Month 2 - Days 2 and 3

Totally worth the not-so-good meal

Yesterday was a good day - nothing too troublesome.  It was Thursday so Abby had gymnastics.  It was her turn to pick the restaurant for dinner..she went with Piccadilly because Trixie the clown was going to be there doing balloon animals and face painting.



Not as good as it looked.



This meal was a little difficult - I got the roast beef they carve and the green beans and carrots because they looked the least like they were laying in better.  One bite of the carrots was all I needed to know they were soaked in sugar...ick.  The green beans tasted okay..they had some bacon in them but I was scared they may have had butter so I just had a taste.  I pretty much just ate the roast beef...I was sure that I would be starving by the time I got home but I TOTALLY wasn't!  I am not quite sure how this whole Paleo thing works and would guess it has a lot to do with my blood sugar levels but I am rarely hungry between meals.  It is so crazy!  I would always have a snack between breakfast and lunch - usually something "good" for me like a yogurt or granola bar.  Then my afternoon snack would pretty much always be chocolate...a candy bar, cupcake, brownie, fudge round....on the days that I was trying to eat well, I would convince myself that tootsie rolls were okay because they are low in fat.  Now, if I am feeling hungry between meals, a slice of turkey or a spoonful of cashew or almond butter, usually does the trick.  Seriously, I know it sounds like I am making it up....but it is totally the truth.

When I got home from dinner, I decided to attempt (for the first time) to make Paleo ice cream for our Easter dinner.  My dad is making one of my favorites - chocolate bread pudding.  I know I have to stay away from that so, after a little research, I decided to make coconut milk ice cream.  I went for the recipe on Paleo Diet Lifestyle.  I decided to treat myself some and added two Dove dark chocolate squares that I shaved into little specks of delicousness- only two for a whole double batch.  I think the ice cream came out pretty good - ice cream is one of my favorite foods.... It isn't as delicious as I hoped for.  I had this fantasy that my family would pass on the bread pudding because my ice cream was the best dessert they ever had....not going to happen.  I know it isn't quite sweet enough...I am going to make a second batch using the strawberries Abby picked during her field trip to a strawberry farm.  I think I will probably try to add some honey to sweeten it up some.  It was a good first attempt though.

Today was a GREAT day!  I forced myself out of bed even though we had the day off from work.  I got to the gym for the 6:00am workout.  We started with a 1000 meter row.  Then we did some stretches...The WOD was:
Workout of the DayPush Jerk 3-3-3
Then
-100 Kb Swings for Time
Then
-100 Sit ups for Time

And, here is the exciting part - for the first time ever, it was not modified for me!!!  I did the exact same workout everyone did!  In crossfit lingo, that means I RXd.......I did the workout "as prescribed."  And if that wasn't exciting enough, one of the guys that usually goes to the same WOD with me said, "wow bethany your workout is becoming legit" because my time was on par with everyone elses!!!  YAYAYAYAY!

Not bad for fast food!

I left that workout feeling exhausted but so motivated.  I got home to my husband Jason cooking breakfast!  So, I ate breakfast and then took the kids to an Easter hunt at a BREC park....it was fun but exhausting.  The kids wanted to go to Chickfila afterwords because they gave everyone coupons for free chicken nuggets at the Easter Egg hunt.  So we went and I am very proud of myself - I got the grilled chicken and fruit salad..it was a giant salad with lettuce, cabbage, carrots, cheese (which I took out and gave to Abby),  strawberries, mandarin oranges (abby ate), grapes and apples (abby ate).  It came with a packet of granola that I ignored and a packet of sunflower seeds.  Get this, they had all kinds of bad ingredients in them..including high fructose corn syrup...so they were trashed as well.  I asked for the low fat berry balsamic vinaigrette but it was full with all kinds of ingredients I couldn't pronounce. Luckily, Chickfila has packets of honey (real honey, not processed fake honey) so I mixed a couple of them with some packets of mustard and had a DELICIOUS honey mustard!!  It was sooo good that I decided to keep an "emergency" stash of honey and mustard in my purse so I won't be tempted to eat processed dressing.

After lunch, my mum, Abby and I got all of our Easter dinner shopping done.  We are having - ham, turkey, cauliflower rice, turnips and carrots, butternut squash - all prepared without butter, sugar, or dairy.  My mother in law is making asparagus and broccoli/cooked paleo friendly.  So the only foods I will have to  avoid are mashed potatoes, dinner rolls and dessert.  Not bad for my first large dinner party since Paleo!  Of course there is the temptation of Easter candy but I am feeling confident that I will do fine.

Sooo..I was exhausted when I got home but, for some reason, I woke up today deciding that I will do my best to integrate calorie burning exercises into my daily routine...sooo...I mowed the lawn for the first time ever!  It really did feel like a workout....I am so glad I did it!!  I am just going to try to be really focused about burning calories - parking further from the entrance of stores, using the stairs, etc...every extra movement counts.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!