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I made it to bed at 11PM last night and, although I thought I was tired, didn’t fall asleep as fast as I thought I would.  Oh well.

Every Thursday for the past five years I’ve met with a small group of men.  It’s an early day as we meet at 6:45AM and I’m 20 minutes away.  So when the alarm goes off at 5:30… I realize I should have been in bed sooner.

This also means that I don’t get much of anything to eat before leaving the house, and since we meet at Dunkin’ Donuts I don’t really have any options when I get there. (Look, don’t judge.  DD is a convenient location and we only buy coffee… remember, I’m gluten sensitive).  I do love the look of the staff every Thursday when I hand them my coffee mug and already has my Ghee and coconut oil in the bottom.

The rest of the day is unremarkable, honestly.  Lunch was yet another salad with lots of mix-ins and celery/apples with almond butter as a side.  I have some nuts throughout the day… and otherwise I only have to struggle to ignore the snack closet in the kitchen twice today.  So far that’s probably the one thing that I just can’t get over… how used to snacking on little stuff I am.  Even though I’m not hungry in the true sense, I just love to have something to crunch on.  It’s a really hard habit to break.

Laura is being amazing (nothing new) by helping to prepare separate stuff for me.  So, when I get home, she has kept chicken out of the noodles and just put some stir-fried veggies with it.  So, that was dinner.  Again, I’m really trying to listen to my body more and realize that if I’m getting the munchies, I should just grab some water or (in the evening) some ginger tea.

As for everything I listed in the first post that I was going to try and be aware of, honestly I don’t notice much yet.  Nothing big with the skin. Nothing terribly noticeable with the voice/sinuses.  So, it’s certainly not a step backwards, but I can’t claim any major changes yet.

On to day 5…

 

So, yeah, that 3AM beeping by a child’s toy seems to have really messed me up.  The alarm went off at 6AM, and I thought I was going to stay up, but next thing I knew it was 7AM and I didn’t feel so zippy.  Darn.

Getting ready for work feels like a chore, but I do get a lunch made (mostly the same as yesterday), have a few slices of bacon that the family has out as part of their breakfast and I grab a banana on the way out the door.  Not the best start to the day.  Interestingly enough, though, I don’t feel super hungry as I’m going about stuff to get out the door.

At work I take my time eating the banana and sipping on my BP coffee through the morning.  I make myself head out for another, longer run at lunch.  A bit more effort than yesterday, but again, it’s not because my body is out of energy/carbs.  I just haven’t been running consistently lately.

Lunch is almost a copy of yesterday (I’m thankful the Laura is able to have groceries available to do this experiment)… which again, I take my time with as I attend a 1.5 hour meeting.  I sip on Kombucha again, but that’s been a habit for the past six months, so nothing unusual there.

Nothing big to report in the afternoon, except that I definitely am feeling a bit run down and starting to develop a headache.  I’m definitely a teeth grinder.  Making music all of my life, part of it is a bad habit I’ve developed since childhood of making rhythm’s with my teeth.  I don’t often realize I’m doing it.  That, coupled with the fact that I’m clenching my jaw more because I don’t have things to munch on (even though I’m not hungry)… seem to be contributing to the ache.  It doesn’t help that I think something is going on with a tooth… something I started to notice two weeks ago.

I’m home at about 6PM and have a simple, but good, dinner of organic beef (from our own pasture) and veggies.  There’s some avocado and cucumber on the table too.  The headache is a bit more bothersome, but it’s definitely tied to my tooth hurting too.

All of that aside, one thing that’s striking is that I am not ever actually “hungry” today… at least not in the way I’m used to.  I continue to feel an urge to crunch on something (man, those pretzels keep calling me from the pantry)… but I’m not “hungry”.  Just interesting.

Because I was intentional about getting up and preparing good food for breakfast and a lunch to take to work, I started this day well.  Spinach and fruit smoothy, two eggs and a few walnuts.  I made my “bullet proof” coffee with Ghee for the first time and it seems to taste better than the grass-fed butter I normally use.

I also just finished listening to chapter 5 of the book, which did a wonderful job of explaining how all of the hormones work together with food and our energy levels throughout the day… as well as our cravings.  I’m pretty tuned into that today.

I feel great through the morning (although again, I want to just keep chomping on nuts at work) and I have no problem taking a gentle run before lunch.  No energy issues sans-carbs for 48 hours now.

I take my time eating lunch which consists of salad and organic chicken sausage, celery and almond butter, and my homemade Kombucha.  Honestly, I feel good throughout the rest of the day.  At 5:30, my awesome wife brought me broccoli and chicken for dinner when she dropped of the older kids for me to run around to lessons through the evening.  I eat that and an apple while one of our daughters has her violin lesson.

By the time we get home in the evening I have some work to do, but I feel full and am aware of my cravings but also know why I have them now… having trained my hormones for years to follow this pattern.

So two days in, I have no problem with the eating or things I am giving up.  Sure, I want a few M&M’s in the afternoon when I go into the kitchen at work… but no biggie.  Nothing else physically has noticeably changed.  Maybe there’s less drainage/post-nasal drip… but that’s really hard to judge at this point.

I’m in bed just before 11PM and fall asleep easily. Unfortunately, I’m awoken at 3AM by a child’s electronic toy gone crazy and, although I fall back to sleep quickly I’m not in good shape at 6AM when the alarm goes off.

As expected, this isn’t a big deal yet.  It’s 24 hours.  In general, the two “big” thing I have to change from most of my day-to-day diet is leaving out dairy and grains.  Since I’m Gluten sensitive, there are a lot of things I’m used to giving up… but also more and more that I can now substitute when I have cravings.

I’m listening to the companion book, It’s All About Food, at the same time which has been helpful.

Observations

I have two observations initially:

1. I’m not specifically hungry at any time, but my tendency to be a “snacker” (even healthy stuff) is noticeable.  Therefore, my jaw/teeth are already sore from clenching a little in the absense of munching on stuff.
2. At 9PM, I’m generally overcome with the need to eat something.  It’s obvious to me that this isn’t because of any hunger pains, but rather habit.  I’m just used to satisfying my cravings with something crunchy… like gluten free pretzels.  Arg… I really want to crunch on something.

 

Overall, if you look at me, I look pretty healthy.  I can run a few miles without much effort.  I don’t binge on sweets much and my diet is somewhat controlled because I’m Gluten sensitive.  I’m not overweight.

However, I don’t feel great, consistently for more than a few days at a time.  Between chronic sinus issues, “weekend warrior” pains and strains, and never getting enough sleep trying to accomplish too many things, I’m far from the picture of health.  As a husband and father of five kids… now in my 40s, I desperately want to feel better, more consistently.

And I’ve know this for a long time.  In fact, for the better part of 5-6 years I’ve told my wife, Laura, that I feel like I need to just cut everything out, start with a really simple diet of something and then build up from there. At this point, the Whole 30 feels like the best option I’ve heard about in years.  So I’m diving in.

The things I’m going to try and pay attention to:

• Sinus issues, drainage, allergies
• Sleep patterns and energy levels
• Performance in exercise
• Vocal performance (I’m a singer, and my voice has just been out of wack for a while)
• Some chronic skin dryness on my forehead
• Overall cognative abilities… how much “fog” to I feel from day-to-day

Here goes!  🙂

On a lunch trip to McDonald’s today I saw this sign and just couldn’t help but laugh.

So, as is to be expected, it’s been two+ weeks since I’ve posted. ARG! But, no frustration here. 🙂

This morning, as we continue to wait and hope for this little baby to come (due date is tomorrow and Laura is MORE than ready), I have been living without much of a schedule. This means that I’ve worked late, gotten up late and arrived at work late (but then again, I was working late… so…). It also means that I’ve taken little to no time for reading the Word or simply praying.

This morning, actually getting up at a decent time (although still later than I should) – I got ready for work and decided to grab the guitar – yet another thing I swear I’ll do a few times a week but never get to. Honestly, I don’t know why I don’t grab the guitar more. If the house is quiet and I can just strum through a few basic chords – the Holy Spirit always moves in me. It usually takes a long time for me to get past the “if I just do this chord I’ll sound really good and then maybe I’ll get discovered and make a CD” thoughts. Once I’m past those, then I have to lay down the “let me find the perfect words to express how much God means to me – which of course I can then make into a song that I’ll sing at church and everyone will love me…”. Sometimes this happens more quickly – sometimes I’m just a dope and it takes a while. I’m a fleshy human I guess.

But, what I love is when I can get past those things and just find a melody that calms me down and actually begins to open my heart. This is the part where I should interject that with all of my “frustration” lately (from a Christian perspective that is) that one of the notes I’ve written down a few times in recent months is “worship seems so effeminate to me lately. I don’t feel much like ‘this is the air I breath… and I’m desperate for you’ during corporate worship with female voices leading.” I’m not saying that’s a good attitude at all, just that when I say “it begins to open my heart” – I know that there is actual work going on in my spirit that’s beyond the temporal. I love it when the Holy Spirit actually just moves past my junk. 🙂

Back to this morning. As I was playing through some chords – an old song came to mind that was perfect for this Valentine’s day. It actually moved my heart to a small time of worship. I was reminded that in all of this, the good, the bad, the frustrating – even when we’re (sometimes impatiently) waiting for our new child – God’s love is better than all things.

Your love is better than all things
Your love is better than all things
And I don’t have the strength of words
To tell You truly how I feel

Your love is better than life
Your love is better than life
And I don’t have the strength of words
To tell You truly how I feel

My God, You are the only one
For me, the only one for me
My God, Your love is better than all other loves
And now You’re drawing me
And I just want to be closer to You

Want to get closer
Got to get closer to You …

Today, worship and this music doesn’t seem so effeminate – it seems very real and very personal. That’s a good way to start Valentine’s day.

I found this on another blog – and it’s just to funny! Enjoy!

So, it’s official. I’m starting a blog. In general it’s because I feel left out – everyone’s doing it and has their own little place on the web to rant, talk, think deeply – or just ramble because they don’t have enough else to do late at night.

But, mostly, I’m doing it because my wife, Laura, finally decided to do a blog… and it’s inspiring! In the span of a week, she’s changed my view of what a blog could be. The only blogs I typically use are technically minded when I’m searching for a solution to problems at work. But Laura’s stirs my heart.

I’ve been telling her for at least a year now that I thought she’d enjoy blogging because of her love for thinking life through on paper in a journal. Her heart is constantly working through things in a journal until they eventually come out in a conversation and it becomes – “I wish I could share this…”. And now she is. And I’m excited about it. In a way, I get to see a side of her that I normally don’t – unless I crack open a journal of hers when she’s not looking. :-).

So, based on that, I’ve decided to try it. From time to time I feel like God is stirring my heart to share something as well – although I rarely end up knowing how to articulate it. But hopefully this becomes that place. Only time will tell.