Daily Affirmations... with Jess ;-)

[Beets]

Triumph. Yes. Nadia you should hire yourself out as a whole9 coach.

Jess, I just saw this piece on Jack Handey and had to share: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/magazine/jack-handey-is-the-envy-of-every-comedy-writer-in-america.htm

[Jessica M.]

Ooh, will have to look at that later. Sticking my  lunch log here before I head home from work. 

 

 

Leftover salmon (kinda cold—people get cranky when you put fish in the work microwave  ), 1/2 an avocado, sauteed bok choy and zucchini in a bit of coconut oil. 1/2 left over sweet  potato from last night. Yummy. That was about 1pm. Had an apple about 4pm. 6pm, leaving work finally. Really should stay and finish some stuff up but I have to write a review I've been procrastinating on for weeks. Got to go home and get the kids to bed so I can do that. 

[Jessica M.]

 

Lunch... didn't cook so got a garden salad from "Hungry Greek" with Gyro meat. Trying to have as little of the dressing as possible, it's sweet. 

 

Breakfast was hardboiled eggs (2) with coffee and cream. Not ideal template. Had to get gas, had to leave home early for that side trip, hadn't prepped last night. Oh well.

[pjena]

Pretty salad!

 

I love the article Nadia posted.

[Jessica M.]

Dinner tonight... steak with mushrooms, zucchini, sweet potato with coconut oil. More of the same in the morning I think. Off to bed.

 

Oh, had afternoon coffee with cream. 

[Jessica M.]

Triumph. Yes. Nadia you should hire yourself out as a whole9 coach. Jess, I just saw this piece on Jack Handey and had to share: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/magazine/jack-handey-is-the-envy-of-every-comedy-writer-in-america.htm

Oh, boooo, NYT won't let me see the article. 

 

 

Bah! Take that, Times, Google circumvented your block!

 

Bwahahaha, I'd forgotten about Toonces the driving cat. 

[Derval]

Hi Jess, just catching up on all the logs & posts after a forum (and let's face it paleo)  hiatus.  I came across this when I was looking for stuff about positive affirmations myself & thought you might like it too

 

http://paleolover.wordpress.com/warrior-thinking/

 

 

[calee]

Jessica, I too have a terrible time at my work conferences. In December I gained 4 pounds of yuck. I did better in April because I was eting Primal. I have Sunday Night - Wednesday night oming up the fisrst week of August. The woman who orders breakfast and lunch orders crappy starchy foods that nobody should eat. The tables have overflowing bowls of candy. In April I was able to move them off my table but I was still eyeing the candy bowl. I am visualizing this time being very different. I have to figure out a good plan of action before getting on that plane.

Let's keep focus on the positive and how great we are going to do!

[Jessica M.]

I'm around. Busy. Busy eating yogurt that's making me constipated and nuts that make me guilty. And chocolate. And too much coffee.

 

I'm beginning a 21-Day Sugar Detox on Monday the 5th. Dragging the hubby along. Even if he does Level 1 80% of the way he will "do better than me" I'm sure--- feel better, drop ten pounds or more. ;-)  I would like to get him to do a Whole 30 or one of the plans in Practical Paleo, Wheat Belly, or with ideas from Paleo Coach, but for some reason he balked at all of those but add in the word "Detox" and make it only 21 days, and he says "sure, why not." Well, until he saw the yes/no lists last night and realized all he'll be drinking is water. Maybe I can find some teas he'll like unsweetened. He's a sweet tea guy and a juice guy, hasn't had a soda in about 4 years. But he must have a thousand grams of sugar from juice in a week. We'll see. I just want him to try cutting out wheat. He recently stopped having cereal to avoid milk, because we think he is lactose intolerant, but he has not replaced the cereal with good stuff. Well, some days he'll have eggs and avocado if that's what I'm having, but often with a wrap or some bread. Many days he will have waffles covered in syrup. I bought real maple syrup for a few months and he and the kids rebelled and went to the store without me and bought crap syrup again. Oy vey. 

 

Well, planning recipes. I know my guy won't eat eggs for breakfast for 21 days and I can't convince him veggies and meat are ok for breakfast, so looking to get creative on the breakfasts. We'll see.

 

I have my work trip to Vegas starting Labor Day. That should be bad. I'm hoping to at least not have much sugar and not have any wheat, but I assume the long, tiring week filled with catering, free snacks and restaurant/bar outings will include a few margaritas and lots of nuts in mystery oil from the snack table (to avoid brownies, pie, cookies, Twizzlers...). We'll see. My 2 weeks away with my  job are the most social, grown-up, out without the kids times of my year. There will be treats. Ha. But after that maybe I will do a Whole 30 on my own. I should be all "I can not possibly eat at another restaurant" after 5 days away, so tat will be good timing.

 

Wish us luck. Hope everyone here is well.

[Jessica M.]

Day 1 of a 21-Day Sugar Detox. It's almost Whole30. It's semi-21. I was going to allow some cream in coffee but it was kind of gross (I've been back on either sugar or stevia drops in it). Weighed myself this morning to start... things are worse than I thought. Weighed myself this morning. 204.8 lbs. Did some measurements as well. Blech. Ok, back on March 11th I was 198.8. And that's up from at the end of my January 2—Feb 15 Whole45. Almost back to 212 where I started. Almost back to 215 which is what I weighed AT NINE MONTHS PREGNANT, ALMOST 11 YEARS AGO. My kids are going to be 11 and 9 soon. This is not baby weight. This is lazy weight. This is fast food weight.  This is tortilla chip weight. It's 11pm yogurt with chocolate chips and peanut butter weight. 

 

Hubby is supposedly doing it with me. We'll see. He doesn't read any of the information I try to share yet won't believe that it's ok to have eggs and meat all the time. I am won over by all the information I've been taking in and am honestly convinced our "food pyramid" is all wrong. I'm not sure he can succeed at all if he won't at least think it might work. He'll wind up eating one egg instead of four (just an example) and be hungry and cranky and then have a pile of Eggo Waffles or a bagel. Sigh. I usually take at LEAST two weeks to sabotage myself like that. 

 

I know. I've been told it before... do for yourself, put on your oxygen mask before you can  help others. Yeah. yeah. It's selfish, really. I want his health improved as much as I want my own health improved. But honestly a part of it is that I think I will stick to it longer if he will go along with it with me. And if I get him on board then I can transition the kids. It's extra hard to be good when it's just me and there's crackers and cereal and pie and whatever in the house. Sigh. It's only day 1 and I am slipping into the "Dammit, I don't want to do this!" feelings. Woe is me, I'm obese and it's going to be a LOT of work to get back to a normal healthy weight. Really. WOE, woe, woeeeeeeeeeeeee! It's so frigging annoying. I'm so sick and tired of being sick and tired. I'm channeling my inner child, screaming."It's just not FAIRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Other people don't have to work at being slim and normal looking. Other people are just that way and can do whatever they want." I know that's a simplification and ignores all the people who have it way more rough than I do, but it's my pity party. Wahhhh. 

 

Made bone broth for the first time, with a package of marrow bones from Whole Foods. It's too bland and it was strange to drink it first thing. Might be better once I can skim out some of the fat and add some more salt. 

 

Day 1 Food Log:

 

8:30 am: Running really late. Lesson is: don't make bone broth over Sunday night and then get up normal time and think you can strain it through  cheesecloth and stuff. Splattered my shirt like a dummy. should have left home by 7:45. Had some bone broth and a handful of walnuts in the car on my commute. 

 

9:15: When I got to work I heated up two slices of spaghetti squash frittata and made a cup of coffee with organic half and half (got bored halfway through... unsweetened coffee, ick. Better than black but maybe I will switch to coconut milk tomorrow for less ick).

 

1:20 pm: Cauli-fried-rice with chicken and veggie stir fry (bok choy, snow peas, scallions), an avocado.

 

Tonight's dinner should have already been prepped. Planned a M-F menu, but it's shot to hell already. I'd planned on zucchini boats with a curried ground beef mixture for a couple of lunches. Zucchini was twice its usual price and we ate the grass fed beef I sprung for at Whole Foods as tiny bland burgers last night. I'll ask hubby to take out some tilapia or salmon and we can make some veggies with that. Not exciting but since I didn't do work this weekend I need to tonight for tomorrow's deadline. Sigh. And make some breakfasts. Something easy like egg "muffins." Should bake some chicken and sweet potato or butternut squash to put on some spinach for tomorrow's lunch. Supposed to cook short ribs over night. We'll see. 

 

This is not sounding very affirmative. 

 

Yayyyy! Day 1! I can dooooooo this. Channeling my Italian Stubbornness! It's been lacking!

[Renee Lee]

Lady! BREATHE!!!!

 

Everything is not going to go exactly as you plan it. That's life.  Do your best. Make sure that you're planning foods that are quick and easy. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to work. Go for the fancy stuff when you have time. During the week? generally not a good time.

 

Don't stress about your hubby, just drag him along. Force him to eat enough when you're actually around to see his meals. Other than that, leave him alone. He'll drop a bunch of weight without trying or expecting it and then you'll have him hooked, or at least he'll stop fighting.

 

Hang in there!

[Jessica M.]

LOL, thanks Renée. Yeah, hubby is sooooo not actually doing this with me. He'll eat what I make but he's having other stuff too. With the new info I've been getting though... I wonder if it will cause him to gain weight or worse, and I don't want that—i.e. all these avocados and meat and coconut oil. We shall see. He's less of a stress eater than I am, and can drop weight by laying off the grape juice for a few weeks. So... yeah, need to just breathe. 

 

My anxiety had been better, and guess what? I went back to eating crap so it's ramped up again. So, in a few days I should be in a better place. 

 

Dinner last night was salmon, green beans and a small sweet potato. It was about twice as much salmon as I should have had but it was really good and I was trying to avoid snacking later in the night. I wound up having 1/2 a green apple and a bit of almond butter at around 10:30 pm though, because I had been on the computer working and was peckish. I could have pushed past it but it was ok. Better than what I've been eating. And it was just a single serve almond butter (saved the other half with the other apple half for this morning) so no overeating, going back for more and more in the next few days. 

 

Day 2 Breakfast: 2 slices spaghetti squash frittata, 1/2 green apple with almond butter (about 1Tbsp).

 

I cooked some "Korean Short ribs" over night and tasted a few bits this morning. Yummmmm. That will be a good dinner with some wilted spinach or whatever. Mmm.