Where in the world have I been?!

I know, I know, It’s been forever since I’ve posted. Life has gotten B-U-S-Y.

I’m an old fart now – so there’s that.

BUT – I have some very exciting news (which is also a little frustrating) as well as some developments on my shoulder injury 🙂 To boot, I’ve been going through a crazy cool coaching program with Chris LeBlanc from Primal Athletics – he and his wife Hollie truly rock and I am so grateful to have met them both.

The new food program I’ve been on has been quite the journey. I’m only 6 weeks into a 12-week “Transformation” challenge. The first week was very VERY hard. The volume of food to meet my minimum calorie requirements vs what I was eating before (or shall we say, undereating) was a huge eye-opener for me. It was physically impossible, in the beginning, to fit that much food into me! I honestly didn’t think I could push through. Yet, here we are… week 6 and I’m absolutely starving for week 1 again haha 🙂

Total weight loss so far? I’m not telling 😛 You’ll just have to wait for my transformation photos at the end. I want to shock the pants off you.

The food I’ve been eating is actually not as bland and boring as some might assume. Yes, there IS a lot of chicken. Yes, there IS a lot of broccoli… but I’m also eating bagels and yogurt and so much fiber that my bowels are thanking me 🙂

Pictured above is the typical chicken I cook every 2-3 days. In the beginning, I was doing a lot of alternating between ground beef, white fish, tuna and chicken but… I’ve actually grown sick of ground beef and fish so for the next few weeks, I’m going to be doing JUST CHICKEN for my lunch and dinner meals. I know what you’re thinking – “Aren’t you sick of chicken?! ” … I’m amazingly not. It’s the easiest protein to get down and it’s SO versatile. You can season it so many different ways and get a different “flavour” profile with your meals.

Food Prep has become my entire life. Literally. Every week I have to plan out what I need to buy, followed by food-prep cooking for the next few days. I usually cook up an entire 2 cups of rice in my Instant Pot, weigh and portion my required servings, throw it into baggies and freeze it. Frozen rice is the easiest carb to add to your meal plans. You can either take the baggy out the night before and let it thaw in the fridge prior to re-heating OR even whiz it straight from frozen in the microwave for about 1 minute… and it’s PERFECT!

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like this is my first bout of meal-prepping. I’ve done it for YEARS. I’m not usually a spur of the moment eater – as sad as that sounds. But the planning for THIS program has truly tested my ability to plan. Gotta admit, I think I’m doing just great 😉

You might be wondering – is that a REGULAR bagel? Like…. GLUTEN!?

Yes, yes it is.  Because this girl? After 8 weeks of consuming the very thing that used to make her sick… well she’s tested negative for celiac both in blood and biopsies. I couldn’t be happier. I feel like I can breathe a HUGE sigh of relief. Albeit bittersweet.

While I’m happy for the news I’m also unhappy to know that my mystery illness is still just that – a mystery. *sigh*

I am going to start working with an Immunologist this month to try to dig deeper into what is causing my debilitating symptoms. For those of you who don’t know what that is – feel free to check out MY STORY.

On top of that news – I’m finally back to work like a regular contributing member of society! And my shoulder is holding up quite nicely – thanks to some free active release therapy sessions I’ve received from someone 😉 To further my healing along, I’m meeting with a Sports Medicine dr this month for an assessment of where I’m at and we’re going to work on strengthening my mid-back muscles.

All imaging results showed NO disc damage in the cervical spine… so HURRAY! 😀 I will post about this entire injury journey in more detail soon.

In the meantime – that’s the short of what’s happened while I was gone. And where have I been exactly? Working for the benjamins (since this is Canada, the proper term would be “working for the monopoly money”), food-prepping and working out… that is literally my life right now. I honestly don’t think that’s going to change!

I digress – It’s time for me to go cook some more food. I’m working on some new recipes to post soon – Stay tuned!!

Love, Peace and Coconut Grease my friends 🙂