Day 14 and Thank You!

 First of all, thanks to all my bloggie friends who have offered up a lot of recipes, tips, and advice for me and my family! We are excited to put some of these things into practice. :)


So today is Day 14.... Tom is out of town (again), so it was just me and the four girls to tough out the weekend.  Okay, first of all, let me say... I spend a heck of a lot of time in the kitchen. Whether it's chopping, cooking, or cleaning. It's really time-consuming. We're starting to discover some time-saving practices, but for the most part, it's time-consuming. Maybe once I have kids old enough to wash super-sharp knives, and not kill my beloved pots and pans, cleaning will be a bit easier.  And (as I've said before) I think it is likely that we will have more free time once we get things under our belts a bit more. 


So for breakfast I made 17 eggs. Yes, 17!  12 of which were the whole egg, and five other eggs were just egg-whites (since Regina is allergic to the yolk). I scrambled it all up (the egg-whites separately) in a pan with bacon grease. Then I dumped huge portions on each child's plate (along with some leftover bacon) and I *defied* them to be hungry after this! In fact, I ate about 2 of the eggs (sharing with Elizabeth) and waited, because I was going to eat the leftovers. Well... there weren't ANY left! Seriously? How can they eat that much?! At least they left the table saying they felt full.


The full feeling last exactly two hours. ::SIGH::  I *just* finished cleaning everything up, and I hear "Mom, could we have a snack?"  Argh!  So I told them they could have a handful of trail mix. Incidentally, our trail mix consists of: Sunflower seeds, cashews, pumpkin seeds and a handful of dried bing cherries (not many though, maybe 2 cherries per cup of nuts).  They declined. They haven't really warmed up to the idea of nuts. They were really partial to peanuts before Going Primal  (GP). 


So we did our Sunday prayers and then had made lunch. Lunch was a shredded raw broccoli and brussel sprouts salad, mixed with bits of bacon, the bacon grease (about 1/2 tsp) and a tablespoon of coconut oil. On top of the salad was pork tenderloin medallions (which was prepared in the crock-pot the day before), and the pork was topped with a savory greek yogurt sauce. 


Surprisingly, all the kids ate it up. They weren't fans of the yogurt sauce (mostly because they knew it was yogurt), but I did hear "this salad is so yummy!" which was pleasant change. 


I thought the added coconut oil would help satiate their appetite, but about 1.5 hrs later ... "Mom, what can I have for a snack?"   I'm about to give up on keeping them full, people. I'm not sure in can be done. And they are by no means overweight, so I know it's not just a bad habit of eating too much. I've never seen them eat this amount of food. 

Sooo... what do you think? Is it because their minds still want sugar and is therefore telling them they are hungry, or are they legitimately hungry?


Anyway, they begged for a snack around 4pm, so I asked what they wanted. They all wanted grapes. So I gave them ten grapes. And I gave two of them cheese to go with it. The other two I asked if they wanted nuts, but they didn't. I warned them they would be hungry soon. And that would be eat, unless they wanted nuts, until dinner time. They didn't care. 


So dinner was about two hours later. We had a ton of grilled chicken, a little steak, and sauteed onions and green peppers. I added in some lettuce, tomatoes, and quacomole. Every kid has said, repeatedly, over the last two years "I don't like it." So tonight I said "Look, this stuff will make you feel happier, and keep you from getting hungry so often. I want you to have at least one bite."  Two out of four kids said "Hey, this is great!"  Weirdos.  By the time they went to bed I realized I had not heard "but can we have a bed-time snack?" as I've heard for the last two weeks. So there ya go. Buy a ton of chicken-that-should-last-you-three-dinner-nights and cook it up. You'll be held over for three hours instead of two...    ugh 


Tom has really not had a fun time of transitioning from SAD (Standard American Diet) to GP "diet". He's really been down on it for the last few days. It's been tough on everyone, but especially for Tom and Veronica. Anyway... he went to UT for a speaking event and the only thing at the dinner he could eat was a salad and hot vegetables. Aww. Not fun. After the event he found a grocery store and bought a rotisserie chicken. So proud of him :)


I am weighing in for the first official time tomorrow! I kind of dread this... I feel like I've done a lot, I haven't cheated once, and I had a ton of fresh vegetables, stayed away from fruits (though I did have one apple a few nights ago), and drink a ton of water. So if the scale doesn't reflect this, I'll be really upset. 


So tune in tomorrow!