Dear Diary: Do you remember me?

Hello, it’s me  – – can you hear me? 🎶 (insert Adele’s beautiful voice here). But FOR REAL, how are you guys?? It has been almost an entire month since I’ve checked in.  Part of me feels so guilty that I haven’t sat down to write in a while. I have thought about it so many times, but only had half thoughts, nothing ready to put on paper. However, here we are a month and a half into the new year, and I’m finally ready to be back at it. Willing to share what I have been working on and working towards.

As a lot of you know I did the Whole30 diet (aka a complete jump starts to a new lifestyle change – so clique but it’s the truth) for the whole month of January. That means no dairy, no gluten, no soy, no wheat, no alcohol, no caffeine, no sugar, no progressed anything. Could I eat nothing? WRONG. I ate more food on the Whole30 than ever before; I just had to get uber creative. Not only did I complete the challenge of no cheats for 30 days but I LOVED IT! I learned so much about myself, my likes, my dislikes and what categories of food my body prefers. This challenge consumed so much of me. Coming soon, real soon (hopefully next week) I’ll have a whole post about Whole30. My results, my struggles, delicious meals and my plan going forward.

While Whole30 did take up a significant portion of my time, it wasn’t every minute of every day. Have you ever had a period in your life where you were just complacent and going with the flow? That was me; I was content going to work, coming home, relaxing, yelling at the TV because my Michigan State basketball team was playing and then starting all over again the next day. Let me tell you that my life was a severe snooze fest. Sorry but I’m not sorry for sparing you from the boring details of my life these past 45 days. However, while those days were “boring” I truly enjoyed just sitting in my house, in pure silence, reflecting. A revelation that came to me: I am GETTING OLD. Before anyone gets offended, I know I am not old, but I am an older soul. I much enjoy sitting at home, in peace watching the snow fall as I hold my cup of tea and watch the morning news. Ummm hello Grandma McConnon, but can young, hip, outgoing Amanda come back? – – in sticking with our lyric theme, “No, cause she’s dead.” (Shout-out to T. Swift, I never liked your music back in the day, or now but it sure gets stuck in my head enough I might as well use it.) Anyways, back to the “Mrs., I’m ready to collect my pension now” Yes, I still like going out to socialize but I’m finding being at home is becoming more and more my preference.

And the last reason I have been slightly MIA is that I have been taking a step back from social media (hear that, no young buck would say that, just some 29-year-old granny 👵🏼) and trying to live in the moment. I have taken a trip or two, stumbled upon many adventures, but I have very few pictures to show from it. Shaine will remind me (halfway through mind you) how this trip/activity would be an excellent post on the blog. Who the hell is this guy? – A gem, an actual gem, because he’s right! When I started this, I wanted to share my world with you and give myself an epic memoir I can look back in five, ten, fifteen years and remember what I was doing, what I was thinking but ultimately laughing at what I was wearing.💁🏻‍♀️ And even though my life seemed dull, I believe these last few weeks have been a pivotal point in my life when things started to switch. Quality vs. quantity, health vs. appearance, etc. These times aren’t boring, they are significant, meaningful and need to be documented to remind me of such. My challenge now is to find the balance between living in the moment but documenting moments to remind myself of these times.

As I lay here wondering if this post will make any sense or help anyone, I can’t help but smile. Smile at the fact I’m happy. Happy to be alive, happy to be able to write whatever words I choose to write and happy that every decision in my life has so far (in my opinion) been the best decision for me.

I decided not to eat pizza —> I feel better, less bloated.

I decided to not go out on the town —> I got to sleep in and have an entire day without a bra.

I decided to start a blog —> it brings me joy, and I hope it does you. 😘

Sincerely,

The girl who never know what she is going to say until she starts typing