The Challenge has begun!

Well it's Day 6 of our Paleo challenge and it is finally getting easier. My day dreams about ice cream and latte's have finally disappeared (Crap! Did someone say ice cream?).

Day 3 was by far the hardest. It landed on hump-day and boy it was quite the hump (see what I did there). I had a headache and I was never full, both lasted all day long! I was one grumpy paleo chick.

Which had me thinking, I've been living a Paleo lifestyle for over a year now, but like all lifestyles you have a little treat so you don't feel deprived of the world. The problem is everyday you start adding a treat, sometimes even two treats if you had a really good day or that day landed on a Friday. Before you know it's just normal to be bad. So wonderfully bad. But this challenge has been eye opening I haven't been this strict since I first started Paleo. It feels great to clean up my diet and well be *GASP* a good girl.

The best part of this week is I got 8 hours of sleep each night. MY GOSH I LOVE SLEEP! A well rested Mary is a happy Mary and a happy Mary is plain good for your health (I mean MY health *WINK*). The only downside is it involved me going to bed at 9 o'clock. Between that and knitting, all I need is a rocking chair and someone's going to accidentally put me in a home if I'm not careful.

Before we get to my Paleo eats, your forced to hear about a couple of new things this week.

I bought some new crossfit shoes. I normally wear vibrams to the gym, but needed a pair of minimalist shoes to wear in the winter. They're light weight and adorable. If you see me sporting them don't forget to 'OoOoo' and 'Aaahhh' at these babies! Oh and to my kite..I bought some new shoes--they were on sale and by sale I mean free!

And secondly I finished up reading THE HELP this week. As you're reading this I'm watching THE HELP movie. Because I cannot watch a movie based on a book before I read the book first. I have to have a reason to scream out "that's not what happened in the book!!" Which by the way I loved it and recommend you read it.

And now to our scheduled program...there was a ton of Paleo cooking done.

The number one thing I made this week that I loved and ate everyday for breakfast was Scotch Eggs from Well Fed. Be jealous because these were beyond amazing!

I use butter as a fat in a lot of recipes I make, but since I'm avoiding dairy I made some homemade ghee. I melted two packages of Kerrygold unsalted butter. And carefully strained the ghee from the milk scum with a coffee filter. It was messy but super easy.

Another recipe I made from Well Fed was homemade olive oil mayo And it's hands down the best mayo I've ever had. I will never buy a jar of mayo again. I'm getting the Paleo condiments down packed!! Paleo living just got a lot better.

I brined a chicken overnight and roasted it. The secret to a crispy chicken is a good fat on the skin. I used coconut oil, but I've been known to smother it with butter.

I made some broiled steak with mashed sweet potatoes, and sautéed some kale with some mushrooms/shallots.

I broiled some lemon pepper chicken breast the next day and had that with leftover mashed sweet potato, leftover kale and a salad.

After all week of cooking I made some chicken salad with leftover roast chicken and homemade mayo. It was SUPER homemade, I even cracked the walnuts for it. Talk about hard work.

We also made some burgers. I don't go a week without a burger. Paired with a salad a nitrate free bacon. Simple and delish.

For snacks this week I made avocado rolls with nitrate free turkey. This is my paleo version of a tortilla and cheese scenario. So so so good.

And today was a complete no oven day. I made a simple tuna salad with a evoo/vinegar dressing.

My treat everyday this week was kiwis. It's definitely no chocolate, but still felt like a treat. Especially ice cold.

And the most important thing I did all week long was drink a bizillion of these bad boys. WATER with lemon. The thirst quencher of all thirst quenchers. TAKE THAT GATORADE!

Week one is almost under my belt. I'm proud so far.

Also, stay tuned there's going to be some changes to my blog. Like I don't know a recipe section. FINALLY!

:)

New Things...BAM

I don't know about you but not finishing projects is my middle name. Say for instance I wanted to blog, but got distracted by I don't know something shiny. That's me written all over it. Well I'm back and I don't really have much of an excuse to be gone this long. The holidays were BUSY and then I got distracted by a few good books (I love MY kindle). The only thing that sucked was that you missed me. I know because I swear I heard crying weekly when you came and checked to see if there were any new posts. Well you can hold back the sniffles because of have something fun to share.

My gym (BDCF) is having a Paleo Partner Challenge! Since this is a new year and well everyone and their mama is trying to lose weight. I figured why not try and be a follower. Plus I may or may not have grew a strong addiction to chocolate, lattes and did I mention CHOCOLATE. And you as well as I know there's nothing wrong with loving chocolate, but my jeans don't love it and either does my mirror. So I figure I'd come back to my blog and document my paleo eats for the week again. Basically another way of shoving it my teammates faces of how my partner and I are going to WIN IT. So game on.


Before I share my yummy food. I also, wanted to show a few other awesome new things that I'm loving at the moment and something new in general.

To start I got a new haircut. After the newness of getting banged awhile back wore off I began itching for another change. And that's when I got a banging bob. And here you have it...I love it!

My kite got me the greatest Christmas gift this year. A spanking new 55-200mm lens for my camera. My little girls is growing up and has a big rack now *sniffle*.

and the other thing is.... You're not allowed to laugh. I'm still tough and can kick your butt!! But I love knitting and you can't stop me. My intention if I don't get distracted is to make a infinity scarf. Hopefully I'll be done by June 1st.

And now that you think I'm 80, we can talk about food. I made a ton of food in the last two weeks, trying to get my mind ready for this challenge.


I started the week with crockpot Tangerine BBQ pulled pork. My kite's mother gave me a bunch of tangerines and I thought why the heck not. I paired with salad and almost burnt sweet potatoes.

I also made some broiled steak (I miss grilling) and some greek green beans.

For emergency protein I made some crockpot honey chicken.

And don't forget my favorite food ever...breakfast. I broke open one of Christmas gift which was Starbucks coffee. I made a badass latte while I made fried eggs, chicken legs, avocado and maybe some bacon (don't worry there is more bacon where that came from).

And since it was crazy warm a few days this week, we grilled some burgers. I paired it with the usual salad and almost burnt sweet potatoes

If you wondering what I did with all those tangerines I got. Oh you didn't?! Tough! You're about to find out.
I hand squeezed the rest of them and made a paleo-ish treat. Tangerine ice. After juicing I poured them into 3oz containers to freeze. It was delish.

NERD ALERT (By the way 16 tangerines will get you a little under 2 cups of juice. Now imagine drinking a normal 8oz glass of orange juice. That could equal 6-8 oranges. Oh snap! That's a shit ton of oranges you just consumed in one sitting. You're insulin is spiked and you'll be crashing out in less than an hour. Just sayin')

And there you have the beginning of the challenge of all challenges. Stay tuned. This is something I plan on finishing! I will not disappoint.