Day 1

The last day or so I've been preparing to start this Paleo 30 day "diet". Which reminds me, I should never call it a "diet", according to my boss Sherry, because guess what the first 3 letters spell? DIE. She believes we should call it a life change, or way of living, or whatever. The thing is Paleo doesn't seem like too much of a diet to me...yet. I will miss chocolate and sweetning my coffee. But I am very excited to see how it feels to cut out all the carbs and sugar. Something I eat makes me feel bloated and I'm guessing it falls into that category.

Last night and this morning I went to Lowe's Foods and Wal-Mart. I spent way too much money but I got a ton of food- meat, fruit, nuts, veggies, coconut oil, almond butter, eggs. No gluten, bread, grains, sugar stuff, candy, cheese, anything dairy, not even beans.

If I wasn't a dork before, I definitely am now. I printed out the paleo stuff Cristin sent me and organized it into a binder with different sections. I also semi-planned the meals that me and Aindrea would eat for the week. It's pretty tentative though because the recipes I plan on making don't have a serving size so I have no idea how much each recipe will make.

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Today I made brunch- Frittata and Paleo Pancakes.

FRITTATA: (the way I made it, not exactly what the recipe said)
Ingredients:
12 eggs, beaten
1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 bag spinach
2 green peppers
7 pieces of bacon, cooked and chopped
4 pieces of sausage, cooked
coconut oil

There were more onions & mushrooms in the original recipe but I don't like mushrooms and the amount of onions in it was absurd. Although I wish I had green onions, those would actually be pretty good.

Instructions:
1. Saute all vegetables (except spinach) and meat until vegetables are tender. (Before this it took about 10 minutes to cook the bacon, and I bought pre-cooked sausage that needed to be microwaved). Takes about 10 minutes to saute veggies.

2. Add 1/2 bag spinach. Cook until the spinach has cooked down. Spread veggies evenly over bottom of skillet.

3. Pour eggs evenly over the veggies mixture. DO NOT mix once eggs are poured on top.

4. Cover and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes. It's done when it's solid.
Now mine was a bit burnt on the bottom but perfect on top. I think it's because I accidentally heated it over Medium heat, now low heat.

5. Drain excess liquid. Flip onto a plate and slide back into skillet so that the top side cooks for about 5 minutes. Maybe you'll have better luck here than me.

*Next time, unless I have a huge party, I'd do about half the ingredients because I have a ton of leftovers! This turned out really good and it's a great brunch option. It takes kind of a long time though.

PALEO PANCAKES:
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup almond butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
coconut oil

Instructions:
1. Mix all ingredients except coconut oil until you have a uniform batter.

2. Use a bit of coconut oil to grease a non-sticket skillet.

3. Spread some of the batter into a skillet to form a pancake. (Smaller pancakes are easier to flip) Then cook over low/medium heat.

4. Flip after 1-2 minutes being careful not to burn.

5. I didn't put any toppings on it, but the recipe recommends apples & cinnamon, heated blueberries, or unsweetened applesauce & cinnamon

*This turned out pretty good! I made 2 small ones and am saving the batter for the next couple days.

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I also need to get used to drinking coffee without sweetner, and it's not bad. CJ predicts I'll soon like it better than with sugar. We'll see!

Now I might make chili since it has to simmer for a few hours. For a snack I may make a smoothie but I am REALLY full right now.

So far, so good but it's only been half a day. Oh and per recommendation from Cristin, I weighed myself and am going to measure myself and check again in 30 days. Definitely have some motivation.