My Paleo Do's & Don't's

Do be super prepared. Not only does this mean carrying snacks and water with you at all times it means have a game plan. Know where you can get food if you are in a pinch. For us this means Rotiserre Chickens or grilled nuggets from Chic Fila. This also means meal planning for your schedule. Find meals that are easy for busy days and stick with what works. We're currently loving burgers on Monday nights. We buy either the Chili Lime Chicken Burgers or Grassfed Angus   Burgers both from Trader Joes. 

Do try new things. As a penny pincher I have always been quick to put beans in everything to stretch a meal, so when it was time to make chili (which normally has like 6 different cans of beans in it) I knew the paleo version would never taste right to my family. Oh a whim, I threw in some pumpkin purée that was leftover in my fridge and a big spoonful of almond butter. I think this was the best chili I've ever made. We stirred in a spaghetti squash right before we ate and it was perfect. Ugly but sooo delicious. 

Don't be afraid to not eat something. We ordered some veggies at a restaurant the other day and both immediately knew we shouldn't be eating them. So we didn't. I threw them in the freezer for another day. If you try a new recipe and it repulsed you, don't force yourself to eat it. Cauliflower breadsticks were a fail in this house, they were so bad I may never eat cauliflower again. Last week I made a spaghetti squash with shrimp and pesto, however in a moment of laziness I bought a pesto paste from the store. NEVER AGAIN. My husband ate it, but after to gaggy bites mine went down the garbage disposal. I ended scarfing some smoked turkey from the local BBQ place after Trick or Treating. 

Don't reinvent the wheel. Some new recipes will be amazing, others will flop trying new things can be great, but working with what your family already loves is so much easier. We love breakfast and we love Mexican food.for us this often looks like "eggs &____" or "taco meat stuffed into _____" 

If all else fails, add broth and make soup 😉 what are your favorite new recipes? Leave a comment below. 

DIY Lärabars

Ready to save some money? Since we've started this paleo journey I've discovered and love Lärabars. They do have lots of sugar in them( so pace yourself), but it's all from the Medjiool dates. Whoever said rasins were "nature's candy" obviously never had one of these bad boys, but I digress. If you have a good food processor you can have Lärabars knock offs in a few minutes. 

Basically you need one part dates and one part nuts. This package of dates turned out to be about 2 cups.

Take the pits out of the dates, trash 'em then throw the super sticky dates in the food processor with whatever nuts float your goat. Add whatever dried fruits, spices, etc and let 'er rip! 

I ended up with Pumpkin Spice Bars and Cashew Cookie Bars. Try my recipes below or create your own. Share your creations in the comments. 

Small Victories!

Yesterday we visited a pumpkin patch for pictures. B was in heaven. He touched literally evey pumpkin he saw and picked up as many as his tiny 24lb body could. Needless to say, he was exhausted, hangry, and parched (thanks Texas for the 91 degree "fall" day). Even though he failed to perform for the camera, I decided to hook him up with some Sonic Happy Hour! A lemon slushee and order of tots later I finally got a smile! Check out this cutie 😉

Today I celebrate that even though I may have sniffed his tater tots (more than once) I did not eat a single one! I contemplated how many extra calories I was consuming daily finishing his meals, sharing his snack, and licking the peanut butter spoon. This is a habit that has been hard to break. More than once I've busted myself absent mindedly putting a goldfish in my mouth. The toddler mom struggle is real! 

I did learn they now serve club soda at Sonic, a large "sparkly water" with lemons and Sonic ice will set ya back 99 cents during Happy Hour. Hooray for a healthy cheat! 

Paleo Win!

#winningduh

But seriously, I think my sweet tooth may be dying down. I still want sweet stuff, but a Lärabar or banana with cashew butter is usually enough. Today was awesome. I bought this: 

 

It was pretty good, but was way to sweet for me. Hold up. Less than 2 weeks ago I was preparing for B's birthday party shoveling cookie dough into my face. Lots of cookie dough. Shameful amounts of cookie dough. Honestly I could have eaten all of it, but today juice was to sweet me? I literally can't even right now...

Refusing to throw it away, I poured some in my unsweetened ice coffee. Holy moly, it's perfect! I think I just hit the clean eating jackpot. 

Now I'm off to peel rutabagas. Wish me luck! 

Car Blogging/ Be Prepared

If you know me, you know my little one does NOT nap. So on the rare occasion he actually falls asleep (usually minutes before we get home), I sit in my car, parked in the driveway until he wakes up.

Today is day 8 of our whole 30/ Paleo challenge and this is the first time I wasn't prepared. I had a great breakfast at MOPS this morning, but now I'm trapped in the car, wishing I had a snack.   Trying to pass the time, I got on Pinterest and found this.

Wow. If this doesn't explain the last year of my life I don't know what does! The easiest way to get complacent, and not realize how much weight you've gained is to wear stretchy pants all day everyday. So my little nugget of wisdom today for all the SAHMs out there, put on pants- real ones, with buttons and or zippers at least once a week. So when things start getting snug, you know to back off the Nutella. Disclaimer: I still hate pants, I still love leggings and have no intention of "getting dressed" everyday. 

Anyways, I just realized there were leftovers from the MOPS potluck breakfast this morning, so please excuse me while I eat Paleo Home Fries (butternut squash) in my driveway with a giant blue serving spoon. #sorrynotsorry 

Loving Paleo

We're 5 days in and I've become that annoying girl telling everyone I know they should do Paleo. After 2 days of headaches, I felt great on day 3, better on day 4, and even better on day 5. 

Hubby and I have both already lost 10lbs. My cravings are already dying off. I've had a few pretty tempting situations: play date at chicfila with a little boy who didn't finish his fries and even worse, cooking chicken enchiladas with my green chili sour cream sauce and cake balls for a neighbor who is sick. Didn't even lick the spoon, so sorry neighbor if your enchiladas were too salty/too spicy/too bland...my will power is on point! 

After further research I've decided to go 30 days hard core Paleo instead of 21, then we'll see where we go from there. 

15 lbs to go to pre-baby weight. 

30 to insurance required BMI

50 to high school weight

60 to "skinny" ☺️

It's Been Awhile...

Started this blog, and nothing changed until last week. We cancelled our health insurance. It was costing us over $10,000 a year and we were never using it (other than B's well baby appointments). We decided to use a MediShare program rather than traditional insurance. It's a Christian company and is going to save us tons of money. Once we got signed up, we realized there was a small up charge for being overweight which we both expected, and weren't super worried about. Upon further research, we both have to lose a significant amount of weight in the next twelve months or they will drop us, which means back to the 10k a year crap. We literally cannot afford to be fat. So we have one year. I need to lose at least 40lbs and the hubby has to lose 70. 

Fitness Updates:

I've found someone to watch B a few days during the week so I can go to the local gym (starting next week).

Hubby has agreed to let me buy an eliptical with tax return money.

The inlaws have offered us a treadmill, we just need to get it here. 

Also, it is finally fall here in Texas! Which means B and I can go for walks! 

Diet:

I've decided to go paleo... For at least 21 days. At the end of 21 days I'll decide if I want to stictly stick with it or modify it. I'm really thinking most of those paleo recipes sound great if I could add some black beans, garbanzos, and quinoa. I knew I would struggle saying sayonara to bread/pasta/delicious white potatoes in all forms would be difficult for me but who knew I had such strong feelings for legumes!

As I cleaned the aftermath of B's bday party, I actually sniffed the peanut butter cookies in the trash. Like deeply inhaled them. I'm convinced this is why I lay in bed last night fighting the urge to run downstairs to eat a spoonful of peanut butter. Darn you legumes. 

This morning I realized other butters ARE paleo, so while I plan to eat them sparingly I'm really looking forward to an apple with some almond butter this afternoon.