Relaxing weekend

So we didn't do much this weekend.  Worked out yesterday morning while the kids enjoyed the nice, clean basement.  Jon took the kids to the store in the afternoon, where they bought the ingredients for my special birthday treat I'll make Tues/Wed.  Today they went to church while I worked at home as usual.  Trying to finish up the last of a project for my company.  Hopefully will finish up tomorrow and might even get a night or two of no work before the new month begins! 
Tried 2 new recipes today.  One was great, the other great but not so kid friendly.

Breakfast - Grain and Sugar Free waffles 
The kids really liked these.  Although next time I need to not forget to spray the waffle maker and I bet everyone will like them more.  Probably should double the recipe too to end up with some leftovers.  Should think about something for syrup as well.

Dinner - Wheat Free Stuffed Peppers 

Jon and I thought these were great!  The kids, not so much.  It sure doesn't help that I think James is getting his 2yo molars right now either.  Carolyn ate about 10 bites and then helped herself to a pear, which she ate nearly all of.  James had an apple, I'm still amazed that he's already eating them right off the core.  I think the hard but juicy part helps his mouth a little.

Tomorrow is "O" day and we'll be making Omelets for breakfast.  I'll update on how I get the kids to help me after we do it.  Two more brand new to us recipes coming later this week, so stay tuned!

Slow and steady, right?

Slow and steady wins the race, right?  I'm happy to report that I'm down 2lbs this week.  So heading in the right direction now.  I have a lot more energy than I should for James being up with a fever last night too.  Haven't made anything very exciting the last few days, so haven't been posting.  Wednesday night we did ham, potato, carrot, and green bean soup.  Thursday night we did leftover, and last night we did scrambled eggs with cheese and ham in them.  Tonight we're getting take out again like last week.  I'm looking forward to the yummy ribs. 

I made bread today with Pamela's bread mix thanks to my Dad for my birthday.  It was good and the kids really like it.  It will serve as a decent transition as I try to make grain free bread.  It's a good treat though for the kids since they can handle the higher carb load.

Sat down today and made the plan for the week.  I'm looking forward to trying some new recipes, especially a cupcake one for my birthday.  I'll let you know how they all turn out after I make them.  I'm also looking forward to working less this week.  Two weeks in a row of over 20 hours is tough.  But it'll be nice to see the paycheck, along with our tax refund, and Jon's backpay all next month.

Jon is worried about much more expensive this style of eating is going to be.  I'm hoping that he'll see it's not that different, we're just spending our money differently.  And of course I'm hoping to put together a nice, large garden this summer that will offset some of the costs, for at least part of the year.  It's going to be tough to get him completely on board.  I'm just hoping that the benefits he feels after he gives it a try will convince him.

Feeling Full!

It's amazing how much less hungry I am getting.  Don't feel the need to snack anymore and much smaller portions keep me going for longer.  And I am getting my energy back too.  Did a great crossfit workout today and pushed myself, but didn't feel like I was going to die afterward.  Looking forward to playing soccer tomorrow and having the energy to run around a bunch.

Breakfast was haphazard
Carolyn - hardboiled egg, carrots, banana, clementine
Me - PB waffle leftover from Sunday, milk, clementine
James - waffle, banana, clementine, raisins

Lunch was leftovers while I was on a conference call
Ham, cheese, apples

Dinner was an attempt at alternative pizza crust.  It didn't go over very well.  It was quite filling and we ate it, but we will not make it again.

I am excited to get some of my birthday presents this year as I've asked for some of the special ingredients that don't quite fit into our regular food budget.

Off to finish listening to Obama's State of the Union.

Great Day

So my weekend issues definitely appear to have been cycle related.  I felt SO much better yesterday!  Had energy, wasn't hungry except as meal times approached, and only had occasional headaches.  Had yummy food throughout the day too.  I also did some research about whether I should focus on cutting my carbs that remain after eating wheat.  It seems that might be the key to weight loss.  However, that can result in ketosis and ketones can pass through breastmilk.  So until June and James is weaned, I'm going to stop at simply giving up wheat.

Breakfast - scrambled eggs with ham, green pepper, mushroom and cheese

Snack 1 (kiddos) - string cheese and cantaloupe

Lunch - Nachos with corn tortillas, refried beans, avocado, salsa, black olives, and cheese.  Sour cream on the side.  Kids also enjoyed blueberries and James had some extra olives.

Snack 2 - 1 piece chocolate (kids) and almonds

Dinner - Brocolli cheese soup  I did use 2 cups shredded cheddar and 1 cup monterey jack that I shredded myself.  I think I might add in more cheese in the future.

Both kids gobbled up breakfast, both snacks, and dinner.  I was surprised to see that they weren't too interested in the nachos, beyond the chips and sour cream.  This means I might just have to find a guacamole recipe for them to use up the other avocados.  For them, if you can dip it, they will eat it seems to be the case.  The soup was pretty good and both kids ate 2 bowls each.  They also had applesauce for "dessert".  My silly 3 year old in action again requesting applesauce as dessert.  Hard to turn down that kind of request though!

Trying another new recipe tonight, stay tuned for the results!

Mystery solved?

So I think I discovered the reason behind my crummy feeling weekend... being female!  I've been feeling a little better since I officially started a new cycle this afternoon.  But it does help me to make some sense of all of this, and likely blame the dizziness on that.  If the past is any proof, I'll feel better when I wake up tomorrow morning.  I discussed the exhaustion with my OBGYN previously and he was puzzled why it would come on before the actual start.  This could explain the huge weight change as well.

Had a good day as far as food is concerned today.  Definitely feel a lot fuller more easily.  So will probably start to eat less and hopefully begin losing in the next couple weeks.  Here's to hoping I'm now on the road to recovery!

Dinner Tonight
Ham
Frozen Peas and Carrots
Rice w/ butter and garlic powder

Very simple Sunday meal that takes a while to cook.  But looking forward SO much to the leftovers for lunch this week.  And later in the week we'll put the ham bone in the crockpot for a yummy soup.

Excited for tomorrow's dinner, something I've been meaning to make for a while.  Stay tuned!

Dizzy

Okay, so this is not going so well.  For the past 36 hours I have been dizzy on and off.  This fits into the almost unbearable column compared to previous dizziness episodes.  Combine this with the headaches that don't seem to want to go away and I'm not sure what to do. 

Last night we had a great dinner of ribs, salad, and frieds from Tommy's Red Hots in McHenry.  It wasn't terribly expensive ($17) and was pretty good.  Leftover salad even for today's lunch.  This morning we had waffles, made with a recipe found here.  It was very filling, only needing 1 waffle and some bacon for breakfast. The rest of the family didn't seem to be big fans, so we'll still be searching for a new waffle recipe.  Will probably try this as bread at another time.

Ready to be over this dizziness though.  I thought that was the one thing that would surely be fixed by going wheat free.

Disappointment...

So after nearly a week (officially tomorrow @ lunch), I honestly expected more.  Today I've been exahusted, really wanted to nap when the kids were down.  Would have been a great day to do so too, since James slept 2.5 hours in his crib!  But I was working.  I worked out pretty diligently this week - Mon, Tues, Wed, and today did a crossfit workout.  Those are tough and heavy weights with a tiny bit of cardio due to the circuits built in.  Wed night I played 2 soccer games, sitting out only about 2 minutes.  Friday I shoveled snow for over an hour, so chose to skip working out.  Scraping the ice off the driveway was actually somewhat therapeutic.

Today I'm not as hungry.  Had a great breakfast of bacon and an omelet with cheese and green pepper.  For lunch I had chicken salad, monterey jack cheese, and carrots.  I'm still full from that almost 4 hours later.  So that's definitely a good thing.

I went to bed at 8, Jon says I was out at 8:15.  But I tossed and turned most of the night and have been up since 6 for the most part.  What gives here?  I thought sleep was supposed to improve.

I'm still having headaches.  They, of course, could be due to the weather and the crazy dryness that we're experiencing.  Luckily it's due to warm up a little and hopefully the snow melting will help with that some.  But headaches are a big reason I was doing this.  I'm still getting dizzy too.

I know, I really shouldn't expect miracles after a week.  But I was expecting to notice something positive.  I had big hopes when I got on the scale this morning.  I have plenty of weight to lose, probably 40lbs to be considered "normal" BMI.  Not that I consider BMI a good measure, especially considering that I know I am pretty strong (muscle) and have a large chest (34FF).  But I also have plenty of inches to lose all over and pounds to go with it.  Yet, I gained 5lbs from the last time I weighed.  I'm going to give this 4 weeks, so until Feb 12.  But I honestly have to say that if I don't start to notice some real benefits here, I don't know I can keep this up.  I took measurements today and recorded them on my computer, but I'm a little embarassed to share them.  So I'll simply report back on the changes I notice starting next week.  Although it was interesting to discover that my left thigh is 1" smaller than my right.  I'm sure there's some margin for error there, but that's a big difference.  Makes sense I suppose since I'm a righty.

Hoping to share better news next week!