Fed Up Challenge! Day 2.

I...have a confession. I messed up! But I can explain! I woke up at 4:00am today because my new puppy had made a (very smelly, disgusting) mess in his crate. So I had to get him out, clean the crate and then clean the dog. All before the sun came up! >.<

So, my husband always makes a pot of coffee before he leaves for work at 5am. I lost my mind, you guys! I just totally blacked out. I'm gonna blame it on lack of sleep. But this happened...

Whoops!!! ;-)

Okay, so I clearly came to my senses before I drank the whole cup, because I took this picture. But that didn't stop me, it was already too late to go back. It's like placing a bottle of Jack in front of an alcoholic. I had zero control! But anyway, here's how the rest of the day went...

Breakfast:

Spinach, feta, mushroom omelette

1 small apple

(and obviously my boo-boo, coffee. Sorry, not sorry.)

Snack:

Cottage cheese 

4 sliced strawberries

Lunch:

Sandwich made with: 

Ezekiel bread, Boar's Head Smoked Turkey, lettuce, spicy mustard and tomato

1 sliced red bell pepper

Handful of grapes

Dinner:

Pan seared scallops

Roasted summer squash

Roasted asparagus with shaved parmesan 

Handful of blueberries for a sweet treat

• Side note: if and when you make scallops, here's a few tips: fill the skillet with olive oil and get your skillet pretty dang hot (medium high heat until the oil barely starts to smoke). Wait to make the scallops until the very last minute, because that's seriously all the time it takes! You pat them dry, season them with salt and pepper and a little garlic powder on one side, then place them in the pan. Watch the clock for 1.5 minutes, flip them to the other side for 1.5 minutes and get those babies out of there. Voila! 

Oh, my. Delicious you guys!! 

The kids were kind of off and on today. I'm almost totally out of fruit, so I'm going to be making a second trip to the store probably tomorrow! But I did what I was supposed to do...mostly! And today, there were no headaches. But I did feel good and I had more energy than usual, which was unexpected since I woke up so early! I'm really liking this so far! :-)

All my love,

Paige xo

Fed Up Challenge! Day 1

Well, I woke up this morning already dreading this for one reason only: I knew I couldn't have my coffee with Splenda and Italian Creme creamer. So that just had me in a bad mood anyway! However, after I put my big girl panties on, I looked in the fridge to decide what I wanted to make for breakfast. I've been on a low carb diet (not very strict) for a long time, so when I opened the fridge and saw that it was full of fruit, I thought seriously about eating every single bit of it until it was all gone! That's the bad thing about low carb, you can't eat fruit. So, I've missed it. A LOT. Eventually I stopped drooling and went to work on the meal:

Breakfast

Scrambled eggs with avocado and homemade salsa 
1 slice of Ezekiel bread
A handful of blackberries (one of my favorites!)
3-4 sliced strawberries

• My kids will eat all of these things as well, so this one was a big win for me. However, Ezekiel bread is found in the freezer section of your stores so once it's thawed out the texture is very different from regular sliced bread; it isn't very soft. It seems better if you warm it in the microwave for a few seconds! Maybe that was all in my mind? I'll never know. But, like I said I've been doing low carb for so long that I was happy to eat a slice of bread, regardless of the texture! And fruit...Amen. 

Snack

Handful of almonds 
Handful of grapes
2-3 cubes of cheese 

• The kids (especially my 4 year old) snack ALL day long. My plan was to just offer them cheese or fruit when snack time rolled around but as the day went by, I realized that I would be out of fruit before the day ended if I did that. So, I caved for them and gave them yogurt (stop judging me) and some crackers with almond butter. I am bound and determined to stick to this, so my snack that I listed above, was different.

Lunch 

White bean, garlic tapenade hummus
2 celery stalks 
Handful of baby carrots
1/2 sliced cucumber 

• I wasn't really all that hungry at lunch time, so I just went with more of an appetizer approach with the hummus dip and veggies. It was still good though! No complaints. My 1 year old had a smashed sweet potato and my 4 year old had a grilled cheese with sharp cheddar that I grated and Ezekiel bread with some grapes. The bread is still an adjustment for him! 

Dinner  

Baked chicken breasts (marinated in Olive oil and spicy brown mustard, salt & pepper)
Sautéed veggies (zucchini, squash, cauliflower, carrots) with Italian seasoning
Brown rice with Olive oil, garlic powder, and chopped sautéed onion

• I totally forgot to add brown rice to the grocery list post that I made yesterday! But that is allowed in small portions. This meal was REALLY good. Both my kids like rice, and my youngest loved the veggies. But again, my oldest insisted upon eating something else: Annie's Alfredo and Pasta (this has about 4g of sugar for a cup of cooked pasta and sauce, so it's not TERRIBLE.) But he's definitely going to be the one that I'm going to have to ease into this change more so than anyone else. At least he didn't eat pizza or chicken nuggets, I suppose. And when he asked for dessert, he was completely satisfied to have strawberries! Yay! 

Overall, I was happy with how the day went. I didn't get off track at all, and I'm really the one who is focused on seeing how this whole "diet" makes me feel. So I'm the test subject, and as long as I stay the course, it'll all be okay! I'll say that I have had a headache today. I think this is just from skipping the coffee that I usually drink in the morning. If I don't drink it at home, I go order an iced coffee from Starbucks. So this was the first full day I've had in a while without coffee/Splenda/creamer. I'm just going to chalk it up to that! If I get really desperate, I may try drinking my coffee black tomorrow, but we will just have to see! I will add that it's nice to go an entire day and know that you've eaten nothing but fresh, whole foods and that your kids have (mostly) done the same. So if for no other reason than that, I'm happy with today!! Also, I'll try to remember to take pictures of the food we eat on Day 2, sorry! ;)

All my love,
Paige xo

Fed Up Challenge! Shopping list.

I watched a documentary on Netflix not long ago called Fed Up. This film discusses the issue of childhood obesity and its causes. Namely processed foods and SUGAR. I watch plenty of documentaries on Netflix. My queue is full of them, and everyone thinks I am super weird. But let me say, if you only watch one documentary in your life, watch this one. Especially those of you who have kids! I thought that I was really doing things right, and buying good foods for my kids, making better choices than just chips and candy, and that I was a step ahead of the game. Nope.

Apparently there is so much sugar in ALL of the foods we generally buy that you wouldn't really even think about. Like bread, for instance. I think of carbs, yes. But not added sugar! I let my kids eat oatmeal quite a bit for breakfast..loaded with sugar! And wow, salad dressings and condiments are probably the most mind boggling. You know how everyone got obsessed with "Low fat/Low calorie" foods? Well, guess what they added to those things when they took out the fat? SUGAR. So, in reality these products are worse for you than full fat options because of the way our bodies process them. Oh! Milk also has about 6g of sugar per 8oz! And, this probably goes without saying, but soda is a HUGE no-no. Even (and almost especially) the diet ones. This film discourages any artificial sugars. Say goodbye to Splenda, and the like! Wahhhhh! How will I live without my coffee, sweetener, and creamer?!?

Apparently we are only supposed to consume 4g of sugar a day to be healthy! This is starting to get tricky, right? At the end of the film they encourage you to take the Fed Up Challenge, which means no processed foods, added sugars, or fast food. It's a 10 day clean-eating challenge, and basically you can only eat vegetables, very few whole grains, fruit, nuts, and lean meats and proteins. All of these need to be organic and with no added sugar or flavors. And you can only drink water. Seems okay. Until you get to the store and start to check labels!! Nuts can have added sugar, deli meat has added sugar, peanut butter has added sugar...forget about yogurt, cereal, oatmeal, and most bread. After reading A LOT of labels and spending about an hour and a half in the grocery store, this is the list that I came up with for good/acceptable foods:

Produce:
Apples
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Strawberries
Blackberries
Blueberries
Grapes
Lemon
Spinach
Salad mix
Avocado
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Peppers
Cucumbers
Celery
Zucchini
Squash
Bag of baby carrots (for dipping)
(Basically, almost anything in this category goes)

Meats:
Salmon
Scallops
Shrimp
Chicken breasts
Chicken tenders
Ground turkey and chicken
 LEAN, SUGAR FREE deli meat (Boar's Head seemed to be the best)

Dairy:
Cottage cheese
Eggs (lots of eggs)
Most cheeses are fine. I went with fresh mozzarella because I can generally eat it on anything.
Block of Monterrey jack (to cut up for snack)
Hummus (check labels!!) or make your own!

Miscellaneous:
Dry roasted all natural almonds
Olive oil/Vinegar (to make your own dressing, add lemon if you like)
Seeds
Ezekiel Bread 4:9 (they also have a few pasta and wrap options if you need those!)
Bags of frozen veggies (for quick dinner sides)


This was just my list that I used on my shopping trip. I'm sure if you put more time and effort into it, there are plenty more options! So, here goes nothing!! Next post will be about my Day 1 meals and how I'm feeling after cutting out the sugars and processed things. I'm excited! Let me know if you're following the challenge along with me!!

All my love,
Paige xo