Paleo Pot Roast, Take 2

Last week, I wanted to make this Savory Pot Roast and Butternut Squash recipe for dinner.  I had a long day planned for Thursday, so I was excited to try a new crock-pot recipe. I woke up extra early, found all the spices and vegetables I needed, and turned the crock-pot on. I got to step two of “How You Make It” before I realized I forgot to buy a roast.

This isn’t shocking. I do stuff like this all the time.

So, today, I thought I’d try again. This time I made sure I really had everything. I also made some brussel sprouts to go with it.

I’ve come to love butternut squash, but I wasn’t really a fan of the texture of it in this recipe. The meat had a great flavor, and the squash was okay- Just not my favorite.  But… after eating an entire pack of Chips Ahoy! Candy Blast Cookies this weekend… I’d say I needed a good serving of vegetables.

Making this Real Life

I spent the first three or four days after the Paleo challenge trying to enjoy my old food favorites. I was surprised to find out they weren’t really all that great. Not surprised to find out it’s difficult to digest a bunch of crappy food after 30 days of real food…. but I digress….

The last post had hundreds of views. Seriously. Like more than 700. I had a lot of emails and messages about what my daily Paleo menu looks like. I think I’m going to attempt to keep my blog updated with what our family menus look like. Maybe it will make a Paleo attempt seem more realistic for the people who are on the edge or maybe just prove a point for those who are skeptical.

Typically, our day starts with eggs and some kind of veggies, but sometimes I get an urge to bake something for breakfast. Yesterday, I took my kindergarteners on a field trip to a strawberry farm, so I came home with tons of fresh strawberries. I can only eat so many plain strawberries, so I started looking for Paleo strawberry muffins. I’m in love with paleOMG.com, and I think the author, Juli, and I could be friends. I used a recipe I found there for muffins.

Juli posted a recipe last spring for Strawberry, Banana & Chocolate Chip Muffins. Here’s how I tweaked the recipe to make it work for the Garlands….

•   I used crunchy almond butter (because I love it and had plenty in the fridge) in place of sunflower butter

•  I didn’t have flaxseed meal, so I put some chia seeds in the food processor to make a “meal” with those.

•  Chia seeds tend to soak up any extra moisture in a recipe… so I had to add about 1/3 cup of almond milk to the recipe to keep it at a muffin-batter texture. 

The muffins turned out great. I know it can be scary to experiment with these recipes, but if you don’t have an ingredient on the list, it’s okay to find a way to make it work. You can’t be afraid to try. You will probably mess up along the way, but we all learn from mistakes, right?!?! It may not always turn out the way you plan (ask Jamie about my apple-cinnamon muffins from two weeks ago--- gag). But, you won’t learn anything from buying those 600-calorie muffins at the store.

Top Ten Paleo Lessons

First, I feel like I need to apologize for blowing up Facebook …. but not really.

I know I post to Facebook a lot, and I’ve posted more frequently over the past few weeks. I blame Paleo. And CrossFit. I’ve become border-line addicted to both, and it’s making me that obnoxious person who always talks about CrossFit and Paleo.

Ugh, annoying, I know. Unfriend me, I guess. Sorry I’m not sorry.

The last time I posted to my blog, I mentioned pictures from Mother’s Day 2013. These were my original motivation to get healthy, post-baby. I am really getting out of my comfort zone today; I’m gonna share those (I’m pretty sure my facebook-loving self didn’t post those last spring, but if I did, please correct me). I had thought about waiting until the 1-year mark at CrossFit Proverb, but I am just too excited to wait another month.

After nine months of just “crossfitting,” I signed up to compete on a team with great girls at the Garage Games in Georgia. Watching the athletes at that competition was the most motivating thing I’ve ever witnessed. They were all normal people, with real lives, who have made exercise and nutrition a priority. I thought to myself, “If I ever want to perform on that kind of level (ummm, not that I’ll ever be doing an Rx competition…. Just getting by at the scaled level, thanks), I have to do the same... AND…. lose some lbs.” 

After the competition, I started Paleo to help keep my nutrition in check. My goal was to be Paleo 90% of the time. I did pretty well with that on my own, but….  A few weeks later, a friend convinced me to do the Paleo Challenge at Crossfit Proverb.

Paleo. 100% for 30 days.

I thought for sure I’d die trying, but here I am. At the end of 30 days. 14 lbs lighter.

I thought I’d share some of the lessons I learned….

1.     FOOD is not really my personal biggest weakness; Beverages are (not extremely shocking).  

2.     Real, black coffee isn’t terrible.  My life will go on without cream and sugar.

3.     SUGAR is of the devil. Think I’m kidding? Talk to me on day 3, 4, or 5 (for some people—day 7-10) of no added sugar. Tell me your head doesn’t hurt and you don’t want to hurt people.

4.     My food processor really was a great investment. I think it’s kind of tired after the past 30 days.

5.     Almonds are the best things on the planet. I love almonds, almond milk, and almond butter. As if that’s not enough, you can even use almonds to make almond flour, with your exhausted food processer, and then make whatever baked-good your heart desires.

6.     Vegetables are great… until you get tired of them. Then, the Internet is your BFF because there are so many delicious things you can do with vegetables. You just have to seek out new recipes and then actually cook them.

7.     Reading an ingredients list on stuff at the grocery store can be scary.

8.      Coconut oil is expensive. But it is a wonderful thing to have on hand… especially when making sweet potato fries…. yummmm…. or for any delicious Paleo baked good.

9.     Don’t be afraid to try new things--- even if it means finding a way to open a real coconut just to have unsweetened coconut to make “Paleo Carrot Cake Energy Bites.” There WILL be some extra work involved. But if you want to eat real food, and make nutrition a priority, you’ll figure out a way to make it work. Which brings me to my last thing….

10.  Make it all work for you and be realistic. If you can’t afford grass-fed beef, it’s going to be okay. I can’t either (ahem, teacher’s pay). If you really think you must have a Snickers and/or Diet Coke on Friday at 2:00 pm, do it. Make being healthy an ongoing goal instead of a weight loss deadline. If it’s your birthday, (or a holiday or any other celebration) eat friggin’ cake. Real cake. Or whatever you need to indulge. Because that’s what real people do. Your body will adapt. Your mind will adjust. If you don’t make this your mentality, you’ll fall off the wagon completely.

Well… those are my thoughts. They are probably not earth-shattering thoughts, but I love to write. So there they are. 

I am down 60+ lbs since starting CrossFit at the end of last May, a time when I was looking for anyway to get back to myself. 14 of those lbs in the last 30 days.

CrossFit works. Paleo works. Find a way to make them work for you.

The Average Loser

I got a few SPAM-my emails this morning, and all of them referred to my blog. My somewhat tech-savvy self decided I’ve been targeted because I haven’t posted a new blog in a long time. SO, here’s what’s been on my mind… just in case you were wondering.

Two years ago, or maybe three, I started a blog to keep up with my New Years’ Resolutions. I did okay. My biggest goal was to run a 5k, which I completed, even at my snail’s pace. I also made a more deliberate effort to be thoughtful—and that’s still a work in progress.

2012- All I wanted was to have a baby, so the goal for 2012: become a mom.

2013- NO resolutions. It was great. The decision to make no resolution was mostly based on the fact I had a newborn baby. I couldn’t think past “When is the next feeding? How long has it been since I changed his diaper? OMG- we need to eat, too, I guess. How does anybody do all of this and have a job at the same time???” No time for a resolution; no crazy expectation to try to live up to.

Until I saw pictures of myself with my little boy from Mother’s Day last May. I thought to myself, “When he grows up, he will look at these pictures. What will he think about his mom—oh wait, … that’s me!?”

My mindset started to shift. I started going to CrossFit because I needed something new and different to motivate me — I know, rule #1, always talk about CrossFit (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na9js7OQjXA). This isn’t meant to be an ad for CrossFit, despite the fact it has changed my life. I don’t think about exercise as something miserable that HAS to be done, and I don’t talk about going to “the gym” as an obligation. It’s something that has made fitness realistic for me, and it is part of my real life.

Point is, Jamie and I have been watching The Biggest Loser on NBC over the past few weeks. I found myself feeling kinda bitter towards the show. I had to spend some time really reflecting about WHY this show, which does such great things for people, made me upset. These people get on the scales every week and post ridiculous weight loss. Some of these women are weighing in at numbers I HOPE for. I mean, it’s quite upsetting to see other women lose up to 7 or 8 lbs a week knowing that I worked so hard all week….

What bothers me is that life on the Biggest Loser Ranch isn’t real life for the rest of America. Working in the gym with a small group of contestants and a celebrity trainer for HOURS a day… having meals planned and prepped on the ranch… without the stress of a fulltime job and a family. Oh, and add the monetary motivation to win. I mean, really?! How could I even compare my weight loss journey to that?

I guess I shouldn’t. I don’t have an extreme amount of weight to lose. I don’t want to leave home for California for weeks. I want HEALTH to be a realistic part of my life.

The Biggest Loser has had its fair run and inspired so many viewers, but it has to be running out of seasons. If NBC is looking for a new show, how about The Average Loser? Let’s look at people in their real lives as they find a way to juggle exercise, nutrition, family and work. Can we document these lifestyle changes to show it’s possible for people looking to lose, eh... a little weight? Or even just to be a healthy role model for their own children?