Gluten Free, Take Two:Wheat Free.

If y'all remember, just over a year ago I did a Gluten Free diet for two weeks, to see if it would improve my health at all. Nothing was wrong with me at the time, that I could tell at least. But for all I knew, I could have been living on 50% power my entire life and not known it.

Two weeks happened, and nothing changed. So I crossed that off the bucket list, and moved on in life.

Well, here I am 14 months later, going back to it, with a whole different purpose.
I'm getting in shape.

As all of the health experts say, in order to lose weight, you have to worry about your eating style as much as you worry about your work out plan.

So, I'm getting serious about this.
As you read in the title, I'm only doing wheat free this time, since it doesn't have to do with potential food allergies. But even so, it is amazing how much food that cuts out. It has been a fun time trying to figure out what is and isn't okay to eat.
Basically, I keep myself away from anything but homemade food, which is definitely a bonus for my wallet.

I have been at it for a week already, and it hasn't been as hard as I worked it up to be before.
There is no finish date set at the moment.
As long as I can stand, I guess. I would love to go for at least a month if I can manage it.

And on the exercise end of it, I have been going to the gym twice a week. A mixture of cardio, arm and leg toning, and core strengthening.
The goal is obviously a six pack :). And I actually think I am quite close.

I have been using Pinterest quite a bit to find wheat free recipes, and this one in particular is quite delicious.

BANANA OATMEAL MUFFINS!

The banana in the name will fool you. It does call for two bananas, but I have made this recipe twice now, and I could not detect any banana taste either time. Which could be a good thing, for those of you out there who are not huge fans.

I added chocolate chips to mine the second time 'round, because if you are used to sweeter things, it can seem a little plain and bland, but sometimes that's good.

Here goes week 2!

1+1+1+1+1+1=?

Happy Birthday, Blog!

6 years ago yesterday, I decided I would give this Blogger thing a try, and here I am, still typing away after all this time.

I know that my posts of late have been infrequent, and probably not all that entertaining. But I'm not going to shut shop down just because of that. I created this blog for myself, and I am still writing in it for myself, so if readers come and go because of a lack of commitment on my part, I'm not too crushed about it.
This is for me, keeping a personal record of my past for when my memory fails me in the future.

ThingsILoveThursday

1. Lego House- Ed Sheeran (Have I mentioned he is opening for Taylor Swift in June, and I just happen to have a ticket to that show. Yay!)

2. Tearing through the house to get my camera before the moment passes.

3. The anticipation of an adventure. Stay tuned for exciting news!

4. Tostito chips with a hint of lime.

5. Reading. These days it seems as if I never pick up a book, and it saddens me. I used to read for hours on end. I am not even half way through a book I started a whole week ago!

6. Movie night.

7. My bed. It is most comfortable. I can say that I even prefer it over nice hotel beds.

8. Getting flooded by memories.

Acting like a child.

You know how little kids have more fun playing in the boxes of presents at Christmas rather than the actual presents?
Well, that is like me, when it comes to this package that I got from Romania.

When I ordered the ring, I had no idea where it was coming from. I assumed the states, or Canada since the shipping was a decent price. But then this lovely little surprise came in the mail, and I could not contain my excitement. I spent the first ten minutes just staring at the packing, not even bothering to open it.


In the end, it turned out that the ring didn't even fit, so maybe it was best that I wasn't all that interested in it anyway.

Cliche New Year post?

Well.


Hah.

I don't know what to say.
I told myself that resolutions were not going to happen this year.

But.
I can't not have at least one.
It's tradition to have resolutions just so you can feel disappointed at the end of the year when you don't accomplish them. :) I'm all about tradition.

So this year I will:

1. Read the unabridged version of Les Miserables.
2. Find somebody that I can kiss at the stroke of 12 next new years. (there is a little more in that one, but not really something I want to go into on here.)
3. Have a 1 month goal for every month.
4. Achieve something that will make the whole year seem worthwhile.

There, I have the perfect mixture of vague, and so very not vague.

Number 3 is humorous.
The thing is, I have realized I have an addiction to coca-cola. And I told myself I would have a resolution to help me with that. But the thought of going without it was just too much to bear. So Coca-Cola will be my January goal. And by the end of January I will have thought up something for February, and so on. My hope is that by going off the pop for one month, I will stop craving it, and not want it anymore anyways.

Number 4 sounds a little strange. Depressing almost, but I really don't mean it to be that way. I don't feel as if life is meaningless in the ordinary day to day living. I'm actually very okay with it. But I feel as if having one big thing to look back on can also be very satisfying.
My Europe trip was definitely the achievement of this past year.
There were so many aspects of the whole thing that taught me so many different things. I am very glad that I got to experience it all. And as I'm already learning, the bad parts make for excellent stories.

Happy New Year, everyone!
I'm ready to go out of my way to make 2013 amazing, and I hope you feel the same way.