pfffff

This terrible, rotten, no good, very bad weather is seriously doing a number on my motivation.

Usually, I can wake up on a Saturday morning and get TONS of homework done, but alas, today I cannot.

I have spent two hours reading blogs, searching Etsy and looking at my Educational Psych book without taking one single note.

I woke up and it was negative four degrees outside. Time for me to move far, far away from Montana.

Right now, all I want is to cuddle up with a book (of my own choosing, thank you very much literature classes) and sip tea. But I gots so much homeworkieeee, turkey.

The month of April.

Will be the best.

My dad is currently in a line of a million bajillion people in Billings so that I can see this legend on the night before my 21st birthday, April 10th, 2011.

Words can't describe how excited I am to see Elton John. As I was growing up, his music always blasted through the speakers in our living room on Saturday and Sunday mornings. "Benny and the Jets" was one of my first favorite songs and still is. Oh.God.

After the concert, I imagine that I will go out for my first 21 year old drinks with my parents! Pretty wild!

Then I will return home to Missoula, go out Monday night for my birthday with all of my friends and spend all Tuesday in bed/laying on the floor in front of my toilet.

Then on April 22, I will fly out of Bozeman to go here:

I will meet my mom, her two sisters and my cousin, Ivy to celebrate my Aunt Dixie's 50th birthday and my 21st! I have never been to Vegas and I CAN'T FRICKEN WAIT.

Story time.

This is the story about a foolish girl. A foolish girl who thought her love could fix someone and hold a broken relationship together. A foolish girl who loved puppies a little too much. A foolish girl that had more money in her bank account than she should have.

This is the story of my freshman year of college and how I lost the dog I raised. And my attempt at the Sparknotes version of it.

I had the same boyfriend from sophomore year until I graduated. We were butt crazy in love with each other for most of that time. The summer after our senior year, I would walk into his house without even a "hello" from him. He would barely even look up from the video game he was playing. His brothers hung out with me more than he did. But our lives were so intertwined that I could not imagine daily life as myself without him. Stupid, I know.

So we broke up. He was utterly and completely devastated, as was I, but I was ready to move on and apparently he was not.

I came to college, tried the whole "dating" thing and then remembered that I am not a dating girl.

I got back together with that boy from high school. It was comfortable. Everything was great.

One day, while perusing the pet store in the mall I fell in absolute and uncontrollable love with a cairn terrier. I begged and begged my boyfriend for her. He lived in a house, I lived (or at least kept my stuff at) in the dorms.

I named her Isabella. Known as Izzy. She was $600.00. We split the cost. I was loaded from working for Montana senator Max Baucus for the summer. We verbally agreed that if we ever broke up, he would give me my $300.00 back.

To quote Jack Kerouac, "everything fell apart." All of this built up ugliness toward each other came out of us. We broke up. It was particularly ugly and incredibly sticky.

We shared custody of our beautiful dog for about a year.

Then he went inexplicably nuts and told me I could never see her again.

I miss her astronomically. She is my sunshine.

She has more personality than most people I know. She always has to have the last word. She is so cute that I always have to be holding her when she is around. She LOVES walks. She LOVES mornings so much. She always woke me up by running all over the bed, digging on my pillow and licking me.

I haven't seen her since Thanksgiving. It is horrible.

Please excuse my extreme affinity for taking pictures of her with my cell phone.

"The best thing I have tasted all week is my Lipsmackers Vanilla Frosting chapstick" and other thoughts on Clean Eating: Week One.

Yum. Seriously that chapstick tastes good.

So, technically my first week of clean eating isn't over until Monday but I am going to post about it today instead.

For whatever reason, amazingly, clean eating has been so incredibly fun for me. I can't believe how easily I have made the transition into it. Mostly, I think, due to this incredible website, The Gracious Pantry. Seriously, to me, this woman is superwoman. She has TONS of recipes listed on the site, as well as shopping lists, sugar substitution charts and a page on how to make any recipe "clean." I love love love love her site. I made this recipe for Clean Eating coconut curry shrimp on Thursday and it was delicious and SO EASY! For dinner, I am going to make this recipe for Clean eating chicken and dumplings.

So, as I said clean eating was going to be moderately challenging to me as I don't have a kitchen or easy access to one except on my out nights. It actually has been easier than I thought though. Jeff and I went to Costco and Missoula's Good Food Store (which is incredible) and I bought all kinds of good food to store in my room. Right now I have apples, oranges, bananas, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, pineapple, Organic peanut butter, Organic Oatmeal, Organic yogurt, pure maple syrup, honey, some super healthy granola and soy nuts (none of which is processed or contains any preservatives)! All of these foods I eat for breakfast or a snack. In the morning, I usually have some yogurt with berries or bananas. This morning I had Oatmeal with one spoonful of peanut butter and banana. It was delicious!

I am still drinking my americanos with only skim milk and I have come to like them even more!

On one site (I don't remember...too many sites!) it said that with clean eating, you should have three snacks a day, one between breakfast and lunch, one between lunch and dinner and one after dinner. For these, I have been doing fresh fruit.

I have also been drinking A TON of water. I usually drink a ton of water, I have always drank a lot of water. When I was little it was all my parents really gave me, and I have never liked soda. But, when I cut sugar out of my diet, I started getting these really painful, little headaches that would only last a second or two but would happen about every minute or so. But, when I drink water they pretty much disappear! So water is good for that, plus it is just really good for you, period!

Now onto how I feel. Seriously guys, I feel AMAZING. I have noticed a lot of changes in my attitude and my energy from less than a week of clean eating. It was on Thursday that I really began to notice these changes, so it only took three days! Canyabelieveit?! This is what I have noticed: I don't get tired in the afternoons anymore. I used to get so. tired. in the afternoons that I would take a nap or really, really want to take a nap. Now, I go right on through the afternoon with barely any sleepiness or laziness. It is incredible!

Another change that I have noticed is this great mood I am always in! I usually am a really happy person, but I think that I used to go through moods all day. My day would begin fine, then something would annoy me or make me grumpy, and I would be in a bad mood for a few hours and then maybe I would feel better later. This week I have noticed my mood is more stable and it is a really good mood!

My weight has not changed much (unless you think .4 of a pound is a lot!) but I think it will take time (and patience!) for my weight change to show.

I can't believe how quickly and easily I became a healthy eater. I don't think you could pay me $100 to eat Taco Bell right now and that used to be my FAVORITE! Another great resource I have been using is this book. I have discovered that people have incredibly different definitions of clean eating. The author of that book, Dee McCaffrey, is much more hardcore than Tiffany at The Gracious Pantry. With her plan, you wouldn't eat any breads, except the kinds made without any kind of flour. I am taking the easier route at this point as I just started out, but maybe someday I will be that hardcore!

Okay, this is a really long post. I just wanted to tell you guys how great I feel thanks to this plan. I read this statistic the other day that said 80% of what you look like is from what you eat, 10% is exercise and the other 10% is genetics. I am really beginning to believe this.