This year is all about my body and my health! page 2

[anna-banana]

So far so good. No alcohol on Monday and Tuesday and just 1 glass of red wine last night with my bunless bacon topped burger and side wedge salad - happy!

Using paloetrack has been great and I'm definitely on the right track with my carbs being between 50-100 grams and I'm following Mark's guidelines on how much protein I should be taking in (looking at my lean body mass paired with moderate level activity).

I take two capsules of fish oil every day to ramp up my omega 3 take-in. Nonetheless, I have noticed that my Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio is a little high as I consume quite a bit of poultry for my protein. I am going to incorporate more red meat and fish to get the ratio into a better zone.

Soaked up some beautiful California winter sun yesterday during my lunch break and went for a 30-minute walk. Today it's time for a strength training session and a 30-minute walk again later.

I purchased coconut flour and flaxseed meal on Amazon and can't wait for it to get here so I can make this delicious grain free bread I found online: The Best Grain-Free Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread (In the history of man) | Life As A Plate
This will change up my work lunch routine a bit (currently home made salad with veggies and chicken or turkey breast)!

Grok on people!

[Cave Woman]

Good day, Anna!

That's interesting about the Omega ratios in chicken. I just read about that for the first time yesterday. Who knew?

Mary's Gone Crackers are the best commercial and commonly available flax crackers I've found. Very good tasting, and nice and crunchy.

My neighbor has just gone gluten free and is experimenting with lots of recipes. Shes had some luck and some failures, but once you find some faves its great to keep making those. I'm avoiding anything bread-like for now, and don't have cravings for it. I am looking forward to trying a thin pizza crust made of shredded, baked Parmesan cheese. I saw the recipe somewhere on this site. Gotta look for it.

Grok on!

[Cassanina]

Looks like you're doing well on your journey!

The bread looks good. I have yet to make any Paleo/Primal breads. I have made biscuits with almond flour, but am trying to minimize how much I eat those now as I really want to kickass at the weight loss. I have a reuniting with my boyfriend (home on his R&R from Afghanistan) end of February, and am going to the Caribbean first week of March, so wanna do the best I can until then. Cut out fruit too, so we'll see if it helps!

Let us know how the baking goes!

[anna-banana]

Thanks for the flaxseed cracker tip, I'll try to locate some. I love a good cheese and charcuterie plate, and some creamy cheeses are just better on a cracker than smeared onto a slice of meat - haha! Poultry is mainly grain fed, hence the higher omega 6 count than with grass fed beef, etc. Makes sense to also not consume too many animals that are on a grain diet. I saw that parmesan crust pizza, too, and am going to try it this weekend while watching football with the boyfriend. We'll see how he likes it!

Cassanina, I agree with you, I am also focusing on loosing weight right now, but wouldn't mind a sandwich at work twice a week. If it turns out well, I'm sure my boyfriend will destroy the rest of it anyway (he is a panini fanatic).
I'll let you know how the bread turns out once the ingredients arrive!
PS: Jealous about your trip to the Caribbean!

[anna-banana]

My boyfriend and I decided to declare today the national pork day. Everything we made had pork in it.
Breakfast: Frittata with pancetta, red bell pepper, green onions and a little swiss cheese
Lunch: Left over spicy chicken drumsticks wrapped with bacon that I made two nights ago - hand down the best chicken dish I've ever made (see picture)
Snack: We made crispy bacon covered in dark chocolate and sprinkled with chopped nuts before the chocolate hardened - what a treat! I love the salty sweet combo of the bacon and the chocolate.
Dinner: Mushrooms and deseeded jalapenos stuffed with left-over pulled pork; I wrapped the jalapenos with 1/2 slice of bacon and topped the mushrooms with some crispy pancetta.
OINK OINK!

We were lazy today and watched football and lounged around the house. Our plan is to go on our road bikes tomorrow and ride for an hour (not too fast, just a nice ride to get the heart rate going a little). After that we are starting dinner - beanless chili in the slow cooker. You gotta love dumping a bunch of ingredients in a pot and then letting it do it's own thing until dinner time!

Tomorrow is also time to prep some food for the work week. I'm going to boil eggs again for afternoon work snacks, put together some nuts and beef jerky baggies for the same purpose and make a salad for Monday lunch. Filling the fridge on Sunday with primal foods and having my lunch bag ready to go on Mondays really helps overlook the treats at the office!

Time to drink a cup of decaf tea and then hit the hay for some good sleep

[anna-banana]

I've decided to ramp up the weight loss a bit more. Meaning: no alcohol for a while and sticking to around 1,500 calories per day (have been going over by about 200-300 almost every day). I am also going to try to have an 8-hour eating window, breakfast at 10am and dinner at 6pm, with a light lunch around 1pm and a snack in the afternoon.

This morning I had a hard boiled egg (which I've started boiling on Sunday nights and then having them in the fridge for a quick snack or breakfast during the week) and a clamshell of blackberries.

We didn't end up going for a bike ride yesterday, but had a nice 1-hour stroll in the California morning sun around our neighborhood and park.

[Cave Woman]

You are doing great with all the cooking and thoughtful lunch prep! I love National Pork Day! Keeping it fun is so important. It is quite a chore to change your eating habits when working in an office or anyplace where there are the usual high carb things all over the place. Congratulations on keeping on track. You are reminding me that I really need to plan more meals ahead instead of flying by the seat of my pants.

[anna-banana]

The meal planning definitely helps. So far I've been packing a work lunch every day and that keeps me away from the cafeteria and the free (hence evil) frozen yogurt they serve on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I've been fortunate enough to be able to eat my lunches outside in the California winter sun, so I'm even fulfilling that primal law while munching on my tasty salads (today it was cucumbers, cocktail tomatoes, boiled egg, radishes, fresh dill, crimini mushrooms, and herbed roasted turkey breast).

Looking forward to coming home tonight since my boyfriend has been cooking beanless chili since 8am. Yummy!

[anna-banana]

Another pound down makes for a very happy day today! It's been tough only weighing myself about once per week, but I'm trying to stick with it. I emailed Mark today to sign up for the "In the Making" success stories journey. Didn't really care for my "before" bikini pictures, but that's only more motivation to stick with this.

The exercise portion is still giving me the most problems, I've got the diet part pretty much down. I can't seem to get myself to get up earlier in the mornings to go for a walk before work and when I come home around 5.30pm it is already too dark. I go for a 15-minute post-lunch walk at work everyday, but that certainly won't cut it. At least I go on a 1.5-2 hour hike every weekend, so that covers about half of my slow moving for the week. For now I should probably do more of the essential movements and get those reps up.

The chili last night for dinner was delicious and I'm about to have some left over here at work for lunch. Then outside to soak up a few rays and go for a quick walk.

[anna-banana]

Just bought Vibram FiveFingers KSO shoes online for my outdoor hikes and walks. Can't wait for them to get here next week!!!