A Cronut???? Seriously…

I have been in hiding it seems! Not really, just haven’t blogged in a while. This month I am participating in a “weight loss challenge” with Health and Effectivity. I am excited and back to STRICT paleo. Over the last few weeks I had added in goat cheese and occasionally have sweetened coconut or almond milk among other little cheats. I am officially 195.4 pounds. WOo Hoo!!! I didn’t reach my goal of 185 last month BUT I have this month to keep chuggin’ away! It’s only 10.4 pounds, I’ve totally got this! With my fat-burning coffee and paleo lifestyle I am totally closing in on the “180’s”. No doubt about it.

I am down to a size 12! This is amazing! In November I was an 18! I can’t even believe it. I ordered my wedding dress a size 16 and clearly will need to alter the heck out of it. Normally I would be nothing but excited, but I am kind of nervous for the alterations. I have spoke to the shop and they are confidant that it will not be a problem. I will keep my fingers crossed. I am excited all over again. I am ready to create all sorts of amazing paleo things this month! I am going to take pics as much as possible.

My garden is flourishing! So many things are coming along. We got a heat wave and now voila! Tomatoes are coming, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots and peppers! I love my garden. It is so cool. I can’t believe how simple it is!!! Everyone should have one. Even if just a tiny one. Take ownership of your food. There really is no reason not to.

So I woke up with this attitude of excitement. All gung ho about being 100% paleo and then something happened. I scrolled through my Facebook posts and seen this creation. This craze really. A freaking CRONUT!!! OMG! What a GENIUS idea! A croissant/donut hybrid!!! Are you kidding me? It looks amazing and if you know me at all you know I am a sucker for cake or anything similar. Pastries in general are a weakness for me. Dominique Ansel Bakery is who’s responsible for this creation. A bakery in New York. They sell out by noon and have a three cronut per person rule. Let a “mock” cronut come to Portland or anywhere within about 30 miles and I’m sorry friends I will be trying it. Maybe I should try to create a paleo version…. Hmmm…

Hopefully you all still take me seriously after that rant. I’m sorry. Pastries are the devil.

My “sandwich” with pan fried chicken breast seasoned w/ kosher salt, cumin, cayenne, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. On Romaine heart with home made guacamole and pico! Delicious. I love anything inside lettuce.

Pan Fried Pork chop and eggs. DELICIOUS!

Hot peppers from my garden.

Bell Pepper

Eggs over hard on top of zucchini onion hash w/ hot sauce. YUM!

I just love this.

Cinco de Mayo… CAKE damn it. I want some CAKE.

Today was ROUGH! My son not only had an ice cream cake for his birthday, but there was some confusion as to what day his party actually would be which resulted in another huge chocolate cake delivered on Sunday. This is separate from the ice cream cake that was here Friday for his party. This is pure BULLSHIT. Adrian and I literally opened the box of the cake together like little kids trying to sneak some while their parents aren’t looking! We just stared at it and smelled it.  We both started laughing because how ridiculous is this? We are adults, ultimately if we wanted to eat it we could. No questions asked. Thankfully we were strong enough to continue our night cake free! We opted for some watermelon instead.

Before the demon chocolate cake arrived, our day was really good. I was able to get up and cook breakfast for everyone. A very satisfying healthy breakfast! I had my yummy Boresha fat-burning coffee and I got in my SQUATS which were surprisingly much easier today! We went to church and enjoyed a nice service and decided we would fire up the grill! YUM! One thing I absolutely love about the summer is the grill. Definitely my favorite way to cook meat among other things. I got some carne asada and chicken seasoned it with some amazing seasoning and grilled it up! I was so upset because while at the store I forgot to get cilantro. Now, cilantro is my all time favorite herb. I love it on just about everything. Then I got the brightest idea… Get some out of my own garden! DUH. It wasn’t ready until now, so for the first time I was able to use cilantro out of my own garden! It was so fragrant and delicious! Seriously can’t  wait until everything else I’m growing can be harvested.

I’ve never gardened a day in my life. Then all of a sudden last year when I started really looking into all that was in our food from the supermarket I thought to myself I will grow my own. Well, I thought about it, talked about it, but never did it. This year I was determined to get this garden started! So I did. I have two beds with tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, carrots, string peas, string beans, lettuce, collard greens, spinach, purple carrots and green onion. I also have two planters containing strawberries and three blueberry bushes. Anyone who knows me is probably cracking up and waiting for me to f*ck it up somehow I’m sure. I never would have done this a couple years ago. In fact every place I’ve ever lived I have successfully killed every plant in site including the grass. I will have you know everything is healthy at this time. So eat that suckers.

Collard Greens

 My beds

Herbs

Strawberry Planter from Waddell Woodworking LLC (bestplace in Vancouver to get beds and planters in my opinion! Discount for repeat customers!) Everything is bigger now, but you get the idea. As you can tell I am very proud of my garden.

I have gotten a lot of feedback about starting a paleo lifestyle. Several of my friends and relatives wanted to know what got me into it or why did I decide to? I was introduced to paleo by a couple good friends of mine. They were always posting pictures of their food to a page on Facebook. Me being the nosey person I am started looking into the page they were posting to and decided to follow it as well. That page was Health and Effectivity. That month, April, he was doing a “sexy food” challenge. You post pictures of your paleo meals to the page and then a winner is determined. This page is so cool! Gives a lot of great challenges monthly. Even offers a work out regimen to follow if you are interested. The other website that I absolutely adore and is excellent is Paleo Cupboard. This website offers a shopping list and a lot of good starting recipes. There’s also a Facebook page and blog that you can get to from the website. Hope this helps those interested! Below you will find meals from today. Lunch was late and kinda led into dinner, so no pic for that. Hope you all enjoy!

Breakfast! Organic Broccoli- brussel sprout- jalapeno- onion “hash” cooked in coconut oil w/ kosher salt and pepper. 3 organic eggs w/ cumin kosher salt and pepper, turkey and bacon! YUM

Lunch/Dinner Grilled carne asada seasoned with olive oil, kosher salt, garlic, cayenne and black pepper. Grilled chicken thighs seasoned with turmeric, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, black pepper and clove. And and amazing salad of organic baby kale, beet tips, baby spinach and chards dressed with vinaigrette (evoo, vinegar, kosher salt, black pepper, raw honey, minced garlic and chopped cilantro from my garden!!! ) BEST dressing ever! And a glass of red wine, had to celebrate Cinco De Mayo…