Wed, May 30

830AM: Alex gets up at 530AM to bike into work so I can have the car today. What a husband! I wake-up a few times as he is leaving. My watch alarm keeps going off at 715AM (set from being in Philly) and it's woken me up the past two days. I guess I had been sleeping through it? Must change it. I set my alarm for 830AM. I'm not ready to get up then. .. and I snooze until 9AM. I get super tired right before my period and I'm guessing that's what I'm feeling.

10AM: I get ready for my first meeting with one of the builders. He is late. Not a good sign. I grabbed a quick breakfast (Larabar) because I didn't think I would have time to eat. .. and now it's almost 1015AM and I'm still waiting! Two other builders to meet today in addition to this one.

1030AM: The one builder forgot about me (grrr) so we re-schedule for 230PM. I am annoyed but at least now I get to have a proper breakfast. I make eggs and throw some of my ground beef/onions mixture on top. I also have a bowl of blueberries and warm banana. Yum. Off to run errands. .. AKA do some last minute shopping for Mexico! =)

215PM: I'm about to heat up some more ground beef when the builder who stood me up in the morning shows up. He is 15 min early. Apparently, he's trying to make up for being late. Sigh. At the very least, we have an awesome convo.

330PM: I finally get a chance to have some lunch. I don't have a lot left in the house (since I'm going to be gone starting tomorrow, I didn't want to buy a ton of groceries) so I eat the last two of my applegate turkey slices and have the last of my ground beef. I also have a spoonful of almond butter. My first of the day!

5PM: Have an awesome convo with Meghan! She reassures me that I've been on the right path and that I can continue to keep on my diet plan throughout my vaca in Mexico. Her advice: stick to meats and vegetables. Be weary of beans and if I want a treat, choose carefully! I also decide that I'm going to cut out almond butter and plaintain chips for this upcoming week. Not planning to take them on vacation with me anyways! Will also just be very careful of the foods I choose in Mexico. No tortilla chips, or tortillas in general. I want to eat seafood whenever I can. Ceviche, here I come. =)

6PM: Xfit MSP. Work-out today is focused on single-leg squats (with dumbells @ 20 lbs). We also do a circuit with push-ups, sit-ups (with a medball), and goblet squats with a kettlebell (34 lbs).

8PM: As I mentioned, we've eaten through most of our groceries, x-Alex's tacos that he still has from last week! Which I can't really eat because he puts corn and beans in it. So we decide to pick up salads from one of our favorite take-out spots, yum. I get an olive oil based tuna salad. Super tasty. Alex gets a sampler with tuna salad, egg salad, and chicken salad. I love this tuna salad. Everything at this kitchen is also homemade, which is nice.

11PM: I head to bed. .. Tomorrow, Mexico!!

Tues, May 29

9AMish: I wake-up around 9AM, when I set my alarm but I stay in bed until 930AMish. Great night of sleep (about 9 hours or so) but given the weather (dreary and cool), I feel like I could sleep more!

10AM: I'm pretty hungry. I have some almond butter. OK, I admit - I'm addicted! At least I've limited myself to one spoonful (even though it's a big spoonful) per day.

1030AM: I make myself a breakfast sandwich with the grilled eggplant slices from yesterday as the "bread". I put a slice of turkey in it, some guac, and 1 over medium egg. Yum. I also warm up a banana with just a little bit of honey to carmelize it ever so slightly and have it on top of blueberries. A great breakfast! I cook with coconut oil for the first time and love it.

2PM: I'm not hungry until much later in the day. I'm running around getting ready for my Mexico trip(mani/pedis - yay), so I between appointments I stop again to have my fav coconut mussels for lunch. (Same as last Friday) This broth has a little less coconut milk and more lemongrass - still very tasty. The mussels are also a little bit smaller. .. but I can't really complain. I am in Minneapolis now!

530PM: Alex and I head to the 6PM crossfit. I'm hungry so I have a Larabar for energy.

6PM: Xfit MSP work-out. We work on the press: 3x 4-6 reps, working up to your peak of 4 (chin-ups while resting between lifts). I get to 58 lbs for 3. We then do 1 set of 15 reps - I use 43 lbs and make it through OK. Metcon is 60 wallballs (10 lbs for women), 800M run, 60 wallballs. I'm definitely out of breath when I'm done!

745PM: We get home around 715PM and sit down to dinner. Not a ton of prep but Alex is eating his favorite tacos and needs to heat up the rice. I have my favorite spinach and ground beef salad.



1030PM: We climb into bed but I chat with my friend Zoe so don't fall asleep until closer to 1130PM.

Mon, May 28

Memorial Day! I'm finally caught-up in my blog. YAYAYAAYAYAYAAYAYAYAY! In general, I feel great. Working-out, eating more at home, getting great sleep. It's been awesome and I definitely feel less bloated. I am starting to feel like I'm going to get my period soon. I'm a little less than 1 week away. Will be interesting how that affects how I feel this week.

9AM: I wake-up. 9 hours of sleep. .. could have slept more but I wanted to get the day started. I decide to take the day off from working out.

10AM: I have some almond butter, a banana, and a couple of slices of applegate turkey. I need to eat a bigger breakfast. I've been bad, Meghan - I know!

1PM: We head over to Mike's place for our paleo Memorial Day BBQ. I convinced my friends Mike and Miranda to go paleo and they've done an amazing job with it. They've experimented with a lot of recipes. .. now we're going to experiment together! We make a feast: paleo-almond/rosemary crackers, guacamole, eggplant chips (baked), sweet potato chips (baked), grilled eggplant, my now-infamous (jk) turkey burgers, and brussel sprout chips (baked). Amazing. I get too full too fast. .. I blame it on the crackers and guac!

3PM: Ok, not sure Meghan is going to be OK with this. .. will look forward to seeing what you say! I decided to make Thai's yummy paleo chocolate chip cookies. My hubby loves baked goods and I've never baked for him before. I have the dairy-free semi-sweet TJ's choc chips, so I decide to give it a whirl. I have 2 small cookies. They taste super sweet. But very good. The upside is that the recipe is from Elena's pantry:

http://www.elanaspantry.com/dairy-free-gluten-free-chocolate-chip-cookies/

8PM: I am not hungry until later. I think I had far too much almond flour. I have a leftover turkey burger with the side of red pepper pureed sauce.

11PMish: Alex and I are in bed by 11PM and fall asleep around 1130PM or so.

Sun, May 27

I have a spoonful of almond butter and a banana for "breakfast". I go for a run in blazing hot weather. Yikes! I am dying of thirst part way through the lake. Ouch.

I have a Larabar and TONS of water when I get back. Alex wants to go to one of our favorite spots for lunch, Lucia's bakery. Unfortunately. .. there aren't a ton of paleo options there. I settle for a shrimp skewer with a red pepper sauce (gluten and dairy-free) + a side of greens.

My mom gave us some fresh mangos so Alex makes me a mango smoothie for a snack. He and I both have headaches, probably from dehydration on our runs. He cuts up a mango and puts some ice into a blender and puts a small amount of agave syrup in it.

My mom sent me home with some moqueca so I have the rest for dinner. I also make a huge amount of guacamole for a memorial day paleo-BBQ we're going to have with our friends Mike and Miranda tomorrow. I eat it with some plaintain chips. YUM! (But I may have had too many plaintain chips, admittedly.)

I finish off the day with a few more semi-sweet TJ's vegan choc chips. Not sure if Meghan will like that I'm eating these!

Sat, May 26

I was going to go on a run but it's raining cats and dogs. I decide to do yoga in the house instead.

We go to lunch with friends at a great little deli downtown called Bewitched. I had their pastrami sandwich, without the bread on top of a bed of spinach. Delicious! Would definitely go back there for the salad again. Served with some spicy dijon mustard and vinagrette.

We watch the Avengers with my parents and then go to my parents' house for dinner. My mom makes moqueca, a Brazilian shrimp stew, at my request. It's made with garlic, tomato, parsley, and coconut milk. It's one of my fav dishes she makes. She also makes pastel - ground beef empanada-like appetizer. I just eat the ground beef.

We play mah jong with my grandmother. I win big. Here are my winning "tiles":

Fri, May 25

My mom and I decide to meet for shopping and lunch - I need to get out of the house!
I have the same breakfast: almond butter, banana, bacon. Need to make quiche so I'm eating more eggs but I'm sort of tired of eggs.

Our lunch is awesome. We eat at a little place called Beajo's near Alex and my house. It's the first time I've eaten out all week. .. since the Starbucks wrap early Monday morning. I feel so much less bloated! My mom and I share a tuna nicoise salad and have mussels marinated in coconut milk and kafir lime. Yum.

Work-out: My mom and I walk around the lake (about 4 miles) and then I go to Crossfit. We have a cardio-filled circuit training work-out where we're moving almost the entire session.

Dinner is back at home. Alex and I finish the last of the turkey burgers.

Thurs, May 24

More of the same. .. Almond butter, banana to start off my day. I've been sleeping 10+ hours and going to crossfit in the evenings so haven't been super hungry. I also have a couple piece of bacon.

Work-out: I do 35 min of yoga with my "Yogafit" DVD

I finish off my rotisserie chicken and turkey burgers.

Believe it or not, I'm starting to get sick of sitting on our couch, watching TV already. I became obsessed with the show Scandal. Unfortunately, there were only 7 epsidoes for me to get thru!