30 Day Challenge -- Day 3

Today I decided to take my measurements so I can see how many inches I will lose over the next 30 27 days. I was so excited to see that I have already (not in the last two days) lost 1.5 inches around my waist and 2 inches off my hips!! Now, to be fair, you should know about a month and a half ago I decided the kids and I would be mostly paleo, but completely gluten free. So, those inches came off in the last month and a half, before my 30 day challenge. I can only hope the next month provides even better results.

I was hoping today I would be able to do some more body flops, body hangs, sit ups, and squats. Sadly, I am still way too sore to do any more of these. Tomorrow will have to be good enough. At least I will get them in twice this week. I was still able to do our morning walk and I threw in Day 1 (which I have started five other times in the past)((I once made it to week 5, but screwed it all up--more on that later... maybe)) of Couch 2 5k. Who knows? Maybe I will finally learn to run.

Day 3
Before breakfast the kids and I went for a 1.6 mile walk. I have this really cool app on my phone (thanks to my friend Bonnie), called CardioTracker, that tracks how far we walk/run. (It also tells me how much produce I have burned, which is really weird. Because let's face it, I want to know how many brownie's I have burned.)

Breakfast: At around 10 am we ate a wonderful Caramelized Onion Frittata that was delicious! I really recommend you try it. My two youngest kids and I also shared a green smoothie that contained dandelion, red chard, celery, wheat grass, apple, oranges, and coconut water. It was definitely intense, but we handled it. I am not sure I would make it again, but we are brave!

Lunch: Without meaning to, we completely missed lunch. Breakfast was so filling we never got hungry. But, we did eat breakfast a little late.

3 pm: Made it to the gym for my Couch 2 5k attempt. I will admit I desperately wanted to quit in the middle of it. I then decided to slow my miles per hour down on the running intervals from 5.8 miles/hour to 5.2 miles/hour and keep it slow and simple. I mean, the idea is practicing and learning how to run... right? I was glad I did, because I was able to finish while watching NCIS. (I love this show)

Dinner: Salmon Sliders (substituted tuna) with an awesome Cilantro Lime Cole Slaw (which I used half purple cabbage and half green). These are both super easy to make, but require a LOT of chopping, dicing, and slicing. But, it is completely worth it.

Full disclosure: I have to admit today I had a bit of a cheat. We have a soda shop stand that serves really yummy Diet Mountain Dew with a Mango Puree. After drinking about 1/4 of it, I was feeling extremely guilty (with the help of my hubby who gave me major crap for it)((But, you should know two days ago I gave him major crap for having a cheat)). So I dumped it down the drain. I will be stronger next time!

30 Day Challenge -- Day 2

You know when you work out for the first time in a long time and you go to bed thinking "I'm good. Not too sore." You move your muscles around to "just check" and see and everything feels great? You think "I may not hurt too bad tomorrow." You feel like a pro. See? You weren't that out of shape! Ha! And then at around 3 am you try to turn over in bed and it hurts so bad it wakes you up?

Yep. I am so very sore from my first workout. I mean, seriously, who gets sore from body flops and body hangs?? Oh, yeah... That would be me.


Day 2

Today I woke up starving! Before eating the kids and I went for our walk: 1.7 miles. During our walk we did 4 wind sprints down a pretty long sidewalk and we ran up and down a set of stairs 10 times. It was fun until the 7 year old decided her feet and legs hurt and she was going to whine the rest of the time.

Breakfast

Breakfast: I took some diced onion, cilantro, chopped spinach and sauteed them in a pan with a little coconut oil. After they were cooked, I put some eggs over them and made a really yummy scramble. Topped with a good amount of salsa, this was fantastic!
We also had a slice of watermelon that was leftover from last night's dinner.

Lunch: I wasn't very hungry. I guess breakfast was pretty filling. I had two turkey slices, some apple slices, and a few nuts.

Dinner

Dinner: Corned beef with a bunch of boiled cabbage, pan-grilled zucchini, a lot of raw onion, and yellow mustard. I love, love, love, onions... and mustard. Together they are amazing!

My Challenge Day 1

Last Thursday, I decided I am going to do a 30 Day Challenge with Paleo. This will include food (no cheats)((Have I mentioned I like a glass or two of wine at the end of the day?)) and exercise (fun stuff with my kids). The reason? I really want to fit into my old jeans again (they are only a couple of years old, not from high school) and be able to like what I see in the mirror when I am standing in front of it naked. The only way I am going to accomplish this is if I actually do something different than what hasn't been working.

I can do this! It's only 30 days (or forever).

Day 1

Breakfast: Nothing. I wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat.

Took a 1.5 mile walk with two of my kids. When we got back I did

• 30 Squats
• 30 Crunches
• 5 Body Hangs*
• 6 Body Flops**

*A body hang is the start to a pull up, but when you are as out of shape as I am, it looks like you are just hanging there. In reality, you are trying very hard to pull yourself up. 

**Similar to a Body Hang, except with push ups (and not the knee pushups. We are going for real, manly push ups). You start in a push up position and slowly lower yourself to the ground. When you get to the ground, but are not touching it, you try and lift back up into push up position. (If you are me, you can't lift yourself back up, yet, and you flop to the ground. 

Lunch: By 11:00 am I was hungry! I had a cold chicken breast that was leftover from dinner the night before, dipped it in guacamole, had 8 green olives, and half of an apple. 

5:30 pm: Handful of mixed nuts.

Dinner: I had a grilled chicken quarter (a thigh and a leg), 2 big handfuls of spinach chopped and dressed with an Italian dressing, and a big slice of watermelon.

Dessert: Unfortunately, yesterday I found a recipe for Homemade Coconut Milk Ice Cream that I had to try (don't worry, it wasn't really a cheat). It was very good, but I have to try it again and fix what I did wrong (or what the recipe led me to do wrong). 

With Day 1 done, it is time for sleep and to see how sore I am in the morning. 

Menu Week of May 6 - 12

Last week's menu was a blast! We had such a great time trying a ton of new recipes. Surprisingly, we loved every. single. one. Well, except for the Apple Dijon Burger which we didn't make but will make this coming week. This week I am hoping we have the same success.

Breakfasts
I know, not very creative. I really need to work on easy breakfast stuff!

• Eggs with fruit.
• Eggs scrambled with sausage and topped with a fresh salsa.
• Bacon and fruit.
• Ham and veggies cooked together and topped with an egg. 
• Green smoothies

Dinners
Menu for six nights because Fridays are great for leftovers.

• Carne Asada Flank Steak with Tomatillo Avocado Salsa on top of a nice salad with a bunch of veggies.

• Apple Dijon Burger with roasted sweet potatoes. 

• Ham (because I bought a ham about a week ago and now we HAVE to eat it). 

• Bacon Wrapped Chicken & Fennel with a side salad.

• Easy Slow-Cooker Jambalaya substituting cauliflower "rice" for the actual rice. (We have actually had this a few times and it is really good.)

• Pan Roasted Salmon with Wild Mushrooms with caramelized onions and a mixed green salad.

Ostrich Burgers

Last night we ate ostrich for the very first time... In the form of a burger. I was very surprised how similar to beef it was. Don't get me wrong, it was not just like beef. It was quite good though. Good enough that I would eat it again. Good enough I would try an ostrich roast. Good enough I am thinking I need to raise ostriches. (I really want to have a farm someday, but I am allergic to everything with fur. There has not been one exception. But guess what?! Ostriches have feathers!)

We ate it just like any burger: with lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard, ketchup (the kids anyway).

See?? Completely looks like a burger. 

Weekly Paleo Menu April 29 - May 5.

I realize I started this blog and left it after two posts.

We have had a LOT of ups and downs and now that Brandon, A.K.A. The Hubby, has finally decided to be completely onboard with eating Paleo it is time to buckle down. It has only taken a lifetime for him to start listening to his father, but isn't that just the way of life?

As of now, our entire family is not Paleo. Brandon is completely Paleo (it has made such a difference with his blood glucose levels and a huge reduction in his A1C's!--He is a Type 1 Diabetic--I promise to post more on this soon.) I am about 90% Paleo, but completely gluten free. Our five children are almost gluten free, but that is all. We are a work in progress.

We have five children. Our oldest will be 18 in a week and he eats a TON. Who am I kidding? All of my children eat a TON. I have cooked most everything from scratch for a really long time. We have really had a pretty low grocery bill because of it. Changing our eating to Paleo has definitely increased our spending on food. It is a hard adjustment and it's just the beginning. We don't buy a lot of Organic foods or grain fed meats. They are expensive and they don't fit into our budget at all. I look for clearance meat and sale veggies. Natural Grocers, which is what we have in my area, has a clearance veggie bin where I can pick up a bag of going bad produce for $1.00 a bag. I still add a few fillers to my children's meals, such as Basmati rice, potatoes, corn tortillas, etc. But, I keep it gluten free.


Our Weekly Menu for April 29 - May 5:
I am posting six dinners and breakfasts because the 7th will be a free night and morning. You never know when you have something come up or you are rushed or you just don't feel like cooking.

Lunches tend to be leftovers of dinner, which I will double or triple recipes in order to have. Most dinner items can be thrown on a bed of greens and will make a great lunch. Turkey or ham sandwich meat makes a great "tortilla" for some avocado, onion, and bell pepper.

Breakfasts:

Fried eggs with fruit (whatever sounds good).

Ham steak topped with the BEST caramelized onion jam EVER and a fruit.

Eggs scrambled with sausage and some veggies.

Fisherman's Eggs--This looks easy enough. I will probably cook everything in a pan.

Bacon and fruit.

Paleo Breakfast Burrito



Dinners in no particular order:

Paleo Southwest Meat Loaf (I get to use some of the clearance ground beef I found) with guacamole, a salad (usually some kind of greens with dressing).

Crock Pot Asian Style Carnitas with Asian Cabbage Salad and grilled asparagus.

Apple Dijon Burger on top of some greens, diced and baked sweet potatoes on the side.

Salmon Sliders (but, I will be using tuna for the sake of budget), on top of Cilantro Lime Slaw.

Too Easy Chicken Adobo with Roasted Mixed Greens with Beets and Garlic (yes, I know it's the same site. I figure we will try them both at the same time... even though we don't really like beets. Maybe this will be the way that will finally help us to eat them.)

Pan-Seared Chicken and Curried Parsnips on top of a nice bed of lettuce.

*As with any menu, if we don't end up being able to cook all of the meals this week, I will just add them on to the beginning of next week.

Paleo Pancakes

A couple of years ago, I came across this recipe at Elana's Pantry for almond flour pancakes. They were good. Especially when you haven't had a pancake in a long time.

Two weeks ago my 5 year old birthday girl really wanted pancakes for her special breakfast. My plan was to make Elana's pancakes until I realized we were out of almond flour (and no one had told me). I ran and grabbed my copy of The Primal Blueprint Cookbook and lo and behold it had a recipe for coconut flour pancakes. I have to admit I was extremely skeptical. Coconut flour is very dense and I couldn't see it making a great pancake. However, I did have coconut flour on hand, so I gave it a try. They were so gross. I don't know if it was something I did or if the recipe was bad, but I won't be trying it again.

I got onto the computer and found an interesting recipe in one of the comment sections of Mark's Daily Apple (yes, the same guy who wrote the book above with the nasty coconut flour pancakes) and it looks like Mark Sisson made his own recipe. The recipe sounded so easy and at this point I was desperate!

Paleo Pancakes (my version)
*Recipe is good for one person

1 Egg
1 Ripe Banana
1 Heaping TBSP Almond Butter

Heat a pan over medium heat. Grease pan. Mix all ingredients together very well. Cook on pan until golden on both sides.

Makes about 3 pancakes.

I also added a few blueberries to each pancake. They were so good! These pancakes were fluffy and felt like normal pancakes in my mouth. This is our new "go to" pancake recipe.