Hot, Sunny Weekend, Packed with People and Food

It seems that this weekend was all about food and visitors for us….some invited/wanted guests and others not so much.

Friday night I got home from work, put on a pot and a crock for bone broth (one chicken, one pork), roasted a chicken, boiled some eggs, made my dinner, made zucchini soup and weeded the front garden. I had so much energy, it was fantastic!  Saturday morning the excess energy continued and I got up at 6am and took Gracie on a 4.5km walk and then made breakfast and we went to our chiropractor appointment.

Zoodles, green beans, sweet onion, cilantro and cooked chicken, all sautéed together.

Since Ray was on call this weekend we couldn’t ride bikes or go anywhere so we headed home after the appointment and cleaned up the house for our (invited) visitors.  We had lunch (zuke soup w/ gluten free sausages and garden tomatoes) and then my mom, my sister and my mom’s cousin came over and spent a few hours chatting and hanging out.  When they left we wandered over to our neighbor’s house to check out their new boat and then came home and made The Best Dinner Ever.

 

Zucchini soup, peri-peri gluten free pork sausages that I bbq’d along with cherry tomatoes.

 

FISH TACOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Honestly, they were so easy to make and if you were slightly more prepared than I was, they don’t take very long either.  The most time consuming aspect (15 minutes total) was making all the little tortillas to wrap them in…but those can be made well in advance and then you have about 15 minutes of prep for a tastebud extravaganza!

 

 

I used this recipe for the actual fish: http://againstallgrain.com/2012/05/03/paleo-fish-tacos/

I used this recipe for the tortillas: http://stupideasypaleo.com/2013/08/23/simple-paleo-tortillas/

I made my own pico de gallo: chopped cherry tomatoes, small diced half a red onion, a handful of cilantro, garlic powder, salt and lime juice.  We used shredded purple cabbage as well.

For the Avocado Cream Sauce I used an Instagram post from ages ago (buzz all in magic bullet….use extra coconut milk if required to loosen it up…also, I used tonnes of cilantro!):

Buzz the ingredients in your magic bullet. If no bullet, you can mash with a fork for a chunkier “sauce”

               For the tortillas, I actually quadrupled the recipe to get 20 6” tortillas.  I used a shy quarter cup of batter and “rolled” it in the pan until the tortillas were 5-6” in diameter.  The tortillas hold up PERFECTLY, they don’t tear, they don’t seep, they aren’t eggy or soggy, they don’t stick together, they come out of the pan easily, they are easy to make and if you have leftovers, you can put in a Ziploc bag and the next day they are just as good as the first day!

I highly recommend making this…it’s easy, relatively fast, crazy fresh and flavourful.  It was a huge departure from what we normally eat and we’d never had fish tacos before so it’s possible that we are just ridiculously excited about something that other people eat all the time.  However, I have always been intimidated by making them and it turns out, unfounded!

Anyway, moving on.  Sunday we buzzed over to Ray’s work for a minute and then got an iced coffee for $1 and then came home to (our plan) hang out in the warm, just the two of us.  Ray popped over to our neighbor to drop something off for a minute and I was left alone in the shade with my feet up and my cold kombucha and my book…for about 3 minutes.  Just logn enough to take a deep relaxing breath and wish that a very distant friend lived closer so we could hang out.  As it was, 3 minutes into my relaxing, Ray came back home, pulled his bike out and the entire driveway was covered in bike parts, tools, rags and cardboard.  And then about 2 minutes later Kyle came over, dumped all his helmet, gloves, jacket, riding boots, backpack right on top of my little patio table, knocked over my rose plant that was sitting there and plonked his large sweaty self down beside me on my barely-big-enough-for-me rocking bench.  And then stayed….and stayed…..and stayed…….and I secretly texted Ray and told him not to offer him beer or a snack……but he just kept staying.  When he FINALLY left, I cleaned up my little retreat area to enjoy the last 45 minutes before it was time to go make dinner, turn around and there was our loud, chatty, never-leaves neighbor who stood in our driveway for an hour talking about who-knows-what.  After he’d stolen an hour, I decided that asking Ray to help bath Gracie in the front yard would be enough deterrent and sure enough, off he went.  At least Gracie got a bath out of the deal….and is now soft and smells like coconut!  No sooner did I have her dried off and Chatty Neighbor’s Chatty Wife is standing in our driveway. Honestly, 30 minutes in, I just said it was time to make dinner and went inside and she was STILL standing there talking.  From 2pm until 5pm….no peace, no quiet, no privacy, no relaxation.  Gr.

After dinner (bbq prime rib w/ bbq baked potato and bbq roasted carrots) we sat down for our nightly bone broth and I did my weekly bentonite clay mask.

Bentonite has amazing toxin-drawing properties!

I’ve been working very hard on clearing up my skin (keratosis pilaris) and the bentonite clay mask is just one small part of the equation.  I’ll put up a post on the rest of my routine a little later this week…..with before and after pictures that are decently impressive.

I’ll leave you with Super Yum Breakfast, sautéed red cabbage-cilantro-lime-juice topped w/ leftover fish-taco-fish, pico de gallo and avocado cream sauce.  It’s all gone now…..but we’ll be having the whole works again before the summer is over!  Excellent way to jazz up white fish!

 

Leftover taco-fish on sautéed purple cabbage with pico de gallo and leftover avocado sauce

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Oh, Yum!

It’s gloriously sunny here right now and is supposed to stay that way at least until I get to walk my dog through the park after work today, I’m so glad about that!  Yesterday was an absolutely wicked storm, winds so strong we had to lock the front door of our business unit….and sideways rain, that’s always so nice!  Not exactly stellar dog walking weather.

I created a recipe earlier this week that I thought some of you may be interested in.  I needed some carrots a couple of weeks ago and mentioned it while we were at Costco.  I was subsequently talked into buying a 10 pound bag of carrots and hadn’t really made a noticeable dent in them.  Cooked carrots only take you so far in life before you can’t stand them anymore.  While playing with my food processor this weekend I decided that the carrots would become infinitely more useful if I shredded them and then stored them in the fridge upstairs, ready to throw into whatever veggie I happened to be cooking.  They were shredded so uniformly and such a gorgeous bright orange that I was inspired to make carrot salad so as to appreciate their colour and texture.  The result was the best salad I’ve had in YEARS.  I’ve made it three times now, each time with about 4-5 cups of shredded carrots.  I’m in love.  If you can believe it, it’s carrot-salad-comfort-food.  Take a look:

CARROT SALAD

4-5 cups shredded carrot (medium shred)

1 apple (small chop)

1.5 cups combined of blueberries, craisins, raisins or currants…any or all

1/3 to ½ cup WellFed Mayo

               Mix into the mayo, 1 tsp paprika (not smoked) and 1 tsp ginger (or more if you love ginger)

And for the topping that absolutely makes the whole thing?  Slowly toast sliced almonds in avocado oil (or fat of choice) in a frying pan on the stove.   While toasting, sprinkle with a teaspoon of dried ginger and a nice amount of rock salt and toss all in.  Toast until golden.   *toast slowly (medium low) or you risk burning the ginger

Mix the carrots and fruits in a large bowl.  Mix the spices into the mayo and then stir it into the carrots.  Serve out and then top with the warm (not hot) almonds.

I hope you love this salad, I personally need to stop making it.  It’s a bit high in carbs and it’s using up my mayo at an alarming rate.  But it is, oh so good!

In shampoo news, while I was really quite happy with my original shampoo recipe, I felt inclined to take it one step further and change the recipe, ultimately eliminating the castile soap.  The result was hair that looked like it had been washed in bacon fat.  It was awful….I kept blowdrying it thinking it was soaking wet….alas……it was not.  So gross.  So…..I immediately reverted back to commercial shampoo while plotting my next shampoo move.  I do have to say that I think my hair looked better with the first homemade shampoo than it does with the commercial shampoo so I’m going to make the original recipe again with a couple additions (more gelatin and some pure aloe vera).  I may, slowly over time, reduce the castile soap in each recipe until I get it to where I’m using the bare minimum required for my particular hair chemistry.  I also thought, that before I go back to homemade shampoo, I’m going to go and get my hair cut on Friday after work.  It’s in my February goals and it’s been 5 months (which is actually a record short time in between for me!) so it’s probably time.  For those of you who asked about the original recipe, I’ve listed it below:

 

¼ cup coconut milk, canned or homemade

¼ cup castile soap (like Dr Bronner….I used peppermint)

1 teaspoon avocado oil

1 tsp gelatin

Essential oils (optional and I did not use)

 

My revision is going to include less soap, a bit more gelatin and some aloe vera.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

That’s all for me today, a dog walk after work (4.8km, I think), Scotch Eggs for dinner and then it’s my TV night, looking forward to it!

Oh, The Food!

As the end of January approaches and I’m starting to tally up my goals, I thought it would be fun to see what we ate this month, here are some of the highlights!

Life of Pi-napple cauli rice topped with brussel sprouts and sliced chicken thighs, prebaked in paprika & garlic salt. Drizzled with coconut milk

Caramelized shredded cabbage, wilted spinach topped with porkballs reheated in sunshine sauce. Topped with a squeeze of fresh lime!

So many veggies!

Shredded yam, cauli, peas & tomatos sautéed in garlic salt and topped with flash fried prawns.

Spaghetti squash based mushroom & sausage quiche served beside sautéed cabbage & peppers seasoned with ginger, garlic & coconut aminos.

Life of Pi-napple Indian Cauli Rice (fm Stupid Easy Paleo) topped with WellFed Citrus Carnitas & avocado, drizzled with coconut milk.

Chicken Thighs & Chorizo sausage cooked in a red wine reduction in a pan with lots of celery, carrots & potatoes. Served with garlic-pecan & apple salad.

Bananas coated in coconut and fried in coconut oil, topped with almond butter

Spaghetti squash based sausage & mushroom quiche.

Sautéed veggies topped with Sunshine Sauce and scrambled eggs

Mixed greens and chunked apple topped with WellFed “Best Chicken Ever” tossed in Morraccan Sauce & coconut milk, sprinkled with toasted walnuts

Ceviche!

Mixed greens topped with canned salmon and drizzled with a creamy vinaigrette.

WellFed “Roni’s Cucumber Salad” topped with CabSav salt and served beside riced cauli (seasoned w/ Chinese 5 spice) topped with butter chicken

Special Snowflake

I watch and read a lot of health and fitness articles, blogs, videos and books.  Not all of it applies to me, a certain chunk of it is geared towards body building, but I find that there are points in the overall topics that can be used by a layperson to better understand their body’s processes or reactions.  One of my favourite fitness “minds” collaborated recently with two other very influential people in muscle fitness and body building and I went through quite the rigmarole to sign up to get to view these new videos.  The first vid was about carbs and muscle building.  I was kind of excited to watch it this morning.

 

The first indication that something wasn’t going to suit me was their very dismissive tone of voice when referring to “those paleo people”.  Whatever….it’s not for everyone, I guess.  And what they were saying was somewhat accurate, unless you are eating a LOT of starchy veg, you probably aren’t going to get the muscle gains that you want.  Remember, this is geared towards body builders.  I gave it an open mind though, because these extremely fit men also have SO MUCH knowledge of the science of the body and fitness and muscle building.  And then…..near the end…..the group of them started in on how only 2% of the population is celiac and the rest of us should stop our whining and go eat a bowl of cereal and cook some pasta for dinner.  They said that human beings are very flexible and that it is “ridiculous” that anyone who was not diagnosed with celiac would think that they are so special as to think they are better off without an entire food group.

 

I was SO disappointed with it.  For about one minute.  Then I saw a tweet in my feed from someone else about how what works for you now might not work for you later, be open and adaptable…or something like that.  These, along with Megan’s video about snacking and how it’s a bit frowned upon in Paleo/Primal culture and Tara’s struggle with cutting carbs (as well as mine) I was really reminded that YOU CAN’T LISTEN TO WHAT ANYONE ELSE SAYS.  What works for me and what my body responds to, based on my life, my hormones, my activity level and type, my stress level, my sleep pattern, my hydration, my immune system…..it’s mine and mine alone.  Similarly, the exercise pattern that works for me is based on my muscle, my fitness level, my body’s ability to adapt, grow, change.

This isn’t new information, I don’t even pretend to think that I just dreamt up “there’s no one-size-fits-all” idea.   I was just really struck in the moment by how different people can be and how every person’s personality, emotions, mental health, metabolism, fitness level and overall beliefs will influence their actions and their results.  Anyway, I just wanted to share that moment of clarity this morning.  We all read and learn and research and try to use these frameworks that we find and try to apply them to our lives and sometimes end up thinking that we’re doing it wrong or that we aren’t as dedicated as we need to be or we’re not working hard enough or, the worst one, that there is something wrong with us, when in reality we need to take that framework, try it on, alter it, try it on again, assess the fit and do this continually, knowing that we are developing our own perfect plan that works just for us.

I’m so very glad that it’s the weekend, my calendar for the next two days is actually really light.  Tomorrow is cooking hour (and is one of the easier ones) and dinner at Ray’s daughter’s house and then on Sunday my sister and I are doing the Chilly Chase 5K!  Pretty excited about both days, the easy day on Saturday and the sister-run on Sunday!  I think we’ll be doing a bonus video on Sunday after (or during?) the run….which is cool because Sunday is the One Month Anniversary of the 90 Seconds of Real project.  Have you checked it out yet??

See you next week!

Iced

Morning, Happy Friday, thank HEAVENS!  This week has gone by super fast but I feel like it kicked the crap out of me.  In extremely positive news, I think I’ve come through to the other side and have started to consistently feel pretty good.  I still haven’t gone to get my blood test, I’ll try next week, but I’m less concerned about it now.

Thinking about it this morning I wondered if I’d come through to finally having cleared toxins and crap habits from my body.  The only decent reference for this is this “timeline” on Whole9.  While I fully admit that I am not Whole30 and I tip my hat to those who are, I am staying fairly close and I wondered if, even with my “non-W30 transgressions” that I choose to be alright with, if I had come to “Tiger Blood” stage.   But what could I possibly have been detoxing from, I got to wondering.  I have always stayed pretty close to paleo.  Or….maybe not.  In a moment of post-gym mental clarity, I formed the following list of edible reasons why maybe it is possible that I really was going through some sort of cleanse.  The list below is what I can remember from approximately May 2013 – December 31, 2013:

 

Vodka: (by the 26-er) chocolate, lemon meringue, coconut, coffee, whipping cream, lemon meringue again and one more lemon meringue

Wine:  too numerous to count….’nuff said

Other alcohol:  gluten free beer, maple whiskey, disaronno, maple cream whiskey, baileys

Pub (about 3-4 times per month):  egg & chorizo hamburger (bunless), French fries, wine, gluten free beer, potachos (nachos made with potato chips), chicken wings, more hamburgers & fries, more potachos and of course, more alcohol

Diner: always the same, bacon-mushroom omelette (no cheese) and pan fries.  Nearly every weekend.

Sweets: chocolate, chocolate almonds, ice cream, ice cream, ice cream, grain free cookies, grain free muffins, gluten free cookies.  Oh….and ice cream.

Snacks: Miss Vickie’s original kettle chips….every weekend

Dairy:  sour cream, cheese, plastic cheese

 

So….that might be the reason why maybe I could possibly have been experiencing a hellish detox.  Maybe.  Considering the list above, it’s amazing that I only gained 15 pounds this year and not 50!  I will slip in here, that had I been following a SAD protocol, I most certainly would have gained a lot more….the fact that I continued to cook balanced paleo meals during this time is probably my only saving grace.  Anyway, in January, despite feeling like absolute GARBAGE for 13 out of 17 days (I felt pretty good the first two days), I stayed the course and think I have come out the other side.

I had an awesome gym workout this morning, rowing, running, bench press (which I was proud of until Lana’s video of her super-strength shamed (*) me, LOL!), assisted dips, shoulder press, weighted split squats, straight arm lat pull down, dumbbell curls.  I actually had done the 2000m row as my warmup/cardio and then did the weights….and when I realized I had some time still until I had to leave, I went for a mile on the treadmill…..and the ONLY reason I did that was to add mileage to my Century chart!

When I got home I iced both shins and my one Achilles tendon and had a coffee in the quiet of my sleeping house.  I laughed when I looked down at myself…and thought, “I think this might mean you’re back!”.

This weekend I have gym tomorrow morning, chiropractor after that and then another bank appointment.  In there is cooking, dog walking and some serious sitting.  The weather looks decent this weekend so my plan is to get out and do things that add mileage to my Century and then balance that with….well….some nothing!

(*) just kidding Lana, I wasn’t shamed….your strength is impressive and gives me something to aim at!)

Brain Dump

I’ve been feeling a bit distant from my man over the last couple of weeks.  I’m starting to be resentful of his lack of appreciation for all the work and love that I put in for feeding us.  I try not to be because to him it’s just food….but to me it’s a manifestation of the love I have for both of us.  It doesn’t help that I have also been extra tired these last couple of weeks, getting back to a regular rhythm with the gym at 4am, extreme boredom at work, the first 5 day work week in a month, shitty weather, general January blues.  It all spins around and twists us up into a net of unhappiness and I’m ready for that to stop Right Now.

Here’s where I get a little snarky.  There’s a woman who works with Ray, I’ve met her, she’s not my bag.  She’s very loud and in your face and that doesn’t sit well with me.  Regardless, she’s probably a perfectly nice person.  But she’s opted to take some online nutrition course and if I have to hear One More Goddamn Thing that Deanna says about nutrition I’m going to start myself on fire.

 

Deanna says we should add fat to every meal.  (Oh, WHAAAAT?)

Deanna says two to three servings a day of whole grains is healthy.  (Ya, well she’s wrong.)

Deanna says we should be eating small meals every 2-3 hours.  (Ya, wrong again, have fun with your diabetes.)

Deanna says fdsaioaseo ru ewsa fda szpo  dfsjf (I stopped listening for preservation of my sanity)

This extra adds to my already fragile state of mind surrounding food and cooking right now.  I do not give a whit what some broad in his office decided to believe in and if he says one more time that “but she’s taking a course, it can’t be all wrong” I’m going to set him on fire.  It’s an internet course, more or less based on Conventional Wisdom.  I can take an internet course based on raw veganism, that doesn`t mean that it A) is right for everyone and B) is based in any actual science.

Anyway, I sent Raymond a text today saying that I was feeling that we’d been a bit distant with each other and that tonight after dinner I want to cuddle up on the same couch and listen to music and just be with each other.  It’s a thing we like to do and I think we need it extra right now.  Stupid January blues.

In other news, I did an awesome workout at the gym this morning, 25 Minute Treadmill HIIT and then a lower body weight routine; leg press, ham curls, calf press, squat press (I bonked myself in the head with the weight plate on the first rep of this one…d’oh!) and then abs and stretching.  I am going to replace my third gym workout this week with a 3.5 km run in Mundy Park on Saturday morning.  I kind of want to go to the gym tomorrow because today was pretty awesome…..but that’s an old trap and I can recognize it from a mile away.  It’s wanting everything to be fixed Right Now, it’s wanting to be “that person”, it’s scoffing at recovery.  And it’s not happening.  It’s an important step in my balance seeking to take a step back, know that I did a good job when I was supposed to be there and know that not going every day doesn’t undo all the good.  It’s also an important step in meeting myself where I am, not being so driven to get away from here as quickly as possible.  Where I am now, I am because of some pretty rough times and I have to respect whatever coping I had to do to come out the other side and still be standing.  Can’t be mad or upset about that, really.

And finally, if you’re a Well Fed cook, if you ever make Best Chicken Ever, here’s the ingredients for an AMAZING leftovers salad.

 

Cubed up Best Chicken

Roast garlic baby potatoes (I would do them the day before)

Put both of these in tinned foil packet and warm in the oven.  Not cooking it again, just warm it up. When it comes out, toss it with:

2 parts Morracan Sauce

1 part Mayo

Toast some walnuts just before you’re ready to take the chicken back out.

For one dinner salad:

Bed of lettuce

Put chicken mixture in the centre and surround it with:

Half an apple, chopped

1 Baby cucumber, sliced

Handful cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

Warm walnuts

Drizzle with Sunshine Sauce thinned with coconut milk and a teeeeeny bit of hot water.  I probably would have topped it with some avocado if I’d had any.

I was stuffed to the gills when I was finished!

That’s it, there’s my brain dump.  A snarky rant, a bit of self-affirmation and a recipe.  Pretty much the contents of my brain on most days.

Trust The Process

As I was starting to write this blog I got a text from my sister and we discussed pounds lost.  I told her that I didn’t weight myself before my  Jan 1 Cleanup but that I have an end of January goal that I’m working towards and I’ll weigh find out if I met it on February 1st.  Once again I got to thinking about the scale and whether or not what I’m doing is enough to meet the goal that I have and then my inner voice started getting all manic and panicky.  The fact is, once again (and forever) that if I am eating clean and well and getting exercise in an amount that fits within my life and takes a reasonable amount of effort to achieve, then I can’t worry about the results.  What if eating a clean diet in a proper amount and getting the right amount and kind of exercise doesn’t get me to where I want to be?

Two choices:

A) attempt calorie cutting and more/longer exercise

B) accept that it is what it is, I am where I am and I’ll get where I need to be eventually.

I choose (B) for sanity, reasonability, truth and because it’s the only option for having a life and creating a better life at the same time.

++++++++

So…..my huge plan of things that I was going to do this weekend?  All got done!  I cleaned the fridge downstairs, went to Gourmet Warehouse with my sister & Andrea, made ceviche, cinnamon beef stew, turkey soup, roasted spaghetti squash, best chicken ever, coffee rub chicken, butternut squash pan fries, breakfast veggies, sunshine sauce, Moroccan sauce & mayo (twice because one flopped).  I also washed all the bedding (ours, guest and dog), went to the mall for tea and vitamins and walk/jogged 6km (3k twice) in the sun.  I actually feel really good about the weekend and more rested and recharged than I do when we just sit about all weekend.  Of note though, I kept to a planned timetable because there are certain parts of the weekend where, if I’m not sitting relaxing, I feel resentful.  So most of my chores above got done by 4pm on Saturday.  All that was left for Sunday was the mall, one load of laundry and a walk/jog in the forest.

 

If you haven’t seen them already, go back a couple posts on my blog and check out the Frost Flowers.  Definitely one of the coolest things I’ve had the fortune of seeing in a very long time….and exceedingly rare so I feel pretty lucky!

 

I’ll leave you with a few pictures from this weekend.  I got to work early this morning since I have a dr appt after work….still trying to figure out why I can’t get my iron levels up and why I feel So Tired much of the time.   My guess is a low B12 count which inhibits the body’s ability to absorb iron….and which can be hereditary and my Grampa has.  I take a fairly aggressive iron supplement every day and still can’t get it into a good range.  I’m not really worried about it but I would like to solve the issue once and for all!

Couldn’t figure out why Gracie kept covering herself up on the sofa….until we realized that somehow we accidentally turned the furnace off…for two days. LOL!

A Frost Flower!

My first kitchen injury in YEARS! Friday night when I was trying to make dinner…..the knife glanced off the cauliflower and straight into my thumb. It ended up being not nearly as bad as first thought, thank heavens!

Starting at the top, coffee-rub chicken & butternut squash pan fries; Turkey soup (SO good); sunshine sauce, Moroccan sauce, chicken rub (and mayo, not shown); ceviche; breakfast veggies; cinnamon beef stew. And….my belt of groceries on Friday night!

 And….if you haven’t already, please go and check out our new project, 90 Seconds of Real, where four of us alternate posting 90 second daily videos encompassing pretty much anything to do with trying to live a balanced, healthy life amidst this modern culture that wants nothing more than to make us all overweight, unhealthy and sedentary.  I’m blessed to be joined in the project with three other intelligent, beautiful and well-spoken women, go check us out!

Goals and a Shameless Plug

I’ve read a couple of good blogs over the weekend and I’ll be damned if I can find them now.  The gist was….what you would expect at this time of year.  Get your head straight, get your house in order and, if you want to see change you have to actually make change.  That part was my favourite.  It’s the hardest for us, sometimes, to remember that just wanting something isn’t enough to make it happen.  That just believing in something isn’t enough to inspire change.  That just envisioning it isn’t enough to bring it to life.  Sure, those are all good things and they help but the reality is that if I want to run a race I have to go outside and train for it.  The reality is that if I want to lose a few pounds I have to stop eating crap food.  The reality is if I want to change my relationship with food I have to make changes in my encounters with it.

I’ve written my monthly weight goals down on a sheet of paper in my day planner where I can see them.  During the Christmas cleanup though, our scale went missing.  So….for the better, I can weigh myself once a month at the gym!  Anyway, although some of these goals don’t necessarily meet all the SMART (specific, measureable, actionable, realistic, timely) criteria but they’re close enough.  And…although I said earlier that I wasn’t making resolutions, I don’t believe that monthly goals fall under that category.  I think it’s important to have goals and to put them out there in the world!  So here they are for January:

• Reduce food budget to $130/week
• Reduce eating out to once this month
• Adopt friend’s idea of “No Spend Month” and do not spend money on anything that is not critical for survival.  Wine is not critical.  Cry.
• Eat at the dinner table at least 3 nights per week, no TV, no technology.  Be willing to encourage by example if Ray is not yet on board (ie, do it alone)
• Participate in 1 community/charity run
• Get new Video Blog up and running and promote it
• Limit fruit to 1/day max (includes whatever is mixed into a salad)
• COMPLETELY EXCLUDE:  dairy, added sugars or grains of any sort
• Limit Alcohol to only Friday and/or Saturday
• Meet gym dates, three per week
• Work to meet weight goal for January
• Practice making decisions consciously

I was going to highlight the ones that I thought were the most important….but then the whole list was highlit so I nixed that idea!  These are the goals that I have for January (starting now).  Nearing the end of January I’ll review the list and reassess and see what will continue on to February and what I’ll change.  There is no point in making decisions now for June, or now for November or even now for March.  I know that there are things that will change and things that will happen between now and a month from now and instead of trying to wedge my goals around my life or cram my life into these goals, I’ll make conscious goals that will work with everything else I have going on.

A long time ago a blog friend made a statement, I can’t remember if it was her original statement or copied from somewhere.  “Do The Next Right Thing”. That’s it and it will be my motto for January 2014.

 

Let me know what you’re doing in the next month that will improve your life?  Giving up alcohol?  Exercising more?   

 ____________________________________________________________ 

I encourage you to click on over to “90 Seconds of Real” and take a look around.  We have four women at the moment who are going to share their ups, downs and sideways.  Below is the description of the project from the website.  We hope to have a new video every day (or pretty close to) and we would love a “FOLLOW” or a “LIKE” or even the most cherished of internet communications, a “COMMENT”!  Check out the videos that are up there now as well as the brief biographies and pictures of the contributors under the “About” tab.

 

The goal with this project is to relate to, reach out to and appeal to other women who are trying to live a strong healthy life in today’s world of convenience, inactivity, instant gratification and a to-do list that just won’t quit.  It’s not an easy road to travel and sometimes when you’re walking down it, you can feel like you’re all alone.

Meet the women of the “90 Seconds of Real” project and know we’re all walking down this road too and we get it!  We’re charging on and powering through and screaming into a pillow right along with you.  We’re cooking Yet Another Paleo Meal for the billionth time and dragging ourselves out of bed to get to the gym and turning down cookies and trying to stand behind our choices and our values.   We hope that you can relate!

Wow, Rude!

OK, grain free, primal, paleo community, I need some help.

I’ve chosen to go completely grain free for a number of reasons.  One reason is that certain grains hurt my stomach.  Not all of them, so if I really wanted to, I could simply eliminate wheat and brown rice.  But after the complete overhaul that was “grain free”, I chose to never add back any grains or legumes.  In 9 months I’ve eaten something with grain in it 3 times.  All three times I paid dearly but all three times had their own reasons for being completely worth the pain and illness afterwards.  I don’t drink beer anymore except on a special occasion and only if I don’t have to fit into pants or a skirt that aren’t stretchy within three days afterward.

I’ve never really had to defend myself from this choice, I’m very fortunate.  I know that others who go this route, especially if they choose to go even more restrictive for whatever reason, get a lot of flack and are made to feel stupid or uncomfortable or are made to doubt their choices by people who either don’t understand or who choose to get involved in something which Does Not Affect Them.

I’m now in a situation where I am going to have to stand up for the decision that I made for my life (and part of Ray’s) and be poked fun at, eye rolled and ultimately disrespected.  If you have never made the decision to go grain free (or vegan, same social obstacles) then you may think that what you eat shouldn’t be such a huge deal.  You would be absolutely correct however people; friends, relatives, acquaintances; all feel that they have the right to question, doubt and belittle the choice because they have no frame of reference and more than likely it makes them feel uncomfortable.

We’re going camping next weekend with some friends that Ray has had since before he and I got together.  We’re not going far, only about 40 minutes from home and there is only going to be one overnight.  Last night we got an email from one of the couples wanting to get a plan going as far as the meal the one night we’re there.  She said “potluck or joint menu, we’re good with either, thoughts?”.  I responded and said that due to dietary restrictions that some or all of us may have (they have cholesterol, egg and certain veggie issues) that it would be easier if each of the three couples just took care of their own meal and we all can eat together. 

The response I got put my teeth on edge.  “Perhaps you can put your “dietary restrictions” aside for the weekend.”.  I have not since responded.  The third couple sent an email confirming that the group consensus is a potluck and one is bringing pasta salad, one is bringing garlic bread and corn on the cob and they want to know what we’re bringing. 

My trouble is that I am about 20 years younger than all of them (if you’re new to my blog, Ray and I have an age difference) and while we have all gotten along fairly well, any concern, issue, annoyance, opinion, idea or thought that I have which they don’t agree with gets me a hypothetical head-pat and eyeball roll and then they all just steam roll over top and carry on.  As though I am just a dumb kid.

So now I don’t know what to do about this potluck thing.  I am not potlucking because it’s not fair (yes, I realize life isn’t fair but you should be able to manipulate your own life a little to make things work) that they bring food I can’t eat and that all I will end up eating is whatever I bring and that I also have to share it. 

The passive aggressive part of me wants to never respond and then when it comes down to that meal and I didn’t bring anything to “share” that I’m going to remind them that I already stated my position the first time, potluck does not work for me/us.

The more outwardly aggressive part of me wants to make a bacon, full fat mayonnaise, raw onion, avocado and walnut “salad” because those are all the ingredients that they can’t eat. 

And the really aggressive part of me wants to email them back and say simply, “While I appreciate where you’re going with this, my nutritional choices and issues do not turn off on weekends.  Potluck does not work for us.  Thanks.”

I’m really not sure where to go with this.  Obviously I don’t want to make waves, especially ones that ride over into the actual face-to-face weekend.  But I also am not willing to roll over on this.  If I send the third option above, they are all going to be annoyed and/or make me feel like an outsider when it comes to meal time.  And given that Alien will be with us on this camping weekend, I really am worried that I am going to defend myself loudly and in person if that should happen.

My other issue with the whole thing is….less intelligent….but I can almost guarantee that grain free/paleo/primal women may know what I’m referring to.  I don’t feel like I am skinny enough or lean enough or fit enough to visually defend my choice to not eat grains.  Even if someone has never heard of grain free, paleo or primal, if you’re doing something that is on the fringe of conventional wisdom, you will absolutely be judged first on what you look like.  It’s not right but it’s true.  If I said I was on an all chocolate cake diet and I was muscular and lean and completely devoid of excess body fat, people would sit up and take notice because clearly there’s something to this.  If I was on an all chocolate cake diet and I was flabby and pale and a tired looking, that would give them the ammunition they need in order to belittle the decision.

I’m not saying I’m flabby, pale or tired on grain free, not at all.  I look…..normal.  Not fitness or swimwear model, not stunningly athletic.  Just.  Normal.  It’s not sexy like a chocolate cake diet could be (meat, veg, fat…boring!), it’s complicated and too much work and people don’t get why you would go to so much effort just to look….normal. So they disregard (especially if they already see you as a child amongst adults) and disrespect.

So, what would you suggest?  How do I respond or do I even respond?

A Crazy World!

After a somewhat excitement (terror?) filled trip to the grocery store after work, I was very happy to arrive home where I found that both lawns had been mowed and all the dog doo disposed of!  Maybe our little chat about sharing the huge list of chores hit home a little?  Anyway, I put my timed schedule into place and started dinner.  Between 4:30-6 I had blocked off to make lunches and dinner and clean up.  While dinner was cooking I multi-tasked and finished the laundry and swept and mopped upstairs and downstairs floors.  When the last dish was washed and put away I was only 31 minutes over schedule.  I wouldn’t normally even worry about 31 minutes, but this whole “schedule keeping” thing is supposed to be designed to reduce my resentment, share out the workload and increase my downtime so 31 minutes wasn’t bad for the first go!  7-8pm was Grace’s walk and we hoofed it 5.6 kilometers around the park which felt great after a week of sweltering in the heat and not getting any real exercise.

For dinner last night I made Southwestern Succotash and grilled a pork tenderloin (rubbed with olive oil, S&P and set on the bbq for 20 minutes) and it was really good!  The tenderloin was nice and juicy (cook it rare and then let it sit for 5 and it doesn’t get all dry) and the succotash was very flavourful.  I was concerned over how spicy it was going to be but once again, Miss Girl Meets Paleo pulls off the perfect amount of flavor!  It’s not often that you find someone who cooks to your personal tastes so we’ll be making use of lots more of your recipes, my friend!

Tonight I’m doing my regular sausage stuffed mushrooms and I think I got tagged for vacuuming as my chore tonight.  Exercise-wise my goal for this week is for Grace and I to manage the Perimeter Trail all 5 days this week, rain or shine.  That’ll be 28 kilometers for the week if we can pull it off.

So, now I’ll tell you what happened at the grocery store last night and you tell me if you would report it to the police.

I was walking through the parking lot of the grocery store with a paperbag of groceries in one arm and my wallet, iPhone and keys in the other hand.  A car came tearing back out of a parking spot about to run me over.  I kicked the door of the car (with the flat of my foot) and yelled.  The guy in the car rolled his windows down and started screaming at me.  I was completely unfazed (if a bit pissed off) and kept walking to my car.  As I was getting in my car, the crazy man came tearing around the parking lot, tires squealing (just about hitting another lady) and was screaming at me almost unintelligibly.  I closed my car door and cracked my window and he got out of his car and started banging on the window of my car, screaming at me to apologize to him.  Having had enough of him laying his hands on my Jetta, I went to get out of my car.  I had one leg out and my arm out and the guy put both hands on my window and slammed me in my car door.  He then got back in his car and peeled away, almost hitting a third guy.  The two people he just about hit plus another guy and two people that they were with all came over to make sure everything was alright and they gave me his plate number and car model.

Here’s the thing.  If I report him (what would this be, assault?  Road Rage?), he would then have access to my name and address.  I’m leaning towards not reporting it.  I wasn’t hurt, my car wasn’t damaged and I don’t want a crazy person on my door step (although Kyle promises me that the police would have no trouble solving my murder!).  On the other hand, that is such disgusting behavior and the vindictive part of me wants to ruin this guy’s life.

So, do I report and risk it?  Or just move on and be vigilant that I never bump into this guy at that store again?

Weigh in!