Whole 30: Week 2 Recap

I have somehow managed to get myself sick.  I feel as though all of the gems/viruses that are running around the daycare have decided to attack me at once.  It started with a really sore throat that I battled most of the week, then Friday I could feel my body losing the battle and by Saturday morning the battle was lost and I was officially sick.

I am not sure how my immune system let this happen when I am healthier then I have ever been, while at least eating healthier then I ever have.  Even up until Friday, I felt great overall just had this annoying sore throat that wouldn't go away.

Despite being sick I am sticking with doing my Whole 30.  The tough part isn't the food. The tough part is that I want to put a big lump of honey in my tea to sooth my throat or have some booze to help kill all the bad things in my body. 

Overall things still aren't hard.  We are eating fantastic food.  Haven't eaten out or anything that I haven't made myself I think this is when it will get tough.

Day 9:

Breakfast: 3 eggs poached and 1 slice prosciutto
Lunch: salad with grilled chicken
Dinner: home made chicken soup

Day 10:

Breakfast: 3 egg muffins
Lunch: home made chicken soup
Dinner: lamb chops with puréed cauliflower and steamed green beans

Day 11:

Breakfast: 3 egg muffins

Lunch: salad with grilled chicken

Dinner:  mahi mahi with guacamole and lime cilantro coleslaw 

Day 12:

Breakfast:  3 egg scrambled 

Lunch: salad with grilled chicken

Dinner: baked chicken wings with franks hot sauce 

Day 13:

Brunch: apple with nut butter and proscuitto 

Dinner: grass fed steak with cauliflower and mushrooms 

Day 14:

Breakfast: larabar

Lunch: sausage

Dimmer: roasted chicken with green beans and  salad

Whole 30 Day 8: Mmmmm I Love Zoodles

I had so much energy on Sunday that I spent most the day in the kitchen cooking up a storm.  I am still in shock from how much I accomplished.  I started with breakfast apple sausages , turned my chicken broth that had been simmering in the slow cooker all night into an awesome chicken soup, made tomato sauce, meatballs, and egg muffins.  Plus all of the actual meals for that day.  As I told J, I am turning into a domestic goddess!

Monday's dinner was zoodles in marinara sauce with meatballs.  Turned out awesome, way better then spaghetti and meatballs.  I couldn't believe how fantastic and healthy every bite was and sooo healthy.

Day 8

Breakfast: 3 egg muffins and 1/2 a sausage
Lunch: salad with grilled chicken
Dinner: zoodles covered in tomato sauce and meat balls

Whole 30: - Week 1 recap

I have completed my first 7 days of Whole 30 and overall I am feeling pretty good.   There really haven't been many of the side effects that are outlined in the Whole 30 Timeline.

I never suffered through "the Hang Over" from sugar withdrawal on days 2 & 3, or the unexplainable "Kill All Things Phase" on days 4 & 5.  "I just want to nap" are suppose to take place on days 6 & 7, but I had some much energy on day 7, I can't believe all the things I was able to accomplish.  I did experience some of the day 8 & 9 "my pants are tighter" symptoms,  but that was actually on day 4.

I am still sticking with my previous comment that so far this isn't that hard.  No cravings or desires for "forbidden" foods.  Even when J is eating chips and drink pop in front of me I don't feel as though I need to partake.  Although I do get annoyed that he has started eating more junk and less paleo since I started doing Whole 30.

I am however still having a daily battle with not stepping on the scale.  Especially on days when I feel skinnier and really just want to know.  I have settled for knowing that the new clothes I bought are one size smaller then I used to wear, fit nicely and are not at all tight.

I have also this far avoided eating in a restaurant or at someone else's house.  I have been trying to rack my brain for what would be an acceptable meal to eat out and haven't come up with much.  I think that maybe Swiss Chalet, 1/4 chicken with side salad (olive oil and vinegar dressing) would work, no bun or sauce of course.  But I think my best bet is to try and avoid eating out for the duration of the 30 days.  Be good for my pocket book if I can do that too!

Day 5:

Breakfast: 2 egg muffins and 2 slices prosucitto 

Lunch: salad with grilled chicken and homemade dressing 

Dinner: grilled tuna with salad

Day 6:

Breakfast: 3 egg omelet with spinach, mushroom and tomato and 2 slices prosucitto pan fried

Lunch: tomato salad and grilled mahi mahi 

Dinner: baked pastured chicken with zucchini noodles, green beans and a salad

Day 7:

Breakfast: 3 poached eggs with apple pork breakfast sausage (recipe)

Lunch: sausage with salad
Dinner: roasted pork with steamed cauliflower and roasted beets

Whole 30: Day 3 & 4 - Hide the Scale

One of the rules for doing a Whole 30 is that you aren't suppose to weigh yourself during the entire 30 days.  Here is a little excerpt  on this taken directly from the source (you can also click on the excerpt  to be taken to the Whole 30 page to find out more about the program).

You are not allowed to step on the scale or take any body measurements for the duration of the program. This is about so much more than just weight loss, and to focus on your body composition means you’ll miss out on the most dramatic and lifelong benefits this plan has to offer. So, no weighing yourself, analyzing body fat or taking comparative measurements during your Whole30.

I have found that this habit is one of the hardest for me to break.  From the time I wake up I start thinking about weighing myself and have to remind myself that I am "not allowed" to.  Then there is constantly reminding myself while in the bathroom waiting for the hot water in the shower that I cannot step on the scale.

After I step into the shower the need to weigh myself goes away.  This is because I have convinced myself that you weigh less before you shower then you do all wet after you shower (also can't eat breakfast before you weigh in cause that add on pounds).

It is because of my overwhelming desire to weigh myself everyday and my own silly little rules about getting weighed, that I think this rule is such an important one.  I really do need to break away from the psychological hold that the number on the scale has on me.

Meal Log

Day 3:

Breakfast: 3 egg omelet with spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms, and a side of smoked salmon
Lunch: salad with grilled chicken and home made dressing
Dinner: cilantro lime chicken legs (2), marinated tomatoes and zoodles (zucchini)

Day 4:

Breakfast: egg muffins with prosciutto
Lunch: Salad with grilled chicken and home made dressing
Dinner: grass fed ground beef tacos - home made seasoning, lettuce wraps

Whole 30: Day 2 - Not That Different

Ok so I am saying this after completing only 2 days of Whole 30 but I am going to say it now and see if I eat my words later (are words allowed to be eaten on the Whole 30? going to have to consult my list).  So far for me eating Whole 30 has not been that different.

Before Whole 30 - I was eating 3 meals a day of real food that was mainly paleo.  Now I am eating 3 meals a day that are 100% paleo.

A lot of the reading I did before I started this journey was people saying that you need to stock up on food and they can't believe how much food they went through.  But I haven't gone through any more food then I was before.  I stocked my fridge the same as I always do on the weekend and as the week goes by the amount of food dwindles down.

There are some small changes that I have had to make to be compliant on this diet, but I don't actually even notice the difference.  Here are my changes:

• No more dried cranberries on my salad they contained added sugar
• No more store bought salad dressing that I knew I shouldn't be eating.
• No cheese on my salad or in anything I cook
• No milk in my tea
• No eating R's snacks - he is gluten free so many of these are off limits for me
• Read every label very carefully!

I did find out that I don't like my morning tea without the milk in it (used to be sweetner as well ekk!).  So I have started drinking my herbal teas in the morning and love it.  Vanilla rooibos tea is absolutely wonderful and has a beautiful hint of sweetness to it.  I am disappointed in myself that I used to add milk and honey to this tea as it is so much better without anything added.

So really no earth shattering changes to report (thus far - still looking up if eating words in on Whole 30 or not).  

Day 2 Food Log:

Breakfast  3 egg muffins and salmon/cucumber nori rolls  

Lunch: salad with chicken and home made dressing (3 ingriedents: olive oil, rice vinegar and herb de Provence soooo yummy)

Dinner:  mild Italian sausage* with steamed cauliflower and grilled beats

I emailed my little grocery store where I buy most of my food and asked them for the ingredients for the sausage, I was so happy to find out it is pork, water, salt and spices!

Whole 30: Day 1

So as part of this Whole 30 journey I have decided that I will keep a food log.  Nothing fancy, but just to give people an idea of what food I am eating while following this plan.  Also include some recipes and things that work for me while I do my Whole 30 journey.

This diet takes some reprogramming of the brain.  Not for eating a different way, but more to make sure you don't mindlessly eat something.  Little man was eating yogurt and I got some on my hand.  Had to repeatedly tell myself over and over not to lick the yogurt off my hand.  Sure if I had of licked it off my hand it wouldn't have been a big deal.  But given that it was 7 am on day 1, I really didn't want to eat a "forbidden" food.

A few roadblocks were put in my way today and I breezed passed them no problem.  The first was that I was at the office an extra hour longer then normal or was expected.  Thankfully I have stashed a few Larabars for just such an occasion.  If you are in Toronto and looking for these I found them at Tutti Frutti in Kensington Market for $1.25 each.

Then as I had known about for over a month, I chose to start my Whole 30 on the same day as book club.  Temptation was staring me in the face the entire evening with multiple bottles of wine and a ton of forbidden food on the table in front of me all evening.  This was where having the strict rule of No Cheats really helped me.  A first glance at the table made me long for everything on it.  Then I didn't even notice the table for the longest time.  I did notice that there was some fruit on the table that I could have eaten, but I also recognized that I had just eaten a large yummy dinner and wasn't at all hungry.  Oh and I also sipped on carbonated water the whole evening.


Day 1:
Breakfast: egg muffins
Lunch: salad with oil & vinegar dressing
Snack: 1/2 Larabar
Dinner: basil pork tenderloin, fennel apple & mushroom stir fry with tomato & kalamata olives salad

Sausage, Spinach & Tomato Egg Muffins

Sausage, Spinach & Tomato Egg muffins - there are a ton of recipes on the internet for these.  I made them up on Sunday and have them packaged in the fridge so I can grab and go in the morning.  I put them in the toaster oven this morning to reheat them and they tasted great.

1/2 lb cooked ground sausage - I had ground pork so I pan fried that with some herb de Provence and other spices
1 handfull chopped spinach - I used fresh spinach
1 small tomato diced
1 small handful of basil chopped
9 eggs
coconut oil

Set oven to 350 degrees, grease a muffin tin with the coconut oil.
Mix together the spinach, tomato and basil in one bowl.  In a separate bowl whip eggs until frothy.  Combine eggs with veggie mixture.
Distribute the cooked sausage evenly into the bottom of the muffin tins.  Pour egg mixture over top.
Place in oven and cooked for 30 minutes.

Whole 30: It all begins

Today I am embarking on a life changing event.  While life changing for 30 days at least.  I have decided to clean up my eating and undertake the Whole 30 Challenge.

In a nut shell, the Whole 30 Challenge is essentially just being super strict paleo for 30 days.  This means no grains, legumes, sugar, dairy or alcohol at ALL.  But it also means as much meat, eggs, seafood, nuts, good oils, veggies and fruit as you want. (although they do recommend you limit fruit).

But the biggest and most important part about this diet is that cheats are not allowed.  None, nada, zero.  You must avoid the bad foods at all cost.  If you are eating out, you need to find something on the menu that is complaint with the diet.  You are not allowed that one cookie just cause everyone else is eating one.  You are not allowed that salad dressing that has sugar in it even though there is only a tiny bit.

I am actually looking forward to the strict guidelines of no cheating.  Because this challenge lasts for 30 days there is a definite timeline for how long it will last but it also gives me the excuse of why I can't cheat.  Eating paleo for months makes it easy to rationalize why you can have just one cookie.  This program takes that ability away.

The same with peer pressure.  People will bug you about eating the cookie but if you are able to say that you are on a strict diet then there is a better chance they will leave you alone.  Well this is at least what I keep telling myself.

Its funny, I decided about a month ago that today would be my start date for the Whole 30.  I bought the book It Starts with Food, and read it while on vacation and then started stocking my pantry with the right foods.  But I also found that all last week (after returning home from vacation), I started eating on plan.  I actually lost 2 lbs last week because I was sticking with the paleo diet 98% of the time.  I must confess however, that Friday we went out for chicken wings and fries and a "last supper" kinda meal.

Oh I also learned that Frank's Hot Sauce is compliant on the Whole 30.  Woohoo I don't need to give up my chicken wings while on this diet.  I purchased 5 lbs worth of wings from the grocery store to celebrate!

Now from everything I read in the book and online about this program, the best way to succeed is by meal planning.  Figure out what you are going to eat at every meal and then buy all the groceries you need for the week to make those meals.

While I had every intention of meal planning, it just never happened.  I even started a meal plan about 3 different times, but never finished one.  Saturday at noon my boys were napping and I took the opportunity to run out and grocery shop.  So with no plan in hand, I shopped till I dropped.  My cart was full of veggies.  I also picked up a few items from the butcher counter just to be safe, even though the freezer is full of frozen meat.

Wish me luck as I enter day 1 of this 30 day journey.  Here is to feeling and looking great at the end of the 30 days (and hopefully many days before that).

It All Starts With Breakfast

It is September and time for life to get back to normal and to start preparing to hibernate for the winter.  Well at least I wish I could hibernate, cause I hate the cold.  Hopefully we have an Indian Summer this fall and the nice weather sticks around for as long as possible.

The farmers markets are beautifully stocked with the most delicious fruits and veggies.  I love a great big vine ripen in season tomato and have been waiting all year to sink my teeth into one.  Thankfully this year I was not disappointed with how wonder they taste.

On a sad note, St. Jocab's farmers market had a great big fire in their main building this weekend.  We were hoping to go there this weekend and stock up on veggie to can for the winter.  Looks like the outside area will still be open, but I just don't know if it will be the same.  Hopefully for all the inside vendors there will be a speedy rebuild and things will get up and running for them.

Now onto the point of this post ...

After years of being told that it is important to eat breakfast this was always something engraved in my brain and still something that I believe to be true.  The sad part is that we were taught that we shouldn't eat too much and that a whole wheat bagel is better then bacon and eggs, and never eat the egg yolk cause that will kill you.

This lead to me eating a bagel or english muffin (white of course, those whole wheat ones are gross) with some margarine for years.  All the while thinking that this was the right thing to be eating (sortof) and never questioning why I was starving at 10 am, when I just ate breakfast at 8 am.  I knew that if I purchased the weight watchers bagels they would be 2 points and that was more filling then the english muffins for the same amount of points.

Once I broke free from the grains, I switched my weekday breakfast to either 2 hard boiled or some cottage cheese.  I found both much more satisfying to eat then a bagel; however, I was still struggling with being hungry before lunch time.  Usually around 11 am my tummy was starting to grumble.

Then out of necessity to eat all the eggs up before going on vacation I had 6 eggs and 2 days.  I decided to throw caution to the wind (or whatever that expression is) and eat 3 hardboiled eggs for breakfast each morning.  Not only did I eat the three eggs, I also drizzled them in olive oil (Yummy). 

The first thing I would like to report is that even though I ate three whole eggs, yolk and all, two days in a row, I survived and am still living.  But other wonderful things happened too.

Not only was I able to stay full until lunch time, it was more between 1-2 pm that I found myself getting hungry enough to eat my lunch.  Then because I ate my lunch later, I found that I wasn't starving when I got home at 5:30.  Then cause I wasn't starving, this meant I wasn't shovelling as much food as possible in as little time as possible while standing with the fridge door open.  Which also means that I didn't out of desperate starvation eat 2 dinners - 1 in front of the fridge  and 1 at the dinner table.

So I have learned that 1 extra egg in the morning, a mere 90-120 calories, saves me HUNDREDS of calories in the evening and keeps me happy and sane.  That is right, no 5pm monster crashing and banging around in the kitchen trying to find everything and anything that I can fit in my mouth.  This also results in a much happier husband and kid I might add!

Confessions

Last week was not a good week for me.  Somehow we forgot to take something out for dinner every night except for Friday.  This lead to one night of bacon and eggs (yummy!) and three nights of take out.  There was no real excuse for it.  The freezer is stocked full off really great food.  The fridge was full of veggies that we had purchased at the farmers market.

Lunches weren't much better for me.  I did eat my salad a couple of days, but I also had a couple of lunch dates where I was eating out.

The weekend was a total right off.  On Saturday I had an awesome girls day/night out.  This was two meals out and a lot of yummylicious cocktails.  But I think that Sunday takes the cake (at one point literally).  OK cover your eyes if you have a weak stomach ... 2 meals from McDonald's (hangs head low in shame) and a birthday party dinner that included ice cream cake.

OK that is it, I am finished with listing out my horrible horrible week.  Except that I forgot to mention the guy in the office with the box of Halloween chocolate bars that keeps on bringing them into meetings (and who I seem to go and visit more frequently now that I know they are there).

A few observations about how I felt last week ...

• I was popping aspirin like crazy.  Waking up with a head ache, going to bed with a head ache and everything in between.
• I couldn't sleep.  I was back to my old insomniac ways, where I would lie in bed for a couple hours and then move over to the spare room and watch tv to help me fall asleep.  All the while being exhausted since I hadn't had much sleep the night before.
• I was bloated most of the week and my stomach hurt a fair amount.

The worst was Saturday night.  I laid in bed all night in a drunken, sugar laden, too much bad food trance with my stomach in a lot of pain and a few trips to the bathroom.  Not a good feeling at all and thank god for probiotics to help me get through it.   I think I got maybe a couple hours sleep.

I am happy to report that first thing Monday morning I was back on track.  I even purchased my breakfast and lunch that day but stayed 95% on plan.

So what did I learn from all this ...

Well I definitely need to take items out of the freezer so that we have something for dinner and no excuse to eat out.  There is really no excuse for this, especially with all the grass fed beef that is sitting in my freezer.
Also if I am going to be eating out a lot, I need to make sure that I am making smart choices and staying on plan as best possible.

But the margaritas for the girls night out were definitely worth it!

Crazy Simple Recipe: Paleo Banana Pancakes

It is Friday!!!!!  It has been a long week with lots going on here.  Our little man was sick, which always turns life upside down and inside out.  Especially the sleepless nights that always accompany a sick baby.  But he is on the mend and getting lots of rest, and so now so am I.

I have another crazy simple recipe that I want to share with everyone.  Again this isn't something that I was smart enough to invite.  Just tried, tested and loved by my family.

These pancakes are actually one of little man's favourite foods.  He gobbles up an entire batch of these things, always to our amazement of how much food he is eating.  I must confess that even though I make these every weekend, I have never actually tried them.  I despise bananas - so of course my son loves them.

I have gotten this recipe down to taking maybe at most 10 minutes for the entire batch to be made.  That is from peeling the banana's to being put on the plate for consuming.

I think my favourite part of this recipe is that I am feeding my son a really healthy and nutritious breakfast.  Lots of protein in here from the eggs that he won't eat scrambled any more.  He never gets hungry again until lunch time, so no morning snack required.

They are also very portable.  We put them in a ziplock bag and bring them out with us.  He doesn't care if they are cold.

Paleo Banana Pancakes Recipe

2 eggs
1 banana
cinnamon to taste
oil of choice to cook with (coconut, butter or bacon fat are what I use)

Mix together eggs, banana and cinnamon.  I use my magic bullet, but a hand blender works just as well.

  Heat oil in pan on medium high.  Pour batter into fry pan in small pancake portions.

 When pancake bubbles, flip over and cook for another minute.  Then you are done!

Crazy Simple Recipe: Kale Chips

Life has been crazy this summer and I am loving it.  We are spending a ton of time as a family just hanging out and having fun.  During the week all three of us commute downtown and by the weekend we just want to stay home and relax.  Before we had the little man we used to be on the road every weekend, going every where and anywhere.  Now though, I would rather stay home and enjoy our backyard, or go for a bike ride to the local pool or splash pad.

I have a few tried and true crazy simple recipes that I will be posting over the next few weeks.  These are not recipes that I was smart enough to invent but are ones that are eaten regularly by my family.

I had never tried kale before I changed my eating style.  I just assumed that I wouldn't like it, didn't know what to do with it and just ignored it at the grocery store.  Then I came across a kale chip recipe and decided I might as well try it.  Now I LOVE kale, my favourite being Russian kale which I make into salads.

I haven't been able to get one of these chips into little man's mouth yet to know if he will eat them or not but that is OK, because I prefer not to have to share them!

Kale Chips

1 bunch of curly kale

Olive Oil 

sea salt

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Wash and dry the kale.  The dryer you can get the kale the better the results.  Break the kale into pieces and spread out on a baking tray.  I like to line the tray with tin foil although I don't think that is really necessary.

Using an oil mister filled with olive oil, give the kale a liberal spray.  This is what my oil mister looks like, I think I paid a whole $5 for it and I love it.    Sprinkle on sea salt to taste.  Be careful not to be too liberal with the salt as the kale shrinks a little in the cooking process.  Better to add more after these are baked if you didn't add enough to start. 

Place in the oven and bake for 10 - 15 minutes depending on your oven (mine takes 12).   You know they are done when you see some turning a little bit brown.

That is it, you are done!  3 ingredients, 15 minutes from start to finish and you have some awesome kale chips to eat.  I don't know how long they stay good for cause they never last more then 10 minutes.

Random Rants

I just went for a lunch time walk to the library.  About 1 km each way and it is a lovely day outside.  I even stopped at Starbucks for some tea and a break on the patio.  As I was walking I saw some things that I decided made a nice little rant post ...

1. Why are all cyclist not wearing helmets?  I just don't understand how people can not be smart enough to be wearing a bike helmet.  Especially in the middle of downtown with so much traffic and so many drivers who don't pay attention.  Are people more worried about a bad hair day over keeping their head safe?
2. Why do cyclist feel as though they don't need to follow the traffic rules?  Running red lights all the time.  Or even worse is that they seem to think they don't need to stop for street cars.  I have watched way to many close calls where a cyclist not even slowing down for the street car with its doors open almost hitting people who are getting of the street car.
3. Why do people write or highlight in library books?  These aren't you books people.  You can't look back at the book at a later date and reread what you highlighted.  The book needs to be returned so that other people can read the book.  Looking at your pencil marks or even worse highlighted sections is very distracting to the other people who are trying to read this book.

I will end this post with a little bit of happiness ...

Always fun bringing a smile to someone face as you point them in the direction of the nearest Starbucks!

It's Not Low Carb

I, like many others, quickly learned not to talk to others about my eating style.  It is hard for people to believe that the food guide that has been drilled into us since we were little is not the be all and end all of healthy eating and dare I say it is actually WRONG (gasp).

I find when I do talk about my diet I have the bad habit of saying that it is low carb.  Everyone always jumps all over this and starts attacking low carb and going on and on about how low carb is bad for you and you need carbs to live.  How horrible the Atkins diet is and eating all that fat is going to kill you.

Many times it just isn't worth the fight to try and convince people otherwise.

I found this on Pinterest and this is my new motto...

Afraid of the Sun

Apparently Gwyneth Paltrow recently made a comment in British Cosmopolitan about how going out and getting some sun is good for people.

"We're human beings and the sun is the sun - how can it be bad for you?  I think we should all get sun and fresh air.  I don't think anything that is natural can be bad for you - it's really good to have at least 15 minutes of sun a day"

This comment promoted the National Post to go out and ask doctors what their opinion of her comment is .  The article can be found here.

Let's just get out of the way that when Gwyneth says that anything that is natural can't be bad for you is of course wrong.  We all know that there are plenty of natural things that are bad for you and can kill you.  OK point made, lets get to the real point ...

All of the doctors in the article have declared the sun the evil and exposure to the sun will give you cancer.  You should avoid the sun at all costs.  One doctor even points out that vitamin D is better to be gotten from a pill then from going outside for a few minutes.

"In humans, the sun is required to convert cholesterol to vitamin D, which is necessary for good bone health.  If one does not get enough sun exposure they should take a vitamin D supplement."  Dr. Richard Bendor-Samuel, Cosmetic Surgeon at The Landings Surgical Centre, Halifax


So the doctor even states that our bodies require the vitamin D we receive from the sun to work properly but it is better to get it from a pill then to go stand outside for 15 minutes?

For millions of years people survived without sunscreen and shelter from that evil thing we call the sun and yet no one died of skin cancer until within the last 100 years or so.  Most people worked in the hot blazing sun all day and never got skin cancer.

Here is an interesting chart I found on wikipedia.  The occurrence of skin cancer appears to be less in many (not all) of the less developed countries in the world.  These are probably countries where people spend most of their time working outside in the hot sun all day and are areas that are close to the equator.

Age-standardized death from melanomaand other skin cancers per 100,000 inhabitants in 2004.[30]

no data   <0 .7="" div="">   0.7-1.4   1.4-2.1   2.1-2.8   2.8-3.5   3.5-4.2

4.2-4.9   4.9-5.6   5.6-6.3   6.3-7   7-7.7   >7.7

Now I know that an argument can be made that the ozone is thinning and so the sun is more dangerous now.  Sure I will give you that.  But how about instead of avoiding the sun all together we take a smart approach to going out in the sun.  

Don't go out on the first hot sunny day of summer, white as a ghost from hiding inside all winter, and stand in the mid day sun for 5 hours without any protection.  Build up your time in the sun with a nice base tan.  Go outside for a few minutes each day, enough to get a little colour but not enough to burn.  As your skin gets used to the sun you will be able to take more and more time in the sun.

Even fair people can do this.  J is very fair skinned and yet little by little he has built up a tan and can now handle going out in the sun for longer then 15 minutes without burning.

People just need to be smart and think about what they are doing.  This really is a case where something natural is good for you and required for your body to work properly. 


* This is a rant and all opinions are my own.  I am in no way providing medical advice and just wanted to give you something to think about.

Paleo Baking

I am a big fan of Pinterest and get a lot of my paleo/primal recipes from searching on Pinterest.  The one thing that always shocks me are the number of paleo baking recipes there are.  People have figured out a way to make pretty much everything into a paleo version.

What's that you want to have a chocolate doughnut with chocolate sauce on top, while there is a recipe for that.  No need to live without muffins cause there are a ton of recipes for those to.  Today I even came across paleo bread that looks to be sold commercially.  How crazy is that?

A lot of people rationalize the paleo baking by saying that everything they are baking with is allowed under the paleo/primal diet and so they can eat as much as they want.   The key ingredients usually in paleo baking is coconut flour, almond flour, arrow root, honey and/or maple syrup, coconut milk, cocoa and dark chocolate, and eggs.

Now maybe it is because I have never been much of a baker and sure I enjoy baked goods but I have never been obsessed with them, but I just don't get it.

You have taken foods that even conventional wisdom tells you are not healthy and will make you gain weight and just made a paleo version.  Chances are many of these foods still aren't actually healthy and will make you gain weight.  Sure honey and maple syrup are allowed on the plan but lets remember that they are still sugars.  Your body is going to release insulin to deal with these sugars just the same as if you ate "normal" sugar.

I have done a little bit of paleo baking, but this is usually done for when we have company.  I use it almost as a way to say to company "see I don't need to give up anything on my diet".

Paleo baking can be very expensive, especially compared to traditional baking.  I made a paleo cake for little man's birthday.  Pretty sure that thing cost me somewhere between $10-$15 to make with all the almond flour, honey and maple syrup in it.

I think the key here is moderation.  Paleo baking, like traditional baking should be used as a treat.  Something special that you make when you are celebrating or having company over.  If you follow the 80/20 rule, it should be something that goes into your 20% category not the 80%.

Also if you are just starting out on the paleo diet I would recommend staying away from paleo baking.  It is my belief that one of the keys to living paleo as a lifestyle and not just a diet is to learn to adapt your thinking about the way you eat and not just find paleo substitutes for the foods that you used to eat.

Brickworks Farmers Market

Saturday was a beautiful day and perfect for our first outing to the Brickworks Farmers Market.  The little man has been sick and not cooperating fully, so the plan to head out at 9 am turned into us going there at noon.  Grand scheme of things not a big deal.

Our first stop was to have our knives sharpened by Sharp My Knife who is at the market every other Saturday.  I have had my knives for years and never had them sharpened, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have them sharpened while I was shopping.  They did a great job with the knives and cutting things isn't such a chore now.

After we dropped off our knives we did a quick tour around the market.  It was much smaller then I expected.  When you look at the list of vendors on the market website you expect that the place is huge.  But you can do a quick stroll around looking at the vendors in about 5 minutes.

The best part about this market is that you are dealing with the actual farmers/producers and that everything is organic, all the beef is grass fed.  Overall everything is just really good quality.

I don't remember the names of all the vendors that we purchased from but here is a quick list of what we purchased:

• Fresh and smoked trout from Fisherfolk - absolutely delicious
• Fresh ramembert cheese from Best Baa Diary - om nom nom I couldn't stop eating this stuff
• Spring salad mix from Vicki's Veggies - I eat organic spring mix from the supermarket all the time, that stuff has nothing on the spring mix I bought from Vicki's.  Oh so GOOD!
• Russian kale, grass fed ground beef and soup bones from Earth Haven   - We ate the russian kale last night as a salad and it was amazing.  Russian kale is not bitter like the curly kale we normally buy and makes for an amazing salad.
• Chorizo sausage and summer sausage.  Unfortunately I don't know who the vendor was.  But the summer sausage was great.
• Green beans - again don't know who the vendor was.  AMAZING!  It was $4 for a small basket of them and then he offered to give me 2 baskets for $6.  So glad I went with the 2 baskets, these are better then anything found in the supermarket.

We did a stroll through the food court, but from what I could tell, everything there was off diet.  

I also really wanted to buy Salami from Dolce Lucano but the guys were rude and arrogant so I spent my money elsewhere.

When we were in the car driving home we chatted about the market and what we thought.  My original reaction was that it was just OK and not really worth the 20 minute drive.  Items weren't cheap, but I was ok with that given the quality of the items.  I would say that the prices for most items were what I was expecting to pay for organic veggies and grass fed meat.

After eating all the wonderful food and realizing that we were eating much like we did in Provence again, I need to change my vote.  

Our dinner on Saturday night started with a platter with the sheep cheese, smoked trout and summer sausage.  Then we grilled the fresh trout on a pizza stone on the bbq, accompanied by the green beans pan fried with mushrooms and almonds.  (damn my mouth is watering just thinking of it)

I really want to go back again this week to the market and get more of the wonderful food.

There's Nothing to Eat

Do you ever feel this way when you open your fridge?  Every week the media is publicizing a different report that says that X is bad for you and you should be eating Y instead.  But then two weeks later Y is bad for you and X is the better choice.  You start to wonder if there is anything that you can eat.

I have been gobbling up a ton of information about paleo/primal eating lately.  In everything that I read there are a ton of scientific information to show that the paleo/primal way of eating makes sense.  But then again for every study that says you should eat one way there is another study saying that is a sure fire way to an early grave.

A few years ago my doctor told me that my cholesterol was borderline high.  Her response was to cut back on the red meat and my fat intake.   Everything that I read in the paleo information says that is the wrong approach and that I should be cutting out the carbs.  Surely all these people have the same scientific research available to them to be able to figure out and agree on which approach is correct?

How is the average person supposed to be able to process all this information and decide which study is the more accurate and reliable and which one is just crap? 

I have decided that while scientific research is great it just doesn't matter to me anymore.  What matters to me now is the way I feel when I eat things.  Grains make me feel bad, bloated and keep me up at night.  When I don't eat grains I feel good, have more energy, get lots of sleep.  It really is that simple for me now.

Food Log Week 2

I had only planned on tracking my food for one week, but it was such a great way to keep me accountable that I decided to continue on tracking.  Summer is in full swing with bbq season and that definitely has an effect on my eating.

Day 1

Breakfast: Bacon and eggs
Lunch: paleo burger with sweet potato bun, ceaser salad and oysters
Snack:  tortilla and guacamole with a ceaser cocktail
Dinner: bbq'd pork tenderloin, baked potato salad, green salad and baked beans
Dessert: apple pie with whipped cream

We were at a bbq all day and I could have made better choices but didn't.

Day 2

Breakfast: cottage cheese
Lunch: salad with grilled chicken and grapes
Dinner: pork sausage, pork souvlaki with grilled asparagus and prosciutto
Dessert: strawberries

I really need to make sure I have an afternoon snack.  Otherwise I get home starving and start eating whatever is in front of me in the fridge.

Day 3

Breakfast: cottage cheese
Lunch: salad with grilled chicken
Dinner: roasted chicken and poutine

Day 4

Breakfast: yogurt and hard boiled egg
Lunch: sushi with wakkame salad and miso soup
Dinner: grilled mustard chicken with spinach and mushrooms
Late night eats: wine, a lot of stuff I shouldn't have eaten
Sleep: HORRIBLE why did I do that to myself

Day 5

Breakfast: cottage cheese
Lunch: salad with grilled chicken and yogurt
Snack: mixed nuts
Dinner: chicken wings and fries

Day 6

Breakfast: cottage cheese
Lunch: salad with grilled sausage
Snack: pepperoni stick
Dinner: grilled pork chops with roasted potato

Day 7

Breakfast: bacon eggs and home fries
Lunch: sausage
Dinner: chicken gyros with home made flat bread , grilled zucchini and mushrooms

Slippery Slope

Isn't it funny how eating one thing that isn't good for you can lead to eating a whole slew of things that are even worse for you.  Some how in our heads we take one bite of the "forbidden fruit" and then decide that we have gone this far we might as well just give up and keep eating the whole fruit, and then another and another.

We find some stupid way to rationalize to ourselves that after that one bad bite it just doesn't matter any more and we might as well keep eating.  

That was me last night.  I went out for a girl friends night and wine and nibbles.  I knew going in what to expect food wise.  I should have arrived with a nice healthy treat to make sure that I had something good for me to nibble on, but instead I showed up with a bottle of wine.

There was a table full of "forbidden fruit" and I probably tried everything on the table and not just one of everything.

Its not that I ate the forbidden fruit that bothers me.  The problem is that most of the food Just Wasn't Worth It.  It wasn't that good.  It wasn't something that I ate and said OMG sooo good.

I paid for it was a night of horrible sleep and feeling bloated.  No waking up feeling skinnier for me today.  But the worse part of all this was when I was driving into work and started rationalizing to myself that I had eaten all that bad food already and I feel crappy today so I might as well go out and get that bagel sandwich.

I wasn't even hungry since I had already had breakfast when I was having these thoughts.  

Because I feel tired and drained today, I should be fuelling my body with good healthy foods that will help me keep my energy up.  Not eating things that will raise my blood sugar and then send it crashing down along with my energy. 

Book Review: The Dinner

Do you ever read books without really knowing what they are about?  Just dive right in without having read anything but the title?

That is what I did with The Dinner by Herman Koch.  It was a book I saw recommended within a list of books and I checked it out electronically and dove right in.  It is an interesting way of reading a book and one I might need to start doing more often.  Definitely makes what happens in a book more interesting since you don't have any clue what to expect when you start reading.

I could tell from the table of content that the book was broken down into courses and quickly realized that the events of the book would be taking place over 1 dinner - hence the title.

For those of you who like to know what a book is about before you start reading it, here is the description from amazon.com:

It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse -- the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.
Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

Overall an interesting book that I finished within a couple of days.  It is an international best seller that was translated into English this past year and I can see why it appeals to the masses.

The book doesn't make you question right versus wrong, so much as what would you do to protect your family or more importantly your child.  Does right versus wrong even matter when it is your child's future that is at stake?

I don't see this as a book that people will be talking about at dinner parties  - although many expert reviewers seem to think so.  But none the less I would recommend this book for an interesting read that is well written and will keep your attention till the end.

Food Log Week 1

To make myself more accountable and to help me make better choices I am going to be keeping a simple daily food log.  Hopefully the requirement of posting my eating choices to the world wide web will guilt me into eating a good whole nutritious diet.

Short, simple and sweet.  Here we go

Day 1

Breakfast: cottage cheese 3/4 cup
Lunch: Salad with grilled chicken and newsman's own dressing, vanilla yogurt
Snack: pepperoni stick
Dinner: all natural sausage, 1/2 zucchini grilled, 1 small potato grilled
Snack: 1 cup strawberries and 2 oz grilled chicken

Day 2

Breakfast: 1 hard boiled egg
Lunch: Salad with grilled chicken and newsman's own dressing, vanilla yogurt
Snack: 2 small handfuls of mixed nuts
Dinner: Seasons pork chop and steamed cauliflower
Snack: all natural sausage, 1 cup of strawberries

Day 3

Breakfast: 2 1/2 scrambled eggs
Lunch:  Salad with grilled chicken and newsman's own dressing, vanilla yogurt
Special note here that I went for a walk to the ice cream truck, I did not get any ice cream (big pat on back)

Dinner: natural sausage, grill chicken, sunflower seeds

Snack: 1 square 85% dark chocolate

Day 4

Breakfast: 1 hard boiled egg
Lunch: Salad with grilled sausage and newsman's own dressing, vanilla yogurt

Snack: apple

Dinner: mustard glazed chicken thighs, grilled potato & grilled zucchini

Day 5

Breakfast: apple
Lunch: Salad with grilled sausage and newsman's own dressing, vanilla yogurt
Snack: 2 small handful of mixed nuts

Dinner: Steak with steamed cauliflower and salad with Newman own dressing. 

Snack: Strawberries 

Day 6

Breakfast: bacon & eggs

Lunch: sausage and salad 

Snack: ice cream cone

Dinner: steak with corn on the cob asparagus plus wine

Snack: strawberries 

Day 7

Breakfast: paleo crepes with mixed berry sauce and bacon

 Lunch: ribs 

Snacks: prosucitto slices 

Dinner: mussels in white wine sauce, wine 

Observations:

1.  Every morning I woke up feeling skinnier.  This was a great feeling I had when my first few months on paleo and it felt so good to have it again. 
2.  It was easier to get out of bed.   I am always awake before the alarm clock but usually require it to go off before I will get up. Not this week. I was up and out of bed 15-30 minutes early every day.  This might have been partly my desire to jump on the scale and see if I was skinnier. 
3.  Every morning the scale showed me a smaller number. To add to my joy of feeling skinnier. 
4.  I just felt better. It was one of those things were you thought you felt good before but now you realize that you were ok but NOW you feel good. 
5.  I saved money. I brought my lunch every day. Made dinner at home every night. Resisted the urge for ice cream. 
6. We ate through the pretty much all the food in the fridge and the freezer. 

Who needs the gym?

I often feel guilty that I don't go out and exercise.  All these people have gym memberships and are able to find time to get to the gym a few times a week.  Lifting weights, running on the treadmill and doing fitness classes.

But during the week my life is a race.  Get up, shower, get up the baby, feed the baby, make lunch, out the door and drive for 35-40 minutes, drop off baby, go to work.  At 4:30 we go in reverse ... leave work, pick up baby, drive for 45 minutes, back home, feed the baby, bath the baby, put baby down, make dinner and finally eat dinner.  This routine starts at 6:30 am and ends about 8:30 pm.

Oh man typing that made me exhausted.  Anyway back to my point ...

I don't have time to go to the gym, but this weekend also made me realize that I get plenty of exercise without the gym.  And the best part is ... I get to do it all with my family instead of being in a great big box with lots of equipment.

Here was my weekend broken down into exercises:

Cardio:
1 hour bike ride - 1/2 of which was in a flash rain storm
20 minutes of lawn work
10 minutes of "head, shoulders, knees and toes" while standing (this is harder to do then burpees!)

Fitness class:
45 minutes aquafit with family in pool - might not have been a lot of actually swimming but this was a whole body workout

Weight Lifting:
18 lb baby - need I say more

Miscellaneous:
100 yard dash to get dirt out of baby's mouth
stair climbing in short bursts
the hourly clean up everything off the floor

It is true that I probably should make more of an effort to make sure that I am fitting in some type of exercise into my week, but I will take exercising with the family over working out in the gym any day.

Is being obese a disease?

It has been all over the media so I am sure most people have heard that the American Medical Association has decided to declare that obesity is a disease. Here in Canada the CMA hasn't declared obesity a disease but did  suggest doctors and other health professionals work with their patients to reduce obesity through education, proper nutrition and regular exercise.

I completely agree with the CMA but there are a few problems. 

1. Lack of education

Our medical doctors receive very little training on nutrition. How are they suppose to educate us about nutrition if they are not themselves highly educated in the matter. 

2. Wrong education 

The Canada Food Guide recommends 6-7 servings of whole grains a day. So even if doctors were educated in nutrition they like nutritionist & dietitians, they would just be educating patients with improper knowledge. However I do believe that if people cut out the processed crap and fast food and ate "healthy" whole grains this would help fight obesity. 

*healthy as defined by the Canada Food Guide 

3. Most people already know this

Ok I have no proof of this but I am guessing that the majority of people, obese or not, know that proper nutrition and exercise would help them. 

According to the BMI definition of obese, I fell into that category for a long time and I can tell you 100% I knew the crap I was putting into my body wasn't going to help make me skinnier.   But at the end of the day people choose to eat junk and that is the main reason most people are over weight. 

Actually I wonder how many obese people there are who have eaten a clean healthy diet for years.   I am not even talking about a paleo diet. Just a diet that is full of fruits and veggies and has very little processed foods in it.
4. We need to be starting this education early

So if I am wrong above in #3 this means that we need to be educating people when they are children about proper nutrition and exercise.   They need to be learning early on how to eat properly.  And the best place to get an education is in school.

Also instead of cutting gym class because there are "more important" things on the curriculum for the students to be doing. Exercise should be considered a key part of the school system with some included in every single day.

What on earth could be more important for students to learn about then their health?Oh sure Jimmy might be a brilliant scientist but he is going to die at age 50 of a heart attack and spend most of his life in pain due to poor eating habits.
Also a healthy child eating good nutritious food and getting daily exercise  is going to be able to sit still at school more alert and ready and able to learn better.   

Defining obesity as a disease is just another excuse to make drugs to combat this "disease" instead of getting at the true problem that people are filling their bodies with junk and obesity is the bodies way of reacting to all this junk in the body.

*This post is a rant and is all my personal opinion.   I also do believe that a few people may have other medical issues that lead them to be obese, but that is not the same as saying that obesity is a disease.

The Ill Effects of Going Off Plan

We were away for the weekend getting home late in the afternoon on Sunday.  Poor planning and a need to get the little guy down for the night lead to a decision to simple get take out for our dinner.  Quick easy and close by were the criteria.

Sending J out for swaharma was the original plan.  We have an awesome swaharma place near by and while not completely on plan it isn't too bad an option as take out goes.

Unfortunately swaharma place was closed.  This lead to quick texting back and forth of what to eat.  Fish and chips was also closed.  So I sent J to Popeye's for some fried chicken.

I am not going to lie .. it was GOOD!  Spicy fried chicken with fries and a biscuit.  Oh and it came with a pop too.

We sat in the living room and the floor with a stupid Ben Stiller movie on the tv and started devouring our meal.  I had no intentions of eating the biscuit, but then J informed me that I had to try it and that "it was worth it".  They must pour some butter flavouring in their biscuits cause damn it was buttery good.

I did show some restraint.  There were still fries and most of the biscuit left over after I had finished stuffing myself to the brim.

But then almost instantly I started feeling the ill effects of what I had just done to myself.

Not only was I full but I was bloated.  My stomach looked like I was nine months pregnant with my food baby - a term I had not used in a lot of months.  I could barely bring myself to get up off the floor and onto the couch to lounge for the rest of the evening.  I spent the rest of the evening lying there like a beached whale hardly able to move and really uncomfortable.

The real effect of the meal came in the middle of the night.  I woke up at 2 am with my stomach still bloated and feeling completely full.  Then I laid there the rest of the night tossing and turning.  My stomach was screaming at me from the inside, asking me why I had to eat that horrible (but oh so tasty) meal.

Was going off plan worth the pain and sleepless night?  Nope

Did I learn my lesson?  Yup

Will I do it again?  Probably

All About the Planning

I posted last Friday wondering if I was really eating 80/20 paleo.  Very ambitiously I decided to take on the challenge of eating on plan for one week.

Well that was a grand idea that just didn't happen. Infact my week was so bad that I ate out lunch 3 days and the other two days I wasn't even at work for the full days. Hmm I am suddenly realizing that I didn't eat a good lunch all week. 

Anyway back to my point of this post. Part of the reason I failed so miserably (and partly gave up) my quest to eat on plan all week was lack of planning. 

Arriving home on a Sunday with no food in the fridge was not a great way to start the week.   I also must admit that I need to get more creative with my lunches. I am sure that with my freezer full of food and my 2 dozen of the most tasty eggs that I brought home from farmer Tom I could have figured something out. 

I even redeemed myself and made it grocery shopping on Monday. So the lack of planning excuse ends there. 

Tuesday I was home all day with a sick little guy and still didn't eat 100% on plan or a proper lunch. Really no excuse there. 

The rest the week were social lunches and while I could have made better choices I didn't. 

Dinners we were much better about. This was thanks to me planning out dinner the night before. 

Although we did have one little miss hap... came home to a crock pot full of raw meat. Eeekkk 

Apparently I missed hitting enter enough times to turn it on. But hey bacon and eggs are an awesome dinner and completely on plan!

Am I eating 80/20?

Most advocates of the paleo diet recommend following the 80/20 rule or 85/15.  Basically if you follow the diet 80 percent of the time and allow yourself to eat non-paleo food 20 percent of the time you are still going to reap a lot of the benefits.


This rule helps for people to not feel that they have fallen off the wagon when they have some bread at a restaurant or eat the stuffing at the Thanks Giving dinner.  It also addresses that we live in the 21st century where eating paleo isn't always possible.

 You show up at a dinner party and realize the only thing to eat is that big old bowl of pasta, with a side of garlic bread and cake for dessert.  Its going to be kind of hard to avoid eating wheat in that instance.  Or how about today where I was about to eat my big bowl of salad for lunch and realized I didn't pack any salad dressing.

From the start of eating paleo I made myself little rules.  I was going to stick to paleo in the house but outside the house I didn't need to be as strict on myself.  Or small amounts of sugar in food is ok.  This worked great and I lost over 15 lbs with no problems when we first started eating paleo.

Then we went to France where I decided that there was no way I was going to miss out on all the bread and pastries.  I was completely fine with my decision and do not regret it one bit.  However since coming home and getting back to paleo eating, I have noticed that the weight isn't coming back off.3

At home I am probably 95% paleo.  No gluten at all, but sugar and ice cream have been known to slip into my mouth.  Eating out is my big problem, especially with returning to work and having lunch with friends and colleagues that I haven't seen in a year.  Sushi, pho and worst of all dim sum are my lunch guilt pleasures.  Dinner is even worse choices, of shawarma, burgers, fries, burritos.  All quick things that we can grab and go.

This has me questioning am I really eating paleo at least 80 percent of the time or have I slacked off too much?

I am going to commit myself to a week of being paleo 100% of the time. No sugar, no take out, and no just a little nibble.

This is going to take a lot of planning and making sure that I have my snacks on hand.  But the important thing is I believe that I can do it.

Giving Up Sugar

When I tell people that I am paleo and explain what I don't eat, everyone right away jumps in and says they could never give up bread.  But I found the bread and most grains actually to be very easy to give up.  You just stop eating those types of foods and that is it.

For me the hard one to give up was sugar.

Sugar is in everything.  Most recipes call for sugar.  I really like sugar in my tea.  Sauces for cooking all contain sugar.  I just find it really hard to stay away from sugar.

I have eliminated sugar out of my tea.  But I must admit that tea is just not very good without the sugar.

I never considered myself a sugar addict.  My go to treat would be a big salty bag of regular potato chips over a cupcake any day.   I don't even crave sugar.  If candies are sitting there I will eat them, but I would never go out of my way to  go get candy from the store.  But despite this I am still having a hard time giving up sugar.

I guess I just need to start with paying more attention to what I am eating and how much sugar is in it.   Sticking to whole foods and making sure that I am not adding sugar to my recipes when I am cooking.

Grocery Shopping with Company

You know when you read all those articles about how to save money and how to avoid buying junk when  grocery shopping.  Always on that list is to not bring your kids grocery shopping.  Well let me tell you that also on that list should be not to bring your husband too.

We went grocery shopping yesterday on the way home from work.  I was starving so avoiding temptation was extremely hard for me, but I did manage to.  J on the other hand loaded three different types of juice and a bag of chips into the cart.

I guess I should be happy that was all that he bought this time.  I made the mistake of sending him to the grocery store to get milk and eggs a couple weeks ago.  He came back with the milk and eggs plus a couple bags of chips and pop and other junk that we don't (shouldn't) eat.

I guess I should just be happy that he is helping with the shopping.  :) 

Paleo Naysayers

A couple of days ago, someone on Facebook posted a link to an article and commented about the paleo diet and how is it based on junk or pseudo science.

I am not interested in what the article has to say and haven't bothered reading it.

I have read a number of books on the topic of paleo. Many do give detail about what our palaeolithic ancestors did and didn't eat and how much healthier they are compared to the those who ate grains and farmed.  But while that information was interesting, it wasn't what made me start eating paleo.










What made me start eating paleo was the information in the books about how grains, including whole wheat, are treated by our body. Or how as society started following low fat diet recommendations their waste sizes started growing.

The books also listed off a number of health benefits that would happen as a result of following this diet, some seemed too unbelievable to be true.  Here is a quick list from Robb Wolf about what he says are the benefits of eating paleo.

That is why I had decided to give the paleo diet a try.

Here is why 6+ months later I am still eating this way.  These are the benefits to my family of eating the paleo diet:

1. Weight loss
2. Not bloated all the time
3. More energy
4. Sleep better
5. Allergies and asthma have all but disappeared 
6. Less headaches

Once you actually give the diet a try and realize that the books were right you really start to question all the things that you were taught about healthy eating growing up.  The Canada food guide recommends 5-7 services of grains a day, but is this really healthy for us?  Aren't those grains just being turned into glucose in our body?  When I was following those recommendations I was getting fatter and felt tired, sluggish and bloated all the time.

To all those critics out there who like to bash this diet or try to discredit it, I strongly recommend that you just TRY IT!  You will be amazed at how much better you feel.

Food at Child Care

The child care centre  has a great food program and we are emailed the menu every month.  We missed May's mail out and I didn't bother asking for a copy, so June was the first time I got to see the full menu of what Rylan would be eating.

Let me just say ... WOW

Here is an example of a couple of days of the menu. 

We have decided to have the little man be on a gluten free diet (not paleo) while at school (I hate calling it day care) so he has a few substitutions like rice cereal instead of whole grain cereal.

I couldn't believe how wonderful the food sounds that he is eating.  The most amazing thing about the menu and the food the little R is being fed at school, is that he eats it! 

R also now eats his food at home too.  When we came home from France, the only thing that R would eat was fruit and yogurt.  Didn't matter what else we put in front of him he wouldn't even try it. 

He came home from his first full day of school and gobbled down the entire meal of almond crusted chicken with roasted potato and green beans.

The school also works on getting him to eat items that he is not so hot on.  The little man spits out his green peas, but every time they are on the menu they make him at least try them.

Pantry Clean Out

When we started eating Paleo back in November I did a quick pantry clean out. This is something I had never done before whenever I had started a new diet or way of eating before.

Of course I felt guilty getting rid of food that I had paid money for. This lead me to holding onto a lot of things that were not on plan.

So 6+ months later I finished the job. I found two things interesting. The first was the amount of stuff that I had kept that I shouldn't have. The second was that we didn't eat any of it.

Lots of pasta, flour, crackers and just junk were causing clutter in my pantry. This kept me from being able to see or find any of the good things that I was suppose to be eating.

There are still a few things that I left in the pantry that I probably should have thrown out. The peanut butter is one item.  But I don't eat peanut butter, so I see that as J's item. However with no English muffins to put the peanut butter on, I imagine six months from now I will be throwing that out too.

I feel like this clean out was another step towards getting my body clean but also my life clean.  I hate clutter and now I have one less thing cluttering my life.  Now I just need to find a good way to organize my spices to make life even easier.

The clean out ended with two big bags being dropped off at a food bank box!

Birthday Boy

Let summer begin as we have just completed our first long weekend of the year.  Victoria Day weekend, also affectionately called May 24, is upon us and what many consider the official start of summer.   Thankfully the weather peeps graced us with amazing weather the whole weekend.

Last year we celebrated the May 24 weekend for a whole different reason, when our little guy was born.  This year it was an awesome weekend to celebrate his first birthday!

This being such a special occasion I wanted to make sure that we celebrated it properly.  No I didn't hire a clown or have a petting zoo, or invite 100 kids to the event.  But I did get balloons and decorations and a cake and invited all the close family members who we thought would want to join in the celebration.

 Here are my steps to planning a birthday bash ...

Step 1: Invitations

We of course started with the invitations.  A quick Google search quickly made me realize that just an ordinary birthday invite would not be good enough for my little man.I needed something that was going to show off my cute little boy.   This brought me to Costco's photo centre website.  While they didn't have any great birthday invite cards, I was able to transform one of their templates to suit my needs.

They turned out amazing and were actually ready in only a couple of hours.  Cost for the 25 flat cards was $11.99 and well worth it.

We quickly sent out the invitations and then waited to hear from people.  And waited ... and waited ... and waited.  Hello people you are suppose to call and tell people if you are attending or not. (sorry rant over)









Step 2: It's All About the Food

Simple and easy is the name of the game when it comes to food at a birthday party (or well any party really).  Even though it is going to be a beautiful May afternoon I have decided that my slow cooker will take the lead for this event instead of my BBQ.

Now the recipe needs to be just as simple and of course uber yummy.  I also want to make something that was paleo, but not something that would make people notice that they are eating paleo.

This lead me to a fantastic recipe I had tried out back in January of Crockpot TexMex Carnitas from Life as a Plate blog.  You can get the recipe here.

In the past (aka pre-working mama days)  I would have made all the guacamole and salsa to go with this item, but now I don't have time for that.  Thankfully there is once again Costco to help me with this.






Step 3: Decorations

Decorating for a party has never really been a big deal for me.  Usually I clean the house and use the food and the decorations.  Somehow I don't think this will work for a baby birthday party.  Again after a search on Google I found that the best places to buy party decorations are at party stores.

There are two main ones in my area, Party City and Amazing Party Store.  After many many hours of looking at the online inventory, Amazing Party Store was the winner of the where will I shop contest.  It really helps that this store is only a 3 minute drive from my house as well.

It is amazing how quickly the cost for decorations adds up.  Plus you can't have a first birthday party without having lots of helium balloons.  Those have to be pre-ordered to make sure that they can do them on the big day.  Also I learned through research that not all helium balloon suppliers are equal.  Some balloons last for days others may only last for hours.





Step 4: Relax and Enjoy the Party

I think this one is pretty self explanatory.  Spend all day running around if you must but when the first guest arrive that is when everything is done (finished or not) and you relax and enjoy the party.  Hopefully you get lucky and the guest of honour is in a good mood.