A Week in the Life of Jami - Karate, A Paleo Meal Break-Down, and Discipline

I am mighty proud of the week I've had.  I've decided to write about it too, in hopes that I can maybe provide some inspiration.  I understand my circumstances are different from a lot of people's, but maybe you can adapt some of my advice into your lifestyle.

Last week Harlee started karate. I'm super excited about it, and he's enjoying it too (and he's adorable!).  I can tell this is going to be good for both of us. I'm a free-spirited person - routines, structure, and sometimes effective discipline aren't really my thing.  Bedtime and naptime is whenever they're tired, dinner time is whenever they're hungry, and as far as chores go, well, we have some general ideas of chores, but nothing that's enforced.  I encourage him to put his clothes in the hamper, to put his shoes away when he takes them off, to put his toys away when he's done with them, and to collect the eggs from the chickens, but sometimes his clothes are all over the floor (just like mine), his shoes are not on the shelf (also like mine), his toys get left out (much like my stuff), and I make up excuses for him and just collect the eggs myself.  This karate thing is all about focus, discipline, respect, structure - all that stuff I feel we need to work on.  I'm still not going to be very structured in every aspect of life, I'm just not that kind of person, but I feel with this he's getting a balance.  But I must say it is actually encouraging me to be a bit more routine at home, and to find structure.  This was his second week of karate, and my first week of structure and discipline in my own life.  Bedtime has been at 9pm every night, consistently including brushing our teeth, changing into pj's, reading a book, and going to sleep.  And it feels kinda good, which I wasn't expecting...

But the best part for me has been the new structure I've found with meal planning.  First of all, karate is at 6:10.  I pick him up from the sitter and we drive up to karate and are on the road home by 6:45.  I REFUSE to be a drive-through family.  REFUSE.  The first week we went to Dairy Queen the first evening and Subway the second.  That in itself was enough of a kick in the butt for me to figure something out.  That second evening, we stopped at the store on the way home and I had Harlee pick out his very own lunch box.  He found one he liked and was super excited about it.  But what was I going to put in it?  Let's face it, Paleo is tricky enough when it comes to feeding kids, and even harder if meals happen on the road.  It was looking like I may have to resort to sandwiches.  But I haaaaate store-bought bread.  Since cutting bread out of my diet, it all smells like chemicals to me now.  Probably because it is.  Well, turns out we have a bread machine that we got as a wedding present, that hasn't been used since going Paleo, and I thought, perfect.  I'll make the bread.  And for you haters out there muttering "overachiever" under your breath at me - seriously, it takes 5 minutes.  If that.  Load the ingredients, and push a button.  That's IT.  I do it at night, we have fresh bread in the morning.  It's stupid to buy bread.  Get a bread machine, and I don't care how busy you are, you do have time to bake your own bread.

Anyway! I digress.  So this week was super successful.  Justin has been on night shift so I didn't have to really think about a family dinner, but I know I've been needing to think about my diet.  I gained weight over the holidays, and apparently decided to extend the holiday season on into Easter.  I kept making excuses - I'd get back on the Paleo wagon after New Year's.  Then after my birthday in February.  Then once I started personal training in March.  Then after Easter.  Excuses excuses.  Now I guess I'm not THAT bad - I don't eat bread or pasta, but we'd go out to eat and I'd get a burger without the bun but eat all the fries.  Kinda defeats the purpose.  Going out to eat was becoming a problem, whether with Justin, friends, family, or even by myself.  Oh and don't get me started on all the Easter candy.  Plus I was only working out two days a week and that's it.  I completely stopped all physical activity in my basement gym, which totally sucked.  And I was feeling it.

I guess in the spirit of discipline and self-control that was being exercised in karate, and my determination to not swing myself and my kid through a drive through twice a week, I finally cracked down.  Lunches packed for Harlee, and stir-fries like they were going out of style for me and Justin (usually salads would be my go-to but they just seem super boring and unappealing lately).  And protein shakes for supper for me.

Monday I ran a mile and worked out in the basement.  I had bacon and eggs for breakfast, and for lunch I started working on meal prep for the rest of the week.  Most people meal prep on Sundays.  I prefer to keep holy the sabbath day.  Haha just kidding I'm not religious you know that, but I do like some time off.  Monday feels like a good day to kick start a good week.  I had thawed out some pork chops and cut them into cubes, and I started prepping veggies.  Fresh green beans got trimmed, broccoli got split into florets and stems cut into small pieces, brussels sprouts trimmed, and everything got put into bags.  Carrots, onions, cauliflower, snow peas, you name it.  That way I was ready for the week - grab a handful of whatever veggies sound good, throw them in the skillet, and voila.  So Monday I had pork and a bunch of veggies, olive oil, red wine vinegar, a drizzle of maple syrup for a bit of sweetness, and some spices - garlic powder, salt and pepper, basil and oregano.  I like to play around.  I made enough for me to eat for supper and for Justin to take to work that evening.  I work late on Monday nights so that evening I made a protein shake - I like Jay Robb's Chocolate Egg White Protein - because there are 5 recognizable ingredients in it instead of a long list of ingredients I can't even pronounce.  A scoop of that, a scoop of Barlean's Greens Chocolate Silk (I like chocolate, can you tell?), a scoop of almond butter for extra calories and flavor, and I blend it all up with a handful of spinach and almond milk (though I'm going to be switching to coconut milk once I run out since it's better for you).  Yes spinach - I love it in my smoothies.  Personal preference.

Tuesday I actually got up early enough to make a 3-serving stir-fry - one for breakfast for me, one for lunch for me, and one for Justin at work.  I used the last of the pork and whatever veggies sounded good, and did the same thing with the oil, vinegar, syrup, and spices.  I then made Harlee a turkey sandwich, filled a cup with carrots and cherry tomatoes and another cup with grapes, and packed it in his cool new lunch box.  I also made another protein smoothie for that evening.  I had personal training that afternoon, then that evening we went to karate and Harlee was thrilled with his packed supper.

Wednesday I had bacon and eggs for breakfast.  I ran almost 3 miles that morning, and since I was home that afternoon before evening clients I made another double-batch of stir-fry, one for me for lunch and one for Justin to take to work that night.  Then I made a smoothie for supper and headed to work.

Thursday was pretty much the same as Tuesday, only I decided to mix things up with the stir-fry.  I made chicken and added some tomato sauce, some Italian seasoning, Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, and made it pizza style.  It was delicious!  Next time I'll add pepperonis and black olives to it.  I made Harlee a ham sandwich, packed a cup of tomatoes and carrots and another of blueberries, packed it in his lunch box, blended up a smoothie, and headed to work.  Personal training that afternoon, karate that evening.

And today is Friday.  I'm off on Fridays.  I made my almond flour pancakes for breakfast (yum!) and then made a broccoli/chicken stir-fry for lunch with a cheese sauce made with unsweetened almond milk, arrowroot powder, and freshly grated cheddar cheese.  Garlic powder, salt and pepper, YUM.  To top it all off, I got out my vegetable spiralizer and made some zucchini noodles.  Seriously, invest in a spiralizer, these things are great!!  And zucchini noodles are even better than spaghetti squash, not even kidding!

I'll admit, I haven't been perfect - pretty much every day I snuck in some candy, and occasionally a sample of that homemade bread.  But I've gotten better - while Monday I feel like I grabbed chocolate and munched on it all day long, today all I've had were a couple of jelly beans.  The main thing is I'm not going to beat myself up, and every day is a new day - tomorrow I'll try harder.  But I'm focusing on my accomplishments - I made food for me, my husband, and my kid every day and I kept it pretty healthy too.  I exercised every day too, which is a great feeling.  And ya know what?  I'm seeing the difference!  I feel good, and I'm finally starting to LOOK good.  My clothes and the scale are both finally showing me that I've made progress.  And that's got me motivated to keep up the good work next week too.

So that's my week.  Hope it provided some inspiration!  Now off to snuggle in for a movie and not go to bed at 9 because it's the weekend.  Cheers!

A Day in the Life of Jami: Easter, Turkey Hunting, Paleo Fajitas, and Arnica

Got a few random topics today!  NOT going to talk about essential oils though.  I'll save that for a different time.  So whoever is reading this that reported me, you don't have anything to worry about this time ^_^.

Sorry.  The full moon is still having effects on me - still feeling a bit snarky.

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend!  We sure did, the boys (well, Harlee anyway) had fun hunting eggs and getting goodies from the Easter bunny, and we all had a great time with family over the weekend.

Today was the first day of turkey season, and my ONLY day to get to go.  Justin had made arrangements with our good friend Clay for me to go hunting at his place (what a good husband), so bright (well, dark actually) and early in the morning my mother-in-law came over to sit with our sleeping boys while we suited up in our camo and headed out to the blind.  I kept in mind my lesson learned from the last time I had gone turkey hunting, which was to just let go and let it be, because things always work out the best that way.  I went into this with no expectations except for to have a good time with my husband and close friend.  It worked out in my favor!  We had an amazing experience, turkeys were gobbling all over the place all around us, Justin and Clay took turns calling them, and we got to see six jakes (young male turkeys) wander through our hunting area towards the decoys.  Two came out first, and I took a shot at the first one (the bigger one) and knocked him to the ground instantly!  Very exciting!  Finally, after 6 years of turkey hunting with Justin, I got one!

Me being goofy with Justin, Clay, and my first turkey!

I've adapted that attitude in a lot of things in life.  Just surrender to what's going on around you and let it be.  Of course I'm not perfect at it, and I forget that lesson sometimes and let stress get to me, and usually that's when things tense up and don't go as smoothly as I'd like, but for the most part I do try to remember to just relax into my environment and let life happen the way it's meant to.  It's amazing how things just work out, and even if things don't go the way I would have preferred, I always find out soon enough that they worked out the best.

There are things that require a bit of our control, though.  For me, that's food.  Good golly I have fallen completely off the healthy train again.  In fact, I've fallen off the healthy train and tied myself to the tracks.  I feel like crap, my system is backed up, I'm sluggish, and my allergies are really starting to kick in despite supplements I've been taking to ward them off.  I've sent my system into inflammatory overdrive, and it is not good!  I miss Paleo.  I miss how good I felt, how good I looked, and how good everything tasted.  Easter weekend was so bad to me.  So many carbs in our meals, so much wine, and so many jelly beans, gummy bears, chocolate eggs, peeps, etc., etc.  Ugh I feel like my blood sugar is spiking just thinking about it!  Just feeling like this makes me feel motivated to change.  I'm off to a good start, too, and thought I'd blog about my lunch as a reminder to everyone else that it's really not hard to throw a tasty, healthy meal together.

For breakfast I had bacon and eggs.  I always have bacon and eggs, though, so nothing exciting there.  It's quick and easy for me, it's low carb and high protein, and tastes good.  Lunch, I was just going to cut up some pork steaks I had in the fridge and throw them in the skillet with some veggies and eat them plain and boring like that.  By the way, Justin and I were both home and I have to work tonight so lunch became our main meal - this would normally be something I'd throw together for dinner.  Anyway.  I started out that way, then threw in some orange bell pepper and onion slices.  Which made me think of fajitas.  That sounded good!  I threw in some chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, and cumin to the meat and veggies, and then I whipped up some paleo tortillas while those were frying.  And by whipped up, I mean whipped up.  I can't believe I haven't posted these yet!  It's high time I do that!  These tortillas are sooooo good - the best paleo version of a tortilla I've had yet.  I'm not really sure where the original recipe came from, but it was passed along to me from my mom's friend Sandy, and I'm so grateful for it!  It's much easier than my flaxseed tortillas, and they're much softer and tastier than those too.

Here's the recipe:

Paleo Tortillas

1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
dash of salt (and any other spices you might feel like flavoring it with)

Whisk all ingredients into a batter and pour or spoon a bit into a hot skillet, and use the back of your spoon to help spread it to about an 1/8 inch thin circle.  You can use a little coconut oil depending on how non-stick your pan is, but I fry in cast iron so I don't put anything on it.  Once it's hardened up enough to slide your spatula under it, flip it over and cook it for a few more seconds, then transfer to a plate to cool.  Finish up the rest of the batter this way, and voila!  Tortillas!

These work great as crepes for fruit or wraps for sandwich ingredients, or in our case with lunch today, tortillas for fajitas or tacos.

Then I remembered I had a couple avocados, and they were ripe and ready to go!  So I sliced them open, scooped the meat into a bowl, and made up some quick guacamole with what I had on hand:

Quick Guacamole

2 avocados, peeled and pitted
1/4 white or yellow onion, chopped
1/2 tomato, chopped
juice from half a lime
salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Smoosh all the ingredients together and voila! Tasty guacamole!

It turned into a perfect addition to my fajitas, adding just the creaminess sour cream usually does and the flavor salsa usually has.  I was quite pleased with the turnout, the flavor of everything put together was fantastic!  On top of that, I had a delicious lunch put together in under 30 minutes, with all the ingredients made from scratch!  Although I probably should have made a double batch of tortillas to keep in the fridge for another time, but oh well.

I think this lunch really helped motivate me - reminding me of how easy paleo actually is, how good it tastes, and how good I feel (I got up 3 hours before I usually do and I still feel great - not sluggish or heavy or anything like I have been this weekend with all the junk I ate).  To stick with the ease of it all, I think I'm just going to keep stir-frying meat and veggies.  I think I forgot what a quick and easy go-to stir frying actually is, and this recipe today was a great reminder.

One more thing before I go - the gun I used this morning had quite a kick!  Of course in the moment I didn't even notice it - I was so focused on shooting that bird that the gun fire actually startled me after I pulled the trigger, almost like I wasn't expecting it!  That's how in the zone I was for that shot!  But after I stood up, I noticed my sternum was pretty achy, and so was my back in a similar spot.  I'm pretty sure I knocked a rib out of place.  I'm not sure when I'll be able to see my chiropractor, so in the meantime I'm taking homeopathic Arnica, which is great for injuries!  Not sure if it'll help my body realign itself, but I will say I'm feeling a bit better since I've taken a couple doses!  I love homeopathy!

Well, that's my story!  I'll try to check back in soon, but with a family and a business - you know how that goes :).