Author: julesfarm@yahoo.com

It felt good to get back to work at the Food Truck yesterday. Two weeks is a long time away! It was just a tad hot outside yesterday, but that didn’t seem to keep any customers away. We were super busy, and even though it was HOT HOT HOT outside, people were ordering burgers like crazy! Yesterday…. Breakfast, Blog, Laundry, Food Truck, 3 miles on the Treadmill and then a little down time with Netflix. For dinner, I made this Shepherd’s Pie that was DELISH!! I don’t think you can really mess up a Shepherd’s Pie. Sauté lots of veggies, add a little broth and maybe some tomato paste and simmer, add some seasoned cooked meat, stir. Place in a casserole dish, top with mashed potatoes and bake. For my veggies, I used celery, carrots, onions and green beans. Broth? I used Trader Joe’s Organic Vegetable Broth. Meat? Ground Beef. […]

Yesterday life felt like it was back to normal. Yay! We ate three great meals. I drank all of my water. I knocked several things off of my “To Do List” and I walked 3 miles on the treadmill at an incline. After the treadmill, I showered and dressed as though I was leaving the house. I never do that. After a workout, I typically spend the rest of the day in my workout clothes, or if I have no plans, I shower and put on PJ’s. It felt good to get dressed. I feel like when I’m trying to pull myself out of a slump, getting dressed as though I’m going out can help. It did. I put some music on outside, made myself an Iced glass of LaCroix and sat under the umbrella while I grilled a Flank Steak.   The steak was amazing! 6 minutes on each side. […]

Between not blogging, very little cooking, no activity and not working at the food truck, I’ve had no routine whatsoever for the last two weeks. As much as I do like to change things up a bit to keep life exciting, I really do appreciate a routine. Having a routine puts structure and organization in my life, and those two things help to keep me in my happy place. Getting out of my routine for a long period of time starts to make me feel overwhelmed, then I kind of lose myself. Yesterday I got myself back into a routine, and at the end of the day, I was feeling more like Julie. I focused on my “To Do List” and avoided any TV news. I got out of the house and ran a few errands. I spent the afternoon doing food prep for the week. I walked 2 miles on the […]

  These last couple of weeks have pretty much sucked. Sure, there have been good moments in the last several days, but my general optimistic mood has been tough for me to maintain. Update My back is no longer having any spasms, but it is still really sore in the same area. I went to the chiropractor 4 times last week, and he really did help stretch out the area where the spasm was. When I went to the doctor’s office last week, they prescribed a muscle relaxer and suggested that I come back if it was still bothering me after 10 days or so. They discussed lab work to make sure there isn’t an issue with my kidneys or any other problem that may be revealed with lab work. The chiropractor also said that the area that is sore is where my kidneys are and that a trip back to the […]

This has not been the best last few days and I really miss my daily routine. If you read my blog regularly, you know that I’ve had a muscle spasm in my back for several days. Each time the muscle spasms, it only last about 3 or 4 seconds, but on a scale of 1-10 in the pain department, I give it a 10. It’s intense! I think that back pain is the worst. It’s such a debilitating feeling.  Thursday – Muscle spasms start while getting dressed and continue throughout the day. Ice and Advil. Friday – Spasms all day. Iced 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off and as much Advil as allowed. Saturday – Chiropractor. He told me that I had a dislocated rib. He relocated it. It wasn’t fun. Spasms. Ice and Advil. Sunday – The absolute worst day of all. Spasm every 20 minutes or so. More ice and Advil. Monday – The hubs took me […]

We’ve had to take a little Time Out from the Whole30, and it really stinks. Thursday morning, I was stepping into a pair of pants when my back cramped up. Not lower back stuff, but right in the middle of my back, on the right side. It feels like there is a knot the size of a grapefruit and it has continued to seize up/cramp/contract since then. After some coaxing from my girlfriends on Friday, I went to see the chiropractor on Saturday morning. Going to the chiropractor scares the living daylights out of me, and after an exam, he told me that I had a rib out of place, which freaked me out. He put my rib back where it is supposed to be, he gave me an all over adjustment, which I despise, and he told me to ice on, ice off every 20 minutes for the next few days. […]

Yesterday went really well and I swear I feel better already. It’s a mental thing. I’m aware. I made breakfast for me and the hubs. He’s been working from home quite a bit lately, so no need to prep his breakfast the night before. Now we just eat breakfast together like a real couple! Every morning now feels like Sunday. My planned one hour workout for the day? Mow and edge the lawn before it got too hot. That plan ended up being a 90 minute lawn mowing, edging and weed pulling session that had me overheated and dead! Egads it was HOT! Hydrate! Hydrate! Hydrate! After my resurrection, and a cold shower, I met my mom for lunch at Panera. She walked in the door and said that she was too hot to eat. I wasn’t really hungry for lunch yet anyhow, nor had I decided what I would order. She had […]

“Think of the Whole30 like pushing a “reset” button with your health, your habits and your relationship with food.” The Whole30 You can read my Whole30 Recap from last year to get a better understanding of what Whole30 really is. In a very brief nutshell, the Whole30 is 30 days of eliminating several foods from your diet, and not snacking in between meals. After 30 days, you may reintroduce foods (one food group at a time) and determine if those foods cause you any problems, then decide if you want to reintroduce that food back into your diet permanently. There are a lot of No’s on the Whole30.  NO….Grains, Dairy, Sugar (real or artificial, this includes honey and maple syrup), Legumes, do not recreate Baked Goods or Treats from Whole30 approved foods (pancakes, ice cream made from frozen banana’s), NO Alcohol and NO snacking in between meals. Why Whole30? The […]

It has taken me several days to even attempt any sort of a routine since coming back from my trip. Thursday, when I got home, the fridge was empty, and I never did make it to the grocery store. Mike and I went out for Mexican Food for dinner that night and we caught each other up on our week away from one another. Friday morning I did go to my Weight Watcher meeting, but after indulging in Chips and Salsa and Beer the night before, I did not weigh in. I had plans for a round of Whole30 starting on Saturday, and I knew that my vacation weight would be off soon. Mike and I had no social plans for the Holiday Weekend, so starting the Whole30 on Saturday, July 2nd, didn’t seem like any big deal to me. Mike had suggested that we start the Whole30 on Tuesday, […]

This post has taken me way longer to write than I had anticipated. I know that I have all sorts of typo’s and grammatically errors, but you guys forgive me, right? Mike and I don’t  think that we have ever been apart for seven nights. I don’t think that either one of us realized just how much we would miss each other! Needless to say, these last couple of days have been really nice together and we’ve enjoyed our long weekend. We had planned to start the Whole30 as soon as I came home, and after a failed day one, we’ve decided to start the Whole30 on Tuesday, July 5th. We’ve discussed doing the Whole30 about every three months or so, just to get back to the healthy basics, and I think this sounds like a good plan. Okay, that’s my mini version of what’s been going on here for the last two […]