Food Journal: Day 3

This morning I spent 20 minutes debating if I should just throw my scale away. I have been fighting ten pounds since last year. I don't know why those pounds came on and no matter what I do WILL NOT come off. I hate thinking about it, I hate obsessing about it. Because I know better. But they just eat away at my positive thinking.

Enough of my morning pity party.

Food Journal: Day 3 (sorry if you are sick of this but boy it keeps me accountable)

Breakfast: Wheatless Egg Wrap & Banana

Snack: Lara Bar

Lunch: Chicken Booyah

Dinner: Chicken Sausage and Sweet Potato Fries

Workout: Something :)

Food Journal: Day 2

So I had planned squash and zucchini for dinner but this is how dinner went...
4:30 pm  I come home from school starving. I decide to just make dinner.

Heat up squash, cut up apple, put a small dab of organic caramel on it, cut a piece of carrot, pumpkin cake.

Decide squash is not what I want. Eat apple. Cut another one, decide I don't like the caramel.
Eat pumpkin bar. Still hungry, grab gluten free chips and dip. Eat some. Decide I am thirsty. Decide to stop eating.

If I could make every meal a smorgasbord of food I would. I love to pick at my food and have an array of items. Tonight, I am at school til 8 so I do not have that luxury.


Day 2:

Sleep - 7.5 hours

Breakfast: Wheatless Egg Wrap

Step One: Lay out deli meat, cheese and spinach.

Step Two: Cook Egg

Step Three: Wrap together

Snack: Banana and Lara Bar

Lunch: Salad & Fruit

I go through phases with salads. It is a love hate relationship mainly because I dislike salad dressing. However, I think I have found my staple salad and dressing. It is the perfect combination of savory and sweet.

Chicken Breast, Gala Apple, Feta Cheese, Onion, Spinach and Sunflower Seeds - topped with Red Wine Vinegar and Olive Oil.

Afternoon Snack: Celery and Peanut Butter

Dinner: Amy's Gluten Free Veggie Lasagna

AHMAZING! I will definitely be getting this again. I am not one for microwave meals but this did the trick.

Overall, a great day. I have conferences until 8 and then I plan on going to the gym for a quick run. I know I will be tired and but I know I won't regret it.

Food Journal : Day 1

After a continuous week of reading and listening to the argument of a gluten free diet I have decided to journal 30 days of eating gluten free. I will continue to eat unprocessed foods but now I will also take gluten out of my diet.

I am planning on meeting with a nutritionist later this month. Mainly, because I want to see how my body works, also because I think it would be super cool. My hope is that by journaling I can show the doctor exactly what I am putting into my body.

If anything it allows you to see what I eat everyday.

Day One:

Total Sleep: 7 hours
Not quite enough sleep. I could tell that my body was not ready for Monday.

Breakfast: 7:30 a.m.

2 eggs, havarti cheese, natural turkey breast, organic ketchup and spinach.

Snack: 10:15 a.m.

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt, raspberries, blackberries with honey.

Lunch: 12:00

Spinach with chicken, apples, onion, feta cheese and tomatoes topped with red wine vinegar dressing.

Dessert: gluten free pumpkin carrot cake

Afternoon Snack 3:30 - apple

Dinner: 7:30 Acorn Squash & Zucchini

Workout: 4 mile run & weights

Garbage Diet

My wonderful-tell-it-like-it-is-keep-me-in-check friend Taylor sparked this post.

Why choose to eat whole foods or paleo (whatever you want to call it).

I hate that I called it a diet. Because it isn't you are putting natural food into your body. I ran across this post from another blog, The Girl Who Went Paleo...

It has recently become a huge pet-peeve of mine if someone says "Paleo 'Diet'." I cannot for the life of me understand why people think that eating WHOLE FOODS is a diet? It's so absurd that people's mind really think this way.

"Oh, you're on the paleo diet?"
"Uhm, no. I eat real, whole foods while you eat garbage from a box. What do you call your way of eating? The garbage diet?"
....

Paleo eating is only a style of eating. Vegetarians or vegans aren't associated with dieting because of their food choices, are they? I didn't think so either. It's a personal choice that some people have the hardest time grasping.

I think people in the 1800's would look at us now and wonder what the heck happened to us. Why do we have companies making all of the junk on our groceries shelves and why do people consume it? I don't know about you, but I like eating the way I do.

I couldn't have said it better myself. As much as I stumble and catch myself with this lifestyle I am truly learning. I find that when I eat processed food, wheat and sugar I get migraines, bloated and other wonderful things. When I go on a weekend where all rules are out the window I usually spend the next week out of sync. 

It is hard to do something that is right, but your culture deems it extreme or weird. I am the first to admit I have popcorned around with different weight loss methods and diets. I am realizing that I want something that is healthy. My weight is just an annoying nuisance that I can't shake. And if you know me well enough you know that I love to be in control and understand why things are the way they are.    

Stick with the Plan

Lately, I have been playing around with different methods of clean eating.

Eating totally unprocessed.

Eating unprocessed and "real" food.

Eating unprocessed, real, mostly organic food.

Eating unprocessed, real, organic paleo food.

The 30 day challenge...no grains, beans, dairy or sugar (that sucked).

Here is the problem. I workout everyday. I mix strength and cardio. I teach people how to work out. I write a blog about how to live healthy.

Then why am I gaining weight. I eat enough, I manage my portions and I rarely "binge" eat. When I do "binge" eat it is on organic chocolate chips and peanuts.

I don't want to be 100 pounds. I don't want to look like a super star. I want to do the right things to make my body last and work to it's fullest. I should also be losing excess weight in the mean time.

I recently read an article on the effects of grains. It also seems to me that people with a lot of success in healthy eating, eat primarily paleo. I talked with my amazing supportive husband and expressed how I want to stick with ONE thing for at least 30 days. Since I am always lingering between one of the above methods.

I wish I could just not care. But I do. I want to set a good example for others and I want to prove that you can eat FOOD, real wholesome food and maintain a healthy and happy life.

Unprocessed Updated

I got knocked down and I got up again. I had a big unprocessed fail.

Then I started over.

Here is what my day looked like yesterday.

Breakfast:
Coffee with half and half
Ezekiel 4:9 Bread
Organic Deli Ham
Dill Havarti
Cage Free Organic Egg

Snack:
Apple

Lunch:
Acorn Squash
Butter
Almonds

Dinner: (my night time snacking is bizarre)
Apple with Peanut Butter
Raisins and Peanuts
Organic Blue non GMO Tortilla Chips
Deli Meat
Grapes

45 minute spin class

It was a successful day. I am working on not snacking at night by eating ENOUGH during the day. Also, I was less than impressed with the spin class. The instructor did know how to clip in her shoes and she had a hard time keeping up. Don't get me wrong I have had my bad days too but....woah. Let's get motivated here.

October Unprocessed

I had the best weekend with my best friends. It was processed and full of poor choices but it was worth it. Sometimes you just need that. Leaving on Sunday my body was not happy with me but it set me up perfectly for October Unprocessed.

It is a pledge to eat unprocessed food for the month of October. The author of Eating Rules explains unprocessed as something that you can make yourself in the kitchen. If it has a label and can not easily be reproduced then it is processed. The best part of this challenge and his philosophy is that you can make unprocessed fit to you. 

If you don't think you can go totally "unprocessed" for a month then choose a highly processed and chemically altered ingredient to cut out aka high fructose corn syrup. 

To give you some unprocessed meal inspiration, here is our meal from tonight:

Organic boneless skinless Chicken Breast cooked in Ghee and seasoned with Penzey's Lemon Pepper. With roasted Baby Red Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Green Pepper, Onion and Zucchini. Put all of it in the oven at 400 for about 25 minutes.