It’s been a couple of weeks since my Whole 30 posts and I’ve been wondering what content to create for this blog. I realized through my Whole 30 journaling experience that I really like journal style blogs. I pondered deeply for awhile and came up with this new series – Weekly Wanderings. I thought it would be really “in brand” for this blog since the tagline is “what I’ve learned lately” and it’s a good excuse to share bits of my offline life like places I’ve been, things I’m doing, stuff I enjoy.

Anyways, to wrap up Whole 30 loose ends, I’ve been doing well since I entered my “retox” period. Strangely, I have a lot more energy off of Whole 30. But I’ve been trying to eat moderately. I definitely don’t have the same cravings I did while on Whole 30. Lots of the things that I thought I would love going back to still make me sick – like coffee with milk and sugar, and fried chicken. Additionally, I’ve started working out everyday. I’m not running a 5k or anything, I’ve just been doing 15 to 20 minutes of something light whenever I get the chance. I’ve actually found I like the feeling of being active and I need somewhere to dump off the extra energy from the carbs I’ve been eating.

This last weekend I had a chance to go to Disneyland with some awesome friends! I really love Disney and just walking around the park is really awesome for me. Theme parks are great, however, who you’re with makes all the difference. I’ve gotten to spend the last few weeks going out with my friends and I don’t think I’ve had so much fun in a long time! They are such a blessing in my life. I’m really looking forward to growing with my friends and laughing with them until my sides hurt. Some of my favorite moments were: walking deliriously out of Disneyland at midnight; ordering a ton of desserts from Extraordinary Desserts in San Diego; watching the sunset on the beach.

Lately, I’ve been really loving Starbucks new Iced Coconut Milk Mocha Macchiato. The sweetness and bitterness meld really well and I think it adds a new dimension to my favorite Caramel Macchiato. It’s awesome to have another dairy alternative, especially when my tummy hasn’t been handling milk too well post- Whole 30.

I finally got a library card! I’ve been putting it off for the last two years but I finally got around to it. My library system has an option to check out e-books and audio books! And I really want to take advantage of it and get back to reading more often. Recently, I finished Sam Crabtree’s “Practicing Affirmation”. It was a very encouraging read and it really challenged me to love the people in my life more with my words. I’m also still reading through Fuchsia Dunlop’s “Every Grain of Rice” and I’ve started listening to “Pawn of Prophecy” by David Eddings (one of my favorite series). I really want to get back in the habit of reading regularly and across a lot of different genres.

A little over 30 days are left until NaNoWriMo! It’s one of the most challenging and creatively productive times of the year for me. I’ve started a rough outline in my head but we’ll see how it pans out this year. I’m probably not going to work on White this year, as I’ve been working on that book series for the last couple of years and I just feel exhausted with trying to re-imagine chapters and chapters of content I’ve already written. I’m a different person now than I was when I started writing White as Snow, and as a result my characters and the direction I want to take them in have changed as well. I’ll get this thing published one day, but it’s not going to happen this year.

Thank you guys so much for reading and catching up with my life!

Happy wandering!