Tuesday, June 19, 2012

weddings and lazy days

Two weeks until the big move.
My head is spinning to say the least. I'm staying busy working, practicing yoga, and running. I also watched two movies today (lazy yes, but I needed it.) One was One Day with Anne Hathaway, it was actually really good.

This past weekend my brother got married. It was hands down the best wedding ever. Best food, band, dance party, everything. Oh yes and Paleo? not so much this weekend, or even since then. I've been trying but it's so hard. I need my whole grains and chocolate. I almost took a picture of the food at the wedding, but I didn't.

Here we are at the pool before we got ready for the big night!


The groom's on the right. Is he excited or what? :-)
Love my brothers.


Dad and I post-ceremony pre-reception.


The north Georgia mountains were a phenomenal back drop, and perfect weather.

I was very choked up pretty much the entire ceremony, not to mention in my toast the night before. It was an amazing weekend, and my brother married an incredible woman. So glad she's now my sister!

With the wedding over the reality of my move is setting in and freaking me out a little bit. I am SO excited and SO certain it's what I need to be doing. I can be a little nervous though right?
Instead of packing tonight/today I've watched the Braves/Yankees game (will ALWAYS be go Bravos), sex and the city, and now I'm watching the OKC/Heat game. I really don't like the NBA but I figured why not. I also changed my twitter username and have begun putting together my new blog. Stay tuned for that!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

11th day of paleo

As usual, it's been way too long. blogspot even changed what my blog looks like. So much catching up to do. In 26 days I'll step out of a cab, suitcases in hand, and walk up 12 flights of steps to my new home in New York City. Woah. So much more to say on that, but that will come later. (I'm also, as of June 13th no longer a teacher, so I may have to think this whole "teachers who run" thing.)

A couple of girls at work (part-time job that's now full-time job) have taken part in the 28-day paleo challenge. Paleo is also know as "caveman diet"- fruit, veggies, meat, nuts (nut butter importantly, almond not peanut, a peanut is a legume). What I can't eat- dairy, legumes, soy, grain, alcohol. It's suppose to make you more lean and really clean out your system of all the bad stuff we eat daily. Want more info? check it out here.

This makes trips to the grocery store very interesting. You certainly stay around the perimeter of the store. That's the best way to go you know? All the junk food is in the middle. So, here is my journey in pictures. I've found some great recipes, so I'll add those websites too.


This was my first paleo meal at a restaurant. It was delicious! This is the lunasagna from Luna's Kitchen in Southend. (That's homemade kombucha too, mmm.)



Example of what I haven't been eating. Friday was the last day of school. We ordered pizza for the kids and had all these desserts for them: oreos, candy (reese's my FAVE), and chocolate chip cookies. Oh, and Doritos. This was hard to be around and say no.



This is one of the first big meals I made. I made way too much of it. It was really good though. Basically ground beef and tons of veggies. I ate it plain and one time stuffed a large red bell pepper in it. That was good. This was the first time I'd eaten red meat in a while. I couldn't eat tons of it.



Today is day 11 of 28. Last night I "broke" paleo by having a "yay the school year is FINALLY done" beer. Was it worth it? While it was hot outside and a beer sounded fantastic, it made me feel awful. Pretty instantly bloated and headache. I think this was from the grain/gluten more than the alcohol. This is absolutely the longest I've ever been, ever, not eating grain and sugar. So I headed to the farmer's market and trader joes this morning and loaded up on paleo friendly food. 



What's the one thing I miss the most? Pizza! I just love it. Thankfully I found this recipe online. It was actually pretty simple. I used almond meal/flour to make the dough.



After cooking the dough for a little I loaded it with veggies, tomatoes, and chicken (instead of ground beef like recipe suggests).



Here's the finished product. Yes, I immediately ate a piece and it was actually really good! It is missing the cheese, but it still satisfied the craving for now. And a little bit of the crust stuck to the pan. But it's really nice to have a meal that somewhat represents bread. I can't wait to have more for lunch tomorrow!

So, I'm almost half way there. It's challenging in a fun way for me to do the 28-day cleanse. I'll post more on it and on my whereabouts and soon-to-be like in the City.