Looking good, Billy Ray!

So I got to see this guy Saturday night:

 

Oh, to be those hands.

With these guys:

Thank you Holden, for being into Maroon 5 and not One Direction. Thank you.

Badger judges the author for putting a naked pic of Adam Levine so close to one of her family.

Anyways, the Lurong Paleo Challenge (finally) started on Monday. Yay! Seriously you guys, I really needed the rigidity of the program; knowing I gots to do right by my team, really helps get me back on track. Now I'm back to feeling like my old Badass-self again.

Gratuitous tire-flipping-beast-mode pic.

I got on the scale on Monday for the first time in weeks. Yeah I know, very weird for me. That's how off the rails and in denial I was, I. Didn't. Even. Want. To Know. That's how I know I've wandered back into disordered-eating land. As a result, I was perilously close to hitting a number I swore I would never see again. Like, one pound from it.

Yeah.

But that said, I weighed myself this Wednesday morning and I am already down 5.5lbs. Which sounds crazy, but not when you understand the Paleo/Not Paleo thing. Major water retention/bloating. Let's not beat around the bush with these numbers shall we? I hate when people do that. I was 199 Monday morning, 193.6 this morning. There I said it. I fully intend to get into the 170s by the time this Challenge is over, I'd really like to see some 160s, but that may be pushing it. We shall see. I am willing to trade any new Crossfit PRs (for the next couple months) in exchange for losing more fat. I've been dabbling a bit in r/fitness and other like-minded places around the intertubes. My big takeaway has been that you don't have to lose muscle to lose fat, but it's extremely difficult to build muscle and lose fat at the same time. Thanks to the past year of Crossfit, I have a lot of muscle. More than I have ever had in my entire life. But it's time for a "cut" as they say in the weight-lifting circles. I'm ready. It's time.

That said, here's the plan for this Challenge. All the meats and vegetables. Only one (two, if I really need it) servings of fruit per day. No nuts as snacks. If they are in a recipe, fine. I reserve the right to check new recipes/food combos on Myfitnesspal to make sure there are no surprises. However, I will not be logging every meal on MFP. Though I will be paying much closer attention to portion/serving sizes. There will be no more "Just cause it is Paleo, I get to eat as much as I want." I sorta did that on the Whole 30, and even though it was a very good experience, I did not lose any weight on it. Which I could have had I known then what I know now.

"You know better, you do better," as Ms. Angelou so eloquently put it.

So what have I eaten the past few days? I'm so glad you asked! 

Breakfast -  Bacon and eggs, with 1/2 an avocado one morning, a banana a different morning.

Lunch - Canned tuna with a salad of romaine and carrots w/ balsamic vinegar/olive oil. Raspberries.

             Left over tuna steak and a hard boiled egg over a salad. Raspberries.

             Left over brussel sprouts and sweet potato/ground beef hash with a hard boiled egg and an apple.

Dinner -   Tuna Steak and Spinach

                Brussel sprouts and sweet potato/ground beef hash

               Tonight looks like a shrimp stir-fry with zucchinni and probably half a sweet potato.

For the record, I only get into this "what I stuff in my mouth hole posts" during Paleo Challenges. I always have non-Paleo friends asking, "So what DO you eat?" Umm, lots of stuff? So this is just a way to say, "SEE! HERE! It's not all bacon and steak." 

Though to be fair...there is a lot of bacon and steak.

                                           The Oatmeal is my hero. (pic more bigger here)

What I Typically Eat During the Week

Breakfast

Ok, first off...I know breakfast is the best time of the day to eat your carbs. However I have realized that unless I have a protein-rich breakfast I am going to be starving by lunch time. Snacking a lot does not work for me for several reasons so I go with what keeps me full the longest.


At least three days out of the week I have four slices of original (not the thick-cut) Oscar Meyer Center Cut Bacon. That's only two points of bacony-goodness. With it, I'll have three egg whites (one point). A few days ago I started making a pancake out of 2 1/2 tablespoons of Arbonne Chocolate Protein Powder, one egg, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, one tsp of olive oil, and one tblsp of water. This makes a four point pancake, on which I then add two tablespoons of sugar-free syrup for another point. For five points, I can satisfy a craving for carbs without actually eating them.

If I don't have time to make my precious, precious bacon I'll have an 8oz protein shake made with milk (five points) or a Clif bar. Occasionally, I'll have oatmeal. I wish I could love oatmeal as much as I should, but I just don't.

Lunch

I try to stay away from processed/preservative-laden/can't read the ingredient list foods as much as possible. I rarely have them at breakfast and even rarer at dinner. But I have a hard time completely eliminating them from my weekday lunches. My typical lunch at work looks like this:

That's some salad greens with mushrooms and cucumber, a bit of the Salad Spritz for dressing, a Mini-Babybell Cheese, some grapes and a Lean Pocket.

I'll sub in a pita with a low-sodium ham or turkey, or tuna onto the salad or on some whole wheat bread...but more often than not I go with the Lean Pocket. As a Food Addict, finishing a meal feeling satisfied (notice I didn't say "full." Two very different concepts) is incredibly important for me. If I go too long without eating something that leaves me feeling satisifed, then I set myself up for a binge. 

   

So, I sacrifice my attempts at clean eating a bit in the effort of not losing it completely.

With my lunch I drink water, Sobe zero calorie flavored waters or Sparkling Ice. It's not naturally flavored like Sobe, (splenda, I believe) which stinks...but I have to mix it up every once in awhile.

Afternoon Snack

On the way home from work I usually drink a bottle of water and eat a handful of baby carrots. This goes along way towards keeping me from raiding the cabinets while I am waiting for dinner. If I really can't wait, I usually keep the 90 calorie Fiber One bars around for an emergency. 

Dinner

Lots of stir-fries! We used to make a tofu stir-fry at least once a week. Super filling and yummy but crazy low in calories. And then I found out that soy and thyroid issues are not a good mix. I have Hasimoto's and had half of my thyroid removed several years ago, when I grew an orange sized...thing. What is it with me and fruit-sized growths? Anyhoodles, I'm on Synthroid, so no more soy stuff for me. So we just use chicken and shrimp now. Lots of broccolli, zucchinni, onion, mushrooms whatevers in the fridge, really.

We also often sautee Tilapia or make the old baked-chicken-breasts-in-mushroom soup and serve that with Jasmine or Basmati rice and some sort of green vegetable. Lately, we've really been digging the Banging Good Shrimp from the Skinny Taste site

That recipe introduced me to Sriracha and has changed my life. I should have listened to the Oatmeal sooner. His homage to Sriracha.