An Assortment of Updates

Loving Life on the beach at J's Grandmother's Cottage, Prince Edward Island May 2012

I'll get right into it.

I have been on pinterest, Twitter and Facebook daily lately. I think the term "food blogger" has a whole new meaning now, doesn't it?. There are definite true food bloggers out there (I read their daily tales!) but I don't feel I'm one of those anymore. I'm enjoying the back and forth conversation and interaction I get from Twitter and Facebook and the constant creativity (and food porn) I get from Pinterest. With a full-time job, a new home and hubby, and a strong attempt of having both solid down and social time, I'll take what fits nicely in the pocket of my schedule right now!

Since the last time we "spoke", J and I have been continuing to eat in a whole new way! As I mentioned, my friend Katie has been doing the whole Cross Fit + Paleo challenges and has been loving it. J and I decided to embrace a wee bit of paleo into our lives temporarily to a) see what eating more meat would make me feel like b) create a mental shift when it comes to "meals always needing potatoes, rice or pasta" and c) see what small changes we might see in our energy and belly. Most people that follow the paleo way of eating will follow it 100% of the time. Then there are a whole group of people who follow it 80% of the time, allowing themselves 20% of "cheat food". J and I are neither at the moment, but almost.

My feeling is that if my main meals and daytime snacks (lunch and supper, sometimes breakfast) are basically paleo, that's pretty good for us. J has still been starting his day with cereal and milk. He's still drinking his milk. I'm eating Amande Yogurt, jarred mayo, caesar dressing and ketchup....and potato chips because - really - I've already given up so so many things (I say as I stomp my feet!:P).  I'm perfectly content with keeping these few small items in my diet. They're all sugar, soy and dairy free and are made for me (which simply means I won't have to go bananas having to make absolutely every single thing from scratch!). I accept this as my area of guilty pleasure. :)

I'll go into the changes we're experiencing as we go through this further. I'll also provide some resources and some sample meal plans of what we have been doing - you know, as non-heavy-duty-paleo-followers. Whether you give it a name or not, it's ultimately just good food - plain and simple. Meat, fruit, vegetables and nuts. How can you go wrong? For now, I will say that the meals are surprisingly easy and fun to come up with. Meal planning and sticking to it is hard, but also fun to create. Grocery shopping is a lot more fun. Although I was hoping to spend less money, I feel we've wasted a lot less food in the last two weeks and have actually been eating more food, at a better quality, at no real cost difference.

There were a few days where I was sitting at work starving dreaming of pigging out on a bowl of pasta, but with a few frantic texts back and forth with Katie (and two guilty trips to Subway), I made homemade trail mix, packed more food and took some control of the situation. J is noticing a big difference in the way he's feeling, especially with the decline of those horrible afternoon crashes that we all hate, but have. My biggest change is in my belly and energy (of course). I think that different things will work for different people, but so far the lack of all these heavy items is definitely making a difference in the way I feel every evening (more to come on this). The biggest challenge I am now having with this is mentally accepting that I'm eating more meat. For me, it feels that more meat is treating me well but I have always secretly hoped I could give up meat someday for the love of animals. Ya know? Anyone ever experience that?

Friends are helping me understand and source out local farms so I can make better purchases when it comes to where our meat is coming from so that I can come to terms with all of this. I'm sure you'll hear about this intertwined in all my convos on here, Twitter and Facebook in the future.

Stay tuned..! Recipes and photos will be coming up in the next post...

(Oh - and if you comment on my blog, I'll be greatly appreciative but if you don't receive a reply from me it's because Google has stopped allowing me to comment on blogs - strange, right?)