Smoothies...Pineapples...Porkchops...Oh MY!

I have learned a lot just in the 5 days I have been on this new Paleo diet. For one, I've learned that cucumbers and zucchini look ALOT alike. I'm such an idiot. If you look back at my post from Day One, you will see that I clearly used cucumbers instead of zucchini. What a dummy!

Anyway, if you can't laugh at yourself who can, right? Normally, this time of the year I make lots of milkshakes. I'm not sure what inspires me to do that, but I always start making milkshakes during school breaks and as summer breaks grinds to an end, it's just what I do. Well, milk is a Paleo no-no, so I have been on a smoothie kick. I honestly have never been good a smoothie making until I realized last night what I had been missing all along. HONEY!! It is the ultimate sweetener. So, now I just throw some frozen fruit in the blender with some fresh fruit maybe a little apple sauce and a tad of honey. YUMMY!

I have to confess...I've never cut a pineapple...until today. I admit it. I watched a guy on Youtube show me how to do it. It worked. I still don't like pineapple, but I threw some in my smoothie and I used them on our VERY VERY awesome porkchops. They were so yummy...I should have taken a picture. We sprinkled them with ginger and paprika and glazed them with minced garlic. Then, we put pineapple on top about halfway through and they were AWESOME! Definitely going to make those again. 

...and on a side note, the scales went down 2 more pounds. I know, water weight, but that's 7 pounds down in 5 days, and that makes for an excited Renata! And I've never eaten so much and stayed so full in my entire life!

Everything is ok...until dinner burns!

Paleo truly makes you plan ahead. It makes you realize how convenient life has become, and with that convenience, lots of carbs and sugar. Tonight, we had planned on having chicken wrapped in bacon, one of my favorites, but the grill had other plans. It burned it all. So there we were, 30 minutes before we were to leave for football practice and a meeting with nothing to eat. At first, we thought, "Ok, we'll grab something." Of course, quickly we realized there was nothing to grab. There was nothing to eat at a fast food place that will work with Paleo. So we fed the kids, and we agreed to fix dinner after practice. I grabbed a half of a banana and a glass of water.

I have to admit though. Dinner turned out great, even though it was a little late. Hamburger steak with onions, gravy, and bacon over spinach. YUMMY! (I never thought I'd use the word yummy to describe spinach.)

Day 3...It's so tempting!

Today we went to the movies. Let me first just say, we only go to the movies, maybe 3 times a year. It is a really big treat to go to the movies for us. We were going to go into the dollar tree next door for snacks and drinks, but the store had closed. So we were stuck with buying snacks at the movies. I admit it...I ate popcorn. A LOT of popcorn and I drank some Sprite. A LOT of Sprite. It is what it is. I got back on the bandwagon with tacos on lettuce boats for dinner. Tonight as I was showering, it was just too tempting not to step on the scales. Low and behold, I am down 5 pounds! Oh my! That's just crazy! I know it's probably water weight and it will probably fluctuate back and forth, but it was very exciting to see it drop. Woot Woot!

Day One...Always the easiest

The first day of a diet is always the easiest right? I think that's pretty true and runs across the board. I felt good today. For breakfast, I had...

Spinach and egg omelet with bananas and strawberries. It was AWESOME! It was a great way to start the day. I had lots of energy. At lunch, we had a salad with spinach and salad greens, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and ham. I used balsamic vinegar for my dressing. Again, so very delicious.
For dinner, we had...

Flank steak with onions and a sweet potato. Again, so very yummy. I was so very full when we finished. Tomorrow brings a different challenge. We will head over to my mom and dad's house for lunch. The kids love mac and cheese and mashed potatoes so those will be on the menu. I offered to make some veggies and came up with this...

Squash and Zucchini salad and I made some dressing to go with it made of lemon juice and vinegar. Can't wait to see how it tastes tomorrow.

Cheesecake...and a new plan for how we eat

Yep, cheesecake...that's what was in my refrigerator the day I realized I was tired of being tired. It was my 35th birthday and we had a cheesecake chilling for the celebration. My hubby had been suggesting that I watch "Fed Up", a documentary about child obesity and the massive amounts of sugar consumed by Americans. So, I watched it, and my whole world was completely changed.

Tim had been on the Paleo diet last fall and lost 20 pounds and felt better than ever, but the holidays came and he just got back to eating carbs. So when I watched this documentary and had my mind blown by the concept of not eating sugar, he suggested that we go Paleo again.

So, that was 2 weeks ago, and we are on the eve of day 1. I thought it'd be good to blog about our journey. I know that I will not be able to post every day, and I may even get lost in the real world as I go back to school, but I wanted to at least try to blog, for as many days as I can to get started. Maybe I can at least look back at it and see where I started and where I'm headed.


Goals for our new diet:

1. I don't want this to feel like a diet. I want it to be a lifestyle change. I want to begin to embrace this new diet as a lifestyle decision that I can keep. I want to eliminate sugar until I get down to the size that I want to be and then slowly add some carbs to my diet from time to time.

2. Speaking of size, I don't really have an ideal size I see myself in, I just want my clothes to feel comfortable. I want to put clothes in my closet on and feel okay in them.

3. I want to be present in my holiday pictures. I don't want to hide from the camera because I'm fat or I don't like the way I look.


So here I am, at the beginning of this journey...hoping to get to a better me by the holidays. Goodbye Cheesecake!