ever-changing evermore

This marked our first week of going Paleo for my husband and me (the boys are already primarily Paleo in their diets).  The week went really well and I did the bulk of the cooking, which I’m really enjoying.  The cookbook we’re using is “Everyday Paleo – Family Cookbook” by Sarah Fra.oso.  We’ve really enjoyed getting familiar with the recipes and how they’re designed.  No portion sizes are given – she just says, “serves 5” or something similar.  I’ve learned to read that first before planning any meals – we don’t need 2 pounds of sirloin to share between the two of us!

Sunday, 07/20/2014  *** Ground Pork and Apple Sliders ***

B made these awesome pork and apple sliders.  They were to die for and we did not modify the recipe at all.  We used Boston Bib lettuce as “buns” and it was perfect!  We paired them with the worst steamed green beans of all time (yes – legumes – we had fresh ones in the fridge to use up and the boys love them) but that didn’t matter because the sliders were THAT GOOD!

Monday, 07/21/2014  *** Tomato Soup with Chicken ***

I made tomato soup and it was pretty good – but required some doctoring.  We added cayenne pepper, dried basil, and Bavarian seasoning to it.  I put a bit too much garlic in it.  I did not puree the soup long enough and it was chunkier than we’d normally prefer, but still good.  I used shredded rotisserie chicken as a topping – I felt no need to make my own chicken.

Tuesday, 07/22/2014  *** Mini Meatloaves with Homemade Ketchup ***

Meatloaf is a big hit with the kids, but since we keep them on a rather strict Paleo diet, we get pretty frustrated with the amount of bread used in traditional meatloaf.  We were excited to try these mini-meatloaves and they didn’t disappoint.  B had made the ketchup on Sunday so that was nice to have ready to go.  I added cayenne pepper, which was a nice kick.  We both agreed that we’d sauté the carrots and garlic first before mixing with the meat next time.  They were a bit too crunchy and at times, we felt like we were eating raw garlic.  We also realized that with a non-stick pan, there was no need to grease the pan.  We paired this with mashed cauliflower made with coconut milk and it was great!

The ketchup that B made is just awesome!  We did add some of it to our pork sliders, but used the rest of the jar to top off our mini-meatloaves.  B prefers to puree it next time to smooth it down, but I love it the way it is!

Wednesday, 07/23/2014  *** Mexican Beef Skewers with Chipotle Cream Sauce and Basil Pesto ***

This is the big winner so far!  I would put this meal into our weekly rotation for sure.  We were both looking so forward to making these Mexican skewers!  I prepped the marinade in the morning while the kids were up and got the meat marinating by 10:00 AM.  While they napped, I put the meat and tomatoes on the skewers and wrapped them in foil before putting them back in the fridge for more marinating.  I also steamed up some Brussels sprouts (with just garlic salt) and then put those on different skewers so we could just grill everything together (and crisp up those sprouts – yummy!) when we got home from swim lessons and kickboxing.  This worked out great!  They were perfect and the only thing we’d change is adding mushrooms to the skewers.  We would serve them again with Brussels sprouts for sure.

The best part of this meal was the finishing touches – the sauces!  I made the chipotle cream sauce and cilantro pesto as the kids napped and the recipes were spot-on – they took just 5 and 10 minutes to make.  Everything was in the fridge and ready for cooking at 2:30.  The combo of the cocoa marinade and the two sauces was ridiculous, and the pesto was great on the sprouts!

* A quick note – we had a lot of pesto left over so we saved it for later, hoping we’d find something to make with it.  Turns out, there is a breakfast egg recipe that calls for it, and B made those Friday morning and they were AWESOME!  We still have pesto leftover, so we’ll be making the eggs again this week!

Thursday, 07/24/2014  *** Fiesta Chicken Soup ***

This soup was fantastic – FANTASTIC!  B and I both frequented a place here in town, long before we met each other, and we both still talk about how great their chicken tortilla soup was (the place went out of business eons ago).  Whenever we have a chicken tortilla soup anywhere, we compare it to Mondo’s.  After having one bite of this soup, I said, “This is just like Mondo’s, but without the sour cream, tortilla strips, and cheese!”  He said, “I KNEW you were going to say that – I agree!”  And you know – it was just like Mondo’s.  We’ll be making it again, but we have enough leftovers that we won’t be making it for at least a week.  HA!

I did make a slight modification.  When they said salt and pepper to taste, I took that very loosely and decided that cayenne pepper would be better than regular pepper.  And I probably put in 1/2 a teaspoon of chipotle seasoning because you can’t beat chipotle flavor.  Oh – and I did put some cheese on top.  I couldn’t help it and desperately needed the calories after the workout I did this morning!

* A quick note – this made the best leftovers!  We are not into leftovers… at all.  We both agreed that this was a solid leftover meal that made us both very happy!

Friday, 07/25/2014  *** Date Night ***

My in-laws texted us in the early afternoon asking if we wanted them to watch the kids some time this weekend so we could go out.  YES PLEASE!  Because B was leaving town Sunday morning, we asked them to come that night!  We went out to the newest hot spot and both agreed that it was going to be a free day – and we shared a pizza as an appetizer and I had lasagna.  B had lamb.  We both had dessert.  They were not Paleo friendly.  The end.  (Actually no, not the end.  It was DELICIOUS!)

Saturday, 07/26/2014  *** Whole Greek Chicken with Roasted Garlic ***

This was terrific!  I cooked the chicken upside down, with the breast on the bottom, and we think that kept the breast really moist.  B wished there had been more eat-able skin, but the skin he did have, he loved.  I put asparagus in with it about half-way through cooking and it wasn’t good.  The asparagus was way too thin (we don’t have a great selection of asparagus here lately, for some reason).  I put 1.5 lemons in my 4 pound chicken and saved 1/2 a lemon to use on the asparagus.  Once the chicken was done, I squeezed the cooked lemons onto the meat and it was to die for!  We cooked 4 garlic bulbs (yes, BULBS) and ate them ALL.  This is a repeater!

Week in Review:

• Weight Lost:  3.4 pounds
• Body Fat % Lost:  0.8%
• Noteworthy Points:  The week went ridiculously well.  I did not expect to get into it so easily.  The fabulous recipes are the sole reason it’s going so well.  When we did this in the past, I was very resistant because I wasn’t in love with the recipes in the cookbook we were using.  I’m so glad B picked up this recipe book!  There was only one recipe we weren’t super excited about (tomato soup), and even that one, we’d try again with modifications.
• How I feel:  I feel TERRIFIC!  My body just feels light.  I have no water weight and I’m looking as trim as I’m feeling.  I am not at all disappointed when I step on the scale – even our date night only cost me 0.6-0.8 pounds which is already gone.  Besides the date night and my abuse of Di.et Pep.si, we have stuck to our Paleo plan 100%!  I truly feel that this is the lifestyle shift we needed, and will stick to.

 

As I embark on the last 5 weeks of my fitness challenge, we’ve decided to follow a Paleo diet for ourselves (we always follow one for the kids – more on that another time).  We were strict Paleo right before Matthew turned 1 and we both have never felt better!  Because weight loss is a side-effect of following a Paleo diet, we figured this was as good a time as any to get back on our healthy eating lifestyle.  I can say that just 4 days in, I feel great!

Because I’m a tracker of all things in my life, I’m going to keep track of the recipes we use each day for our family dinners.  I’ll be tracking all of this on my Paleo Adventure page and then moving each week’s worth of content to a post every Sunday (or so).  I’ll be keeping notes on weight loss, how I feel, how it went in general, etc. each week.

This really is an exercise for myself, so I don’t expect anyone to follow along or care about this.  But in case you’re looking for great Paleo recipes, or are curious to see how this way of life changes my life, feel free to read along each week!

I’ve been keeping something rather close to the vest lately – unless you follow me on MyFitnessPal (Josey and Esperanza).

I’ve been kicking my ass into fitness gear.  Like – seriously.

I met B when I enrolled in an intense 10-week fitness course that was just local here in Iowa – it has since spread to 9 states (check it out if you’re in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, or North Carolina.  B has known the guy who started this since he was 8 years old (B, not the guy) and he is a stand-up dude who wants nothing more than to help people exceed their fitness goals!).  It’s pretty serious and meets 6 days a week, doing true martial arts kickboxing 3 of those days and resistance bands for strength the other 3 days.  This program is insanely effective and the first time around (more than 8 years ago!), I lost 7.3% body fat and 12.6 pounds.  I was, admittedly, a bit disappointed in the weight loss but the body fat loss was super high for a female.   I did this program for 4 years and quit once we were failing miserably at getting pregnant (sigh).

So – I have been struggling to lose the last 10 pounds of pregnancy weight and I knew what had to be done.  I had to enroll again in this program – the one that works.  The one I know.  The one I trust.

Today was 5-week testing.  I’m down 4.7% body fat and 12.8 pounds.  The second 5 weeks are usually more effective, especially for women, so I’m hoping to at least double those numbers by 10 weeks.  I know I can do it.  We’re going strict Paleo in this house on Monday for the remaining 5 weeks and that should really melt the pounds off.  I’m super excited!

My stats so far:

I’m pretty excited about all of the stats, especially when I compare them to my 5-week testing from 8 years ago (yes, I have that all electronically), but I’m most excited about my mile run time.  I was shooting to take a minute off of the run time by 5 weeks, but I took 1:22 off of it and am almost under 9 minutes.  I better be under 9 minutes in 5 weeks.  B thinks I’ll be able to do it in 8:15-ish territory.  I’m shooting for 8:27.

This whole thing is a competition with all other people in the 10-week program – and the person with the most changes wins $1,000.  When I ran into Mr. F who owns this crazy-successful franchise two weeks before I started, I said, “Mr F, I’m coming back, and I’m in it to win it.”  I know what to do, I’m off to an insane start, and I plan to win.  And if I don’t win, I’ll at least look good losing.  HA!

Oh – and I hit my pre-pregnancy weight today!  Halle-freaking-luiah!  It only took 1 year and 24 days.  Good Lord!

(I was hoping to have the “before” photo they took of me, but they don’t give those out anymore at 5-week testing.  I will post my “before” and “after” photos right after I get them in 5 weeks!)

For those of you interested in keeping tabs on my ability to stick to my fitness plan (you know who you are), you can find it here each week, along with not-so-hot photos of my just-showered, post-run, no makeup self in my weekly photo uniform!  I am doing this not for any of my readers, obviously, but for me.  I need to get in shape.  I need to get back to my pre-baby fitness level.  I NEED to do an adventure race next summer with my husband before we start trying for baby #3.

I cannot believe I’m writing/saying this, but a year from  now, I’ll likely start lupron shots for our first frozen cycle (FET) for Baby #3.  How can that even be just a year away when I have a happy 3 month old sleeping in his room down the hall (in his crib even – for over two hours – HU-freaking-ZZAH!)?  I have a hard time believing it, but it’s true.  We’ll start a month later than we did for my younger son because I will not have another transfer on/around October 12 – I will not have another June 24/25-ish birthday if we can help it!

When I finally got pregnant with our oldest (and I cannot believe I’m putting this on the internet), I weighed 192.6 pounds.  Holy hell!  That was the result of a 20 pound gain from serious fertility drugs and 3 IVF cycles (2 fresh cycles with a FET in between – and I won’t count the IUI cycles because they were just clomid and I don’t know if that causes you to gain weight).  I weighed 167.6 when I got pregnant with my youngest – much better but still not something to be proud of.  My goal for when we get pregnant with #3 (if we’re so lucky, fingers crossed) is to be hovering around 150.  The lightest I ever was, at the peak of my fitness with a very lean BMI for me, was 144.6, and that was super hard to maintain.  Maintaining 150 pounds is not hard if I keep taking care of me.

And that’s what this is all about, right?  Taking care of me.  Doing what I love.  Doing what makes me feel good (without breaking the law – HA!).  Doing the things that teach our boys how to live healthy lives.

It’s amazing how quickly things fall into place when you make an effort to be fit.  I don’t have the urge to eat like an idiot because it will un-do what I’ve worked hard to do.  I’m not totally changing everything, but am making small changes here and there.  For instance, I went to We.ndy’s for lunch yesterday and instead of getting a single with cheese meal, I got their grilled chicken sandwich meal (I love their chicken sandwich).  This morning, instead of going to Star.bucks for my venti cinnamon dolce late and the sausage breakfast sandwich, I went to Mc.d.onalds and got the egg white delight meal (yes, with the hashbrown) because it’s 400 calories versus 900.  I have thought about my choices two days in a row, and even though they’re still not the most stellar of choices, they’re much better than they would be if I wasn’t using the treadmill each day.  In time, I’m sure I’ll skip the fries/hashbrown all together because really, what’s the point?  But please don’t ever expect to read that I’ve given up my Diet C.oke (out of the fountain only) or Diet Pe.psi.  Or DQ.  That is asking all together too much!

I will update my fitness page (also on the main menu of my blog) every week!  I track fitness in 10 week intervals, and this one ends 12/9.  My target weight for that date is 159.6, and that’s being conservative when you look back on my other 10-week efforts.  I’m trying to not go crazy here!  We do have a big family trip to Colorado Springs over Christmas and that gives me another 2 weeks to shed another 3.8 pounds getting me down to a hopeful 155.8 pounds.  That would be awesome, and is totally do-able!

So there it is – all out there.  I’ll try not to post about this because it is super boring to everyone but me.  But if you’re interested, go ahead and check in on my page and harass me.  😉

 

I feel like I’ve used that title before.

A while back (July 29 to be exact), I had a grand plan to start going to the YMCA to get my ass in shape.  Then one of the boys got sick and there was no way I was going to leave them in the “free” child care at the gym.  My plan got deferred for a week (I like to start on Mondays – I’m weird), which seemed like no big deal.  Then we went out for breakfast with B’s parents and he and his mom had a conversation about leaving your kids in the child care at the gym – and that we don’t know the people working there.  I sort of rolled my eyes at this conversation, but then took it to heart as I pondered it.  Don’t read into this – B was perfectly fine with the boys going to the gym child care while I worked out, but hearing them talk about how we don’t know those people made me not OK with that plan.  So I didn’t work out, and I didn’t work out, and I didn’t work out.

There is a pretty big cross-country race here that we’ve done a few times together, and registration for it was this past Saturday.  I knew it was the motivation B needed to get running again, so I offered to sign him up.  I mentioned that I was jealous that I couldn’t do it too but that the boys and I would enjoy cheering him on.  I also mentioned that I’m not in any shape to run that race and then lamented the fact that I wasn’t going to the YMCA because of the conversation he and his mom had about the child care.

And then he said, “we have a treadmill in the basement, and you have at least an hour of nap time each day to run if you want to.”

That’s just what I needed to hear.  How could I have forgotten that?  I mean, that treadmill is the source of many a joke in this house.

(There is some history behind this piece of exercise machinery.  It was my grandpa’s and when his house was being prepped for sale, B and our friend drove down to get it, and carried it up a very narrow staircase to hoist it into the truck for me.  As they were trying to maneuver it around the staircase (built in 1950), B told me that he was about to just leave it there because getting it out was going to be impossible.  But they did it!  They then drove it home 2 hours and had to figure out a way to carry the beast into our basement.  We got it all setup, with treadmill track under it to protect it from carpet fibers, and it sat there.  For a long time.  Of course that didn’t stop us from buying a TV for that room so that I’d have something to watch when I decided to use it.  Then we finally got pregnant and I decided to try it out, and B caught me jogging on it 5 days after our first successful transfer.  I was forbidden from using it again “after all we’ve gone through to get you pregnant,” So it just sat there.  Then I never got the motivation to use it again.  And we dropped cable.  So now it’s in the only spare room we really have with a TV that has no means of displaying a single TV show.  And that treadmill, and the TV, have sat unused for 3 years.  Until today.)

I took B’s words to heart and put on my (tight-fitting) running clothes prior to my big kid’s nap so I’d be ready.  I laid with him until he fell asleep (just a couple of minutes – it gets easier and faster every day) and then I was out of there!  I grabbed the monitor for the baby’s room and headed downstairs with my phone so I could stream some SVU on Net.fli.x.  Of course the emergency “key” was missing from the treadmill so I had to track that down (thank you, little man, for bringing that upstairs a while back), but I found it quickly and I got all setup.  I even stretched!  I walked for one mile at 3.5 mph, then jogged for 2 miles at 4.0 mph (an admittedly light jog), and then finished with a 1 mile walk at 3.5 mph and a 3.5 incline.  I moved my body (as Josey would say!) for 65 minutes and burned 432 calories.  My average pace was 15:55 which is slow, but acceptable to someone who hasn’t run in over a year.

So yeah – I did that today!  And it felt great!  And it motivated me to sign up for that race with B (I cannot believe I got in!).  And it motivated me to take photos (GASP!).  And it motivated me to start my fitness tracking spreadsheet.  And it motivated me to stop eating like crap and just take better care of myself.

It’s time to get serious.  I will log my progress here each week with photos (gasp again!) if I get around to it each Monday (I plan to and even set a reminder on my phone!).

I’m in pain tonight, and I will be tomorrow for sure when I wake up, but as I know from my fitness past, this pain will be gone soon enough.

Starting weight: 177.6 (10 pounds more than when I got pregnant – GAH!)

Current weight: 177.6

Target weight after 10 weeks:  159.6 pounds

Target weight loss after 10 weeks: 18 pounds

What I currently look like (A new version of the bump photos – HA!):