One of my problems with the Paleo diet made right.

I have a few issues with the Paleo diet/lifestyle.  A lot of it makes sense to me (whole foods in the form of lean meat, fresh veggies/fruit, nuts, etc.) but there are parts that don't make any sense whatsoever in our modern age.

One of my issues was that I was understanding the Paleo diet in the sense that you must eat a lean protein source at each meal plus plenty of leafy veggies and some source of quality fat.  Ok, fine. Great.  However, that is not Paleo....not in my definition.  You mean to tell me that a caveman kills an animal and he is thinking, "Oh, let me go find a plateful of leafy things to accompany this meat at every meal."  Heck no!  He's going to eat that animal from top to bottom until it's gone.  Then, there may be a week where he doesn't have any protein from an animal source.

So that was really throwing me for a loop.  I just did not understand how it was Paleo if your meals were perfectly proportioned.

Last night, my husband and I were discussing something about eating and I brought up my issue with the Paleo diet thinking.  He said something that made me understand SO much about it.  He said that the Paleo diet isn't about the proper proportion of protein, carbs, fats.  It's about the TYPE of food.  Duh.  Of course, that's it.  I get that.  That makes perfect sense.  I was just over thinking...as I tend to do!

I guess what I was doing was combining the Zone diet with the Paleo diet.  Since we're doing this challenge through Crossfit, they obviously want the portions to be ideal if possible for maximum results in performance (both in the gym and in everyday life).  Since we are in the modern age, we can obviously do that because we don't have to kill an animal and eat it until it's gone immediately.

So I am now more ok with the Paleo diet.  I think after this challenge we'll probably be an 80/20 Paleo eating family.  Not that the 20% will be junk foods, but probably more along the lines of dairy, white potatoes, corn, beans, etc.  As long as things are as close to the natural source as possible, I am ok with that.

So although I am not a 100% on board with the Paleo diet lifestyle, I definitely think it's the best guideline out there for the health of our bodies/lives.

Beets and a Paleo Problem

We are in week two of our Paleo Challenge.  I am not doing well.  Although some may think I'm doing extremely well since I lost 6 pounds the first week.  Which, to many, may be exactly what they want.  However, since I am still breastfeeding my eight-month old, it did not do well for me.  It affected my milk supply drastically.  Whereas my baby was waking around 2-3 a.m. to nurse before the challenge, she then started waking every 1.5 hours.  I was exhausted.

It's not that I'm not eating enough food ...or so I think.  I eat avocado at breakfast with eggs and always on any salad.  I eat bacon in the mornings.  I eat more beef than on a typical Paleo diet.  I eat more nuts than is recommended. I eat more protein than normal.  I eat more snacks throughout the day than recommended.  And STILL my body apparently needed more.  I freaked and bought some Nutella to eat. Not because I craved the sugar.  I actually am doing MUCH better this go around than before when the sugar cravings were killing me!  I got that because it was full of fat and at least I'd get a tiny bit of protein (yes, I realize it is made with lots o' sugar and milk) BUT let me tell you that the next two nights I slept so much better because my baby decided that my milk now was sufficient.  

I do not want to eat that much sugar.  So I found several other high calorie/fat snacks to add in.  I feel as though my meals are sufficient since I'm eating more than average with the proteins and fats, so I feel making my in between small meals as fatty and high calorie as possible may help.    Who knows.  It's just not something I'm willing to play around with.  I am eating very healthy...well, much healthier than I was, so at least my milk is better for my baby.  I'm hoping the new way to get fat/calories will work.  If not, I will absolutely eat some more Nutella.  I need sleep and my baby does too.  And if Nutella is a way to do it, then fine.  It's MUCH less sugar/dairy than I ever have consumed in my life, so I'm okay with it for now.  After she weans, I'll definitely go back at it super strict.

Now....onto a new subject.  Beets.  Beets are weird.

 

It's the first time I've ever cooked beets and the first time I've ever tasted them.  I wasn't very impressed.  Well...I wasn't impressed with the taste. I was very impressed with the incredible color that came out of them.  I can see why people use beets as a source to color other things.


 I roasted them and then made a balsamic glaze to pour over.  They smelled very 'earthy' as they were cooking.  When I put them on a plate to try, I admit I was not excited about putting them in my mouth.  I made my husband taste them first!  :)  He didn't think they were bad.  In fact, he ate them again the next day.  Maybe he was just trying not to waste food!  I tasted one and although it was awful, it's just not something I thought was great.  I'll continue to try them. But until someone else makes them, I may just hold off for now.


I tried...but I could not make them look appealing at all.

Only 4 days in

This Paleo challenge is kicking my butt.  Seriously.

I am hungry all the time.  I eat additional snacks and eat more protein than a typical serving since I am still breastfeeding our daughter, but I feel like it's not enough.  I am going to make guacamole tomorrow to eat for breakfast in hopes that it'll help add some calories in.  It's a little tough since I have been dealing with a low supply for a few months now, so I hope this doesn't hurt it.

It doesn't help that we are up every night multiple times a night with our kids.  We simply don't get the sleep our bodies need.  We get plenty sleep time, it's just that it's interrupted.  I'm thinking if I were able to have more sleep, then it wouldn't be *as* hard.

I have been scouring the Internet for Paleo dessert recipes.  The fact that we can't even use honey is really hard. I'm not even sure why on this challenge we can't.  I did find tons of great dessert recipes that I've pinned for future use.

We have had some pretty good meals from the Paleo Plan.  Tonight we are having chicken in a mushroom sauce.  We'll also cook up veggies to go with it.   Tomorrow is some kind of roast.  I'm pretty excited about that!!!

The coconut milk in my coffee isn't great.  I wish it were, but it's just not.  We've let it thicken in the fridge overnight to see if it would help, but it didn't.  So I'm not drinking nearly the caffeine I was (which is great) but it's really affecting me.  I really hope I can make it at least the first week without a slip up.

Blah.  Day four.  Almost behind me.

Late night coffee...with half & half

I am going to enjoy a half cup of coffee so I can enjoy my half & half in it before I go 30 days without.  That is truly one thing I know I will miss in this 30-day Paleo challenge.  BUT I know I can do it.  Maybe.

Tomorrow officially begins the challenge.  You know what the worst part is?  I have to get my fat pinched.  Measured.  Yeah...not good.  I will be going to the gym in the a.m. to get the fatness pinched and then do our first challenge which is something called Crossfit Total.  It is the total (weight I'm guessing) of your one-rep max of each of the following: back squat, shoulder press, and deadlift.  Considering I haven't worked out since the baby was born over 7 months ago, this should be interesting.  It's great to have a starting point (and photos...don't forget the horrific "before" photos that must be taken) but honestly this won't really let me know how the Paleo diet affects my workouts since I'm starting it all at once! Haha!  So I only have room to improve, right?

I went grocery shopping today.  I got all of the food for our first week.  Except almond milk.  Not at Publix.  Yes...I do realize they actually do sell almond milk there, however, read the ingredients.  So much crap in those that there is no way it is Paleo.  So I'll try the natural food store tomorrow while we're downtown.  We are still allowing our son to eat cheese but we're not buying anymore milk for the 30 days.  We'll slowly wean him off dairy since he ate so much of it.

Here's what he thought of the new and improved fridge contents:

Haha, just kidding.  He wanted to take a silly photo and this is what I got.  Just happened to be as I was putting the groceries away!  :)  Seriously, after our last challenge, he started eating more of the vegetables he'd gotten away from.  Now he sword fights me with asparagus spears before we eat them. That was one food he used to love and then after we let too many crackers, bread, etc. come into play, he has started losing his taste for veggies.  Slowly but surely we are bringing it back!

Well...off to have my last cup of coffee full of yummy cream and milk.  For 30 days at least!

Enough already

I've had it with these intense sugar cravings.  I'm over it.  I don't think I necessarily want to be over sugar forever, but I'd love not to consume it every day.

I overheard last night at the Paleo Potluck we had at the Crossfit gym where my husband coaches that  craving sugar could be an indicator you aren't getting enough sleep.  Well, that explains it.  Considering both of my children think it's hysterical to start out as newborns sleeping wonderfully and then after 4 months of age decide to mix it up a bit and start waking every 3 hours after going to sleep.  So yeah...sleep deprivation is definitely at play here.  I've never heard of a sugar craving having anything to do with it, so I'm definitely going to ask more.  It makes sense because it's been very strong after the births of each my children.  But...I also love sugar.  So it could just be that!

Anyways, we'll be starting our 30-day Paleo Challenge soon.  Yes...again.  However, this time we are giving up dairy.  One - I want to eliminate it to see if it helps with the congestion/allergies I've suffered from since being a kid.  Two - I've mentioned our daughter's skin issues.  So hopefully this challenge will help see if the dairy is the culprit.  We're getting a little help from the folks over at Paleo Plan.  They seriously make it too easy to NOT at least try Paleo for 30 days.  Such a great site. So very easy to navigate (and it has pretty photos, so that's always a plus in my opinion!).

I am also truly starting to workout again.  A friend of mine is currently doing the intro classes at the gym and she'll be finished next week.  We've already got our twice a week workouts on the calendar.  I really have no excuses.

So here we go.  Again.  I did it for 6 weeks last time...surely I can do another 30 days...with no dairy...which means no cheese.  Ugh.

Must. Focus.

As I sit here and eat straight out of the jar of Nutella with a spoon, I realize I'm not following the diet I started several months ago.

I did awesome on my 30-day challenge. I never cheated.  Not once.  I even made it to 6-weeks before I had something with grains/sugar.  Even after that, it was fine.  We continued to shop for good meats, veggies, and the good fats.  We did allow some grains/sugar back into our diet, but it was outside of our house.  That I didn't mind.  However, now Nutella makes an appearance *at least* once a week. We have snack bars for our son, cookies, ice cream...yeah...we lost focus.

Our son's behavior has also reflected it.  He's not a bad kid by any means.  He's 3, which sometimes makes me want to go hide away for the next year, but all in all, he's actually pretty well behaved.  However, getting the sugar and more grain back into his diet has also brought back the unfocused, poor listening, etc.  He doesn't even ask for bread any more at the house (we still don't have it here), but he is expecting sweet treats a lot.  And, yes, I know I can make sweet Paleo-ish treats, but of course busy lives take over and convenience crap products enter in.

So, we're back to having to refocus.  It's tough because you have it so together...you realize you CAN do this...and then you slip, which is fine, but then you do it again and again.  And then, because you and your husband are trying to work multiple jobs, keep the house at just above the gross level, entertain a 3 year old and a 7 month old, the food becomes back burner and you're back to eating pure crap.  Honestly, we still eat better than the SAD, but it's a noticeable difference when we were eating clean.

Now, we're considering taking dairy out.  At least I am.  Our daughter (7 months) has been battling eczema since she was 2 months old.  It's been awful on her cheeks.  We've realized we have to cover her hands at night to prevent her from scratching her cheeks so that has helped. But in reading, I've realized that much of the skin issues deal with eczema can come from food related issues.  Dairy is one of the major culprits.  So I'm going to try and try and try to remove it from my diet.  I LOVE dairy.  Love it.  It's one of my favorite things ever.  I've cut back on drinking straight milk already.  I am going to have the biggest issue with cheese....and cream in my coffee.  I am already OK with no sugar (thanks to my challenge in the summer of no sugar) in my coffee although I occasionally add a tiny bit of honey to change things up from time to time, so I am hoping to take the cream away may not be as difficult.  I know I can use coconut milk.  We'll see....

So, I don't even have a plan this time.  Basically our plan is to spend at least 30 minutes each week making a complete meal plan (to include all meals and snacks) so we have no room for error.  We've done it before so I know we can do it again.

One week to go

I am almost finished with my 30 day challenge of no sugar/grains.  It's been surprisingly easy.  Even when I was making cupcakes for my son's third birthday party, I was able to resist.  I am proud of myself for that moment because I LOVE to eat raw batter.  I also love to eat frosting straight from a can. And I also used Oreo cookies to crush and make the "dirt" part of the cupcake...I can't even tell you how much I love dunking those cookies in milk.  I resisted every sweet thing possible that day!

I almost gave in and got just a spoonful of frosting.  I'm so glad I did.  I need to keep it a matter of the mind.  If I can resist, then I know I can always resist.  Now, I'm definitely looking forward to having a very special sweet treat as soon as this is over.  But I want to make it worth it and canned frosting will NOT be worth it.  The problem I have is that I only want to add back in either grains or sugar first to truly test out the effect.

I keep getting asked if I've noticed a difference.  I have noticed that I don't feel bloated at all...ever.  Which is nice, you know?  But as far as energy levels...no change, but that could be because I am not getting sleep at night since I'm still getting up 2-3 times a night to nurse my daughter.  So the broken sleep is kind of outweighing any positive energy change I might experience from this.

Preparation, again, is key.  We went to my mom's today and had no snacks.  Thankfully she had some good food for us to eat, but we really need to get better in having snacks with us.

I'm looking forward to my special treat...now, what to choose?  :)

I suck at farming...

So I'm not technically a farmer.  And I really don't even have a garden.  But I do have a few veggie plants! Not that it freaking matters because my tomatoes have rot!  I'm sure there is a technical word for it, but I don't even care at this point.  I am sooo mad.  AND I only have myself to blame.   I knew when I planted my lone tomato plant this year in the SAME bucket with the SAME soil as last year (I added a bit of new soil and mixed) that I was taking a chance, but I was in a hurry and just did it.

At first the plant looked awesome.  It grew tall and strong and before long there were tons of blooms.  Then the blooms started falling off.  So I kind of wrote it off as a good plant, but then I started seeing tomatoes!  I went out this afternoon to water things and this is what I saw:

SERIOUSLY?   And it's not just that one.  See the little one to the left of it?  Don't worry, it'll get the black funk too.  ALL of the bigger tomatoes have it.  This ticks me off.  I can't imagine how farmers feel when they have issues in an entire crop.  This is my one little measly plant and I am super disappointed.

So after that I decided I needed something to make me happy.  I looked around and saw my dill.  I love dill.  It's one of those herbs that I can eat on pretty much anything!  It's supposedly time to snip the flowers off if I want it to continue producing the herb, but look how pretty they are!  I'm not sure I can do that.  Perhaps I'll let it grow a little longer and try to harvest the seeds for next time!

 

I enjoy gardening, but the past two summers have not been good for us.  Last summer, although our garden looked great, I found out in June I was pregnant and was then sick for 16 weeks and couldn't bear the thought of eating, much less working outside in the heat tending to my veggies!   And this year I didn't prepare very well since I was having a baby around the time I should have been starting my seeds indoors!  

I still have cucumbers to come and bell peppers.  I planted peas and green beans and although they are producing right now, I just didn't plant enough for it to be worth it  you know?  I need to figure out what is best to plant in a small garden for high yield.  If a bell pepper produces enough, that will surely be worth it because I can freeze those.  Have you seen the price for any bell pepper other than the green ones?  Crazy high!  So that would definitely be one to grow.  

Well...I guess it's just one plant that has the funk.  At least I don't have 100 tomato plants that have it.

Choices upon choices!!!

When it comes to eating healthy, there are a million different opinions.  And many times those opinions evolve over time.  However, I believe that we can't be that wrong from a pretty healthy diet if we eat our whole, natural foods as close to their natural state as possible, right?

For veggies, we know to try to eat organic.  And if we can get them locally, then it's a bonus!  Many times I think we, as a society, are under the impression that if it grows locally, it's better for us.  Well, in my opinion it is...if it's not laden with pesticides or genetically modified.  Sure, if you buy it locally you help reduce transportation issues (gas costs, pollution, etc.), but if you are putting chemicals in your body as the trade off, is that really worth it?

Now, all that being said, if you can't afford the higher priced organics, then make sure you really wash off your fruits and veggies before eating.  I really believe that eating commercially grown produce that has been thoroughly washed by you before eating, is sooooo much better than eating one of those all-in-one processed meals you buy in a box or the freezer section.

As far as meats go...this is a scary area for me.  Yes, the poisons that are applied to our growing produce is horrible but when you start thinking about meat, it makes me sick to my stomach to think of the way the meat is produced.  The farmers actually think it's a good thing to pump the animal full of hormones, antibiotics, etc., because it's what the consumer wants, right?  I mean, aren't we now trained to think that chicken breasts have to be ginormous or else there "must be something wrong" with it if it's on the smaller side.  The growth hormones they give to the animals should be enough to scare everyone.  A living, breathing, growing animal is given a hormone to help them grow faster and bigger than what nature intends.  And then we, as a society, think it's acceptable to eat that type of meat.  Does this scare anyone else?  I mean, I love eating meat.  But I'd MUCH rather eat meat from an animal that has been allowed to grow at a normal pace while eating its natural diet and be on fresh pasture as it wishes.  Because everything that goes into that animal during its infancy, youth and finally mature life will then be consumed by you!

Would you willingly inject yourself with a growth hormone?  What about your child?  What about antibiotics just because?  I'm guessing the answer is a big fat NO.  So why are we continuing to support these farmers who doing these things?  This is scary stuff.

We recently watched "Food, Inc." and were happy and horrified to watch it.  It's a great documentary on our food in this country.  It's so disturbing to watch and it makes me sad.  I think it is something that should be shown in schools in their health classes to help educate the children at an earlier age.  Yes, I know many of them will not be affected by it and will continue to eat fast food several times a week.  But just maybe there will be some that are saddened by what's happening to the food supply in our country and be part of the change to help make us a healthier society.

We do our best to find pastured meats.  Yes, it is ridiculously expensive, but guess why?  Because there is such a small population of us that want it that for it to be worth a farmer's time and effort, the prices have to be higher to cover all of the costs associated.  The conventional crap meat is much cheaper because unfortunately price rules over health in our society today and the vast majority of consumers will HAVE to buy it to feed their family because they simply cannot afford the higher priced meat.

Yes, I understand that the argument is out there that you and your family will be healthier because you have less doctor visits, etc. and the cost will be offset.  Well....my family and I *rarely* had doctor visits that weren't well checkups, so we don't see the savings in that way.  Perhaps down the road, sure, but now we are having to make what money we have work for us now.

We have found a great beef source.  It's pastured beef and it's so much cheaper than some of the other grass fed beef farms around here, but the one big problem with it is that it's finished with grains.  But it's the best choice we can make for our family right now.  For $2.50/pound, it is a MUCH better alternative than the crap beef that is pumped full of hormones that is sold for the same price and higher than we get our beef.

We have a great egg source.  It's a little pricey for us, but we eat so many eggs that I can't bear to eat the conventional eggs from chickens in houses.  I want my eggs to come from chickens that actually see daylight and eat their natural diet.

We have not found a great source for chicken and pork.  Well, that's not true.  We know of several places to get pastured chicken and pork, but it is SO expensive that unfortunately we're not able to buy it right now.

It's such a difficult thing to get to know the sources of your food and realize that is less than ideal.  Then you have to research and research to realize that much of the "healthy" foods you've been consuming is actually harmful to you.  It's such a struggle and challenge to eat healthy as it is, but when you have to peel back the layers of what the truth is, it makes it that much harder.

I want...

chocolate cake.  Or brownies.  Or the flourless chocolate torte from Garibaldi's.  Slightly freaking out.

Our son....on the Paleo Diet too?

Our son will be 3 next month.   He is a pretty good eater in general.  He started off loving tons of veggies, but we became lazy and started introducing convenience foods because...well, it was convenient.  So guess what?  Now our son who used to love to eat salad, asparagus, raw bell peppers, etc. has developed a taste for bread, crackers, anything salty.  This was something that slowly happened over time.  And when we finally realized what had happened, we knew we needed to change it, but how?

My husband and I have always tried to eat somewhat healthy.  I fell way off the healthy eating train while early pregnant last year and am now just recovering.  I think that was the time that our son began developing a taste for lots of processed junk.  My husband also enjoyed my cravings for Blizzards and other such treats!  And while I don't think anything in moderation is horrible, we were eating WAY too much.

My husband is the one who introduced us to the Paleo Diet by way of Crossfit.  The two seem to go hand in hand!  I bought the book last year sometime and read about it and thought it made sense, but just wasn't ready to dive in.  He's been pretty good about his diet and rarely would eat the pasta or breads in our meals.  He would usually have a big salad every night in addition to what we had.  Something started feeling wrong though when he wouldn't eat pasta, yet we would feed it to our two year old.   Same with all of the "treats" we were giving him.   Once I realized it, I talked to my husband and we agreed we needed to not feed our son what we didn't want to eat (although at this time, I was still scarfing down the bad-for-us foods too).

Timing was perfect because within a week I read about the release of a new book "Everyday Paleo" and thought it was perfect for us to try.  I was talking to my sister in law about it and she ordered it as soon as it was available. She called as soon as she received it and raved about it.  So I ordered one.  I'm glad I did.  It's a great guide to starting the paleo diet as a family.  There are great recipes, a fabulous meal plan and even a starter workout plan.

I liked the philosophy in her book regarding crap foods.  Just don't keep them in the house.  Period.  So we got rid of everything as you see in the photo a couple of posts back.  Guess what?  Everything's OK.  Our son is perfectly fine without bread in the house.  And this is the boy that was eating honey toast two or three times a day just the week before the change.  He's still "picky" about what snacks he wants, but because we only have good snacks around, that's all he has to choose from.  So I really don't care that he wants the same snack every day!   He even tried salad yesterday from my husband's plate.  He had stopped eating lettuce last year and while we encourage him to always try it again, he never wants to.  So to our surprise, he said he wanted daddy's salad and took a big piece of lettuce out and ate it.  Yay!  It was only the one piece but he didn't spit it out!  Hopefully if we can continue, he'll start eating it again.  He ate the lasagna I made last night.  No noodles.  Well, it kind of had noodles....in the form of zucchini strips!  He ate it all.

Yes, if your diet consisted of a lot of bread, processed foods, etc., your child will probably protest - especially if they are older than mine...we are pretty lucky that he's still so young.  But the answer is clear - don't have the junk in the house and they won't eat it.  Yes, they will complain, pout, maybe even cry.  But stick to it and within two weeks, they'll realize you are serious.

Now, like I mentioned before, we aren't going at this hard core.  We will allow some flexibility, but it'll be outside of our house and our normal routine.  For example, we may go to a baseball game tomorrow.  Our son will probably have a hot dog....with the bun.  It'll be OK.   He may even have a juice box.  But because it's not part of his daily or even weekly routine, it'll be just fine!

Our hope is that we can build a foundation that he can come back to.  I know that there may come a time where all he wants to eat is chicken fingers, but so long as we can control what he's offered 90% of the time, we'll do it.  Once he gets into high school and wants to make poor eating choices away from us, that will be his decision.  Hopefully by the time he has a family one day he'll come back to the basics of good, natural, whole foods and pass it on to his children.

Temptation

I was at a restaurant with friends last night and was sooo afraid I was going to cave....especially with the bread basket.  I'm not really craving grains but I LOVE bread and that is always a highlight of dining out for me!  But I didn't and even with the gigantic, wonderful brownie dessert came at the end of the meal, I was able to resist!

I am hoping this 30 days of no sugar will really help me change my taste for sugar.  I hope that when I do eat some kind of dessert with sugar again that it'll be super sweet and just a little will satisfy my sweet tooth.  Eating an entire pan of brownies in a day is just too much, you know?  I want to be happy eating just one.

So I am on the hunt for desserts that are sugar and grain free without tasting like cardboard.  Ha, yeah right.  But I am sure I can find one and I've got several recipes to try.  "Everyday Paleo" has a couple that I am super interested in.  The pumpkin pie is something I'll definitely try (especially since I have 6 cans of pumpkin in my pantry) and even her sweet potato recipe from Thanksgiving looks like it would be a treat in itself!

My husband caved last night!  :)  He was slightly freaking out and wanted to get something sweet.  We went to Walgreens and read tons of labels.  I am still shocked at what I see in "healthy" snacks on the shelves.  He ended up getting a pint of ice cream to share with my mom.  It was the only thing that had real ingredients.  He also got some peanut butter...which is a no-no on the Paleo diet.  But honestly, in my opinion, I think that's not too bad of a special treat.  I am really hoping I can make it the full 30 days without caving.  I'm just thinking how great that my special treat will be if I can wait that long!

And so it begins...

I did it.  I gave up sugar.

I want to really keep it out of my system for 30 days so I can truly gauge what I feel like without it.  And at the end of the 30 days, if I do decide to try a little to see how my body reacts, I'm hoping I'll get a clearer picture of how it does affect me.

Here is a photo of what we cleaned out of the pantry (sorry, it's a crappy cell phone photo)

We are only on day 4 of 30.  It's already HARD.  Yesterday I thought I was going to freak out.  I'm not really missing the grains so much (although I think my body is definitely adjusting), but I am craving sugar.  I really didn't like my husband yesterday and I KNOW he didn't like me.  I was reacting very badly to the lack of sugar I am apparently addicted to.

Now, to be fair, I think that the timing of this is quite challenging.  Our 3 month old is apparently going through a growth spurt and has decided that she wants to nurse every couple of hours through the night again.  So combine the sleep deprivation with no sugar and no grains all of sudden AND the reduced caffeine consumption (since there is no sugar in my coffee, I'm drinking less), it's been pretty tough.  Yesterday I could barely keep my eyes open.  I was exhausted.  So I ran up to the newest little coffee shop and got a Queen Bee Latte that's sweetened with, can you guess?  Honey!  Finally something sweet!  It was wonderful...actually it was a little too sweet!  But I completely forgot to ask for it to be half-caff.  Yeah, I was a little overwhelmed a little while later with the caffeine high!

So all in all, it's not been bad.  We've eaten great meals and love cooking at home so it makes it that much better.  I'll list a few of the meals we've eaten:

DAY 1
- Whole chicken in the crockpot with onions (so delicious and gave us plenty of leftovers)
- Red cabbage slaw with cucumber and mango (YUM!)
- BLAT salad - yummy, yummy, yummy, but how can you go wrong when you have bacon and avocado in the same bowl?

DAY 2
- Steak skewers with sweet onions, tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms
- grilled pinapple  (oh so good)
- Cauliflower "rice" - not quite mashed cauliflower, but cooked down to be softer than raw

DAY 3
- Spring mix (from our own garden!) salad with leftover chicken for me and leftover steak for hubby, pears, candied (with pure maple syrup) pecans, red onion and avocado.  Dressing was just squeezed lemon and olive oil.  Sooo yummy.  Not sure if maple syrup is "allowed" in Paleo eating, but honey is and I'm assuming if a caveman found some sticky stuff running of out of tree and tasted it, he'd eat it
- leftovers and tons of them!  I was a bit worried when I saw the grocery shopping list for days 1-5 in the "Everyday Paleo" book, but we've had tons of leftovers and will definitely be stretching the meals out in the future.


With our son, we've decided that we'll do Paleo at the house, but outside of the house we'll be lenient.  For example, his school had an end of the year performance and they had a special cookie as a treat.  Fine with us.  We just don't want to keep it at the house anymore.  We were so good for so long allowing that type of stuff to be special treats, but because we knew the stuff was in the house, it was so easy to just give it to him often.    After the 30 days, we will allow ourselves the same type of flexibility.  I'm not saying I'll never eat another cookie, brownie, etc. again, but for the next few weeks I want to avoid them!


As far as exercise, I was doing great following the workout plan in the back of "Everyday Paleo" which I started the week before.  But once I started the no sugar/grain thing and my exhaustion set in, I couldn't imagine trying to even do one squat.  Just walking around the house is wearing me out!  I hope that my body recovers a bit over the next day or so to be able to add the workouts in.  I have been walking some, so I am not completely being a couch potato!

Oh, and I've lost 3.5 pounds this week.  Which sounds great, but my first thought was that it's too much since I'm breastfeeding.  I want to make sure my supply stays up.  But I think I'm ok since I'm actually eating MUCH better than I was for the first three months of my daughter's life!  I've just cut out the pure crap I was eating and I knew it would probably help me drop weight very quickly initially.  I'm just going to make sure I keep plenty of protein and enough good fats in the daily eating to help keep my supply going strong.

So far, so good!

Yet again...

So it begins yet again.  Another attempt at eating healthier.  This society we have sucks in the fact that we are all geared towards convenience.   We were sucked back into the processed foods again.   And we're tired of it and want to change.  Thankfully we didn't get too far into processed stuff.  We are still mindful at the grocery store and stay on the outer perimeter as much as possible, so I'm hoping this won't be as drastic as a change for us this time.

We will soon be starting a modified Paleo Diet lifestyle.   Basically the Paleo diet is eating "cave man" style.  Lean meats, lots of leafy veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds.  That's it.  No grains, no dairy.  Seriously?  I don't 100% agree with the Paleo Diet, but that's another blog.  I do, however, completely 100% agree with the fact that it's all real food.   To me, that's the ultimate goal.

I'll talk more about it later, but first what's happened here since my last blog post?  A new baby arrived!!!  It's a GIRL!  She is now 3 months old and absolutely wonderful.  She's smiling at everything and everyone.  She was born on my birthday over 2 weeks early!  She was determined to share my birthday with me.  It was a fast and furious birth...I'll have to share the story another time.  It was fabulous.  We did it at the birth center again and left four hours after she was born.  Amazing stuff!

Big brother is very happy to be a big brother.  He's always trying to kiss and hold her.  We'll see how long that lasts!  :)  Her arriving and our son's shift in food preferences has prompted our desire to get back on track.  He was the kid who ate "crazy" stuff that the average child does not, but now, guess what's taken over?  Bread.  The amount of veggies he wants has fallen and it's totally our fault.  We've succumbed to the whole "we don't have time" excuse.  And that's exactly what it is...an excuse.  We are poor planners.  So instead of the good snacks he once got, they now consist of gummy gums (like gummy bears), crackers, chips, etc.  It sucks.  He still does eat veggies, just not as many.  We are ready to get him back to veggies.

So we bought this book by Sarah Fragoso called "Everyday Paleo"   It's a great book.  It has a basic overview of Paleo eating and her own personal experience plus recipes, a menu plan and exercise help.  We are starting the 30 day Paleo challenge next week.  I'm excited.  And nervous.  And completely freaked out about giving up sugar.  I am addicted to sugar.  Seriously.

So again, this blog has been revived to help me put out there what I am doing to get back to a healthier, more natural lifestyle.  I'm not sure what I'll blog about, but maybe writing down things will help me continue on.   I'll write about what I eat, my exercise and my general outlook on life...beware - I will be coming off of sugar and grains.  I cannot be held responsible for what comes out of my mouth during the transition time!