I have been so busy lately that I haven’t had time to be online like I wanted to be! This morning I signed up for an account on pinterest.com So far I am really loving it!!
I also hope to start blogging more often about what I am working on. Lately I have been making a ton of quilts and doing various other crafty projects around the house!! I am also working on my last semester of grad school… so that is going to take up a good bit of my time!
We just finished our third full week of being cave-people. I have to say that I have lost another 2.5 pounds (making my weight loss total 10 pounds in three weeks). This week I had even less trouble sticking to it and even less desires to run out to the store and cheat. I am very proud of this fact and feel that as time goes by I will forget about all those yummy foods that we are choosing to not eat anymore.
This week shopping was a little bit more challenging for us…. We are finally starting to feel the financial crunch of me not working and we still haven’t received my student loan check for this semester. Luckily we did plan ahead. We have enough meat in the freezer to get through this week so all we had to do was hit the produce stand. We picked up tomatoes, squash, zucchini, onions, sweet potatoes, bell pepper…. You name it… we bought it. We also went by Food Lion to pick up milk for Jordan’s cereal, and Eric also bought a coconut (he wanted to see what he could do with it). I think that we spent a total of $50. On groceries this week (go figure!)
During the first week of our Paleo experiment I did a lot of research. I’m talking tons. I read a couple books on going paleo, I read about a million blogs and I did a lot of soul searching. I found out that we can eat nuts as snacks (I love sunflower seads and cashews) and I also learned that we can eat semi-sweet chocolate chips (in moderation). I also found lot of recipes for different ways to cook vegetables that didn’t sound too disgusting. So on the second Saturday of our Paleo experiment we started making our grocery list and we headed out.
One of our concerns with going Paleo is that so many people talk about how expensive it is, so we knew that we needed to overcome this…. We hit the local fruit and vegetable stands… and we struck gold. The prices were about a 1/3 of what we had been paying in the grocery store. We also hit Costco and saved a ton more money there. All of our research told us that Costco gets its meat from the place that Whole Foods does…. This means grass fed beef as opposed to grain fed beef.
At the veggie market we bought onions, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peaches, squash, zucchini and bell pepper. At Costco we bought ground beef, roast beef, whole chicken, frozen tilapia, frozen chicken breasts and pork chops. We also bought mushrooms, eggs and sausage, sunflower seeds, almonds, cashews and semi-sweet chocolate chips. We still have a little bit of cereal and milk for the kids, because even though we are going completely paleo… we are trying to ease the kids into this.
You would think that with a list like that we would have spent a fortune. You would be wrong. Our grocery trip came in at somewhere around ½ of what we normally spend. I was shocked…. Totally and completely.
After the initial after shopping glow wore off I realized that I had a kitchen full of food that I had no idea what to do with. I have NEVER been one that cooks…. I grew up eating foods that came out of boxes. My mom cooked one fancy meal a year at Christmas, other than that we ate stuff that came out of boxes and required very little preparation. Mom always worked… this is what I thought was normal. Now I had all this raw… whole… un-processed food that I had to made edible for my family. I did it. Everything that I cooked tasted good and got eaten. At the end of the second week when I did my way in I had lost another 2.5 pounds! We were eating like kings and having yummy snacks and still losing weight! (and, as a bonus… it was fun).
** I will not say that this has been all easy or all roses. I have had several days where I thought that I was going to break down and run out to the store and buy junk. (Lots and lots of junk.) I am very proud to say though that I made it through and didn’t cheat. The only “bad” thing that I have done that even halfway “cheating” was to eat about a half box of cereal and during the first week I ate some bugles (both of which made me sick).
Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not a healthy eater. I eat like a 5 year old. I am talking junk food and more junk are my staples. I feel like I should pause for a minute and talk about little bit about the foods I usually eat. I NEVER look at fat content, and I never ever eat fruit. I have not in the last 5 years worried about or stopped to even think about whether what I was putting into my mouth and body was good for me. This is why in the last 5 years I have gained 65 pounds. Normal foods for me have included krystal burgers at least once a week. You could open any drawer in my desk at work (when I worked) and you would find boxes of candy and junk. When Eric would stop at the store to buy snacks for me he would buy boxes of nerds 10 at a time and bags of chips and cookies. For dinner, I would make homemade pizza and calzones at least twice a week and on other nights we would have fried chicken and other horrible things. I NEVER thought about what I was putting into my body. That is until the day that I weighed and realized that I weighed 5 pounds less than I did when Jordan was born. That was a huge wake up call and I knew that I had to do something.
A few months ago my husband came to me with a crazy idea. He wanted to try a new eating plan. He wanted to try eating like a caveman…. He wanted to try the Paleo Diet. I took a look at the literature he printed for me (if you know my husband, you know he is all about the literature) I didn’t really read it I just set it aside. The truth is I wasn’t interested. The part that got me was that in this diet you have to eat fruit and vegetables, and you can’t dairy, grain or other junk. It sounded a little bit over the top to me. So, I did what I always do when Eric mentions something that I have no interest…. I smiled, I acknowledged him…. And I moved on. I honestly didn’t think anything else about it. About a month ago Eric brought it up again. I realized that this wasn’t just something that he had mentioned in passing, he was serious about it and that meant that I had to take another closer look at this, for him…. For us.
I started doing some research on this whole “Paleo Diet”. I tried to keep an open mind. On first glance I noticed something. I could eat all the meat that I wanted to eat. I like meat. My whole life I have always said that if there was ever a diet that I could be on where I could eat meat…. All that I wanted …. I might could lose weight. So, I talked to Eric and we decided that was as good of a place to start as any, so we went to the store and bought enough meat for the week. The other good part of this diet is that we can eat eggs. I like eggs. We bought eggs and sausage for breakfast…. And we bought meat for dinner. All I can say is that during that first week our food selections were pretty boring…. We had meat and no side items at all. We didn’t really know what kind of snacks to buy or eat… so we didn’t. I drank a lot of water and we ate whatever meat was left over as snacks. We also had a bag of beef jerky (which is totally Paleo and allowed). I was hungry almost all the time, but I didn’t cheat. Not once.
The first thing that I noticed was that I felt better, a lot better. Another part of this whole “Paleo” thing is that you cut out all dairy and grains…. Which gets rid of the gluten from your diet. Gluten and Dairy are very hard on your system , who knew.
OK… so the skeptic in me from the beginning said “How can I eat eggs and sausage every morning for breakfast…. Chow down on jerky and all other meat and lost weight”. I do have to say that at the end of that first week I stepped on the scale and I had lost almost 5 pounds. I didn’t exercise…. I didn’t “do without” or “starve” myself. We ate good…. Very good. I really missed my junk… and saying NO to nerds and other candy was really hard. BUT we did it and we lost weight. Eric and Katheryn (my 16 year old daughter) had very similar weight loss results too.
Five years ago I was in the best shape of my adult life. I was 34 years old and had three kids…. And I can still say that I was in the best shape of my adult life. I was also completely out of control…. I had just gone through a terrible marriage and even more horrible divorce. I was a single mom in a dead end job, dating losers….. and MISERABLE!
I reached a turning point when I ran into an old friend from childhood and we fell in love. Love is good. We got married. I found my dream job (which once in, I realized was not really a dream job at all). Life was amazing…. My best friend and husband adopted my children and life was fun. I learned to hate my job and gained 65 pounds. Still, I love my husband and have an amazing life! I ditched the dream job… and decided that I also needed to ditch that extra weight!
I quit my job 7 weeks….. I thought that by now I would be bored out of my mind. I’m not. I have decided to take a year our of the rat race. I’m taking a year at home with my children. I’m taking a year at home to finish up my master’s degree. I’m taking a year at home to find myself, whoever that is. A year. That is so scary to me. The only other times in my life when I didn’t work was when Jordan was born and when we moved up north for a year. During these two experiments I was more unhappy than I have ever been in my whole life. For so long my whole work system seems to be dependent upon my job, and that just seems so wrong. I think that in life we have to evaluate what is working and what is not. My marriage during this time period was terrible…. I had a 13-year marriage that for lack of a better description…. Totally sucked.
7-weeks into my experiment of being at home I am finally taking a little bit of time to reflect and figure out how I feel. I am happy. I have lost over 10 pounds. I am learning how to cook. I have been reading for fun and completing my schoolwork on time. We are broke, totally and completely broke, but no one really seems to mind. In about a week that will go away, because I am school I am taking out a student loan that will help us get through. Part of me is really hoping that by the time this year is over we will be able to figure out a way that I won’t have to go back to work. Even saying that out loud (well, on paper) makes me feel so guilty. Why do I feel guilty? Eric works so hard. Eric is one of those special people that attack life full force every day. He believes that you have to give everything you do 100%, all the time. He never, ever cuts corners. I admire that. Sometimes I feel myself being lazy and trying to cut corners.
At the end of this year I will have my Masters degree in educational leadership. I will a ton of money that I owe back in student loans. I will have a child that will be a senior in high school and another that will be a freshman, and my baby will be going into 8th grade. Other than those “knowns” I have no idea.
Life is too short to spend it being miserable. I want to encourage everyone to stop and take a long hard look at where they are figure out what changes they need to make in order to be happy!
I have not posted to this blog in soooo long! I have really missed writing the story of me and talking about the things of life that matter to me. I do not promise to post every day, but you know what I do promise to stay in touch and write when I can. I don’t even care if nobody ever reads a word that I write… this is for me.
I really believe that I need an outlet to talk about how I feel and work through my thoughts and feelings.
I do not have the time that I used to have to devote to writing. I used to write everyday…. sometimes more than once a day. Life has a way of changing and growing…. mine just took me away from having quiet moments to think and regroup. I am going to try to slow down my world a little bit… to take time for myself. As a very busy working professional, a wife and mother of 3 it is so often hard to find a moment alone. Lately, that has only been in the car while commuting to the office.
Work… well, work has been an amazing roller coaster lately. I love my job. I love our mission. I love my co-workers. Lately, the job has been stressful and taking up so much more of my time. I am not complaining, because I am having the best time of my career.
Husband… I have the best husband on the planet. He is loving…. wonderful…..kind….giving….you name a good quality he probably has it. He holds me to a higher level of accountability. He works hard to help me be the best person that I can be. I really like that. If I have a bad day….. a bad attitude……a break down….he is right there telling me that I can do it, that it will be ok. I know that it isn’t the case, but I wish that everyone in my life had a partner as amazing as mine. I am not by a long shot trying to say that we have a perfect marriage….. we have our moments like anyone else…. but I am saying that we are happy…. we are a team…..and that there is a lot of love in our home.
Kids….what to say about the children. I can start by saying that they are growing up way too fast! Katheryn, my sweet little princess with the golden hair that hung in ringlets will be 15 this summer. I can still see the child inside this quickly developing young woman. I have to admit…. I don’t like it! She started high school this year… that was a hard one for me. I do have the comfort of knowing that underneath all that teenage-ness there is a beautiful person emerging. Meagan… my feisty one…. Meg is truly a neat kid. This has been a year of transformation for this child. She started middle school year and with that she got contacts, braces…. colored her hair…. she is going through a period of self discovery. I remember middle school… it was when I realized that I wasn’t really as great as I thought I was. I went through a self discovery mode very similar to Meg, so I understand her. I hope that she comes out the other side with her self esteem intact… I did not. Jordan… my sweet little man. Jo will be 11 this week. That is so hard for me to even comprehend. He has been my baby…. my little guy…. next year he will be in middle school. I know that he is really just starting his journey, but in so many ways I feel like a door is closing for me as a parent. I know…. they aren’t going anywhere… but my little guys are all gone… and I have to figure out who these new people are that live in my house. Eric and I are at a turning point with the kids…. they are no longer kids…. but teens and preteens (personally, I don’t like it!)
Well, that isn’t a very interesting post, but it kind of clues you in to where I have been these last few months.
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Since you like to read blogs so much….. read this
Just when I think my ex has walked away and if finally going to leave us alone… something pops up out of nowhere. This time it came in the shape of friend letting me know about a personals ad that he has on yahoo.
This ad is full of lies.
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Eric has been using Mars edit for a while, but it is new to me. I am going to see how it works and see if I like it. I am not the big nerd that he is… but over the course of our marriage he is converting me!
