Here Motivation..... Where are you???

I want to be a runner. Not a marathon runner because that seems too impossible and just like a funny joke.  I want to be a "I can do a 5k easy" type runner. If I decide to go run a few miles I don't want to feel like I'm dying.  Which is how I feel after about 500 feet.

Then a quote comes to mind.. "If you do what you've always done, you'll be what you've always been" which is a non-runner.  I want to be a runner.

Crap. Looks like the forecast is for a lot of sweat :(

Being More Than Mommy: Lost: Motivation

Hi,
You were looking at my blog on Paleo with kids and I tried to reply but blogger was giving me issues.....

First, the Paleo did help the ADHD. My husband kind of gave up on it after the 60 days though because it is more work. A lot of work to do.  The ADHD just didn't seem to surface as easily and my son slept better.  It was like seeing a kid hopped up on sugar before, and the kid without sugar afterwards.  He could just control his impulses better.  I will say that it took longer to have an effect than I thought.  It just takes a few weeks at least for the glueten to get out of thier system.

It also helped my husband who has adult ADHD but he doesn't admit that either....he loves bread too much.  When he goes grocery shopping lots of bread and bagels makes it into our shopping cart. When I do that stuff is never in the cart;) 

I love that you are a runner. I want to be, but I can't even jog a mile straight at this time:( I'd love to be able to run a 5k without thinking.  I know I just need to get started, but workig full time with 3 kiddos and a house to keep up with just seems all time consuming.  I think I lost my motivation a long time ago and now I"m so far behind fitness wise, it's hard to get started again.

Anyways, feel free to email me if you have any other questions. Paleo was a great thing and I"m fighting to keep it 80% Paleo in the house now...  shamree_howard@yahoo.com

Blogging, personally and professionally?

Now that I've started blogging more regularly it's starting to be catchy and gives me an itch to blog more, even if anyone doesn't read it. It's nice to sometimes just get things out there more than the 140 characters of facebook.

I just started blogging professionally as well. That makes me feel more, naked, so to speak. I'm out of my comfort zone. I'm taking material from my technical expert co-workers and writing short blogs on their material, in more casual tones. I have them quickly review to make sure I didn't interpret anything weird, but I'm still nervous that I've made a huge blunder someone overlooked and I'll look like an idiot!

Plus, if you look at the site, as is with most engineering companies, 90% of the bloggers are men over the age of 50. I'm one of 3 women, only 1 of 2 women engineers, and the youngest person blogging.

Also, since I'm working with my colleagues to blog about technical topics that they are experts on- that they don't have time to blog on themselves- I feel almost like I'm trying to fake it. That isn't the case. I'm for sure not as technical as most of the other bloggers, BUT, I do have an engineering degree and understand a lot of what they are talking about, just not ALL of it- and I"m not an expert.

Check it out--- it's only 500 words. Don't fall asleep... and see what you think;)

http://www.designconcommunity.com/author.asp?section_id=3143&doc_id=261759&

Whole 30, with kids, ALL DONE!

Sort of...

We did it! We completed the Whole30 with no cheats (for adults) and only a few minor ones for the kiddos.  I for sure have more energy than I've had in a long time. I fall asleep easily at night, and wake up easily too. No more groggy, "don't talk to me until I've had my coffee" mornings. It's amazing. I'm a starbucks junky and I haven't even had coffee in days.

I lost a grand total of 6lbs. Doesn't sound like much, but it's the right direction and I did it all just by changing they way I eat. I wasn't working out like crazy or anything. Josh lost more. Punk. Yes I love my husband and am so glad he did this with me, but how in the HECK can guys lose more than women so easily? It's like they just think "lose weight" and it drops off.

Now I know that isn't really true, but it feels that way. Either way---- I'm glad we are all on a healthier way of eating.

We've added back in greek yogurt to make breakfast shakes, oatmeal and honey for the kiddos, and otherwise kept it all the same.  We're going to keep doing this for another 30 days. Yup. So we're done, but we're going to keep going.

Josh gets blood work done every year around his birthday. His doctor told him to wait this year until we'd done this for 60 days to really see a difference in your bloodwork. 30 days is great for creating new habits and "cleansing" the system, but it won't really show up until 60+ days.  So in a month look for an update on Josh's blood work compared to last year, which has always been pretty good.

The cookbooks we used during this journey were:


Both were ok and we found a few golden recipes in them; however, we found just as many we loved online for free!  The well fed book had about 6 recipes we liked that the kids liked and the everyday paleo had maybe 10.   The one thing to know is that in these books they sometimes use things that aren't allowed in the Whole30 first 30 days, like honey.  There was also a lot of "fluff" in the intros of these books like "oh it's so easy" or "My kids love to help me cook" or "kids love this" which was a crock in my humble opinion. The kids didn't love it at first. They hated most of it, as is evidence by my blogging. HOWEVER, that being said, now they are eating fine and eating a lot.  Most of the recipes they said "kids love" though mine still don't like.

We found that simple meals tended to work better for them like grilled chicken, blanched broccoli, and apple slices instead of pork stuffing stuffed acorn squash, for example, which we love.

I think the big take aways for me are this:
- it costs more to eat healthy
- it takes more time cooking to eat healthy
- it makes you feel great though!
- it's worth it.

Right now my book on whole30 is out on loan. I already have one person in line to read it (Jen), but after that I'm happy to loan it out (maybe not to Papa New Guinea though Becca).



You can read a lot about it online at www.whole9life.com

Maybe once I get my book back I'll write a list of what is approved and not, for those of you out there that care to take a gander.

It was hard, very hard at first, and frustrating, but now--- I can see this as a life style with some once in a great while treats, like Chocolate!

Whole30, with kids, what day is it?

I can honestly say that I have no clue how many days we've been trying this new way of eating. I know it's not 30 days yet, but it's our last full week, and I'm doing pretty darn good.

Josh and I have talked to so many people about this and here are a few things I think we can agree upon:

• We are feeling great, and I've had a huge increase in energy.
• I've lost weight. Finally tally to be seen next week.
• The kids have fully accepted it and are eating great. I didn't think they'd last past the first 2 days honestly.
• It's expensive.  It's hard to eat healthy.  There are so many cheaper options out there that will fill you up faster than a salad with chicken on it, but do I really want to feed that to my kids?
• We can't wait to have "special" things again like ice cream, pizza, candy, wine, etc. But we are both worried we won't keep it to "special" times and it will become regular eating again. Dessert every night after dinner, even if it's 1 cookie, is still too often.

That being said, we're looking to the future and how we can incorporate this as much as possible for good.  We're pretty sure we won't go back to cows milk and will limit cheese, sigh. I love cheese.

Here is a good article on cows milk. I have to admit, it does feel "un-American" to not drink cows milk. http://www.waoy.org/9.html Dr. Oski comments, "Being against cow milk is equated with being un-American,"

I think we are going to bring in back Greek yogurt though, for breakfast shakes. We need a quick alternative to eggs every morning. A good fruit shake, with a non-whey protein powder and Greek yogurt, and spinach is very satisfying. With a banana in it, you don't even taste the spinach and have all the added benefits of eating your greens.

We need to determine a cheaper way of doing this, and I'm just not sure how yet. We're going to look into a CSA, Community Supported Agriculture, program here--- and hope that helps.

I know we really want to keep the all-natural meat products because there are just too many hormones in the meat we serve our children and our selves. This is better than just going vegetarian. I'm not sure I could do that.

Josh still misses his breads, a lot.  We're just not sure what to do about that yet. We've started making pancakes and muffins with almond flour and coconut flour- and they are yummy! However, sometimes a meal calls for a tortilla, or chips, or bread for a sandwich---- and we just aren't sure what we're going to do about that yet.

Any thoughts? Anyone still reading this crazy adventure I'm on?  Still think I'm nuts? :)

Whole30, day 20 "stress" eating and skinny wraps

I have to admit that we run out of food faster now and my kids are eating more. They all are going through growth spurts, or are just loving the food we are making. I've started double recipes to have left overs for lunch..... and many times I still don't have left overs! And my kids are only ages 2, 4 and 6!  I'm so happy to see my 2 year old munching on long carrots  and spaghetti squash and my 4 year old chowing down on apples and cucumbers and my 6 year old eating anything we put in front of her. 

But today I am a little tired, and feeling very stressed. It's nothing big, but tons of little things and I find myself wanting to stress eat. Normally this is where a candy bar, or 2 would come in. Or a starbucks run for a "light" mocha. Or a "let's go to lunch" and split an appetizer, eat a lunch, and split a dessert- would all come in.  In stead I'm trying to drink water, lots of water. Eat a grapefruit and nuts.  Now... I found myself starting to scarf down the nuts because they are easy. I can't have them be my new "stress" food. They are good for you, in small quantities--- not by the handful after handful after handful. Even if they are raw nuts and not honey roasted. Hm... honey roasted. I could go for some honey right now.  Thus after eating my small bowlful of nuts, and coconut flakes I'm forcing myself to eat grapefruit. Which I love, but it's totally not a stress food.  I need to break this bad habit of stress eating.  Now I doubt anyone ever had health issues from stress drinking water---- so I think I'm still ok there;)

Also, news flash- for those few that even read this (thanks by the way). I'm going to "wrap" today. I decided I"m going to do it. I broke down and bought an Easter outfit yesterday. My kids all got new outfits thanks to their Grammy. My husband has great clothes and me.... well I tend to dress in black dress clothes. Not so good for Easter. So.....I shopped around and found something I'm excited to wear, with cute shoes (of course!) and am going to wrap myself.

For those that haven't heard about "skinny wraps" here is my friend/neighbors site that sells them. http://www.fitnsexywraps.com/


To answer your questions, because these are the ones that I had:

• What is it? It is a pre-treated cloth that is botanically infused with ingredients like horse chestnut, eucalyptus, green leaf tea extract, bladder wrack, horsetail, ivy, jojoba, guarana, butchers broom.1.
• How long does it last? A full application last 2-5 months (full application is 4 wraps). I plan to try 1 to start.
• How much is it? It's $25 to wrap at a party that's a $10 savings... outside of the party it's $35. Keep in mind though everyone is eligible to get my Distributor pricing just by becoming a loyal customer. What this means is 1. you can get a box of 4 wraps for $59 and 2. you have to sign up for a 3 month auto ship (it doesn't mean you have to stick with the wraps all three months, you can do Fat Fighters or Thermofit or any of the other weight loss supplements). But Loyal Customer pricing is definitely a better deal.
• How "big" of an area does it cover? The wrap is pretty big, it covers your entire abdomen and sides, you can use it anywhere, legs, hips, calves, arms, neck, back... just not your face. We have a facial applicator for that area.

So... I'm going to try this tonight. It's not an "instead of" working out or losing weight, but more of a motivator to keep going. To feel that way I'll need to lose another 20 lbs. I'm on my way, but this will be a good reminder of WHY I'm eating right. WHY I'm not stress eating like I used to. WHY I drink so much water. And how great I'll feel when that is all me, and there is less of me and it's a healthier me:)

p.s. stress eating grapefuit makes you sick!

Whole30, day 17- I cheated!

Alright, I'll come right out and admit it. I cheated. It wasn't a big cheat, just a little one--- but I guess a cheat is still a cheat.

I weighed myself.  This is "strictly" forbidden in the 30 days, but I was dying to know.  They say that they don't care if you lose weight- it's about getting your hormones in balance and making your system healthy. That is great, and I want that too- but I also want to be like the 95% of people surveyed that lost somewhere between 6-15 lbs.  Otherwise, it's hard to keep going, no matter how great you feel. Am I right?

Well... I've lost 5 lbs in 2 weeks.  This may not seem like much as 1-2lbs a week is normal. But here's the kicker.... I haven't worked out much at all and I haven't counted calories once.  The bonuses to me are that I'm sleeping 10x better, and I wake up with energy that lasts all day. I don't get my 10am slump, or 2pm "I can't keep my eyes open, where's my coffee" dip either.

Now that I don't have those horrible headaches (sugar withdrawals I"m sure) and am sleeping better, I'm going to spend the next 13 days working out 3-4 times a week. This is what I'd expect to do normally, but starting this new way of eating took a lot of effort to get going and I just didn't have it in me to work out a lot.

I'm starting to think long term here. My kids are eating great. My husband is eating, but still a little grumpy about not having his bread.  I wonder if we'll be a gluten free household? I miss dairy the most, oh and sugar.  However, we might be going to almond milk for the kiddos. Really we've been drinking a whole lot more water as a family and my kids haven't even mentioned yogurt in a long time.  I think Josh and I miss cheese the most.  We might bring that back in, but then what do you put cheese on the most? Bread.... and it goes downhill from there.

Needless to say it will take some more time to debate--- but this is the kick start I needed to get eating better and moving to lose weight and still have energy left over.  That was the biggest challenge for me. Just not having energy for anything, let alone working out. Now I have that---- and I have no more excuses!

Whole 30, with kids, day 13 "Breakthrough!"

I actually had to look up what day it was on our 30 day journey today. It's been almost 2 weeks which seems like, now, to have flown by. The first week or so was rough. I was not only counting days.... but hours it seemed.

 This weekend is the "dreaded" mini family reunion. Please understand that I can't WAIT to see all the family, even if it's only for 24 hours with lots of driving---- it's the meals that I'm dreading.  It's easy to be weird with your meals (yes I still call it weird) at home, or in your office cube for lunch, but it is a whole other story to do it away from home- with a group of other people.  That being said, my in-laws are vegetarian and my mother-in-law is gluten free.... so they understand to a degree not eating certain things that others eat. It's just hard when your training your kids that way and there are other kids around that don't eat that way... Thankfully my brother/sister (in-laws) just visited us yesterday for dinner and had some yummy food. They are very sweet and supportive, so thank you C&C!

It's hard to want to go to a big reunion where it will be hard to stick to the plan, especially when you've had such a breakthrough!



















My 2 year old has official turned a corner. He eats eggs for breakfast, and asks for more. He eats lunch meat, veggies, and fruit for lunch, and asks for more. He has learned to eat what we put on his plate, even if it's not his favorite and then he'll get strawberries or other fruit.  And the fruit tastes sooo sweet now! It always tasted good, but now it tastes as though eat fruit is sprinkled with sugar, because our taste buds have changed.

I accidentally had regular ketchup the other night and I was like "WOW! That tastes like pure sugar." Well, in the past it never would have fazed me. It tasted normal, but now it was so sugary.  I looked and it had 4 grams of sugar per tablespoon! That is 4 packets of sugar in each tablespoon.... ouch! No wonder I have cavities and kids are bouncing off the walls after hotdogs, fries and ketchup.














But more on my breakthrough. Today my 2 year old had a full, normal day of eating. He even ate 2 full sized carrots after dinner because he was still hungry and when I offered him a carrot instead of an apple or more fruit his response? "YEAH!" that makes all this worth it! I think it has been at least 2 days since we have heard "Goldfish" or "Cheeze its" or "Yuck".

My husband says he sees a small difference in our constant motion child, but if it's there, it's a small change.  We still have 17 days to go.... so I hope I see a big enough difference.

My 6 year old is loving her lunches of lunch meat, veggies, applesauce, pecans, etc.  In fact tonight, I made a crock pot dinner that was super easy and everyone ate it. My daughter had 2 helpings! It was boneless chicken thighs (~6), sweet potatoes cut in large chunks (4), 1 carton of mushrooms, 1/2 a yellow onion, 1 cup chicken broth, rosemary, garlic, salt, 2 t white wine vinegar and 5 hours later---- voila a wonderful dinner.  It did seem to need a bit more seasoning and if I were home all day and able to watch it I might add the sweet potatoes 1/2 way through cooking rather than at the beginning as they turned pretty mushy, but were still good.

Overall I feel better, have more energy, eat less naturally- not trying to starve myself, and feel great.  Let's see how the next 2 weeks go.

Cabin- here we come (on Saturday that is.....)

Whole30 with kids, day 11, a turned corner?

WAHOO.... We are 1/3 of the way through the program and I feel like we have turned a small corner. Maybe it's more of a curve than a corner, but none-the-less I feel a change.


I had around 7 hours of sleep last night and woke up easily in about 5 minutes. No fog. No "Is it 7am already!?!?!". I worked out hard yesterday and I'm sore, but not can't move sore.

My sugar cravings are going down. I still have them but they are less strong, and fewer in number.

Our 2 year old is eating 75% of what we give him now. Either he's given up asking for Cheeze Its and Goldfish, or he's just really hungry.  Our 6 year old keeps asking "when will this be over? I want ice cream". Our 4 year old wants McDonald's french fries.

However, they are eating a lot more than they used to.  The cooking is getting faster as we make recipes for the second or third time. The shopping is faster, and not quite as expensive as that first trip by far.

My 4 year old has ADHD, we are pretty sure, but since they don't diagnose it until at least 5 or 6 yrs old it's not official.  I haven't seen a huge change in his behavior yet.  I read that it helps calm that down and allow them to focus more, but that is yet to be seen.  However, he is eating like a rock star. He had 6 meatballs for lunch with carrots and celery and cubed ham meat and apple and a muffin for lunch the other day.  We also found out that he loves grapefruit.

The meatballs are from the Everyday Paleo cookbook. It has ground beef, ground pork, carrots, spinach, garlic, onion, spices and homemade ketchup on top.  They are fabulous!  We actually made a double batch this weekend so we could have them for lunches this week.

We also found a great "breaded" chicken tender recipe for the kids we serve with homemade ranch that they love.

Overall it's going a lot better.  Again, I don't feel like superman and haven't lost a dress size or anything- but just getting up and feeling awake and having energy through the whole day and not relying on caffeine and sugar is fantastic.  Plus I know I'm feeding my family really good food.

We will for sure be making some of these changes life changes....  just not sure which ones yet.

Whole30, with kids, day 7 with pinkeye

Nothing that is worth it comes easy. Eating healthy, getting fit- isn't easy. It isn't any easier when you have kids that rotate being sick, don't sleep through the night, and make you take time off work to watch them with pink eye. Yes now my 2 youngest have pink eye and I'm home with them today.

We are on day 7 at last! We are all getting hungry for sugar. We for sure need more slow cooker meals and easy to fix meals that are fast to grab. In addition, we need better lunches. I think we'll try to double some of the dinner meals and use those for lunches.

We did find whole30 approved pre-made ketchup and hotdogs. WAHOO.

I also found a good chicken tender recipe that I'm going to try this week for the kiddos.

I actually had a nightmare last night about a mini-family reunion next weekend at the Cabin. I dreamt that my in-laws brought all breads with icing and chocolate milk, all things we can't have.  Then my brother in law and sister in law brought smores items. My other brother and pregnant sister in law and little niece and nephew brought gummy bears, goldfish, cheeze its, syrup for pancakes and yummy coffee creamer. All things we can't have. My kids were screaming. The whole family was yelling at Josh and I about how weird we were in our eating and that "1 treat" wouldn't hurt. And we left after about 4 hours of being there with kids screaming the whole 3 hours home.

Yeah. Nightmare!

Hopefully by then we'll have some tried and true yummy recipes that all of us like and we can stick to it.  Life will happen, and our health can't wait. There will always be something.

Speaking of something.... we already have 1 "cheat" meal planned for the kids, hence why we didn't want to have a second one a week later. This Saturday my 3 year old turns 4. We had already planned his bday party at Chuck E Cheese. He's never had a real bday party with friends (neighbors) and wanted one this year. Pizza. Cake. Punch. Yup..... kids are going to go crazy. My only hope is that they eat a huge breakfast and aren't that hungry and run around too much to sit and eat food there.  Josh and I plan to stick to the whole30 plan the whole time, no cake, no pizza. It will be very hard for us!

Whole30, with kids, day 5-- headaches!

I am still grumpy today.  I'm breaking out like a little teenager. I'm really dry.

That being said we are done with day 5.  Thanks for the encouragement from my friends.  All I want today is sugar!  I'm trying to get rid of those cravings....

Meals that went over well:

• Almond flour pancakes again! They love these. My 2 year old ate like 5.

• Shepperd's pie with mashed cauliflower topping. My 2 year old didn't touch it. My 4 year old ate 5 servings! My 6 year old love it too.

Things we still need to figure out:

• Lunches. We didn't plan our lunches out at all and we are scrambling to pack lunches for my daughter, husband and I. Our nanny, God bless her, is doing her best for the boys at home with what we have.
• Meals that don't take 1 hour to make. We have to do more slow cooker recipes and buy sauces that are "whole30" approved. We can't make each sauce every night.

I really can't wait to get rid of these headaches!

p.s. I haven't worked out at all this week. I'm just trying to keep on the program and keep my head above all the dishes in the kitchen!

Whole30, just another fad diet?

I've had several people talk to me about my new "diet" that I am on. First and foremost I want to set the record straight that it's not a fad diet. It's a way of life, a way of eating healthy forever. It's not just a 30 day and go back to your normal routine. It's being aware of the food you eat and how it affects your body.  A lot of people do this for life. I'm just not sure we'll be one of them, yet.

That being said, the "kick off" to this new life style is 30 days. It's a challenge, and who doesn't love a challenge? It's a change and does seem like a fad diet in that sense. This 30 days is about resetting your hormones so they work the way they should so you can process your foods, lose weight, feel full and be very healthy in doing it--- not just eating juiced carrots for a week or something crazy. This is why it is approved for kids and adults a like. It's not dieting. It's a new way of eating and looking at your food.

How you choose to incorporate it to your daily life after the 30 days is up to you.  Will you continue to be dairy free? Will you stay gluten free? Will you only buy organic veggies and "all natural" meats?  Maybe. It depends on how those food affect your body once you slowly re-introduce them.

We made yummy pancakes this morning the kids just devoured. They were totally yummy, all natural, free of all sugar, etc. If I can feed myself and my kids things like that and know it's making them healthier, and full--- I'm all for it.

What wouldn't you give to reduce your risk of cancer, depression, ADHD, etc by only changing your food habbits?

Whole30, day 4, with kids and the sugar dragon

Today has been a hard day. We have 2 sick kids so my husband and I didn't get much sleep last night. My 2 year old is still fighting a lot and very hungry and grumpy. My 4 year old is a rock star and eating pretty much what we put in front of him. My 6 year old is sick and grumpy, but she has eaten pretty well today.

My husband and I have both stuck to the plan so far.  It's hard to keep our fluids in us though drinking only water.  We are used to drinking sugar free iced tea, or crystal light- so are the kids. That stuff is really not good for you and kind of outweighs the benefit of drinking the water. So we finally let the kids have apple juice to ensure they are drinking enough. 1/3 apple juice to 2/3 water though.  We are being adults and drinking our water.

My head really hurts today. It must be the lack of caffeine and sugar. Not fun. I'm a grump today. Thankfully my husband is being a rock star and helping out a lot.

We will continue this and are already trying to think of ways to make it easier for a family with little kids to do Whole30 with 2 full time working parents. Anyone that has written otherwise that this is easy with kids or that there are tons that thier kids eat is full of it!

Meals that the kids loved today:
Almond flour pancakes with applesauce
Homemade meatloaf with homemade ketchup
Chicken with homemade ranch dressing
Pumpkin muffins they call "cupcakes" that aren't sweet at all. I think they just miss bread.

There HAS to be some whole30 approved pre-made ketchup, ranch, etc.  We just don't have the time to just keep making this stuff over and over each week on top of all the meals.

I'm going to stick this out. I'm 10% done. We still have a fridge full of veggies and meat to be made, but I am tired. I am tired of cooking so much and not eating sugar. I would imagine that my sugar dragon comes in the form of cute cupcakes. Hard to ignore. Cute. Yummy.......

Whole30, with kids, day 3

I'm not sure I can call today a success for my kids as my 2 youngest went to bed screaming for "snack". However, there were many great successes of the day and I'll take what I can get.

My baby of 2 years refused to eat dinner, aside from the grapes. No chicken with ranch dip. No sweet potato fries. No green beans with bacon. Nada.  Instead he went upstairs and put himself in bed, for a good 1/2 hour, on protest. Ah, so be it. However, he ate and ate and ate breakfast this morning as he pulled this "no dinner" trick the night before as well.  It was a delicious butternut squash and coconut milk bake that was fantastic. He actually ate 3 helpings of it! We'll be making more of this; however, I'll make sure to puree the squash more so there aren't any chunks left in it which he hated. He also wasn't a fan of the crushed pecans on top. I'm guessing he'll load up on breakfast tomorrow again.

My 4 year old ate 95% of his dinner but got down to play and right before bed wanted the steak that I had offered him that he refused, so he could play with his dinosaurs.  Thus I don't see this as a huge failure as he would have probably done this no matter what dinner we fed him as he can't sit still long enough to get full. He did clear almost all his plate so over all that is a success.

My 6 year old is sick with pink eye so ate about 1/2 her dinner. I figure that is pretty good since she's just not feeling well. She was not a fan of the sweet potato fries that I made, but used to love the frozen ones we cooked from a bag. I think those had more oil on them.

My day was a huge success in my book.  My 4 year old woke up at 5:45 with a bloody nose and I didn't go  back to sleep so I was up early. I ate a good breakfast around 7:30 of an omelet with lots of veggies and bacon. I tried my coffee with coconut milk--- no go. I actually went without my coffee (I'm a starbucks faithful goldcard carrier). Plus we had a yummy squash bake so I wasn't even hungry for lunch, AT ALL, until 12:30.  Usually I'm ready for a snack around 10:30ish or ready for lunch by 11:30.  I ate leftover acorn squash/pork/apple yumminess from the previous night's dinner and was full.  The big success factor for me is that there were 3-4 chances for me to eat free yummy cookies at work and I was able to not grab them and instead grab a green apple. I never do that. I'm the first to grab one and justify 2 somehow like "I'll save that for later" and end up eating them on the way back to my desk. 

Then around 2:30 I started eating my apple, more out of habit than the fact that I was hungry. I'm used to my 2pm slump and "need" for a snack. I ate a few bites and ended up throwing it away b/c I just wasn't hungry.  WHAT? This is awesome.  I started getting hungry around 5:30 so I had a hand full of macadamia nuts and cashews. Then worked on dinner. By the time I ate our wonderful dinner of Fillet Mignon with horse radish salsa, green beans and bacon, sweet potato fries I was ready to eat. I ate my dinner and am so pleasantly full I didn't even miss dessert, at all! 

It's 9:15pm and I'm exhausted from being up early with the kiddos, but I made it through day 3 with no slip ups. Even in the face of the cookie monster!  YEAH ME:)

I bet my 2 year old will love breakfast tomorrow. We are having more of that squash bake, and making almond flour pancakes with fruit and bacon. 

Then again, hunger is the best seasoning.

Whole 30, with kids, day 2

March 10th, 2013
I woke up at 6:45 and was actually awake. I felt pretty good but laid in bed for a bit.

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, salsa, avocado, bell peppers, and sliced turkey meat.
Kids: orange juice, bananas, sliced meat and lot of crying over taking one bite of yellow bell pepper.

Lunch: whatever we could grab. Chicken, nuts, carrots, etc. We were a little busy running around and didn't really sit down for a good lunch. We should have b/c we both were a little grumpy.
Kids: chicken I had grilled on Sat, which they didn't eat w/out dip. cucumbers, which they love. Water. And lots of complaining.....

This is getting fun. Especially our 2 year old. He'll eat when he gets really hungry, but "snack" is getting really old. that is his code word for goldfish or cheezeits. I didn't realize how our 2 year old was surviving on those so much!

Then it was the afternoon of preparing dinner and breakfast for the next day. We decided on a butter nut squash bake for Monday's breakfast... so I wanted to get it done on Sunday night for an easy Monday morning rush of getting ready and out the door.  This is a weird looking squash that I have never cooked.


The dinner I was cooking was spaghetti squash with homemade red pasta sauce and meatballs.  The sauce/meatballs was a mess! It was a pain to cook and the meatballs didn't stay meatballs... so it ended up being meat sauce, but it tasted pretty good.  Again the kiddos fought us tooth and nail. I bribed them with fruit and pumpkin muffins I had made earlier that they called "cupcakes".  My 4 year old was the champion and ate the most and tried everything.... yeah! My 6 year old has pink eye, doesn't feel good, ate a few bites of veggies and went to bed.

Josh also finally made the ranch dressing, on the 3rd attempt! You have to use extra light olive oil and add in the oil really really really slowly while mixing. It takes forever! However, I am proud to say that we FINALLY have a dip our kids will eat their chicken with.... Hallelujah! Success #3.

My 2 year old... "snack? Mama snack? Dad snack?" AUGH! We bribed. We begged. We left him alone. Nothing worked. He did not like the meal. So he sat down for a quick bite right before bed of rocket fuel and apple slices.  He won't eat the nuts plain, but he will eat them chopped up in this rocket fuel stuff. Whatever works!

Day 2 ending... my head really hurts. Not sure if this is a headache from the pressure change we have in the air, or my body getting really mad at the lack of caffeine and sugar. You can have caffeine, but my morning coffee without cream and sugar isn't that appealing.

Last note? Squashing up yummy strawberries and adding them to water to try and make it more appealing is not a good idea. Strawberries have too many seeds that float and taste weird. I agree with my 2 year old on this one "Yuck".

p.s. I'll tell you how the butternut squash bake turned out tomorrow, it's for breakfast.

Whole 30, with kids, day 1

Ok, so it starts with food. If you haven't read my previous post about Whole30 this will not make much sense.

God bless my husband for embarking on this adventure with me. We have 3 little kids ages 6, 4, and 2 so I was very nervous about doing this; however, doing it as a family is the only way I will be successful.  

Josh and I have like to eat healthy. We eat whole wheat, raw veggies, fruit and meat.  We like our ice cream, yogurt and cheese for cedilla's too!

However, after reading "It starts with food" I realized how much of what we eat, and feed our kids, really do affect us.  Sorry to all those crazy people that I've called "whole grain and nuts" in the past.... apparently there is actually a lot to eating that way:)

I ordered 2 cookbooks: Everyday paleo, and Well Fed. Then Josh and I spent 3 hours pouring over them to create our first week plan of meals. It was very very overwhelming and frustrating. I have to admit we were very short with each other as we anticipated all the things we would NOT be eating come the morrow......

March 9th, 2013

So, 7:30am on a very snowy Saturday morning off I go to the grocery store. after getting around 5 hours of sleep with our kiddos being sick and not sleeping well.

I spent 1.5 hours at King Soopers, our normal store, trying to get as much as I could from the place I knew. I skipped the frozen food, dairy and pretty much 1/2 of the store we usually buy a lot from. My cart was full and I spent our regular grocery bill for the week, and I was only 1/2 done!

While I was gone, Josh was busy cleaning out our pantry and fridge of anything "non-whole30" approved. A lot got thrown away and some stored downstairs.

Next I went to Whole Foods. I have never shopped in there before. That is where those "crazy nutty" people shop that have lots of money. I swear they have organic and all natural EVERYTHING!

Anyways, the store clerks were amazingly helpful and very very nice. In fact, so where the other shoppers.  It took me almost 2 hours to complete my list, but I did have to ask a lot of questions like what is the difference between all natural and organic ground beef. (All natural is the range free, meat where cows live like cows should and no hormones added. Organic means the cows ate only organic certified food, plus all the other stuff). I found out what Coconut amino's is. I wasn't sure if it was a seed, flour, oil or where to find it. It actually looks like soy sauce a bit.

So this shopping trip was double what we normally spend in a week. YIKES!!!!!!!  However, to be fair I did have to buy a lot of basics like Almond flour, coconut flour, etc that will last the whole 30 days.  However, it was QUITE the shock!

I used the rule of thumb from the book. Buy all natural meats/eggs/etc. Then buy organic veggies and fruits that you'll eat the skin of. If you are going to peel it, then just buy regular produce.  That helped save me some, but not enough to erase the sticker shock of my bill.

Breathe. This is for your health. Breathe. It will taste great!

Finally home after being gone 4 hours and shopping at 2 stores I was tired; however, all those groceries had to be put away.... with many little hands "helping" and waiting for their lunch.  They love chicken nuggets, carrots, ranch to dip in, apples and milk. Hm..... they got lunch meat, apple slices, celery with sunflower butter on them (raved about in the books) and water.

My 2 year old ate the apples. My 4 year old ate the meat and apples. My 6 year old at the meat. All of them hated the celery with sunflower butter on it. At $7 a jar I was not happy. Especially after the books I read said "A great alternative. You won't notice the difference". Yeah right.  I had to agree with my kids it was kind of gross. Now I'm wondering what I can use that for instead.....

Then I spent hours in the kitchen storing all the fresh veggies and fruit and meat. I was so proud of myself after looking in our pantry and fridge to see such color of fresh stuff!  My kids, were not so impressed to find their goldfish and cheezeits gone.

Next I started trying to make some things to get us through the week. I made Kale chips. I had never heard of kale, let alone cooked with it. They were super easy to cook, and I think they are awesome!  They crumple like a fallen leaf, melt in your mouth like cotton candy, taste like a thin chip.....and are super healthy. I was impressed.

Then I tried making sweet potato chips. You have to fry these in coconut oil (which is very hard like a brittle lard.... but tasty). I tried one batch. FAILURE! So then I decide to put the rest in the oven and bake them. FAILURE! So.... I chopped up the rest of my peeled potatoes to make french fries later. I wonder how those will turn out?

Next I moved onto making homemade Ranch for the kiddos. HORRIBLE FAILURE!!!! and smart me tried to make a double batch right off to save time.  There went all my olive oil.  You HAVE to use extra light olive oil and add the oil into the mixture really slow....

Onto cooking dinner. Josh made a wonderful acorn squash stuffed with a ground pork/pear/pecan hash. It was so wonderful! Success #1.  This kids didn't eat this at all. They are starting to get hungry. And grumpy. And grumpy.........

I also made "rocket fuel" that is basically cut up nuts mixed with dates (sticky mudders to cut up!) egg whites and baked. The kids survived on that for dinner, at about 5 minutes till bedtime when they were starving.

Day 1 is done. All I can say is that the shopping was a nightmare b/c of buying crazy stuff I have never heard of, but I am so pleasantly full and ready to be on day 2.

What the heck is Whole30?

My family and I have started on a new and crazy adventure, thanks to my girlfriend from college Pam. I saw a few posts here and there about how many days into this "whole30" she was and her accomplishments.  One post caught my eye as it talked about energy and the "sugar dragon".  So I started reading online. The most I could tell is that this was close to Paleo, whatever that was, and was a new fad diet.  However, being overweight, and not losing any weight in months- I was intrigued. I decided to order the book and at least read about it.



This new fad diet looked like meat, veggies, and fruit. I can do that.  No glueten. Hm.... ok. I'm game for that too. I'm not a big bread person anyways. No beans. Hm....ok I guess. No dairy. What??  I love my yogurt. Cream in my coffee and cheese. Yup. No dairy. Yikes! 

But after reading the whole book, in 1 sitting, I was ready to jump in. As they say in the book, what are you waiting for? Start now!

The basics of this 30 day plan is to reset your hormones and brain to work the way they should in relation to food.  So much of what we eat actually prevents us from losing that belly fat, falling asleep, or feeling full and not wanting those snacks at 10pm at night.

It goes back to the basics of food and is similar, but a little more strict, than the Paleo way of eating. Also known as the caveman, since you eat like they did. Veggies, fruit and all natural meat without hormones. you do eat fat too! Good fats from nuts and things like avacados. Sounds........slightly weird right?

The biggest clencher for me is that 95% of the people that have done this for 30 days without cheating have slept better, woken up with energy in the morning instead of in that "fog", had less aches/pains, less headaches, etc etc etc.  Oh yeah, and the average weight loss is between 6 adn 15 lbs.

Let's face it. 30 days for a chance to jump start my weight loss (again.....)? I'm all for it.  Not having the sugar cravings, and waking up with energy are a big bonus though.

So after I read the book, I convinced my husband to do it with me. It says you need a support group. I hope to get some people at work to do it as well, but we'll see.