This is the final week of my 10-week fitness challenge and our fifth week of being Paleo. I told B that we need to stop eating pork this week and focus on lean meats. If we focus on lean meats but don’t worry about the rest, good things will happen.
HERE WE GO!
Sunday, 08/17/2014 *** Chipo.tle ***
We got back from Chicago around dinner time, and both kids were EXCELLENT in the car the entire time. We rewarded them with their favorite thing (and our favorite thing – so that worked out!) – Chip.otle! Because it was a day of limited food, and because it was technically my free day, I had the soft corn tortillas with my tacos and they were great!
Monday, 08/18/2014 *** Pan.era ***
Tonight marked the last night of my older son’s swim lessons at 7:00 at night, and I had preschool orientation at 5:00, so we decided to just go out to make it easy on us all. There was no time between both activities to get us all together around our table for dinner.
I kept it Paleo-friendly with a cobb salad with avocados. It was good. It always is! B had some Paleo bowl with eggs, spinach, olive oil, bacon, and lemon. The boys had chicken.
Tuesday, 08/19/2014 *** Greek Chicken (Again) ***
Our Greek Chicken hiatus is over. This one was the best so far. I remembered to cook the breast side up so that B had lots of crispy skin to enjoy. We made asparagus again, but knowing that the little guy would eat 3/4 of it, I popped some rainbow carrots in with the chicken with 45 minutes left to go. I just salted and peppered them and tossed them in. They were divine. Absolutely perfect! My big kid even ate them – we told him they were candies and he agreed! As expected, my little ate 3/4 of the asparagus. There was no chicken left – my oldest polished it all off. This meal is a hit!
Wednesday, 08/20/2014 *** Bacon Wrapped Shrimp with Pineapple Tidbits (AKA Srirachi Shrimp) ***
Yep – we did this one again! We both love it and it’s easy. Because of my lean meats rule this week, I only had the equivalent of 2-3 strips of bacon (which I entered into MyFit.nessPa.l as 3 strips to be safe) but it was still awesome!
I made green beans again and once they were soft in the steamer, I then tossed them into the bacon grease to finish them off. I thought this would be terrific. It was just OK. I’m trying to shake up our green beans a bit, but this is not the way to do it. Wasted calories. They weren’t the worst thing in the world, but they weren’t worth doing again. I figured that the fat grams from the bacon were already included in MFP with those 3 strips (nutrition information is pre-cooked, so accounts for all fat content before cooking it off), but it wasn’t necessary.
Thursday, 08/21/2014 *** Cilantro Lime Chicken Breast with Browned Brussels Sprouts with Maple Butter Chic.k-fi.a-A Dinner ***
I chose this meal for tonight because it’s super easy – at least the chicken is. Matthew has a haircut at 5:45 so we’ll be rushing home to cook quickly and eat (we usually eat at 6:00 sharp).
The cilantro lime chicken breasts came from the meat counter at our local grocery store. They’re really good.
If you know me at all, you know that I love, Love, LOVE brussells sprouts! I don’t really care how they’re cooked as long as they’re not just steamed – they need to be crispy. When we were at our new favorite place here in town a week ago, we had their brussells sprouts that are cooked in pomegranate molasses – whatever that is. I don’t care what it is – it is AWESOME! We won’t use molasses in this house, so I had to find something that was similar in sweetness to satisfy my need. I found this little dandy while coming home from Chicago because I was looking up recipes for Maple Butter Syrup (had some of that while in Chicago and holy hell – it’s divine!). I’m not sure that this is a good match for the chicken, but I could care less. I’m doing it!
Scratch the above – we were way too busy tonight to get dinner made! With 10-week testing coming up, we decided to go to Chi.ck-Fil-A for dinner since they have the easiest healthy options for Paleo folks and because they were right next to Matthew’s stylist’s studio (he had a long-overdue haircut!). I got the 12 piece grilled nuggets and fruit, and then ate an extra 3 nuggets that the boys didn’t eat from their meals (we all get grilled nuggets – they have never even tasted fried chicken). This meal is low in calories, but high in protein, so it was a slam dunk. It was great! Good ol’ Chic.k-fil-A!
Friday, 08/22/2014 – *** Greek Chicken (Yes… AGAIN!) ***
This meal does wonders for the scale, so we’re doing it all over again before final weigh-in Saturday morning. Greek chicken with plenty of garlic? CHECK. Lots of asparagus for the little? CHECK. Tons of carrots for us (“candies” for Matthew)? CHECK.
The carrots were awesome again! I swear by using green-top carrots because they’re just fresher and taste WAY better than bagged carrots. We’ll never get bagged carrots again. I kept the skins on this time – a secret I learned while in Chicago and dining at the Gran.d Lux Ca.fe. Keeping the skins on is AMAZING and even my husband loved it! We’ll never skin carrots again! My little guy switched his preferences to the carrots, leaving lots of asparagus for us. I hardly got any carrots, and we cooked two bunches of them. Next time – 3 bunches of carrots, no asparagus, and a bigger chicken. These boys are eating me out of house and home. No leftovers!
Saturday, 08/23/2014 – *** PARTY ***
Tonight is celebration night – I am eating whatever I want, whenever I want. The end!
(Back to our regularly scheduled Paleo lifestyle tomorrow!)
Week in Review:
- Weight Lost This Week: 3.8 pounds
- Weight Lost So Far (in 5 weeks): 12.2 pounds
- Fat % Lost This Week: 0.8%
- Fat % Lost So Far: 3.4%
- Noteworthy Points: We’re converted. Eating this way is so easy and so worth it! I have not missed my secret trips to McDona.lds for my “large #2 with pickles and cheese only please, with a large Diet Co.ke.” I have hardly missed our many-nights-a-week trips to D.Q. I don’t miss much. I kept Diet Pe.psi and Diet Co.ke in my diet because asking myself to give that up is just too much. I haven’t had fried food in 10 weeks (not even on my free days) and I’m thrilled about that. THRILLED! Sure, I’ll have McDon.alds again someday – but not any day soon. Sure, I’ll have fries again – but it’s going to take a lot of desire to actually order them. And yes – at this point in the game, I’m dying to go to D.Q for a blizzard with ore.os. And I will be getting myself a cupcake (or 2) on Saturday after final testing. But those things aren’t going to be regulars in my life anymore.
- How I feel: GREAT! There is no other word to describe it. Well, maybe there is… PROUD!
ever-changing evermore 