My Paleo Journey

 I have been wanting to get back to the gym for a while now and just over all be healthy.  I have researched and studied and tried to decide what diet would be best for me.  What to eat.  What not to eat.  It is all so confusing for my little brain.  I needed someone to give me a step by step detailed instruction list of what to do.  So when a couple of my friends mentioned doing paleo, I started researching it.

One of my friends had amazing results from doing paleo and recommended this awesome blog to follow.... Robin's Sweet Confessions.  I remember being in Birmingham with Mom when I looked it up. When I saw that she gave me a grocery list AND a day by day step for what to do and what to cook... I was all in.  

I started off doing the 30 day challenge Feb 1.  I have never been a big soda drinker (I might would drink 1 a day.... or none... mainly depending on if I thought I needed caffeine), but I LOVE my orange juice every now and then and unsweet tea when we go out to dinner.  That all had to change.  Not to mention I absolutely LOVE cappuccino on cold days.   I have been drinking at least 107 ounces of water a day which is a huge deal for me because I am not a water fan. 

The hardest part for me was resisting what other people cooked (I would cook my own and take it with me), or going out to eat, or our trips to Birmingham and me trying to be strictly paleo.  While following her blog, I followed it pretty precisely.  I felt like I was cheating someone if I didn't do exactly what she said do.  I tried so hard to resist all temptation (I. LOVE. FOOD.).  On Valentine's Day I failed.  I had a cheat meal.  We went to eat with my mother in law and I took my own salmon and spinach dinner and when we got there she had cooked one of my favorite things, lasagna.  Needless to say I did enjoy a non-paleo Valentine Dinner.   Other than that I did really well with it.

I took pictures of myself on Day 1 and then Day 30.  Although I am not ready to share them with the world, I could tell a difference for myself.  I only lost 6 pounds, but I could tell the areas I lost inches in.

I love cooking and trying new things, so for me this has been fun. 

Thought I would share some of my meals with you.

 

This was spaghetti squash and chicken.  It wasn't one of my favorites.  I like sauces and with her recipe I couldn't use a sauce. 

Butternut Squash.  One of my all time favorites!

Okay.... this next one completely grossed Heidi out and intrigued the other two.  It was very good and we have since had it twice.  Heidi just not longer watches me prepare it.

I will say another challenge for me was doing away with a lot of my old ingredients and putting paleo friendly ones in their place.  Such as almond flour.  Just to warn you a small bag of almond flour is $12 at our local grocery store.  I almost fainted when I bought it.  I needed it for these muffins.....

Food prep is a lot of fun to me....

For some reason I did not save a picture of the cabbage rolls I made, but they are also one of my favorites.

I made this one at Moms.  She had made spaghetti (another one of my faves), but I resisted and took this to make.

I have eaten A LOT of this salad.  SO good to me!  Spinach, almonds, goat cheese, strawberries & I usually add blueberries.

This was a turkey burger, apple, and goat cheese

Heidi and I both were looking forward to this chicken pot pie, but it was NOT a favorite.

Steak! YUM!

I didn't take pictures of every meal because if you read her blog a lot of the meals repeat themselves.  But I tried to take a picture of most.  

I will say by doing this it has transformed my way of thinking when it comes to food.  I try to make healthier choices.  I am a huge sweet eater, ice cream, candy, etc.  So trying to do away with those has been hard.  I had my first bowl of ice cream this past weekend when we had strep throat.  It felt so good to my throat. 

I make sure we have lots of fruit on hand at all times..... by me making healthier choices for myself, it has rubbed off on the children and they'll grab an apple to eat rather than chips a lot of the time.

Tuesday night I made salmon that had soaked in lemon juice, paleo approved dijon mustard, salt, pepper, and a dash of garlic powder. 

Heidi requested homemade fried chicken and of course that night I made the prettiest fried chicken that I have made in a while.....

While they had that, I had this.....

But that was okay with me.  Resisting is still hard, but not as hard.  And this month I haven't been as strict on myself as I was the first month.  I want immediate results as does most people, but losing weight the right way just takes time.  I am enjoying making better choices and I have really began enjoying my mornings at the gym. 

One last picture before I go..... this was my breakfast this morning.  I wanted to do my eggs a little different than I have been so I did 2 fried eggs in coconut oil and had 2 pieces of turkey bacon.