work, and freezer space, but yields delicious bone broth.

Save your vegetable scraps and bones!

I keep two bags in the freezer, a bone bag and vegetable bag. Each are a one gallon freezer bag. I put in the scraps throughout the month. When both bags are full, I dump them into my crockpot with some apple cider vinegar and about 10 cups of water. I let it cook for 24 hours and strain away the bones and vegetable remains. Then you can pressure can, or freeze it. It doesn’t take much active time, but you now don’t have to buy broth.

If you choose to freeze it, you can freeze it in different size portions. I like to do a ¼ cup and tablespoon portions.

Broth pucks, 1/4 cup portion of broth frozen.

Running Dreams

When I started running for fun in 2012, I thought I wanted to go all the way. I was enjoying running 10k races. I was slow, slower than molasses in January.

I am still slow.

But for years, I have dreamed of qualifying for Boston. The Boston Marathon.

Let’s be real though, I don’t actually want to run the Boston, I thinking you have to be a special kind of crazy to want to actually run it. I just want to be able to run a marathon at or under 3.35.00, which is my age group qualifying time.

I want to do this before I turn 36, and then age up into the next age group.

I have 6 years to do this.

In October of this year, I started. Slowly, slowly pounding the pavement getting ever so slowly ready to run my first marathon.

I am starting slowly, this year, I am working improving my 5k times.

My last 5k was run in March 2015, with a time of 39.08. See how slow I am! Well, to start my very long road to Boston, I decided to start running a 5k every weekend. Look at how I have improved over just the 5 Saturdays in October.

Date	Total Distance (miles)	Total Time	Average Pace
3 Oct	3.46	54.06	15.37
10 Oct	3.61	53.44	14.53
17 Oct	3.67	56.58	15.32
24 Oct	3.54	51.40	14.37
31 Oct	3.52	50.09	14.15

I am following a C25K app, and using MapMyRun to track my Saturday runs. I have really liked tracking my distance and time on Saturday’s it really helps me to see, that I really am improving.

For November, I am planning to continue my Saturday 5K runs and am registered to run two races! This is usually the time of the year, I pack up and stop for the winter, I am trying to stay strong and motivated, so I can start strong in the spring.

Budget: Price Comparing

Have you ever gone price shopping? I hadn’t until today.

On Friday, Mr. Wonderful got paid (wahoo!) and our fridge was E.M.P.T.Y. I had to go to Wal-Mart for something specific. (Digression: I really hate shopping at Wal-Mart. But I live in a fairly rural community and sometimes without ordering online, my only choice is to shop at Wal-Mart. I try to not support this chain, and try very hard to shop elsewhere.) I figured, since I was at this one store, I would do some basic grocery shopping, so I wouldn’t have to take Mr. Z in and out of the car more than was needed.

I went to get just a few basics, and thought I had done a decent job on cost. After Mr. Wonderful got home, I told him that I did some grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. He looked at me, and shocked says, “What! We can’t be that poor. Please tell me Winco is cheaper?”

Well, I didn’t know. So today, while I was in the next town, and since I needed to pick up some more groceries, thought, why not see where was really the cheapest place to shop.

Grocery Item	Wal-Mart	Winco
Lunch Meat	(Great Value 9oz) $2.98 ($0.3/oz)	(Foster Farms 8oz) $1.98 ($0.24/oz)–taxed +0.12
Aidell’s Apple Chicken Sausages	$5.44	$4.98–taxed +0.30
Bars original hot dogs	$0.98	$0.98–taxed +0.06
Chicken Tenders	(Foster Farms) $5.52/# ($0.35/oz)	(Just Bare) $5.38/14oz (0.38/oz)–taxed +0.32
Ground Beef 93/7	SALE $4.78/#	$4.98/#–taxed +0.30/#
#5 Red Potatoes	$2.47	$1.98
Spinach	$2.88 (16oz) (0.18/oz)	$1.98 (10oz) (0.198/oz)
Green Leaf Lettuce	$1.88	$1.78
Bananas	$0.52/#	$0.48/#
Green Grapes	$1.48/#	$1.38/#
Carrots 2# bag	$1.32	$0.98
Hot dog buns	(Great Value) $1.28	(Winco) $0.98–taxed +0.06
Sub-Total (assuming 1# of /# items)	$31.53	$27.29
Tax (Only applicable to Winco)	—	$1.70
Total	$31.53	$28.99
Difference		$2.54 less

Is it worth it for me to go to the next town over to grocery shop to save about 2 and a half dollars?

That’s a personal question. I know people who, would tell you that gas alone makes it not worth it. But for me, who would like to not shop at Wal-Mart, and because I already go to the next town for other things, it is practical for me to shop and save that $2.54.

*Idaho Food Tax* I live in Washington state, there is no tax on food (junk food and soda is, I think). The next town is in Idaho, where they have a 6% tax on food, which does not apply to produce (banana, carrots, oranges, raw vegetables, frozen vegetables are taxed.) This is something that I have always wondered if it made a difference in our budget. If you are an Idaho resident, there is a grocery tax credit. For more information on Idaho’s grocery credit look HERE.

Budgeting, 3 months later.

Well, it has been 3 months since we decided we really need to start budgeting, and really controlling our money. 3 months of budget meetings, saving receipts, checking the bank statements and writing down everything.

In the last 3 months we have learned:
-we really have no money
-food is ridiculously expensive
-medical expenses kill your savings
-we are poor
-having “fun” money, will save your sanity
-budgeting to splurge, makes the splurge more fun
-living at the poverty line is no fun

Budgeting is really hard. Especially when, you take your paycheck and put it to every bill and then there isn’t even enough for groceries.

Our end of the month budget meeting for October and the beginning of November, really had us questioning, is this working? November is month 4 we should be seeing improvements, or at least that’s what all the gurus say. This month we had to dip into the student loans we took out in August. The loans we were really hoping we wouldn’t touch and could say we don’t want more. The loans that we had to use to buy groceries this week.

This has got us thinking, what else can we do to cut expenses? Go down to one phone? Have me go and get a night shift job? Should we apply for some government assistance? What can we sell?

This Sunday was our Church’s Fast Sunday. We decided to fast together as a couple about what to do.

This is what we know we need to do:

Get our savings back up as fast as possible to at least $1500.
Payoff and close that last credit card.

We could just completely drain our savings and pay of the credit card. Be done and able to stop having one more payment due off of our first paycheck every month.

But what if anything happens? What if we have a major car repair? What if someone has to go to the hospital? What if?

Praying for an extra $500 to just appear, is impractical.

Does budgeting get easier with more money?