The Benefits of Eating Healthy

Every summer during college, John & I would have one goal. Become jacked and tan. It never happened, ever. With the start of the 2018, I come with the same mission, become jacked and tan. Minus the tan part and more of just get back in shape instead of jacked, but you get the point. Now before we start, be sure to check out the Vlog from January!

After our Snowy New Year, Rachel and I headed back to Chicago with some new years goals. Rachel somehow convinced me to do the Whole30 diet again with her this year. This time we are going all in. No alcohol for January, and only healthy, all natural foods.

Before we dive into it, I would like to add to my jacked and tan story from late high school/college. I'll have it known that John and I were working out two, sometimes three times a day. And we were tanning in between those workout sessions.  So despite consistently working out, we never seemed to have a lot of muscle growth. I am going to say that we failed our mission because of one thing, our diet. I now realize the root of the issue was our food intake. I would slam candy (as I was the king of candy) and not eating all that healthy. My diet was made up of burgers, pasta, fried chicken patties, pizza, ramen, pretzels, chips, candy and other foods relatively low in protein, high in sugar, fat, and carbohydrates.

Fast forward 10ish years and here we are, January 2018. I am working out about 500% less, but my diet is 500% better. So what is the Whole30 diet all about you ask? Let me quickly go over what we can and cannot have. The quickest and simplest rule is that we can pretty much eat anything that is real and natural. Read up:

Things we CAN eat

• Meats (unprocessed of course)

• Fruits (in moderation, watch yo natural sugars)

• Veggies (includes potatoes, yum)

• Nuts & Seeds (no peanuts tho)

• Eggs (lots of eggs)

• Seafood (still not a huge fan, but gotta dive in)

• Coffee (black with no additives, luckily I don't personally drink coffee anyway)

Things we CANNOT eat

• Dairy (no milk, butter, or cheese)

• Grains (no rice, quinoa, corn, or wheat)

• Alcohol (ya booze ya lose)

• Legumes (can't eat beans unfortunately)

• Added Sugar (no honey, maple syrup, stevia, etc)

• Processed foods (check the label, don't recognize it? don't have it)

• Junk foods (don't recreate bad foods out of good foods, ex: cauliflour pizza)

On top of this healthy diet which has really turned me around, we have started to workout. Every Friday after work, Rachel and I have been attending Orange Theory Fitness. These hour long classes involve 25 minutes of treadmill (cardio) and 25 minutes of free weights combined with rowing. Plus 10 minutes of warmup/stretching. I usually try to push myself pretty hard in these classes and enjoy the set up of the workout. If you are not motivated or capable of making your own circuit workout plan, these classes are great! And if you care about tracking your heart rate, they do a fantastic job as well. I'm not too concerned about knowing if I am in the "orange zone" by working hard. I either am going hard or I am not. One of my complaints about Orange Theory is their lockers are at the main entrance, so you can't really change unless you go into the bathrooms which are just bathrooms. Kind of a weird setup. My only other complaint is the price, but it is pretty standard for a group type of class I guess. Depending on your plan it is either $25 or $20 per class. Great workouts that really get me working out my legs more than ever before. Good start to the January weekends.

The next morning on Saturdays, we have been getting beat down at Alana's Sculpt class at Corepower Yoga with Torie. (I have been doing these classes since late 2015 in prep for the Wedding). This is by far the hardest workout I have ever done. I think mostly because of the heat. It is so hot in the room, must be 90+, pushing 100 degrees I'll say, that sometimes my lungs feel restricted and it is super hard to breathe. This along with the constant movements and no "breaks" that Alana "gives" is a recipe for a beatdown. I sweat an insane amount, soaked through my shirt & dripping from my arms, often shaking in my boots from the exercises (updogs, downdogs, squats, pushups, curls, shoulder press, kickbacks, lunges, abs & more!). Rachel, Torie & I usually post up at the front of the class, which is nice because I get to look directly at myself in the mirror, but also a pressure since everyone can watch me.  I am one of the few males in the class, which can often be embarrassing when I am laying on the ground in pain as everyone else continues to workout (this only happened a few times I swear). Again my complaint is the price, depending on your plan it is either $25 or $20 per class. After class I often bond with the other males in the locker room since there are only a few of us and we talk about how grueling the class is. I've run into other lax bros too many times. 

The combo of eating healthy (Whole30) and working out on Friday (Orange Theory) and Saturday (Core Power) has resulted in some amazing changes and advantages in my life throughout the month of January. 

Josh's Benefits of Eating Healthy & Working Out

• Better overall health (immune system)

• Woke up feeling good with plenty of energy

• Able to focus and get more stuff done throughout the day

• Better poops. You heard that right. Poop!

• Lost 10 lbs somehow

• Tighter muscles and body with less fat

• Strongest leg muscles since college

• Saved dat $$ by not drinking or going out to eat (Hundreds of $)

Rach's Key Benefits from Eating Healthy

• Handled stress better

• Less tired, more consistent energy levels

• Never feeling bloated

Now I am not going to lie and say this diet (lifestyle change) wasn't hard at times. Whether it was wanting to eat some pizza, having to spend a ton more time on grocery shopping and cooking, or feeling tired and weak by being deprived of sugar throughout the first two weeks. We battled through the challenges and made it the entire 30 days without cheating once. Winners! My final tip is that you need to eat A LOT more than you think you do when doing this diet. You'll eat more than you normally do, and more often during the day because all this healthy food does not fill you up as quickly as the junk food we normally eat. If you don't eat enough (which I didn't plenty of times) you will lack energy and feel tired. You need to eat fat and a good amount of it for energy. Bacon was key for me on this diet. Mmm bacon. We hope to continue this lifestyle for a majority of our weeks ahead. Let's say maybe 5/7 days to start? 

Meanwhile, here are some other notable events that took place in January.

Wednesday January 3rd, 2018 I went to Mariano's for the first time ever with Beth. It was an alright grocery.

Saturday January 6 - Yoga and Ashley's bday in Lockport (we managed to not drink at a bar!)

Sunday January 7th - Lunch with Grandpa Bob, Mom, Dad, & Beth at Lou Malnatis in Chicago (we managed to not eat pizza at a pizza place!)

Wednesday January 10th - Company Holiday lunch at Capri Sogno in Plainfield (I managed not to get pasta at an Italian pasta place!)

Saturday January 13th - Play settlers of catan at Torie and Tim’s with Rachel, Torie, Tim, Brian, & Megan (Torie was sweet enough to get us berries & grapes for dessert!)

Friday January 19th - I attended a concert at Lincoln Hall and saw Ron Gallo, Yoko and Oh Noes, & Dianne Coffee (managed not to drink)

Monday January 22nd - Orange Theory on my own, I walked to and from, checking out Rach's old apartment in Old Town on the walk home

Wednesday January 24th - The iconic Rock and Roll McDoanld's on Ontario is being torn down! A symbolism of McDonalds in my life? I haven't had McDonald's in all of January and February in 2018. Go ahead and see the Last time I was at this McDonalds it was a stop on a Trolley

Friday January 26th - My last Orange theory fitness class - Beth comes over and we watch Lonely island videos all night.

Saturday January 27th - Core power Sculpt with Rach & Torie again. Did a face mask thing. That night Rachel and I go out to eat at Prime Bar. Then see Beautiful: Carole King the Musical at the Cadillac Palace. Fantastic show about an amazing woman who wrote so many famous songs like The Loco-Motion and Some Kind of Wonderful.

On Wednesday January 31st I wokeup at 530a to photograph the Super Blue Blood Moon and Lunar Eclipse. This was the first time this has happened since 1866. Unfortunately we didn't get the blood part since it’s too bright out in Chicago. I was able to see the blood moon part via NASA satellite. See the mornings events in photos below.

Thursday February 1st was the last day of the diet. The Whole 30 diet is over and Rachel was sweet enough to get me some whisky and we celebrated with tacos. Basically Whole30 compliant still!

TV Show of the Month: Black Mirror Season 4 (available on Netflix). Quality show that requires no previous episodes to be seen.

Song of the Month: Vince Staples, Big Fish - Great beat with some poppin' lyrics - It's rap

Before I head out I want to let everyone know I watched 16 of Emma Stone's movies in January and wrote a blog about it. I think everyone should go read that blog and attempt to eat healthy at some point this year. Even if it just for the week days, anything will help with your overall health.  I am excited for the upcoming months and lacrosse season. See ya there!

Josh

A Snowy New Year

On the 30th of December 2017, Rachel and I drove up to Holland, Michigan to meet up with John and Melissa at John's place to celebrate the New Year.

We arrived a little past 3pm on Saturday December 30th, through a bit of snowy driving weather. Once we settled in, we got on our boots and snow gear and headed out again. John drove us over a half mile to a little parking spot near the boat dock. Once parked we set out on foot for another half mile, this time uphill through a neighborhood and then downhill to Lake Michigan. John's place is on Lake Macatawa, which feeds into Lake Michigan. On our walk to the lake, which included a heavy downfall of snow, we passed many a summer home, most empty due to the winter months, but some with beautiful Christmas lights and a snowy topping, making it even more picturesque. Once we made it to the lake, I took a slide down the slide while others looked on. I hit a big pile of snow at the end with a soft plump. Exciting stuff. It was pretty damn cold out, so my phone died right as I was making a video going down (peep the vlog). Minutes later, John and I headed towards the lake's edge. I felt nervously scared as we stood on what we eventually figured out was a frozen Lake Michigan, with waves crashing up and splashing high. It was a crazy feeling to have the waves hitting so high. It honestly felt as if i was on the edge of the cliffs of Moher, but with the water coming to the very top. It was cold, windy, and was quite exhilarating. The water was rolling, similar to an ocean, and we were certain it would be instant death if one fell in. Rachel and Melissa joined us at the frozen lake's edge before we all scurried back to safety towards the snowy mainland. I know it is hard to understand, but we were probably a good 100 feet out on the water, and a good 20 feet uphill, which was entirely frozen, but then it was not frozen at all once you hit the edge. That is where the water was still water. You never know when the ice might break off and fall in. Similar to if you stand on the edge of a cliff. The risks we took!

Once we stopped tempting death, we walked back through the blizzard, trenching through waist high snow drifts, eventually we made it back to our Cabin in Holland. We slipped out of our wet clothes and hopped into some dry ones to head to downtown Holland. Land of the dry. As we were driving on the highway, we saw some advertisements about how it was a snowless Holland. We didn't really get it until we were downtown and saw that the sidewalks were entirely rid of snow. How is this possible you may ask? The sorcery of Holland? Nope, just heated sidewalks, which means no snow on the sidewalks, but plenty of hobos sleeping. Jokes about the hobos. We parked downtown and walked along the street to New Holland  Brewing Company. We had a few drinks there a couple summers ago. Once inside, John and Melissa took us to the sampling room, where we sampled some whiskeys, gins and tequilas before being sat down for dinner. We ordered a beer and some bean dip as an app. Dinner came out and it was pretty good. I had a burger and some chips. I would say it was an average tasting burger, nothing too crazy to talk about. After dinner we headed back to John's place to play some some O'Hell and Hearts. Card games for the uninformed. Didn't stay up too late, and headed to bed in our twin beds.

We woke up the next morning, December 31st, 2017, New Years Eve, ate some breakfast and headed out for some cross country skiing. We headed out to the Pigeon Creek Park trails, and it only cost $8 per person to rent the ski's for two hours! What a deal. It was my first time cross country skiing, well actually skiing at all. I went water skiing about 10 years ago at my buddy Andrew Mewborn's in Georgia, but have never done any type of skiing or snowboarding on the snow. In fact, I've only been sledding down the Patterson hill near my childhood home. 

Anyway, we got the skis and I immediately had difficulty getting my snow boots to stay on them. I had to get my skis swapped out, and the new pair worked! Once I had my skis on I immediately fell over. Good start. I think I ended up falling down at least 20 times within the two hours of skiing. I was pretty terrible, but it was super super fun. I dressed up like a drunk local man (corona hat, shades, sweat pants, and a jacket), and performed like a local drunk man, stumbling about the trails. Rachel was the skiing expert and did well. John and Melissa also performed at a high level. Like I said, I fell over almost every 5 minutes, struggle bus.

There was a layer of fluffy snow over all of the trees and over the trails, it was a beautiful sunny day to go cc skiing. I did a mediocre job as everyone else succeed, but it was a fantastic time. At one point we attempted the pigeon plunge, a very steep and narrow trail that was similar to downhill skiing but between a 15 foot gap of trees. If we veered off too far to the side, we would surely crash into some pine. We all sat at the top of the plunge debating whether we should go down or not for 20 minutes. Finally I strapped my camera under my jacket, and went full steam ahead. The worst skier was on his way to death! It was an adrenaline filled descent that ended up with me eating it hard. My skis got crossed up and I slammed into the snow, but this is a survivor story and I live to tell the tale. John and Rachel followed suite and Melissa traveled around to meet us for the walk back to the lodge. Super fun cross country skiing. When we got back to return our skis, there was a super long line to get into the trails. It appears we finished at the perfect time. Great success!

With our boots back on, we drove over to Meijer to pick up some groceries for the evening festivities. John somehow managed to lose his wallet, and we were in kind of a funk, but then it fell from the side of the front seat and hit my foot in the back. Wallet found, day saved.  It must have fallen out of his pocket when we were getting in/out of the car. Phew. 

We made it back to John's place and fired up the grill. Time for a little snowy cookout. We cooked up some brats, Melissa made the famous corn dish, Rachel got some broccoli and onion together, and the boys grilled some brats to enjoy for the New Year's Masterpiece. 

After celebrating with our tasty dinner, we hung out for a bit, playing hearts, 3 man, and some other games. Melissa played us some cover songs and amazing originals! Check out her new music page here! Later that night, around 11pm, I put together a delicious buffalo chicken dip to enjoy while we played more card games. Finally, we counted down to midnight in the Eastern Time Zone, then again in Central Time Zone. Happy New Year x 2! Celebrate everyone!

I stayed up later than all in the house, as they fell asleep just after 2a Eastern/1a Central. Since everyone fell asleep with a drink in their hand, I took each drink one by one and finished them off! Safety first. A little bit after that I woke everyone up and sent them up to bed. I spent the next 2 hours editing some videos and working my blogs/vlogs. Definitely missed out on the opportunity to celebrate New Year's a third time for the west coast. I packed up and headed to bed just after 4a. What A Snowy New Year.

We woke up in the morning, January 1st, 2018, and ate the rest of the buffalo chicken dip from the night before and headed out on the road back to Chicago.

Happy New Year everyone. More videos from this weekend to come soon. Here is the vlog! It's a snazzy one!

Let's do it big in 2018!

Josh

Zoo Ornaments

On Friday December 15th, we headed over to Torie's for her annual ornament exchange. To my and every other fellas luck, the exchange was opened up to the boys this year. It was previously a girls night event thing. Rachel and I were the first to arrive at Torie and Tim's. Once the party got bumping and people enjoyed some apps and drinks we started the main event. Let the exchanging begin! The exchange was pretty uneventful until Rachel and I went into an intense battle with another girl, trying to get the Hedgehog and the hat (seen below), but we ended up not making it happen. After some back and forth Rachel ended up with the hat and I ended up getting a dipped strawberry in chocolate, not edible though. After the exchange we all were hanging out and Rachel and I stuck it out, eventually throwing on some Jcubed videos to clear the party out. We were the last to leave. Party animals.

The next day on Saturday December 16th, Rachel, Torie, Nikki, and I hit up Yoga Sculpt at Core Power and got our butts kicked. Later that evening, Beth, Sarah, Danny and the kids came over to our place around 6pm. We ate tacos and tried to keep them away from everything in our apartment since nothing is child friendly. Then around 7:30p we headed on a quick walk / wagon pull to the Lincoln Park Zoo to check out the Zoo Lights. After the Zoo Lights, which was a way different experience when you are walking around with three little kiddies, we came back to our place and watched a couple of movies, including E.T. which put them to sleep real quick. Once the kids were asleep, we had a few drinks and were able to chat, they all headed out a bit after midnight. 

I met up with Rachel for lunch at Doc B's on December 18th near her work. She finished her first semester of grad school! So proud of her!

On Friday December 22nd, Adam, Brandy, Brian, and Megan came over to our place for some dinner before our High School reunion. We enjoyed some pulled pork, veggies, and macaroni salad. We then got an Uber to Old Crow River North. Reunion time! The reunion was super fun (blog all about it coming soon!) and it was great catching up with some old friends and classmates. 

Two days later, Christmas Eve was already here. It snowed a bunch that morning, which means snow for Christmas! Wooo! We did Christmas Eve at Grandmas and then went to Church with the fam in Darien. I got a special shoutout during the sermon as I was the only "Joshua" in church. After church we headed to New Lenox and hung out at Rach's parents house, sleeping there. Christmas day was spent with Rach's family and we spent another night out in NL. The next day was Rach's Grandpa's birthday, 94 years old this year! We visited him down in Manteno at the Veteran's home and then headed back to Chicago.

On Friday December 29th we went out to eat at Gilt Bar with Torie, Tim, Sarah, and Colin.  It was pretty delicious, we even got a sparkling cookie pan with ice cream for dessert! After dinner we went back to Sarah and Colin's to play some cards. Their pup Russell was making trouble, but I was the one who sampled his sour apple spray, not too bad! We played kitchen bridge until about 1am. Rachel got second place, and I got last, not bad for our first time playing.

Get ready for the New Year ya'll.

Josh