Truths: The Final Day

Well, here I am. Day 30.  I challenged myself to eat a ninety percent Paleo diet for a month, and I did it.

Truth: It wasn't even hard.  I can honestly say that I never felt deprived or like I was missing out on something.  Sure, I craved Qdoba once and was punished for it; and I over indulged on leftovers from the Super Bowl party and paid for that too; but, neither of  those where due to depravity, they were just me giving into a craving.

Truth: I am 100% shocked that, as of today, I lost 8.6 lbs. in one month without ever feeling hungry.  I am also very excited that I lost a healthy amount of weight in that time period. I know that I could safely still lose another 5 pounds or so, but I certainly am not going to actively try to. I am really happy with my weight as it is now. 

Truth: I have flabby skin. Losing that eight pounds has created flabby skin. By eating a clean diet, I am only doing 50% of what I should be doing to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  I also need to exercise regularly.  I could try to say that I don't exercise because I have three kids, I don't have the time, or I don't know what to do, but really I just don't like to.  I will never understand the people(my father) who literally cannot function for the rest of the day unless they workout in the morning.  That is one bug I am never catching.  I do enjoy running outside. I enjoy it a lot actually, but I enjoy it when it is the right conditions for running.  You know 60 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze. The reason I enjoy running so much is because I do it for me and me only. I don't time myself or watch my pace; I just go out there and enjoy being alone and choosing what songs I want to listen to without anyone arguing with me to change it.

Truth: I have no rhythm. This is not a surprise to 99% of you.  You have all seen me dance or prance or exercise before and cannot deny that I am a half Jewish, white girl whose got no moves.  My lack of rhythm is the only reason I have been putting off starting CrossFit classes for the last six months.  Well, that, and the fact that they are ridiculously expensive.  Almost all the Paleo blogs I follow mention CrossFit training as an integral part of their daily lives. It's hard to look at CrossFit success stories and not want to spend whatever it takes and look as stupid as possible, if it means looking like some of these women on the blogs with their rock hard abs and toned arms.  But, let's be real.  That will never be me because I am not that strong willed and will never be able to commit to working out as often as they do.  However, I am going to try a free Saturday class and see how I like it and how much I embarrass myself while participating.  If all goes well and I enjoy the class,  I will spend the money on the classes because I'm worth it. 

Truth: Today after shoveling I ate half of a chocolate chip cookie with my banana sundae. I figured I needed the carbs :)  I am going to cheat sometimes, but if this month has taught me anything, it's moderation is key.  I can have Qdoba every once in a while but probably without a vat of cheese on top of my nachos; I can eat cake but probably not half of a cake; I can even have a pop occasionally but not a Big Gulp.

Truth: Today's meals were super boring which is ridiculous considering it is the last day.  I should have made a Paleo feast, but Paul has class tonight so I never cook on Wednesdays.  I had a baked potato and fruit for lunch and a delicious but still boring salad for dinner with chicken, avocado, grapes, apple, cucumbers and green olives.  However, I was very excited about last night's dinner.  I ate so much food and was so full, but I could not fathom wasting any of it.

 My dinner last night: a grilled shrimp and Citrus salad, roasted broccoli, baked potato and some extra grilled shrimp with cocktail sauce. I could eat grilled shrimp everyday.

 Paul's dinner last night

Truth: I don't really enjoy blogging. I love being held accountable, and I love showing and telling all of you about my day. I hate the actually act of sitting at my computer and typing.  Most posts this month have taken me one to two hours to write and that is just time I don't have. One, I clean at night so I can be with the kids during the day. Two, after about an hour of cleaning, I sit on the ouch with Paul to watch TV or talk about our day without constant interruption from the kids.  Blogging took away from both of these night time rituals.  I know many of you asked if I would continue to blog after the 30 days and I am so touched that you want to hear from still, so I will continue to blog but not as often.  I will post when I have a really great Paleo meal or when the kids and I do something really fun or when Austin gets his ears pierced...just kidding.  I cannot commit to every night because that's practical.  Here is a pic of what the kids did today. Austin was to busy to be bothered for a picture.

They spent an hour outside with our neighbors trying to dig a tunnel through the snow to bring their sled through.

 

Truth: I cannot begin to thank all of you for your support throughout the last 30 days.  Knowing that so many of you were rooting for me made it so much easier to stick to the diet and cook.  I also am so grateful to all my friends who cooked Paleo friendly meals and snacks for me when we were together.  I know I already thanked all of you, but you all deserve another shout out for being so amazing! I also cannot believe how many of you were waiting for my posts each night or morning. That just blows my mind.  Thank you.  Thank you. Thank you. 

Truth: Tomorrow I am going to eat PIZZA.  Why??  Because FINALLY my mother is coming home!!!!!  It is tradition whether she is gone five days or five weeks that her and Dan order pizza the night they come home.  Clearly, we will be joining them since they haven't seen the kids in 41 days, but who's counting?  My plan is to bring a large, chuck full salad and to only have two to three pieces of pizza.  If nothing else, I should be able to keep to this plan because I remember how I felt after the super bowl leftover binge and do not want to feel that way again.

Truth: I am addicted to banana sundaes and may never need ice cream again. Seriously.  I even found several non dairy gelato recipes on my favorite Paleo blog that use bananas as the main ingredient. I have my eye on a chocolate hazelnut gelato recipe. I will be making it this weekend I'm sure. 

Truth: I'm all out of truths.  Thank you for a great 30 Days!!  I will probably post my final weight tomorrow and a synopsis of my reunion with mom and my face off with the pizza. 

XOXO

Three Days of food...Cheater, Cheater, Boeater

I am three days behind on the blog, and I apologize.  It was a very busy weekend. We spent Saturday getting ready for our Super Bowl party, and last night I was too exhausted to function let alone blog!  Today was another busy day; we went to gymnastics, school and dance. Here is a quick recap of my last three days of eating and activities.

 This is how I caught the two of them watching TV while Paul and I were cleaning on Saturday! Love!

Saturday was leftovers for lunch and for dinner we had pork chops on the grill with sweet potatoes and a salad.  It was snowing and 17 degrees outside, but I was determined to eat something grilled.  I had to sweep the snow off the top of the grill before turning it on. Luckily, we have it hooked up to the gas line in our house, so it turned on without any problems.  I snacked on fruit snacks and made myself a banana sundae which is my new favorite thing. 

Sunday:  We spent the day turning the garage into "the man cave." 

 

The house was divided into three distinct areas:

Zone 1: Basement.  This was the kids' domain.  They had their own food, the Wii, and a million toys down there.  The eight kids ,ages 2-6, played extremely well together the entire night.  The highlight for me was watching them bust out Just Dance 2014 and shake it to Daft Punk's "Get Lucky"  and Will.i.am and Justin Beiber's "That Power."  I tried to video, but the damn flip was out of juice!  I took pictures but they came out blurry.  They were breaking out some really fantastic moves.  Only four of them were technically playing the game, but all eight of them were dancing. 

Zone 2: Main floor:  This was the mother and baby unit.  There were five women total.  Three of us have babies under the age of one, and the other two are pregnant(one due next week and one due in May).  We had the TV on but honestly didn't watch much of anything.  We were excited when Bruno Mars came on, but of course this was when we had a security breach and were invaded by  zone one's inhabitants!  Therefore, making it very difficult to hear or see the half time show.  But, just like the rest of the game, the half time show was pretty boring so missing parts of it wasn't all that disappointing. 

They may have infiltrated our space, but the two of them were so stinking cute all night with their turtle talk and ninja moves that we didn't care!

Zone 3: Garage aka the man cave.  This is where the five guys set up shop. They had a 135 inch screen, couches, heaters, food and beer.  They were pretty happy.  The garage only got up to 44 degrees, but all of them seemed comfortable out there.  It was like they were in New Jersey! 

The game may have been a disappointment, but our food buffet certainly wasn't.  We had soooo much food!  We had mozzarella sticks, pizza bites, buffalo chicken bites, dilly bread, crab Rangoon, salsa and guacamole, taco dip, Mediterranean feta dip, fresh fruit, stinky pretzels, onion dip, cheese and crackers, basil pesto bruschetta, brownies, cake cookies, cookie pops, Costco cookies, decorated butter cookies and sugar cookie fruit pizza. OMG!!  It was sooo hard to stay good and follow Paleo, but with the exception of ONE crab Rangoon, I met all Paleo requirements. I spent the night eating fruit, carrots with guac, and paleo chocolate chip cookies.

Everyone left and forgot to bring their plates with food home with them.  This left us with a ton of leftovers which presented a problem.  I knew that I would not be able to resist all these goodies two days in a row. I wanted to throw everything away, so I wouldn't be tempted to eat any of it today but I couldn't bring myself to toss all that delicious looking food.  I should have.

Monday:  I don't know how, but the scale said exactly 120.0.  I did it! I met my goal.  I was pretty excited, so what did I do?  I completely and totally gorged myself on everything Melissa brought last night. She is the devil.  I ate 4 mini crab rangoons, 2 small pieces of fruit pizza, and one and a half cookie cake pops which are huge!  Surprisingly and unfortunately, I did not feel sick right away so I kept eating.  However, about three hours later I had about a 20 minute stint where I felt like I was going to vomit.  I can only assume this was due to my binge eating.  I can actually say that, though the food was really, really yummy, it was not worth it.  I am pretty mad that I celebrated by eating the very foods that I avoided to get to my goal.  I had eggs for dinner because I was so uncomfortable I couldn't imagine eating anything else.  I definitely learned a lesson in moderation today. 

 The adorable and mighty tasty chocolate chip cookie pops.

Unwrapped and ready to eat. Get in my Belly!

Back on track tomorrow with maybe only a small bite of fruit pizza if it's still around.  Laura sent me a recipe for Paleo granola bars that she says are amazing, so I am going to make them some time this week.  Tomorrow I will be stocking up on produce and meat in preparation for our next set of winter storms.  I do not want to have to go out in the snow.  I am hoping to prepare two really good Paleo meals these next two days in celebration of the completion of  30 days of almost 100% Paleo eating.
XOXO