Whole 30 Day 17

I have had another successful day.  It is very tempting to grab a little bit of sugar from the kids' Valentines stash at this point.  When I needed something of a different taste I grabbed a prune today.  I have to say that the longer I go in this the more disappointed I'm becoming.  I don't feel a change in energy and my clothes aren't fitting any looser.  With 13 days left I am wondering if there are any changes that are even happening.  But I will stick with is in case something is just not visible yet.  It doesn't help that my ankle is still not better and it has turned super cold again.  I made an appointment for an injury screening at Athletico tomorrow to see if things are worse than I originally thought.  I continue to have pain at the front of my ankle and could barely walk last night.  Today I have used a combination of the ace bandage and air cast to get me through the day.  If I walk with my ankle nearly locked I don't experience pain.  But this is very difficult to do for any amount of time and the muscles quickly tire.  So we will see what a professional has to say.

Not much exciting went on today.  I didn't have a ton of work, so I nearly finished it before going grocery shopping.  I finished up this afternoon as I was given a new mentor on my team.  I found some time to make sweet potato chips.  They didn't some out as crispy as I had hoped.  So I think I will try baking them in the oven next (I had used the dehydrator.)  I am considering trying to make some dried fruits, maybe some bananas or something.  These could be really good to pack for our plane trip this summer and/or even for the kids to take in their lunches for school.

Breakfast: Eggs fried in coconut oil, beef jerky, orange
Lunch: Leftover offal meatloaf, cauliflower, sweet potato fries
Dinner: Meatball stew new recipe from Frugal Paleo Cookbook over zucchini noodles (kids had corn based pasta).  This meal took a lot longer to prepare than I thought it would, but everyone loved it and both kids have declared they want it for lunch tomorrow.  So this will go into our rotation for days I have more time to prepare a meal.

Time to go put together a library list so Carolyn can have some new things to read!

Whole 30 Days 9 and 10

I'm 1/3 of the way done with this challenge!  I continue to do well on it.  I don't notice any weight coming off though, which is a bit of a bummer.  The good news is that my ankle seems to be healing pretty quickly.  I was able to do all the grocery shopping today with no brace.  I decided to put the air cast back on for the rest of the day though as my knee was starting to bother me.  I must have unconsciously been walking differently but now that I'm using the brace my knee is fine.

It's been snowing here since about 10am, but there's barely a dusting on the grass.  I was hoping this was the big snow we've been waiting for.  With the temperatures forecasted in the 50s this weekend it looks like this snow may be void of any playing in the snow.  I suppose the Spring sports are likely excited about the early warm temperatures!

Day 9
Breakfast: Eggs fried in coconut oil with salsa, Blueberries
Lunch: Leftover chicken stir fry
Dinner: Beef roast, sweet potato "fries", green beans

Day 10
Breakfast: Eggs fried in coconut oil, orange
Snack: Banana (at 12 since I wouldn't get lunch until after 1)
Lunch: Leftover chicken stir fry
Dinner: Tacos - new recipe for the meat from The Frugal Paleo Cookbook which got 5 star reviews from both kids.  Kids had theirs in corn tortillas topped with tomato and cheese, I had mine in romaine lettuce topped with tomato.

Whole 30 Day 8

Another day completed.  I sprained my ankle at soccer last night, so I did not sleep well.  I have kept it wrapped in an ace bandage, under ice, or in my air cast all day.  I spent a chunk  of the morning trying to remember where I put the air cast.  Funny enough, I had put it somewhere I would need it most... in my soccer bag!  I could have put it on last night and probably walked a bit better.  I have wonderful teammates though that helped me to the front desk, where we got a rolling desk chair, and then a teammate drove my car home while someone else followed.  I am feeling significantly better today and will ice one more time before bed.

Despite the pain of my ankle today, it's been a decent day.  I managed to complete all of my work this morning before heading to the school.  So this afternoon I spoke with Doris (my late grandfather's girlfriend) for a while and then worked on Carolyn's scarf.  It was really nice to hear from Doris - so mentally aware for 98, she was working on her taxes!  The scarf is coming along nicely as well, 2 of the letters completed and then it will go more quickly.  I might finish before winter ends.  The kids had their activities this afternoon - acting for James and softball for Carolyn.  Carolyn is really enjoying the classes and the coach has suggested she try out for the fastpitch this fall.  We'll see how things continue to progress.  I did find out about some possible summer opportunities for her to play which actually sound like they fit into our schedule pretty well.

While Carolyn was in her class, I sat with James and read some books.  He picked up one and I asked him to try it.  I had to ask him if it's a book he's read before as he was reading it SO well.  He has progressed so much this school year with his reading it's amazing.  I was shocked to see the words he was able to read without even sounding them out.

I started the kids working a bit on mobymax again.  It's interesting as both seem to love the science portion of the site.  It talks them through some lessons and then has them answer questions.  They are both working through their math facts as well.  Carolyn finished the addition in 2 days and is over 30% of the way through subtraction.  This was kind of expected and she's excited to move on to multiplication soon.  James again has really surprised me is at 52% for the addition already.  I do give him 10 seconds compared to Carolyn's 6 seconds as it takes him longer to find the buttons to push.  Plus I'll probably reset his account at the start of next school year and move the time down then to be sure he knows them all.  I am really interested now in what his NU CTD test results are going to look like.  Both of these kids continue to amaze me on so many levels.

Breakfast - 3.5 eggs fried in coconut oil, green pepper, blueberries
Snack - tea with lemon
Lunch - Leftover chicken stir fry
Snack - cashews and brazil nuts
Dinner - Chicken "nachos" - I pulled my portion out and put the chicken over romaine lettuce then added the avocado, cilantro, and green onions - the rest of the family I put corn tortilla chips into a pan, topped with the chicken and then melted monterey jack cheese on top, topped by the avocado, cilantro, and green onions.  This has become a new family favorite and is quite easy to prepare.

I got a spiralizer in the mail today.  I can't wait to give it a try.  So much so that I think I might change up our meal plan for the weak and do pasta on Thursday, giving myself zuchinni noodles instead.  I am excited to use it for making stir fry as well.  I have a feeling the kids will enjoy use it too.

Week 1 complete!

Can you believe that today completes the first week of the year?!  It feels like just yesterday we were celebrating Christmas.  Of course, we did just take down the tree and decorations today.  The living room feels so spacious without the tree.  We haven't had the furniture in this configuration with the construction completed and no tree yet, so it's strange to have it gone.  At the moment a stack of bins is in the tree's place until the temperature gets a level which carrying them out and unlocking the shed won't require thawing out afterwards.  Even the fireplace seems barren without the garland, stockings, and nativity.  But it's very nice to feel the extra space and I will no longer have to worry about James knocking over the tree riding his tricycle or Carolyn doing a cartwheel into the tree.

School was canceled today due to the cold.  This is just crazy to me, I think we might have had 1 snow day in all my elementary/high school days combined.  We'll be home again tomorrow as well.  I anticipated having tomorrow off, so we spent the morning at the library and picked up craft sticks at Joann's this morning.  Tomorrow morning we'll work on Carolyn's log cabin and James' farm as we complete their KWL sheets.  They are enjoying learning about a topic chosen themselves and getting to make a project from it.

At the library I realized why Carolyn will always be ahead of grade level in math.  Her brain works like mine and she wants to know things.  The library has various puzzles set out to complete, mostly for toddlers.  She sat down in front of a 6 piece police car puzzle just before we left and took 3 pieces out, then declared it was half a car.  I asked her why she thought that.  This led to a 5-10 minute discussion of fractions, wherein she moved puzzle pieces around and thought about how 2 pieces in is 2/6 or 1/3, 3 pieces in is 1/2 and 4 pieces in is 4/6 or 2/3.  She did the division of 6/2 easily, really without realizing that is somewhat of an advanced concept.  This may not be a normal discussion for a parent to have with a child, but she craves these sorts of interactions and initiates them herself.  She would be an ideal candidate for unschooling.  The pile of books we brought home from the library is awesome - she wants to know about pioneers, presidents, and some random archduke because she was interested in the name.  Then she chose a pile of chapter books and picture books.  During quiet time today she read 2 of the chapter books and a few others throughout other parts of the day.  I'm looking forward to working with her tomorrow.

I have made 2 more new recipes this week.  Monday was our typical standby of homemade pizza which we've enjoyed as leftovers for lunch the last 2 days.  Tuesday we tried lemon chicken which does not seem to be a family favorite.  James stated it was too sour and didn't eat much.  So it likely won't be repeated for some time.  Today I made beef and pumpkin stew which was really good, but Jon did not appreciate the pumpkin taste.  I thought it was great, so I might try to tweak this by swapping the pumpkin with something else.  I'm not typically a fan of stews, but this kind of hit the spot.  Tomorrow we're doing an old favorite sweet potato hash.  My body seems to definitely by adjusting to no sugar.  I find that I have more energy and am sleeping a bit better.  I can't wait to see this weekend if it's also leading to some weight loss.  The pile of cookies on the counter does keep calling my name, but at this point I seem to be able to avoid them.  This weekend I think it's all going to be thrown out since it's old anyway.  Great to be getting good food in and starting to feel better!

Enjoying my kitchen!

We have been home with a fully functioning kitchen for about a month now.  With the holidays officially over, I am excited to get back into my kitchen and try some new recipes.  We seem to get caught in eating the same 7-10 things over and over since I'm too tired on Friday nights when to find new ideas and make a list.  So a few days ago I sat down and figured out meals for the next several weeks, tricky only due to gymnastics Tues/Thurs and art class on Mondays.  Since we eat so early I have to do quick to cook or crockpot meals on these days.  But Sunday and Wednesday I can cook whatever I want.  If things get too stressful I might even switch our leftover night to Thursday and cook on Fridays.

I pulled recipes from a list of Whole 30 approved meals.  I'm not doing a Whole 30 as that is really restrictive and our budget won't allow for it.  But it's great to have these guaranteed gluten free meals.  So tonight's main course is Crispy Buffalo Chicken Fingers.  The kids enjoyed helping to crush up the pork rinds and this took about 20 minutes to get into the oven.  I did simply cut up chicken breasts instead of buying chicken strips.  Looking forward to a new taste.  To accompany tonight I made potato fries - baked in the oven for 30 minutes at the same time as the chicken and frozen broccoli. Looking forward to a yummy new taste made from known ingredients.  Hopefully the kids will be a fan.

I also made Energy Balls last night.  I plan to send these in Carolyn's lunch as a "dessert" and use them as a quick breakfast when needed.  Both kids tried and approved them today.  Next time I think I might swap out the flax seed for gelatin.  I wonder if that would work?  It would certainly up the amount of protein in these, something I always seem to be looking to get more of with the kids.

I'm looking forward to trying some snack recipes for the kids as we go into this year.  If I can find a combination of things that need to be baked and that don't we'll have some good things throughout the year, regardless of the weather.

Off to try dinner!

Update:  Two thumbs up by me and Jon.  The kids think it's a bit spicy.  Hopefully with some more exposure to spicier foods they'll not be quite so impacted.  They did eat it by dipping in ketchup though, which they seem to do with most meat.  Which reminds me that I should really get around to making my own ketchup to get the sugar out.  We also discovered that we like the fries cooked at 400 much more than the usual 350.  This produced a nice, crispy outside and soft inside.  Hopefully this good meal will help this nausea and dizziness to go away.

Nuts

Stopped by the grocery store last night on my way to soccer.  Got a 9lb ham for just over $5, the kids will love that.  Also got more green pepper, cheese, oranges and other staples.  I also treated myself to a container of almonds.  Nuts are expensive!  Anyway, had them on the counter this morning and Carolyn asked about them.  Once we sat down to breakfast, I let her try one.  I wanted to be sure she could chew it well.  Not only could she chew it fine, but she loves them!  Kept asking for me.  This is good, because almonds are cheaper than cashews.  I also let James try a couple.  The first one he did great with.  The second one he spit out almost fully chewed, but I suspect it was because he wanted the orange I was peeling ;-).  He asked for another after the orange and had no trouble with it.  So I've found a great snack for all of us, with wonderful fats. 

I have a terrible headache this morning, but I suspect it's from interrupted sleeping last night.  I think James is going through an adjustment period with the no wheat and he's been up a lot.  Hopefully he'll get through this soon so we can all get some more sleep!

I played soccer last night and it felt wonderful!  I was super sore beforehand from the crossfit workouts, so a little worried.  When I found out we only had 1 sub, I was more worried.  But after I got going, I felt great.  I only subbed out for 2 minutes in the first game, since we lost our sub to injury for the second half.  So I played 38 minutes at center forward/mid.  Then I played the whole second game in goal.  Since they were playing the top team I had to do a lot of work.  Overall, a great night and it was amazing to not be exhausted afterwards.  If I can find the money, maybe I can play on 2 teams again next session.