I will share the good news first! A few weeks ago I was notified that a casting company was looking for hiking extras for a movie filming near us. I applied and so did my sister and dad. We were all accepted! When we applied I wasn't going through this stressful time period but the filming was this past Thursday and Friday so it was a great way to get my mind off of what is going on while being with my sister and dad doing something really cool! My dad is 66 and has hiked almost the entire Appalachian Trail and as you know, Scott and I are avid hikers. It was a great experience and I can't wait for the movie to come out! I've never been able to do anything like that before so now I'm looking for even more opportunities. Georgia is becoming a hot spot to film movies and TV shows so hopefully I'll be accepted into a few more! If you follow us on Snapchat (hesheeatclean) or Instagram (heandsheeatclean), I shared a little bit about our experience on those networks. On Friday night the scene didn't wrap until around 1 AM and I didn't get home until around 2:30 AM so I have been all messed up on my sleep schedule which seems to through everything else off but it was so worth it!
Now onto the not-so-good news, I haven't really posted a "life update" because honestly, our lives aren't that interesting or different from day-to-day. Yes, we take some awesome hiking trips and spur of the moment vacations that keep life interesting but those are typically in the fall and winter when Scott has time off. However, over the last week we've experienced more stress and uncertainty than we could have ever imagined. I can't go into much detail and probably won't ever be able to but our stress level is THROUGH THE ROOF. I'm not even able to put into words what we are experiencing/have experienced over the last week. The uncertainty, confusion, and mental anguish is something that I would never wish on my worst enemy.
I've obviously had stress in my life before (who hasn't?!) but typically Scott and I try to live as simple as possible to avoid as much stress as possible. To us, unnecessary expenses, things, clutter, etc all lead to stress so we avoid all of them and we've done a pretty good job at it. However, this isn't the stress over a job or stress over body image type thing. Over the last week I've had days where I felt like I could sleep all day but actually never sleep, I've had nights where I fell asleep but didn't really sleep, I've had days where I would be starving, then days where I wouldn't want to eat anything and even water made me feel like I was going to throw up.
We aren't perfect, no one is, but we try to live our lives to the fullest while also trying to improve and inspire others to do the same. As we've mentioned in numerous posts, we try to be as real as possible with you so I also want to share the "down times" as well. I think it's important to learn from each other. Cooking, working out, and just generally taking care of myself have been the last things on my mind and definitely the bottom of the list when it comes to what I wanted to be doing. I've tried to keep a level head and just do what I can day-to-day. We haven't had huge, elaborate food preps in awhile and this was no different but I KNOW how important it is for me mentally and physically to continue to try and live like we normally would during these next few weeks. Our food prep consisted of just a few, very easy-to-prepare items that would last us a few days. We prepared these items just spending a little over an hour in the kitchen.
We made the following:
- Browned Grass-Fed Bison (bought from Costco)
- Cilantro Lime Shrimp (wild shrimp bought from Costco)
- Chocolate Chunk Protein Bars
- Boiled Eggs
We've been eating out more than normal and when we do eat at home we don't usually have complete meals because I just haven't been able to keep up and I'm okay with all of this because we are doing the best we can. Using the items we made we can easily add quinoa or rice to the bison or shrimp with a side of veggies. The boiled eggs and protein bars we have on hand for snacks or on-the-go breakfast options.
As far as the gym goes, we've tried to keep up our same routine (I've been doing a combination of the Run Builder and the Transformation to prepare for a few trips we have coming up). However, I haven't been all there mentally or physically but as I mentioned in our 5 Things We've Done to Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle Over 5 Years post, the habit of the habit is more important than the habit itself. My schedule has been a little off because of the filming and the days I do make it into the gym sometimes I can't even stay there long enough to finish my workout or I will just do something completely different than what I thought I was going to be doing.
If we aren't as active on social media, if it takes us longer to respond to emails/comments, and if we don't post as frequently please know that we are going through a stressful time but will hopefully be back to "normal" soon. In the meantime, listen to our WHAM Podcasts! We've been able to discuss a lot of frequently asked questions and just generally share a lot more in the podcast format.