Day 10 (Thurs May 19)

Ugh… As predicted, the coffee at 6pm yesterday was a giant mistake. Wide awake for almost 2 hours in the middle of the night. Awake for so long that I had to get up and eat a snack (peanuts & dried cranberries) because I was hungry. And that was after my 8:30 snack of peanuts & chocolate chips. I honestly am not sure if this gnawing feeling I often get when I go low carb is real hunger, or just my body getting used to things?? I always try to drink first to make sure it’s not just thirst. I should maybe try a spoon of coconut oil at these times.

Breakfast: coffee w/ cream, Ikea brekkie (eggs, bacon, snausage, hashies)
Lunch: leftover salmon, rice mix, veggies
Snack: Lindt 85%, peanuts & chocolate chips, coconut oil spoon
supper: pickles, ham, HB egg, cheese (yup… no veggies. need to go shopping ASAP!)

Gonna make some of those paleo bars tonight. Gotta get off the peanut/choco chip train for hearty, filling eats.

evening snack: jicama with a creamy cilantro/garlic/lime sauce. scoop of pineapple tequila sorbet.

Days 9 & 10 (Wed -Thurs)

It is legitimately getting hard to remember what all I ate/drank the day before but I keep forgetting to post the same day..

WEDNESDAY:
Breakfast: paleo bar

Lunch: don’t remember…I think I had hardboiled eggs & avocado again

I think I had a few snacks this day but truly can’t remember.

Afternoon: I think I had an iced coffee.

Dinner: hot Italian sausages, salad

After dinner: coconut flour carrot muffin, fresh out of the oven! Verdict: Okay. They’re really… vanilla-y. And I think I’d bake them longer next time cause they’re reeeeally moist, maybe underbaked.

THURSDAY:

Breakfast: coconut flour carrot muffins

Lunch: randoms…. deli turkey, cheese, coconut flour muffin, milk

Afternoon: Iced mango tea from Starbucks

Dinner: chicken taco salad with pinto beans, avocado, red/orange/yellow peppers, tomatoes, onions

After dinner: bowl strawberries on their way out, needed to be polished off

Day 9 (Weds May 18)

Breakfast: paleo pancakes, pineapple, iced coffee lightly sweetened

Lunch: leftover grilled chicken, faux-tato salad, veggies & potatoes (oooh… cooked, cooled potatos = resistant starch or something like that.)

Snack: Lindt 85%

Supper: salmon, roasted carrots, rice/quinoa/lentil mix, sauteed veg.

It’s now 8 pm and I am going to bed! Today I really feel quite phlegmy and need to get some serious sleep. Hopefully the 2 cups of coffee I had at my meeting over the supper hour will not interfere with a good night’s sleep… oh who am I kidding, they almost certainly will! BUT there were delicious cookies and I totally didn’t have one!

Update: It’s a few minutes later and I just remembered that I ate a half-dozen buttered rice crackers this afternoon. And I am going to eat another couple now. Sweet dreams!

 

Day 8 (Tuesday May 17)

Ugh… had a terrible sleep. The other little one was coughing for an hour in the night, so I was awake too. Sigh. I need to be more diligent about going to bed at a reasonable hour. That would almost certainly help fend off the illness that seems to be permanently circulating in our extended family, and probably make shedding some ell-bees a little easier.

Breakfast:  carrot muffin, slice o’ cheese, HB egg, coffee w/cream

Lunch: amazing green salad (romaine, marinated artichoke hearts, green onions, parm & vinaigrette… could have eaten it all day!), chicken/veggie stirfry, cheese, coffee w/cream

snack: smokie

Supper: BBQd chicken (made with this lemon pepper marinade… really good!) and pepper/onion kebabs,  boiled baby potatoes, berries & cream

snack: goat cheese/pickle/ham rollups (oh really? cutting back on sodium are we?)

So… speaking of bed at a reasonable hour, here we are again, just sitting down for one episode of Brooklyn 99 that will almost certainly turn into 2 and bed too late. Tomorrow is a new day though, right?!

Day 8

Breakfast: iced coffee, paleo bar

Lunch: hardboiled eggs with avocado & tomato, strawberry & blackberries

Dinner: Hot Italian sausages (thanks Costco, I THOUGHT I was buying honey garlic…wrong label! Actually quite spicy, His Nibs took plentiful swigs of milk), sauteed diced sweet potatoes with Trader Joe’s roasted garlic salt and a drizzle of maple syrup (a hit with all of us), Greek salad with a creamy lemon-tzatkiki-feta inspired dressing I made with yogurt…felt like something different than my usual vinaigrette.

Discovered my current favourite way to eat hardboiled eggs –cooked only medium; bring to a boil then remove from heat and let cook 8 minutes, then run under cold water briefly then peel immediately and eat them still warm — with s & p of course. I used to do 12 minutes and they were fully cooked. Then I tried 10 and I liked them even more. Today I tried 8. Yummy!! Just on the brink of being runny in the very middle but NOT runny yet. Just med-soft. His Nibs also devoured two of them like this, at lunch today, not a crumb left. WHAT? This boy who didn’t eat eggs?? I’ll have to try to keep making them fresh & warm for him and hope he keeps eating them. He does NOT like cold hardboiled eggs. I’ve gotta say, I think devilled eggs might be the only form in which I like them cold & hardboiled.

I think I have all ingredients for the paleo pancakes and gf carrot muffin recipes you posted — picked up some tapioca starch at Bulk Barn this morning since I knew it was the only thing I was missing for those pancakes — now I just need to get baking at some point! Not my forte but I like eating the results!

Day 7 (Monday May 16)

Breakfast: 2 carrot muffins, slice of cheese, fruit salad, iced coffee (lightly sweetened)

Lunch: clean-out-the-fridge chopped salad of ham, HB egg, cukes, carrots, green onions, pepper, cheese + ranch/red hot

Snack: pineapple chunks, Lindt 85%

Supper: bbq smokies, faux-tato salad, cukes

evening: club soda w/ tequila & lime juice, 4 mini ritz s’mores sandwiches (doh.)

Feeling hungry quite a bit between meals. I might do a bit more of a proper 1-week review tomorrow, but I know I’m still eating too much sugar/carbs and not enough quality fat/protein. And would like to eat more veggies for sure.

I weigh myself pretty regularly, first thing in the morning. Over the course of the week the number has gone up and down a bit, but today I was a pound lower than on my start date, so that’s good. No noticeable change with clothes, but I’m not wearing clothes that are super tight, so it’s hard to tell.

It’s kind of frustrating. I remember when I just started very loosely cutting back on carbs in spring 2012, I lost like, 8lbs without even trying. Now I’ve been quite low compared to normal and the scale is barely moving. But I probably could watch my sodium too. If I was more careful about that I might shed some water weigh more easily.

 

 

Days 5, 6, 7

SATURDAY:
Very disappointing because it felt like Saturday night undid my whole week, and I didn’t have much choice. We went to our far-away friends’ for dinner and they said it was going to be Italian food. I was hoping if it was pasta there would at least be a way to avoid the actual pasta part. We brought olives, a hunk of good parm, homemade bruschetta & store bought mini toasts (we knew they love bruschetta and I could eat it with a spoon too), and wine. Another friend, of Italian heritage, was staying with them for the weekend and taking care of dinner. Well, no pasta, but it was a casual spread of all these toasts with all different things on them — a sauce he had just made (it was SO GOOD), pesto, some thin-sliced Italian cured meats, mozzarella/basil/tomato, etc. But all the toasts were made up already and presented on plates. I couldn’t in any polite way have refrained from eating since really, that was what there was save the olives I’d already been snacking on, annnnd it was after 7:00pm and I was really hungry. It was all super delicious, I just didn’t want to be eating the bread 😦 Well, I COULD have refrained from any dessert after that but they’d also got an assortment of delicious baked goods from a bakery. I was like MEH, I’ve already ruined this night. Cut them all up so we could sample and I had two fourths of an insanely good cupcake, and a piece of Nanaimo bar (which was not very good, way too sweet). Along with some good coffee.
(The kids had had some leftover chicken and potatoes they had in the fridge, and ran around wildly, clearly both enjoying having a playmate, before going to bed at 7. Our babbaloo zonked, slept like a rock and we had to wake him from a deep sleep at 10:30 to drive home.)
It was a really nice night, but I so wished I had brought a big salad, because in that case I think would have filled up on that, took some meat and cheese from the counter and just been like, I’m really trying to stay away from bread (and then not touched dessert either!) Ha. Oh, the social side of trying to eat primal when I’m not really THAT strict…

So to recap the day:
Breakfast: paleo bar & coffee
Lunch: hardboiled eggs and a few other randoms like tomato (I think? can’t really remember now)
Dinner: wheat galore…toasts with cheese, olives, Italian meats, wine, etc.
1/2 a cupcake, 1/2 a Nanaimo bar, coffee with cream.

SUNDAY:
Breakfast: coffee; paleo bar later morning
Lunch: hardboiled eggs, bacon, avocado slices, cherry tomato/red onion/cucumber salad
Dinner: garlic sausages & salad (I think? lunch is easier to remember than dinner for some reason!)

MONDAY:
Breakfast: paleo bar, strawberries
Lunch: Rozie’s Cafe – my combo had eggs, breakfast sausage, baked beans, tomato, and a very small amount of home fries (grr, but better for me anyway!)….chose cinnamon raisin toast for Babaloo to eat — he devoured it — I refrained from any!
Dinner: chicken sausages & broccoli,strawberries/blueberries with yogurt, honey & cinnamon for a dessert —  had a Captain & ginger beforehand (ugh! weakness!)

 

Day 6 (Sunday May 15)

breakfast: 2 HB eggs

lunch: coffee w/ cream, egg & veggie frittata, berries, paleo sweet potato bread.

afternoon: dish of coconut milk French vanilla ice cream, 2 beers

supper: random leftovers: potato salad, coleslaw, taco meat, cukes/gr onions. Piece of 85% lindt.

Did a bunch of food prep tonight: roasted a whack of baby carrots that were not going to be nice much longer, made the base for a faux-tato salad, set up some coffee to concentrate overnight for iced coffees, and made some coconut flour carrot muffins. Indulged too much this afternoon!

 

Day 5 (Saturday May 14)

Breakfast: black tea with cream, berries, hardboiled egg

Lunch: smokie sans bun, coleslaw, potato salad

snack: latte & fancy/wheaty/sugary pecan bar from coffee shop (moment of weakness and opportunity)

Supper: made some paleo naan from My Heart Beets to eat the rest of the chicken shawarma with. Yum! They turned out pretty well and were fairly sturdy for holding together all the “insides”. I forgot to add the pièce de resistance, the pickled turnip, before I snapped the pic.

Activity: yoga, short neighbourhood walk

Went to bed too late last night, then was up for more than an hour at 4am with a coughing child. But in the morning I dragged myself to yoga knowing it was probably the best thing I could do, and it was actually a great practice.

Day 4 (Friday May 13)

Breakfast: coffee with cream, paleo pancakes, fruit salad, maple syrup & butter

Lunch: Shawarma salad, coffee with cream

Supper: celebratory dinner with my cousin & her husband – they just bought their first house! Smokies (cooked on our new-to-us BBQ!), coleslaw, potato salad. They brought dessert – chocolate gf quinoa cupcakes (update: got the recipe), fresh berries and…. ice cream & Hershey’s can chocolate sauce. Not gonna lie, I had seconds. But at least I didn’t eat a bun with my smokie. (Another update: forgot to say I also had a few glasses of wine.)

Was so tired today. Took the kids to an indoor play centre (a date planned with friends long ago to coincide with a PD day, but fortuitous because it is actually snowing here today). It was packed and noisy and exhausting and I felt like I desperately needed a nap by noon. But had to work, so made coffee and buckled down.