Maggie Goes On A Diet...

A self-publishing author out of Hawaii has published a book about a pre-teenage girl who thinks she is overweight, so she goes on a diet and transforms into the healthier, soccer-star teenager she wants to be.  Great idea of a book if:

A) the focus was on being healthy, eating right, and staying active and in-shape
B) it wasn't a picture book intended for 6- to 12-year-olds

Check out the editorial article about the book here

I agree with the editorial's author in that young girls should not be focused on whether or not they are "fat" and that "skinny" is the only way to be happy, but I disagree with the statement of "let little [kids] be little [kids]" for 2 reasons.  First of all, little kids, without the proper guidance about what's healthy and what's good for them, will eat whatever they can--including massive amounts of sugary foods that aren't going to do anything for their health, their physical development, or their self-esteem.  Second, if we wait until kids are teenagers to start teaching them and encouraging them to make healthy choices, instead of raising them so that healthy choices are natural and what they have grown up with, then we've waited too long.  So while this book's author went about this is probably a way that is going to turn more people against his book, the basic idea behind the book (aka: help your kid make healthy choices) is a good one.

H and I have talked about this topic for a long time, and have a plan.  We don't want our kids to focus on body image--there will be absolutely no pinching body fat, sly "need to lose" weight comments, or anything like that in our house.  It's inappropriate and all it does is tear apart body image and break down self-confidence.  Instead, we want our kids to grow up in a house where they are taught to make healthy lifestyle choices from a very young age and understand why we make those choices.  We want them to understand what's good for them and how to keep that in their life through being active, and to build their self-confidence and body image through that.  This is extremely important to us, and something that we want our kids to know from the moment they are old enough to understand it.

Will our kids read this book.
Heck no!
Will our kids know that being active, staying in shape, and making healthy food choices is expected of them and important to our family and their well-being.
Absolutely.

xoxo, M

Dirty Thirty...Again!

Last night at the Rec, H and I did the Dirty Thirty again, and I cut my time by like 2 minutes!  The first time we did it my time was 13:20, mainly because I had to take longer breaks in between rounds, especially towards the end.  This time, not only did I rest a little less between rounds, but I upped my weight in both the dumbell squat-clean-presses and the overhead ball toss!  I feel so accomplished!  11:36 was my time last night - go me!  I really really wanted to cheat on the burpees---burpees are legit the bane of my existence.  Not kidding.  I hate them.  I hate them like cats hate water.  Like Popsicles hate a hot day.  Like Ke$ha hates dignity.

Doing them at the Rec always makes me feel silly, because I feel like all the guys are staring at me and judging.  "Ew, who's that girl who is actually doing a real workout and not just jogging on the elliptical?  Gross."  Although, just a side note, I feel like a girl who actually does a legit workout and not just jog for 2 hours should be sexier...just my opinion (I know H would agree--he always tells me that I'm sexier when I'm doing CrossFit than when I'm just running).  But I did them, and while I hated every minute of it, I felt good for doing them. 

Today, I had a million errands to run, especially for the new job so we haven't hit the gym yet--but when we do, it's going to be a kick-butt AMRAP and I"m pretty pumped!  I've been looking forward to it all day.  Tonight, we are making the yummiest Paleo dinner:  bacon burgers with veggies, corn on the cob, and fresh salad.  I don't know what I'm more excited about...the AMRAP or dinner!  :)  I always feel so much better after a quality day of Paleo and CrossFit!

xoxo, M

Updates and Experiments

Alright.  I am 5 weeks in officially today.
I am down 15lbs total.
I have lost 4 inches off my waist.
Most of my stomach problems have gone away.
I have a ton more energy.
I can tell I'm getting stronger, and I can even see my muscles developing.
I'm recovering faster after workouts, and I can workout longer and run longer without getting as winded.
My calluses are getting bigger (yay inspiration!)

Overall, after 5 weeks of Paleo and working out/lifting/CrossFit, I am officially obsessed with this new lifestyle and I can't believe I didn't do it sooner!  Before I started all of this, I bought a really adorable bikini that I want to fit into.  I put it on, took pics (no, I will not show them to you--they are scary, and I don't want to have it come back and bite me in the butt when you want compensation for your therapy bills because of what you saw) then hung the pics in the kitchen.  Yesterday, H made me put the bikini back on, which has been happily living hanging on my dresser mirror, and retake my pics.  There is definitely a difference!  I'm by no means ready to wear that thing to a public beach (oh God, could you imagine the therapy bills?!) but I'm proud that it fit better yesterday than it did 2 months ago.  Yay progress!

I've been doing some experimenting in the kitchen, too!

I made some awesome roasted broccoli (it gives it a nuttier taste, and is very yummy!) and a tasty easy roast pork loin, and yesterday I made Paleo-friendly mayo so I could make egg salad today.  So far, all 3 experiments (which is what H likes to call them...) turned out great and I'm really impressed with myself.

As for working out, we'll have a lot more time for that now.  H will be leaving for the military a little sooner than expected, and we've been really buckling down on working out to get him into the right shape to get into the program he wants.  While it means he'll be leaving me a little sooner than planned (and therefore I must be down in size a little sooner than planned so I can fit into a size 8 wedding dress!) I'm excited for his adventure and show him how much progress I'm going to make while he's gone for 17 weeks at OSUT and Airborne School--he's going to come home and I'm going to be out-of-control-sexy-strong! ;)

I've had a lot of people asking about what I eat with Paleo and how it works, and I think the greatest place to see what to eat is Rob's Quick Start Guide and the best place to see why I eat Paleo and how it works is Fitbomb's explanation.  If you're interested in trying out Paleo, even just for a couple weeks to see how it works, these are 2 great resources to get you started.

It's not that hard...

Totally stole this from Fitbomb but it's so perfect.  Seriously, people, Paleo is not that hard...

6-2-2011

 Today I was seriously so exhausted after work.  As a teacher, I expected that the last few days of school would be a piece of cake:  give exams, tell kids to have a good summer, then kick my feet up and enjoy having the afternoon without students (we do half-days for exams).  Not. Even. Close.  Exams are easy enough, when it isn't a group of students who won't stop talking long enough to write their name on the answer sheet, let alone actually focus on the test.  And forget trying to get my seniors to do ANYTHING.  Then today, we went out and worked in the school's Vertical Grow Garden doing weeding and planting (hellooooo sunburn!).  And I finished out the night chasing down my night school students to take their exams.  

I was exhausted on the drive home, and totally ready to crash.  But I knew I couldn't not workout, and I knew how guilty I would feel if I skipped it today.  Being out of all forms of protein (see my last post), I had to grab some beef jerky and pumpkin seeds on my way to the gym.  It felt sooooo good to get on the elliptical and run 2 1/2 miles, especially since it's been a week since I've had a chance to run at the gym (even though I've been doing the C25k running outside).  I also did some leg lifting and some Crossfit stuff with the medicine ball.  Needless to say, I'm super sore now!  But I'm loving the feeling of a good burn after the workout  :)  It's becoming addictive!

So here's dinner tonight:  2 grilled brats, spicy brown mustard, and fresh veggies.  Yummm!

Bountiful

It's grocery shopping day!  We were out of meat, down to 2 eggs, and our usual seasonings for food were running low.  Thankfully, Meijer had some good sales, and we were able to score a ton of food without spending a ton of money.  Paleo isn't always cheap--meat can be pricey, fresh veggies and fruit are hard to get at a good price if they aren't in season, and the price of eggs is going up almost as fast as the price of gas.  But the health benefits I'm reaping from clean eating are totally outweighing (or underweighing...hehe...see what I did there?  Because you lose weight eating Paleo...?  I thought it was funny...) the cost of Paleo.

So what does the fridge look like after a Paleo trip to the store?

2 dozen eggs (plus the 2 eggs we had pre-shopping)

3.25 lbs 90/10 lean ground beef

1 whole roasting chicken

18 lbs chicken breasts

8 Angus beef trimmed steaks

2 heads of lettuce

Bag of carrots

4 green peppers

1 artichoke (trying it for the first time)

2 packages of raspberries

I'm super excited to try a bunch of new recipes I got from Everyday Paleo and Nom Nom Paleo, who are amazing cooks and who really understand the Paleo way.  They are my new cooking inspirations, and I will totally keep you posted about how the cooking goes.  Tonight, though, is a quickie dinner--H and I both got home late after working out, then had to go to the store, so it's brats on the grill and salads.  Still nomtastic :)