Baby Boy.

Two weeks ago, I successfully delivered a 8 lb. 6oz baby boy. He was born on his due date and is doing very well. I haven't stepped on a scale since my last doctor's appointment before he was born and I weighed in at a whopping 186lbs. I decided not to  get on a scale right after, because I didn't want to shock myself and/or be depressed with how little weight I lost!

Today, I decided that I would step on a scale and see where I was at weight-wise. I will say I wasn't shocked at the weight loss, but I wasn't totally disappointed either. I guess it was about where I expected to be. I was about 165lbs today. Thus will be my kicking off point for losing the rest of this baby weight!

I keep telling myself that I need to jump back on my primal wagon so I can lose the weight and feel better faster. I also know that this will be healthy for my breast-fed baby as well. But for some reason I just can't get started! It's quite frustrating...maybe it's the holidays, stress, lack of sleep, or living at my parents house; I'm not sure. I'm slowing weaning myself off some of the junk, but I'm lacking the fortitude to just completely give it all up.

I will say that Ryan is planning on joining me this time, so that should make it easier!

I need the blog!

Good afternoon!
I sure did text Beth and see if she wanted to do this again. As you can see on her post there are many changes. Beth looks like she is about to explode with a linebacker and I will be there in a few months. I has definitely be rough these few months (in terms of accepting inevitable weight gain) but it is tough to say no to foods that I usually always said no too. This pregnancy puts a seed in your (my) head that tells me "you are going to gain weight anyways, may as well eat the donut!" It is an evil voice in my head!! It has been a struggle. Especially when NOTHING healthy sounded good in my first trimester. But I gained 1 pound because I was throwing everything up! But since I've gotten my appetite back it has been a steady weight gain and too much at that. I went to Crossfit this week and it feels so much better to work out like that again. Walking just doesn't do it for me! Maybe I'm not a productive walker but I feel like if I am not hunched over struggling to breathe then I did not get a good work out in! So, I need to continue to post for some accountablility. Maybe Beth is the only viewer, and that is ok, but I need something so I can get the weight off after the Carter joy is brought into the world!

We're Back?

Jamie texted me today and mentioned bringing back the Sugar Babies blog. So I just sat and read what we did almost exactly a year ago. Many things have changed since last December! I'm am approximately 3 weeks away from the arrival of my second child and Jamie will be welcoming a daughter in March.

We have both been far from being paleo, low carb, gluten free or whatever. There is something about being pregnant that tells your brain "eat what you want....you are carrying another human inside your body". I've been lucky that this pregnancy has been the complete opposite of my first one. Not as much weight gain (I'm around 30lbs right now) and little to no swelling. So I've been able to continue to workout a few times a week.

I have set a lofty goal for myself after the baby arrives, I want to get back into competition shape to compete in the cross fit regionals and be on our ACF Crossfit Games team. Qualifying starts about 6 weeks after the baby is due. I'm hoping that I can get the eating and schedule under control to achieve this goal. Might just have to bring the blog back for that!

Preparation.

I've been pretty bad lately about being prepared for dinner at night. That's probably the biggest barrier to sticking with eating this way for me. Ryan and I are busy, we like to get home from work and go do something. Whether we are working outside, running errands, or playing with Ansley, we are always going. Therefore, when it's 7:00 and dinner is not ready, we run out to get something. I will say that our eating out has gotten "healthier" but it's still not great. We don't eat fast food, and we usually eat barbecue or go somewhere and get meat and veggies. The problem with that is we are not in control of what goes into making our food. We might be getting meat and veggies, but do we REALLY know what's in there? Nope.

So this morning, I got up and had a random thought, of "I don't have anything planned for dinner. What can I do?" Instead of just saying that I would figure it out later, I found some thawed meat in the fridge, some marinade in the pantry and voila! I have marinating chicken ready for the grill tonight!

It's all about being prepared! Paleo is easy to do, because all you really need to make a meal is some meat and veggies. It's just having the foresight to actually THAW the meat before you need to cook it.

Yum Yum.

I've been stocking up on yummy grass-fed meat from Yonder Way Farm and I tend to buy cuts of meat and I'm not quite sure what to do with them or how to cook them. So I end up eating all my ground beef, but then I'm left with other cuts. Hence, my culinary adventure last night!

I bought some beef round steak. Not too hard, it's pretty easy to cook. But I've always cooked beef round steak as cubed steak. One of my favorite meals growing up was cube steak with gravy! Trying to stay away from the flour, I wasn't sure how to make "cube steak" without dredging the meat in flour and frying in a skillet. So, to Google I go!!!

I found a recipe for "paleo" cube steak and it was fantastic! Instead of using flour, I made a bread crumb like mixture from almonds, herbs and spices. There are a couple changes I would make, but overall it got the seal of approval from Ryan and Ansley. I believe Ryan's exact words were "This has a REALLY good flavor!" Win!

On a side note, I made some rice last night to go with our meat and veggies ( I know, I know). It looked good in my pantry, so I decided to make some. I just wanted to say that I was QUITE disappointed in the the taste (or lack of) of the rice. Now I know why I don't make it anymore! Compared to the flavor of the broccoli and the meat, the rice tasted like cardboard. Even after I added butter, salt and pepper. Thank you paleo for at least showing me that food with color have great flavor!

Here's the recipe:
Paleo Cube Steak

Beef Round Steak
Almonds
Various Herbs and Spices ( I used Oregano, Basil, Italian Seasoning, Garlic Salt)
Splash of olive oil
Grapeseed Oil (to cook in)

Mix the almonds, herbs and spices and a splash or two of olive oil in a food processor until it's the consistency of breadcrumbs. The recipe said a 1/4 cup of almonds, but maybe I had A LOT of meat, because I had to make like 3 "batches" of crumbs. So I would just eyeball it :) Coat the meat with the mixture.

Heat up a few tablespoons of grapeseed oil in a skillet on med-high heat. Cook the meat for about 3-5 minutes on each side. Remove from skillet and let rest for 3 minutes before eating.

The only issue I had with this recipe was that my almond crumbs didn't stick very well to my meat once it hit the skillet. Next time I might dredge the meat in some oil or egg to get it to stick better. I'm also thinking that because it was grass-fed meat, I may need to cook it on lower heat next time.

Happy eating!

Effort.

I making a concerted effort here :) Jamie said that my last post made me sound like I'm depressed. On the contrary! I just get a little disappointed that I can't stick to my guns when it comes to food. I can't seem to figure out what that one thing is that totally turns me off from the bread and sugar.

I'm making some chicken salad tomorrow to try to give me some more options for lunch during the work week. But I find that I REALLY want something crunchy (i.e. a cracker) to put my chicken salad on. I've done celery, and it's okay. So I found a recipe for Grain Free Crackers, weird, right? They are in the oven right now, so I'll let you know how they are. I found these on a Caveman Food Blog. Here's a quick run down of the recipe.

1 cup almond flour
1 egg white
1 pinch salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix the ingredients together until they form a paste. Put the dough on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Put another piece of parchment paper on top and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out VERY thin. Remove the top sheet of parchment paper. Bake for 10 min and check the crackers. You want to cook them until they are "golden" brown. If they get too much color then you get the burnt nut taste and that's no bueno.

So I'll let you know how they taste, I'm not sure how easy it will be to give up Ritz crackers with my chicken salad!

Carb Attack

Well, sister you are not the only one. I have not been making the best decisions either. It hasn't been too may sweets just eating a sandwich here and there, or munching on goldfish. Just "smaller" bad decisions. I am not doing this everyday but just not making the greatest decisions. I can feel it too! I do feel a little better at my workouts, I think eating the egg before helps since I have something in my stomach. I just need to make and prepare my meals a head of time. It has been mostly lunch, I get lazy when I have to pack my lunch for school so I grab the easiest choice...ie...sandwich, chips, cereal...pretty much everything I am trying to avoid! Life goes on and it is a daily battle! I will WIN!!! I will come over Beth and do some hypnosis on you! It'll be fun!