Sunday, January 22, 2012

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!


8 comments:

  1. One thing I struggled with going primal was portion size. I noticed that when I first started, I kept wanting to portion things out. Now I just eat to satiety, and I find I eat a LOT less than I used to. With the kids, I'd suggest letting them eat until they're full (i.e., don't portion out the grapes) and see if that helps their hunger some. :)

    I started my journey in July of 2011 just to see what would happen and now I can't go back to my bad diet. I just feel WAY too good eating paleo. Congrats for making it 2 weeks and good luck going forward!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wonder how Mrs Grok managed to keep her kids full. I get so tired of fixing veggies for just me. Add in 3 picky kids and it would exhaust me.

    Quick comment on a kid's diet - I read recently that while their bones are growing children have their famous sweet tooth. When their bones stop growing they lose their craving for sweets. I think the 'more sugar' signal comes from the bones. This implies children naturally and legitimately need the extra calories for growth. This is a newish discovery and I don't remember where I read it, but if valid it's safe to let the kids have more fruit. Good luck to your family!

    Pauline

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Heather!

    I know for my own kids there is a Pavlovian response when it comes to food triggers. "It's 12 mom, when is lunch? Um, we just finished brunch an hour ago. Yes, but it's 12!"

    So are they truly hungry or is it an "I'm used to eating something a couple hours after a meal."? Just a thought. I can't wait to hear about the weigh in!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know! I've tried--as you have suggested--to do away with traditonal meal times. And to just prepare meals when we all feel hungry-as in stomachs almost growling-: for instance, lunch (on the weekends) tends to be around 1:30, rather than 11:45. Also, we weren't big snackers before. Sometimes they'd get a snack between lunch and dinner, but nothing major. So I'm really not sure. And you know kids "Are you really hungry?" Kids: Yeeeeeesss, we're dyyying!

      I am going to pack a variety of different items in lunch boxes tomorrow, and I'll see how they rate at the end of the day.

      If you have a good fat snack, lemme know :)

      Delete
  4. Have you spent any time talking about what "full" feels like? We are so used to that full, stuffed feeling after eating that is is very hard to get used to not feeling stuffed. I make 17 eggs for my 6 much older children and me and my husband! Maybe they just don't understand the difference between not hungry and starving, and they're trying to get that old full feeling by eating so much.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've never met a human who did not like macadamia nuts. I'm sure there are some around, but I've never met them.

    Individual nuts taste better to some people than trail mixes.

    Almond butter with cinnamon and just a dash of raw honey is a huge appetite suppressant. Serve plain, on celery sticks or on a granny smith apple.

    In between meal protein snacks: hardboiled eggs, bacon slices, chicken fingers breaded with almond flour and then baked/broiled. Preservative-free lunch meats (if you can find them, Whole Foods carries them) wrapped around veggies

    Berries topped with coconut milk. Place can of coconut milk in fridge overnight. Drain out liquid and use in smoothies. Use the thick cream to top berries. Very filling.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We are mostly eating primal these days--and I really can't imagine feeding a whole family this way. You are right--you must cook monster quantities of chicken! Do you eat red meat? Have a source for grass fed beef? I am trying to make a large pot of chili weekly--and this is just for TWO people! If you don't eat red meat you could make turkey chili--possibly the kids would like that as it would be milder. Mostly I am snacking on cheese, curried cashews, dark chocolate, apples... But also I think that eating this way requires that we re-evaluate our relationship with food. Other primal folks have said that they can skip meals and not really be affected by it. After a while on the diet, I too notice that I am less inclined to respond to hunger immediately. So there's hope that you will be hearing, "Mom, what can we have for snack?" a lot less.

    ReplyDelete
  7. One thing to keep in mind when weighing in.. It's not the pounds that count, it's the inches and how you look/feel. During my 21 days, I only lost 2 lbs. But I also lost 2 inches from my waist! Remember that the scale is not the be all and end all.

    ReplyDelete