I've Been Falling Behind on my Job

I guess now that throughout the summer I will be only getting to update about once a week...so I'll just have to remember everything that has happened since the last time I blogged.

I was mostly good this weekend with my parents and siblings being here.  And I believe that they enjoyed all the food I made for them: baked banana oatmeal, chicken nuggets, honey mustard chicken on cauliflower "rice", frittata, and dry rub burgers (which really aren't so dry rub anymore, because I like the seasoning better mixed in with the meat).

I had a couple of cheater moments this weekend...there was a chocolate bar at the food co-op that looked really good - chocolate with almonds and toffee, and I had a burger when I went to the airport to pick up Kurt...but all in all, I was pretty good.  Kurt and I were talking about what he ate while he was away...and well, he was less good, but he still tried really hard to not give up entirely.

Our biggest challenge to date has happened now though.  We both are "sick".  Kurt got off the plane with a low grade fever and sore throat.  I am not sick (as told to me by PA I saw yesterday) but I'm having the worst allergies EVER - which is causing me to be completely congested with a sore throat as well.

As a result, neither of us has the energy to want to make food.  Last night we cheated with a pizza, but tonight we are going to try to not do that again.  It's so easy when you are not feeling well to say "whatever" and just get something quick and easy and not good for you in the least bit.  It's definitely going to be a struggle until we are feeling better. 

We need to go grocery shopping.  The funny thing is we haven't gone in a week and a half, but we had enough left over stuff that we haven't needed to.  When I was putting the dry rub burgers together to freeze before my parents got here, I realized that I already had 8 in the freezer...so I cooked all the new ones, plus those 8 and we had extra for our lunch and dinner on Monday and our lunch again yesterday.  I also found an extra lb of ground beef in the freezer which we are making meatballs with for tonight's dinner and tomorrow's lunch and an extra thing of pork chops for tomorrow.  So I started thinking that even though we spent a little over $200 on our last shopping trip, it actually lasted almost two weeks.

On the way home today we have to run by the grocery store...but I don't think it's going to be a full trip...just enough to get us through Saturday so we can go back on our weekly schedule - essentially fresh fruit and vegis, something for dinner Friday and side dishes.

So, now for some good news!!  Monday was 8 weeks since we've started our "life change".  In 8 weeks, Kurt is down 18 lbs and I am down 20 lbs.  YEA!!  We've had a lot of challenges and we've struggled quite a bit, but we're headed down the right path...so we need to keep on keeping on. 

That's all for now...time to get ready for the day...after I put up some of the recipes that I've been promising for a while!!

I Swear To Not Become Crunchy Hippy Granola

I am slowly feeling the change...physically, intellectually and emotionally.

We've been watching a lot of Food Inc type movies on Netflix and some of them are good (like Food Inc) and some are just TOO preachy (like Food Matters). I am embracing this change in our lives...but I am trying to stay away from being too hippy tree-huggery because that isn't me and I shouldn't be forced to be so by those sharing their information with the world.

For example, in Food Matters there were two parts I very much disagreed with (to an extent): 1. People need to fix their priorities. Instead of paying for things like rent and a car, they need to buy better food, and 2. Raw food is the only way to go. The guys brother lost (I can't remember - something like 150) lbs in 8 months. Some days he lost 13 lbs.

Ok...so...yes - I think people do need to change their priorities...but rent and a car (minus if you really don't need one, which most households need one) are not logical ways of expressing the need to purchase better food.

As for the raw diet...I'm not opposed to a natural cleanse in the short term (7-14 days) but as a lifestyle, I disagree with only eating raw. I understand that many nutrients in food break down when cooked, but I feel you are missing access to some nutrients that would be harder to come by raw. The guy in the film did talk about some vegetables that you could get higher levels of certain nutrients than meat, dairy, etc., but some of the things I've never heard of and I don't even know where I would find them. Also - 13 lbs in a day...it may be build up in your system, but I don't understand how a loss that big in one day could be good for you.

Anyway, Wednesday we took our cousin Courtney to the GBC Food Co-Op and she was pretty excited about it!! So if we are able to start going pretty regularly, she has agreed to tag along (especially if she gets some honey out of it, I think).

I made my first raised bed yesterday. The downside...I think most of my transplants aren't going to make it...so I'll just have to start from seed again. Exercise of the day...leveling the area and lifting +/- 100 lb bags of soil around.

We went on our weekly grocery store run...a couple of meals this week had to get pushed into next week (don't you hate when you forget to defrost your dinner!!) and as we have visitors for part of the weekend...our grocery bill was $109 and some change + $17 for some things I had to pick up earlier in the week...so $126. Mostly all vegis and fruits...some chicken and ground beef. We have more chicken than we can use in the next week though so that will lessen the next bill.

Had the best Honey Mustard Chicken last night...I'll put up a recipe soon for it.

Other than that, we're just trying to take the effort to make sure we don't slack off with this as we are starting to get regularly busy at work. We have a couple of meals out scheduled for the weekend since we have company...so one of us will let you know how we fared with going out to eat (different than the regular cheat meal).

Have a great weekend all!!