Playing with Paleo

It is so good to be BACK! I’ve been thinking a lot today how I’d like to organize this blog and I started trying to think of alliterations that could lend themselves well to my blog content.  Work Out Wednesday is easy, and Menu Monday.  But how do I fit in all of the other things to talk about?  Well–there’s every other blogger in the blogosphere.. and then there’s me!

I guess the name of my blog gives me a little bit of a scapegoat away from formatting and structure 😉

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with the Paleo plan.  NerdFitness has a fantastic starter’s guide to the paleo diet that I highly suggest you check out.

nerdfitness.com

One of the hardest things about starting a paleo eating plan is ‘wtf do I eat?’  I mean, think about it!  The average American diet (at least, in the midwest) consists of cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and pasta for dinner.  I was honestly stumped! What, besides eggs, could I eat for breakfast?

Well–anything.  Who says you can’t have a steak at 9am? 😛 Granted, I usually don’t, but that’s the gist of it.  Food is just food.  There aren’t rules around what time of day you can eat the food.  So, I dove in.  I ate a lot of eggs.  I got tired of eggs.  I ate a lot of salads, I got tired of salads.  I ate a lot of bacon, and then I realized I should not eat near as much bacon…

It prompted me to buy a cookbook.  The one that came highest recommended from the Nerds of NerdFitness was Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo.  I’ve made a number of recipes from the book including the broiled salmon, pumpkin pancakes, swirly quiche, chorizo meatballs, and pumpkin cranberry muffins.  We’ve used the seasoning mixtures to spice up the meats we generally use, and eating has been a lot more whole-foods focused.

Now! All that being said, I’m not 100% of the way there 😦  There are still times where I get caught up in the “I don’t feel like it” attitude.  I had nachos tonight, and I’m still eating at the gas station too frequently.  When I did 1 week of about 80% paleo, I dropped 6 pounds.  SIX WHOLE POUNDS!! I also felt more energetic and pretty excited about staying committed.

Then life happened, and stress eating, and convenience.

It’s a lot more effort to plan ahead, cook, and deal with all of the food associated with paleo eating. The dishes in the sink below?  That’s just from cooking breakfast and prepping lunch:

Now imagine that for 2 people 3x/day, 7 days/week.  Our grocery bill has skyrocketed and our dishwasher never gets a break.  This week (Saturday to next Saturday) my goals are to have 5/7 days 100% paleo (excluding cheese.  I love cheese.  me and cheese have something special going on.)

I’m hoping to drop some weight and feel happier/healthier by the end.  I certainly appreciate you rooting me on! If you know me IRL, kindly refrain from offering me non-paleo food.. if there’s a treat at work, for example, just tell me ‘thanks! you do good work! Have a fantastic day! *high five*”

Cheers to the coming week!

-Megs

Out with the old and in with the new

I mentioned, of course, that I wanted to make some changes around here, and so I have.  This fresh theme is brought to you by the fantastic designers and programmers at WordPress.  If you like it, head on over to their visualizer and customize the Superhero Theme for yourself.  

There have been a lot of other changes going on in my personal life, too.  For example, I recently took an extended leave of absence from my gaming guild.  Some of it was guild drama and guild members clashing with my personality, and a lot of it was just realizing that I can’t have it all–I can’t be a full time gamer, and a full time employee, nurturing wife, accomplished artist, consistent blogger, and still manage to cook, clean and get a full 8+ hours of sleep every night.  It’s just not happening.  So, I nixed gaming. 

I joined a new guild, called NerdFitness.  I am on the verge of completing my first 6-week challenge over there, and I’ve been exploring the possibilities of going paleo.  I am not 100% there yet, but I’ve noticed that on days that I avoid bread and other refined carbs, I feel a lot better than when I eat traditional American meals.  I’m more alert, more energized… I’ve got fewer cravings and I’m better able to stay focused on my goals. 

As if that weren’t enough change for one blog post, I also got a new job that has been keeping me busy (but you already knew about that).  Tonight, I also finished up a large project that has been taking up a ton of my time… I finally finished “remodeling” our kitchen. 

It started last year, just with the counter tops.  The yellow was so dated and ugly that I needed to do something about it right away.  The rest of the make-over took longer to formulate and execute.  I was just dealing with the drab brown cupboards until we could renew our lease–the management staff had dangled a juicy carrot in front of our noses with the implication that we might be able to get new cupboards at our renewal.  Well, the upgrade was declined, and my request to *paint* the cabinets was shot down.  

We are not planning on moving any time within the next year, and this bathroom-themed (red, brown, and yellow–seriously?) kitchen was getting me down.  Not to be deterred, I collected points at work and turned them in for a Lowe’s Gift Card.  I spent $50 on brushed nickel pulls, then bought a 18″x75′ roll of Contact Paper from Amazon.  My total out of pocket expense was just over $14.

Covering old outdated surfaces with Contact Paper to refresh them.

work in progress..

Unexpected hurdles

The payoff

I love my new kitchen

Love love love

I have spent weeks measuring and cutting contact paper to be just-so.  I had to wash each surface and then apply the contact paper carefully to avoid air bubbles.  I disassembled cupboards (with the help of my own Super Hero, Jeffrah), and made sure that this wasn’t a job that would look tacky on completion. 

Now that it’s done… my kitchen is beautiful.  It’s bright and clean and inviting–the red walls pop and no one could be reminded of a bathroom or of McDonalds or whatever red + yellow + brown brings to mind. 

 

The Shoes-ah!

I’m so excited. I knew there was no way I could be tottering around in my towering heels on my wedding day and so I went shopping on Zappos for the first time, looking for a back-up plan.  I was bummin’ around with my mom at the time so I used their mobile site.  It was super easy.  I bought a couple pair of back-up shoes for the wedding and I was really impressed with everything.  Zappos has an agreement of sorts with Amazon and so I was able to use the login credentials from that site. Since I was using my mobile phone to do all of my shopping, that made it super easy.  There’s nothing worse* than trying to configure a secure password that you’ll remember on a PC using a smartphone keyboard.  Ugh. (*there are worse things, but I like being mellow-dramatic).

So yes, the mobile site was great. The shipping (even super fast ‘next-business-day’ shipping) was free and it’s free to send them back, too, which may come in handy… I saw a pair of purple heels that had my name on them – “Meg.”  They were kind of summery, strappy.. I thought, what the hey, they might work!

 

First impressions were good–they were the perfect color, the style was pleasing…but wearing them around the house kind of made me realize that they’re a little cheaply constructed.  The sole was flimsy and the liner was pulling up near the toe bed.  Womp womp 😦  It’s safe to say I was kinda glad I ordered a second pair, and really glad that they have free shipping for returns, ’cause these aren’t going to make the cut.

The blue, oh my goodness.. the blue were beautiful!! Breathtaking, even.. I unwrapped them and inspected them for quality and was pleased with the stitching and the fabric, the construction of the sole and the heel…

I wore them around the apartment for a while and was pleased with the fit and the comfort.  It’s got excellent cushioning for such a low heel.  The only trouble spot is near the big toe.. unfortunately, these rub right near the cuticle in a way I can tell will cause a blister 😦  I’m going to try to find a way to break them in gently so that it’s not a problem.

 

They are even a perfect match to the bridesmaids’ dresses ❤  I’m so thrilled!  I’m going to be showing the blue ones off tomorrow when I get to work to see if mom likes them.  Even if she doesn’t, I do, and they’re perfect.  *gush* The shoes-ah!!