Paleo Pancakes

Hello everyone!

What a week, eh?

Just a brief check in, then. Adding gluten back in is hard. A lot of sugar comes with it, both are very addicting. And boy, have I felt sick a couple of times. Just lessons.

In some ways, I'm kind of glad to have felt sick- it's good to know that my insides have changed a lot by doing this.

I lost another two pounds this week! I won't measure myself again until the first week of June, but jeans that were tight a month ago are sliding on my hips, so things are a-changin'!

But tonight? Tonight I had breakfast for dinner. Is there anything better? I mean, on a rainy evening, there's something about pancakes and bacon that is just so... familiar. A little bit of orange juice, a season finale to watch...

Now, pancakes in any form are strictly outlawed on the whole30. The Hartwigs reason that "paleo treats" are still not good for your emotional relationship with food, so there's none of that stuff allowed. But these were completely paleo, very easy, took no more time than regular pancakes AND I could eat a big huge stack of them and not feel bloated or sleepy afterward. Safe to say this is a keeper- and is a great recipe if you've got guests for the weekend or whatever.

I will say, I'm not a huge syrup fan, so I don't have any. These are sweeter than normal pancakes, so I absolutely didn't miss it at all. But they would be good with a little maple syrup. I bet they would also be awesome with mix ins, like chocolate chips, chopped nuts or even blueberries.  SO, the recipe, eh?

PALEO PANCAKES:
-2 ripe bananas
-4 whole eggs
-cinnamon (I didn't measure, but I bet it was somewhere between a 1/2 Tbsp and 1 Tbsp.

Mix all ingredients together. (I used my mixer but you could probably use a blender too). The smoother the better, but they don't have to be perfect. Grease a griddle. I made my bacon first, so I used the same pan and used the bacon grease. Ghee (or regular butter!) would be a good choice too. Then, using a ladle or a small measuring cup, just pour small amounts on your hot griddle. These cook more quickly than regular pancakes, so be careful! I think the heat might've been a little high for me, as they got brown pretty quickly but were a little gooey in the middle (which tasted great to me, but tastes differ!).  Flip once, after the edges start to get round and big bubbles start popping on top.

Serve with a side of bacon, or whatever breakfast treats you like best!

These tasted really wonderful. They do have a banana flavor to them- but it was almost like fresh banana bread or something. And warm, gooey, sweet like pancakes should be!

Enjoy!

After Whole30: Lessons learned

Hi friends!

This is the last post about my day-to-day experience with my Whole30. Probably a few more about what I've learned through this process, and definitely some continued food posting, but not as much about what I'm eating everyday, etc.

So then, to whit:

Yesterday, I had a pretty bad day. After I opened the door to gluten, I went a little hog wild in the break room on Monday. Handful after handful of animal crackers, a peanut butter cup and a Subway white chocolate macadamia nut cookie. And I. felt. AWFUL. I mean, really, really sick. Not to mention I couldn't focus, I could NOT stop eating and I had absolutely no energy. It was weird.

But you know, I'm almost glad it happened. It was a really good lesson after everything that's happened to my eating habits. No, I can't just go back to my old habits. I really and truly felt awful, and I do not want to repeat that!

As for what that means for me and gluten and sugar, I'm still working on that. Obviously I'm going to really limit them both, but I'm hoping I don't have to completely eliminate them.

Today I did much better. I need to make some more time for food prep, cause I'm out of porridge and don't have other good breakfast options right now, but other than that i felt pretty good about things. And, consequently, I felt a lot better today. Penelope and I went for a run, I got plenty done at work, finished up a couple of projects around here post run, made an excellent dinner... Very pleased.

MONDAY:
 Meal 1: grain free porridge
Meal 2: 1 baked chicken thigh, roasted zucchini and squash, spinach
Snacks: cookies, crackers, a little candy
Meal 3: I never ate dinner, I was so full and sick feeling from my down right binge in the afternoon.

TUESDAY:
Meal 1: yogurt, an apple and a cheese stick (told you I need to make some time for food prep)
Meal 2: 1 baked chicken thigh, roasted zucchini and squash, spinach
Snack: handful green grapes, outshine fruit and veggie popsicle (after my run)
Meal 3: small steak, sauteed radishes, spinach

Until next time~
xoxo

After Whole30: Weekend update

Happy Mother's Day, all! I hope you had wonderful days celebrating the amazing women in your life, whoever they are to you.

It was a great, if all too short, weekend. Saturday I started Mary Poppins fittings, which were fun and are off to a good start, I think. I went to the grocery,took a nap, tidied up a bit and got my season's worth of show posters hung up in my front hallway. Today I went and spent the afternoon with my momma and grandmother and other family, and then had a grand rehearsal for the show- it's opening SO SOON! Come see it. Tick Tick Boom at Troy Civic Theatre, opening May 22, 2015. Then Penelope and I came home and I finished getting the apartment cleaned up and ready for another work week. Whew!

Penelope had an upset tummy this afternoon. She's also completely worn out from playing at gramma's today, so I'm hoping it will pass- she's been going back and forth between the bed and the couch for hours now. But I did get her to eat a cookie when I offered (on the second try). I'm sure it's nothing.


I, on the other hand, feel pretty good. Eating was decent this weekend, not 100% clean, but pretty good. I NEED to drink more water, I'm sure of that. Other than that, though, I'm pretty good. I am noticing a little bit of irregularity, but nothing too hard to manage.

Let's see, food logs:

SATURDAY

Meal 1: apple cinnamon porridge
Meal 2: brown rice sushi sampler
Meal 3: Leftover chicken thigh and veggies

I did take a nap on Saturday afternoon, but it was more to treat myself than because I was feeling low energy. Other than that, it was a pretty solid day all the way around. Plenty of mental clarity, which was great considering I had four hours of fittings in the morning!

SUNDAY
Meal 1: grapes and plain yogurt
Meal 2: salmon patty stuffed with crab mixture stuff of some kind, green beans, sweet potato fries, fresh fruit, greens and a quarter glass of wine. It definitely wasn't enough to do anything to me.
Meal 3: I stopped at Panera! And I got a Turkey avocado BLT, which did have some mayo on it and was served on sourdough bread. I also ate the chips. It was gluten day after all.

I will say, the gluten didn't really seem to bother my stomach, but I felt REALLY full before I even got half the sandwich down. By the time I finished it, I really felt stuffed, but about 15-20 minutes later, I was very comfortable again. Interesting, at least.  I amy have some more gluten tomorrow before giving myself a few days off of it to see how I do.

Alright, I'm off to dream land!
Until next time~
xoxo

After whole30: enthusiasm flagging

Hello, everyone!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

It was another rather hectic day at work, but nothing too terrible. And then I had a nice, lovely quiet evening at home: made dinner, did some cleaning (although not enough!), some sewing, and then went for a run about 10:00. Night time runs are the best runs. Yes, that is my idea of a nice Friday night, and yes, actually, I am middle aged.

I feel pretty good. I definitely need to up my water intake next week. I can tell I'm dehydrated, especially now that I'm running some again. But I'm not noticing anything else, really. I have plenty of energy, I'm in a good mood, my body feels pretty good...

OH! I weighed in this morning and lost another three pounds! YAY! Just keep falling, numbers! That's officially-officially 60 pounds in just over a year and about 35 pounds until goal weight, although I'm not super tied up in the goal weight thing. But still. 60 pounds. Wow.

I will say, though, that reintroduction is proving to be the most difficult part of this. I wasn't supposed to eat dairy today... definitely had some cheese on my salad. I guess that was the only off thing all day, so that's not too bad... but just knowing there's some options there is weird and oddly discomfiting. On the other hand, no signs of dairy disagreeing with me... yet. I'm still pretty suspicious of it.

Today's menu:

Meal 1: grain free apple porridge

Meal 2: spinach salad with turkey, almonds, small amount of monterey jack cheese, olives and guacamole. Pear on the side. This was NOT the most delicious choice I've ever made, but I survived.

Snack: mango

Meal 3: chicken thigh with roasted zucchini and yellow squash. This was very tasty and very yummy. Its also pretty quick and easy and it only takes one dish. If it didn't require the oven to be at 450, thereby turning my kitchen to a temperature closely resembling Hades, baked meat and roasted veggies would be an absolute STAPLE around here. (Let's face it, it probably will be anyway).

alright, I think that's all I have to report tonight! One more day and then GLUTEN!

Until next time~
xoxo

After Whole30: Dairy

Hello, all!

It's another hot night here. The fan has helped a lot, but there's not denying it, it's warm. Ah, well.

Today was a pretty great day. Things got a little hectic at work (we have quite a few orders coming in right now), but nothing too terrible. Then I came home, walked Penelope, and leaving her at home because of the heat, ran an errand, ate my dinner and went to rehearsal. Rehearsal was a touch up, but it was fine. Then I came home, walked Penelope again and crawled into bed. Whew!

I have to admit, I am looking forward to having all of my work evenings back. I am LOVING being on stage again, but man, I just can't get enough stuff done in the evenings! Cleaning, sewing projects, house projects... I have the energy, just not enough time!

Hey, by the way, if you're a local adult reader, come see Tick...Tick... BOOM at Troy Civic Theatre, May 22-24 and 29-30. It's gonna be a good time, and I'll be there. Win-win.

So today was dairy! I woke up late, grabbed breakfast and ran out the door. I ended up going out to get lunch because I knew what I had was not going to keep me full all afternoon. Then I bought dinner while I was out running an errand. I feel pretty good. I got a little nauseous while I was actually eating the dairy, but just a tiny amount that COULD be tied to over thinking about it.

I still felt very energetic. I do feel a little bloated and fat tonight. I keep having to remind myself that I've lost SIXTY POUNDS in the last year. Sometimes I don't think I've changed at all. I seem to still be fairly regular, but I'll be interested to see if that shifts over the next couple days.

FOOD today:

Meal 1: Apple cinnamon breakfast porridge & about 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt. The yogurt tasted good if kind of unfamiliar. My stomach seemed fine, although I noticed some slight gastrointestinal motion.

Meal 2: Wendy's Apple Pecan Salad and a baked potato with chives and sour cream. This was also the most sugar I've had since starting this. The salad had feta crumbles on it. It was delicious, although the sweetened pecans were like candy. The baked potato was... ok. The butter spread stuff had a funny aftertaste. It was very sweet, almost like melted ice cream or something

Meal 3: Paleo Lincoln Specials: I bought a snack thingy that had baby carrots, broccoli, a piece of cheese and some almonds in it and munched on that. I also got one that had roasted turkey, monterey jack and more almonds. I brought a pear from home.
The cheese tasted... weird. VERY salty, for one. And the texture was weird... I never noticed how greasy cheese could be before. And some of the almonds had some kind of smoky, salty flavor to them which was a little weird. Overall, the baby carrots were the best part. Sweet and crunchy!

Snack: I bought oreo ice cream sandwiches on my errand. I shared them with my cast mates. I realized as I was walking out of the store that I shouldn't eat a giant oreo yet because of the gluten, and then promptly decided I was going to anyway. It was very tasty. I mean, absolutely delightful. But not as good as I'd been thinking it would be. I ate my one cookie sandwich and I was totally satisfied. In fact I was kind of done with it before I finished it. Interesting- I've never had enough ice cream EVER. Even when I got sick from it. I'm very curious to see how I do with some of my favorite ice creams.

Hopefully all's well and dairy can continue to be included in my diet... as a treat!
Until next time~
xoxo

After Whole30: thoughts and impressions

What a day! This heat! I hope we're not looking at four solid months of this!

Today was my first solo day at work! I kept myself pretty busy and we got an order right at the end of the day! So I'll ship that out tomorrow. I listened to a few podcasts and got my latest book from Audible. I think it's going to be just fine for a few weeks.

After work, I met my brother for dinner in a park. We went for a long walk (Penelope came too), chatted about a lot of different things, and generally had a lovely evening. On the way home, we stopped for a fan at Target. It had cooled down a lot, and I left windows down for Penelope (no, I'm NOT that guy)

I've got the fan plugged in and running in the bedroom, and let me tell you, it has already made a WORLD of difference. I mean, seriously, it is pleasant in here. Touch noisy... but I don't even care about that. Not. Hot. Thank heaven!

I felt really good today, and I'm wondering how much of it had to do with my kind of simple meat and veggies meal last night (and for lunch) plenty of protein, some greens... and I have plenty of energy and I'm in a really good mood. Interesting to say the least!

Meal one: 2 fried eggs and an apple

Meal two: leftover steak and sauteed veggies

snack: couple handfuls mixed nuts

Meal 3: Hot head special! salad, pork, pico de gallo, guacamole!

Now that I'm essentially done with this process, I've been thinking a lot about it. The whole30 taught me a lot about myself and my relationship with food. It taught me about how I reward myself with sweets. It taught me that I don't need to. It taught me so much about the additives in foods, I can't even tell you. To always, ALWAYS check ingredients labels because ANYTHING is possible. It reawakened my love of and passion for health and fitness. It brought back some goals I had buried really deep and rejuvenated them. I have loved this experience. I honestly believe everyone should try it at some point. It will teach you so many things about yourself, about food, about the people you know and love and tolerate. And about your body and what it needs to run effectively.

My plan after I'm officially done with this program next week is to continue to eat this way (although probably not quite as strictly). My plan is to eat about 90% paleo/whole30 compliant, as I hope to stay healthy and continue to lose weight. I think that is totally sustainable for me at this point. Yes, I will continue to eat some treats! After all, life is for living! However, I am confident now in my ability to limit them to occasional treats, instead of "deserving" a donut for showing up to work, or "needing" some ice cream after a long day.

In any case, I think the whole30 is something I will come back to again and again when I need a boost in my health or results, which is nice to know I have, just back here on the back burner.
Ok, I'm babbling...

Tomorrow is dairy day! Wish me luck!
Until next time~
xoxo

After Whole30: Grain recovery part one

I'm gonna need a fan. Stat. What happened to spring?! Seriously, if anyone has an extra little window fan thingy-ma-bob... you know, the flat ones that sit in front of the window and suck in the outside, supposedly cooler air and blow it in the room so you don't melt? That'd be great. Even Penelope is hot.

ANYWHO: Today was a back on plan eating day so I could work through yesterday's non-gluten grains.

I felt pretty good for the most part. REALLY tired. The cat woke me up at 5:30, so when my alarm went off at 6:15, I must've just been back in a deeper sleep cycle. Work was fine, although I need to continue to work on focusing! After work I came home, walked Penny, made some dinner, pulled some costume things together for my show and went to rehearsal. Rehearsals are going well. When I got home, Penelope and I walked and now we're in bed. Warm.

The only other thing I'm noticing is that I feel "fat" today. It's not like I really feel that bloated, I don't think... just mentally fat, I guess. Probably the heat isn't helping that either!
And the tank top I wore to rehearsal tonight was not my best choice. On the upswing, I don't feel like I really had leftover grain hangover today, which means that I can feel ok about eating some of that now and then.

I'm also having some other, non related to food choices and rather personal health issues, and at times that messes with my perceptions (and occasionally reality)SO! Food today!

Meal 1: 2 fried eggs and an orange. AND MAN WAS THAT ORANGE SWEET.

Meal 2: Cabbage Hamburger soup and a grapefruit

Meal 3: steak on a bed of spinach with zucchini & yellow squash medallions. This was nom. And quick, incredibly filling, and a really great example of a whole30 meal. I was pretty proud of it.

I really wanted to stop for a box of fruit-sicles on my way to rehearsal, but I resisted. 2 more days until ice cream!

Until next time~
xoxo