Rules

No gluten.  Just in case you were curious, gluten is in EVERYTHING!  What is gluten?  Gluten is a protein composite found in food processed from wheat and related grain species, including barley, rye, and malts.  It is also used as a food additive in the form of flavoring, stabilizing, and/or thickening agents.  Next time you are in the store, check the labels on the items you are buying to see if they contain wheat.  If they do, I can’t eat them.  As a side note, my husband is gluten sensitive.  If he consumes anything containing gluten, he becomes ill.  This makes it slightly easier for me, because we do not have any products containing gluten in the house. 

No dairy.  I am lactose intolerant, thus dairy and I do not get along.  The only dairy product I am allowing myself to continue to eat is butter.  Butter has never upset my stomach like other dairy products, so it’s a keeper.  Plus, it’s butter and let’s be honest, it tastes fabulous!  Just to clear up any confusion, I can still eat eggs.  When I tell people I am not going to eat dairy, the common reaction is, “Oh my gosh, you can’t eat eggs?!”  Last time I checked, eggs come from chickens, not cows.  Yes, eggs are located in the dairy section of the grocery store.  No, they don’t come from cows.  Trust me, my dad raised cattle for my entire youth.  Not once did I see an egg fall from the nether regions of a cow.

No refined sugar.  Prior to starting my journey, I was detailing my 365 challenge to my friend and neighbor.  When I got to the part about no refined sugar, she looked at me in horror.  What does this mean exactly?  I am not going to get all crazy and say that I am eating nothing with refined sugar.  There are trace amounts of refined sugar in ketchup, salad dressing, etc.  I am not a robot.  I am a human, who likes food.  All I am saying is I am not going to eat brownies, cakes, cookies, candy, ice cream, spoonfuls of sugar etc.  I am no longer going to go through the Starbucks drive thru and order a mocha.  I am going to try to get my sugar fix naturally, through fruit.  There is one thing I am going to continue consuming that falls into this category -- iced tea k-cups.  They must stay or I will be thrown out of the state of Georgia.  I like it here, so I must keep them. 

On another note, I am also going to try to exclude artificial sweeteners.  Saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, and sugar alcohol are the most common found in food and drinks that I currently consume.  Bye-bye diet Coke.  It’s been nice knowing you.   

No JUNK.  Anything that is bad for you that doesn’t fit into the above-mentioned categories goes here.  If it makes your mouth water, I probably can’t have it.

Train hard.  My goal is to train a minimum of three times per week.  I want to complete three heavy lifts each week.  The three heavy lifts that are currently my favorite are the snatch, back squat, and overhead squat.  The term “heavy” is relative in my case.  These lifts will be heavy for me, not for an athlete.  I also want to do three metabolic conditioning workouts, in addition to my heavy lifts each week.  What is metabolic conditioning or metcon?  In plain English, this means combining aerobic and anaerobic exercises into one really hard workout.  My goal of completing three heavy lifts and three metcons each week may seem lofty given that I am a new mom, but I am up for the challenge.