Thank You!

When I first started this blog, I figured a whole ten people would view it.

I am amazed that we now have over 39,000 views!  Many thanks to Lewrockwell.com, Tomwoods.com, and Marksdailyapple.com  for mentioning this blog and sending some nice readers with great comments my way!


I am sorry I can't answer every comment individually, but please know that Tom and I read them all! I am very grateful for all the helpful suggestions, tips, and encouragement sent from all of you. 


This weekend Tom and I tried to come up with a plan on how to shuffle food prep around in order to make things run more smoothly.  I thought if I go grocery shopping on Saturday, chop vegetables the same day, and then Sunday spend the day cooking off meats, it might be easier.  The last few weeks I've done the shopping on Monday, the chopping on Tuesday, and cooking meats on Wednesday. Not efficient, I 'll grant you, but I did have to manage to squeeze all of this in within a three hour time-frame, so we had to spread it out over a few days. 


Saturday we had a very busy day, so there was no opportunity to go to the grocery store. So much for "The Plan".  I ended up going to the grocery store today (after Mass and during that part of a Sunday where you're happy to be lazy, but you're also really bored), with Elizabeth in tow, and we stocked up. Btw, I think I was the only person whose cart did not include Super Bowl snacks of soda, chips, and dips. Not gonna lie, I was a little jealous of the guy with the fried chicken and the cheetos bag!


Anyway... came home and thought I'd just put everything away and chop it up tomorrow. Then I realized, my fridge wouldn't hold all the stuff I bought unless I cut it up anyway.  Sweet.
Well, I figured chopping veggies is pretty relaxing, so I did this for a few hours. 
And then I decided I might as well cook up some of the meat I bought and let that bake while I cut-up the rest of the vegetables.
At some point, I realized I could cook roast and the turkey at the same time. And if I'm going to do the roast and turkey, I might as well crockpot the ribs, and cook the chicken soup on the stove. 
And as long as I was chopping vegetables, I should probably take out my new mandoline  and make squash, zucchini and sweet potato chips, and throw the into the dehydrator.
And before I knew it... everything was washed, chopped, baked and put away. 


Well, my feet hurt, but I am really hopeful the meals this week go a little smoother. Now my awesome husband is cleaning the kitchen which is full of dirty dishes and messy counters. 

Tomorrow is my second official weigh-in. So let's hope the scale shows some good results!

Beef Jerky, Anyone?

 We finally opened our food dehydrator box, and tested the unit, so now we are ready to make some beef jerky!


Only... I have no good recipes. So I'm appealing to you guys to help me out. And if you've tried the recipe personally, that's even better!

Exercise

Now that we have the food aspect going GP under our belts, we are looking into adding exercise to our routine. 


I am a person who loves to be outdoors. I love hiking, walking, rafting, etc., but I haven't been able to do this much in the last few years. Boo. Even though we live on a lot of land, it's difficult to navigate, and the roads are surprisingly busy, and has many hills, so traffic can't see you coming until it is already upon you. I'm definitely not taking a group of kids to walk on the road... so I don't quite know what to do. Our schedule is already so busy, we can't really take a 20 minute drive every day to go walk someplace safer. So ... darn. 


And then it's not just having the time to exercise. You have to factor in showers and hair and all that other stuff.  


We do have a Tread Climber (by Bowflex) which is amazing. I highly encourage this machine. It's actually fun to use, easy on your joints, and burns so many calories without that feeling of "I think I'm going to fall over and die."  Then problem I have now is a very clingy two year old who will not allow me to get on the thing unless I'm holding her, or she gets to stick her hands in the moving parts. So, yeah, that won't work. 


I really want to get back into walking or doing some kind of exercise. If you have kids, and have any thoughts on how to make time and possibly include kids, all the while not falling behind on housework and tending to people, let me know. :D


In the meantime, I found this link on Mark's Daily Apple. I think there are at least a few things I can do in between giving baths and washing dishes.

Company for Dinner

We had an impromptu dinner guest tonight, a very enjoyable young man who drove in from Iowa to do some business with Tom.  I slightly panicked since my house is definitely not hostess-ready at this point. Then I remembered we were having pot roast. That's not too crazy. In fact, it's a pretty standard dish, I think.  I didn't have any potatoes, but I did find a few sweet potatoes, which I mashed up. I also steamed cauliflower, and mashed that as well, since I am staying away from sweet potatoes (1. vegetables should not be sweet. 2. I'm trying to lose weight). Regina and I were the only ones who at the fauxtatoes, though. ha ha 


I didn't have any type of dessert to offer either. I suppose I did have dark chocolate squares, and some berries in the fridge, but really... that's not a dessert to most of the world. Well... unless you're in France. They are weird there.


The rest of the day was snacking on nuts and salads. And a ton of water. 


I packed the kids some ribs (I made a dry rub rib in the crockpot a few days ago) and some primal approved bbq sauce. A good portion of raw vegetables. A trail mix snack. And a Larabar and 1/3 apple for breakfast. 


I didn't have any complaints. And no "I'm starving"s.  In fact, I'd say the last day or two the "can we eat now?!" phrase hasn't been uttered as often. So ... maybe their brains are turning the corner. 


I still have to figure out out to make the week flow more smoothly... when to go shopping, chop and prep foods, clean up... but we're still sticking to it. 


We are starting to venture out with new foods. So if you have a favorite dish, please share!

Awesome News

 Just a quick post.


Both of my parents have high blood pressure. Many of their children (including me) suffer high blood pressure from an early age (20s). Kind of like "Hey! You are 21 today! Here's your own blood pressure cuff! Happy birthday!" 

For quite a few years my blood pressures would hover around 160/98. I had BP meds for a while, but given that they make you feel like you're dead, I stopped taking them. You can't be on meds and take care of four kids at the same time. Well, at least, I can't.

Well, after three weeks of being Primal, my blood pressure has been 125/80, without any drugs, which is a miracle in my family.  I had no idea grains affected blood pressure. I am really excited about this. And, I might add, I have not added in exercise yet (other than the running around I do all day with house and errands), so it is purely diet-related.


Also, I noticed some changes in my vision about a week ago--having mainly to do with depth perception, so I went to the Optomitrist. For the first time *ever* I could read all four lines of the Letters Chart. I do have a bad left eye, so I could only read the first two lines with my right eye covered, but after getting my glasses prescription, my vision became 20/20 in my right eye, and 20/30 in my left. 


I've had to wear (or supposed to wear) glasses since age 8, and I have never been able to get my eye sight that close to perfect before. I really am in shock. The doctor asked what I had done differently... I said "well, we cut out a lot of grains and sugar." He says "oh, well, not sure that would affect it."


Of course, I can't scientifically prove it's the diet causing the changes, but I find it likely that it is, given my eyes have remained steady until the last ten days or so, and nothing else about my life has changed.


I'm really excited to see how much weight loss I've had when Monday comes. Even if it's not that much, I am so excited about the immediate benefits, I wouldn't even care. And if this is what happens in three weeks, what will I feel like in three months?

Ouch

After Veronica's party last night, Tom and I had a late dinner at our favorite restaurant (it's pricey so we don't go often). 


This place serves a "Tasting" of four courses. It's about two inches/ounces of each item. So we had a shot of Plantain Coconut soup, which was ... interesting. Then an arugala salad with goat cheese, roasted beets, and a cashew dressing. I wasn't such a fan. We thought it was great everything was so Primal friendly. 


Then came the vegetarian course... a rice fritter on a red pepper aoli and topped with cucumber/mint salad. I was hesitant since it was rice and fried, but I figured it was two inches, so not too bad. It was really good. It's was a good thing it was such a small serving because I might have eaten a whole plate.


After this, came the mahi mahi served on a bed of sauteed cabbage and a filet mignon served on a bed of sweet potatoes (I think. The menu said yams, the waiter said sweet potato). 


And the desserts (super small, maybe 1 sq in): Grapfruit tart, spiced chocolate cupcake, and an almond biscotti. The biscotti was actually more like four inches, but I didn't eat much of it. 


We also had a glass of red wine.  


I thought it would be interesting to see how this small amount of grains would affect us. 


The baby woke up at 4:30 and screamed until 7:30am. The best I could tell was she did not feel well, and maybe had stomach cramps. So the one piece of bread she had yesterday (with her hamburger) did not agree with her. 


While I was up with her I realized I had a migraine coming on, and was pretty bloated, and a touch of nausea. I think the nausea was from not enough sleep, but the other things must be from the grains. 


I think it will be a while before I cheat again. Ew. 


Tom and Regina both had stomach issues the last night. Regina and Amy had bad stomachs this morning. I asked why they thought their stomachs hurt and Regina says "Maybe... I'm just .... hungry... NOT the grains!"   Nice try, kid. 


So I'm glad we deviated (just a bit) from the diet, because know everyone knows how food can really affect them, and I'm not just a mean mom who is hiding the cookies just to be mean.

Happy Birthday, Veronica!

Veronica, our middle child, turned seven today!  She has been extremely excited for the last month about this. Very cute.  


For the last week she has been going over the list of foods she would want on her birthday


"For breakfast, I want waffles with butter and syrup. And lunch I want fried chicken strips. And dinner, I want a hamburger *with a bun*, Mom! And a really big strawberry cake with chocolate icing!" 


I broke it to her yesterday that she could not have all those things to eat, and she could pick one meal where she could deviate from the Primal menu. She chose hamburgers with fries. So we went to Cheeburger Cheeburger. 


Everyone (except me) ordered a ham/cheeseburger *with a bun*. I had mine on a bed of lettuce and some mustard on the side. We knew that Cheeburger had recently started serving sweet potato fries, so we ordered those instead of the regular white potato fries. Now, my order did come with the white fries, so I ate TEN, and sent the rest back. If you've ever had Cheeburger fries, you know that I should be declared a hero. Now, it is true that they fry their fries in peanut oil, so even the SPF weren't on the Primal-approved list, but we figured it was better to be half on than all the way off. 


The kids seemed to have done well with the bread and the peanut oil. I saw no stomach issues or behavioral issues with them later on. Still, I wouldn't want them eating this stuff frequently. 


Tom, however, had some stomach issues a few hours later. Being the heroic wife I am, I would never say "see? I've told you for at least five years that gluten was the cause of your issues, but, noooo, you wouldn't listen." I mean, really, wives don't really do the "I told you so" routine, right?


Then I made her cake. I took the recipe from the website I posted a few days back in "Cake again?!".  It turned out fairly well. It called for 1/2 cup almond flour on top of 1/2 cup coconut flour. Well, Veronica is allergic to almonds, and I don't have almond flour, so I used 1 cup of coconut flour. Well, that made one dense cake, let me tell you. But the taste and texture were at least cake-like! Just ... really heavy.  I made a chocolate icing with melted dark (70%) chocolate and incorporated it into a cup of coconut cream. Pour that on top and you have your strawberry-chocolate cake. 

Not the prettiest sight (had to ice it while still warm) but everyone was happy.


So happy birthday to our little Veronica!