It is, my friend. Oh it is. It also happens to be the best spaghetti bolognese ever, minus the grains, of course. The Spaghetti Bolognese from the cookbook Practical Paleo has become a mainstay in our culinary repetoire, and I’m very excited to share it with you today. For anyone who is looking for some Italian deliciousness without sacrificing blood sugars or waistlines, this is for you.

The two best features of this recipe are the spaghetti squash, which takes place of the traditional pasta, and the bacon. The bacon adds a little “somethin’ somethin’” to the Paleo bolognese, which includes ground turkey and beef, carrots, onions, celery, and garlic along with tomato paste and coconut milk.

Spaghetti squash is incredibly easy to make. Although we started off microwaving it, we found that the squash is much softer and more pasta-like if you slice it in half and then roast it for about 40 minutes while you cook up the bolognese sauce. The sauce is also very easy. All you need to do is sauté the chopped veggies, toss in the meat until browned, pour in the milk and spoon in the sauce and then let it sit for about twenty minutes.

What’s your favorite healthy substitution?

It’s that time of year — spring cleaning hacks for your apartment

Check out these crazy fast food items served around the world

I found this video because the Duggars are in it, but I thought it was an interesting look at childfree couples

65 Books You Need to Read in Your 20s

The funniest video about two men who experiencing the pain of labor

Doniree gives some insight into those “free content” pitches us bloggers receive

An older blog I stumbled upon about women who are obsessed with Mormon lifestyle bloggers

New Spock vs. Old Spock

Apparently loneliness is not just bad for your mental health, it’s bad for your physical health!

This weekend, Erik and I are going to the Gardiner Cupcake Festival with our downstairs neighbors. Yep – a cupcake festival! I went last year when Erik was in Minnesota for a wedding, and I have to tell you, I am so excited to go again! Afterward we are going to see the new Star Trek movie. Woot!

Watching… the last bit of television that I can get my hands on. In an effort to save some more money, Erik and I are ditching our cable. I have never gone without regular TV since I was in college so this is going to be so weird. But all my favorite TV shows are available online so there’s really no reason to spend so much money on it. Has anyone else ever ditched their cable?

Waiting… to hear about nursing schools. I have been waitlisted to one school, and I haven’t heard back from the other one. The anxiety is driving me crazy!

Thankful… that I had a chance to hang out with my dad last weekend. We had a lot of fun eating seafood along the Sound and then we went to the city to walk around Tribeca and saw the World Trade Center. Erik and my dad went inside to the grounds to see the memorial, but I had a low blood sugar so I skipped out. Anyone want to go with me? I’m also thankful that Spring term is over! It was so hard and I’m looking forward to relaxing before I have to start summer term (I have a few more pre-reqs I have to finish).

Excited… that Erik and I are going to Boston for Memorial Day weekend! We haven’t gone anywhere just the two of us since our one year anniversary trip last July. We got a good deal on a hotel from Hotwire, although it’s just a Holiday Inn. We’re planning on checking out some museums, hang out in Boston Commons, and, of course, get some of my beloved Peet’s coffee!

Working… on my book again! I’m so excited to finally have some more flexibility to work on it again. There are several more interviews I want to conduct but it’s been hard with such a rigid school schedule. It can’t accommodate the busy schedules of most physicians. I’m also thinking about how I want to publish it next year. I’m thinking I might release it as an ebook and a downloadable PDF for people to print off their own if they want. I want to make it as easy and affordable for people, and since so many people have said that people don’t really buy books anymore, I’m wondering what my best options are. So we’ll see!

Loving… sunflower butter; country music; ice cream; our new headboard; spring weather; my continuous glucose monitor; reading new awesome blogs; Candy Crush (no matter how aggravating it really is).

Happy Tuesday!

{image via}

I know what you’re thinking: Why do you need to start a new blog about diabetes? Don’t you already talk about diabetes here?

Well, yes and no. Although I’ve tried for many months (years, even) to incorporate the two sides of my life, I’ve come to the realization that there are just some things that the average non-diabetic doesn’t give two hoots about and those are things that I’d like the freedom to talk about a little more frequently. I don’t necessarily want to talk about diabetes every day, but I’d like the option to post my thoughts about what’s going on in the D-community without wondering if I’m totally going to bore everyone else. Diabetes is so highly specialized that I sometimes feel awkward trying to explain what I’m saying to my non-D readers while simultaneously trying to help my D-readers. It’s just complicated and I want to try something new to see if it gets better.

In addition, I’m also working on a book and am also trying to ramp up my freelancing career, and I feel like having a place that is specifically devoted to diabetes will make my “marketability” a little better. I guess everything really does come down to branding, huh?

Of course, I’m not going to give up With Faith & Grace. Heavens no! If anything, this will help me focus a little bit more on topics on this end of the Allison spectrum. Nothing will change, actually, you just might see more things along the lines of health and fitness, personal development, and relationships with significant others, friends and family. Sound good? Good.

So if you haven’t already checked out, you can head on over. I’d love to hear what you think!

I love this woman’s take on why she doesn’t “eat Paleo” — or any other diet

This is a beautiful letter from the founder of Shabby Apple to her daughter

Wallpaper for renters!

I’m not a big reader of The Bloggess, but I adore her Rules for Life

Ashley Wilhite shares these great free resources for young women

A time lapse of various locations around the world — the Amazon, Dubai, the glaciers — from 1984 until now!

How do straight people respond when asked if heterosexuality is a choice?

Elizabeth Smart fights against the purity obsession

This weekend my dad is in town! Every few months he’ll come out here for a business trip, so we take advantage of him being in the area. This weekend also marks one years since I was last in Oregon and last saw my mom. Hopefully she and my dad will be out here this summer to visit!

I think it’s almost become a bit of a cliche to say “I’m a messy Christian.” I’m not sure I’ve ever actually met someone who didn’t think that, but what strikes me as ironic is the fact that we always think we are the only ones. We think we are the only ones who have doubts or anger-issues or lustful thoughts or that nasty habit of trying to anticipate and control every freaking thing in our life. When I first became a Christian and was finally spending some quality time around other Christians in college, it was amazing how often I didn’t hear people say “I’m a messy Christian.” What I saw — and heard — were a lot of people praising Jesus, committing to a life of purity, to calling every freaking thing a blessing. Lots of hands-raised, eyes-closed, soul-singing worship that I just couldn’t wrap my head around.

The older I’ve gotten and the more time I’ve spent around Christians, the more I’ve realized that although we might not be talking about our dirty little secrets, it doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

A few months ago, my pastor got really sick. Like really sick. Hospital ridden kind of sick and the doctors had no clue what was wrong with him. Then, finally, on Easter Sunday, our pastor was back. It was a bit of a miracle and we were so grateful to have him back. One of the things that really struck me though was that during his sermon, he started talking about his doubts in God. Not that he didn’t believe in God, but he started to wonder where He was. Why was this happening? When would it end? And I remember thinking how awesome it was that here is our pastor, the man who we trust to guide us in our walks with Christ, telling us that even he has doubts and concerns about God’s plan and that doesn’t make us a bad Christian. It makes us normal!

How refreshing to have these concerns and questions be a normal, integral part of our existence.

I think my college experience as a Christian was sort of a sanitized version of what life with Christ would really be like. I think that a lot of what Campus Crusade for Christ and the Navigators wanted to do was to make sure they kept us safe from the “evils” of the world, almost like they were our college parents trying to keep us out of trouble. But the problem is that when you try to stop someone from doing something, you can intentionally or unintentionally brand that act as something evil or unworthy or whatever. And so when you end up doing XYZ or believing XYZ, somehow you might think that you’re broken. Whether you’ve had pre-marital sex or you think homosexuality is just fine or whether you’re just not sure that God is actually listening, all of these various “non-Christian” behaviors can make you feel pretty lousy. Like it’s not even worth trying.

Every so often, over the past 10 years or so since I became a Christian, I’ve thought that I just don’t belong in this club. It’s too much work, I’d think. The Christian culture isn’t my style. The standards are way too high. I mean, have you read the Bible? And even those who supposedly are amongst the highest of the leaders, pastors and authors and teachers who are famous for telling us about God and the Bible, don’t seem to be doing the best job at being a Christian, or if they are doing a good job at being a Christian, then being a Christian just isn’t for me.

But along the way I’ve picked up a few additional thoughts on being a messy Christian, and it starts with what I talked about at the beginning of the post. First, that being a messy Christian is okay. That being human is messy and being a Christian doesn’t take away your humanity. It enriches our experience, but it doesn’t make us mindless robots who can’t think — and doubt, and worry, and wonder — for themselves. The second thing is that there is no one way to do this. Each of Jesus’s disciples were unique in their own way, and they had their own struggles in their beliefs. And they actually knew the guy! So it’s not impossible or inconceivable for us to be the same.

Lastly: being a Christian is about following Christ, not about following other people. Other people may have an opinion on what you should do and how you should act and what you should believe, but at the end of the day, this is your relationship with God. There are plenty of examples in the Bible of God loving messy but wonderfully human people. There’s no reason to think He would love me too. Messiness and all.

This time it’s finals week, which means I haven’t put in an appearance at the gym or laced up my sneakers in at least a week. I don’t know why I always let a busy schedule get in the way of exercising. I’ve found plenty of time to (attempt to) conquer Candy Crush on Facebook. But run? Weight train? No way, no how.

My husband keeps asking me when I’m going to go back to the gym. I keep saying soon. Or next week. Or whatever. And it’s funny because I do miss running and I feel badly that I’ve completely slacked on the Best Body Bootcamp, something I’ve spent so much time hyping up. I don’t really know why I get so easily side tracked with exercise when I know that it is one of the biggest priorities I have for myself right now.

I know I’m not the only one who goes through this. And I suppose sometimes a break is good because you don’t want to get stressed out and burnt out on anything. I just wish that I was at the point where running was the thing that I wanted to do when I’m stressed out and frustrated about school and money, but it isn’t. Reruns of House Hunters and crushing candy are the things that bring me comfort and I sort of feel pathetic about that.

I suppose I should pat myself on the back for not retreating to candy or ice cream (I guess something from Paleo has stuck). Although last night after dinner I asked Erik if we had any dessert in the house and he was (obviously) all “No…” and so I started whining. And then he asked me if I was trying to eat my feelings.

Maaaaybe.

Did you know my husband signed up for a marathon? I don’t think I’ve written about it, and I don’t even think he’s announced it on Facebook. Well, he is. In October in Upstate New York. There’s a half-marathon attached to it that we talked about having me run. I thought it would be cool to run a half-marathon. The course looks really pretty and flat. Of course, given my track record of not going more than 3 miles without having a low blood sugar, I’m not entirely sure how feasible that is just yet. But I suppose it’s good to have something to work towards.

Running a half marathon, huh? I suppose that means I should start running again.

Another cool infographic that shows just how lucky we are compared to the rest of the world

If I were a cat, my name would be Professor Fishy McMittens

Signs You’re Addicted to Diet Coke

An interesting theory: announcing a resolution actually makes you less likely to keep it

An amazing story of a tribe in Africa who counts your age from the day you were thought of

3 Biggest Workout Motivation Pitfalls

A very interesting take on the dangers of puppy love and what we are teaching our children

How Not To Be a Dick to Your Sick Friend – amen!

As a cat lover, I’m digging these photographs of famous artists with their cats

This weekend is full of friends, working… and a little bit of homework, of course! Tonight we’re going bowling with the local diabetes support group that I started, tomorrow we’re heading to Jersey to have lunch with a friend of Erik’s, and on Sunday it’s Cinco de Mayo and we’re having tacos and drinks with some friends from our Young Couples group.