Fearfully & Wonderfully Made

Sometimes you have to spice things up or it will get boring. One of my favorite recipes is a marinade that I used for chicken, steak, etc. it's a heavenly mixture of olive oil, soy sauce, Red Wine vinegar, fresh garlic, ginger, brown sugar & rosemary. One of my favorite things is when I mix it up and just start at it before the oil completely separates and the rosemary creates a lovely spiral affect on top. The grill has been my choice of cooking lately and I'm thankful my husband is quick to grill for me. Mmm... we've had some yummy steaks. This week I will marinate chicken.

Some days I just want to quit. I don't want to deal with the hassle of preparing food. I just want to drive-thru and say forget about it. Today especially packing and preparing to go the zoo with Michael and Peter. I mean I was already making sandwiches for them. Why do things different for me? Why not make a PB&J since I was already doing it? I mean if I fixed a salad for myself wouldn't I look hoity-toity amongst the other moms with their sandwiches and bags of chips? So I told myself. Just do it. Just keep doing it. Don't worry about what others think. Don't cave into the easy and simple. I fixed myself a salad and cut up strawberries and apples that I knew I could also share with the boys. Some almond butter to dip my apples in. I know some days I "fail". Sometimes I have setbacks. Sometimes I cave and have a dessert splurge or a sugary coffee drink with a friend. But the difference is I don't call it quits when that happens. I get right ba...

I recently purchased a bundle of e-books on home-making. Super steal. 97 e-books for $29.00 (a value of $640.00). In addition I also scored some free deals. A company called Cultures for Health gave me a free starter for yogurt. I got a Greek yogurt start for free and all I had to pay was three dollar shipping. I'm a fan of Greek yogurt. I love the thick tangy creaminess. I love drizzling it with honey and adding fruit. I enjoy the probiotics and the great amount of protein I'm getting. What I don't like is the cost. It's so expensive. So I'm branching out and making my own. Wish me luck. I'm super nervous because it seems really complicated. I never thought I would be one of THOSE women. You know, the kind that make their own yogurt. We'll see...

Over a week and a half in and I'm down 8 pounds. I know today's a special day with it being the twins birthday so I'm trying to set myself up for success. This means dark chocolate and macadamia nuts when everyone else is splurging on ice-cream or cake etc. I might be adventurous and make some kind of paleo/primal cake tonight. We'll see how long today is out. Lunch at Chick-fil-a and a trip to the zoo... oh what fun! Looking forward  to learning how to manage around special times.

I fixed our Cobb salads for lunch today last night. I wanted to try and be ahead of the game. There's nothing worse than trying to start a new plan and not being prepared for it. You're starving and questioning yourself, what can I eat, what can I eat? I think one of the biggest differences between Paleo and Primal diets is that Primal allows you to have dairy. Not often and not much but still. So this morning all I could think is I don't want MEAT for breakfast. So I ate Greek yogurt and was satisfied. Off to munch on my Cobb salad now. Grateful it's already made and all I have to do is shake my home made dressing again and toss my salad.

What is primal blueprint you might ask... Here's a simplified answer...

My husband recently came home from a trip and was enthused about us trying a new lifestyle... Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. (It's Paleo with a twist.) So we bought two books. Primal Bluepring and the 21 day total body transformation. I was amazed at how he talked about how we are killing our bodies with overproduction of insulin that causes us to store fat and have inflammation throughout the body. After reading the first book I was trying to decide when was a good time to start. This past Monday I decided enough's enough and I started. I cleared out the pantry. Gone went most of the carbs and other pitfalls to our new eating style. I still kept a couple of boxes of cereal for the kids and their granola bars, etc. I went grocery shopping and loaded the cart with fresh salmon, vegetable and grass-fed beef. I could tell detoxing from carbs was hitting me on Monday and severely on Tuesday. Headaches, dizzy, fever, sluggishness. I continued eating primal anyway. We have pe...