Showing posts with label primal blueprint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label primal blueprint. Show all posts

8.23.2012

21 Day Total Body Transformation...Hopefully



Eric and I have been transitioning into a totally Primal diet (hunter-gatherer foods) since the birth of our 2nd babe three months ago. Cutting out grains was surprisingly easy for both of us. He's one of those annoying people who can go on health kicks as a behavioral experiment or just for the hell of it and stay 100% dedicated. For years he's wanted to cut agricultural grains knowing that they were the introduction of a vast amount of health problems for our world. I have babies with allergies so I decided to cut common allergens while nursing in the hopes that my daughter doesn't have to go through to agony my son did by being allergic to everything I was ingesting. Wheat and Corn were cut so when we got into the Paleo Diet there were just a few more grains to exclude.

Last week we started the Primal Blueprint's 21 Day Total Body Transformation: A Complete, Step-by-Step Gene Reprogramming Action Plan. We feel awesome! We are 6 days in. Eric's lost 5 lbs, I've lost 2. But more importantly we're getting buff and the eating is energizing! I no longer have a food coma after any meals! 

Our Workouts:

Circuits of - Planks, Reverse Planks, Push ups (Chest touching the ground), and Pull Ups. 
Grok Ball & Sprinting - We throw a 10 lb medicine ball as far as we can, sprint to it, throw it again, sprint, and so forth until we our sweating bullets and cant lift our arms. 
Walking, Stretching and Playing!

Go Barefoot! Eric's Vibram Five Fingers and My NB Minimus.

Our Typical Day of Eating:

Breakfast: 3 Egg Omelet or Scramble with celery, onion, bell pepper, cucumber and bacon or turkey bacon.

Lunch: Big Ass Salad. Romaine, Spinach, Kale, veggies listed above plus avocado and chicken. Olive Oil out of our Misto w/ salt and pepper as dressing.

Snacks: Macadamia Nuts. Fruit Roll Ups we make with our new Dehydrator using berries from the yard. Homemade Sweet Potato Fries & Chia Seed Muffin (Blaze only since I'm trying to up my calorie and carb intake while I'm still nursing.).

Dinner: Meat and Veggies. Steak and asparagus is my favorite.

Dessert: Dark Chocolate. 85% (Yuck. Eric's into it but my taste buds aren't there yet.) Coconut milk ice cream. Fruit.

Beverages: Water, Coffee, Tea, Coconut Milk, Nut Milks, Hemp Milk and occasional Red Wine. I don't drink but Eric was on board for a lifestyle change that included dark chocolate and red wine. That seemed sustainable for the long haul. :)

Lyric helping us pick raspberries in the backyard.

I'll report back at the end of the 21 days. At that time we'll be continuing this Primal Living but this is just a nice hardcore jump start. Maybe by the end of 3 weeks I'll have stopped my small sugar binges every few days. *sigh* Still it's progress. Now when I eat sugar I get shaky and dizzy so clearly my body is rejecting shitty foods and the insulin spikes they produce. Yeah baby!




Check out the Primal Blueprint and the 21 Day Total Body Transformation Guide! Living Primally is the cure to our ills. It all makes so much sense and our health has already improved as a result of tossing out the "conventional wisdom" of our food pyramid that's led to all time high obesity rates. Go Primal! 

6.26.2012

Veggies! Vitamix! Victory!

I eat vegetables now. Raw. Nutrient filled. Healthy. 
A few years ago my diet consisted of (in order of importance) 1. Champagne 2. Hot Pockets 3. Skittles 4. Wine. You might think that's a joke but unfortunately it's not. I wasn't overweight or particularly sick. I functioned through long days of work, rehearsals and partying...for the most part. And I clearly didn't care much about myself.
But then I decided to have some babies with this dude I thought was the shit and suddenly there was someone I really wanted to take care of. And since that someone was living in my body I had to consider changing up my habits! Thankfully dude or "my husband Eric" as some call him, was a real nutrition aficionado and he encouraged me to eat a lot of good foods. We made a big chart to check of food groups, we went on walks, I quit boozing it up, and I slowly but surely started changing my mind about this crazy idea of healthy living.
Today, nearly 2 years and 2 kids later, I can say with confidence that I am healthy and I LOVE IT! I took ample time to grieve over the loss of my microwave and my addictions. Now the fog has cleared and damn I feel good!
My first born had TONS of allergies and because of that I was asked to stop breastfeeding very early. I really wanted to nurse my new baby so I decided to take a preemptive strike against allergies and just cut out every common allergen food group. That meant no wheat, corn, or dairy. And because of my hypoglycemia I'd just cut waaaay back on sugar. On my search for allergy free recipes someone recommended the site, Mark's Daily Apple. HALLELUJAH! That discovery set the path for the way of living my husband and I are embracing now! Mark Sisson is the author of The Primal Blueprint. It's all about the Paleo Diet and living life the way cavemen did. Hunter gatherer foods, specific non time consuming exercises like sprinting and heavy lifting, parenting skills such as baby wearing and homeschooling, barefoot or vibrams, no stress, nature, etc. There is so much that I'll have specific posts on later but basically it all made so much sense to us and we were fired up to get started!
The paleo diet is meat, vegetables, fruits and nuts. Exactly what I need and my body is loving it! It's been a month and I had a nice/uncomfortable detox cleanse from cutting out all the agricultural grains. I now have more energy, no sugar/carb crashes, no food comas, clearer skin and the baby weight is almost all gone! (She's 7 weeks old today.) Most importantly Jazz is still nursing, gaining impressive weight and has never been sick.
We're enjoying making new creations in the kitchen and for the first time in my life I want to cook! It's a creepy miracle that no one in my family saw coming. 
Vegetables lose so many nutrients when cooked that we try to eat them raw but I yearn for warm meals! We found a solution! 

Vegetable Soup in the Vitamix!

First we grabbed all the veggies that looked good from the fridge. Kale, Zucchini, Celery, Carrots, Orange Bell Pepper, Asparagus, Onions and Tomatoes.
Next we chopped them up and threw them in the vitamix with warm water (the exact amount to fill our two bowls) & bouillon (1.5 tbsp). We saved the tomatoes to mix in at the very end for texture.
Voila! Two warm bowls of nutrient filled vegetables. Seasoned to taste with fajita seasoning, salt and pepper. 100 calories per bowl. (2.5 cups) YUMMY!
What are your favorite soup recipes? Have you tried making warm creations in your Vitamix yet?