Week Two Results

Let me just start by saying I don't want to post this. It's discouraging and embarrassing and not at all how I wanted to start my Monday. But I'm not gonna flake or only post good results. That's not what this blog was designed for. It was designed to keep me accountable. So here we go...

My second weigh-in didn't go as well as my first. I think the fact that I lost two pounds the first week actually had the opposite effect than I'd hoped. It gave me the mindset that I would lose weight without doing anything. 

Wrong. DUH. 

I cheated a few too many times, with the most recent being a piece of cake last night. I shouldn't have been surprised at the results this morning, but that didn't stop me from having a whiny pity party. 

Thankfully I have the most patient and encouraging husband in the world to hug me during my mini melt down and tell me I'm still the most beautiful girl he's ever seen and encouraged me that I will hit my goals. Seriously, y'all. He's the best. 

So anyways, here are my (embarrassing) results from week two:

Weight: 139.4 lbs

BMI: 23.0

Waist: 29.0"

Hips: 35.0"

Right thigh: 22.5"

Left thigh: 22.5"

Hitting the gym this morning and no cheats until Friday when we leave for the BAHAMAS!!! :)

Tea is the New Coffee

I didn't realize Paleo would make coffee so hard. 

Let me explain. I've never really been one of those people who has to have their coffee before they can function. I'm naturally a morning person, so I don't NEED coffee. I just LOVE coffee. 

Joel says I don't love coffee, I just love sugar and cream, which is actually pretty true. My pre-Paleo coffee was about 3/4 coffee and 1/4 coconut creamer with two BIG spoonfuls of Splenda. It was delicious, but it did not taste like coffee.

I even have this sign in my kitchen:

So when I went Paleo, I just figured I'd leave out the Splenda and swap coconut creamer for unsweetened coconut milk. 

I have no idea what I was thinking. It was AWFUL. I could actually taste the COFFEE! The best I've been able to do is half coffee and half coconut milk, and I still have to add at least one spoonful of sugar (which I figure, if you have to have a sweetener, is better than the processed chemicals in Splenda because at least it's natural) and then I can mostly choke it down. 

But like I said - I never drank coffee because I needed it. I drank it because I liked it, and I DON'T like this version... So no more coffee for me until I find a suitable Paleo coffee creamer. 

Now what I DO like is tea. English breakfast tea from Fortnum & Mason, in particular. 

It is just delightful with coconut milk! I still add a little sugar, but I'm slowly decreasing the amount and will eventually cut it out altogether. It tastes great AND I get to use my cute teapot and metal leaf catcher (no idea what that's actually called). Double win!

If you've never tried hot tea with milk, I highly recommend it. Let me know what you think!

(Not So) Paleo Mexican Dinner

Yesterday started out great. I had an egg and sausage breakfast scramble (DELICIOUS and so easy!) and healthy Paleo snacks throughout the day. 

I even met Joel at the mall over my lunch break to walk and get some exercise in! We saw this adorable puppy in training (to be a seeing eye dog I think?)

After work, we went to Joseph A. Bank to get Joel some shirts, and when we finished it was already almost 7:00pm and we were hungry for dinner. We were faced with a decision: drive 45 minutes home and try to scrounge up something to eat (we're even out of leftovers at this point)...

OR...

Walk to Maximo's which happens to be in the same shopping center. And also happens to be one of my favorite restaurants. And also happens to currently be serving happy hour margaritas... I'll let you decide what we chose ;)

Yeah... Margaritas always win. 

Here are the things I ate that are Paleo approved: Chicken. Beef. Salsa. 

Here are the things I ate that are NOT Paleo approved: Chips. Tortillas. Cheese. Sour cream. Margarita. And most likely the oil everything was cooked in. Oops. 

Sorry my plate is already half eaten... I told you I was hungry!

And how do you say no to chips and salsa with Mexican food?

Paleo fail. 

So good tho. And we took a 2 mile walk when we got home, so it's okay, right? Right?! *sigh* 

Leftover Spaghetti Squash

Yesterday, being Monday, was another out-to-eat night. Technically, it was a change-out-of-pajamas-and-go-pick-up-some-food-to-bring-home-and-eat-on-the-couch-while-watching-the-bachelorette night. Please don't judge me for immediately changing into pajamas as soon as I get home from work every day.

Thankfully, Market Street is only about a mile or two away, so we ran over there to grab dinner when we realized we had nothing to eat at home besides leftovers. If you haven't been to Market Street, let me tell you how amazing it is. It's the best grocery store (kind of a mix of HEB, Central Market, and United) with great fresh produce, pretty extensive meat and deli counters, and bulk nuts/seeds/granola. I'm obsessed.

But the best part about Market Street is the restaurant in the produce/bakery section! Right next to the deli counter is their "restaurant" area. There is a sandwich counter, a pizza oven (you can buy by the slice), a "home cooking" station, a salad bar... And so much more! Before going Paleo, I was a sucker for a chicken salad sandwich with a side of fried okra. YUMMM. But this time, I decided to check out the home cooking station.

I got baked chicken, asparagus, and sweet potato fries. I even said no to a roll! Yet again it was proven to me just how easy it is to stick with the Paleo concept even when eating out.

Again, you have to be realistic when eating out. I can't control how everything is prepared unless I cook it myself, and that is just unrealistic. So I'm sure the sweet potato fries were cooked in some kind of unapproved oil, and I think the asparagus may have had butter or cheese or something on them, but I didn't let that ruin it for me. I still considered this a good ole Paleo dinner!

And look at it! Does that not look delicious?! It was. I ate every bite. Except the asparagus. I found that I don't really like asparagus unless it's smothered with melted Velveeta cheese. Oh the things my mom did to get me to eat vegetable when I was little...

Today, I finally decided it was time to eat some leftovers. I made Joel some fresh pasta, but I had leftover spaghetti squash with pesto, fresh tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, shredded chicken, freshly minced garlic, and some spicy tomato and basil pasta sauce. I just heated everything up on the stove in a pan and it was so easy! Joel's was the same thing, but with real spaghetti instead of squash. 

My spaghetti squash was much better the second time around! I've found having a stronger sauce definitely helped.

Week One Results

This morning was the first of my weekly weigh-ins. 

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous because I don't feel like I'm on a "diet" with Paleo. I can eat however much I want of whatever I want any time I want (as long as it's a Paleo approved food). Not counting calories was one of the big draws to this for me! 

But this morning, I was afraid I had taken it too far last week. I was too relaxed. I definitely ate more almond butter and coconut macaroons than I should have... After all, I AM still trying to lose weight here. 

But I stepped on the scale this morning and was pleased to see that I had lost almost 2 pounds! Yes!

So that's my motivation for this week. If Paleo can help me lose weight when I'm not even trying very hard to, imagine what I can do if I really put forth some effort!

Beach vacation countdown: 11 days! My short term goal is to weigh 135.0 the morning we leave for the Bahamas. Only 3.2 pounds to go!

July 22, 2013

Weight: 138.2 lbs

BMI: 23.0

Waist: 28.75"

Hips: 34.75"

Right thigh: 22.5"

Left thigh: 22.75"

Lazy Weekend

This weekend was a lazy one. When you're out of town most weekends out of the year, a weekend actually in town almost always means a weekend of no plans! And that's exactly what we did. 

Tonight, we had burgers. Really good burgers. You probably wouldn't believe me if I said they were 10 for $10 at Kroger, would you? Well they were! (I realize that means they probably weren't grass fed, but gimme a break. I'm "loosely" Paleo, if you will.)

Anyways, we have a bunch of these frozen in our freezer (where else would we freeze them?) for nights we don't really want to cook. We pulled them out yesterday, let them defrost in the refrigerator, sprinkled some salt, pepper, and Cavender's on them and Joel grilled them up!

They are so good, y'all. They do not take like they cost a dollar! I wish we had more veggies (whoa, I've never said THAT before) to put on it, but I went with what we had: mustard, garlic, and tomato. So good!

 

A little salt sprinkled on the tomato and were good to go!

In other news, I bought a hat today for the beach...

 

I know, Joel looks really excited...

Happy Sunday, y'all!

Day 5: Cheat Day

A fundamental fact about any kind of diet is that if you deprive yourself completely, you will almost always fail. That's why so many diets have a "cheat day" or "cheat meals" built in. If you allow yourself occasional treats, you're more likely to stay on track for the long run. Lots of articles can be found to support this theory. Like this one. Or this one about Jennifer Aniston. 

There are differing ideas on how to do your cheat day, but I usually have one "cheat day" a week, and it's almost always Friday. I follow my diet in the morning and during the day, but I get to cheat for dinner (usually a bacon cheeseburger with sweet potato fries and a margarita from Village Burger Bar).

Today was slightly different. No VBB but it was still a cheat day of sorts.

I followed my Paleo plan almost all day. I had a green smoothie for breakfast, nuts and a Lara bar and fresh berries for snacks/lunch... but then there was a party at work and I had a cookie stuffed with a brownie. It was DELICIOUS!!! For dinner, I also cheated. Mostly due to the fact that I only had leftovers at home (and you know how I feel about leftovers) and I was getting a migraine on top of that. Sometimes a girl just needs Chick-Fil-A, you know? Nuggets and waffle fries. Mmm Mmm Good!

When I get migraines, it wipes me out and all I want to do is lounge. Joel is also feeling pretty sick, so a night cuddling with Bula on the couch and watching How I Met Your Mother with a cup of hot tea did the trick! It also made me want to go back to London, so don't be surprised if I start talking travel again soon...

Happy Friday!

Green Smoothies

Today was a "leftovers" day. If you know me at all, you know this is a big step for me because I DESPISE leftovers. I blame my mom for never making me eat them. Actually, I blame my dad for also despising leftovers, because I suspect the fact that we never had leftovers growing up is due more to his distaste for them than mine. But I digress...

This morning, I had leftover egg muffins. For dinner, I had leftover chicken and cauli mash. (By the way, this is the recipe I followed for the cauli mash.)

But for lunch... I made a green smoothie! It is SO SIMPLE. I made it before work and took it with a few other snacks for the day.

Green Smoothies:

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 cup oats
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey
• 2 cups of fresh spinach leaves, stems removed 

I'd like to note that oats are not technically paleo, but oatmeal helps with high cholesterol so I'm making that exception for my own personal health reasons. You can make this recipe with or without the oats. You can also leave out the spinach if that's not your thing, but I promise you can't taste it. It just turns the smoothie a funky color. 

Anyways, that's it. Just blend until it's smooth! Recipe makes 2 mason jar sized smoothies.

I met my second big Paleo challenge today. For lunch, my team at work was having a pizza party. We ordered pizza from my favorite place AND one of my associates (who happened to go to culinary school before coming to GEICO) made a homemade red velvet cake. Look at that!! So as great as that smoothie sounds, Pastazio's Pizza and this Made-From-Scratch Red Velvet Cake sounded SO. MUCH. BETTER. I almost cried when I had to say no to a piece of that cake.

Passing up Pastazio's? That's a success!

Garlic Chicken with White Wine Sauce

I'm already out of almond butter. It's been less than 72 hours, and I've already polished off my entire mason jar! Time to make more, I guess. And maybe do a better job of rationing it out next time...

My poor, sad, empty almond butter jar :(

Tonight's menu was super simple. It was a little labor intensive, but it was so worth it! We had garlic chicken with white wine sauce, roasted broccoli, and cauliflower mash.

 

I found this recipe on Pinterest and I will definitely be making it again. Here are my ingredients: olive oil, white wine, fresh thyme, a whole chicken, and 30 cloves of garlic. Yes, THIRTY cloves of garlic! I peeled them all a few days ago and stored them in a ziploc bag in the fridge.

A quick hint about the wine that I learned in school - never cook with a wine you wouldn't drink. We don't normally drink white wine, but I do like this Cupcake Chardonnay. As you can see, we already opened it up :)

Step 1: cut the chicken into 8 parts (2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks, 2 wings). This was by far the most time consuming. I had to get Joel to google "how to cut a chicken up" and read me step by step instructions while I hacked up that $4 chicken.

Step 2: Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium high heat in a large pan. Generously season chicken pieces with salt and pepper and cook in oil until browned on all sides then remove from pan. Add more oil as necessary.

Steo 2: browning the chicken pieces

Step 3: Sauté garlic until brown and fragrant, about 4 minutes. Add 1 1/4 cups wine and 3 sprigs of thyme to pan and bring to a boil.

Step 4: Add chicken back into pan and reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until chicken is cooked through. I cooked mine about 15-20 minutes and flipped the pieces once.

Step 3: Yummy garlic!!

Step 4: letting it simmer

Serve with cauli mash and roasted broccoli. Spoon sauce over EVERYTHING :) Voila! 

Egg Muffins & Coconut Macaroons

Last night I did a little more food prep for the rest of the week. I made cauliflower mash, of which I'm a little bit wary because it's brown and smells funky... And I also made my breakfast for the week! 

Breakfast: Egg Muffins smothered with salsa and green chiles - even Joel asked if he could have some, so you know they're good! 

Here's the how to:
• In a large bowl, combine 10-12 eggs and whatever vegetables you like. I added diced jalapeño and diced/sautéed onions to mine, along with a little pepper. 

• Mix it all up, grease a muffin pan with olive oil spray - or better yet, just use those little cupcake liners - and divide the egg mixture evenly between the cups. 

• Cook 15-20 minutes, or until eggs are no longer runny. Time will depend on how full your cups are.

• Store in Tupperware in the refrigerator and reheat in the microwave for a quick breakfast. Top with salsa or eat plain!

For dinner tonight, we were supposed to have garlic chicken with roasted broccoli and cauli mash or sweet potato casserole, but I didn't have time to make the chicken yesterday, and Joel and I both had long days at work today... so Chipotle won out! 

This was my first time eating out while on the Paleo diet, and it wasn't near as hard as you'd think. First of all, Chipotle was a great choice because they only use the best ingredients. Their slogan is "food with integrity" and if you check out their website (http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/fwi/fwi.aspx) you can see for yourself - almost all of their food is Paleo approved! I had a salad bowl which consisted of lettuce, chicken, pico de gallo, salsa, and guacamole. No cheats there!

If you know me, you know I'm slightly really ridiculously addicted to diet soda (and caffeine in general, really). You probably also know that I've had issues with chronic headaches and migraines for years (yet another condition Paleo eating is supposed to help). So today, I did cheat for the first time and have a Diet Coke to help a headache...

The funny thing was, it didn't really help and it actually made my stomach hurt later! Looks like my body is already catching on that I've been feeding it crap, and now that I've started giving my body REAL food, it rebels when I switch back to the processed junk!  (Do you know what's in Diet Coke? Carbonated water, colour (caramel E150d), sweeteners (aspartame, acesulfame-K), flavourings (including caffeine), phosphoric acid, and citric acid. I can't even pronounce some of those ingredients! No wonder it made me feel yucky.)

No food prep tonight, but I did make some yummy coconut macaroons that were by far the easiest thing I've made (besides almond butter). 

You'll need:

• 2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes (found at Whole Foods, Sprouts, or other health food stores)

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 2 eggs

• 1/2 cup pure honey

That's it! Just mix it all up, drop sticky spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet, and bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes. DELISH. Shout out to Jill for the great recipe!

Paleo Pancakes & Spaghetti Squash

Yesterday, I did a bit of prepping for this week. That will probably be my plan each week, to plan, shop, and prepare my meals for the coming week on Sunday so I don't have to worry about it during the week since I don't get home from work until around 7:00pm each night. Yesterday, I made spaghetti squash, homemade pesto, sweet potato casserole, garlic roasted broccoli, and almond butter! 

Today for breakfast I had Paleo Pancakes. Blend 2 eggs, 1 banana, and a dash of cinnamon in food processor until smooth, then cook like normal pancakes! I added blueberries to the batter before I cooked them, and I drizzled honey over them instead of syrup. Very tasty, very time consuming. Probably a weekend-and-special-occasions-only breakfast. 

For dinner we had spaghetti squash (just plain spaghetti for Joel) with homemade pesto, fresh basil, tomatoes, and pine nuts. The spaghetti squash took a little getting used to, but I think if the sauce is strong enough then it will be a good pasta substitute! This one also got Joel's noncommittal shrug of approval. Not quite a nod (he still prefers good ole pasta) but his exact words were "it's not bad" - I'll take it!

Spaghetti squash is also very easy to make. There are several different methods to cook spaghetti squash. What I did was cut it in half lengthwise (you'll need a BIG knife and a little bit of elbow grease), scraped out the seeds and pulpy stuff, placed face down in a baking dish, and filled halfway up the pan with water. Bake 40 minutes at 375. When done, scrape the insides and it will come apart like little noodles!! It makes SO much so it will last at least 4 meals. To reheat, just put some in a pan with your sauce to heat it up! Easy weeknight dinner (if your spaghetti squash is pre made).

The Beginning

Why have I decided to jump on the Paleo bandwagon? In a word, my health. (Okay, that was two words...)

For those of you unfamiliar with the Paleo Diet, here's a quick overview from thepaleodiet.com:

"The Paleo Diet is based upon eating wholesome, contemporary foods from the food groups our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have thrived on during the Paleolithic era. These foods include fresh meats, fish, seafood, fresh fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and healthful oils (olive, coconut, avocado, macadamia, walnut and flaxseed). Dairy products, cereal grains, legumes, refined sugars and processed foods were not part of our ancestral menu.

Decades of research by Dr. Loren Cordain and his scientific colleagues demonstrate that hunter-gatherers typically were free from the chronic illnesses and diseases that are epidemic in Western populations, including:

• Obesity
• Cardiovascular disease (heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, atherosclerosis)
• Type 2 diabetes
• Cancer
• Autoimmune diseases (multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, etc.)
• Osteoporosis
• Acne
• Myopia (nearsightedness), macular degeneration, glaucoma
• High cholesterol

And many, many more."

Scary stuff that the way we eat can cause so many problems. The really scary part? The conditions in bold/italics/red font are conditions that already run in my family. And the really REALLY scary part? My family members with these conditions are all relatively healthy, and they STILL have these issues! That is not good news for me.

The second reason is more personal, so for those of you who are going to say "gosh Allison, TMI!" just skip down a few paragraphs. 

The second reason I'm going Paleo is to lose weight (which ties into the whole health thing). I didn't really gain the "freshman 15" in college; in fact, I weighed only 2 pounds heavier on my wedding day than I did on the first day of college. No, I gained the "GEICO 15". (Yes, it's a real thing.) In the past year and a half, I've gained about 15 pounds and have tried only halfheartedly to lose it. Needless to say, I haven't lost it, but now I'm ready to get rid of it for good! 

The main reason I haven't been successful in my weight loss attempts over the past year or so are because I haven't had anyone to hold me accountable. And even if nobody reads this blog, the fact that it's out there on the world wide web is enough to keep me motivated! So each week when I weigh myself, take my measurements, and take my progress photos, I'm going to post them on here. Well, maybe not the photos... Not sure if I'm that brave.

Anyways, this is the beginning. While I do have an end goal as far as my weight goes, I'm hoping that Paleo will be a part of my life forever. This isn't a fad; it's a life change. Join me on this journey and learn about Paleo living right along with me!

July 15, 2013

Weight: 140.0 lbs

BMI: 23.3

Hips: 35.5"

Waist: 29.0"

Right Thigh: 23.5"

Left Thigh: 23.0"