Paleo Day 14

To be quite honest, I can not remember what I ate today. Probably bacon and eggs, leftover chicken fajita and I had some salmon and roast vegie chips.

mmmm dehydrated apple!

We have been using our new food dehydrator, and have made lots of apple and pear. It doesn't seem to last in this house though! It gets eaten straight out of the dehydrator!

Paleo Day 13

Garage Sale Day. I also managed to duck up to the gym for a quick weigh in. 1.3kg loss at the end of week 2! Awesome! Brings the total weight loss for this paleo challenge to 4kg! So pleased! 4kg to go!

I only ate a handful of mixed seeds/ nuts from Aldi, drank I don't know how many cups of tea. For lunch - around 2pm - roast chicken, avocado, a tomato and some lettuce again.

I went out for dinner with the girls from the gym, to Hogs Breath.  I had the Natural Prime Rib lite cut with grilled mushroom. the Paleo diet doesn't allow for corn, but I ate mine anyway. I got the guilts, but oh well. I had a good night! 

Paleo Day 12

It's boring, but I do live on left overs. I had bacon and eggs for breakfast (yes, again) and leftover something for lunch. I made Fix and Forget Chicken Fajitas. But instead of tortillas for the fajitas, I had baby cos lettuce leaves.

My kids actually love this! 

I did have 2 pieces of Loving Earth chocolate. Oh my, it's good!

I started to stress out (and burst into tears) about tomorrow's garage sale.

Paleo Day 11

I attempted the Almond Banana pancakes again and still failed. They still look like scrambled banana. On the other hand, with honey drizzled over, it's not too bad!

Went out shopping with mum and the kids and shared a salad with mum

Pre-shopping drinks. My green tea, mum's ice coffee,
Eden's pink baby cino (with marshmallows on the side)
and Jensen's green mini cino

Cajun Chicken Salad

Ate a bit of chocolate and ate the last (about 4-5) double choc biscuits. No dinner.

Having an it's all too much day

I just sent my kids to bed (well, an hour and a half ago now...) And I feel terrible. I feel like crying. I'm crushed. I was horrible to them. I didn't mean to be. For some reason they were just really frustrating me. It wasn't their fault. I could blame PMS and my stupid body for having to go through this every month, but I can't. I wont. I was a bitch. They're just kids. Kids being kids. Jensen was pesty, noisy, over the top, kept interrupting and talking over the top of, playing with Eden's train tracks (she got train tracks because he kept shutting her out of their room to play by himself coz he didn't want her to wreck it) and not letting her have a turn. Eden was just tired, grumpy, hungry, whingey, wriggly and bored.

I'm just a horrible mum. I'm sitting here still feeling the need to cry, surrounded by boxes left unpacked, stuff strewn everywhere from the move 2 weeks ago, with a million things going through my mind. The assignment that's due Monday that I've started, done most of it and just need to tweak words and add a few more bits of information, and then fix the referencing; the exam that's in 2 weeks; the garage sale that's on Saturday; are the carpet cleaners going to do a good job on Monday; I don't have a PT session tomorrow coz he's away, so what exersise am I going to do instead?; I didn't make dinner; what's for dinner tomorrow night?; I want to buy that satchel bag so I can cart my macbook laptop around and not have the stupid tupperware drink bottle LEAK all over it again; what do I wear to this hens night next weekend?; What do I eat/ drink on this hens night seeing as I'm doing an 8 wk paleo challenge?; What do I wear to the wedding the following weekend?; Why can't I get motivated to finish this assignment?; I'm tired.

God, I'm such a whinger.

We Heart Life's I Heart My Body 2012

I was too afraid last year to participate in We Heart Life's I Heart My Body challenge, but I really should. So I did. If you follow me on Instagram, my picture is there. This picture.

Be nice, people.

It's a bit brave of me, and oh - so - revealing, but this is me. This is who I am. I try hard to cover it up.

But you know what? I went from a size 10-12 when I met my husband. Ballooned to some really heavy weight, fell pregnant. Gained more weight. Had a baby. Breastfed. Lost weight. Plateaued. Lost more weight. Fell pregnant. Gained more weight. Had a baby. Breastfed. Lost weight. Started at a gym. Lost more weight. Gained muscle.

I've hit a turning point. I'm nearly 30 and live in jeans and t-shirts. This is me and I need to feel more like a woman (preferably more 'sexy' but I'm sure that will come with more weight loss!). So I decided to change what I wear. I have gone out and bought shoes - I'm not a shoe person. I've gone and bought some dresses (ok ok, 2 - and one was a hand me down).

This picture is me being brave and buying new swimmers, forcing me to see the weight loss, and what I actually look like.

This is me. I heart my body.

Paleo Day 10

Not much going on here. I'm getting bored. Eating lots of left overs. I had the last of the apricot chicken for lunch. 

But for breakfast I attempted the almond banana pancakes (recipe coming soon)

And left over meatballs and roast veg

Dinner or Snack? Zingy Chicken

I thought I'd make something different for my kiddies for dinner:

Zingy Chicken.

Jensen's not a big meat eater, but he did eat four morsels of this!

This is where you can find my really easy (not paleo) recipe:

Paleo Day 9

My days are pretty boring. For example, I took Jensen to Kindy, dropped off at the old place to let the Exit Cleaner we hired in, came home. Gave Eden a snack. Got her ready for her nap, put her down for a nap. Spent 45 mins updating my blog (backdating coz over the weekend it kept freezing hand having a heart attack). Then worked on my assignment. I think I could have finished it too but Eden woke. I was hoping for another 30 mins from her, but ah well. Got her up, made lunch. Left Eden with her grandparents, stopped at Kmart. Bought new swimmers (size 10!) and a dress (size 14 - what's with the sizing!?). Picked up Jensen, came home.

Boring.

But here's what  was on my plate today:

Bacon and eggs and mushroom for breakfast.
Lunch (and dinner - coz I live on leftovers!) :

Salmon and carrot and sweet potato 'fries'.

I also had 2 x snacks  of 2 biscuits each. And I lost count how many cups of black tea.

Paleo Day 8

Bacon and egg and mushroom for breakfast!

Kindy Run

Decided that I'd try and make the family ice cream and I'd attempt Paleo Coconut Milk ice cream. Remember we've just moved? I spent an hour (instead of doing my assignment) looking for the darn ice cream machine. I found it. Thank goodness, it was driving me mad not knowing where it was.

Before I started to make ice cream (which I will post recipes for later), I had morning tea. A cup of black tea and a slice of Paleo banana bread.

Then I attempted the coconut milk ice cream. If I only knew how this stove top worked, I'm sure the process would have been a lot quicker!

This was really gross apparently. I didn't have any, but Jensen's words were
"This tastes really terrible"

I also made Paleo Double Choc cookies. They taste terrible. Maybe it was my ingredients. I'll attempt them once more, just to be sure. I'm going to eat them regardless.

Left over apricot chicken for lunch.

Pick Jensen up.

Made meat balls for dinner. I can't make meat balls for the life of me, but these ones are cooked in the oven. Will be doing this next time! They worked out! Shame Eden only ate one and Jensen only ate 4. They seem to be starving (and they should have been after their big swim!) at night, but never want to eat what I cook. :(


I forgot to take a photo, but there are leftovers, and I'll edit this tomorrow with a photo!


The meatballs must have been good coz Andrew ate 2nds!

Paleo Day 7

Again,  I worked.

2 bacon, 2 egg; almond milk and 1 banana smoothie and a cup of black tea

This was a slow cooker recipe from the challenge menu plan. Sounded like it was going to taste terrible, but I ate it and it was delish!

I also at this again for dinner, it was that good! The Recipe is: Crockpot Beef and Sweet Potato Stew

Paleo Day 6

I work every 2nd weekend. So there's not much to tell about my day. Or my whole weekend for that matter.

But this was my Paleo eating;

granola; almond milk and 1 banana smoothie and a cup of black tea

 AGAIN, I forgot to take a photo of my butter chicken! So, yeah, I had butter chicken for lunch. I forget to take a photo coz I just dig in, it's that good!

Apricot Chicken. Next time, I'll use my other recipe. 

Paleo Day 5

Friday is Gym day! I personally both love and hate gym day! My PT session starts at 830am and finishes at 9am. Today was my last day walking to the gym. We've moved house, but we had work to to do at the old one and thought we'd park there and have one last walk up. I say 'we', because Andrew took the day off to help clean things up and move things. So the 4 of us set of. Andrew pushing Eden in the pram, Jensen and I walking slowly behind. Jensen and I aren't fast walkers, but Jensen is slower than me (and not just coz he's little). Turns out he forgot his shoes (AGAIN!) and had to wear sandals that had been left behind at the old house. He didn't bother to tell us they didn't fit and were rubbing the skin of his little toes until halfway through the 1.6km walk. He  screamed and whinged and cried and carried on. Finally when he told us, we took his shoes off and he had to walk the rest of the way barefoot. He was ok then.

This is how he travelled home. Check out Eden not letting him go!

Because it was a gym day, and week one into the Paleo challenge, and because I originally weighed in at the gym, I decided not to eat breakfast. I can't have food impacting on how much I have or haven't lost!

Toilet, scales and Oh My Gosh! I've lost 2.2kg this first week! That means just 5.3kg to my big huge ultimate goal (and also the one set by my trainer)! To my mini goal, just 3.3kg. There is still 7 weeks left of this challenge, so who knows! I so hope I can do this.

My reflection

When we got back from the gym, I ate my granola for 'breakfast' even though it was 9:30.

I didn't eat it out of this bowl, I ate it out of tupperware.

I also forgot it was Jensen's prep interview that day, so we got back in the car, went back home, got changed, went to the interview and went back to the old house. At the interview we were told that Jensen was one of the brightest so far of the 60 kids who had already had their interview. Proud mummy moment.

We got some stuff done at the old house, I had a boiled egg -2 actually, but Eden ate the other - for lunch. I also snacked on some mixed nuts. After a trip back to the new place to drop some stuff off, we left the kids and went back to do a dump run.

oh yeah, a bit of paleo chocolate!

On our way home, we dropped into a house that sells honey (you know, you see the signs that say 'Honey $ x a kg' by the side of the road?). Bought 1kg of honey (yep! We go through a lot of honey and local honey tastes better anyway!) for $6.50.

Andrew made dinner. I had left over vegies and he made marinated rump steak. We then crashed early coz I had to work this weekend!

Paleo Day 4

Breakfast:
Granola

Lunch:
Again, we were out. So I went to Sumo Salad and got a Classic Smoked Salmon. Oh, delish!

My snack was at the kids dinner time (5pm), on a Pork Sausage from Aldi. I had one.

My dinner was later at 7:30pm and was leftover Chicken Marsala and some roast vegies.

The roast sweet potato was just that. But I roasted the carrot and zucchini. This is the recipe and added mixed herbs and morrocan spice.

Paleo Day 3

ok, still not completely following the example menu plan, but day three of no rubbish food!

Breakfast:
Granola

While cleaning walls and floors etc from the house we just moved out from, after Eden woke from her nap, it was morning tea. As per the example menu plan, I had a piece of fruit.

Morning Tea:
Banana


Lunch
I forgot to take lunch with me, but I did have:
a boiled egg - well, 3/4 of one. Eden ate the other 1/4!


Afternoon Tea:
I had planned to eat 8 of my 12 mixed nuts (12 mixed nuts on the menu plan), except the kids ate 4, so I only had 4.

Dinner:
Now. I read my recipe over and over before I started. It reckoned maybe 20 min tops. I wager it took over an hour. It was worth it though! Next time, I'll use a thinner fry pan, it should work better - maybe even more to the recipe! The recipe is here - Paleo Chicken Marsala

Paleo day 2

Again, because I still hadn't been shopping and I was again unprepared for lunch.

BREAKFAST

Lunch was just before I went shopping, so again I bought lunch. This was it:

Pot of black English Breakfast tea

For the record, I did not eat the bread.
Instead, I brought it home for afternoon tea for the kiddies!

Food was bought, and dinner was 

BETTER BUTTER CHICKEN.  It was also not on the suggested menu plan, but it is paleo, and here is where I found the recipe. Again, I forgot to take a photo. 

Andrew was home late, so while waiting, I made granola  - for breakfast tomorrow! Here is the recipe I used.

I also had a snack - 4 mixed nuts.

Paleo day 1

Going PALEO again!

This time it's a 8 week challenge.

Start date: Monday 15 October, 2012
End date: Sunday 09 December, 2012 (right in time for Andrew's and my sister's birthday!)


We have been given a suggested menu plan for a week. While I'd have loved to followed the plan, I didn't go shopping until today.

This was Monday's breakfast:
2 egg omlette with capsicum, bacon and mushroom

Monday Lunch:
2 poached egg and smoked salmon (I was unprepared and Mum and I went to the Coffee Club)

I had already started eating it....

Monday Dinner:
Savoury mince, made with 500g beef/pork mince, capsicum, bacon, mushroom, tomato paste, onion and Tobasco. Maybe the tobasco wasn't paleo, but it wasn't much. It's all gone now, so I can't add it anymore.

<  I forgot to take a photo of dinner :(  >

Day one a success!

Moving

So, it's done. The majority of the stress is over, all the stuff we want (save for the garden shed - that's happening this weekend) is over here at the new place. I say new place, but really, it's my in laws place.  Yep, my little family of 4 has moved in with my husband's parents.  Before you baulk and freak out, I think (or I'd like to think) that I get along with them.

We condensed our 4 bed + lounge room into 3 rooms. We had to get rid of so much stuff. In a way, it was good, coz obviously we didn't need it. Garage sale next weekend!

The kids are set up in their bedroom. I made sure first that they were the most uninterrupted of all. They share a room, but then they did that at the old place. Set up straight away. Kept in routine too, so they think it's normal. For now, everything seems to be going well. Eden bed at 6-6:30pm, Jensen 7-7:30pm

Andrew and I have the master bedroom (my in-laws have done the lounge room up into their master bedroom / lounge room) and as tonight is only night 3, the room is stacked with boxes everywhere.

I still have to clean the old house, call exit cleaners, carpet cleaners, pest controller. We have to be all out on the 31st.

To add to all the stress of moving, packing and everything that goes with it, I have an assignment due next week. 7 days. While the research is done, I still have the 1500words to write.

I am exhausted, stressed, tired, overwhelmed. I can't stand the clutter. I don't know where anything is. Somehow I lost how to keep time and I'm all over the place with cooking dinner.