Yes, today is Day 22 of 2012 Resolutions!!! It is said it takes 21 days to change a habit.
Last week was typical real life for us Mama’s of young ones: a crazy week with 1 child up all night Tuesday and home 2 days with an ear ache (the naturopath’s remedy worked wonders…no antibiotics!); my other son off Friday for in service day and my hubby away 3 days for work.
There were afternoons last week where I thought, “scrap this, I need organic dark chocolate covered salted cashews more than these blueberries and walnuts!” But, the willpower kicked in and I resisted temptation. I have seen amazing changes in just the first 2 weeks that I wanted to keep at it no matter what was thrown on my plate for the 3rd week. I wanted to see how much more could be achieved by lessening the “potential intolerance foods” and exercising my body intensely on a daily basis.
My body feels sort of like it is taking a “sigh of relief”. You know how they say if you are allergic to something that when you come into contact with it that it feels like you want to jump out of your skin. This sigh of relief must be the opposite feeling in a good way. I feel way more energy (staying up later at night and getting more done); more time to just sit and play with the kids (better family balance); my oldest is having more productive/calmer days at school (less homework at night); still kept the 10 pounds off (I guess it was not just water weight!) and my skin is incredibly smooth instead of popping out the pores!
As for last week, the menu according to “Delicious Detox”…out the window!!! The good news though, after 2 weeks of whipping up recipes exactly by the book, I knew it by heart. So, the meals became simpler (lots of nut-butters with apple and sweet quinoa porridge!) and way more left overs. Another time-saver: bought whole roasted chickens from organic grocery store for the chicken recipes and also for a making a vat of my kids’ favorite home-made soup.
In terms of the “Insanity Challenge workouts”, I switched the power workout Wednesday video for the only stretch Thursday and skipped the stretch day, then switched the Sunday day off with the Saturday workout. It all worked out in the end and all I missed was a 30 minute stretch. It was tougher without my hubby as buddy for 3 days but it still got done.
Favorite meals & tips:
I think lots of water has been key and elimination of sugar ( although I thought I ate little, it would sneak in there, especially on exhaused days. I had never tried eliminating that one before.) My tiny 2 cup food chopper has been invaluable.
The recipes I loved from the 2 week menu:
-Warm spicy sweet potato salad…I ate it cold and omitted chili flakes
-Acai Love Smoothie…some acai puree has cane sugar added. Oops, added the wrong one but my boys loved that smoothie. -Pesto fish…I used pickerel and the slathered the entire pesto recipe over the fish. (distracted while cooking mistake that turned out to be a good one. My 7 year old loved it!)
-Tahini -lemon dressing is an amazing cesar salad dressing with no egg or parma! My hubby and I could not tell the difference.
-Spring green tuna pasta but I replaced tuna with chicken…yummy!
-sweet quinoa porridge…I took this one in my thermal jar to the movies twice so I would have something to snack on other than popcorn.
-curried lentil stew
-chickpea slaw
-lemon and artichoke pickerel
– tangy almond dipping sauce
-Squash soup
-tuna-mango rolls
The boys would not eat all of the recipes. But they did try at least one bite of each. I made sure to “spice down and plain up” some of the recipes for their portions. There is alot of raw garlic and chili flakes in these recipes. They still had used organic ketchup on the yam fries and organic mayo with their tuna crackers. For my oldest son, he loves the organic plain turkey slices with nothing weird added which was a time saver this week. Some mornings my snack, I simply had 2 spoonfuls of Pumpkin seed butter. It has the highest protein count amongst all the nut/seed butters, even peanut butter! The portion sizes listed were right on. I doubled some recipes so there was enough for lunches for everyone.
Off to the kitchen to sort out this week’s recipes. I think I will do our favorites and then test out some extra recipes. I also have to check with the Naturopath on how to slowly reintroduce certain foods, some times (there is alot of chicken and fish in the dinner menus), so as to maintain this feeling! I guess balance is key!!
Anyone else out there at their resolution tipping point???
Oh I am addicted to these squares! I recall loving these as a kid! I will eat these anytime of day. The kids eat these for breakfast some days too. I have been on a restricted food regime lately, including no cow milk, no sugar, no gluten. Guess what, these squares are all within guidelines…not sure the quantity I can consume in a day is within the ‘rules’ though! This one is so easy, I now have the recipe memorized:
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