Going Paleo

*We claim no credit for this photo. It's a Facebook find.

This blog has been LONG neglected! There has been a lot going on, but I'll recap the recent highlights here, in case you don't follow our regular blog.

1) My dad was diagnosed with cancer, moving the wedding to the west coast and up by MONTHS to August 12th, 2012.

2) We bought a house! It has stairs. Built in work-out right there.

3) Friday, June 1st, we went Paleo for 30 days.

So what is Paleo?
It's a style of eating that is based on "hunter/gatherer" methodology. This isn't a "no carb" diet, and it's not a "quick fix" either. Paleo is a significant investment of time and money. The goal is to limit preservatives as much as possible.

The science behind it is pretty sound, whether you buy the "Caveman" idea or the Creation idea. Our bodies are ment to most easily digest and consume fruits, veggies, and meats - rather than diomexthophosphataline, oxycylonate, and corn syrup, hormonally enhanced cow juice

So we've been to the local produce store and filled the kitchen with fruit, veggies, fresh meats. That means we cook for pretty much every meal (unless I decide to make my breakfast out of nuts and fruit).  But we cook w/ things that lack preservatives or were not processed whenever possible.

So what does that look like?Salad with lemon juice or oil and vinegar
Sauteed veggies
Grilled locally raised and grass fed steak
Roasted cage free chicken
Cage free scrambled eggs w/ veggies
Raw Fruits and veggies (organic whenever possible)
Tea (including Kombucha my favorite!)
Water
Nuts
Organic Wine (in moderation)

What it doesn't look like?Chips
Sodas
Breads (even the 'healthy' kind - it's all uber processed)
Cow Juice aka Milk (have you ever looked at the hormones in that junk)
Almond Milk (processed)
Soy-anything (processed)
Candy
Gum
Store bought microwavable meals
Coffee
Rice

We're allowing ourselves one "cheat day"/week where we can have something that might not be Paleo friendly.

I can only speak from my (Snow White) perspective, but I've been feeling pretty great. Refreshed, more able to focus, and yes, a little thinner even.

Weigh in will be happening again at the end of the month! Let's see how far we can go with this.

New year and a New Us!

Prince Charming and I had a goal do lose 30lbs (15 each) while he was deployed. While I fell slightly short of that, he knocked it out of the park! I'm happy to report that we're enjoying life as a healthier couple since his return yesterday. Now, he won't be walking 15 miles a day now that he's home, so it'll take more effort to keep it all off, but we've already noticed a change.

Last night, we were both STARVING, so we went to a local haunt for dinner. We split a couple appetizers (calamari steak, tuna poki), a spring greens mixed salad, and then we split an entree - and didn't even finish it. In fact, the things we left on the plate were all the starchy sides with our crab cake and salmon dinner. We even celebrated his return with 1 glass of wine each - and that was it.

So things have changed, and it feels great to know we're both home, safe, and healthier for it!

Eating out and Eating Right

Yesterday, Sean and I stopped at Red Robin for, what I call, "linner". It's when lunch meets dinner. It was about 2pm and we were STARVING, which isn't a good time to eat out, but we both did pretty well! While burgers and shakes looked DELICIOUS, we ended up leaning toward healthier options, even though we were at Red Robin. I'm pretty proud of my meal! Every small step in the right direction will add up to a healthier me. (Prince Charming gets a bit of a "pass" on this one, since he may not be able to get such food underway during his deployment.)

Snow White's Red Robin MealLettuce Wrap Burger (w/ Boca patty)
Side salad w/ Basalmic dressing
Split appetizer (fried zuchinni & mushrooms)
Total calories: 510 

Awesome! I had to snack my way through the evening to get close to my daily calorie count, but it was YUMMY! I know what to order next time I head out to Red Robin!

Checking In

So last week I posted about a few of our goals. Here's a reminder:

Goals for workouts this week:
Prince Charming - 6 work outs, no soda
Snow White - 6 work outs, 1 gallon of water/day
Our Goals - MODERATE eating out.

So how have we been doing with these goals since October 1st?

Life threw us a little curve ball. In case you haven't checked out the other blogs, Clydas needed surgery on his foot to remove some cancer. While he's been recouping well, it has slowed down my schedule to work out just a bit. But things are quickly picking up steam now that he can be left alone for a little while. (Though I think lifting a 55lb dog for 3 days should count as some sort of work out.)


I'll updated you all regarding our goals success (or failure) on October 7th. In the mean time...

I've started to take advantage of the Prince Charming's early mornings. Yesterday, I dropped him off at the gym on base and then headed to the YMCA myself. I got a few laps in walking and running on the track for warm up, and then found a machine that appears to be a cross between an elliptical and a stair climber. It was an AWESOME work out. Many of the machines there have mounted TVs, but I usually prefer to listen to my Ipod. So I worked out to This Running Life which was fun.

Today, I'm working all day and Prince Charming is working all day AND night, so I've decided to get work out of the way early and go to a Begining Ballroom class at the YMCA this evening, followed by a nice swim. Sounds like a great way to unwind from the day - and it counts towards my 6 work outs a per week! 2 down, 4 to go!

As for the Galloway method, I'm still struggling with that one... It's not that I don't want to try it. I do! It's just that it feels silly to train for a marathon, when I may not be running it after all. It would cost a little over $500 for me to do this and we still haven't hammered out the details yet. I think we can make it work, but we have a lot of expenses coming up next year, and it's best not to count your chickens before they hatch.  While I'd REALLY LOVE to register for the Princess 1/2 in Feb, and/or the Everest Challenge in May, I'm really struggling with the financial end of it. Since Prince Charming is 99.9% sure he won't be able to attend to cheer me on, I'm having trouble committing to spending that kind of money on myself and not feeling selfish... So the question is more "How important is this to me?" and "Am I willing to go solo?"

An Update and a New Plan!

This blog is really going to kick into gear now folks, so get ready for lots of updates to be had!





UPDATES:
New tools!  We're currently in the middle of a round of Hydroxycut Hardcore Proseries. It's not a miracle drug, but it gives us the solid boost to curb cravings and getting the metabolism boosted up a little earlier in the morning than usual.
We've also added a YMCA membership! Yes, the Navy has great gym facilities, but the classes and other offerings through the YMCA are great for me and it's nice for Prince Charming to get off base every once in a while, ya know?
I'm throwing a new format in here. It'll help us better track weekly goals and ENSURE a weekly post (at the very least). 

Due to some tweaked out measurements, Prince Charming has a 1 hour/day work out prescribed by the Navy, so he does a majority of his work outs on base. He's supplementing these with 1 workout/week with me at the YMCA on the weekends. He's seeing a lot of success, which I think is 80

As of October 1st, I'm starting the Galloway Training Method. It's a marathon training course that is supposed to help develop a steady pace using the Run/Walk Interval method. So that will be 3 days/week. I'm looking for a class at the YMCA I can add in during the off days. This will help me get out of the house, which will be especially valuable to my health and well-being while Prince Charming is at deployed. It's challenging for me to schedule classes at the moment because I rarely know when he's getting off work. I'm lucky to know 24 hours in advance. I generally know whether he'll need me there in the AM or the PM, but that's about it, so we may have to work out some transportation issues to make sure we both get what we need on this front, but I'm sure we'll figure it out.

So, yes, we're both still committed to good health - even though this blog as fallen by the wayside of late!

I think our biggest challenge is making sure we keep our dinners healthy. We're good at keeping breakfast healthy and well rounded. Lunch isn't too tempting for either of us - but when we are both tired and don't feel like cooking or cleaning, the options narrow significantly. And before you know it, dinner turns into an appetizer, entree, dessert, and alcoholic beverage. Ugh! Never go out to eat when you're starving and tired. That's NOT a good recipe for a special night out, but it's a sure-fire way to over-indulge and ruin a week full of hard work and good choices. So for next week, we'll aim to keep a wrap on that.

Without further ado... here's the weekly format! (Thanks Amanda!) We'll be updating it with weight along the way.

Goals for workouts this week:
Prince Charming - 6 work outs, no soda
Snow White - 6 work outs, 1 gallon of water/day
Our Goals - MODERATE eating out.

A Recap seeing how we did on our goals will be up next weekend!

Downward Trend! Let's Keep It Going!

I'm happy to announce that things are going much better here on the weight loss front. Last night we went for a walk I've been dying to do for a while. We walked to a nearby grocery store, about a mile away. That was round trip about 2 miles.

We've also been doing really great in creating low calorie, high nutrient dinners, and I've been getting off my duff and made working out a daily priority. In fact, I get excited about it now, and look forward to it all day.

I'm working around a broken toe/dislocated toe right now, so that makes working out regularly even more of a victory for me. Sean gets his work outs mostly through his work right now, but he'll occasionally go for walks and work out with me when he's home.

We're really looking forward to joining the local YMCA. I can't wait to have access to a lap pool - and go to some classes! They even have Triathlon training courses!

A New Weapon in our Arsenal!

Sean and I have a new weapon in our arsenal to fight fat.

Just Dance 2 for the Wii.

Neither Sean or I are dancers. I have some limited experience with jazz, tap, and choreography due to my involvement with musical theater, but Sean and I are neck and neck in a few of the songs.

The key is WHOLE BODY MOVEMENT. I honestly don't think you could excel at this or get any decent kind of score without doing a quite a bit of movement. "Jump Jump", "Rasputin", and "Body Movin'" are the best sweats we've discovered so far (but all of them will be stuck in your head too). "Hotsteppah'" is another fav and their techno dances require skill to get some of the robot-like movements down pat.

Check out promos and dances by players on Youtube.

Plenty of progress this week!

Hopefully more to come!