I decided 3 weeks of tracking my Paleo eating and exercise via daily vlogs was enough. My goal was to give a good idea of what going Paleo looked like for me and I think I've done that. Also, I may do the daily vlogs again to track my Primal experiment in September, so I thought I'd take this last week off.
My final thoughts, weigh in, and measurements will be on my main blog August 31st, if you're interested!
I skipped part of day 20 and took all of day 21 off from filming. So far I've done three weeks of daily vlogs. I'm not sure if I'll continue this last week or not. Mostly I wanted to give a good overview of what going paleo looked like for me, what I'd be eating, etc. I think I've done that. We'll see.
Oh yes, and on day 20 I had my first non-paleo splurge. I had a venti iced skinny vanilla latte at Starbucks. Leave it to me for my splurge to be coffee related!
You can see my week 3 weigh in and measurements here if you're interested.
I see I forgot to show breakfast for day 15. It was...leftovers! From dinner the night before. Huge surprise, I know.
I'm not going to lie, this has been far easier than I had imagined. Far easier than last time I tried to go Paleo. Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful for that, but at the same time I'm a bit surprised. I expected withdrawals like crazy the first week, I expected crazy cravings, I expected it to be tough. But it hasn't been. It's been, dare I say, easy for me this time around. I think there's a few reasons why:
I was excited for it. I was just plain excited to 'go Paleo'. I researched, found blogs, bought books, went crazy. I think the excitement (and positive attitude) towards this is a huge reason it's been easier. My attitude isn't oh I 'can't eat that' it's I 'choose not to eat that'.
My motivation. I haven't talked a whole lot about why exactly I went Paleo, but it's had a lot to do with why it's gone well I think. I'll do a whole post on my main blog about that soon.
I was prepared. I shopped, I sought out recipes, I did my research, I planned meals, etc, etc. I was super prepared this time around. I set myself up for success.
Instead of jumping off, I went into it slowly. Yes, August 1st I was full Paleo, but prior to that I stepped down with non-paleo foods instead of going cold turkey in one day.
So, I'm still enjoying myself with this. Still feeling great. Still having fun with it. Hooray!
If you're interested, here's a link to the mayo recipe I used in the video. The eggs I used: http://www.safeeggs.com/. After it was in the refrigerator a bit, it's perfect! Even hubby loves it. He said it's 'tangier' than regular mayo. I think I was noticing the apple cider vinegar because I knew it was in there. He couldn't even tell.
I think people might be getting bored with vlogs every single day! Understandably so. I may do two or three days at a time for the rest of the month. Not sure. But here is 11-14:
I may have missed videoing a meal or two in there, I never skipped eating a meal, so if one day is missing dinner or something, I just forgot to get that on camera.
That cake at my Grandma's birthday looked amazing, but I didn't have any. I didn't want to. I thought about how crappy I would likely feel after (physically crappy, not beating myself up crappy) and skipped it. I did fairly well that day. Eating at someone's house can be tough, especially BBQ's. But I think I faired pretty well. The ranch dressing was the only thing questionable.
Still feeling great. If you missed my review of Everyday Paleo (the book MANY of my recipes have been coming from), it's here. I Weighed in on my main blog today if you're interested in my stats for week 2. On to week 3!
For some reason I was totally just not hungry. I went with my body and how it was feeling. I did have 3 handfuls of the blueberries shown at the end and was completely happy with that. I think my body is just adjusting. Not going to force-feed myself.
Got up WAY too early. Not sure what was up with that, but I was just wide awake at 3:30. I was a little sleepy in the afternoon, but wasn't tired enough to go to bed until 9:30. I expected to be crashing at 8!
Took an unplanned rest day because I was so freaking sore.
Do you have people in your life that try to feed your kids junk like they're on a mission?
I hope you enjoy some of the random my life type things I threw in from our weekend! The video says days 5 and 6. Oops, guess I can't count when I'm tired.
You can see my weigh in and other thoughts from the week here.
Obviously there are some things I need to change this week. I just watched last week's vlogs and it was pretty obvious. Too many nuts. More fruit than veggies. Need more consistent workouts. Easy fixes.
I know I keep saying I'm feeling good over and over. But I am. Noticeably so.
I had been feeling sort of sluggish, low energy, just not as well the past few months. Which is part of the reason I picked Paleo: I felt that lower carb was exactly what I needed. And I was right. I am feeling great.
My energy is up and I just feel overall better. More 'with it' if that makes any sense. Whether or not I'm losing weight I take this as a huge step in the right direction.
I said this year was about stepping out of my comfort zone, and let me tell you doing vlogs with no makeup on or my hair looking like crap is hugely outside my comfort zone. I know that sounds silly and vain, but it's true. Makeup is like my blankie. Oh well, I'll just wave to my comfort zone from over here.
Anyway! Still doing well. Feeling great. The scale isn't moving much, which may have to do with being that time of the month, or I may need to tweak things like less nuts. We'll see. I'm not even a full week into this, so I'm not worried. This is a learning process for me. I also think I may be having issues with the guar gum in the canned coconut milk I'm using in my coffee. I ordered some coconut cream concentrate from tropicaltraditions.com. Hoping that will be better. 1-Pint (16-oz) - Coconut Cream Concentrate
I'm excited to see what my weigh in is like Monday! That will be over at my main blog.
Day 3 was awesome. I was a little hungrier for some reason; I feel like I ate a TON of food, but I just went with my hunger. Still no headaches or withdrawal stuff, I think I'm in the clear!
I'm working on getting back into my early morning routine. I used to get up at 4:30ish every morning and loved it. The quiet time before everyone gets up is bliss around here. Working towards that. I also used to get my workouts in then too. Which was fantastic. It's harder to get them in later in the day. Before we start our homeschool school year I hope to be back to all of that.
The Egg Cupcakes were fantastic, hubby likes them too. I doubled the batch. I think I'm going to try and make a batch every Sunday just for those days we are in a hurry or don't feel like cooking. The Meatloaf was yummy too. My kids and hubby liked it.
Today (Tuesday) went great, no withdrawal stuff at all. No headaches, fatigue etc. Here's hoping I get off without any! Right now, I feel really great.
On Paleo I'm not doing any tracking or calorie counting. The only food tracking I'm doing is on here with the vlogs. I find it helps me be mindful of what I'm eating, but I am definitely paying closer attention to my body because I don't have the calorie counting to fall back on for how much I 'should' be eating. Very interesting. For instance I 'wanted' seconds of dinner, but realized I was full and didn't have any. I'm fascinated to see where this all takes me weight-wise. Mentally it's AWESOME.
Another thing I want to mention is that some of the recipes from the Everyday Paleo I modified a bit, for instance the Pecan crusted Chicken had honey as optional and I left it out. The Rockin' Moroccan Chicken called for raisins and green olives and I left those out. I'm going with no sweeteners or dried fruit at all. The olives, I just don't like green olives.
I'm a little confused on the nuts and fruit as far as trying to lose weight. Going to try to go by the scale and maybe look back at one of the Paleo books I have.
I will be reviewing the cookbook and the Cathe workout I mentioned in this vlog on my main blog soon.
I've decided I'm going to try to do daily vlogs to track instead of just posts with pics. It actually seems easier to me to just shoot my meals with my flip, then a little daily wrap up, then upload the whole thing. Done. The other way I have to take pics of all my meals, email them to myself, download them, upload to a blog post, etc, etc.
1-Pint (16-oz) - Coconut Cream Concentrate
32-oz. - Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil - 1 quart