10 Things You Didn't Know About Me | Our Story

Last week was a fun blog to write! I got to share more about my husband, the guy behind the scenes who encourages me, helps me, and has such a great heart for the people around him. However, it's only fair that if I get to share ten things you didn't know about him, that I share about myself as well.

This was kind of hard to write. On the one hand, I'm glad I don't have any deep, dark secrets. On the other hand, this post would be a million times better if I hit you with something big at the end. But hopefully in reading a few things about me you'll get to know me a little better, and find something in common with me. Like my fear of straws. Yep. Just read on.

1) I have a fear of straws. If you eat out with me, you'll notice I just set mine to the side and drink straight from the glass. This comes from a story about someone piercing their eye with a straw once, and it scared me to death. It's probably not true, but I take no chances.
2) Family pets were my THING growing up. We had hamsters, guinea pigs, turtles, hermit crabs, more guinea pigs, a duck, and eventually, a dog. Nathan wants no part of this for our kids, so I'm secretly hoping they'll start the begging early.
3) In high school I ran one season of "indoor" track. I roll my eyes at that because the only thing that was indoor about it were the meets, and it was in the dead of winter. Y'all, I was cold. And I swore I'd never run again. That changed, but...
4) I wanted to wear glasses SO badly when I was younger. I have no idea why, because of course I ended up being the only kid in our family with the bad eyesight. Don't worry, I rocked some sweet train glasses all the way through 8th grade. (Yes, it was scarring. Now I wear contacts)
5) I'm obsessed with mugs. We have a million random mugs from all over. In fact, we even got rid of our pretty stoneware mugs just so I could keep my collection.
6) I drive a manual (stick shift). It makes me feel pretty cool, at least until I get stuck in traffic.
7) Nathan and I are gluten free, at least for the most part. For him, he gets inflammation from gluten. For me, I read 30 Days of Real Food and never looked back.
8) After visiting Portland last year and being totally unprepared for it at the time (aka we took the worst route possible), one of my personal goals is to summit Mt. St. Helens.
9) I have a thing with grapes. It's bad. If I buy them, I will usually finish them that day - before Nathan even gets home. It's an addiction.
10) Since we moved overseas when I was just a baby, I actually learned both Chinese and English at the same time. I could speak Mandarin and the local dialect fluently by the age of 4 or so, and my mom used that little advantage to get some great deals at the market where we shopped.

And coming next week...the part of our story before we met! Watch out for it next Monday.
Last week: 10 Things You Didn't Know about Nathan

What I Learned through Whole30 // Monday Musings

A little over a month ago, I began a journey through a month of completely clean eating. This meant no sugar, dairy, grains, gluten, or legumes (and for those who don't know, peanuts are legumes!). When I first started, the task seemed a little insurmountable. My diet consisted of so many of those things each day, I wasn't sure what to eat, and in no way did I want to go hungry for even a day, let alone a whole month!

What I discovered has profoundly changed the way I think about food, hopefully forever. If you haven't done something like Whole30 yet, I'd encourage you to do it immediately. While it was extreme, I can't imagine what my life and food habits would be like going forward without having learned what I did. Here are some of my major takeaways, with more to come, I'm sure!

1) There is added sugar in EVERYTHING.
I don't know how I didn't notice before, but food manufacturers add sugar everywhere. Chips, lunch meat, rotisserie chicken, crackers...the list goes on. I was dumbfounded. Even without eating a daily dessert, I imagine I was still meeting more than my daily quota of sugar. There are also insane amounts of chemicals in almost all processed foods, but that's a whole different story!

2) I wasn't eating enough fat.
Some of you will cheer at this statement, but a lot of people are still under the misconception that fat is bad. It's not! And if you don't believe me, read these articles: Everyone Was Wrong: Saturated Fat Is Good For You; 7 Reactions to a High Fat Diet; Rethinking Fat; and more!
Either way, I wasn't getting enough because I thought I shouldn't be eating much! I went through a time of getting daily headaches this summer, and I'm realizing that a lot of that, and my general brain fogginess, was due to a lack of fat in my diet. I need fat to feed my brain. So do you. So eat (good) fat!

3) I eat a lot.
I kind of knew this about myself, but one big aspect of my Whole30 was not losing weight. Since I knew I was eating only extremely healthy foods, I didn't worry about portion sizes. I simply ate until I was full at each meal. And you know what? I eat a lot. I eat more than most of my friends. Sometimes, after a hard workout day, I can eat as much as my husband. That used to bother me, but I've realized that's just how I am - and I'm ok with that!

4) I can't do Whole30 forever.
Well, maybe I could, but I shouldn't. Once you get the hang of it, Whole30 feels like a security blanket. You know exactly what you can and can't eat, no guessing! It's restrictive, but so freeing to know that you don't have to worry about making good choices or not. But even though I can't stay in it forever, I do know that from here on out, I'll be eating a much more Whole30-like diet. And when I do choose to grab a dessert, I am going to enjoy it SO much - because it's going to be way fewer and further between!

What about you? Have you ever tried Whole30 (or something similar)? What's keeping you from trying it out?

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