Day 31: Looks Like I Made It!

Day 31, or 1 month. Either way you say it, I made it! I officially ate Pale for one month with no cheating. Do I feel better? yes! Did I loose weight? A little! Am I going to do continue? Yes but not as strictly. There will be days of choosing not to eat Paleo, but the majority of the time I am.

I didn't exercise today, way too tired! I had a busy and very stressful day. I feel like I exercised. I'm going to bed very early tonight!

Food: breakfast Advocare replacement shake. (tomorrow is the last day of my 24 day challenge!
Lunch: taco salad
Snack: apple
Dinner: omelet, fresh raspberries and blackberries with a few dark chocolate chips

Sorry, but as said before, I'm so tired! It's hard to stay awake, so until tomorrow, Goodnight and God Bless!

Day 30: The Little Engine That Could

Having a new food lifestyle and doing a CrossFit workout has been a new challenge in my life. These last 30days, I've tried harder on my workouts and eating habits than I have in a very, very long time. I've kept chugging along just like the "Little Engine that Could". I've had difficulties in almost every CrossFit workout, not being able to doing a least one of the activities as prescribed. Take today as an example, I can't do pull ups at all, and squats are difficult for me. Since I can't do squats going down as far as I should, when weight lifting is added to the squats, (front squats) I'm there without any weights, just trying to get the proper squat down! This is very intimidating to me, because once again my pride gets in the way. I want to at least look like I'm trying like everyone else. But I have Sean, this little snotty nose kid that I used to wipe his butt, telling me I can't add weight to my workout until I can do a proper squat. At first I thought this was just pay back for all the times I told him he couldn't do something when he was little, but then I pushed my pride aside and realized that just like when I told him he couldn't do something it was because I loved him and I didn't want him to get hurt (he usually wanted to do stupid, dangerous stuff), he too was looking out for my safety and doesn't want me to get hurt either! Today I practiced my squats without the weights and pull ups like CrossFit Kids do. I must say, I did a lot better on my squats, and still horrible on the pull ups, but just like that "Little Engine That Could" I'm not going to give up and I am going to one day master both of these activities as well as a lot of the others I'm faced with during my workouts. Oh, and one other thing, thanks Sean for loving me and making sure I do the techniques correctly. I love you too!

Food today:
Breakfast: Advocare replacement shake(I think I only have about 3 more days on this challenge)
Lunch: tuna salad lettuce wrap with carrot sticks and celery a little Ranch dressing for dipping.
Snacks: raspberries, blackberries and grapes
Dinner: honey/orange glazed chicken, baked sweet potato, grilled baby zuchini squash with rosemary, salad.
Splurged again and had a cup of coffee

Tomorrow is the end of my first month of my living Paleo lifestyle! This has been an awesome journey, but it's also one that's not ending tomorrow! This is my new lifestyle! Until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 29: Home Alone!

I spent the majority of the day today home alone, and I enjoyed this time by myself! Sometimes you just need to be alone! I thought that I would do more but I just enjoyed watching movies I wanted to, playing games on my IPad, reading, and yes, I even tried out a new Paleo recipe. I planned on making more than one, but I enjoyed being lazy!

The one thing I have noticed while I've been eating my Paleo lifestyle, everyone and their dog has very strong opinions, and theirs seems to be the only right ones. I have come across more closed minded people since I have changed my eating lifestyle. If I were telling everyone I was a vegetarian they wouldn't say anything, but when I say I'm eating Paleo, they make snide remarks and tell me why I need to eat grains, etc. Since I have been eating this way for the past 29 days, I can tell a huge difference in my stomach. If I ever meet someone and they tell me they have Colitis, I'm going to be able to witness to them about this great new lifestyle I've chosen for myself and the healing I've noticed.

Food for the day:
Breakfast: Advocare replacement drink and 3 slices of bacon (the hubby made breakfast and I didn't want to hurt his feelings, plus I love bacon!)
Lunch: salad with buffalo Italian sausage, bell peppers, onions and mushrooms
Snack: banana with cashew butter and a few dark chocolate chips
Dinner: taco salad, (minus chips and cheese) this is where the new recipe came in. I made Kale chips, and they weren't too bad. You just take some Kale, discard the tough stems. Rub with olive oil, lay on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, add salt. I also added garlic powder. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Watch and make sure not to burn the edges. Cool and eat. They were pretty good. This is something I would make again.

Well it's back to work tomorrow, so I've got to gather everything for a bright and early start. 4am comes very early. Until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 28: Almost There!

Three more days and I will have officially been eating a Paleo diet for one month. I'm not going to refer to this as a diet anymore, but a way of living. I'm going to try to start referring to my food intake as my "Paleo Lifestyle" instead of a diet. A diet is something that sounds scary and if you break it you think of yourself as a failure, but a lifestyle is a choice at a certain way of living and if I choose to eat something that isn't considered Paleo, I won't feel like I've failed. I think that when you cheat on a so called "diet" it's hard to get back on track, but when you choose a "lifestyle" it's not really cheating, at least that's how my mind looks at it! Like I said yesterday, some books say that sweet potatoes aren't Paleo, but I choose to eat them. I was reading in a Paleo cookbook today and there was a recipe for new potatoes! I guess the person that wrote that cookbook considers new potatoes to be Paleo even though others don't. In the book "The Paleo Diet For Athletes" I read that you should allow yourself to eat non-Paleo occasionally. "Lifestyle", not diet! I'm finding it a little easier to make good choices when it comes to the food I put in my mouth, maybe what they say about it takes 30 days to change a bad habit to a good habit is right! I really want to challenge you, if you haven't eaten Paleo to do so for at least one month and see how you feel. All you've got to loose is a bad habit! At least give up pop, even if its diet pop, it's NEVER good for you to drink!

Exercise for the day was just a 500 meter row! Not much but it was still something!

Food:
Breakfast: Advocare replacement shake
Lunch: went to Red Robin Yum! and had the bacon, avacoda hamburger wrapped in lettuce with sweet potato fries
Dinner: grilled tuna, sautéed Brussel sprouts and salad

I did allow myself to have my first cup of coffee in about 2 1/2 weeks, with honey and grass fed cream. I allowed myself this dairy product and will again on occasions. Like I said, "lifestyle"! I hope that you take my challenge and change your lifestyle even if it is just one little change! Until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 27: The Air Force

Todays CrossFit work out was called Air Force. Just let me say to everyone that did this workout, bravo for you, and to all of you that did this workout as prescribed, you are a Stud! This was one tough workout. This workout consisted of 20 thrusters, 20 sumo dead lifts, 20 push jerks, 20 overheard squats and 20 front squats. Sound easy? Sure, NOT! To start the workout you did 4 burpee's and every minute, you stopped where you were in your workout and did 4 burpee's. You had 20 minutes to complete this workout, but the faster you did it the less burpee's you had to do. Since I do 't do it as prescribed, I was able to get it done in 11:50, and I was lifting 25pounds. I know that's not a lot of weight, but it got heavier by the minute. So I say to you again all that did this workout as prescribed, you are Studs! I'm glad I can call you a fellow CrossFitter, and I strive to be more like you! Thanks for the inspiration!

Food:
Breakfast: Advocare replacement shake, I also had a banana with the shake since I was exercising this morning. After the work out I needed a little extra energy so I drank an Advocare Spark drink. I love Spark! This gave me the energy I needed today!
Lunch: there wasn't a lot to choose from today that was Paleo friendly. We had a rep bring lunch in today and she brought in breaded chicken nuggets, salad and fresh fruit. I went to the cafeteria and got a piece of blackened fish, NASTY! So, I basically ate salad and fruit. I forgot to take my Advocare pills 30 minutes before lunch and the ones with lunch, and by 4pm I was starving.
Dinner: Date night and we went to Chili's, again I had a salad, this time it had grilled shrimp. This was very tasty, but it didn't seem to satisfy me, so I had a snack of 1/2 banana with 1tbsp almond butter and a few dark chocolate chocolate chips.

I have been reading so many articles, books, Internet articles, etc on Paleo and everyone of them says something different. One person says that sweet potatoes isn't Paleo, someone else says they are but only after you exercise, and still yet another says they are always OK. During this past month, (4 more days to go) I've decided that I'm OK with eating sweet potatoes. I've given up a lot of other items that I figured this one would be OK for now. I've tried to limit them, but I don't avoid them. I'm going to continue reading Paleo books and use good judgment in my food decisions, and there will be times I will eat something that one book says isn't Paleo, and another book will say it is, but I'm still eating better than I use too! Tomorrow is going to be an easy day of exercise for me since I exercised so hard today, and I'm going to try to make some time to experiment with some more Paleo recipes, so until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 26: Short Sweet and to the Point

Woke up, went to work, came home, did laundry all night, made dinner, did dishes, got everything ready for work tomorrow ready for bed after posting blog! Short, sweet and to the point! We've decided that we are going to go work out at the 5am class tomorrow, because Georgia may be going out of town tomorrow night and if we went after work that would have her driving late and I really would rather her go in the daylight. I haven't been to the 5am class in awhile, so I'm really hoping I can get up and have the energy to do the workout and then go to work and work all day! My workout today was 100 situps. Not much, but at least it was something!

Food:
Breakfast: replacement shake
Snack: apple
Lunch lettuce wrapped hamburger
Dinner: grilled boneless pork chop, grilled pineapple, salad and sweet potato fries

Tomorrow night is going to be a date night for me and the hubby and after my workout and then working all day, I'm going to need it! A message would be nice too! :) until tomorrow goodnight and God Bless!

Day 25: I Was Running!

I actually ran the required amount at CrossFit today. I started off NOT going to do it, but I forged on and made it. Along with the running I also did 75 squats. They were suppose to be overhead squats, but I still can't do a proper squat so I'm still practicing regular squats. My time for all of the running and squats was 22:05. Not too shabby for an old fat girl!

Food for the day
Breakfast: replacement shake
Snack: pistachios
Lunch: chicken breast, cooked spinach, cooked carrots, and salad
Dinner: tortilla soup with salsa and sweet potato chips
Snack: 1/2 banana and 1/2 cup paleo chocolate pudding

I won't be at the Gym tomorrow, I've got to rest up for the Friday workout. It's a tough one, called the "Air Force"! Yikes! Well, going to soak my acky body, so until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 24: Did You Hear The One About The Blond?

The story goes something like this. A blond walks into her doctors office and says to him, "Doctor, I think I’ve broken every bone in my body!" She proceeds to touch her arm, then says "ouch", then pressing her leg she again says, "ouch", touching her head once again, "ouch" she then says "see, I told you I’ve broken every bone in my body!" The doctor then says, "lady, you’ve got a broken finger!" Laugh, laugh, laugh! I can relate to this blond! Every muscle in my body hurts, thanks to yesterday’s workout. I told you death by pull ups wasn’t a good thing! I once again have to tell myself, what doesn’t kill me is only making me stronger! I just hope I can still walk tomorrow. I couldn’t exercise today, just way too sore. I considered all the walking I did at the hospital today as my workout program. I didn’t even feel like going out to eat like we had planned. Also the fact that the restaurant doesn’t carry much food in the way of a Pale diet, so we had leftovers and were just as happy as if we spent a million bucks!

Food for the day:
Breakfast: Advocare replacement shake
Lunch: Salad with fruits and veggies
Snack: Apple
Dinner: Left over sausage, onions and bell peppers
Snack: Pale Chocolate Pudding Recipe below
Pale Chocolate Pudding
2 ripe avocados
1 tsp vanilla
½ cups plus 2 TBSP. maple syrup
1 c cocoa powder
canned coconut milk

Place avocados vanilla and syrup in a food processor, mix well. Add cocoa powder mixing well again. Add the thick topping out of a can of coconut milk. Mix well again. If this is too thick for your liking add some of the coconut milk, mixing well. Chill at least 30 minutes then enjoy! This is very good and is a little bit thicker than regular pudding but it is very tasty. Who would know they were eating avocado? Until tomorrow, Goodnight and God Bless!

Day 23: The Year of the Dragon!

Have you ever looked at Chinese astrology? Apparently this is the year of the dragon and depending upon what year you were born you too could be a dragon and this year will be your lucky year! I had to investigate this to see if I too were a dragon. As luck would have it, I am NOT a dragon. Of all things I am a rat! Not just any old rat, but a Metal Rat! What the heck is a Metal Rat? If you were born in the year 1960, you join ranks of the title Metal Rat too! How awesome is that? As a Metal Rat, I am a strong willed individual (yes, yes I am!) Who is determined to get what I want, (again yes) and will get it regardless the cost (NOT SO MUCH!) I am intensively emotional and my behavior can border on extreme. (Does someone have a camera watching me in my house?) I have possessive feelings, envy and rage can cause problems. Ya think? Metal Rats are obstinate! Seriously? Obstinate? No way! Well, maybe way! I had to look up the rest of my family to see if any of them were Dragons. Barbie is an Earth Dragon! Some of how they described an Earth Dragon weren’t true for her, but the one that described her best is: She is supportive of others BUT she prefers to be admired by other. This is SOOOOOOOOOO Barbie! Everyone that knows Barbie will totally agree with me here! Georgia is a Water Monkey, known to be jokesters and she is. Sean and Courtney are both Fire Tigers and in the way they are described is SPOT ON! Expressive, vibrant and a bit eccentric, Fire Tigers are always looking at the positive side of every situation. Because they’re able to generate excitement in others, they’re considered excellent leaders. When Fire Tigers speak, others listen – and do what they’re told! What did I tell you? The only one of my family that the Chinese didn’t get correct at all is my husband George. He is a Fire Monkey. Full of strength and determination, (yes he is) Fire Monkeys are excellent setting goals, (yes again) and in meeting them as well (not so much, he is a little ADD when it comes to reaching his goal). Others enjoy being in the company of Fire Monkeys, even though these Monkeys want the upper hand in every situation. It was kind of fun looking at this kind of nonsense. You should go look at what they say about you and the year you were born, see if you get a little laugh out of it!
OK so back to the actual reason I started my blogging in the first place. Today at CrossFit was Megan’s Birthday, Although I can’t remember having ever met Megan, I participated in her birthday workout. It looked easy on paper but in reality, not so much. First our warm up was 15 minutes of Death By Pull Ups. I seriously think this should be taken off the market, anything with "Death" in its name can’t be good for you! Case in point "Death By Chocolate" It can’t be good for you, all that butter and sugar and deep rich chocolate goodness is a heart attack waiting to happen! I rest my case! OK back to the party, after the pull ups we did a 200 meter run, 21 jumping pull ups (yes after we already died from regular pull ups) then last but not least 22 squats. Oh, did I forget to mention we got to do this 5 times? Yes, so by the time we did the workout we had run 1000 meters, did 105 jumping pull ups and 110 squats, all after we had already died from regular push ups. Oh, and we did it for time, that means see how fast you can do it! My time was 15:49, Happy Birthday Megan! See it’s all because of those Fire Tigers up there telling us what to do and we JUMP!

Food for the day:
Breakfast: Advocare Replacement Shake
Snack: Pistachios
Lunch: Hamburger on lettuce and Sweet potato fries
Dinner: Chicken Stir Fry and a salad
When you make any stir fry, you really have to read the back of the pre-made bottles of sauces. They do contain Wheat and Wheat products, yes and sugar too! I found one that was gluten free and suffered through the sugar part! This is a little cheat on my part but, I was hungry from the workout and I wanted something fast!

Tomorrow we are going out to eat with a group of people at Uncle Bucks inside Bass Pro in Broken Arrow. Everything seems to be breaded, fried or served with corn and corn bread. I’m still going to show that I have the will power to NOT give in and still eat Paleo. They do have a grilled chicken and some salads so I’ll stick to one of those. So until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 22: Cowboys & Aliens

Strange movie! Enough said!

Today was a beautiful day outside, a little windy but still beautiful! So why did I stay inside the majority of the day? Good question, because my son brought over several movies and we watched them. I pretty much ate and watched movies all day long. I did go to the grocery store at one point to get more food. Still ate Paleo all day so no cheating there! Back to work and exercise tomorrow, and I definitely need to, exercise that is, work I could use a little vacation!

Food for the day:
Breakfast: replacement shake
Lunch: left over chicken Italian dish with salad
Paleo chocolate chip cookies off and on all day. Thank God they are all gone!
Dinner: barbecue beef sausage with onions and bell peppers salad
No snack tonight because I'm STUFFED!

I'm still staying true to my Paleo diet but sometimes I just go over board with the eating too much! I know that I've lost inches in my waist, but the weight still is staying about the same. My jeans are starting to fit loose, yea! New goal starting tomorrow try to NOT over eat! Well, back to work tomorrow, so until then goodnight and God Bless!

Day 21: Car Shopping!

I haven't been shopping for a car in forever, but today we spent the majority of the day doing just that. We aren't sure what type of car we want, we just know we want something that gets really good gas mileage and won't break the bank. We are going to go look at a Kia Spectra tomorrow that is within our budget. Buying a car shouldn't be painful!

Today because we went car shopping I took the day off from exercising, trust me I felt like I had a major workout after today! Yesterday I did the workout at Crossfit, but of course it wasn't as prescribed and my time was 10:33. I forgot to blog my workout yesterday.

Food for the day:
Breakfast: Advocare meal replacement shake
Lunch: hamburger steak with peppers and onions, baked sweet potato and Coleslaw.
Dinner: Italian stir fry, consisted of bell peppers, onions, chicken, tomatoes in a spaghetti sauce with Italian seasoning and garlic powder and spinach salad.
Snack: getting ready to eat an orange

Nine more days and I will have eaten a Paleo diet for one month. I know that we will adopt this as our life style, but I know that there will be times that I will want to have a non Paleo meal. I've already decided that my first cheat meal is going to my favorite fast food restaurant Baja Jacks in Owasso and have their fish tacos! Awesomeness!

Tomorrow is a day of rest from exercise, if it's real nice out we will probably take a walk and then back to exercising on Monday! Have a Blessed Sunday! Until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 20: TGIF

Friday night, laundry is almost done for the weekend and I get to sleep in tomorrow! TGIF! I'm planning on having a restful weekend. I have decided that I like to eat lunch. I've been drinking the Advocare replacement meal for lunch. It fills me up, but by the time I exercise that afternoon and get home to eat dinner, I'm starving! I think this weekend I'm going to drink the replacement meal for breakfast and see if that helps. I just feel like I'm eating more than I would for dinner since I'm so hungry after exercising.

Food for the day:
Breakfast: bacon, spinach, onion, bell pepper omlette with a paleo pancake
Midmorning snack: small apple
Lunch: replacement drink
Snack: pumpkin seeds
Dinner: baked chicken on spinach salad, avacado, peppers, onions, cucumber with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Snack yummy paleo chocolate chip cookies (recipe below)

Paleo Chocolate Cookies

1 stick very soft butter (grass fed cow)
1/2 c honey
1tsp vanilla
2tbsp almond butter
Mix well then add:
2 1/2 c almond flour
1tsp baking soda
Mix well then add 1 c dark chocolate chips
Form into balls and press flat on a cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven. Watch carefully bake about 5-10 minutes.
Enjoy!

You deserve a special treat once in awhile so make yourself a Paleo treat this weekend and relax! Until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 19: Food Heaven

Today was the first day I made a meal that made me feel like I was cheating on my no wheat/gluten free diet. I made fried chicken, yum, yum, from the Paleo Comfort Foods cookbook. It is worth making again! The family loved it! I made turnips, mash sweet potatoes and salad. It was a good solid feeling/tasting meal, nothing diet about it, and I needed a meal like this. Today I started the Advocare replacement shake. I had a good hearty breakfast of 3 pieces of bacon, one fried egg and one paleo pancake. I choose to drink the shake at lunch. I did fine with this, but about 5 pm I really started getting hungry and this meal was exactly what I needed. I did have a snack this afternoon which consisted of a few dried cherries and pumpkin seeds, and after dinner I had a few dark chocolate chips with about 1 TBSP. cashew butter. All in all, I’ve been doing pretty good with meals and snacks, and occasionally I have to have a cheat and if the dark chocolate chips are my cheat, I think I’m doing pretty good!
Today my exercise plan consisted of walking about 1 mile. I walked at a very fast pace, so I feel like I still accomplished a little something. I plan on coming to Owasso tomorrow for CrossFit and I’m sure they will have a tough workout set for us. Every time I check out their WOD on the website, I think to myself, Hey, that doesn’t sound too bad, I think I can do that! Little do I realize, THEY ALWAYS KICK BUTT! Who would every imagine a short little 10-15 minute work out would be so intense! I do have to thank Sean, Courtney and Georgia for becoming CrossFit certified and Sean & Courtney for having the vision of starting their own CrossFit gym and Advocare business, because if it weren’t for them I would still be sitting on the couch eating unhealthy flour and sugary products and not exercising at all. Oh yes, I would occasionally take a walk and think that I were making some sort of healthy progress, but I wouldn’t really be. I’m still not where I want to be physically, but I’m getting there, one day at a time. Until tomorrow, Goodnight and God Bless!

P.S.  Happy Birthday to my brother Gary! Love you!

Day 18: Foggy Day!

Headache + allergic reaction to who knows what+ Benadryl = foggy day! Not in the mood to blog tonight. I did exercise this afternoon. The 12 min as many reps as possible of 10 hand release push ups, 10 squats, 10 sit-ups, and 10 walking lunges. I was able to complete 6 reps plus 10 push-ups, even with a headache! I know that it’s allergies, and I’ve decided I’m NOT giving into them. I will continue to exercise with runny nose, sneezing , watery eyes and itchy rash. Since I didn’t exercise yesterday, I knew that if I didn’t today, tomorrow would be easy to skip too and then the next day too, and so on and so on. I don’t know why it’s so hard to break a BAD habit but so easy to break a good one! I really wanted to give up when I was doing the sit ups today, but I pressed through them. I still have a sore butt from the 50 sit ups on Monday! Oh well, like I’ve said before what doesn’t kill me will only make me stronger!
Food for the day:
Breakfast: 2 Paleo pancakes with almond butter and all fruit jelly (no sugar made with fruit & fruit juice)
Lunch: taco salad with lettuce, tomatoes, meat, a little ranch dressing and guacamole, no chips, no cheese, and no sour cream! Yeah for me, keeping it all Paleo!
Dinner: Roast with sweet potatoes, carrots and salad
Snack: Banana with cashew butter and a few dark chocolate chips.
I watched a Podcast from Robb Wolf today and he was answering a question about how long someone needed to eat Paleo before they really noticed a difference, and he said give it 30 days! That’s what I’m doing, 30 days strictly Paleo! This has been a real challenge for me, but I’m going to do it! Until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!


Just noticed, How many Day 15's can one person have? 

Day 17: Temptation

From the minute I step into work until the minute I get home, there is temptation all around me. When I got to work, in the break room there were donuts, (thank God I really don’t like donuts)
chocolate covered pretzels (yes I love these) and, peanut M&M’s, who wouldn’t enjoy a crunchy, sensation now and then? For lunch they serve crap food, lasagna, chicken fried steak, and sweet & sour chicken with eggroll. Thank God, I have access to a salad bar every day when there is nothing to eat. I could have easily got a hamburger and glorious onion rings or a sandwich. See what I mean? Temptation! I stayed strong and ate the salad bar with chicken, mandarin oranges, grapes and strawberries. Another temptation I was faced with during the day was whether to exercise or not. The only temptation I gave into tonight was to NOT exercise. I remember Sean telling a class that you don’t have to work out everyday, so I choose not to today! I have thousands of excuses, such as I have a fine itchy rash on my arms and stomach that’s driving me bonkers, the Benadryl I took for my itchy rash is making me sluggish, and Georgia is sick and I have to take care of my baby. Yes she is 19, but she is still my baby! Motivation is LOW today! Between being Miss Piggy yesterday and no motivation today, I’m starting to worry about myself. I really wish we lived a lot closer to Owasso!
At least today I did eat better.
Food for the day:
Breakfast: banana & cashew butt
Lunch: salad
Snack: pumpkin seed and an apple
Dinner: Left over steak, sweet potato fries and salad
I’d say this is better than yesterday. I feel satisfied and I didn’t give into any food temptations. I know this is a one day at a time process and I haven’t really missed not having certain foods (yet), and I’m have way through the month. Yea! I might not be where I want to be with my exercise program, and food intake, but I’m making progress. It may be slow progress, but progress is progress no matter how you look at it! Until tomorrow, Goodnight and God Bless!

I just noticed I had 2 Day 15's.  Miss Piggy was really Day 16!  Sometimes I loose track of the days even when I have a calendar, plus at work I'm a day behind so yesterday to me was really the 15th.  Sorry!

Day 15: Call me Miss Piggy!

I had one of those days today that I just never felt full or satisfied. I’m not sure why but I really felt like a pig today in the eating area. For breakfast I had a sausage patty and a boiled egg, then at lunch steak fajitas in a lettuce wrap, (no bread, cheese or sour cream). Then for dinner I made a hamburger cabbage dish and for dessert ½ a banana with cashew butter and chocolate chips. Then I went back for more cashew butter and I finished off the chocolate chips. I think if there were more in there I might actually go back for more even though I’m really full at this time, I guess just not satisfied. Maybe the reality of not having any sugar for 15 days is now setting in! Not sure, but I’m having to tell myself today to step back from the food! Not sure what the problem is, but I know tomorrow I’m going to have to show a lot more self control.
Exercise for the day:
I know it may not sound like much, but my dead lift today was 95lbs. Yea! The WOD was 50 sit ups, 40 box jumps, or in my case since I’m still grounded step ups, 20 Sumo dead lifts
10 overhead squats. Once again, I’m told by Sean that I have to do air squats, no weight. I tell you, sometimes he treats me like I’m such a beginner! :) This work out is for time and I did mine in 11 minutes and 55 seconds. Not too bad for an old lady who is grounded from box jumps. My box jumps consisted of jumping onto a 45 lb weight. (It’s about 3-4 inches. ) I thought that I was going to be grounded from that too. I kind of slipped a little but nothing major. I must say, I’ve been enjoying my time when I come to CrossFit. I’m meeting new people and getting encouraged when I see others doing what I should be doing, so that just motivates my competitive nature. Yes, Sean got his competitive nature from me. Well, I’ll be doing CrossFit from home tomorrow, so I’ll miss everyone, but I’m planning on coming back on Wednesday. Until we meet again, or until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 15: Call me Miss

Day 15: A Day of Rest

Today was truly a day of rest for me, and one that was greatly needed. I did things when I wanted and if I didn't want then I didn't do it. I must say I really enjoyed myself. After church, I read a little, watched a couple of movies, went to a book store and to SAMs, sewed a little, like I said I did what I wanted when I wanted. I need more days like this!

Food for the day:
Breakfast: bacon and egg over lettuce.
Lunch: left over duck and salad
Dinner: grilled buffalo steak, (very tasty) 1/2 baked sweet potato, grilled honey onion, 1/2 a grilled bell pepper, and spinach salad. This was so good! I seasoned the steak with a chipotle seasoning mix and grilled it for five minutes on each side. Honey onions are easy to make. Just take an onion peel and slice however you desire. Put a pat of butter on it and drizzle it with honey. Wrap it in foil and place on the grill. I started cooking this about 30 minutes before I grilled the steak so they would be tender. They are good when a little crunchy too, so cooking time is all dependent on how soft/crunchy you desire. Honey onions are good on hamburgers too.

For some reason, I was very hungry all day today, I even had a banana with cashew butter for a snack and for some reason, I'm still hungry. I'm not going to give into my hunger though. I'll never loose weight if I give in every time I'm hungry. Well,tomorrow I'll be exercising so I can justify eating a little more, but when I sit on my butt all day and do nothing I can't. Well, I'm going to get back to my doing absolutely nothing, so until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 14: Fourteen Days and Still Going Strong!

I haven’t swayed from eating the Paleo diet and have been true to not eating any wheat or gluten products, which I wouldn’t be eating on Paleo anyway. I really can’t think of much that I miss except On The Border Chips! We use to eat them at least once a week with homemade salsa, now not so much! This doesn’t mean that I won’t eat them in the future, but a least for now I’m choosing to stay strictly Paleo for one month. I know that this can be done and this is one thing that I’m going to be able to say, "I did it"! I eat lunch in the hospital cafeteria 5 days a week and have always found something I can eat even if it is a salad, and I’ve now eaten out twice and was able to find Paleo friendly food on their menu’s. First time I ate at Applebee’s and today I ate at Red Robin, YUM! I had their guacamole bacon burger minus the bread and cheese with sweet potato fries, and they were YUM! So if you are trying to stay true to eating Paleo, you just have to make a few changes to how you order but it is doable. Today at CrossFit I kept it non-impact since I’m still trying to recover from the incident yesterday. I did a 500 meter row in a little over 2 minutes, then I just practiced pull ups. Not doing so great there, but hopefully by the end of this year I will be able to do them, (hopefully box jumps too without killing myself).
Food for the day: Still taking the Advocare Spark Drink before anything else. Ate scrambled eggs with bacon bits for breakfast. Lunch, Red Robin, Yum! Snack a few pistachio’s and then I wanted a little something sweet, so I made a Paleo Chocolate Mug Cake. (Recipe below). I’m not sure if I’m going to have anything for dinner yet because we ate late in the afternoon and then the mug cake just a bit ago so I’m not real hungry. If I eat anything it will probably be a salad, or something lite.
I have a couple of recipes I would like to share with you now.

If you are craving something sweet and chocolate, try making a mug cake. It’s just enough to satisfy and you won’t have leftovers and be tempted to eat them all week long like we did when I made the Paleo brownies. They were very good and since the almond butter isn’t cheep, I felt like I had to eat them all. This doesn’t work if you are trying to loose weight. I think you can still get fat eating Paleo if you eat too much of a good thing! OK so here goes:
Paleo Chocolate Mug Cake2 ½ TBSP. coconut oil (melted)
2 TBSP. cocoa powder
1 ½ TBSP. honey
1 TBSP. almond flour
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
Mix all ingredients in a coffee mug, mixing well. Cook in the microwave oven for 2 ½ minutes. You can serve with whipped coconut milk or make ice cream using frozen bananas and coconut milk or just eat it plain like I do. It’s tasty anyway you serve it. Enjoy!
Now how about breakfast? Tired of eating scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, fried eggs, eggs on eggs, etc? Would you like to eat a pancake again? Well then I have the recipe for you. It makes a bunch of pancakes. I make the whole batch up and put a piece of wax paper between the pancakes, put them in the fridge, then in the morning I pop one in the microwave, nuke it for about 20 seconds then put my favorite nut butter or honey on it. It’s quick and tasty.
Paleo Pancakes6 Eggs
1 Can Coconut Milk
2tsp vanilla
½ TBSP. baking soda
1 TBSP. honey
2 tsp cinnamon
1 Cup Almond Flour
In a mixing bowl beat eggs until frothy. Add remaining ingredients to eggs, mix well. Cooking: Add a little coconut oil to your pan (I use a nonstick pan) pour batter in pan trying to keep the pancakes smaller than a normal pancake. These don’t bubble like a normal pancake so just keep an eye on them and when you feel its time to flip, then flip it. They will be a thin pancake but thicker than a crepe .
I hope that you will enjoy these two recipes as much as my family has, and making the pancakes up before hand gives you a quick breakfast when you are running late in the mornings. I’m sure I’ll be sharing more recipes with you in the future, so until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 13: My Middle Name is Klutz!

All my life it seems that I have been a bit of a klutz! Tripping over my own feet, running into doors and walls, dropping things, etc. You think that I would have outgrown this but I haven’t. If you’ll remember a few days back I gave a whoop, whoop, shout out that I had mastered the box jump! Well, apparently NOT! Since my hands were still sore from the doctors appointment yesterday, I couldn’t do the WOD (work out for the day), so I did the on from yesterday that I missed. Of course, as usual, it was scaled down for me. My WOD consisted of 60 jump ropes, 15 walking lunges and 10 box jumps, doing as many reps as possible in 15 minutes. I started off beautifully! My rope jumping looked like I was a kid of 10 again, not messing up until I reached 45 jumps. Then the lunges looked like I was a pro (not really) but I felt like I was! Then feeling a burst of pride that I had accomplished the 10' box jumps earlier this week, I knew nothing would stop me now! I took my pose in front of the box, bending down just a little, not too much, getting the perfect swing in my arms, then... BANG! My toes caught the edge of the box causing me to come down hard on my shins , can we say Klutz? Then falling not so gracefully to the ground twisting my ankle, and bracing myself with my already sore hand twisting it, can we say Super Klutz? Finally landing on my butt HARD and jarring my low back, can we say Super Duper Klutz? I’m sure that everyone that saw this would say it was done with such grace (not really) and that they also got a good laugh out of it! I picked myself up, shaking it off like I’m OK when all along I’m hurting with pain but also my pride was hurt. Needless to say, my son grounded me from box jumps and said I had to stick with step ups. I tried to argue with him stating my case of if I don’t practice them I won’t ever get them, when all along I was really glad because I was hurting. It took all I could to finish the workout like nothing was wrong. I completed 7 reps in the allotted 15 minute time frame. I have a huge know and bruise on my right shin, a smaller know and bruise on the lft shins, my ankle feels swollen, my wrist hurts and my low back is having spasms. It hurts to move, in fact the longer I sit around the more sore I’m getting! OUCH! Pride cometh before a fall!
Food for the day:
Before breakfast Spark drink (still loving it!) Later in the morning a boiled egg and banana
Lunch: Roasted turkey, mixed yellow & orange carrots with broccoli side salad
Snack: cashews
Dinner: Roasted duck with orange sauce, ½ baked sweet potato with cinnamon and side salad
Snack: pineapple/coconut juice and pistachios
Side note: I haven’t had any coffee this week and I think it’s because I’m drinking the Advocare Spark energy drink. I usually have to drink several cups of coffee to keep my energy up and still would get a sluggish feeling mid morning and after lunch, but since starting the Advocare products I haven’t had this issue! Thanks Courtney for hooking me up!
Well, I’m getting more sore by the minute and I’m planning on trying to exercise tomorrow then going to a meeting, so I better get some rest now. I guess I need to keep positive thoughts in my head like, "what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger" and since I didn’t die today with my graceful fall, I must be getting stronger! Until tomorrow, Goodnight and God Bless!

Day 12: Prolotherapy

I went to see Dr. Edwards today to have my hands injected for arthritis. It's called prolotherapy. It's hard to explain how it works, so go to his website to check it out to see if it's something that could benefit you.

Tulsa Prolotherapy – Is It Right For You And How Do You Know? | Dr. Chad Edwards
drchadedwards.com

Today was a rest day for me from exercise. I left for work at 6:30am this morning and I didn't get home until 9:15pm. I had a very, very busy day. Work until 3:30, drove to see Dr. Edwards left his offic at 4:45, rush hour traffic was horrid! I got to my house at 5:30, quickly nuked dinner so I could leave to go to a meeting about Kangen water in Broken Arrow. Very interesting!

Food for the day:
Breakfast, Spark drink 6am, breakfast 8:30am one boiled egg and bacon.
Lunch chicken, bacon wrapped in a lettuce leaf and carrot sticks.
Snack: apple
Dinner: left over meatloaf and squash with salad
Snack: handful of nuts and some coconut pineapple juice

Well, since I feel like I really haven't had any time to just relax I'm going to take some time now to unwind, so check out Dr. Edward's website to learn more about him and Prolotherapy,and until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 11: Death By Pull Ups

Death by pull ups is not how I imagined I would die. Quietly in my sleep, or even death by chocolate, but death by pulls up? No thank you! Well that's what CrossFit tried to do to me today. Warm up before the work out was Death by pull ups. I must admit, I wasn't ready to die today, so I didn't try very hard at these, plus the fact that I did 50 push ups the day before and my arms were so sore helped me make the decision to be a slacker! The work out after we died from the pull ups was, 3 rounds for time of 20 Burpees, 15 ring dips and 10 hand stand pull ups. Well you know that I had to scale down every one of these task, but it still was hard to do, especially with my very sore arms. My time was 14:57. Glad it's over!

After the work out we went to Applebee's to eat. Yes, I stayed true to my Paleo diet. While the others with me chowed down on artichoke spinach dip and chips, hamburgers with onion rings and croutons on their salads I resisted. I ate a spinach salad with grilled shrimp, almonds, purple onions and the best dressing. It was a bacon vinegrette. Yummy! This just goes to show, that you can eat out and still eat Paleo, you just need to do a little research before you go. Check the online menu of your favorite restaurant before you go out and if you can't find anything Paleo check another restaurant. I had previously checked Applebee's menu and knew exactly what I would get when I ordered. Other food I ate during the day, breakfast my spark drink at 6am, 8am paleo pancake with cashew butter. Lunch, brisket, asparagus,and salad. Note to self: if you know you are going to go workout at CrossFit do NOT eat brisket for lunch. It doesn't sit well on the tummy! Dinner you already know. Snack handful of nuts and a glass of juice.

The more I relax on the couch tonight the more I notice that I'm too sore to get up, so I guess I have to sit here and continue watching the People's Choice Awards, so until tomorrow good night and God Bless!

Day 10: 10.5 months Prednisone clean!

I'm going to get very personal tonight. March 1 will be my one year anniversary of being off Prednisone. That is a long time for me, you see, over 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (UC). With UC, you go in and out of remission just like some cancers. They do not know the cause of UC, and they say there is no cure (I beg to differ), and everyone has different triggers. Mine seems to be more Stress related and sometimes diet related. Cucumbers and I no longer have a happy relationship. UC is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy! Here is the part of the story if you are weak in the stomach might want to skip the rest of this paragraph. I didn't have normal bowl movements, they were mainly blood and mucus, and if stool did come out it was covered in mucus. Farting? I couldn't or I would have to find new underware. You take farting for grantited until you loose that ability. Sometimes there is nothing like a good fart. When you have UC, there is also an urgency of getting to the bathroom in time without having an accident in your pants. When you go out to a store, restaurant, etc, you first scoped out where the bathroom is and if they didn't have one I usually didn't shop there because going to a store seemed to trigger a bowl movement or should I say the runs! WalMart was the worst store to have to visit the bathroom, because like I said earlier when you first feel the pang that you need to go you better be like five steps from the bathroom. It seemed like every time this feeling hit me I would walk as fast as I could with my butt cheeks as tight as I could get them, and high tail it to the closest bathroom and low and behold that one was closed for cleaning. This is where the praying came in, I then would have to start Lamaze breathing and run to the back of the store to the other bathroom praying all the time that I wouldn't fart and that they wouldn't have this bathroom closed too. I now call this the Walmart trott! These flare ups were pretty regular. I flared more than I didn't. I'm allergic to the medicine that they give for colitis so that's where the prednisone comes in. I was then put on high doses of Prednisone. They would start me of on 40mg a day until the bleeding would stop, this usually took anywhere from 2-4 weeks, then they would start decreasing the dosage by 10mg every week until I would get down to 1mg. If I started bleeding again during any of this time, they would up the dose to the previous dosage until the bleeding stopped again, then start decreasing again. This whole process sometimes took 3-6 months. I knew I was better when I could fart again. I usually stayed flare up free for 1-3 months then it would start all over again. The Prednisone made me hungry so I constantly was eating and over the course of one years gained 40lbs. I would loose a little weight during the off Prednisone times only to gain it all back the next time I was on it. It would also make my heart race and skip beats and I couldn't sleep unless I was taking sleeping pills. Bitchy! Don't get me started there! There were times that if I had a gun, I could literally kill someone, heck who needed a gun, I could have used my bare hands! I was constantly angry and I hated myself for this. So I was getting angry at everyone, angry at myself and FAT! I even ended up in the hospital one time because of a severe flare up. When you are on Prednisone your immune system is so weak. It's weird that it helps one area but makes other areas weak. I would catch everything under the sun. Also it seemed like every time I was on Prednisone I would get MRSA somewhere, this is a very serious staff infection. Last time it was on my lip and now I don't have feeling in part of my lip. The good news to all this? I'm off Prednisone and I'm not planning on going back on them ever, and I say God has healed me!

Back when Sean and Courtney first started doing CrossFit and eating Paleo, I actually starting making a few changes in my diet too. I also started drinking the Kagan water. I started noticing I wasn't having any symptoms. As I told you earlier, stress plays a major factor with my flare ups and my daughter was getting married over the summer and I thought that the stress of this would cause me some issues but it didn't. I also lost about 10lbs with just eating a little better and drinking this water. After the wedding though I started letting my bad habits come back, I stopped eating good, ate junk food, and stopped drinking the water. Christmas came and oh boy the sweets I was eating. I Gained back about 5lbs and I started noticing blood and mucus again. That's when I decided that I'm not going on prednisone again. I knew I felt better when I was eating right and drinking the good water, that's when I decided I've got to do the Paleo thing full time, and drinking the Kagan water. I have now been strictly Paleo for 10 days, I know this isn't very long, but I've noticed a difference already. I don't get to drink the Kagan water like I want to, but I'm in the process of purchasing a machine for my house. All of this is why I started blogging, it is to hold myself accountable so I don't slack back into unhealthy living! Sorry you had to read all this poop, now on with my day today!

Food for the day:
Spark drink at 6am, then at 8am I ate 2 boiled eggs and drank my ucky fiber drink and two glasses of water.
Lunch salad topped with bacon bits vinegrette dressing
Snack apple and a handful of nuts
Dinner stuffed acorn squash and side salad. I made a meatloaf inside acorn squash halfs and cooked until the squash was tender. One dish baking. My kind of dinner!

Exercise for the day:
Couldn't make it to Owasso for CrossFit, so this is what I did from home:
50 squats, 50 sit ups,50 push ups, 50, 20lb kettle bell swings.
I'm planning on coming to Owasso tomorrow as we are out of water , somIm killing two birds with one stone, water and exercising. I will be taking Thursday totally off from exercising because I'm having my hands injected for arthritis, so I'm considering it a rest day. I'll probably go for a walk or something along that line. As I said earlier about my UC, I've got to give God the glory for healing me and directing my paths to better fitness and lifestyle. I may have an occasional symptom but that's all it's ever going to be. Just a symptom! I claim
Healing in the name of Jesus! Well until tomorrow, good night And God Bless!

Day 9: Spark Drink Rocks!

I started my advocare products today. I drank my Spark energy drink first thing this morning and I'm still going strong. This drink rocks! I have had so much energy today it's unreal. I think I'm going to need some major sleeping pills to help me sleep, if only I had some. I really felt like my head was clear in my thought and I didn't get that tired feeling at work like I usually do. I wasn't too fond of the fiber drink, but I've really never met a fiber drink that I do like. Oh well, I'm going to keep chugging it down like a good little girl.

Exercise for the day was not a CrossFit day for me. I came home and did 100 sit ups, 25 side sit ups (25 each side), 25 back extensions and did some exercises using a kettle bell.

Food:
Breakfast: Sparks energy drink at 6:45am, then at 8am a Paleo pancake with cashew butter, my fiber drink and lots of water to follow.
Snack: dried tart cherries
Lunch: salad from Subway
Dinner: stuffed Anaheim pepper, guacamole, salsa and plantation chips

Well,it's been 9 whole days without eating any wheat/gluten products. I have found out the you really have to read the labels of products because there is wheat in things you least expect. There is wheat in soy sauce, wheat in taco seasoning, why, I ask again, why? It hasn't been that hard giving up products that I know for fact have wheat, but it's the unsuspecting products that you wouldn't think of that have wheat that have been hard to give up. Such as I had to use a chipotle seasoning for my peppers tonight instead of taco seasoning. They tasted OK but it did give them a different flavor. Oh well, I just have to look at the end results: better health for me! Until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 8: A Day of Rest

It was only a day of rest from exercise, not anything else. I still had to do the wife/mother duties such as making sure I have everything ready for the work week, clean clothes, cook etc. but all and all I had a pretty peaceful day.

Food for the day:
Breakfast: I was sinful, I ate one of the Paleo brownies I made last night, 1/2 a banana, and a glass of coconut milk. I know how to start the day off right!
Lunch: Baked salmon, I put fresh squeezed lemon juice and lots of dried garlic then I covered it with foil and cooked about 30 minutes. I also had zucchini sliced drizzled with olive oil with a little sea salt and rosemary. I cooked it uncovered the same time I cooked the salmon. I served this with a leaf lettuce salad with purple onions, yellow squash, radish and olives with an olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I'm not really a fish person, but the family is, and they loved it so I guess it was good.
Snack: apple
Dinner: chicken lettuce sandwich and mushroom soup. If you give me a baked chicken from Walmart, I can do wonders. I used the breast off the chicken a couple of days ago and made curry chicken salad, so I still had the legs and thighs leftover. I covered the chicken with good clean water not tap water! Simmered the chicken for an hour took out all the chicken and bones. Added a tablespoon of sea salt and one chopped purple onion. I cooked that on medium heat until the onion was tender then I added a large container of sliced mushrooms and cooked them until the mushrooms were tender. I removed all the meat from the chicken bones I could and we made chicken sandwiches using lettuce as our bread and a bowl of mushroom soup. The soup was very good. Like I said give me a baked chicken from Walmart and I can do wonders! I make a really good tortilla soup with one, but I'll save that for later!

Well, it's getting late and I have to go to work tomorrow, and we sold one of our houses and closing is tomorrow, so off to bed for me! I won't be at CrossFitt tomorrow, so I'll be on my own for my workout. I haven't decided what I'll be doing but I'm sure I'll think of something. To all of you going to Crossfit, good luck and God speed! Until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 7: Let me hear a whoop, whoop!

Today at CrossFit I actually did a box jump on a box and it was 10" high! This is a mile stone for me! Let me hear a Whoop, whoop! Hopefully I will be able to go higher and higher until I meet the required height for a box jump, only time will tell. My workout today was a free for all! We got to choose what we did and work on areas that we needed to improve on. I started my workout with a 200 meter run, then I worked on my over head press, and dead lifts. Next I did the 50 box jumps and finished up with a 400 meter run.

Food today was mostly leftovers. Breakfast I had a paleo pancake with almond nut butter and banana. Snack some pumpkin seeds and a few dried cherries. Lunch I had some curry chicken salad on lettuce, guacamole and plantations chips. For dinner I made bacon, tomatoe, purple onion on leaf lettuce and beet chips. For a sweet treat, I made an awesome Paleo Brownie. It was so good! See recipe below.

Tomorrow is rest day for CrossFit and is going to be a lazy day around the house, but you need that type of a day occasionally. I've been able to stick to strictly paleo all week and am very impressed that I've been able to do it. One week down and lots more to go, but it seems to be getting a little easier as it goes on, this is doable! Until tomorrow, good night and God Bless!

Paleo Brownies

1 1/2 cup Sue Bee Honey
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Hershey's Cocoa Powder
2 Cups Almond Butter
1 tablespoon Vanilla
4oz Baker's German's Chocolate Bar melted
1 tsp Baking Soda



With an electric mixer, mix together, honey, eggs, almond butter,vanilla, and baking soda. Mix well. Add cocoa powder and melter German's chocolate. Blend well. Pour into a 9x12 baking pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes, Do not over bake! Enjoy!

Day 6: Keeping it real!

I couldn't get motivated to exercise today, I was too tired!  After work I had several errands to run then the dreaded Walmart.  Walmart is one of the most tiring things to do.  If you think about it, it is a workout all of it's own.  You fight a cart that wants to go the opposite direction than you want it to, you do squats when you need something from a bottom shelf, you stand on your toes and reach over your head to get something on the top shelf, your cart gets heavier and harder to manage because it still wants to go the opposite direction than you want.  Finally after at least 30 minutes in the store fighting with the cart, you get to stand in line another 30 minutes because they think that one checker is enough.  Then you finally reach the cashier and get to unload your basket.  After they've put your groceries in the sacks you get to lift weights by putting them in the basket, then lift the groceries into the car then lifting them again when you take them out of the car to carry them into the house.  This is a workout, maybe not a CrossFit workout, but still a workout.  I'm just keeping it real!

Food today:
Breakfast:  Paleo pancake with almond butter and 1/2 a banana
Snack:  pumpkin seeds
Lunch:  Leftover Paleo pizza and salad
Dinner:  Curry Chicken Salad lettuce wraps ( recipe below) with sweet potato chips  OK, I know that sweet potato chips aren't Paleo, but I ate them anyway, and I like it!  I'm just keeping it real!

Curry Chicken Salad

2 cooked chicken breast chopped (I purchase a Walmart baked chicken, use the breast and save the rest for another meal later
1/2 chopped purple onion
1 small apple (your choice)
1 cup craisins
1 cup chopped nuts
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 to 1 cup olive oil mayo

Mix all the ingredients together adding small amounts of mayo until you'v got the amount of mayo you desire.  Serve in a lettuce leaf.  This recipe has been a favorite of my family before I started Paleo.

Well, I've stayed up much longer than I wanted, because my computer messed up in the middle of the blog, I got mad and had to walk away from it, I watched a movie with my daughter and her boyfriend and finally got the computer to work again.  Until tomorrow, or actually now later today, goodnight and God Bless!

Day 5 Own My Own

Today, I wasn't able to get to Crossfit so I was on my own. The work out today was "Filthy fifty". You can go to http://www.crossfitprimus.com/ to see what that consist of. Trust me it's a bunch of stuff 50 times each. Since I don't have a pull up bar or weights, I made up my own Filthy Fifty! Mine consisted of, first walking our dog Ginger around the park and running with her to get some of her energy out. When I got back home I did 50 box jumps on a 4 1/2 inch box, (this white girl CAN'T jump), 50 kettle bell swings with a 15lb KB, 50 walking lunges, 50 sit ups, 50 back extensions, 50 push ups, 50 wall ball shots with an 8lb ball and last but not least,150 single jump ropes. I did this all in 25:21. All in all I think I did pretty good on my own! Now for my food intake for the day!

Breakfast: banana with pistachio butter and hot tea
Lunch: ribs, rosemary squash, salad with raspberry dressing and cold tea
Snack: my favorite pink lady apple
Dinner: Paleo chicken-n-dumplings (see recipe below)
Bedtime snack: getting ready to eat a few pumpkin seeds

The chocolate was still there in my office today, but it was a lot easier to resist today. Resist the devil and he shall flee or in my case resist the chocolate and I get stronger! I'm not really on my own, I have Jesus on my side. My favorite verse, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 Well, until tomorrow, goodnight and God Bless!

Paleo Chicken-N-Dumplings

If you have leftover baked chicken from Walmart or Reasors, etc and don't know what to do with it, I do! Put the chicken in a pan large enough to cover it with water. Place entire chicken and that glorious gel in the bottom of the container in the pot, pour enough water over the chicken to cover it. Don't use tap water! Add one chopped onion, 3 celery stocks chopped and a hand full of chopped mini carrots. Boil until onions are tender and the chicken is falling off the bone. Remove the chicken and bones from the pot, remove the chicken from the bones and place back in the pot. Add garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer until the dumplings are ready to be added.

Dumplings:
2 packed cups almond flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
2-3 eggs

Add, almond flour, salt and garlic powder in a mixing bowl. Add eggs one at a time, mix well. When dough is the consistency to shape in balls you've added enough eggs. Shape in balls about the size of a walnut.

Turn up the heat on the chicken broth, bring to a boil. Keep dumplings cool by placing them in the fridge while you are waiting for the broth to boil. I made my dumplings while I brought the broth to a boil so I never place them in the fridge. Drop the dumplings in the boiling broth. DO NOT stir or they will break apart. Put a lid on the boiling pot and cook about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the lid and cook another 5 minutes. Still do no stir. Now enjoy! Serve with a salad and you have a great meal!

Day 4: Oh F U D G E

Overslept + rough day at work + tough workout at 5pm + having to go to TCC bookstore with daughter after workout = LEFTOVERS! Waking up when I should have been leaving for work should have given me a clue to how the rest of the day was going to be, but it didn't. My office phone was ringing when I walked in the door, and it went down hill from there. For the next 5 hours it was non-stop phone ringing, rushing to get some very important information that was needed like yesterday, and smelling homemade fudge sitting on the table next to my desk. Not only is there homemade fudge, but there was also M&M's and kisses. I think that everyone brought in their unwanted leftover Christmas candy into my office to share today! Only having a protein shake for breakfast because I woke up late, and the smell of that sweet aroma of chocolate didn't make me a happy camper. I was so busy at work and smelling the chocolate made me hungry. I was lucky that I had a a few nuts hidden away in my desk. I got to go to lunch around 12:30 and had a porkchop and salad. Afternoon actually quieted down at work and things started looking up. I was smelling that sweet aroma of chocolate but with food in my tummy, I was able to overcome that temptation. For dinner I had leftover chili with avocado, hot tea and for a snack today I ate an apple on my way home from work and some pumpkin seeds after my workou

Workout for the day, or in Crossfit terminology, WOD, was 150 wall ball shots for time. A wall ball shot is throwing a weight ball (mine was 8 pounds)up in the air, as you catch it you go into a squat. You do this for a 150 times as fast as you can and then yell TIME! Once agian I can't do the workout as prescribed because of a bad knee, but I tried my best and completed the WOD in 8:33. I'm tired, but it's a good tired.

Well, it's time to hit the showers and then bed an have visions of that fudge dance in my head! I only hope that by the time I get to work tomorrow it's all gone! Goodnight and God Bless!

Day 3: Biggest Loser

I watched the Biggest Loser tonight and I don't know if I feel encouraged, because the contestants were so motivated to not get voted out, or if I felt discouraged because in one week, they averaged loosing 7 pounds, and I haven't even seen 1 pound difference in my weight loss.  I'm not sure if the fact that they are soooooo over weight that it is easier for them to loose the weight at first, or if it was all just water weight, either way, I want to be that motivated in this little endeavor of mine.

Food for the day:
Breakfast: bacon, onion, and spinach omelete
Lunch:  3 oz roast beef, cooked baby carrots, and a tossed salad with olive oil and Balsamic vinegar
Snack on the way home from work: Pink Lady apple (I love these apples)
Dinner:  Pizza,  yes you read correctly, I had PIZZA! Of course it was Paleo and it was rather tasty!  I got the recipe from the Everyday Paleo website.  It has a different texture than regular pizza and didn't have the yeast taste and any of the cheese, but I will definitely make this recipe again.  I did have a little bit of the apple crisp left over from last night with a little coconut milk poured over it.  Apple Crisp is now all gone, thanks to the family finishing it off.

Crossfit workout for the day:  "Annie".  "Annie" looks innocent enough but boy can she kick butt.  The "Annie" consist of 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 of double unders and sit ups.  What is a double under you say?  It is jumping rope but bringing the rope around twice before your feet touch the ground.  (I don't think so!)  Maybe when I was 10, but not now that I'm in my 50's, so once again the workout was scaled down, or should I say scaled up.  Since I can't do the double unders, they triple the original number and have you do singles, so I actually did 150, single jump ropes, 50 sit ups, 120 jump ropes, 40 sit ups, 90 jump ropes, 30 sit ups, 40 jump ropes, 20 sit ups, 20 jump ropes, 10 sit ups.  What did I tell you?  "Annie" kicks butt!  I'm debating if I want to go exercise in the morning before work or after I get off.  I really don't want to do either but I've got to keep that Biggest Loser mentality and just do it!  Until tomorrow, Good night and God Bless!

Day 2 I Think I Can, I Think I Can!

I started my day off this morning with a protein shake with frozen fruit. I headed to Owasso for a Crossfit workout, check out my sons gym by visiting http://www.crossfitprimus.com/ where I proceeded to get bad news. They are doing a 24 or is it 28? day challenge and are taking everyone's, weight, measurements and body fat %. This my friends is where the bad news comes in. Here's where I'm going to get real, open up and divulge way more information than you want to know about me, but I found out that I'm FAT! I'm 5'6 1/2", weigh 153.5, and am 40.5% body fat. Total bummer! This my friends is one of the reasons why I decided to start eating better, and this is also why I NEED to start eating better and exercising more.

The Crossfit work out was pretty tough, at least for a weakling like me it was. Lucily Crossfit can be scaled down so beginners like me with knee problems can still do the workout. Today's scaled down workout consisted of: 30 kettle bell swings 18 pounds of weight, then for 10 minutes we did as many reps as possible of, 5 ring pull ups, 10 hand release push ups, and 15 squats. I did 5 rounds plus 5 pull ups and the 10 push ups. I almost completed 6 full reps. Yea for me!

By the time I got home from my workout, I was starving so I made a pork chop with garlic and rosemary, spicy sweet potatoes (slice sweet potatoes in the shape you want, rub olive oil all over them place on a baking sheet and sprinkle garlic powder, pepper, cheyenne pepper, and chili powder on top then bake until potatoes are tender in 350 degree oven) They have just the right amount of kick! I also had a spinach and arugula salad with avocado oil and lime dressing.

I had my company over tonight for dinner and I must say I'm pretty proud of my self for sticking to the Paleo diet. I made chili, I did serve my company cheese, sour cream with chips and crackers. I didn't have any of those items and sent the rest home with one of my friends so I wouldn't be tempted to eat them in a moment of weakness. For dessert I made the Paleo apple crisp I told you about yesterday. It was OK but I think there are a few changes I'll make next time I make it. I served it to my company with ice cream but I poured a little coconut milk on mine. Everyone said that it was good,it just wasn't what I'm use to eating with all the sugar and butter left out. All in all it was a success. I can have company and still eat Paleo. I think I can do this, well at least for 2 days I can. I'm just going to have to keep telling myself, I think I can, I think I can! Tomorrow faces more challenges, I go back to work! Now it's off to bed, until tomorrow, sweet dreams and God Bless!

Dinner Day 1

We had some left over baked chicken, salad with sliced avocado, olive oil and lime dressing and a handful of nuts for dessert, now I'm going to have some hot tea and just relax for the rest of the evening. I'll be looking forward to blogging more tomorrow. Crossfit in the morning!

Lunch Day 1

Lunch was very yummy! I made a hamburger but instead of a bun I used a portabella mushroom. It was a little messy, but oh so good!

I am already facing another challenge ahead of me tomorrow. I play Bunco with a group of ladies once a month and we take turns hosting this, and tomorrow is my time to be the hostess. We always eat dinner and have a dessert. I have decided that Chili is a safe Paleo dish, hold the beans please, and I can still set out cheese and crackers for the ladies. I'll just have to show self control! Dessert is another thing. In the past I've always made some fattening sugary dessert, but with Paleo you don't use sugar, flour, oats, etc. Here lies the problem, but I've been fortunate enough to find a Paleo recipe for an Apple Crisp. I'm going to serve it warm and offer vanilla ice cream to the ladies, and luckily I don't care for ice cream so it won't be a temptation to me. Maybe at this dinner tomorrow night I can challenge the other ladies to follow in my foot steps to start cooking Paleo dishes too! One can only hope!

In The Beginning

What is this Paleo thing?  I like to think that it is NOT a diet but a conscious choice is choosing good food to improve your way of life.  I've been reading up on Paleo foods and have decided that January 1, 2012, I was going to choose Paleo diet as way of life for me.  I'm sure this is going to be a challenge for me as well as my family, but since I'm the cook they have no other options but to either eat what I make or make something themselves.  If you know my family, they don't like to fix food for themselves.

The challenges I face are too numerous to count, but my major challenge is going to be giving up sugar.  I'm totally a sugarholic! (my made up word) I love sugar in my tea, sugar in my coffee, sugar on my sugar.  If you've ever seen the movie Men In Black, I would rate close up there to the Alien that is always looking for sugar!

Another thing that is going to be difficult to give up is wheat/gluten.  It seems that gluten is in almost everything these days.  What about those wonderful Oreo cookie balls, cakes, breads, biscuits!  What am I ever going to do?  Luckily I found an amazing cookbook called "Paleo Comfort Foods" and I've found recipes for breads, cakes fried chicken and more.  Yum, Yum!

I started this blog so I would be accountable to myself and hopefully this will help me to overcome these rough days ahead.  I will appreciate any feed back and helpful suggestions you have found that might make this transition an easy one.  I will be posting food we've eaten throughout the day and much more.  If you feel like you want to make this change in your lifestyle too, feel free to join me.  There is power in numbers.  So here we go...

Day 1 of Paleo Living:
For breakfast I made:
Paleo Biscuits, recipe from the " Paleo Comfort Foods" cookbook, bacon and eggs.  So far so good.  Today is a rest day off exercise so I'm going to take it easy!