Paleo Mayonnaise and BBQ sauce

Today I got busy in the kitchen and made Paleo Mayonaise and BBQ sauce.

I used the recipe from Well Fed 2 book. It turned out well but I only had extra virgin olive oil and my mayo came out very strong. Next time I will use regular olive oil and hope it will taste better.

The BBQ sauce came out great. I used the recipe from It Starts With Food and only added one little strip of anchovies. I totally love it. It is so easy to make I don't need to buy in store any more. 

For protein I made Nom Nom Paleo crispy smashed chicken recipe. It's in her iPad app or the cookbook. It came out terrific. Even my picky kids ate it (although not super enthusiastically.....).

I had it for dinner with tons of leftover veggies. I also made coleslaw from scratch with my new mayo. I am pretty happy. Haven't been hungry all day. Walked over 10k steps. 

I had a good first day. I am not missing my two squares of chocolate nor my once a day 1 tbs of heavy whipping cream in my afternoon coffee. 

Whole 30 Day 1

Not sure why I started today. I thought it's Jann1st :-)

In any case, doesn't matter as I am pretty eager to eat healthy.

Couldn't bring myself to plan the week ahead. I will stock up my regular veggies and meat and figure out what to make. 

Breakfast - packed to go since I went to ice rink with kids. Fried 2 eggs and 3 strips of Applegate chicken with Apple breakfast sausage with leftovers of zucchini with greens, mushrooms, dried tomatoes and tomato sauce. Packed it all in my thermos container. 

Lunch - didn't have anything ready so assembled a can of sardines in water, half leftover avocado, leftover 2 small beets (trader joes), tomatoe, Persian cucumber, half hard boiled egg white (leftover from my daughter) and a little bit green beans. 

Am feeling well for now. Not super full but not hungry. Sipping green tea just because it's pretty cold! Skated about an hour with my younger daughter. Hope that second half of the day stays the same.

Planning to make chicken breast for dinner. Will post separately. Am going to make mayonnaise now. 

I started moving my body. Still no scale change

I find it very interesting. Not stressing about it at all. It seems like I should be learning something about my body now. I have been eating really well for over a week now. When I say eating well I mean eating something like 2-3 eggs + veggies for breakfast (or like yesterday no breakfast), meat or fish with veggies (low carb) for lunch and same for dinner, on most days I had 2 squares of dark (85%) chocolate and ~2 times a week a small pack of sea snacks (seaweed). I think that about 3-4 times I had a really small portion like 1oz nuts (almonds/pistachios/macademia). Once I had Sophia's Survival Food 1oz pack of beef jerky. 

Today I had Fage Greek yogurt (2%) with 1oz slithered almonds and some frozen blueberries for breakfast. I did feel a little hungry in second half of the day while in previous days I don't remember feeling this. I wonder if the yogurt/dairy is affecting me.

I am starting The Whole 30 tomorrow so will not be having yogurt anymore, or my 1tbs of heavy whipping cream with my afternoon decaf coffee. I am curious to see how I will feel?

The scale isn't moving. But I am actually feeling like I have slimmed down. I am fitting into my size 4 jeans finally!

I did walk 10000 steps in the past 2 days. Today I took my kids for a short jog/run around our block and it feels great. I am pretty happy with myself.

I am feeling pretty good. I wanted to plan my meals for the week and do grocery shopping but I just cannot bring myself to plan. I really want to document my first Whole 30 and will try to photograph my meals but I am not sure I'll be able to. It's not like I will eat dramatically different. Just no Fage yogurt, dark chocolate or heavy whipping cream. Will have to stay away from food at social gatherings since they all use commercial dressings, sauces and marinates. No problem, I will bring my own tuna salad, have done it before.

Tomorrow I plan on making my first batch of mayonnaise and bbq sauce. 

Not hungry

I had a late dinner yesterday at around 8 pm. Now it is 9am and I am still not hungry. I know they say breakfast is most important meal but it's also important to listen to my body. I want to eat but am not hungry.

I made it to noon and still am not hungry. We are at a restaurant to celebrate my husband's birthday so I am ordering a lunch special of grill chicken and veggies. I am starting to feel a little light headed so it is probably time to eat. Seems like I intermittent fasted through breakfast.

Am feeling pretty good. We went bowling this morning so I had some movement in my day. My pants are feeling loose. :-)

Costco article Strategies for successful weight loss maintenance

In January Costco Connection magazine there's an article on successful weight Los maintenance.

It's a good short article.

The big revaluation for me is the importance of exercise. Not that I didn't know before......just that now it is connected to successful maintenance. Hope that the link takes to the article.

http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/201501/m3/MobileArticle.action?articleId=542878&pg=66&mobileWeb=true&lm=1419596587000

Infound a funny thing in last little box, tips for weight loss. There is a very short little bullet number 4 which says "chose vegetables as your only source of carbohydrates". :-) 

Whole 30?

I have been eating my 3 meals of protein and veggies in healthy fat (and 2 squares of dark chocolate) every day now. No weight loss. I am hovering at 146-147lbs. But I am not discouraged or frustrated. I know I will drop those 15lbs. When I do it I will decide if I want to drop a few more. Simply because I felt great at 130lbs and my clothes fit me right at that weight. 

Actually I am feeling much lighter today and my 'bigger' jeans feel roomy. I cannot weight myself as it will wake my husband. I will weight tomorrow. I did weight myself last night and was 147 in evening. I am guessing I am 2-3 lbs lighter ..... I suspect that staying away from Fage Greek yogurt this past week did good for me. 

I know that I want and need to incorporate exercise in my life. After reading the article innCostco magazine, I realize that I must incorporate exercise if if I want to maintain. I just need to establish a workable schedule for my exercise and for ME. Since I am a stay at home mom I find it hard to do anything for myself once the kiddos are home from school. I am more like a chauffeur, task manager, Sargent master, mediator, cook, waitress etc starting from 2 pm. My three options to move are early morning before getting ready for school, during school day or in evening after they go to sleep. The last option is not really practical during school year. I really want to wake up at 6 am and move but will need to sleep at 9:30/10 for that. The ideal is of course during the day when they are at school, this way I don't need to wake up super early. I keep sabotaging and keeping myself occupied. I should just do it. And make a plan for the days off. Basically, it should become a regular part of my day, like meals. 

So wishing myself luck. 

I already decided I will do The Whole 30 starting January 1st. I am trying to plan my meals. Wanted to plan the whole month but probably will not be able to plan ahead. I intend to plan weekly. Will sit down today/tomorrow and make a list of groceries. I am going through my recipes and www.nomnompaleo.com all Whole 30 posts. 

I also decided that I will not 'allow' myself indulgences of coconut ice cream or any other 'healthy' or creamy goodies even after whole 30.
Is this the end of tiramisu for me? I think so. Even in the rare occasions that I had it, I always wanted more, the pleasure was always too short and the pleasure was instant. I believe I will not miss it. My life will be better off without it and will not be any better with it (or other goodies). 

Food Junkies

So yesterday I was thinking about why I haven't been losing weight and even gained almost a pound but I am not too worried. I am eating a pretty clean diet. I could walk and move a little more. I have been looking all day at doing The Whole 30 and I think I will probably start Jan 1. Trying to figure out a plan and spending some time on the forums. I ordered few 100% cocoa chocolate bars online yesterday as I think having 1-2 squares a day will still be compliant and will replace my current 85%. I still want to lose weight and don't want to turn to nuts. I think I can eat them in pre measured amount when I exercise regularly and want to maintain. 

I finished reading the book Food Junkies. 

While it was interesting to learn about food addiction and hear people's stories it seems like the main suggestion is to admit/learn about the addiction, identify trigger foods, abstain from trigger foods, usually grains and sugar, and most important have a support system and community. 

It is a nice book all together. Gave me a little perspective on food and thoughts about food. 

While I don't think I am a full blown addict I believe I have some small degree of addiction sometimes. I was an undiagnosed secretly bulimic as a teenager, have been eating and thinking about food at different points in life. Mainly when I didn't have anything to do I used food to comfort me and keep me company. Today, I am doing much better but sometimes at social gatherings I can become pre occupied with food. Now that I know more I think it gives me the tools to deal with it. 

I also think that for me, the longer I have been off grains and sugar i am having gradually less thoughts about food. I hope that with time I will grow to not want the tiramisu just like it took me almost a year of not wanting pastry or bagels. I have learned now, after my gradual weight gain of 15lbs over the past year that this once in a while goodie is not good for me. I don't "deserve" it. It is not harmless. The fact that it is there and it's free doesn't mean that I deserve it. Even if I don't gain weight immediately doesn't mean I should have it. Even if others are eating it doesn't mean I should or even want.