Feeling Motivated {And this week's meal plan}

Yes, you read the title of this post correctly: I'm feeling motivated! This past week (okay, okay, week and a half), Stephen and I have indulged way.too.much. We went out to eat with friends and family, then went to my parents' home this past weekend for a friend's baby shower. Going home always involves eating my old favorites that I can only get there... it's a habit that's going to be difficult to break.

All of that said, it's inevitable that we've both gained more weight than we care to admit (though we did admit it to each other, and we both recognize that it's likely a lot of water weight from eating crap), and it's time to get back to that exercising that we haven't done much at all in the past few weeks.

We've decided not to stay completely Paleo. While it wasn't nearly as difficult as we feared, it isn't something we want to strictly continue for the foreseeable future. We will definitely follow many of the principles and we will certainly watch ingredient lists (one of the best things learning about eating Paleo taught me), but we are going to add back in whole grains and high-quality dairy--in moderation of course.

Another important thing our Paleo adventure did for us (or at least for me, since I'm the only person who lives in my apartment and I have complete control over pantry and fridge) is that it cleaned all of the processed, sugary, boxed crap out of my apartment. I don't have the opportunity to slip up and eat junk at home because I simply don't have it. I intend to keep things that way.

We'll have a food haul coming soon (we are grocery shopping in spurts since we weren't home this weekend), but for now, here's my game plan:

Breakfasts:
Raisin Bran (Sue me. I just can't help it!)
Smoothies (with some combination of frozen fruit, almond milk, almond butter, chia seeds, flaxseed... you get the picture)

Lunches:
Quinoa with chicken, broccoli, and mushrooms
Chicken soup (with homemade broth, carrots, leeks, and celery)
Leftovers (obviously! ha!)

Dinners:
Monday: Quinoa with chicken, broccoli, and mushrooms (Stephen is having "boys' night")
Tuesday: Paleo Pepper Nachos
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Grilled pork chops, roasted sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts (for me), broccoli (for Stephen)
Friday: Greek meatballs, pita, tzatziki, salad
Saturday: Friends' wedding

Stephen will join in on (most) dinners, of course. I'm not sure what his breakfasts (yeah right, he sleeps until lunchtime!) and lunches will be.

Last week & weekend

In case you forgot from my last post, LSU dedicated the field at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. LSU took care of business in grandest of fashions with a comeback win on a two-run home run in the bottom of the 8th inning to win game 2 and the series against Ole Miss. Below is the panorama I told you I would take.

And of course a great season for LSU baseball along with a night dedicating the field to the man who built the LSU program into what it is today wouldn't be complete without....... FIREWORKS!!!! I know, I know, I can be a kid at times when it comes to fireworks. I guess I just enjoy a good show. I decided since I was going to talk about this game in our blog that I shouldn't cheat anyone who reads the blog, so I decided to video the firework show and post it for your enjoyment. I will say that being in the pinnacle of college baseball stadiums overlooking Tiger Stadium, aka "Death Valley" is quite picturesque. And I think Les Miles' quote after the South Carolina game, "Death Valley, where teams dreams come to die" could apply to Alex Box Stadium during post season play.

During the week, Jesse relaxed some while I was busy working, but on Thursday we decided to have dinner with my parents. I ended up making some homemade hot italian sausage for the main dish of dinner. We sautéed up some vegetables and cut up a watermelon to go along with it. I will say that the sausage tastes delicious, absolutely positively delicious. I'll post the recipe and video in a few days.

Along with dinner, we ended up playing cards, granted it's only UNO. Last time we played cards, Phase 10 spread over two to three nights. This time we played UNO, which is easier to finish games quickly, but one of our games felt like it lasted 3 days, even though it was only an hour and a half. I guess the 3 days is my mind thinking like a 5 year old as Jesse would say.

On Friday night, my buddy Ben and his fiancée, Paige, wanted to get together and hang out. So what would we do, none other than drive an hour down to New Orleans for dinner and bowling at Rock 'N Bowl. I will admit that I had never experienced it before, but having a live band playing 50s style rock music, while people dance and bowl in a vintage style bowling alley was rather fun.

Of course we had a great time relaxing and bowling. We played teams of Jesse and myself versus Ben and Paige. I'll admit that about 5 years ago I bowled in a league for 2 years. But haven't really picked up a bowling ball since and using bowling alley balls isn't the easiest to have a good game with. But we narrowly beat Ben and Paige the first game by 16, and then I guess I warmed up some and the second game we won by 136. ;-p

On the way home the fun night went out the window for me at least. We drove all the way back to Baton Rouge, and about 1 mile away from the exit I was taking to drop Ben and Paige at home, the rear passenger tire blew out. I'm not sure what was in the road, but myself and two other vehicles hit whatever it was and were pulled over on the side of the road starring at a flat tire.

I can honestly say I was baffled by the spare tire for about 10 minutes, but after Jesse told me that roadside assistance would send Pop-A-Lock to change a flat tire and estimated arrival would be in an hour and a half, which would be 2:10 am, I decided to figure it out myself. After speed reading the owner's manual, I figured out the spare tire and off we went. Now picture this, two iPhones with the flashlight app being used as the only light to see to crank the car jack and change a tire on the side of the road with 18 wheeler's flying by at 1 am. Ben and Paige kept arguing about the way to change a tire, so the shirt came off and it was time to get sweaty and dirty so I could get home. No more playing nice, Ben and Paige were sent away for a smoke while I did the manual labor. I can honestly say that if the micromanaging I witnessed from them while trying to change a tire is any signs of their future, good luck..........

Once the tire was changed, I dropped everyone off and made it home for 3 am. Only to wake up at 10 am to help Jesse get a new rear tire. Oh what a fun weekend, did I mention I worked 4 straight days, 8 hours shifts during each day of this stretch.

Shopping the Kitchen: Paleo Thai Yellow Curry

I haven't been at my apartment much for the past week--Stephen and I have done most of the eating at his parents' house because they went to the beach and we had to watch this little cutie.

Talk about hard work... Right. 

Saturday was the first day I was really at home, but of course I hadn't gone grocery shopping and had nothing to eat... Seriously. Bare pantry. Bare fridge. Bare freezer. There was a rather large clean-out when we started our Paleo journey, so there just aren't a lot of extras floating around my kitchen anymore.

Which is a good thing. Because I totally would have taken down some Ramen noodles or pasta with sauteed mushrooms and Tony Chachere's yesterday... let's not talk about it. 

I also did not feel like going to the grocery story. That would have required, you know, showering. makeup. the whole nine. I was.not.feeling.it. 

So, what's this Paleo girl to do? I raided the pantry, fridge, and freezer to find things that I had/needed to be used. I found frozen shrimp, a bell pepper, a sweet potato, one individual serving of frozen broccoli, frozen chopped onions (yay for not throwing other halves away!)... then I knew I had garlic, coconut milk, and a well-stocked spice cabinet. Sounds like a curry to me--holla! 

I went to one of my favorite blogs, The Picky Eater. She always has fabulous Indian-inspired dishes, so I knew she would have a basic curry recipe. I was right. 

I stuck loosely to this recipe, but I obviously changed the ingredients to fit what I had--and substituted the Paleo no-no tofu for the frozen shrimp.

Here's my revised, Paleo-friendly version. Sorry I don't have exact measurements for the spices--we Southern girls don't measure these things. 

Ingredients

• 2-3 cups light coconut milk
• 3-4 tablespoons yellow curry powder
• Salt (to taste)
• Tony Chachere's (or something spicy... any brand Cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper... you get the picture. to taste)
• Cumin and coriander (to taste... maybe a teaspoon of each?)
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 3-5 garlic cloves, chopped
• Frozen shrimp... I put in probably 25 small shrimp
• 1 cup chopped broccoli (as I said, I had frozen)
• 1 chopped bell pepper
• 1 diced sweet potato
• Cauliflower "rice" for serving (I followed this recipe)
• Chopped cashews for topping

Directions
In a saute pan, saute onion and garlic in EVOO until translucent--7 minutes or so. Then add salt and 2 tbsp curry powder. Stir to combine, then add coconut milk and let simmer for a few minutes. For the last 2 minutes or so, add shrimp so they can being to soak up coconut curry goodness.

Meanwhile, saute broccoli, bell pepper, and sweet potato (or other veggies of your choice) in EVOO until slightly tender-crisp. Add remaining curry powder and other spices. Pour in onion/garlic/coconut milk mixture and simmer until shrimp and potatoes are completely cooked through--adjust salt and spices to your liking.

Serve over cauliflower rice and top with chopped cashews. Admittedly, when I ate this for lunch on Saturday, I didn't have any cauliflower to make "rice" and I completely forgot to put the cashews. Still delish.

This, though, was better.

Paleo Andouille Sausage & LSU Baseball

Going on the paleo way of eating hasn't been too bad on Jesse and I so far. We've found great recipes to help ease the change. Granted we finally had a kitchen fail last night with chili verde out of Everyday Paleo cookbook, way off the mark of delicious. But I found a great recipe to alter to help with lunches and dinner: Andouille Sausage.... the Stephen way ;-)

Most store-bought sausage has sugar in them, which as everyone knows, is not allowed on the paleo diet. This also is a great way for me to get Jesse to eat sausage. She claims that if she can see what goes into the sausage she is more likely to eat it, knowing there isn't a lot of extra fats or leftover random meats thrown in to make it. So I made my own twist, instead of using pork for this sausage, I used Buffalo and lean ground beef from Whole Foods. I will say that the sausage is delicious and has great flavor, but some might think its a little dry since the fats aren't there to make them juicy. But I'd rather kinda dry and delicious and being able to eat it on paleo. By the way, one major need for this, a meat grinder. So my twist is listed below:

Stephen's Homemade Buffalo & Beef Andouille Sausage

Makes 16 links

Nutritional Facts (per 1 serving):

185g Calories, 4g Fat, 35mg Cholesterol, 911mg Sodium, 5g Potassium, 1g Carbs, 0g Fiber, 

0g Sugars, 32g Protein, 2% Vitamin A, 0.1% Vitamin C, 0.1% Calcium, 8% Iron

                                                                      Ingredients:

                                                                      2.5 lbs Buffalo Stew Meat

2 lbs 95/5 Lean Ground Beef

3 Tbsp Minced Garlic

2 Tbsp Sea Salt

1 tsp Ground Black Pepper

1 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 tsp Chili Pepper

1/8 tsp Mace

1/8 tsp Allspice

1/2 tsp Dried Thyme

1 Tbsp Paprika

1/4 tsp Ground Bay Leaf (roughly 1.5)

1/4 tsp Sage

3 Tbsp Liquid Smoke

1 Sutter Home Merlot Individual Serve (roughly 6 oz)

2 hog casings

As you can see, we sautéed up some red & yellow bell peppers as well as some onions. It makes a great and quick lunch or dinner.

Since Jesse had to attend graduation at her college, per requirements for being faculty, I decided to head out to the LSU vs. UNO game with my buddy Ben. I got a little bored during the third inning when LSU was already leading 8-0. So I pulled out my handy, dandy iPhone with the Panorama app and got a great view of Alex Box Stadium. I'll probably take this again during Friday's game since there will be an addition above the press box and on the scoreboard with the additional naming of the field after legendary LSU baseball coach, Skip Bertman. Skip by far led the resurgence of LSU baseball and turned the program into the powerhouse it is today. They've won 6 NCAA National Championships since the 1991 season. Only 3 teams have 6 or more championships; LSU, USC, and Texas. Not only did Skip have a hand in the baseball program and the building of the new Alex Box Stadium, but he was also the athletic director when LSU won it's 2nd and 3rd National Championships in football, and the men's and women's basketball teams were making it to the the Final Four round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

Anyways, good days are ahead in both sports and in life. Jesse and I will keep you up to date on any new adventures we might have. Until next time, take it easy and find a good pattern to enjoy life by eating healthy, exercising regularly, and traveling a little to relax.

Paleo Update! {Or, better titled, Where Have I Been??}

So, long time, no update. I'm sure you assumed that we did the whole paleo thing for about 3.2 seconds then gave it up... Understandable.

But no.

Stephen and I have actually been doing really well with eating Paleo--seriously, no cheats! I know it's recommended not to weigh during the 30-day Reset, but we just can't help ourselves! Of course, overall health and wellness is our primary goal, but seeing that number on the scale change is just so darn motivating! Since May 1, I've lost 6.4 pounds and Stephen's lost over 10! I'm not sure of his exact number, and I can't ask him right now because he's asleep in the recliner (at 12:54PM! I'm not one to judge though; I'm the absolute queen of napping!)

We are having a lazy Tuesday--I'm on break from school for two weeks (I begin teaching summer school on May 28) and it's Stephen's finals week. He's definitely feeling the stress and strain of finals week and has been studying like crazy...

As you can tell...

Anyway, I had originally said I was going to write daily food blogs of my eats during our 30-Day Reset. Ha! Silly Jesse... I'm a college English instructor, and it was finals week. My days have consisted largely of grading and (black) coffee.

Still, I did manage to snap some pictures of some of my meals for you guys. I have May 3 and 4 in lovely picstitches:

May 3
Lunch: Salad (lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, boiled shrimp, salsa)
Snack: Apple and Trader Joe's almond butter (the best! too bad we don't have a TJ's nearby...)
Dinner: Taco lettuce wraps with spicy mango-jalapeno slaw and sliced avocado

May 4
Breakfast: Paleo Muesli (from this YouTube video... delish!)
Lunch: Leftover Mexican beef, roasted sweet potatoes, and sauteed bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes (all mixed together. Yum!)
Dinner: Leftover scramble (eggs, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, sweet potatoes)

Here are some more eats... nothing too exciting; I forgot to snap pictures of the really delicious stuff--like the chili we made! OMG, recipe to come, for sure... We'll be making it again soon!

Scrambled eggs and avocado (for breakfast. I've been eating avocados like it's my job! Also... why is tomatoes spelled tomatoes but avocados is spelled avocados? #englishinstructorproblems)

Mexican beef "skewers" (that we didn't skewer like the recipe said), roasted sweet potatoes, and sauteed bell peppers/onions/mushrooms/tomatoes... the impetus behind all those yummy leftovers mentioned above!

Paleo Shepherd's Pie (with ground turkey, carrots, mushrooms, and a mashed cauliflower topping)

Roasted chicken breast (I roasted a whole chicken with lemons, onions, garlic, and spices), roasted sweet potatoes, sauteed green beans

Egg white scramble with tomatoes, mushrooms, and broccoli

Taco salad with lettuce, tomato, avocado, salsa, and leftover taco meat

Paleo Food Blog: Day 1

Stephen and I have decided to begin eating Paleo. I'm sure most of you know this, but Paleo basically eliminates food from our modern diets that cavemen wouldn't have eaten, namely dairy, grains, and soy. The diet focuses instead on eating meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds.

I've decided to complete food blogs for the first 30 days of the "diet": The 30-Day Reset.

Breakfast: 6:30 AM
Two hard-boiled eggs
Cara Cara orange

Lunch: 12:00 PM
Mashed tuna & avocado with lemon juice & lemon pepper served over chopped tomato
Hard-boiled egg
Trail Mix (made by Stephen: raw almonds, walnuts, pecans, and raisins)

Dinner: 9:30 PM (yes, way too late)
Paleo Shepherd's Pie

All in all, day one was a success! I was hungry before meals, but I was never ravenous or tempted to grab something between meals (though snacking on Paleo-approved foods certainly wouldn't have been a bad thing!). Meals were delicious--the Paleo Shepherd's Pie is definitely worth repeating!

I won't lie; Stephen and I are sitting on the couch watching Dance Moms (yeah, he's definitely a keeper for that one!), and I would like something a little sweet for "dessert." Maybe I'll go grab a few raisins :)

Paleo Shepherd's Pie
*Original recipe can be found here, but I've written my modified version below

Ingredients
1 pound ground meat (we used extra lean ground turkey)
1 carrot, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Button mushrooms, chopped (for me, not Stephen!)
1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 egg
1/2 cup + splash chicken stock
Fresh Rosemary
Dried Herbs de Provence
Dried Italian Seasoning (I used these two dried herb blends because I didn't have fresh thyme and sage as the original recipe called for)
S&P

Directions
Saute carrots, onion, garlic, and mushroom in EVOO until veggies begin to soften. Add ground meat and cook thoroughly. Turn off heat and add 1/2 cup chicken broth to deglaze the pan. Add salt, pepper, half of fresh rosemary and small amount of dried herb blends. Place into casserole dish, ramekins, etc.

Meanwhile, boil cauliflower florets until soft. In a mixing bowl, whisk egg and splash of chicken stock. Add cauliflower, rest of rosemary, and small amount of dried italian seasoning. Mash to desired consistency--ideally like mashed potatoes. Spread over meat mixture in casserole dish.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, then broil for 10 minutes.

Weekend Highlights & This Week's Menu: Paint Us with ..... COLOR!!!

We started out our Saturday morning around 8 am, yes way too early for me. We prepped all of our clothing with official race bibs and grabbed the wristbands for the iPhones and headphones. We headed out the door and to downtown Baton Rouge. Once we found parking not too far from the start/finish area, we parked and decided to take this pre-race photo. Yup, we are nice and white. I'm sorry that between our pale skin, white clothing, and white buildings that all you see is our hair and sunglasses ;-P

So we set out to get ready and enjoy the day. We followed the trail of the building vibrations until we found the start/finish area, where a girl was leading Zumba on stage. Jesse definitely was feeling the way the girl mixed up the dance moves and added different quarks to the same dances she already uses. I'd say that if Jesse had a choice, she'd re-enroll at Anytime Fitness to take Zumba from her.

Jesse and I had minor goals for the 5K, but the main one was to have a fun time together and finish our first 5K together. We wanted to push ourselves hard, but not over do it. We wanted to have fun, but not slack off where we didn't break a sweat. We wanted to try and be under the 45 minute mark for the 5K. Ok, so you're probably thinking 45 minutes is kind of a long time frame. I admit that I want to better myself even more, but our best 5K mark in exercising previously on open streets is around 46-48 minutes. So 45 would be our goal and if we did better than we'd be ecstatic.

After about 30 minutes, they started letting people gather at the starting line to begin the race at 10 am. Jesse and I over thought things and were under the notion that serious runners (24 min/5K) are at the beginning of the race and the walkers and fun runners are towards the back. So we line up in the middle of the pack. There were 9,000 runners signed up to run/walk in the event. After each wave was sent out, our wave finally left the starting line at 10:45 am. Our thoughts were to walk about 1/4 mile and let the real runners from our pack clear out and then jog ourselves. Nope, not even a chance. Like with anything else, those plans quickly flew out the window. We walked about 5 steps and realized the wave wanted to run, even though runners to the left and walkers to the right, the whole street was running.

We started a jog and before we knew it we were weaving between the slower runners in our wave and the walkers from the previous waves. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a judgmental S.O.B. who doesn't like/want kids, a stick in the mud, or anything like that, but people in a 5K run walking in the middle of a two lane street with the father and mother split apart holding the hands of a 1 1/2 year old waddling his way down the street about to get trampled by a pack of people doesn't seem to be needed. I'm all for teaching kids the value of exercise and being active at an early age, but just push the kid in a stroller as you walk or run, or leave them at the starting line so they don't get hurt by other runners. Sorry, that rant is over.

So we quickly learned that running at a constant pace in direct lines wasn't going to happen. I found myself weaving every 5 steps trying to avoid people or if there was no where to go, coming to a complete stop so that after an opening I could walk around them and start jogging again. Jesse and I had an amazing split for our first mile, 11:31 min. After running through the blue color station, we came upon the yellow color station which started to spell trouble for us. I tended to run through the middle of the color stations while Jesse ran towards the outside. At the yellow station, Jesse had a nice amount of yellow colored cornstarch hit her in the face, getting in her eye/contacts. As she cleaned her face off some and washed the contact, I cleaned her sunglasses as yellow was caked on the front and back of the right lenses. Right past the yellow station we heard my MapMyRun app tell me that our 2 mile pace was 25:35 minutes. We gave each other a high five and pushed on.

Jesse ran into a friend from Project Purr after we passed the pink station. And then the purple station drew trouble for myself. I decided to try and end the race with a little color on my shirt instead of a starch white T-shirt. I headed into the purple station on the outside and as I has hit in the face with purple, a runner in front of me crossed toward the middle while kicking my shin and I had another layer of purple hit me, ending up in my eye. So after I cleaned my eye up, Jesse and I were headed to the finish line.

After dodging a group of men standing in the road, a dumpster on the side of the road blocking runners (including us), and a runner pushing a wheelchair almost into people, Jesse and I crossed the finish line to finish our first 5K together with a total time of 41:49 minutes and 3.16 miles ran. We blow our goal our the water in my opinion since we hadn't been running that type of distance in roughly a month or two.

We pushed our way to grab a bottle of water and cool down and ran into a friend of mine who I grew up playing soccer and baseball on a travel team and locally. He and his wife finished a few minutes behind us. After explaining who Keith was to Jesse, we started walking over to the finish area for the celebration color throw, as seen below.

Jesse and I thought the signage they had displayed around the start/finish area was pretty catchy, so we took some pictures with them, as seen below.

And as anyone can tell you, when you come to Baton Rouge from outside of Baton Rouge, all you hear about is LSU from them. So in the traditional manner, The Color Run wanted to have a celebration color throw in purple/gold for LSU. (Saw that coming) But unforeseen, a few people mixed in some green and made it a little more like Mardi Gras!

Apparently Jesse and I wanted to inhale paint toxins in different formats this weekend. On Saturday we have paint thrown on us and on Sunday, we are brushing paint on a canvas at Painting with Pinot. The event was a fundraiser for the non-profit Jesse participates with, Project Purr. So like any cat lovers they are, the only painting involving cats was the one chosen for us all to paint. Jesse and I enjoyed spending time together and getting back in the mood to start our artistic sides back up, since we both used to paint some when we had more time on our hands.

Marco de Marco de Marc, yup, I call him that. Or we call him Banshee when he terrorizes the apartment. But usually we just call him Marco, as sweet and cuddly as he is. He wanted to play in the bag, even though we were trying to empty it, so Marco was picked up and seemed quite alright with it.

With our first 5K behind us, we both know that where we are now is good, but not anywhere's close to where we want to be. So we've been kicking back and forth between low carb and eating clean. Both seem to work for a lot of people, but the more and more Jesse and I kicked the idea around and by the time we got to Barnes & Nobles, we had talked about eating Paleo. The idea is scary for what we are giving up, but exciting with the expected results from the thought of getting where we want to be. We both agreed that we can do this together and not let the other off the hook. Our plan is to get where we want to be and either stay with it or stay with it and introduce minor things like lentils back into the equation for Jesse. Since we had dinner arrangements with my parents and already had a crockpot dinner cooked for Monday & Tuesday, we are starting Paleo on Wednesday, no excuses.

This week's menu:

Monday: Crockpot Spaghetti

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: Buffalo & Chicken Kabobs

Thursday: Bacon Wrapped Filets covered with Bleu Cheese

Friday: TBA

Saturday: TBA