Fuel : Lunchtime salad

Coach T says that if i'm still hungry, it's because i need more fat in my diet.

I love chicken skin and bacon as much as the next guy, but I've got eight children and there just plain isn't enough skin to go around :)...

Other great ways to increase your fat intake is: olive oil dressings, butter slathered on roasted meat, nuts (salted or not) and nut butters, coconut oil.

But one of my favourite fat sources is avocado.  It's full of minerals, has a delicious, smooth taste, can be added to eggs, sandwiches or salads, and fills you up!

Plus, I find that as mom i can either feed me or feed the troops, and eight little mouths certainly outvote my paleo tummy...  So i end up making carby foods for their breakfast, and grabbing quick whatever i can find to fill my tummy as they get going.  This morning (and lunch) it was a peach and some leftover ham!

This salad is super easy to make with leftover salad, taco fixings, or to just make up for a one person salad bowl.  A plain oil and vinegar dressing is great, but add in some mashed avocado, and a little dab of dijon mustard, and it's a whole 'nother world.

One more delicious trick is grinding up sesame seeds into a paste in the blender, and using the pea sized chunks as "croutons"...

Fast and easy!

Fuel : Coach T's Coconut Curry

Once summer is over, I'll be doing most of the cooking again.  Coach is a principal,  and has the summer off, and loves cooking, which equals easy street for me, kitchen wise.

And I am so grateful he likes cooking so much *and* loves nutrition and fitness.  I sure wouldn't be making as much of an effort to lose those baby pounds if i didn't have him on my side and in the kitchen :)

Here is our dinner tonight - sweet potatoes on the side, and Coach's famous coconut curry.

Coach T's Coconut  Curry

8-10 chicken breasts

1 can coconut milk

lots of curry powder

garlic and onion

cinnamon

salt, pepper

chop up chicken breasts, fry in olive oil with spices.  Once browned, add coconut milk.  Season to taste, and let simmer till cooked through.

New direction...

Well, it looks like we're going in a different direction for awhile...

My second son, who is nine, has had allergies and been anemic for *years*. At a year, he had gone from 100th percentile to 10th, and the doctor was concerned enough to have us go to the hospital for nutritional analysis by a dietician, who found that despite taking in more than 3000 calories a day (!), he was not absorbing iron.

So we supplemented with iron and got his levels up (actually, the iron didn't work, so we used Floradix on a hush hush basis from the dietician!)... and then we moved soon after, and kind of lost track of his health problems.

Over the years, i've talked to countless doctors, had tons of bloodwork done (all of which show anemia, plus allergies to grasses like timothy, and not much else), had xrays done of his sinuses (which didn't show any reason why he should be completely stuffed up all the time). I did take him to a naturopath, but she was kind of flaky, and i was turned off so i didn't take her advice to buy some really expensive water that would help him "achieve a more alkaline state" (although now i am thinking the acid/alkaline thing may be something to look into...

So, finally i am biting the bullet and eliminating gluten. We'll do this for a few weeks, (maybe six? maybe more) and then go back to gluten and i'm charting how he feels, so that i can spot trends.

Really, gluten free and paleo are not two separate things - but in doing the gluten free diet for a family of nine, i am going to give up on paleo for awhile. Some meals will be paleo, but i'm including things like rice, mashed potatos and other gluten free carbs so that the children won't feel deprived.

This morning i made the most delicious rice pancakes, studded with raisins (or chocolate chips, or nothing, depending on when you got to the giant pan - it made a TON of pancakes!)

I'm not sure if i should just start another blog and come back to this one once the experiment is over (as i'm pretty sure my husband wants to stay paleo) - but the title of the blog seems not so true now :) and if i start a GF blog, maybe i will get some traffic from people who can give me advice :)

Anyway, i've had pneumonia and we've had every flu in town since Dec. 25th, which is why i haven't posted much - but i'm getting better, and looking forward to posting more and hopefully learning more from everyone else out there in blogland...

I'll post a picture and recipe after i get some school done this morning!

thursday workout

for me, Thursdays are the new Fridays... We only homeschool four days a week, so that i can get caught up on appointments, shop, do mom stuff like practice my mandolin, or knit or sew (i have the cutest little purse cut up and half sewn, just calling my name around the corner here)...

So tonight is my "hooray, pressure's off" night. Dh, not so much. He bought some red wine on the way home from work, we did a hard workout, and he's up in bed, waiting for me. So this had better be quick! I hate when he falls asleep before me...

Tonight's workout (which i was dragged into kicking and screaming - bad attitude tonight, but I STILL DID IT and that's the moral of the story, that or T's angelic nature for putting up with me, even when i decided after the fourth set to actually go change out of my jeans so i could get my feet in the tubing for the chin ups... oh, let's not split hairs...)

Tonight's workout:

Tonight's workout:

10 sets of

3 deadlifts (so basically, a dumbbell complex, followed by chinups

3 power cleans and i used 15 lb dumbbells, and i probably should

3 forward squats have used 20 lb ones, but like i say every time,

3 thrusters NEXT TIME!!!)

5 chinups

Paleo, yes, i have been *pretty* good. I had a few french fries yesterday but apart from that, i've been clean all week, and tomorrow is CHEAT DAY! You have no idea how much i look forward to cheat day...

I'm looking into GFCF for my second son, and groaning inwardly at the thought of yet more dietary gymnastics. But i think i really do need to try this and see if it will make a difference. The good news - we're already halfway there by eating paleo - so long as we cut out the dairy. The sad news - i need to seriously beef up the excitement factor of eating paleo if i want to get my 9 yo to eat this way for weeks on end. So looking for excitement. paleo cookies and chocolate almond balls to start out, but i need variety to get me to longevity. Combing blogs that are GF give me ideas for *him*, but i need paleo ideas i think, so i can still keep the eaters in this family into two camps - paleo, and not...

These are my concerns :) and my workout, and the end of my day!