Serves 4
Recipe adapted from Camilla over at the Power Hungry Blog!
Serves 2.
Check out my complete, step-by-step video on how to make your own almond milk! I swear it’s SO much easier than you think it is!
Links to all the products I used are in the details section on You Tube!
Typically whenever I find myself with an abundance of eggs, I try to make a recipe that needs a bunch! We’re lucky enough to have farming neighbors who share their eggs with us and this week those chickens were on a roll! So I decided to whip up something with coconut flour. If you’ve never baked with coconut flour, it requires lots of eggs!
I’ll typically slice this bread up and eat it for breakfast throughout the week! I smear it with almond butter and chia seeds. And sometimes banana! So yummy and filling.
So over the years, I’ve had so many friends that have said they “know nothing about make-up” and don’t know how to do anything. They’ll usually just use mascara, but anything beyond that seems too complicated for them. Lucky for me, I guess, I grew up with 2 sisters that were 10 and 11 years older than me who both were awesome at make-up and a mom who loves make-up as well! I grew up around it and learned about it over the years. Plus, I’ve spent a fair amount of time YouTubing make-up tutorials…
So, with those credentials, I somehow ended up being the one to do all my friend’s make-up in college and my friend’s make-up now any time we get ready together. And I actually even did my sister’s make-up for her wedding! So I thought it was time to make a tutorial video just for my friends that need someone to start at the VERY beginning and walk them through everything. So I hope this helps and let me know if you have any questions or other video requests! I’ll list the products I used at the end of this post…
Products Used:
So I’ve seen pictures of me at like 6 or 7 where I was wearing a 2-piece at the beach and very clearly didn’t care or notice the rolls on my stomach when I was sitting down. What a time to be alive! I’m pretty sure I became painfully aware of my not-so-flat stomach once I started cheerleading in 3rd grade. A friend of mine on the team was VERY skinny and she often made comments about other girl’s weights. I can remember playing in the backyard with her and we were both wearing sports bras. She looked over at my stomach and made a face and a puking sound…and thus, my lifetime self-consciousness was born.
From then on, I obsessed over my stomach. I would wrap my hands around it and look in the mirror, wishing I could just cut it off and look like Britney Spears. By the time I was in 6th grade, I had hit a growth spurt and really thinned out…but I still had a little pouch on my stomach. Starting in 8th grade, I decided enough was enough and my eating habits got a little out of control…for the next 2-3 years, I dealt with obsessive calorie restriction and anorexia. Whatever serving sizes were, I cut them in half…and then cut them again. I never ate breakfast, so that wasn’t a new thing. But come lunch time, I’d take a single bite out of a few things my mom had so lovingly packed for me and then I’d throw the rest away. I remember on the weekends I would eat 1/4 cup of Special K cereal and then a salad for dinner. I was terrified to eat.
In the midst of that, I remember going on a beach vacation with one of my friends. We were sitting in the car in our bikinis and she says to me “It’s so funny that you’re so skinny all over but you still have a little pouch on your stomach.” She went on to say how boys like that…but it did not make me feel any better. It just added fuel to my “don’t eat anything” fire.
By freshman year, I was 5’4 and 107 pounds…maybe on other people that looks okay, but for me, I looked WAY too thin. I remember going to the doctor and she said “You are a little underweight…you could gain 25lbs and that’d be just fine.” I can’t imagine I had anything left to grab on my stomach, but at the time, I thought there was and that I just needed to hit 100 pounds in order to be perfect.
Naturally, this picture is embarrassing but at least you can see how skinny I was! But around sophomore year, a few things happened that snapped me out of it. For one, I remember being at gymnastics practice with some girls I cheered with. I did a handstand to warm up and my shirt slipped up so you could see my hip bones bulging out. Two of the girls said “Omg ew…you’re so skinny.” It hurt my feelings at the time, but I’m actually so thankful they said it because it was the first time I thought “Oh…maybe this isn’t ideal after all…” Then, later that year I became really close to two other girls on the cheerleading team and they had very healthy relationships with food! When we’d hang out, they’d want to order pizza or sushi or make cakes together and I started seeing that it wasn’t the end of the world to do those things. I started eating more regularly, feeling happier, and gaining some of my weight back. They reassured me that I looked great and didn’t need to be so self-conscious.
However, even as I recovered from my eating disorder, my stomach was always something I was super self-conscious of. I hid it as much as possible. As the years went on, I started to kind of get used to it and accept it. It was really just genetics…my mom and grandma both had the same thing and no matter how much weight I could lose, it’d always be there, so why not just embrace it?
So fast forward to now…I’m 26 and pretty comfortable with myself over-all. However, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to get rid of that little pouch and just have a flat stomach once and for all. I had heard CoolScuplting commercials on the radio for the past few years and it sounded like something I’d be perfect for. They always emphasized how it was for the stubborn areas where exercise and diet didn’t seem to make difference! So finally, this summer, I decided to just try it! I knew I was at a healthy place in my body image where I didn’t need it to feel happy and confident which made it a safe choice.
I did some research on it and read varying reviews about how painful it was….and I was actually really nervous!! But finally, I decided to have it done at Jandali Plastic Surgery in Trumbull, CT and I’m so happy I did. They were wonderful. So here’s how it went!
So first you go in for a consultation appointment to talk to the doctor about what area you’re considering. Their office is beautiful which was immediately reassuring to me.
And then, once you go into the consultation room, the certifications and degrees are all over the wall…which I love to see! haha
The doctor then went over how the procedure works, any risks, and then she showed me how the suction cups would be placed on my stomach. After that, I made my appointment to come back in and have it done!
My actual CoolSculpting appointment was 2 hours long. The first hour, we did my before pictures and measurements and the doctor made all the marks on my stomach for where the suction cups would go. Notice it’s in a heart? <3
After I was all marked up, they put a little cooling gel pad over my stomach which protects your top layer of skin from the cold temperature!
After that, she placed the big suction cup on the right side of my stomach. Each side would be done separately and take a half hour each. She pushes a button on the suction cup and it draws my stomach up into it…which isn’t uncomfortable at all. She put a big fluffy pillow around me and covered up my legs with a blanket. It was actually really cozy! haha She offered me an ipad to watch Netflix or Hulu (which they provide), but I had a conference call to take, so I passed. Then she made sure I was alright, turned on the machine, and headed out for a half hour.
Here’s how it looked from my point of view! Once she turned the machine on, I could feel the temperature start to drop. It started to feel really cold, like an ice pack, and then it felt kind of like period cramps. Not horrible period cramps…just moderate ones where you can continue to go on with your day. (If you’re a guy, think muscle cramps) In everything I read, it said the first 10 minutes were uncomfortable and then the area went numb…this was definitely accurate! The period cramp feeling lasted for about 10 minutes and then I didn’t feel anything anymore! I took my conference call and actually felt super relaxed. Something about being snuggled up and the humming of the machine made me want to take a nap haha
It’s nice because the screen on the machine tells you how much time you have remaining on the current treatment.
After the first half hour was up, the doctor came back into the room and removed the suction cup. This is where the only kind of painful part started. As your skin returns to it’s normal temperature, it feels really achy. It’s not a sharp pain or anything, just kind of a deep ache in that area. But this was gone after 5-10 minutes. As I was feeling this achiness, she placed the suction cup on my left side, made sure I was okay, turned on the machine, and headed out. I was surprised that this time I actually didn’t feel the period cramping as the temperature went down. Once the achiness was gone in my right side after a few minutes, that was it….it wasn’t uncomfortable at all!
I took a selfie during the process just so you could see how not miserable I was haha After the last half hour, she came in and removed the suction cup. As expected, that side felt pretty achy as well, but not as bad as the first one. Once the machine is off, the doctor has to massage the treatment area for about 5 minutes to break up the fat. I had read online that this part was uncomfortable for people, but the area was so numb that I really didn’t feel much. It didn’t bother me at all. Once that was done, I got dressed and headed back to my car! By the time I was walking out of the office, I didn’t feel achy or anything anymore. My stomach felt numb, but other than that I was fine!
Once I got home, I actually took my dog to the dog park and went right along with my day. As you can see, my stomach wasn’t even red or anything.
Over the next few days, my stomach stayed numb all over…which was weird, but expected. It also felt a little sore to the touch but nothing that bothered me much. I didn’t feel any pain at all unless I poked myself in the stomach…then it just felt like a bruise would feel if you poked it…so don’t poke it and you’re fine lol After that, just the top layer of my skin felt numb and that lasted for about 2 weeks. Once the two week window was over, everything went back to normal!
I was SO nervous for how it would go and I’ll say that I would 100% do it again! It was totally manageable and overall a really great experience!
They say it takes 3-4 months to see the full results and currently I’m at 2 months. I definitely feel like I notice a slight difference. I go back for my after-pictures tomorrow, so we’ll see! I anticipate seeing more results in the next 2 months. Essentially how it works is the machine freezes your fat cells so that they die off and your body excretes them. It takes a while for that to happen so it’s a slow process.
Stay tuned as I’ll be posting my 2 month before and after pictures and then I will follow up in another 2 months for the final results!!
Well hello friends. If you can math, you know it hasn’t yet been 30 days… All of you die-hard Whole30-ers will not like the way I’m going about this, so maybe just click away from this post now…lol
When I first started Whole30, I went into it thinking that I would do exactly what the author said–follow the program to a t for 30 days and if I fell off, I’d start from the beginning. But let me tell you how that actually went down. I started on a Monday and did amazing all week! I didn’t break any rules and I wasn’t even tempted to. The first few days, I definitely felt really sleepy and the second day I had a ton of bloating. But other than that, I didn’t struggle much. As I’ve said, my eating habits aren’t that far off from the plan, so I don’t think it was a huge adjustment for my body. But by the time Friday rolled around, it was the first day where I felt clarity and energy! I got so much done during the day and I really did start to feel a difference. However, the timing of this challenge was not great as my husband is in the Army National Guard and he had his 3 week training starting at the end of this week. He was leaving on Saturday and come Friday he asked if we could go out for dinner and drinks for his last night. I MEAN, he’s gonna sleep in a tent in the woods for 3 weeks…I think I at least owed him this! So I decided to restart again after he left. I actually didn’t break THAT many rules at dinner. I got a steak with potatoes and veggies…but I had lots of alcohol lol
Fast forward to Saturday, when my girl Cassie, AKA Gluten Gossip, had her birthday celebration at a brewery. It had a gorgeous outdoor patio with all kinds of games AND they served cider/mixed drinks…so I totally could have just continued drinking, but I was actually surprised how easy it was for me to just stick to water! And then she brought out the gluten free cupcakes…and I ate one lol BUT come Sunday, I started over.
I stuck to the plan and noticed something HUGE this week–I no longer had cravings. This is a big deal for me. I’m almost ALWAYS thinking about food. Like an hour after dinner is over, I’m actively arguing with my brain about how I don’t need a snack lol All I want to do all night long is eat something…I don’t usually do anything crazy–it’s usually just popcorn, fruit, pieces of chocolate, etc…and a lot of time all of those things. It just feels so annoying to constantly be wanting to eat though! But suddenly, with all those grains off the table, I felt totally stable…which seems like a weird word to describe it, but it’s dead on! I wasn’t thinking about food at all in the evening! Even when dinner time rolled around, I didn’t feel like I was starving to death. There were one or two nights where I actually did get hungry (not just bored) and I had some watermelon or an apple with almond butter and felt totally satisfied.
It was at this point that I kind of realized I had gotten what I wanted out of Whole30. I’ve been a carb-fiend my whole life. Any time I saw a diet that cut out carbs, I didn’t even give it a thought. I’m great at not eating grains during the day, but come dinner time, I always felt like I NEEDED grains or I wouldn’t be satisfied. The thought of skipping that seemed like pure torture and something I just couldn’t sustain. But for some reason, this time around I decided to give it a go and it seriously changed everything for me. Suddenly, controlling my portions at dinner wasn’t even a big deal because I could eat SO many veggies without worrying about it! I think this is one of my biggest take-aways. Portion control is always so hard for me and when I’m eating this way, it’s not even an issue anymore! Plus it inspired me to get really creative in the kitchen and make things I wouldn’t have thought of before. Like this shrimp stir fry:
I had never used coconut aminos before, even though I always meant to try them. And I make stir-fry ALL the time, so I knew I needed to get them for this challenge. I was BLOWN AWAY at how amazing they were. The depth of flavor was insane and this was by far the best stir fry I’ve ever made (flavor-wise).
I kept thinking up new recipes and was shocked again and again by how satisfying they were! These ground turkey lettuce tacos were SO good and I made enough so that I could have taco salad the following night. Plus not limiting my intake of avocado…? That’s all I’ve ever wanted in life!
I also started getting creative with coconut flour and found that I could make a lot of yummy dishes with that–like fried eggplant or “breaded”-mustard chicken.
I started really enjoying my lunches again and feeling invigorated by not having to worry about how much of each food I was eating. This way of eating really just changed my mindset. I feel like before, my mindset towards food was like a super anxious dog that’s jumping around and growling and whining….like he just can’t seem to control himself or figure out how he feels! But this way of eating has made me feel like a a dog chillin’ out in the sun haha zen.
Later that week, I went out to dinner with my parents at Outback. I was doing great! I turned down wine (easily), ate carrots and celery as an appetizer, ordered steak and potatoes plus salad, and when dessert came around I didn’t care about it at all. But I could tell my parents really wanted it and they wanted me to share it with them. Food is just such a big thing for my family–it’s really something we connect over and it’s how a lot of them show their love. So I agreed and for the first time that I can remember, I ate a few bites and put my spoon down willingly. Usually, I’m like elbow deep in there and I’m in it til the end! This time, I felt satisfied after a taste and was good to go. WHAT?!
So it was at this point that I decided I didn’t need to keep going with Whole30 fully. I had gotten the mental peace that I wanted from it and I saw how I could incorporate it into my life. Going forward, I now understand that all the grains and sugar really do make my brain feel out of control. I plan on cutting way down on them during the week so that when the weekend rolls around, or the occasional blogging dinner, I can indulge in a healthy way–in a way where I thoroughly enjoy myself, but I don’t feel frenzied or the need to eat WAY more than I need. I feel like I finally have control over food.
