Pages

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Some results...

So I did a quick measurement on Savage_Boyo.  Why?  It has only been one week and I don't think we will do this weekly, but I wanted him too see if he had any results.  His weight is a tab bit higher.  He spent the weekend camping and ate a bunch of power bars made with nuts, that totally could have made a difference in the scale.  Of course I am really not concerned about his over all weight.  I am hoping he maintains really and that he builds muscle and loses fat as he grows.  He improved his WiiFit age though, yes arbitrary, but was happy to be "12" instead of 15...lol.

So his week one results are:

Belly Button: 36.25 (+.25)
Natural Waist: 33 (-.5)
hip: 33.5 (- 1 in...really?)
neck: 13.5 ( - 1 in, really?)

Last week:

belly button 36
natural waist 33.5
hips 34.5
wrist 6.5
forearm  9.75
biceps 10.25
neck 14.5


So, from now on I will wait until the end of his 30 days to do anymore measurements.  He was happy with the results though, even though he 'gained' a bit on the belly button measurement.  He was pretty impressed with the neck and hips.  I was too. 


I weighed in today with a gain of .8, which is perfect.  At this point one pound per week is about right :D


We had yummy pork loin with pesto for our meat tonight, served with sweet potato fries and apple sauce. Yummy!


I am thinking cheese steaks tomorrow!  Yummy.  Too bad I already have 'food porn' for that.

Monday, September 26, 2011

End of Week One

Well, week one is up for my son.  He says he hasn't had any wheat since last week.  I want to believe him, but you know...he is only 12 and he did spend the weekend away on a camping trip.  I say I will give him the benefit of the doubt.  So far I don't see too many changes in him, but it has only been a week.  Hopefully we see some noticeable changes soon.  He still has a wheat belly and for his sake I hope this helps him.

My husband is currently in the process of passing a kidney stone.  It seems every time he decides to go grain free he gets a stone. We KNOW it is not the diet causing the stone.  Why?  Because he doesn't eat any more meat than he normally does and they are fairly large stones that would take more than 2-3 weeks to get that large.  It makes me wonder if eating better makes his body realize they are 'foreign' substances and therefore wants to expel them A.S.A.P.  I hope this one goes quickly because I hate seeing him in so much pain!  He is reporting a 20% improvement in his hand pain which we think is arthritis.  Some of his other joints are still pretty painful, but he is thinking that he has an injury that just needs to be addressed.

For me?  Thinks are going well.  I will weigh tomorrow and see what the total weight gain is up to this point, 23 weeks 4 days pregnant.  This is a bitter sweet point, baby is moving well which is reassuring, but it was at 24 weeks that we discovered our son, Colm, had passed in my womb.  So, yeah, this is a bit of an emotional time for me.  THe good part is that this baby moves WAY more than Colm ever did and if baby is alive when we hit 'viability' at 24 weeks there is always a chance they could save him/her.

I bought the kids some boxes to pack their lunches.   We don't qualify for 'free lunch' anymore, which I think is really a blessing in disguise.  Hubby is going to adjust his work hours so that he can be home when the older kids get home from school, which will save on after school care.  We can use that money to go towards packing lunch.  Best of both worlds!  Nothing extra out of our pocket and the kids will eat primal at school.  Have you ever really looked at an elementary school lunch menu?  Ugh, just AWFUL all grains and junk food.  Look up your local school district and find the lunch menu, take a gander and be appalled!  Here is an example, totally NOT primal!!!!  So, while we do plan to reapply, for a back-up plan on days we just don't make their lunch, or to even let them pick once in a while a lunch they really like, I am happy to have wrapped my mind around the idea of feeding them from home!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Savage_Boyo's Measurements:
9/19/2011
belly button 36
natural waist 33.5
hips 34.5
wrist 6.5
forearm  9.75
biceps 10.25
neck 14.5
Weight: 125, I am not particularly concerned about his weight since he IS a growing 12 year old boy.  What I am interested to see is if he stays the same and slims down.  This is what I am hoping for.  After starting football in July he has slimmed down a bit and can fit in some of his jeans that were too tight, but he gained 8 lbs from the last time he weighed himself 140 days ago.  I am willing to bet this is muscle from the running, push-ups, up/downs, etc.

Whew!  I thought I lost these...thank goodness for auto-save.

So as of today the Boyo is doing well he has been grain free since Monday, doesn't seem like much, but it is for him.  He has successfully navigated school lunch today, he chose salad.  He complained of a headache yesterday, but said it is much better today.  We had warned him this might happen as he goes through wheat withdrawal, which in some ways is similar to opioid withdrawal.

This weekend he will be going for a camping trip with the Boy Scouts.  He will be staying over two nights and they will be doing a lot of hiking.  We have already discussed the foods that we will send with him.  He is concerned about the other foods and he knows bread will be there.  I am going to make him some almond flat cookies so he can have a 'smore' if he wants one.  Yes, marshmallows and chocolate are not the best things in the world, but he has agreed to stay away from the graham crackers.

Savage_Dave is steadily losing weight.  The best part though is a lot of his pain is gone.  I will have to focus a post on him soon and detail everything he has been going through.  Right now he is battling a kidney stone, no not as a result of being Primal.  He suffered these long before we even knew what it was to be paleo!  I will add his measurements soon too.  I am so excited to see the changes in my men!

I personally have been doing well with staying away from ALL grains, even though I am only committed to being wheat free for a few more weeks.  Right now my 'down fall' is sugar.  Yeah, I need to work on that.  Take away the work stress and it might be easier.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Fellowship: Hash brown breakfast casserole

I volunteered to do fellowship at church every few months.  Well, today was my day and I wanted to make something that was tasty and relatively healthy, primal style.  I went with breakfast casserole, of course MOST people wouldn't consider it healthy due to the amount of fat, but *we* know better right?  Now, because it was being made for a large group not all of the ingredients were as 'clean' as I normally would like, but still a good choice.  So I made two types of breakfast casserole, one with bacon and one with sausage.  I got about 3-4 requests for the recipe, sweet!  Of course I did also provide cereal and milk, because well...the kids like it a lot and it is fairly cheap.  I feel a slight amount of guilt for that.  Most people also bring cake, doughnuts and muffins...so I did good...right?!?!

So, here is the super simple recipe.

pre-heat oven to 350F
hash browns (I used frozen, feel free the shred your own taters for a healthier version)- if frozen thaw them!
8-15 eggs, scrambled- depending on the size of your crowd
1/2-3/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 medium onion diced
about 2 cups of shredded cheese (I used Mexican 4 cheese blend)
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream (I suppose you could use milk, but why would you want to?)
1 pound bacon or sausage, your choice

brown sausage or cook bacon until crispy
sauté onion in bacon grease (I *suppose you could use something else, like butter or um....that other stuff, but it won't taste as good!)
grease bottom of casserole or baking dish* with....bacon grease of course...well, unless you use that other stuff
layer hash browns in pan
layer meat of your choice
combine eggs, cheese, onions and chili powder, pour over meat and potatoes
bake for about 45 minutes at 350F

*I used the 'half size' disposable aluminum pans from Sam's Club.  They are about 9 x 11, but I am not sure of the exact size.  If your pan is bigger then you may need more egg mixture to fully cover the meat and potatoes, adjust accordingly.

All four pans were gone in about 10-15 minutes!  Yeah, next time I better make six.  I think I will make one each of sausage and bacon more 'adult friendly' a.k.a SPICY!  I suppose adding some salsa to the top as an indicator of spiciness might be a good idea. ;-)

Unfortunately, no food porn because I didn't think to blog this recipe until after it was so well accepted by the group.  The next time I make it I will add pictures for ya.


*******

Now for some good family news.  My hubby SavageDave has been grain free for about two weeks now and already seeing big improvements!  His gas, if not totally gone is at least not deadly anymore.  He has lost some weight AND his psoriasis on his knee is healing.  I am very hopeful that this will also help his arthritis pain even more than it already has.

Some REALLY great news,  Savage_Boyo  has realized that he too feels better grain free and has agreed to at a minimum be gluten free.  This is going to be our first goal with him being that he is 12 and has some autonomy in his food choices outside of the home.  He is starting tomorrow.  He wants to continue to improve his health and get fit after he worked so hard during football this year.  He has decided he wants to try wrestling this year at school, so that will help him stay on track.  He totally has a 'wheat belly' and is understanding what it means.  He is really ready for this now, so it should be easier to get him  to comply.  Of course, it means packing lunches and getting up early to feed him breakfast, but it is worth it to help his health.  I am pretty sure he will have a huge benefit not only in his body composition, but also his behavior and emotional well being.

We will all be doing some 'before' pictures tonight for our 'challenge' I know the "big" 30 Day Challenge on www.marksdailyapple.com began last week, but I still think we can see enough change over the next three weeks to make it worth it.  Savage_Boyo is excited by the idea of being one of the first kiddos to add his success story to Mark's sight.  Anything to help motivate him, right?  I wanted to say too, that although he could have had AY type of cereal today, he went with Corn Pops. not a great choice, but he read the label and they are gluten free so he picked those over Fruit Loops.  Not a bad choice for a 12 year old :D

My picture of course will show a growing belly, but hopefully just the belly.  I would really love to keep the weight gain in my face, arms and legs to a minimum this time.  I had become totally lazy and was just walking for a few weeks for my exercise.  About two weeks ago I got back to lifting.  Of course not nearly as much as I was doing before, but hopefully enough to maintain my lean mass as much as possible while I am pregnant.  Good strong muscles can only help when it is time to labor!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

I know, I know...slacker!

So, I have been such a slacker. I don't know why.  It isn't like I don't spend too much time on the internet anyway.  I just haven't felt much like 'talking' I guess.

Things are going well.  I finally decided once and for all I needed to be at a minimum wheat/gluten free.  So, for two weeks now the only indiscretion has been some onion rings last night.  I wanted at least half of the pregnancy to be 'primal/paleo'.  I am still including some grains in the form of rice, and still having a higher intake of carbs compared to how I ate pre-pregnancy.  I personally would not be upset if I were to go into ketosis for a bit, but honestly we don't know about the risk this would pose to the baby, so I decided it was better to play it safe.

Even with my carbs increased from 75-125 a day up to 100-150 I have been able to maintain a nice slow eight gain.  I had lost a bit in the beginning, which was most likely from getting back to being primal after going off the wagon for a few weeks around Easter.  I was back up to 158, then got pregnant and back to eating better and was back down to 153.  I cam currently 158 again.  So, breaking even?  Or an eight pound gain, depending on how you want to look at it.

So, hopefully I will be better about getting on here and posting.

Here is my most recent belly shot.  It is a few weeks old now.  I need to do another one.  Yes, those are pajama pants. It was late and I was already getting ready for bed :P