Be Creative; Be You

May 15th, 2019 is when I started the Whole30 diet (or restarted after a cheater wine and S'mores night after a week of it), and really, really started my body transformation. I had made it a new years resolution for all of 2019, but it didn't really go that well at first. But, May 15th, I devoted all of my self control into doing the Whole30 diet that I had read a lot about. I followed that diet for 90 days, which the book says is often better for your first time on the diet. Now, some of you are asking, what is the Whole30 diet? It is an elimination diet, created and researched by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig, who are both Certified Sports Nutritionists. Dallas is also a licensed physical therapist, and a functional medical practitioner. Basically, for 30 (or 90) days you cannot eat dairy, sugar, legumes, grains, alcohol, and anything artificial, like Splenda or MSG. These foods are shown to cause problems in many bodies, which is why you take them out. Anyone who has attempt...

Hello dear readers. The world is a very weird place right now. We hear about sadness and heartache everyday. But times like these we need to think of the future, we will be free someday, both literally and from the fear we are currently feeling. So what better way to think of the future than making a list of all the things I would like to do in my life before I'm done living it. So here we go, my bucket list. #1 Go either sky diving or bungee jumping Now, people who know me are probably thinking, Gretchen, you are terrified of heights. Why would you jump from somewhere really high up? I think it would be cool, a rush and what not. Plus I don't like it when things I'm scared of hold me back. #2 Publish a book I have been a life-long reader. During school, I easily finished 100 books a year, and I try to read as much as I can. Also back in school, I had about 3 different teachers from different grades vote me most likely to become an author. In case you can't t...

Hello World! What a week. Let's keep the positivity rolling. This is part three, following along a list of journal prompts I found and will be completing during this post. If you would like to complete them yourself, the original post can be found here ( https://themadmommy.com/journal-prompts-for-self-esteem/ ) Let's jump right in, shall we? 21.  Write about something you need to tell someone who is negatively affecting your life. That's a tough one. Cause there is someone who's been negatively affecting my life lately, but usually we're close and it's been hurting me to be upset with them.  I usually hold whatever I'm feeling in too long and then I explode. Or what happens more often than not is that I just eat it. I just shove my feelings down into my stomach where I hold it, hoping it will go away. Sometimes it does, little things that bother me about people live there all the time. That's how the world works. You get a little annoyed and the...

Picking up where we left off last week, continuing the list of 30 Journal Prompts for Self Esteem. The original list can be found at  https://themadmommy.com/journal-prompts-for-self-esteem/ . 11. Talk about your favorite role model as if you are described him/her to a friend that does not know this person. What about this person makes you look up to him/her? My role model is my best friend of many, many years. Her name is Anna Elizabeth Joseph Pyke (but I met her back when she was a Demmon). She would tell you that there's nothing that special about her, and that she makes plenty of bad choices, and that she probably shouldn't be looked up to, but I still do. She knows that time is more valuable than anything. She'd rather make you a present or a cake or a card, than buy one. She's so creative as well. She has made me beautiful cards that I know had to take her an hour or two to make, if not more. And when she bakes! She's not so focused on it being perfect...

Well world, these are some trying times. Across America, and across the globe, people are worried. So I thought something positive would be nice. I found a list of thirty self esteem journal prompts. If you like them and feel like doing it too, you can find it here ( https://themadmommy.com/journal-prompts-for-self-esteem/ ). This will be part one of three, because some of these I've got a lot to say about. 1. What is the best compliment you have been given? How did it make you feel? In the summer time, when it's finally warm enough to wear shorts and dresses, a lot of people compliment my leg tattoos. That's really the only compliments I can think of, right now at least. It does make me feel good though. So many people don't like tattoos or still have this idea that they are super unprofessional. And yes, some tattoos are unprofessional. If you have the F word on your neck for life, you probably won't get hired for top positions in major companies.  Some peo...