Day Three

     Today was a much better day for me.

     I woke up with just a touch of a headache, but nothing like yesterday, thank goodness. A bit more energy, and fairly upbeat. I do find that I need about an hour more of sleep. I could barely peel my eyes open this morning. I am sleeping better overall (thank the Lord!), so I'm excited about that.  

     Can't say the same for the rest of the family, unfortunately.

    When I finally managed to get out of bed, Regina came into the room saying that she felt sick to her stomach, dizzy, and "really weird."  Then I walk into the living room and I see Veronica curled up on the couch looking like a sad little puppy. She too said she felt "a bit strange" and dizzy. Amy seemed okay, but you can never really tell with her. 

   I was hoping that the kids wouldn't have to suffer with Carb Flu. It really isn't any fun. I wasn't sure what to do... I couldn't send them to school this way, but they had to go to school after having so many days off for Christmas break. So I did what any good mother would do and told them to suck it up and get in the car.  Okay, no, I didn't. I felt terrible for them.

   I managed to find a lone container of oatmeal I had forgotten to toss out the week before. I made them each about a half cup of oatmeal mixed with coconut oil (for the fats) and about 2 teaspoons of pure maple syrup (antioxidants). 

   Now, of course this is not really allowed within the first three weeks of the Primal Blueprint, but I think kids do need some carbs here and there, so I figured 1/2 cup grains in three days wasn't going to kill them. It worked like a charm. They were happy and back to normal by the time we pulled into school.

   Even still, I went into the school and spoke to each teacher and asked them to please callme if the kids seemed too lethargic, or restless, or overly-emotional. I didn't receive any calls from them, so I'm taking that to mean the girls did just fine during the day.  By the time the arrived home, however, they were extremely edgy, yelling, crying... you know, all that fun stuff you just love to listen to. I just hurried to get dinner on the table and that really helped calm them down. 

  Tom was knocked out of commission today as well. I think he would have slept until noon on his own. I had to wake him though around 10:30... for most the day/evening he suffered with a headache, weakness, tired, etc. I told him to eat fat. He didn't believe me. So he felt worse longer than I did, which just confirms my belief that fat is your friend during the first week or so of this detox. He seems to be doing better now (late at night), but a bit tired. 

   The lunch boxes today consisted of: 
                         Breakfast: oatmeal with fat and antioxidants
                         Lunch:      Cold chicken and bell peppers (Amy had an ounce of peanut butter*)
                         Snack:      nuts and raisins
                         Drink:       bottled water

All lunch boxes came home empty!
*Peanuts are not really Primal approved, but we are finishing up some stuff we had already opened.


   Dinner (for the kids) was chicken breast strips (baked with olive oil, pepper, salt, onion and garlic powder, and a touch of oregano). And a side of cubed butternut squash, which was tossed with sea salt, cracked pepper, and a small drizzle of maple syrup, then baked for 20 minutes (at 350). When it came out, I added a few cranberries for color and texture. I'm not a huge fan of squash, but I thought it was decent. Three of the four girls loved it. Veronica hated the texture of it. 

 Wednesday is typically date night for Tom and me, so we ate a Mexican place. We ordered fajitas without chips, tortillas, rice, or beans (basically "no fun stuff, please!"), and ate it off the hot plate. We thought it went pretty well. Tom loves to eat the chips, so that was rough for him. I've yet to find a decent chip here in Kansas (why are they always stale or way too thick?), so I didn't mind so much. I did miss the rice and beans though. Upside is: we were able to eat most of the fajita mix this time around. Typically we get too full with the carb-y junk to finish off the really good stuff. I almost missed my Coke, but I found water with lemon was perfectly fine. What is this stupid diet doing to me?! Water over Coke? Bah!

   Then we went to the movies (saw Ides of March) and sat there without any popcorn, or drinks, or anything. Sad, sad, sad! Well, turns out the anticipation of not having those things was sadder than actually not having them. So, again, mental games will make this thing more difficult for you. Just take it one meal, snack, bite at a time, and it will be easy to handle.


   I'm hoping tomorrow is a better day for Tom and the kids. And I'm hoping I'm past my Carb Flu phase. I'm just a bit tired, but try to eat a small bit of something when that happens, and it generally helps. 

 Also, thank God for dark chocolate! It's allowed on the Primal Blueprint, yay! Everyone who eats all his/her lunch and dinner will receive one square of dark chocolate (don't even think about asking for seconds!). It's interesting, really. A week ago my kids (and myself) would have just said "ONE piece of chocolate? It's not worth that." And this week it's "WHOOOOAAA, really?! A.W.E.S.O.M.E."  Ahh, the small joys in life. 

  This week I am going to try to have a post containing just recipes that have worked not only for us adults, but also for the kids, and have been time-friendly.  

   Let me know if you have recipes you would like to add to it (and if you want your real name next to it) and I will try to work it in to the post. You can leave it in a comment box, or email me at hwoods2002@gmail.com

   Now off to bed for me!