Happy November, Dear Reader!

If you have been a follower of my blog, you know I am in the middle of my 75 Hard journey. I'm on Day 24, actually. It has been a great journey so far--not easy, and entirely gruesome, but it has definitely been a journey of awareness.

I am much more aware of my body than I was in the past. I know when I am feeling the kind of pain that tells me slow down, and I know when I am feeling the kind of pain that will pass with a little more effort. There is a 'sweet spot', if you will, for managing 2, 45-minute workouts a day. Some call for a yoga workout in between and other days it may mean a trip to the gym to lift heavy things.

I have been reading more aggressively than I have in quite sometime. I finished 2, 250 page books since starting 75 Hard, since one of the requirements is to read 10 pages a day of a nonfiction book. Funny, I have read past that most days and appreciate the work of an authors clear expression more than ever.

I also ventured down the road of bread making. I haven't thrown my hat into the ring for Sourdough just yet, but I have been baking bread. I've baked 4 loaves of bread since starting in 75 Hard. It is so incredible to me... the process. I am not a fearer of carbs. But I have noticed, that even with a wheat allergy that was diagnosed 14 years ago, I can eat my homemade bread without issue. No bloat, no discomfort, no itching skin and no reactive rashes or hives. Bread is so simple. Yet, most mass-produced breads I've had in the past would leave me feeling ill, achy or in pure regret.

Bread is so simple. Flour, water, salt and yeast. That's essentially what makes up a loaf. When you control the ingredients and use the best available to complete the process, you are left with a quality product. I often marveled by the stories I'd hear about people with severe allergies traveling to Europe and not having any issues with the food over there. How they would feel so much better eating out than when they ate here in America.

I believe it's from not over-processing the ingredients that make up their food consumption. Flour is flour; not a mixture of flour, corn and mystery grain. I try to cook using organic flour as the pesticides are excluded. It is not chemically ripened or artificially processed. And what it produces when left to rise and sit is rather incredible. I've come to appreciate simple foods. Things that are able to come out of very few ingredients. Bread is one of those examples.

I love an appreciate the process of things. A series of steps that lead to a predicted outcome. I love that in business, I love that in pottery and I love that in the kitchen, too. I love that from 75 Hard also. Because it is a process, and I trust the process, that when these 75 days are finished, I will be able to reflect and appreciate the journey and the results that journey brings with it.