Quick snack!

Blech. Today started off a little rough for me. I believe that I am getting a cold. My throat hurts, my nose is super runny and I have a cough. So I was slow getting things taken care of today and I had a ton to do. The Soldier is coming home for the weekend and the dogs have left all their garbage and their laundry every where. They don't do their dishes, either.

So I finally got around to unpacking from the Pittsburgh Kung Fu Cousin wedding, threw some clothes in the laundry, cleaned the bathroom, dusted and then took the Dyson for a spin and cleaned up my neato kitchen.

My plan for this afternoon is to go do a workout, go grocery shopping (as I did a much needed fridge clean out) and start cookin for The Soldier's weekend home. But before I go run around the neighborhood on a Friday night (anxiety, anxiety!!!) I needed to eat a little something. I didn't take many pictures of this one but here is what I ate.

The Pig (or the Piggly Wiggly, laugh all you want, they have great produce!) had some amazing strawberries so I washed a few of them, sliced them and ate em.

Then I took half a lb of already cooked shrimp, took the tails off and then coated them in some melted coconut oil. Then I threw them in a skillet that was sprayed with some coconut oil spray (hard to find but soooooooo worth it!) and already heated up. I sauteed those shrimp for a bit. While they were cooking, I cut, peeled and de-seeded (is that the right word for it??) two small, almost ripe (so kinda hard) avocados and then threw those in the skillet. Cooked those for a bit, all together with the shrimp.

Then, I ate em. It was good.

Now, I'm going to go get on my workout clothing, get my mp3 player (a Zune, it rocks) and run for a bit, come back do some situps and some push-ups and maybe some lunges.

Watch out, Pooler!!! Im running!

Gadgets

When I started this whole Paleo diet cooking thing...I realized that I have a pretty awesome kitchen complete with some awesome gadgets. Thanks to my fantastico mother in law, I get some cool things from her all the time (a citrus juicer? Amazing!!). And the nearest Publix (which I love love love for their organic stuff) has some little things that I have used almost every night.

But the one thing that I noticed that I really needed was a food processor. I have a tiny one, a one cupper, that I basically use for herbs and nuts. But I want to make soups (soups in the summer in Georgia? Of course!!!), sauces and chop things better than me and my trusty butcher knife.

So...when The Soldier asked me what I wanted for my birthday (May fourth, and it was good!) I said, without a thought, 'A FOOD PROCESSOR! A GOOD ONE!!!' and he had to calm me down and then said that I needed to do some research and that I couldn't spend 400.00 bucks on one.

Did my research and found one...Laura's New Food Processor !

It should be delivered today (along with a new Bible because Itchy thought that he needed some spirituality inside of him and ate my last one) and I can't wait. The blinds are open, the site to UPS is open and regularly refreshed and I'm making a pathway through the carpet much like the ones that the dogs have made in our backyard from the back fence to the front fence.

Cannot. Wait.

Working Out (sadface)

Burpees

So, I’m really out of shape. Like super duper out of shape. I hate that. I used to love working out and running and doing classes. I ran a marathon, for goodness sake.

I got a little discouraged when I gained all the weight. I got all down on myself because I and only I added the weight and it was very preventable. And I figured, shoot! Damage done. I can never recover from what I’ve done or allowed to happen.  Thus, not only getting fat, I also became grossly out of shape. So I didn’t want to feel even worse by setting out to run and not being able to go any distance.

Well. Everyone has to start somewhere.  Embarrassing as it is, I have to start somewhere. I also have to start slow due to the fact that I, apparently, have no idea how to run on a treadmill and am still recovering from the ankle that decided to break in half. I am out of the ugly brace but there are certain times where the ankle politely (not) reminds me that it’s been wounded.

I talk a lot about Everyday Paleo, not only the blog but the new cookbook. In that cookbook, there is a workout plan. The beginner (or otherwise known as the ‘hey you be outta shape, girl! Workout) is perfect for me to start slow.

So here is what I did today:

Ran 1 mile in my neighborhood.

Walked ½ mile in my neighborhood.

10 body weight squats

10 push-ups on my knees

10 Everyday Paleo sit-ups

11 burpees (I’m trying to do as many burpees as the date. I can do them all throughout the day…if I remember and don’t kick myself in the butt when I forget and have to do all of them during my workout)

Four laps around our ginormous yard.

For my cool down, I put on New Politics song “Dignity” and danced with the poopsters in the back.

Decent workout. I did pretty much the same yesterday except I only ran ½ mile and didn’t do sit-ups or the walk. I was sore this morning, but the good, oh hi! I’m alive sore. I’m gonna do a similar workout tomorrow cause this weekend, we have a guest coming and I really don’t want to work out while The Soldier and I have a guest.

That’s it! I’m off to figure out what to make for dinner and listen to people sing on American Idol and hate on them and J-LO’s outfits and hair. Also I have a feeling I will be yelling at The Two Crazies for a while…they won’t shut up.

Sweet Potato Salad

Why is it that I always want to put "sweat" instead of "sweet"? Must be my body/mind telling me to go run, even though it is hot outside and the neighbors will see me running.

First recipe!!!

Really, if you want to know everything about Paleo and don’t want to feel like you are reading a scientist or doctor’s explanation, Everyday Paleo is the place to go. This blog also has the most fantastic recipes. When The Soldier and I first started this new foods stuff, we followed Robb Wolf’s book, The Paleo Solution, to the detail. But as I started researching more and more recipes, I stumbled on Everyday Paleo.  It’s a user friendly awesome blog and I gather most of my recipes from that particular site. There is also a new cookbook called Everyday Paleo. If you want more information, a workout plan, a grocery list and even a meal plan, check out the book. Even if you don’t eat Paleo, the book is kinda amazing. Check it out, the book and/or the blog.

So…here is a recipe for a sweet potato salad. Also, a recipe for some salad dressing. Yeah, I know. I burned noodles for mac and cheese two years ago and now I am making salad dressing from scratch. Baffles all the smarts right outta me.

Ingredients for the salad.

1 pretty large sweet potato

1 tbsp of melted coconut oil

1 apple

7 or 8 strips of bacon

2 leeks (or if you can’t find leeks…I went to three different grocery stores for leeks! Grab an onion)

A bag of baby spinach (or three handfuls of some fresh spinach

A cup of almonds (if you want…)

Here’s how you make it!

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. While it’s heating up, de-skin the sweet potato and dice that sucker up. You want to have about 3 cups worth of potato but if you have more or less, it’s no biggie. Melt the coconut oil and throw the diced potato in a bowl and pour the oil over it making sure the potato pieces are covered in it. Put the potato pieces on a cookie sheet and throw them in the oven for about 20 minutes.

While the potato pieces are cooking, dice up the bacon and then sauté them.  Dice up the leeks (or half an onion) and when the bacon is pretty well cooked, throw the leeks in the skillet and sauté for a little while longer.  Take the spinach and put it in a salad bowl and when the bacon and leeks are done cooking, pour that mixture over the spinach. The mixture will wilt the spinach and that’s what you want. Dice up the apple and throw that in the salad mix and when the potatoes are finished throw them on the salad mix.  Mix it all up.

If you want, you can chop up the almonds and add that to the salad. I really chopped, almost minced the almonds so I had some big and little pieces within the salad.

The salad alone is amazing. But if you want to add a dressing, here is a recipe for the dressing. Trust me, you want to make it not only because it is good, but so you can say you made your own salad dressing that isn’t just olive oil and vinegar!

Ingredients for the Dressing

¼ cup of olive oil

1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar

1 tsp of spicy brown mustard

1 tbsp of dried basil

A leeeetle pinch of cayenne

Here’s how you make it!!

Toss it all together. Whisk it till its smooth and then pour it on the salad mix. I’ve never been a big fan of salad dressing unless its ranch or just plain olive oil. I also loathe the smell of the apple cider vinegar and mustard (no matter brown, Dijon or just yellow). But I promise you, this is good. Really good. I actually made a bunch and canned it for my salads for lunch the next couple of day.

Enjoy!!!!

And don't forget to go check out Everyday Paleo.

I got this recipie from Everyday Paleo Warm Spinach and Sweet Potato Salad

Some things...

Here are some things to know:

I am not good at this blogging stuff. I’m gonna be fooling around with it for a couple of days and anyone who is good at BlogSpot is more than welcome to help me make this blog a little better!

Also, I don’t use anyone’s real names in my blogs. I also have nicknames for a lot of stuff, not just people. So I thought I would outline it for you.

The Solder: this would be my husband, super awesome and very fit.

Sully (aka: Brown dog, Jingle Jangle #1, Dogsmack, Best Friend, Big fatso, Sull, Sullster): this is my nine year old pit-bull/greyhound mix doggie. Also my number one sous chef, although I think she would rather just eat the food instead of help. She is beautiful. She is gentle. She is the light of my life. She is super smart. She’s been with me through all of the bad stuff and all of the good stuff. I’m hoping that science gets their act in gear and figures out how to make dogs live forever.

Itchy (aka: The Itch, Mister, Miso, Miso Miso, Mister Itchy, black dog, Jingle Jangle #2): This happens to be a very “bright” idea I had two and a half years ago. He is a Blue Tick Coon Hound. He isn’t very smart. His bark or howl, depending on how you hear it, is the most annoying sound in the world. But he keeps my Sull young and is quite hilarious. He also is one of the most loving dogs in the world.

Mom number 1: My mother who adopted me when I was 13 days old.

Pops: My father who adopted me when I was 13 days old.

Mom number 2: My birth mom whom I met 4 years ago and love.

I have three brothers…they are all special people…in more ways than one.

AB: This is my college roommate and best friend forever. I love her. We are losing weight together although she just had the world’s most beautiful baby and has an excuse.

Mayo: I’ve known her since we were five. We were born a day a part. We planned our weddings together. We ran a marathon together. She has kept on running, while also being an incredible mom two some pretty awesome kiddos. I read her Facebook posts and she forces me through computer mind waves to go run.

KateMo: best friend from high school. We think alike and sometimes get the blues together but pull each other out of those blues. She is super skinny.

HLP: This is my best friend. I met her up in Northern New York semi on my own, with no military help what so ever. We pretty much did everything together. She taught me how to cut a green pepper. She is an amazing cook. I text her at least twice a day, email her at least once a week and write on her Facebook page fourty-ish times a day. She loves my dogs.

There are many more people in my life who are super supportive of me. I’ll add them to this post as they come into play in a post. I’m also gonna post some pictures of some of these people. The ones that don’t have pictures? They prolly don’t want them on some stupid silly cooking blog!!

Paleo: I’m gonna try to explain it, although I’ll prolly steal from my favorite website and new cookbook, Everyday Paleo. The Paleo diet is a natural diet. It is eating the way our primal relatives ate. I’m not an expert. Most of the time when someone asks me about it, I have to go grab my books and find the answer (or google is a very good friend of mine). I’m not guaranteeing that this lifestyle works for everyone, but it has worked for me. I’m pretty sure once I put down the beer and get my big ole butt working out on a consistent basis, then I will see the weight fall off…but it’s more than that. It’s being healthy.

In another post, I’ll tell everyone what blogs I read and steal recipes from, what books have motivated me and some other stuff. But for right now, I’m gonna go cook some foods. Some Paleo foods!!!

Happy Eating!!

Hello!!!

A year ago, I couldn’t cook mac n cheese. I could put some chicken in the oven, throw together a nice little salad but that was pretty much about it. Brownies in a box? Oh yeah…if they ever got to the cooking stage cause I loved me some brownie mix. I struggled with eating and by no means had a disorder. I just figured that either I ate and then didn’t eat? Or I just didn’t eat and when I did, it was horrible, easy to pick up stuff.

Four years ago, I weighed in at 138lbs. I was running nine or 10 miles every other day, getting excited for my kickboxing workout with my best friend, Mayo (nickname, not the stuff, although I loved that too). I played Division II varsity soccer for 4 years. In 2004, I ran a marathon. I loved to get out and exercise.

Four years ago, I had major surgery on my intestines and had struggled with my digestive system for years, with no one really figuring out what was wrong with me. In late 2010, a doctor basically just told me we were going to have to inquire about pain management for the rest of my life due to the stomach issues.

Now, things are horribly different and well, not so horribly.

I found out I could cook. And rather well. When I moved down to Georgia in November of 2010, The Soldier (my husband) brought to my attention a new way to eat. It was called Paleo. Basically, and I’ll go into the details about Paleo later, you eliminated sugar, grains, and dairy and some other stuff. I hate diets because I hate being hungry and I feel even worse when I cheat, which is inevitable. But we bought a book, gave the commitment to do the 30 day challenge which made me cook. And I was darned good at it.

But, on the horrible side, I haven’t worked out in probably 3 years. Every once in a while, here and there I would go to the gym but there was nothing consistent and we all know that one day out of 14 means you are just wasting breath. I gained a lot, and I mean A LOT, of weight. I’d throw down the number, but I’m terrified of getting on the scale. So let’s just say that I KNOW that I am fat.

I also let life get to me a little bit. The Soldier, obviously, has an awesome job. But he is here and there and everywhere. Left to myself, with Sully and Itchy as my housemates, I developed a rather weird and unfounded case of social anxiety. Now, as I say that, I have some wonderful friends. Some I met on my own when The Soldier was “away” and most all back home in the good state of Colorado. But meeting new people was basically terrifying to me. When I sat down and thought about it, I think it’s because I am so embarrassed about my weight. I drank a lot of beer, stayed home a lot and lost all direction and reason for life. Down in the dumps.

But…moving to Georgia to live with The Soldier again has changed things. As I mentioned, I started cooking. And cooking really healthy and wonderfully tasty food. While that is certainly not a bread-winning thing at this point in my life, it gave me some purpose other than yelling at Sully and Itchy. And, for once in my life, I had the diet/life change down. I know what is good for me, what to pair it with and have no anxiety about trying something new. And the funny thing is my stomach problems? Disappeared. Completely. Really, the only time that I have problems with my stomach is when I cheat and eat something not regulated in the clean food that I eat now.

I also started working out again. It’s gonna be a slow trek, but I’m ready for it and everyone has to start somewhere again. I’m going slowly for a couple of reasons. Late January, 2011, I broke my ankle. In half. At the gym. At 6pm when it was totally full. I wore a walking cast for almost 10+ weeks (lost count…) and a brace until very recently. So I’m being rather careful because I can’t tell you what kind of tail spin breaking my ankle again would do to me.  And, I went outside last week Monday, did way too many walking lunges and couldn’t walk for a week. So, The Soldier cleaned out the shed and made a sort of prison gym for me (and him, when he’s around). He calls it a prison gym, I call it The Room of Doom or The Hot House (as it is summer in Savannah…meaning hot, humid and there is no a/c in The Hot House.). So, to take away all my excuses (aww, gas prices are too high to drive to the gym on post, awww, it’s too far away, awww, I have social anxiety, awww, The Two Crazies ((Sully and Itchy)) will tear the house apart) I have to work out.

So this is gonna be my journey. I will try to post recipes, work outs and just how I’m feeling about getting my life back on track and being happy. It’s hard work moving to a new state with very little friends and my biggest and bestest buddy being gone all the time. I’m much more inclined to eat pizza, drink a lot of beer and watch TV whist yelling at the dogs. But things need to change.

This is the perfect opportunity for me right now. The Soldier is doing pretty well at his job; the house in Northern New York is being rented so we can afford to eat. I don’t have a job right now and I’m rather healthy. There is just no reason for me to continue to be depressed, sleep deprived from worry and fat. So…here we go.