Decluttering Fun

Day 5 of the De-Clutter was Medicine Cabinets. To make this more effective, I also cleaned the bathrooms and under the bathroom sink. We started with the kids bathroom and got rid of quite a few things (some in to that "if I ever have a yardsale again pile) and some in the trash. So after we cleaned the bathroom, we did a small project.

Declan and Abigail each picked out stickers and we applied them to small mason jars. In each jar goes their tooth brush, a tube of travel tooth paste (seems like we have a never ending supply of kids' travel tooth paste) and floss in Abi's and the timer in Declan's. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, Abigail would say.

Cleaning out my medicine cabinets and under-the-sink storage was not as much fun, but I did reward myself with a project as well. After a few trips to Hobby Lobby, I finally decorated the big empty space over our bed.

All in all, a good rainy day in the Alwine house!

The first day is always the easiest

Isn't that the truth?! Well, I prepped yesterday and this morning to make the first few days easier on me. I'm working full-time this week and that means quick dinners and pre-packaged lunches are necessary. I am following Our Paleo Life's Whole 30 Meal Plan for Week 1.

The only thing I am not sacrificing is my coffee. Call me names all you want, but I can do Whole 30 while having one cup two cups of coffee with creamer. And I will.

So I had breakfast mid-morning with Abigail. She had grapes with her eggs instead of avocados. I had a good chicken salad for lunch (I was too hungry to take a picture). It had grapes, apples, bacon, and veggies.
I had some sweet potato fries for snack this afternoon.


Dinner was amazing! I had prepped the veggies for the Minestrone Soup the day before and they cooked in the crock pot for about 6 hours before I added the sausage. Which then cooked for another two hours. It smelled so good! Declan had two bowls. Steven and I packed some up for lunch tomorrow as well. Day one of the Whole 30 went well.

Coincidentally, today was de-clutter your fridge day. Luckily I had started his project Saturday when I first went food shopping, because I wouldn't have been able to fit all the produce and meat in my fridge for this week. So, I checked the freezer for things that should be tossed and called it a good day.

I hope tomorrow is just as easy. 

September Reset

I do not think its coincidental that Day 1 of my de-clutter challenge starts with my fridge. It aligns perfectly with my Whole 30 plans for September.

I tried Whole 30 in July of 2013 and I was incredibly successful for 10 days. I felt great, I wasn't hungry, I wasn't snacking, I felt strong and I lost some weight. So, I can only imagine how good 30 days will feel. My lovely husband has agreed to do this with me.

Whole 30 is clean eating at its most basic. No dairy, legumes, sugar, grains, etc. Lots of veggies, fruits, meat. Sort of like Paleo, but the Whole 30 is designed to be a temporary reset, its not meant to be maintainable. The premise behind 30 days is to eliminate all the potentially harmful things from your diet and then slowly add things back in to see how your body handles those groups of food.

So, I found a meal plan online specifically for Whole 30. It is even includes a shopping list. So, off I go to the store. With time to prepare and chop vegetables all weekend, I should be good to go. I'm looking forward to some of the meals.

September DeClutter Challenge

I've never been a clean freak. I've never cared too much for cleaning. A lived in house is a happy house. My house isn't dirty, it just isn't clean. Know what I mean?

Anyway, clutter drives me insane. We've been in this house for almost two years now, and I am feeling the need to pare down and de-clutter. So I found a 30 day de-clutter schedule. I figure 15-30 minutes a day on each of these days will be easy enough to do. And by the end of the month, I'll have less clutter. I hope.

Here is the printable I'm using, if you want to follow along.

I'm starting on September 1, with my fridge. Stay tuned for some updates as I clear out the stuff in my house.

Catching Up

I'm embarrassed I haven't blogged/posted since March. I've been busy, I promise! Not busy enough with running and lifting, but busy.

Since the end of March I've logged 115 miles of running. (That doesn't look too bad, actually.) And some of them at very, very early hours of the morning.

I'm working on hitting 100 miles from June 1 to Sept 1 and I have 5 races scheduled for the fall. I haven't been lifting much at all, as I'm still nursing a hurt shoulder, but I plan to get back into that as well. I am using September as a big reset month for me, which I will tell you about once I figure it all out.

Until then.... I'll just Run. Lift. Rest. and Repeat.

Smolov - Part 1

I declared in February that I wanted to hit 750# for my total of squat, bench press, and deadlift. I started the Smolov Squat program in March to work towards that big number in squats. I completed the first cycle today.

Original 1RM: 185#
Today's 1RM: 205#

Monday I start the second cycle, which is 5 weeks long. I'll squat three times a week, approximately 30 reps each day with an odd formula of weight and reps. But so far, this has worked. I'm excited to see what happens after 5 more weeks!

Race Report: Sentinel Pursuit 8k

I'm in the light purple, in the front of this pack.

I have been in a running rut since the Spartan Race, but I had already signed up for this race, so off I went this morning. The 8k distance is equivalent to
4.97 miles. I ran this race last year and knew the route and was not worried about finishing, but I wanted to go faster than last year. And .... I did!

I started off with a 10:53 first mile and then sailed through the second mile without any walk breaks. (This is HUGE!) I set a personal best on my 5k throughout this race, hitting 35 minutes even. I finished the race in 57:31, over 3 minutes faster than last year. I was very, very pleased.

I really think this was the push I needed to get back in the game. I'm not going to hit 50 miles in February, but I will be trying again in March.