Happy New Year!

Well, I'm a few days late, but happy New Year anyway.  We're at the end of the first semi-normal, no sickness, almost non-holiday week we've had in a while.  The kids started back at school, and hubs worked more than 40 hours, so we're starting to drift back into our routine.  I realized after a week of Jubee being sick, then a week of Sam and me being sick, then Cam being sick, on top of travelling to Missouri for a quick, whirlwind Christmas visit, we really needed our real routine.  A routine that didn't involve watching cartoons all day long (like we did when we had the plague) or punching one another (which the kids seem to have gotten in the bad habit of doing) or eating incredible amounts of sugar and processed grains.

Today, I turned off the tv.  It's been going better than anticipated.  Usually, when I realize that too-much-tv watching has snuck up on us and I turn it off, we spend a week in the throws of withdraw, whiny kids begging to watch cartoons every five minutes, until they get used to it.  Today, though, they are playing happily together.  Which is awesome because...

Jan 2nd, I started a Whole30.  I do need to lose some weight, but I'm actually doing it not primarily to lose weight, rather, to detox a bit off of sugar and bread and beer so I can lose weight.  I actually eat pretty well generally and I move around quite a bit, so I think that my extra weight is a consequence of eating horribly from the age of 15-25 and hormones, plus I'm a 30-year old woman who had two kids 14 months apart, which, as you probably know, isn't very good for your gut. 

This is the picture of myself from Christmas present opening at my sister's house that convinced me that I needed to do something.  I normally wouldn't put a picture of myself online like this, but this is the motivation I need.  When, in a week or two, this becomes hard and I want a brownie or an IPA, I have something to deter me.  Haha.

So, I'm about 2.5 days into eating nothing but meat, eggs, veggies, fruits, good fats and oils, and nuts.  I can have coffee, which makes it a whole lot easier, nay, possible.  I haven't even had any food cravings or urges to speak of yet, and I'm not lethargic or stressed, which is what usually happens by the first afternoon when I restrict my diet in any way.

Cam's job is going really well, too.  His supervisors like him, he likes his work, and we are really blessed financially because of it.  That's pretty much the best you can hope for less than a year into a new career.

That's our beginning of 2013.  We're starting it happy, healthy and hopeful, which is means it can only go downhill from here.  Haha, I'm totally kidding.  If there's one thing that's been pretty consistent my whole adult life, it's that just when I think things can't get better, they do.  That doesn't mean that rough things don't happen, it's just that they don't seem so bad in the broad scheme o' things.