AUGUST 2017 – OUT OF HIBERNATION

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

If there is anyone still reading this… Hello! I am still around. I mostly Instagram these days (find me @pynnm) but I’ve been missing the blog. You may have noticed that the theme has changed. I’ve been doing some back-end upgrades and it was time to update the look of the blog and ensure that it’s mobile-friendly, etc. (still working on that! some pictures are giving me fits).

The header picture is from a couple weeks ago when I was frolicking around the Caribbean on a cruise for an old friend’s wedding.

I’m hoping that by starting the blog back up (something I have always enjoyed) it will kick start my creativity which has been in a holding pattern as of late. I have not felt like knitting in a long time, and I haven’t been doing much beading aside from brick-stitch seed bead earrings. Obviously this lack of interest in my creative pursuits does not cause very interesting blog fodder. Mostly I have just been reading and taking pictures with my phone. I have switched almost totally over to an e-reader and have been loving it!

Anyway, hopefully this is the start of some more regular posting… I did not spend several hours wading through code and installing new plug-ins to ignore my site for another year (probably).

FASHION FRIDAY: Things I don’t have but would like to have

  1. Black boyfriend cardigan, preferably with 3/4 length sleeves. I just cannot find what I’m looking for – may be forced to make it.
  2. Black open-front cardigan
  3. Something lumberjack-ish. I have been toying with weaving a big blanket scarf for myself. We’ll see. If I could find a cute top I would get that too. I love the plaid, just haven’t really found something that I love.
  4. Giants t-shirt. I have an A’s shirt but somehow have not managed to acquire a Giants shirt. Not for lack of trying. I’m also considering knitting an orange and black striped sweater because apparently I am insane.
  5. Turquoise flats. Still haven’t got myself some, if you can believe it. I want to check Kohl’s to see what they might have. DSW didn’t have any.
I don’t do a lot of clothes shopping these days. One of the things that I think is important to consider when you’re investing time and money into something is: do you love it? If you only like it, or it’s just okay, then you probably shouldn’t buy it. So I shall continue my two year quest for the perfect black cardigan that doesn’t rip in the washer (I’m looking at you, Target and Gap cardigans).
And anyway, I totally don’t NEED anything new… it’s just nice to have. πŸ˜‰

Post Whole30: Reintroduction

So, I muddled through reintroduction of the foods I didn’t eat and came up with the following conclusions:

Dairy is currently not my friend (insert bereft/sad emoticon of your choice here). But it seems to be improving as I try different things out every few days. I suppose the great CHEESE DAY 2016 was maybe not the best way to reintroduce it to my life? Haha. But seriously, I do think I solved the “where is this heartburn coming from” mystery. It was coming from ice cream. πŸ™ πŸ™ πŸ™ Luckily I’m not a big ice cream eater. And… you don’t really need cheese every day, as it turns out. πŸ™ πŸ™ πŸ™

I don’t feel the greatest when I eat wheat products. I already don’t eat that much bread in my day-to-day life, but cutting back on the incessant noodle situation has been beneficial. I find that I don’t really miss noodles, but I will say that I made chicken and mushroom soup gravy over Jason noodles last week and it was as delicious as ever. I don’t feel like there is a gluten issue or anything, just that I was probably eating too many noodles and tortillas previously. So, I cut back to once or twice a week. Actually I haven’t had flour tortillas in the house since January, which is a situation I just realized and am having feelings about. I did have some corn tortillas last week – I made some very excellent shredded pork that made great tacos with avocado, pico, and red cabbage.

Didn’t have a problem with rice, but immediately ran out of rice, so that was kind of sad. I think this week I need to skip Sprouts for groceries and run over to WinCo for some basic stocking up. I need to try making some quinoa soon too, just to check that out. I also don’t eat much beans/legumes so I need to try some more of that soon, maybe make a soup; I have some lentils in the cupboard. I found some low sodium whole food chicken broth at Sprouts that doesn’t have so many weird preservatives in it that I want to try doing that with.

I actually like black coffee now (!!!) so I try to stick with that for the most part. I’m currently trying out various less-chemical-laden coffee creamers, but have yet to find one I really like. The So Delicious Coconut Milk one and Califia Farms Almond Creamer are okay, but not spectacular. I should probably start trying out different coffees that I could really love black and just totally forgo frou frou coffee except for the occasional Starbucks.

Anyway, so really what happened is that I ate a bunch of sugar (a whole tray of Peeps!! they were delicious) and had a couple Taco Bell burritos and basically felt terrible so I’m back on the healthy eating bandwagon. Low carb does seem to work pretty well for me, so I’m still experimenting with recipes (I made a killer beef ragu and chile colorado last week) and now have added HIIT training to my day again. It’s nice to finally feel strong enough again to get back into the weights and flailing around, you know? I’m currently working through Jillian Michael’s Body Revolution again, which I enjoyed the first time, and subbing Beachbody’s Cize for the cardio days. I’m on Week 3/4 in BR and routine 2 in Cize. So far so good!

It’s encouraging to have such a great start to my year, and I’m finally in a better headspaceΒ to keep it up to get where I need to go.