Is Sunday the start of the week or the end of the week?

For me, the weekend signifies the end of the week ... which means Sunday is the LAST day of the week. Monday starts everything fresh. The only reason it matters in relation to diet and exercise is that I don't like the idea of any "indiscretions" making me feel like I've started a new week off on a bad foot. I mitigate damage where I can, but I also enjoy my friends and family where I can and try not to be too neurotic. I'll give you my Sunday log first, and then a tally at the end for how I did this week as a whole.

Meal # 1: Two scrambled omega-3 enriched eggs with organic tomato salsa; 1/2 apple with Sunbutter; water to drink

Meal # 2: Red Mesa chips and salsa; chicken quesadillas with corn salsa
Took Eric's mom to brunch. Sure, I could have ordered a salad and stayed Paleo, but I absolutely LOVE Mexican food - especially the Mesa and I was getting what I wanted.

Meal # 3: Two leftover buffalo chicken fingers with Ranch from last night's dinner
I was headed to the grocery store and needed an afternoon snack. Fridge was pretty bare.

Meal # 4: Salmon fillet pan-seared in olive oil; homemade slaw with cabbage, spinach, tomatoes, onions, a little canola mayo, apple cider vinegar, lime juice and a pince of salt.
Delish!!

Workout: Nope. By the time I got home from the grocery store and chopped up all my fruits and veggies for the upcoming week's meals, it was time to eat dinner. After dinner, went to pick up my mom from the airport. Home by 9:30. Winding down for bed.

So, here is my grand tally of Paleo meals for the week ... There were 35 separate occasions that I put food of some sort into my mouth. 28 of those were Paleo. That gives me an 80% hit ratio for the week. I'll take it!!

As for the workouts, I didn't fare quite so well. I only did two out of the five I had planned = 40%. Boo!!

If my lifestyle was a college class and diet/exercise held equal weight, I would have a 'B' in Diet and an 'F' in Exercise with a resulting grade of 60% for the week. Barely a "D", depending on which scale you go by. Will absolutely be committing to moving my body a lot more next week.

The road to onion rings is paved with good intentions

Saturday started off so well ... watch how quickly the wheels fall off the bus.

Meal #1: McDonald's mocha latte (no whipped cream); 3 scrambled omega-3 eggs with organic salsa; red grapes
Our coffee maker broke, so we have to go out for coffee til we replace it. The temptation was to just get FOOD from McDonald's since we were already going to be there but I told Eric I would just whip up something quick while he ran out. Pretty proud of that one. :)

Meal # 2: Salad at Ciccio's with chicken, red grapes, walnuts, shredded zucchini, squash and carrots. Olive oil and vinegar instead of the dressing it came with.
A perfect lunch ... protein (chicken), fat (walnuts and olive oil), and low-glycemic carbs (veggies)

Meal # 3: 1/2 an apple with Sunbutter
We were car shopping all day. I knew it would be a while before dinner so we stopped at home to grab a quick snack, trying to keep blood sugar levels as stable as possible.

Meal # 4: Onion rings (with sauce); broccoli cheese casserole; two buffalo chicken fingers with Ranch dressing; water to drink
Remember I mentioned wheels would be falling off. Well, here you go. This was about 8:30 p.m. at Cheddar's. Again, car shopping all day. Totally drained. Starving. Yet also - celebrating - because I got a new Jeep Commander!! So excited. I would have been disappointed in us for being such stereotypical American consumers ... gorging ourselves with fried food in celebration of some silly milestone. But the onion rings were just so damn good!! I'd be lying if I said it wasn't worth it. :)

Workout: Yeah, right. Did I mention car shopping??

Three open meals goes quickly!!

Log for Friday ... If you've been reading along, then you know I was shooting for only three "open meals" this week. Going into Friday, I've already had two, so it's not looking good for the weekend. :( Let's not count our chickens though.

Meal # 1: 2 omega-3 enriched eggs, over hard; 1 pc. nitrate-free bacon; 1/2 an orange; 1 tbs. sunbutter
Only had 4 pcs. of bacon left in the fridge. Gave 3 to the hubby. Figured there was enough protein in the eggs; should be fine without that second piece. :)

Meal # 2: 1 oz. unsalted almonds; other 1/2 orange; 3 pcs. bacon
Brought the orange with me. Knew I had almonds at my desk for a little fat. Figured I could buy some sort of protein at the cafeteria at work.

Meal # 3: Mixed greens and spinach salad with chicken breast, banana peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, sunflower seeds, olive oil and vinegar
A pretty perfect lunch, I'd say ...

Meal # 4: Panera pastry
I know!!! I wasted my third open meal on a pastry!! It's so senseless. I was out of snacks at work and there were a ton leftover pastries from one of our vendor events next to my desk, STARING AT ME. I told them to leave me alone and I got up with my dollar to get trail mix out of the vending machine. But they were out!!! What do I do? Starve? Eat something equally junky and sugar-loaded out of the machine? Or just go for the (free) pasry. I somehow convinced myself it was the best option at the time.

Meal # 5: Sushi
We went to a wine tasting for a friend. I proudly eschewed the cheese and crackers. But by the time the party was dying down around 8:30, I was ready to eat my own arm off. And the birthday girl wanted sushi. How can you say no? :-) (No worries, cyber-friends, I did not subject my baby to any raw fish. All cooked rolls.)

Workout: Sadly, none

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!!

Man, when I don't do my Sunday meal planning and shopping/chopping adventure, it REALLY screws me up for the rest of the week. You have to plan to be Paleo. If you don't, you are left with very few choices. Luckily, I was able to stay on plan, but there were several times where I just didn't eat enough. Not good for your blood sugar at all. The goal is for insulin levels to remain constant.

Meal # 1: Scrambled egg whites with spinach and organic tomato salsa; (1) small pork chop; (1) tbs. sunbutter
Eggs were delicious; pork was okay. Sunbutter was eaten by itself, and was just to add some fat to the meal. Really helps because I didn't get hungry again for about three hours.

Meal # 2: Nectarine; 1 oz. unsalted almonds
Good fat, good carb, no protein. Not a perfect meal. And I was hungry less than an hour later.

Meal # 3: Pork chop; leftover tomato/cucumber salad from Tue. night dinner
Probably wasn't enough olive oil on the salad to be a full serving of fat for this meal. Should be about 30% of my calories. Missed again. Still paleo, just not great planning.

Meal # 4: 1 oz. unsalted almonds
Totally not enough calories. Very little protein and no carb. BAD PLANNING!! It was all I had at my desk.

Meal # 5: Apple with Sunbutter
Had this as soon as I walked in the door from work. Knew I wouldn't make it do dinner without something. And I was squeezing in a workout too.

Meal # 6: Voodoo Mahi Mahi (very spicy); chicken marsala; salad with tomatoes, cucumbers and vinaigrette dressing; mixed vegetables; water
Another team dinner. Paleo choices ... other than the sauces they used on the meat, which I'm sure had some combination of sugar, butter, flour, soy products, preservatives, etc. But the amounts are so small, I'm not going to get bent out of shape about the occasional non-Paleo condiment.

Workout: Row 3,000 meters

Side note: I'm really tired of getting up every 10 seconds to pee. Just FYI.

Sticking to your guns ... well, sort of

This says Thursday but that's just because I'm posting late. It's really a log for Wed.

So, if you read Monday's blog, you know I am shooting for Paleo meals throughout each day, with the exception of three "open meals." The first was Monday night at a team dinner. The second, I knew, would be Wed. night. We'd made plans with friends to do fajitas (buy one-get one at Cody's). :-) So, knowing that, it was much easier to stick to the plan during the day, even though there were LOTS OF TEMPTATIONS! (Event at work = yummy, pretty catered food)

Meal # 1: Scrambled eggs, 2 pieces bacon, pineapple and strawberries; water to drink
No breakfast potatoes, biscuits, french toast or coffee!! Yay me. I guess I could have had the coffee, but not the creamer or the sugar, so why bother. Baby doesn't need it and honestly, I don't even want it anymore as much as I used to.

Meal # 2: Apple; water
Stole it off the breakfast bar from the event, knowing I would need something later and I left the house in such a rush, I didn't pack any snacks. It was better than nothing, but with no protein or fat to go with it, I was hungry again in about 30 min.

Meal # 3: Salad with goat cheese, cranberries, pine nuts and vinaigrette; spicy jerk chicken breast; broccoli and red pepper saute; water
Goat cheese isn't paleo and I'm not supposed to have it while pregnant anyway, so I tried to pick around the chunks as much as possible. Didn't have any rice with the chicken or cheesecake for dessert!! And what I did have was delicious.

Meal # 4: 1 oz. unsalted almonds; water
Again, no snacks. Just nuts at my desk. Better than nothing. But no real protein or carb source for energy - so, not ideal on their own. I was just trying to hold out for fajitas. :)

Meal # 5: White bread roll with honey butter; salad with cheese, tomatoes, croutons and creamy dressing; two white flour tortillas with grilled chicken, sauteed onions, sour cream and lots of pico de gallo; water
Soooooo not Paleo. But very yummy. And I still have one "open meal" left for the week. REALLY gonna try to not go over!!

Workout: None. [Sad face] Left the house early for the event at work. Went straight from the office to the restaurant for dinner. Straight from dinner to band practice at the church. Home a little before 10 pm. That's only one workout on record by Wed. Not good. Gonna have to make up for it on Sat. and Sun. in order to get a total of five in for the week.

Paleo-Zone and a severe loss of strength

The food I pack for myself and my husband on any given day is really a combo of Paleo and the Zone Diets. (Well, sort of. I mean no offense to the die-hard Zoners who religiously measure blocks of food and weigh their portions. I may get there eventually.) I believe in the Paleo principles (eating food we were designed to eat - meat, fruits/veggies, nuts/seeds ... and shunning food products created by man and machine). I also agree with Dr. Barry Sears' Zone concept about the importance of balancing meals across the macronutrients of protein, carbohydrate and fat. One of the largest contributors to today's obesity epidemic, in my opinion, is a diet WAY too high in sugar and far too low in fat.

Protein sources below: Eggs, pork chop, pork loin slices, chicken, shrimp
Carb sources below: Spinach, salad greens, tomatoes, broccoli, red onion, zucchini, red pepper, mushrooms, pineapple, nectarine, OJ (an unfavorable carb, but a carb nonetheless)
Fat sources below: Nuts, olive oil, avocado

Meal # 1: Two omega-3 enriched eggs (in cooking spray); small pork chop; sauteed spinach; swig of OJ
I know spinach for breakfast sounds disgusting, but it's just an easy way to get a serving of veggies in at breakfast. I put a little on a fork with egg and a bite of pork chop and you can't even taste it. A little salt and pepper helps too. Also- OJ is really just sugar water and I don't recommend it, but I made some the other night when I really wanted something sweet and the leftovers were eyeing me from the fridge. It was literally a SWIG, though. I should dump the rest out when I get home.

Meal # 2: Shredded chicken; unsalted mixed nuts; (1) nectarine
The best thing I do for meal prep is buy a rotisserie chicken each Sunday and dissect it for the rest of the week's meals and snacks. Sooo grab-and-go. Nut mix had a lot of peanuts in it. I ate a few but tossed the rest. (Remember peanuts are not nuts; they're legumes. Click here to read my post on why legumes are not Paleo). Nectarines are awesome right now and fruit is so packed with essential vitamins and minerals, it's just high in sugar so I try to only have two servings a day. All other produce is veggies.

Meal # 3: Mixed greens and baby spinach w/ rotisserie chicken, tomatoes, broccoli, red onion, olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Vinegar's not technically Paleo because of it's acidic effect on the body, but I'm a little more liberal with the condiments. Try to keep my strictness for the grains, dairy and legumes.

Meal # 4: Pork loin; fresh pineapple slices; avocado/tomato salad with olive oil
Grilled two pork loins Sunday night for use in lunches and snacks during the week. Makes it easy when you're assembling meals in the mornings to have your protein already cooked and ready to go. Fresh pineapple vs. canned - more vitamins, no added sugar. Remember Paleo shuns processing.

Meal # 5: Grilled chicken breast; skewer of grilled shrimp; roasted veggies; cucumber/tomato salad
To roast veggies, I just chopped up zucchini, red bell pepper, portabello mushrooms and red onion, tossed them with olive oil and popped in the oven at 400 for like 20 - 25 min. Just watch 'em and take 'em out when you like how they look. :) Tomato/cucumber salad is just chunks of those 2 ingredients plus a healthy drizzle of olive oil, a splash of red wine vinegar, some salt and pepper and fresh cilantro. (I buy this every week and end up putting it in everything. I LOOOOOOVE cilantro. Love it.) Salad normally has avocado in it too, but I was out. Not enough fat in this meal. I will be hungry later. :(

Meal # 5B: I was right; about an hour after dinner, I was still really hungry. So, I polished off another skewer of shrimp with a little tartar sauce. Some added fat would have really made a difference.

Workout: "Baby Cindy" -- AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 12 min. of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats. (The regular CrossFit "Cindy" is AMRAP in 20 min. They take it down a notch for the preggo's.) I do my pull-ups on the medium assistance band because I haven't quite mastered the kip yet. And my strength is so decreased now anyway that it's going to have to wait til post-pregnancy. Push-ups I normally do on my toes, at least the first few rounds. This time I had to drop to my knees after TWO! WTH?? Very demoralizing. And even on my knees, I was breaking them up into sets of 5's and then 2's! I was warned my performance would go down dramatically, but it sucks to find out they were right. Anywho - my goal was 8 rounds in 12 min. I got 7 rounds + 5 pull-ups and 3 push-ups. I was 7 push-ups and 15 squats shy of the goal. Oh well. Now is not the time to be pushing the intensity. But I do need to be pushing the CONSISTENCY. Back at it tomorrow.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty successful day in the life of a Preggo on Paleo ....

Back from the dead!!

I am back from my two-month hiatus!! Soooooo sorry for abandoning the blog. See, what had happened was ... I went on family vaca for a couple days (no computer, and BlackBerry blogging takes WAY too long) ... then I got back and found out I was KNOCKED UP! Yep - 6 weeks to be exact. :) No wonder I was having a hard time with Paleo!! The normalest of smells, textures and tastes would totally gross me out. Now I understand why! Anywho ... I waited til 12 weeks preggo to tell the world, so that's why I still wasn't updating the blog. Then, even after the world knew, I was having far too many indiscretions to make a "Paleo-ish" blog worth anyone's while. (Man, that kid loved Chic-fil-A!) But too bad for him/her. We are comfortably rooted in the second trimester now and there is a new sheriff in town! No more morning nausea. No more smell sensitivities. So, here we are: 16 weeks pregnant and BACK ON TRACK. Wahoooooo!!!

Meal # 1: Scrambled egg whites with spinach, organic tomato salsa, and a little salt and pepper; 2 pieces nitrate-free bacon; water to drink

Meal # 2: Celery stalks with sunbutter
(My new best friend! Made from sunflower seeds and tastes way better than almond butter. Plus, at $5 a jar, it's less than half the cost!)

Meal # 3: Almonds and dried apricots
(Way less sugar than most other dried fruits, like cranberries, raisins, etc.)

Meal #4: Baby greens and spinach w/ chicken salad, olive oil and red wine vinegar.
Chicken salad was made with grapes, mandarin oranges, celery, a tiny bit of canola mayo (store-bought, so shoot me ... but way better omega-3 to -6 ratio than regular mayo), and a splash of Italian dressing (also store-bought, but low sugar, low sodium, and organic, so very few ingredients)

Meal # 5: Out to dinner at Ocean Prime in Tampa ... and this is where the wheels fell off the bus.

• French onion soup -- I was STARVING and needed food ASAP. Could have gotten a salad, I suppose, but to make them paleo, I would have asked for no-this, no-that, and I figured what the hell, I'll just get the soup.
• Salmon -- Not bad; only ate half of it ... pretty full from the soup
• Sides = Black truffle macaroni and cheese; Cream corn; Jalepeno potatoes au gratin -- This is where things really went downhill. Table of 5 women, all ooh-ing and aah-ing over the comfort-food style chef creations. We ordered three sides for the table, so you only ended up eating a few bites of these evil dishes, but still ...
• Carrot cake -- Ate four bites. Not the end of the world, but also not the best start to the week.

But hey! The food was excellent and I had an awesome time. We will call that Open Meal #1 for the week. Shooting for a total of 3 "open meals" in a 7-day window. I'll keep you posted ...