Today's my birthday and instead of waiting until Thursday for a Throwback Thursday I wanted to do a truthful Tuesday. One of my favorite posts here on The Petite Principle was the one I shared titled "Friday Fives: 5 Things I'd tell my 21 year old self." Now I was 26 when I posted that and today I turn 27. It's weird that it's been less than a year but yet again I'm surprising myself. There was so much truth in that post, and here's some more. I am confident. 100% confident in myself, in my beauty, in my abilities, in my talents, and in the love that I have to give to the world.

Let me back up a moment... did I just say I was 100% confident in myself? Who's is this grown woman talking and what did she do with the insecure girl? Time heals all wounds, time helps you grow, time is moving and what the last 6-7 months taught me that to speak my truth. These past few months taught me to be proud of my voice, to speak loudly and clearly, to speak strongly and with pizazz. It's funny because I always thought I was confident; I was attractive, friendly, dateable, smart but the woman that writes to you today is brand new. She's proud of who she is; she's tough because of the heartbreak that she has endured, and she's a warrior to survive the pain she's been through, you know what I like her, in fact, I love her and this woman needs to stay.

A Whole 30 brunch meal from Slimak (minus the bread, which wasn't Whole 30 compliant)

Happy Monday, friends and Happy President's Day to those of you that are lucky enough to have today enough! I'm grateful to have today off to relax and share with you today's post. One of my goals for the year that was to get healthy, and I mean really strive to be in the best shape of my life. Now or never right?!  Well, I wanted to do this for a couple reasons and I learned that not only does it happen by working out but by also maintaining a healthy diet and if I'm being honest I certainly didn't have one. I've always been petite and never had an issue with my weight. I was skinny my entire life, but I also had a limited diet because I had many food allergies. As I entered my early 20's I outgrew some allergies and the main one being dairy. My life turned upside down. Dairy which is almost in EVERYTHING, went from being an ingredient I avoided at all costs turned into an ingredient I consumed daily. Fast forward a few years and my body started to catch up with me and became overwhelmed with how much dairy I was consuming, among other things. I started to gain weight, and didn't realize how much. Now it wasn't a significant amount but for someone who's 4'10 it doesn't take a lot to really become noticeable. And another thing, getting in a relationship definitely changed how, when and what I was eating. I gained some "love fluff" as my friend put it. This was weight I gained from the many times my boyfriend and I ate out, stayed in and ordered food, cooked together, went out for drinks or had pints of ice cream in bed. On top of that I wasn't exercising regularly. I went from the girl who never had to worry about her weight to the girl who definitely had to.

I had done research on diets, and tried weight watchers. I'd tried to give up dairy for a week or sugar and then give up after the 3rd day. At the beginning of the year I decided I really have to do something about this. My mom also had been concerned about her weight, so we decided to encourage each other to eat better. We decided we would do Whole30. A healthier eating lifestyle that we were going to take on for the next 30 days. We said let's do it for a week, with the goal of doing it for the full 30 days, and see how we feel. We agreed to wouldn't have alcohol, dairy, grains, legumes or any food with added sugars or preservatives for the next month.

Week 1: The first week was brutal for me. The first couple days felt like a bad hangover. I was irritable, and annoyed about the change in diet.  Now I wasn't a big consumer of sweets, I'm not a big candy person, but I do love baked goods, and of course it was 3 co-workers birthdays that week and everyone was celebrating with snacks I couldn't eat. My mom said the hardest thing for her that week was getting used to coffee without milk or sugar. The highlight of that first week was that I lost 4 pounds! You're not supposed to weight yourself over the 30 days but I had a doctor's appointment and she told me I was 4 pounds down. I didn't weight myself again until the 30 days were over.

Week 2: My mom and I began to meal plan, and that helped A LOT. Tremendously actually. Once we started to meal plan, it got easier and meals were tastier. I didn't crave sugar as much and I noticed my body just felt lighter. Some of our favorites dishes were Curry Chicken with Cauliflower Rice, Sweet Potato boats with Ground Turkey and Avocado and Steak Bowls with Cauliflower Rice and Salsa. I also made these dishes that I saved from my Pinterest board.

Coconut Curry Chicken

Spicy Roasted Cauliflower Bowl with Salsa

Week 3: I noticed a significant difference in how my clothes were fitting and it was so exciting. At this point eating healthy foods felt like second nature and fruits became my favorite snack. By this point I was also exercising regularly using Alexia Clark's workout plan and running regularly because I was training for my 5k. My workouts felt great too. My joints didn't hurt, I wasn't fatigued ever. That was a game changer for me. I always felt tired or lethargic but after consuming only whole foods for 3 weeks, my body no longer felt that way. My skin and hair also looked amazing. My skin was clear and my hair was the shiniest it's ever been. Zero split ends, so smooth and so easy to blow dry.

Week 4: I felt changed forever. I know that's dramatic to say but that's how I felt! I survived Superbowl Sunday without Pizza, Chips, Dips or drinks. I had some baked chicken and seltzer and was just fine. By this time I had forgotten what it felt like to be bloated or have any stomach/digestive issues. My daily meals consisted of veggie omelets, salmon or other proteins with veggies for lunch and proteins, vegetables and cauliflower rice for dinner, with fruits in between. My mom's favorite snacks were RX Bars and nuts but since I'm allergic to all nuts I just stuck to apples and clementines as my go-to fruit snacks between meals.

It's been a week since I finished the Whole30 plan and I honestly don't want to go back to how I ate before. I realized added sugar is in everything, literally everything. Since I've finished I have tried Oreos, corn tortillas, teriyaki chicken and I've gotten stomachaches from all 3. I'm most heartbroken by the oreos because they were my favorite cookie but even after having them they tasted so sweet and even salty and it was just too weird, haha! I still crave fruits all the time and I'm going to stick to those as snacks. The best news of all was that I lost 10lbs! I went down a full pant size, full dress size and bra size.

Zucchini Noodles with homemade sauce and Ground Turkey Meatballs

Before Whole 30

After Whole 30

Final thoughts: I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. It's honestly changed my life. If you're looking for a detox, or just new lifestyle then go for it! I won't be going back to the way I was eating before, I just can't after realizing how good my body can feel on the inside. It's not that I felt badly before either, but I had gotten used to bad indigestion and stomachaches and this helped me realize there's a better way to eat.

Happy Sunday, guys! Hope you've had an awesome weekend so far. I wanted to share something that I get asked about all the time. As long as I can remember, I took care of my nails and treated myself to manicures. After growing up as a nail biting kid, my nail care took a turn and I became devoted to having nice nails in High School and in college. Painting my nails and getting manicures became a way for me to relieve stress and I even enjoyed painting my friend's nails all the time!

After many years of treating myself to weekly manicures, I realized that it wasn't convenient to my lifestyle as a working adult. I no longer to devote my time to finding a good salon, and getting them done all the time. I began to research other manicures that lasted longer. I quickly became a fan of gel manicures. Most appointments only took 30 minutes, I didn't have to wait for them to dry and they lasted me 2 weeks! It sounded ideal to me. However, the more I got gel manicures, the worst my actual nails became underneath. They weaken and began to peal, and I realized I was doing more damage than good.

I continued to do more research until I noticed my friend Jessica's nails. She always had really fun, funky designs and her nails looked so strong. I asked if they were acrylic because that's how long and sturdy they looked. I though oh dear, I don't want to go back to acrylic nails (Hello Prom 2008! Yikes!). Jessica responded no, they're my actual nails. I've started getting SNS manicures, you should try them! As I continued to ask her about the process, and the salon, I got more and more interested.

The process is a bit backwards but it's long lasting and quite lovely. It's a dip powder manicure that doesn't require UV lights or additional drying time. The powders are packed with Vitamins A, D, E and B5 to strengthen your nails and leave your manicure lasting up to 2-3 weeks! I got mine done once and they lasted me 4 full weeks. I was amazed. My nails have never grown this long naturally and have never been so strong. Here's what my most recent manicure looked like at Week 3:


I go to Rouge Nails in Bloomfield, NJ, and I love getting my nails done by Mayra and Mirian! All the ladies there are incredibly sweet, and pay such good attention to detail. They seriously take so much pride in their work. They always offer water, coffee, wine and sweet treats. Make sure you make an appointment especially on Saturdays because the place does get packed!

For some this isn’t a big accomplishment but for me it was pretty exciting. I’m not a runner by any means; the last time I took running seriously was when I was a freshman in high school and embarrassingly sprained my ankle at my first cross country meet. Well it’s been almost 14 years since then and well I decided it was something that I wanted to try again. 

On Saturday I ran my first 5k - okay, i’ll admit I did walk a little but I can happily say I completed it. I finished faster than I expected - 40 minutes - and it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Thankfully it wasn't too cold; it was a nice 40-45 degrees. My mistake was not training outside, I had only been running inside on a treadmill. My lungs took a beating the first mile and I ended up with a cramp from breathing with my mouth so much. After the first mile, things got easier. I got comfortable with my pace and a little inside kept saying, "just keep going."