Is this the end?..

Kinda but not really :)

Sunday was technically the last day of the Paleo Challenge. I am getting final weight and measurements tonight when I go in for class. I'm nervous anyways but its worse because our first measurements were in the morning and I'd barely eaten anything and today I go in at 6:45 pm. So ya, I'm nervous. I'm also happy the challenge is over but I don't really intend on changing my diet back to what it used to be. So it's been a few days since I've posted so here are some of the things I've been making..

I made the perfect hard boiled egg. Seriously, the were perfect. I made them for a salad but had a few left over for breakfast/snacks.

Also included avocado and bacon toppings. YUM!

One night for dinner I made chicken cacciatora. (Brussels Sprouts on the side) I have no idea what 'cacciatora' means, I just know this dish is yummy. I did a few things a little different. The day before I had bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco, its great for lunch and snacks or for quick salads. So I shredded that up and skipped the chicken cooking step. I also just used 1 can of tomatoes and not the tomato sauce because I just wanted it a little less tomato-ey. It was a very delicious dinner and there were plenty of leftovers for a few lunches.

At the moment I am letting some of this delicious granola cool. This time I didn't burn it! It looks nice and crispy brown, I can't wait to have a bowl!

And for fun, here is a picture of my gorgeous daughter with a mustache from my before gym shake I make. Now that she's figured out how good it is she follows me around saying and signing 'Please! Please! Please!!'
My shake consists of about 1/4c frozen berries, 1 banana or apple (whatever I have), and about 1c almond milk. I drink this about an hour before I go to the gym to give my body the carbs it needs for working out.

I'll let you know how the weigh in goes!

Not counting days anymore..

Last night we had these chicken fajitas. We have done them before, they are so so good. I also use the guacamole recipe that's linked in there. So simple and delicious.
It's almost like a treat though if you use butter lettuce because its so dang expensive.. but you could always use an alternative or make it into a salad or something. It says there should be leftovers but my husband and I ate it all :) Oh ya, and he wants credit because he cooked the chicken and veggies. Thanks honey!

This morning I made pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Also delicious! I need to be careful about recipes that include almond flour because almond flour is so high calorie. I've been trying to count calories this week since its the last few days of the challenge and since I screwed up last week on two meals (which I still feel is affecting me)
Anyways, I use an app called myfitnesspal. I really like it. Probably the best thing about it is you can enter in the ingredients to a recipe and find out how many calories, fat etc is in a serving. That is extremely helpful for me because I think it's so easy to be like, whatever.. this is a healthy meal, I'll just eat however much I want of it.. but with paleo you have to be really careful of the fat content because there's so much nuts, bacon, avocado, etc in every recipe it seems. My fitness pal will break it down into a pie chart for you and everyday I eat more fat than what is allotted to me and way less carbs, and way more protein. But I guess that's the paleo way right?

I can't believe its basically been a month with absolutely no dairy and no bread. Crap, I guess that's not true with my two screw ups. Okay but still.. 2 servings of bread basically in a month. That's crazy. I used to have a piece of toast every morning with breakfast, and a snack would regularly be toast with jelly. I don't know if it's because I'm so focused on this being the last few days and being strict on myself, but I'm not even craving bread or sugar or dairy. Definitely not dairy. I don't know what it is but it kind of grosses me out now, and I love cheese and yogurt!

I'm not sure when we are doing final measurements and weigh ins, I'm going to ask tonight at crossfit. I'm nervous. I have a feeling that nothing has changed.. I feel like my belly looks the same. I'm terrified it'll say my fat percentage went up.
I'm sure when this challenge is over I will still eat primarily paleo, and hopefully not feel guilty if I have a cheat day or something.
My shoulders feel so much better during workouts now, I'm sure a lot of that has to do with diet.
I also read on I think it was momgonepaleo.com that it takes a full month of strict paleo for your body to really feel the difference. So I want to keep going and see what happens :)

What will I blog about after the challenge??

Holy Crap!

I can't believe there's only a few days left of the challenge. Today is Thursday and Sunday is the last day. Time sure does fly!
So my last post was about screwing up on two meals and not being able to workout because of my neck. I've been really really good this week to make up for the points I lost.. I still want to win this challenge! I feel like my body is STILL recovering from eating two bad meals, and it's been like 4 or 5 days! How crappy is that? I'm going to be really bummed if it eff's me up when we weigh and measure at the end of the challenge. BUT good news, even though I haven't lost much weight (which wasn't my goal in the first place) I did go down a pant size, and I put a new hole in my belt. It's pretty remarkable to me that the shorts I wore on my 21st birthday, now fall off of me (I'm 26).. Maybe it's time for new clothes? Ha ha :)

Some of the stuff I've made over the last few days..
Sausage and peppers again.. and I added mushrooms this time. Yum Yum
Simple Beef Stew.. I used everything except the wine. I've made it before with the wine but since I'm being strict this week, I did not want an open bottle in front of me because that's tempting! I love having some wine while I'm cooking or eating dinner. I'd say it is better with the wine because it just makes it more well rounded, this time it was pretty tomatoe-y tasting. Still good though!

Yesterday I just bought a rotisserie chicken and just made giant salads with vinegar and olive oil dressing.

I still have no idea what I'm making for dinner tonight.. just have a few ideas for sides :) Stay tuned! Thanks for reading! 

I don't even want to talk about my indiscretions the last two nights. It's embarrassing and makes me feel like crap. Friday morning I woke up in severe neck pain, that night I ended up drinking beer to try and make myself relax, but I drank enough to lower my inhibitions enough that I ate Wendy's for dinner. Gross, I know. It was not good. Then last night was my dad's birthday party so there was good food, cake and ice cream. It was good.
I am back on track today though. My neck has been so bad that I didn't get to work out the last few days and that along with crappy food has just made me feel crabby!
Hopefully tomorrow I can workout though and just get back on the wagon all the way around.
I do have one recipe for you though. Pancakes! These were really good, and they're really nice especially if you feel like you need to eat something 'carb-y'. I made a double batch and it probably made 12 pancakes.

I will definitely make them again!

Suzy Home-Maker

I felt like Suzy Home-Maker yesterday. Lots of baking/cooking which meant lots of dishes! It was a good day though. It was very rainy and cold yesterday and we didn't have our heat going so it was nice to have the oven on. First thing I did was make Granola!!! The picture on the left is before I put it in the oven. I actually burnt mine a little.. exactly what she warns you about. I was trying to do laundry and wash dishes so the 25 minutes just went by really fast! I actually kind of like it burnt and so does my husband so it's not a big deal anyways. I'm excited to have some 'cereal' or a different kind of snack. I'm tired of fruit and nuts and I know that's all the granola is but it's still totally different. I'm excited!

I also made these muffins. I like the carrot banana ones way more. I eat those way too fast though so I wanted to try something different. I don't think I'd make the almond ones again though. Such a waste of that expensive almond butter! I think that's what I am most bummed about!

For dinner last night I made Meatloaf again. Thursdays are my day off from the gym so I can make something that takes a little longer, and meatloaf takes a really long time to bake!

I used the Paleo BBQ sauce I made on top that I've linked before and it was really yummy. For a side I made these sweet potatoes. It was a nice sweet to go with the kind of spicy meatloaf. And they are so good for you!

I hope you enjoy some of these recipes as much as my family and I did!

Day 16..?

Alright guys, sorry I've been MIA for a few days. I have not been diligent about taking pictures of my food, let alone blogging about it. I might just have to start trying to write during my daughters naps instead of bedtime because I'm always too tired at the end of the day! So I don't have any pictures but here are a few recipes I've been making the last few days that are a couple of my 'old reliables'.
Chicken curry with Apple
Apple Glazed Turkey Breast (I just use chicken)
Chicken Fajita Salad

These are a few of my go to recipes that I know are good and they are not expensive. I don't know how you feel but eating healthy sure can be expensive! I know its worth it it's just a hardship financially sometimes! So I always buy a big bag of frozen chicken from Costco so we end up making tons of chicken recipes because the chicken is already paid for and I don't have to buy another ingredient at the store.
Another thing that's even more noticeable during this challenge besides the money is there are ALWAYS dirty dishes. That is one never ending battle let me tell you. You end up having to cook every meal pretty much, so the dirty dishes are just constant. I look forward to having a dish washer one day! Can you tell I hate washing dishes? :D

Anyways, so I haven't been diligent about blogging but I still have been doing good on my diet. I still haven't had a non-paleo meal and I'm really proud of myself for that. I have to go to the gym at night now so it's hard to want to cook a meal after that! (I also look forward to having room for a crock pot so I can make easy crock pot meals!)
The only thing I've cheated on is a glass of wine here and there and I've also had a few squares of super dark chocolate.. like 85% cocoa dark chocolate.
The easy part of all this for me is going to the gym everyday. That's the fun part and it's also my sanity :)

I'll try to be better about taking pictures of my food.. and finding other topics to blog about so it's not the same thing everyday.. If you have any ideas let me know!

11 & 12

Alright! So yesterday, I forgot to take any pictures of food. We had family over for dinner so I totally spaced it. I made sausage and peppers and a side of this cucumber salad. The sausage and peppers were sooo easy and sooo delicious. I used mild italian sausage, green pepper and yellow onion. The cucumber salad was ok.. a little to lemony. I think for the leftovers I'm going to try and put some honey in it and see if that will make it better.

Remember these breakfast muffins? Well I made another batch today.. before I had used coconut flour because its what I had. The batter was not batter at all and I had to work really hard to get all the flour wet even. Well I found out its obviously way drier and there's some sort of conversion to either use less flour or use an extra egg. Anyways, today I used almond flour and they turned out SO much better! I had assumed they were so dense because they are meant to be a breakfast and they still tasted good. But today they are actually muffins, nice and light and delicious..

They look a little different this time!

For dinner tonight, I didn't make what I had planned. I was too tired so I just made us gigantic chicken salads after I put Fin down for bed. YUM!

Day 10

This Cobb Salad is amazing. So so good. I had a hard time not eating all the bacon before I could get it cut up and put into the salad :)

I'm definitely not winning the Paleo Challenge, scores for the first week are up and theres at least ten people ahead of me. Main reason being, I don't get 7 hours of sleep every night (I have a 14 month old) and I work out 5 days a week, not 7. Oh well though, at lease I feel good, and that is most important!

Paleo Meatloaf and BBQ Sauce, Salad, and yes, wine!

I've never made meatloaf before, and for this being my first time, I feel like it was pretty darn good!
This is the recipe I used. The only thing I changed is I used deer meat instead of beef and I used 1/4 cup of coconut flour because it's what I had.
So this was dinner.. meatloaf, salad, and yep.. I had a glass of wine. And it was delicious. I needed to treat myself :)
The bbq sauce I used I found on a website that used it for chicken tenders. I can't remember the website so here's the recipe:
-3/4 orange juice
-2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
-10 TBSP tomato paste
-4 TBSP minced shallots
-4 cloves minced garlic
-1/2 tsp mustard powder, paprika, and salt (each)
-1/4 tsp pepper
-1 TBSP coconut oil

Heat oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Place minced shallots and garlic in sauce pan until soft. Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat 15-20 minutes.

I have a bunch left over so I might make some chicken tenders for lunch tomorrow. Finley loves chicken so it's an easy choice :) I hope you try the meatloaf and like it! It does have a little spicy kick to it!

P.S. I forgot to mention yesterday that I greased the muffin tin for the egg muffins with coconut oil and it worked perfectly!

Day 8

Week 2! This morning I finally made these egg muffins. I used the chicken maple sausage I've linked in another post, sweet onion, and yellow pepper. I ended up with a few more veggies and so I used 8 eggs and made 9 muffins instead of her 6. Next time I'll use more spices, I was in kind of a hurry this morning. I stuck a few in the freezer also to see how they would hold up and if they would be good if I stuck  them in the microwave.

For lunch I had leftover chili and avocado. I'm not gonna lie, that chili would be really great with some melted cheese and crunchy wheat thins. It was hard to resist!

And for dinner tonight we just made a simple steak salad with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Justin and I are craving sweets so I'm thinking I might find a Paleo sweets recipe just to satisfy the craving. Or maybe some super dark chocolate, I've heard of a lot of Paleo people do that.

My shoulders seem to be doing better in my workouts. It would be interesting to know if it is diet, fish oil, or just my body adjusting to the workouts. Or all 3. Either way, I'm happy and hope they keep getting better and that I keep getting stronger!
My family commented today that in the past week of eating Paleo, I look leaner. So that is a nice compliment! It must be working, and I do feel good!

Day 7!

So tonight I made Paleo Chili! Since it's Paleo, you're not allowed to put beans in it, I was surprised by how many people asked 'so what are you gonna put in it?'. It never occurred to me that it wouldn't just be meat, spices and veggies. The only thing I did different from her recipe was I added the zucchini I had left. I really liked her idea of putting avocado on top and having a little bit with each bite. I never would have that of that myself but in my opinion it just made it even yummier.

I also made this. It was nice to have a little frozen treat. It's weird how just changing the texture of something can make it a treat :) It's definitely worth a try if you have a sweet tooth like me!

Have a good night everyone!

Day 6

I know I'm getting to this a little later than usual, sorry! Last night Justin and I decided to go on a dinner date where I had two glasses of wine. When I got home I promptly fell asleep :)
So yes, I finally gave in and treated myself. I did however keep my dinner Paleo which I'm happy about. Then I had a few bites of dessert which I do regret. I'll go on a run today to balance out :)
I do believe in indulging every once in a while, what I regret is I've just been working really hard this last week and feel like I kind of ruined it. But today is a new day, I'm not going to dwell!
So yesterday I made this yummy pan seared cod with avocado salsa for lunch. It was really good!

Cookin

Finished Product!

That salsa is so good. I LOVE cilantro and mixed with lime juice and spicy red pepper. It was just delicious. When I finished eating I had wished I had another fish fillet!

Since we didn't have dinner at home I don't have another recipe to post. I am really excited about tonight's dinner, so check back and I should be back on track posting after we eat dinner :)

Day 5

I am not cooking tonight. I had a great meal planned but when I got home from the gym and took out the fish I realized it was frozen solid. I bought if from the area of the grocery store where everythings always fresh so I just assumed and stuck it in the fridge. Now, my daughter is in bed and my husband at work so I just ate a salad I made from spring mix and whatever veggies in the fridge and some avocado. I did however make some roasted sweet potatoes and my own 'protein bars' for snacks. I was searching online for different snack ideas because I'm getting tired of nuts and fruit.

Here's the recipe for the sweet potatoes. Super easy and super delicious.
I can't take credit for the protein bars either but I don't remember where I got the recipe because I was googling like crazy. It's very simple though..
1c nuts
1c dried fruit
1c dates
Put the 3 ingredients in the food processor and pulse to break it all up. Then leave the processor on until it starts to ball up like you see in the bottom picture. Then take out the 'dough' and press in down in a baking sheet to desired thickness (middle picture).
Refrigerate for a minimum of one hour and then you can take them out and cut them up. I would suggest individually wrapping and freezing them or keeping them refrigerated because otherwise they will get all gooey again.They are still very soft from the fridge, I will try freezing mine.
For my first try I used cashews and dried cranberries and they taste exactly like that :) So basically its a way less expensive Larabar and it should be easy enough to figure out the calories of each bar.
I'll probably make what was supposed to be dinner tonight for lunch tomorrow and keep the plan of tomorrows dinner.
Check back to find out what they are! Thanks for reading! :)

Day 4

Bacon Stuffed Chicken is what was for dinner

Well, another day has come and gone!
Today's breakfast was more of the same, scrambled eggs with veggies and sausage. The sausage I've been using is this. I just get if from one of the health food stores in town.
I'm going to have to find some different recipe ideas in the next few days so we can have some diversity for breakfast.
Lunch we had leftover spaghetti from last night.
Snacks were these carrot banana muffins. They are great because I freeze them and just microwave when I want one. My daughter even loves them!
Dinner was the Bacon stuffed Chicken you see in the pictures. It was really good! The recipe is linked in the caption. Sorry the pictures aren't great, I was kind of in a hurry to get dinner on the table. For sides I made a regular salad with bell peppers, mushrooms and cucumber and I also steamed some Brussels Sprouts.
I really wanted a beer with dinner again and of course I'm craving dessert! I was looking up different dessert ideas and tomorrow I think I'm going to try this banana ice cream. I've had some bananas in the freezer for a while now that I hadn't decided what I wanted to do with. I'm excited to try it! I'll let you know what the family and I think too :)

Day 3!!!

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Sausage, Zucchini, Red Pepper

It's only been 3 days and I feel like I've been doing this forever, haha :) Not necessarily in a bad way though!
One thing I noticed today, is that I've been hungry more often and eating more often these last 3 days, but I haven't been uncomfortably full once, and my stomach is a lot less bloated.
Breakfast is above, for lunch I had my carrot banana 'muffins', and for dinner I made spaghetti with spaghetti squash instead of noodles obviously. It was so good! I think its the best spaghetti I've made yet. Red onion, garlic, mushrooms, zucchini, olives were all the veggies I put in.
I've been using zucchini in everything because my good friend Chelsie gave me a gigantic one from her garden. I can't believe how much I've used it and I still have some!
I wasn't craving sweets today as bad so that's nice, I just really wanted a glass of red wine with my spaghetti. Sounds so good! But it's only been 3 days and that is too soon to start cheating already! It would be interesting to go the whole 30 days without drinking at all. I'll try but I'm not going to promise anything! Haha :)
3 days down, 27 to go!

Day 2!

brussel sprouts, bacon, and sausage. Success!

I'm trying to think of what to type and I'm afraid of just repeating myself everyday.. so I'll really try not to so I don't bore you!
I did good today, no cheating. I did go to Costco and get myself some fruit for my sweet tooth. I've eaten a bunch of pineapple and cantaloupe already :)
Dinner was delish. Tuesday's are one of my husbands later nights at work and I work out at the 6:45pm class now. I was planning on making spaghetti tonight but that is a lot more time consuming, especially making spaghetti squash for the noodles. So I decided to switch around the week a bit and do this 10ish minute meal because I didn't want us to end up eating at 10pm. I linked the recipe in the caption of the picture. I didn't have the zesty ranch the recipe called for so I just looked at the ingredients of the dressing and guessed and made my own. It still turned out really good! My hubby even liked it :)

My thumbs and shoulders are killing me from CF, I really hope the Paleo eating and fish oil works soon, otherwise I'll have to think of something else! 

Hoping its not too long before I'm done craving sweets!

Day 1!

Breakfast this morning: An egg with red pepper, zucchini, and mushrooms. Avocado and 2 pieces nitrate free bacon. Yum!

Dinner: Simple herb crusted Salmon with salad. Delicious!

I have survived day 1! My daughter is in bed and my husband and I just finished our yummy salmon and salad dinner, if you're curious, here is the Salmon Recipe!
I'm definitely craving a cold beer and something sweet but I'm going to resist. I could have a beer and all I'd have to do is subtract only 1 point from my chart for the challenge.. but I really don't want to.. I'm a little competitive :) That reminds me, I guess I should explain to you how the Paleo Challenge works since that's how this whole blog started. One of the owners of the gym, Cass, gave us little charts. You start out every day with 50 points. You can gain an extra 5 points if you get at least 7 hours of sleep at night, take a multi vitamin, or take a fish oil supplement. Then, if you have 1 non-paleo food item, subtract 1 point. Non-paleo meal subtract 10. Non-paleo day, obviously subtract 50. and if you don't turn in your weekly log you get -70. Whichever man and woman with the most points at the end gets to split the pot of money we all chipped in on.
I really wish I had some pineapple right now! I'm going to have to make a trip to Costco tomorrow to get some fruit to help satiate my sweet tooth.
So this morning, instead of cream and sugar in my coffee, I used coconut milk creamer. It wasn't too bad but I wasn't crazy about it. I think when my little container of it is gone I will just drink it black and use those calories towards real food :)
Breakfast was yummy, everything on the plate I shared with my daughter and she and her daddy had pieces of toast to go with their breakfast as well. Between breakfast and dinner I kind of graze all day.. I tend to eat when I'm bored. I kept walking around while Finley (my daughter) was napping, opening the fridge, looking in the pantry.. wanting to just grab a bag of fruit snacks out of habit.
I'm looking forward to the day when my habit isn't grabbing something sweet or more importantly it will be nice when I stop craving it!

I also took a fish oil supplement today which I've never done, I think it's making me really thirsty, and I guess you have to be careful and take it with food so you don't get fish burps. Gross. I've been terrified all day that I smell like fish.

Well I don't want this to be too long and boring and I'm not sure what else to add! See you tomorrow!

1 day to Paleo Challenge!

Today all I can think about are the things I want to eat before I start this Paleo Challenege. I'm not actually going to eat everything I can think of, I'm mostly just dreaming (plus my favorite Thai restaurant is closed today) but I might have to have some ice cream after dinner. A small cookie dough blizzard with chocolate ice cream. Yum.
Don't worry, it's not going to be a 30 day challenge that at the end I'm going to go crazy, eat whatever I want and gain 30 pounds. I actually feel like this will be a long term thing for me. Paleo is not a fad diet, it's a healthy way of eating. For life! I want to be healthy into my old age.. I don't want to be in  pain or uncomfortable because I never took care of myself.
During the 30 days I hope to post every day about how I'm doing and I'd like to post pictures of the food I make and link the recipes and hopefully inspire some people to eat healthy! I love eating healthy, after a few weeks I just tend to get lazy for a few days and not want to cook. I will not be able to get away with that on Paleo, so I'm going to just try and plan really well!  Also, hopefully I can get my 'before' picture from my gym so I can post my before and after shots! I'm really excited for that.. hopefully I can see some changes :D If I do good, I don't see how I wouldn't. I don't really expect to lose much weight, that's not really my main goal, I would like my stomach to be more toned, but my main goal is to have my body be cleaner, and as I mentioned in my last post, have my joints not hurt so much.
I will also try to post about my workouts and hopefully I can post about how my weightlifting is going up significantly :)

Just in case you are curious, this is my gyms website www.yellowstonecrossfit.com
Head there to learn more about crossfit, diet and you can actually see the workouts that the non-competitors classes do. Crazy fun!

Who knows, maybe if there's ever any followers on this blog.. I'll keep posting after the 30 days. That would be kind of fun!

Anyways, if anyone is reading this.. Thanks for taking the time!

In preparation for my 30 day paleo challenge, I made breakfast 'muffins' I can freeze for a healthy on-the-go breakfast.

 

 

Hi everyone!
My name is Caitlin. I've decided to start this blog to document my 30 day Paleo challenge that my gym is putting on :)
A little background on me, so you can understand more of who I am and where I am coming from..
First of all, I am not a writer.. I've always been envious of people with any sort of creative skill, so please realize I don't claim to be any sort of professional anything :)
I am a crossfitter. I'm not the best but I'm kind of obsessed. I love going to the gym and am always kind of sad when the weekend comes and I have a day off from the gym (although I know my body needs it). I'm very fortunate that my husband supports my obsession and listens to my constant gym stories. I am also very fortunate that my parents live in the same town as us and will watch my daughter while I go to the gym, and if not, my gym is amazing and allows you to bring your children and has a play area.
I started Crossfit a little over two years ago but took almost a year hiatus while I was pregnant and recuperating from a C-section. I've been back since March 2013 so I'm right at the 6 month mark and feeling pretty great.
My gym just started a competitors class that involves a lot more heavy lifting than a regular class to get you more 'competition ready'. My lifts are not very heavy at all right now but I have dreams of competing so this class is ideal for me. It's only been about two weeks and my body is feeling it, especially my shoulders and wrists. I'm sure these aches and pains have quite a lot to do with my diet. I make Paleo dinners for my family already but most certainly have not cut out grains during the rest of the day and I also have a very big sweet tooth.
Basically, this Paleo Challenge is coming at the perfect time. I do believe that it will make my joints feel better without all the refined sugar and any processed food going into my body.
Today we took measurements and before pictures at the gym and the challenge starts on Monday.
I'm really excited for my body to get cleaned out and to start feeling even better and to see any changes in my body!