How To Get Happy and Skinny

Dang, I feel my cheeks changing to a flush, red, embarrassed color and the confess sesh hasn't even begun. But it's about to. So buckle up.

I've done tons of chat on this blog about hormones and how mine seem to be struggling. How did I know they were struggling? Well, because sometimes I found myself in the fetal position on the couch crying over spilled milk. And sometimes I had absolutely no energy from 5 pm on. And sometimes I experienced a week or two of unexplained bad moods.
Something was off and it was completely affecting my happiness so I started attacking this little issue with a vengeance. I felt very justified when I went to the doctor and blood tests showed that most of my hormone levels were outside of the "normal" zone.  Enter Dr. Reiss into the picture. And natural supplements. And quite a few $$$.
And admittedly, my energy level increased. My moods seemed more stable. And unarguably, I got fatter. Truth.  I whined about that, too, on the blog also. Unfortunately I got on the scale and those numbers affirmed what I already knew- pounds were being a packed. Like 10 or 11. Now this might not seem like a lot but I'll tell you something else-- and feel free to hate me because of it; I know how we all love to hate skinny people-- but I haven't gained weight (nor does my weight really fluctuate) outside of pregnancies in a good 10 years. Yeeesssss I'm for real and  nooooooo I'm not sorry about it!
So I knew something was off. And so I went crying to Dr Uzzi. He changed my supplement regimen. And I also decided to start "eating clean." Don't you hate hearing fad words like eating clean? I do. It makes me hate them and whatever they stand for right away. I know, I'm such a rebel. And an ignorant one, at that.
But don't you all worry, I ate my words, as I'm so very used to doing.  I started trying to consciously eat even more natural, fresh produce and lean proteins than I was already doing. I tried to start eating less processed foods. I tried to eat more often and really "fuel" my body.
I was doing my darndest to be all sorts of modern hippy and trendy. And guess what? It was making a big difference. I just felt good.
Then I decided to get my IUD out.
Soon after, I read this article on "A Blog About Love" about eliminating PMS. In it, she talked about how eliminating milk products had helped decrease her PMS to almost non-existent. You know when you read something and can just feel that it's talking to you? Well, that's how I felt. I was especially inspired how she talked about working harder for her happiness than she'd worked for anything else. It really helped me to realize the focus and dedication I needed to point in the direction of my diet. I've always thought I was a bit lactose intolerant or something of the sort but never did much about it. I decided to hugely concentrate on eliminating most dairy products. (I still eat a lot of Greek yogurt and use nut milks. Admittedly, I guess I haven't researched to see if those are dairy products or not. Point being, my body reacts fine to those.) The affects of this little test were phenomenal.  When I started getting loosey goosey and eating dairy again (insert a 5 day ice cream binge), I was shocked at the complete drop in energy, ambition, and mood. Honestly shocked. But it reaffirmed the truth about how dairy affects my body.
A few weeks after working on eliminating dairy, I decided to really cut down on soda and hugely increase my water intake, especially in the afternoons.
Somewhere around then I also completely stopped taking the hormone supplements.
And the result of all this??
You guys, I am happy and (kind of) energized and stable (as much as a crazy mom can be) and feeling ambitious and positive about life.
And I'm skinny again! (I don't have a scale to know if or how much weight I've lost but I'm actually fitting into my clothes again.) I have to note that I don't necessarily think it's the clean eating that helped me slim down. More so, I think the increased hormones I was taking probably made me gain the weight so when my body was back into balance, the weight came off.
I'm sure taking my IUD out helped. (I'm sure not having a baby or being pregnant for 2 1/2 years has helped also!) But I contribute A LOT of this new state of being to changing my diet. And that is kind of embarrassing to me. Maybe embarrassing isn't the word. Humbling might be more accurate. I thought the resolution to the problems I'd been having the last couple years were beyond my control, but alas, they weren't. I just needed to gain a little bit of knowledge and A LOT of discipline! So, of course, when I discover something insightful, enlightening, etc, I like to pass it on.
Hope sharing this might help someone a bit! I know we're all just trying to make it through this journey with our head above water and a little bit {i.e.: A LOT} of happiness!
Happy Monday:)
***************************************************************** I'm a totally newbie on the whole eating clean idea, but here is a list of what I've been eating. These days I tend to eat a lot of the same things.

1) Smoothie

handful of kale and spinach

1/2 pear

1/2 frozen banana

ginger

1 T pistachios

1 cup unsweetened Almond milk 5 ice cubes

If I'm drinking this smoothie after a workout, I'll add a scoop of protein powder.

2) Eggs

I like doing 2 over easy eggs over a bed of spinach and then putting Franks hot sauce on top. (In my opinion, brand matters for this...Franks is bomb.com. I order mine off Amazon.)

Also delis with pico and avocado.

3) Cook a serving of lean turkey. Add pico de gallo while cooking. Eat over a huge ole bed of spinach. Put on Franks hot sauce. And diced avocado of course.

4) Microwave sweet potato for 3 1/2 minutes. Put on plain greek yogurt. Sprinkle generously either cinnamon or garlic powder.

5) tacos

wheat tortilla

meat

spinach and lettuce

pico de gallo

plain greek yogurt (tastes like sour cream)

6) grate a white or yellow onion into lean hamburger meat. Add nature seasoning. Form into mini patties. Eat either alone or in a corn tortilla. Serve with pico and salad.

7) Plain greek yogurt. Add honey and cinnamon. Add granola and fruit.

8) Apples and peanut butter

9) Almonds

10) Lara bars

Would love for you to share any clean snacks or meals you're loving right now. I really could stand to eat more than these 9 things!

*** I also loved reading this article as I was dealing with weight gain/loss.