How many days has it been?

I've stopped counting the Paleo Challenge days. Not because it's getting easier (yet it is), and not because I want to approach this in a differnt way (see earlier post), but because I'm lazy and it's way too much work to keep track of the days.

I also haven't been blogging lately. Once again - because I'm lazy. My allergies have also kicked in and I have no energy. That's one thing I was hoping would change but to have my intake in food source dramatically change an allergy to pollen is a bit unrealistic. Oh well.

Here are reflections on the last week.

I stopped buying lunch meat and we're eatting "real" food AKA leftovers. At the beginning of the week it's easy because I can throw a chicken into the oven or a pot and have lunches for 2-3 days. Once Tuesday hits, taking the time to roast a chicken doesn't fit too well into the schedule.

Some of the alteratives is to cook some ground beef or turkey and season it with taco seasoning. I'll make enough for 2 meals and use one for lunches. Pack the seasoned ground meat with some lettuce, tomatoes or salsa, avocados or guac., olives, etc. and it's paleo tacos.

This recent hot weather is the perfect excuse to try out the paleo ice cream recipe I found. YUM! I made the base of it last night (it does take some time) and I threw it into the ice cream maker today-20 minutes later I had ice cream without cheating. It's not as smooth as traditional ice cream, and it wasn't as "coconutty" as I was hoping (have you tried the haupai ice cream in Hawaii?!?) but it was good for a first try and as a base for different flavors.

Some things I'm going to try is to add some coconut extract to boost the flavor. I also want to try a batch with cocoa powder.

And the frustration sets in....

It hasn't been just 2 weeks. Its been 45 days + 2 weeks.

I've seen changes, but those changes were in the first 45 days. Now...nothing. At least nothing that seems noticable so I'm feeling like I'm missing something. Not like I'm missing sugar or bread, but I'm missing the right formula. I don't have this dialed in correctly.

So for the next 7 days, I'm changing things up a bit. A little less protein AKA MEAT and more veggies. Why just 7 days? I'm going to keep a food journal and see how that goes.

Grilled peppers, eggplant and zucchini

Poached chicken for lunches

So for most of this afternoon, I've been grilling some veggies, toasting walnuts and poaching a chicken that will last us just 2 days. Yup-all that work for only 2 days of lunches. No lunch meat, even though we would get the humanley-raised free range, nitrate-free lunch meat from Whole Foods. I'll sure miss that convenience!

Now to start dinner. Did I hear takeout?

Damn FB block

RANT-My original title was "Tweeking" but that was blocked to share from FB so I had to change it. So much for free speak. (No I get it but I thought my title was amusing...at least to me).

After speaking with Kellie last night I decided to tweek things just a bit-
3 eggs in the morning (normally just 2)

Get me by snack - one zucchini backed with procuitto. I quickly cut this up and threw it in some foil. Later today I'll throw this in the toaster oven at work. I wonder how this will turn out.

I'm EXHAUSTED today. Yesterday was 3 days on so I'm debating about Xfit tonight. After all we have Derby Day on Saturday. Let's just see which way my car decides to get home tonight...by way of Academy or on auto pilot.

PS-my car went on auto pilot and I decided to take a rest day.

First Water Not a Run

Don't know what happened but I couldn't even made it up to the trailhead! I got half way up the street, starting from Mira Monte & Mt. Wilson, and couldn't keep up a good pace. So Plan B was to just power hike as quick as I could and run down.

1st Water - 33:07
Down - 19:32

I LOVE being able to go out my back door and pick something. Today I used some fresh thyme.

Breakfast and lunch - not too exciting so I won't bore you on those details. If I decide to try something different I will definitely post it.

Dinner:
Turkey patties with procuitto and sun-dried tomatoes
Cherry tomato salad with sun dried tomatoes, red onions, olives and thyme.

1-1

Press 5 x 3 38#
Squat 5 x 3 53#

Nothing new or exciting about the meal plan today, except we had pears with procuitto instead of apples. I keep hearing about how well it pairs together (get it), but wasn't all that excited about this combo. I'd much rather have pears with carmel sauce. How about pears with honey? Must try that combo.

With all the procuitto left, I'd rather do dates and almonds with it. YUM!

1 down

This is Day 7 or Seven Days, depending if you want to count down or count up.

So many people I know are in a "Program" so they count up...Day 1, Day 29, 3 Months...until the months become years and milestones achieved and conquered. And if they regress, the clock starts over.

I don't know if that's how I want to approach this since I'm expecting meals where I will not eatting Paleo, but I also don't want to approach this like a countdown.

A countdown seems like there will be an end - an explosion - something significant and then BANG! it's done. Yes there will be an end when my body fat is measured again, but I'm trying to approach this like a part of everyday life. I could just STOP counting but this somehow seems wrong.

No cheat meals in the past 7 days since there are enough anticipated in this 90 day period-birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's day and Easter.

Breakfast-ibid, ditto, some old, etc.

Lunch-grilled veggies and grilled chicken sausage. I am going to assume when the label reads "spices" this does not include sugar.

Dinner-Quick N Easy shrimp salad.
Here's the original recipe I've made before:
1 mango cubed
1/2 lb cooked shrimp
1/2 avocado cubed
juice of 1-3 limes
salt
chili powder

Today I included the kitchen sink...just because it was in the house:
1 mango cubed
1 lb. shrimp
1 avocado cubed
1/2 cucumber
red onion, rinsed to remove some of the sharpness
some cherry tomatoes
lime juice
chili powder
salt

Race Results

32:24

Didn't qualify but did PR. I just wanted to be sub-33 and I was. That works for me!

Afterwards we went to the pub for breakfast. I had to NOT order my FAVORITE thing there-crumpets with lemon curd. Boo. I had to keep the bigger picture in mind. And there will be enough cheat days in 90 days: my sister's birthday dinner, Mother's day dinner, Easter with all the family, Father's day and my birthday. All those are cheat days but hopefully small, miniscule, microscopic cheat days. Shhhhh. Don't tell anyone.

Pre tryout dinner

Pre-tryout dinner-Sweet & Sour Chicken and cucumber wakame salad!!!

Yes it's the quicky paleo version!

QUICKY SWEET & SOUR PALEO CHICKEN
Juice from one pineapple (or can of pineapples from TJs)
2 T local honey or to taste
2 T white vinegar or to taste (this was hard since I was hesitant to use my cleaning supply in my recipe)
Reduce until its syrupy.


Saute free-range grass-fed chicken, some red onions and about 1/2 can of pineapple chunks. Cover with sauce. Thinly sliced carrots would be nice in this too but I didn't have any carrots. Just a touch of tomato paste or ketscup will also add a different complexity.

CUCUMBER WAKAME SALAD
Peel & thiny slice cucumber
Rehydrate wakame (seaweed)
Squeeze as much water out of the wakame.
Combine with cucumbers.
Season with seasoned rice vinegar from TJs. This is a bit of a cheat since there's brown sugar in it, You can take rice wine vinegar, add some dashi and something sweet like agave. If you have carrots for the chicken, add some to this too.

And here's one of the cleanup crew.

Is it only Day 5?

I think the worst part so far is the counting of days.

Great-now I have this voice going through my head ...

"So why are you counting? Why think of this as ONLY 90 days? If this is better for you, why wouldn't you want to eat like this this every day? If you're healthier and have less body fat (still to be determined) why would you want to go back and eat sugar and gluten?"

I know some of you are laughing because you can hear that voice too.

Breakfast - Whole grain waffles with pure maple syrup and a double latte with low fat whipped cream.

Lunch-Opened faced turkey sandwich on herbed foccacio bread and salad with reduced calorie dressing.