Five Lessons from the Whole30

We did it!!! One of our resolutions this year was to complete a challenge every month.  For the month of April, we decided to complete the Whole30 Challenge.  If you haven't heard of this challenge, it is, in simplest terms, an experiment to adjust your diet to most benefit your health and body. For 30 days you remove all food that can cause problems for your body (wheat, legumes, dairy, sugar etc.).  After the 30 days you can slowly add things back in to your diet to find your specific triggers. It was so hard, but extremely interesting! I really recommend everyone try it, but before you do, I compiled a list of five things I think you should know BEFORE you start:

1. Reading the book (It Starts With Food or Whole30) is really important. The book is not only super informative, but it will serve as your motivation during the really tough moments.  My husband didn't read the book, and he struggled a lot more with the why questions.  Our society has brainwashed us by claiming so many foods are healthy that are really not all that healthy.  It is hard eliminating foods when you don't completely understand the reasoning behind it. Plus reading is always a good idea!

this book is a great resource

2. You might feel like you are dying. In the book they give you a day by day outline of how you might feel as your body adjusts to your lifestyle changes.  They call it the "carb flu" and say you won't feel very great for the first few days....you guys that is the understatement of the year! I really thought I might die.  I felt absolutely horrible and I would have quit altogether if it wasn't for some supportive people in my life.  My husband didn't feel as bad, so I have a feeling my hormones were to blame, but be prepared because you might get lucky like me.

halfway and feeling much better

3. You spend all your time in the kitchen or at the grocery store. Eating healthy and clean is a lot of work. A LOT. Your kitchen will be a constant disaster and the checkers at the grocery store will know you by name. I did a lot of my shopping and prep on Sundays, but there were still times I had to drag my kids to the store or stay up cleaning the kitchen until 11pm.  You guys the food is a lot of work but it is SO good!

I will never buy mayonnaise again

4. You spend a lot of money. This one goes hand in hand with #3, obviously if you are at the store all the time you are spending money.  You do save money by not eating out, but we still spent a lot more on our monthly food budget then we ever have before. Your diet consists of a lot of meat, good quality meat, and that isn't cheap! Costco has some great options, but it's still going to be hard on your wallet.  Just think of all the money you will be saving from doctors visits and prescriptions you won't need though!

the food is delicious!

5. Brushing your teeth really helps. By far the hardest time of day for me was after dinner.  The husband and I almost always share some treat together, it's our thing.  After dinner snacks, even healthy ones, are not recommended on the Whole30.  I started brushing my teeth right after dinner and it really helped! Some people also recommend sipping on tea, but I'm not a huge fan.  Also when I felt nauseous in those early days, I brushed my teeth a few times a day since gum isn't allowed either.


I really hope these tips help you and you will consider taking on the Whole30 challenge! Let me know if you do and I would be happy to answer any questions that you have :)

This is 2.5

Weight: Sadie is a little over 24lbs.  Last week the girls had a tummy bug and I think they both lost some weight, but she's still under 25lbs for sure. (It's been another week since I started this post, I weighed her again and she was about 26lbs!) 

Height: She has really grown in height recently! Her Christmas jammies are so small on her now.  She is about 34 inches I think.

Nicknames: Usually Sadie with something after it, like Sadie baby.  Also pretty much anytime you try and call her something, she says "no two"

Eating: Sadie is seriously a great eater! We for sure lucked out in this department. She eats pretty much anything now, including corn tortillas! She loves "snacks" and prefers those to anything else.  She also has expensive taste....she loves crab legs and going out for sushi.  In the morning she asks for eggs, toast and bacon or sausage.  When daddy gets up with her on the weekends, she asks for "sench toast".  She still loves to have snacks at grandma's and always takes a ziplock full of goodies when we leave.

Sleeping: Sadie officially graduated to an actual bed! She has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for over 6 months now, but grammy and grampy brought down an adorable twin bed for her to start using and she loves it.  She still goes to bed around 8:30-9pm.  We read two books, say prayers, sing our bedtime song and then one of us will lay with her for a few minutes before we get up.  She was taking longer to fall asleep with us there so we decided to let her just fall asleep on her own.  There were no tears and it's been a super easy process.  I just usually tell her I have to go check on daddy and then she always asks me to check on her too.  She is still taking a nap (although she completely boycotted it on our vacation last month).  I am pretty sure summertime could be the end of it.  She also still uses her pacifier at night.  I wanted to get through potty training before we gave this up and now we are flying in June so I think we will say goodbye to it after that trip.  It seriously never leaves her bed, so I am not that worried about it. 

Diapers: No more diapers! We started potty training Sadie about a week before she was 2.5.  She had a rough first couple of days, but that was mostly my fault.  After day 4, it just clicked and she has been near perfect ever since. The biggest lesson I learned, was to just go with your kiddo and ignore all the other advice (this should pretty much be the only parenting advice accepted about anything actually).  Sadie has great bladder control and always wakes up dry.  I was forcing her to try and go every 40 minutes or so and she was getting really frustrated because she didn't have to go.  Finally, after a day full of accidents, I was ready to throw in the towel for awhile.  However, that day of accidents really helped her figure out how to control the flow :) She also really prefers to go on the big potty and I love that because it is so easy to go anywhere now.  She has really done great and we are super proud of her! And no more having two in diapers!!!!! Party!! She is mostly in 18 month clothes now, some 2T and some 12 month depending on what it is.  Size 5 shoe and she gets herself fully dressed now, including the outfit selections :) She has quite the fashion sense, I clearly don't grasp the levels of her taste. 

Social: Sadie is really growing up! She doesn't really show any separation fear anymore and LOVES her class at church.  She is very bossy and is always telling her sister "no too shap" or "no touch Eyah" or "big mess Eyah".  She actually loves to clean up her own messes and I don't hate it.  The other day she wanted to "help" feed Chesney breakfast and she dumped the whole thing of dog food in the garage.  I was trying so hard not to lose it, but she actually insisted on cleaning the whole thing up, I ended up feeling kind of bad!  She is also on a total manners kick.  If you compliment her she says "tank you mommy" and *usually* when you ask her to do something she says "yes mommy/daddy/gaga".  I know this won't last forever, so I am going to enjoy it while I can. 

Likes: eating (especially snacks or treats), anything girly, BOOKS, anything Frozen or disney, grandma, music and dancing....see list below....

Dislikes: having help (she yells "no I do dat!), being told "no" (although she loves to say it!), when her sister or friends takes one of her toys, sharing in general, when her favorite plate is dirty (usually the purple plate)

Mommy: Sadie is such a little mini-me.  Sometimes we all agree that it's like watching a little Brittany run around.  Of course this also means she gives me a run for my money! She is so fun most of the time, but I am a little fearful of those teenage years since I know what I put my own mom through! 

Daddy: Sadie loves her daddy! They have SO much fun together! She always asks if daddy is at "werk" or "socker" and she says she misses him and wants to do "monsta tucks"(they roll around pretending to be monster trucks and she loves it) and go potty (he always takes the girls to change and go to the bathroom when he walks in the door lol). 

Furbabies: Sadie loves animals and our pets are no exception.  She will ask to pet the kitty now because she is a little scared after he "hit" her.  So she gets really excited when she pets him and she says "kitty no hit mommy!"

What we are looking forward to:  It has been so much fun to watch her talking evolve.  Her vocabulary grows right before our eyes.  Last night in bed, she kept talking about her elbow....I don't know why I felt like that made her seem so grown up, but it did.

I feel like Sadie changes and learns new things every day, so these lists were so hard to make!!!

Sadie can.....

-identify all colors, these have finally clicked and she loves to read her new book about colors

-say her "ABCs"....she mixes up a few letters for sure, but can sing along with the majority of the song

-walk on the balance beam, do a somersault and a straddle roll.  She LOVES her gymnastics class and she seriously flies through everything now.  The teacher usually asks her to show other kids how to do stuff, and she loves that.

-remember EVERYTHING! I had to stop telling her what we were doing tomorrow or after nap because it was making her wake up too early.

-remember lots of lines and pages from her favorite books. 

-do so many things independently....get dressed, drink, eat, put on her shoes, go potty (although we get to come in for the super fun wiping part), and most importantly entertain herself!

Sadie LOVES.....

-to talk ALL the time....

-gymnastics class

-music still and is taking her second music class.  She looks forward to it every week!

-to read still.  She will literally sit forever just "reading" through books.

-to do art. Painting is her favorite. She also likes to color and use do-a-dots.

-to sing to herself when she wakes up.

-to eat snacks out of ziplock bags

-pretending to be a mom....she nurses her babies and rocks them to sleep. 

-to sleep with a million stuffed animals and baby dolls

-to do things all by herself

-watching the movie Madeline when she is sick....we seriously know every line

-to help her sister smile for pictures...she pretends to snap her fingers and says "eyah, eyah"

Current favorite words/sayings:

-while reading books before bed she said "pick nose mommy" and handed me a booger....usually she eats them :(

-while putting on her shoes I was singing "one shoe, two shoe, red shoe, blue shoe" and she said "no black! Silly mommy!"

-any time you say you're welcome Sadie, you're so sweet Sadie, you're so cute Sadie etc. she says no I'm two!!! And holds up four fingers....

-any time we find a toy in the wrong place she says "silly daddy"!

-the other day, daddy said he had a strawberry with her name on it in the kitchen....that expression went right over her head and she was SO upset that the strawberry didn't actually have her name on it

-whenever she doesn't know the exact name/difference between things she says "other"....the neighbor's down the street have two dogs and one is named Lilly....so Sadie calls them "Lilly" and "Other Lilly"

-whenever she is "disciplining" the dog or her sister she says "lissen me" and gets right in their face

-whenever you tell her something exciting she says "oh tank you mommy" 

-she always talks with her hands and so much expression....it's like a window into her teenage years!

-her new thing is missing people so she likes to say all the people she misses...the other morning she said she missed daddy and I said he missed her too and she says" no daddy missed me yesterday"

12 Months

Weight: She was 16 lbs and 15.5 ounces at her 1 year checkup....which puts her at almost exactly the same size as her sister at one and puts them both in the 15th percentile 

Height: She was 28 inches at her check-up....again identical to her sister :)

Nicknames: anything about being wild or crazy :) stinker, stink butt, E-yah (Sadie's name for her), Ella Bella, Sister, Baby, Ellie, sweet girl, pumpkin, peanut, monkey

Eating: We have been slowly weaning Ellasyn off of breastfeeding.  Right now we are at two times a day and who knows how many at night.....I feed her when we first wake up and then some time around bedtime.  I never wanted to start the habit of nursing to sleep (not that my kids would have done that anyways!) so sometimes I feed her at 6pm and sometimes not until 8pm.  Ellasyn really loves food! She still throws things when she is done or doesn't like something.  Sadie never did that so sometimes I forget to keep my eye on her, thank goodness for pets, my clean-up crew! She likes meat!!! steak, chicken, sausage, and she finally likes cheese (weirdo!).  She won't really eat eggs and she has a love/hate relationship with ice cream.  She also loves to carry pieces of food around with her and by carry I mean she has a death grip!

Sleeping: Ellasyn still sleeps right in between us.  I am not sure how many times she nurses at night because I don't really wake up to notice.  She has had a few rough nights lately with a cold and teething, but she also has had some mornings where she slept until 7:30 and even 8!!! Woo! Most days she is up by 7:30 though and only on really bad days (like my birthday) does she get up a little before 7.  The morning nap is getting a little iffy...on days she sleeps in, we usually skip the morning nap because otherwise it gets too late and I don't want to interfere with my double nap time later on.  If she does take a morning nap, it is usually about 30-45 minutes in the stroller or car seat.  Her afternoon nap is in our bed, although if she's fighting it, I let the swing still put her to sleep and then move her.  This nap is almost always an hour and a half, although I wish it would be longer! 

Diapers: Still in size 3 diapers and size 3 shoes. Her clothes range depending on what we put her in because we just have little girls' clothing all over our house! I would say most of her clothes are 9 months though. 

Social: Ellasyn is really starting to come around with strangers.  She actually loved her doctor's appointment and she likes her class at church (even though she cries when we drop her off and pick her up).  She is slowly growing her tight inner circle and loves to explore as long as it's on her own terms....don't you dare try and leave the room without checking with her first! She is such a smart cookie too! She understands simple commands (go get the ball, give Sadie a book etc.).  She loves to pretend to talk and she can say "bye", "hi" and we are working on animal noises with her (Sadie says "what kitty say eyah???"). She squats when she pretends to help us look for things (mostly pacifiers!).  She was so cute in music class and really participated.  The teacher was blown away by how much she joined in! 

Likes: being chased, playing with her sister, climbing everything (everything), eating, being silly, dancing, singing, any toy that sings or plays music, music class, pretending she is a part of gymnastics class, grandma, her daddy, riding in the cozy coupe, and bath time. 

Dislikes: being dropped off at church, occasionally getting dressed or getting her diaper changed (but there has been some improvement....it doesn't sound like she is being murdered anymore), still not a huge fan of car rides, when she doesn't get exactly what she wants #temper, when you leave the room without checking with her, when she has something taken away or we have to go inside

Mommy: The last few months have been crazy with two fully mobile kids! We had the best time though throwing an epic first birthday party and celebrating our sweet Ellasyn.  

Daddy: Busy, busy, busy! We are so excited summer is coming! 

Furbabies: They love Ellasyn and her food throwing ways! Ellasyn loves to pet the kitty, but she isn't a huge fan of Chesney. She pretty much just tolerates her kisses.

What we are looking forward to: Summer! We can't wait to make our annual summer list!