What if I can't do this? (How To Get Out Of A Rut)

Today I got scared.  I felt doubt creep into my mind.  I felt that pit of fear in my core and I felt frozen with a question I can never answer in these moments.... "what if".

I was at a ladies gathering when the subject of Paleo came up.  One of my new acquaintances had read an article on the subject and, like most people who initially hear about the lifestyle, had her judgements about it.  She said something along the lines of "Just you wait! Once you have kids all that effort to live healthy and paleo will fly out the window and convenience will rule".  I joked with everyone about it, but inside I felt that pit in the bottom of my stomach growing.... What if she's right?

At this moment I lead a life of leisure compared to my usual schedule.  My husband and I are stationed in a location for 6 short months before we move on to our next duty station, so I have made little effort to busy myself with full time training clients, fitness classes, and work in general.  I'm a stay at home mom with no kids... haha!  It's wonderful and I know it!

That all being said, I still have lazy days where I would rather go get chicken nuggets (ew, I know) over cooking myself something for lunch.  I wish I could just throw a PB/Jelly sandwich in Jese's lunchbox.  I will go an entire week where I eat processed sugar on a daily basis.  I am far from a perfect Paleo princess friends and am the first to admit it.  I seem to go in waves... three weeks of perfection... one week of debauchery.  I "periodize" my paleo eating! LOL (only my trainer friends will get that joke).

Getting Back To The Point
When my new friend said that about "just you wait till the kids come" I started doubting myself.  If I have an entire week of poor food choices while leading this extremely leisurely life, what will I be like when I truly am stressed with school, a full client/class schedule, and a kid.  Will I say "F - it!  Here's some Cheerio's Boy"!  Will I end up conveniently forgetting everything I've learned over the last two years of my paleo journey?  Will I have the dedication, and motivation to prepare my sons "first foods" rather than buy commercial baby food?  Will I set a good, CONSISTENT example for my son?

Quit Being A Negative Nelly
No I am not going to be a Debbie Downer this whole post.  To help myself get out of this fearful thinking/feeling I am going to write about what I normally do to get myself out of these ruts... in hopes it will shake me out of this one! :D  Realize I write half of these blogs because I need to hear my advice much more than anyone else does!

When I start to feel these "what if" fears, something has to be done to get me out of it.  One of the most effective ways to get myself out is to get NEW motivation.  Motivation can be elusive.  I heard it said that motivation is like a shower... You must get it daily for it to be effective.  It's so true!  We get fired up about getting healthy from some external source (a quote, an event, a friend getting her butt in shape, etc) and we set out to make change happen in our lives.  Eventually, though, whatever got us fired up in the first place fades.  To keep going we have to find more things to motivate us.

What Lights Your Fire?
What motivates me seems to be education.  Education, and frienemies getting in better shape than me!  LOL =P  If I don't continue to search out and read up on clean eating and exercising the years of knowledge accumulated previously gets stored in the back of my brain to lay dormant and get dusty.  Here are a few places I get motivation from.  They are busy mom's who don't let convenience decide how healthy they are going to be.  They don't FIND time to prepare healthy meals for their families, they MAKE time.  

• Christina is a new mom who writes about her struggles and successes of raising her first child in a clean eating way.  I like her because she is witty in her writing and has a ton of info in her pretty little head!
• Peggy not only has an amazingly informative and helpful blog of her own, she has a great article packed with her list of fav paleo and/or parenting blogs!  Check it out!  The list is extensive and introduced me to a lot of brand new blogs I'd never heard of. 
• Check out Sarah, author of Everyday Paleo cookbook.  She's like a super-human!  Mother of three, published author, crossfit enthusiast, and regularly posts stuff on her blog. 

Don't Forget To Remind Me
Another thing that helps kick me out of my rut is to REMIND myself that I plan to change.  Have you ever "forgotten" to change?  "Oh yea... I forgot, I was going to look up a new recipe to try tomorrow night", "oh yea... I forgot, I was going to skip my starbucks trip this morning".  Sometimes our habits are hard to break, not because we lack will power, but because we get busy and forget!  To combat this I write my intentions/plans down on post-its to remind myself to do them.  At one point I had more post-its on my walls/mirrors/car dash than friends on Facebook.  =P

It Takes Two To Tango and Sometimes Three!

My sister & I finishing our 1st Half Marathon!

A generic tip that seems to always work for me is to have a partner to change with.  No matter what my goal is (eating better, exercising, getting an educational book read, etc) if I have a buddy or two to hold me accountable I ALWAYS follow through.  I would never skip out on my workout buddy who gets to the gym at 5am expecting me to be there with her!  I think twice before stopping for fast food rather than cooking when I know I'll have to tell my buddy what I did.  Having a partner who wants to make change in their life just as much, or more than I do has always helped me stay on a linear path towards my goal.

I Accidentally Lost 50#'s!
Lastly, I know it's another generic tip, but it's another MUST for success.  We must prepare!  No one ever "accidentally" eats a perfectly clean diet, makes their own baby food, gets their Masters degree with a full time job and 3 kids, or loses 50#'s.  You can't hop on the highway and wish your way to San Diego and make it there.  You have to plan your route.

How do we plan?  Ask yourself this:
What is my long term (12 month) goal?
What is the half way mark to that goal (this is your 6 month goal)?
What do you need to do each month to reach the 6 month goal?
What do you need to do each week to reach your 1 month goal?
What do you need to do each day to reach your weekly goal?

CONSISTENT daily action is the only thing that will keep us heading in the right direction.  It helps if your goals are specific rather than general though (i.e. I want to eat 100% Paleo 6 days a week VS I want to eat a cleaner diet.  OR.... I want to lose 50lbs by July 1 2013 VS I want to lose weight).  For me, my goal is to stay more consistent with my paleo eating.  A day or two of botched eating is fine... a week is no bueno!  My goal can be to eat 100% Paleo 6 days week.  To accomplish that on a daily basis I know I will need to cook dinner 6 days a week (If I cook extra I can get away with serving left overs 1-3x too to lighten the load).  Although I have TONS of recipes accumulated I need new ones to keep my motivation up.  So on Sundays I will google some recipes or look through my cookbooks for new ones to try.  Make my menu for the week, make my grocery list, and be set up for success for the week.  Easy Peasy!!! :D

Get The Stick Out Of Your Butt
My last piece of advice I need to hear (and you may need to hear too) is lighten up!  In my short journey in life thus far, I've realized that I am not perfect... I know! Shocker!  Nor will I ever be perfect.  My motivation, inspiration, and dedication will ebb and flow.  I will not be the perfect paleo parent.  I will probably eat chicken nuggets in the future, and may even feed my son them.  I will order Domino's and eat the crap out of that cheesy bread.  The best advice I can give myself in these moments of fearing the "what if's" is to lighten up!  Keep learning... Keep growing... Keep going!  Life goes on.

Why I've Hired a Doula & Preparing For D-Day

INFORMATION PROVIDED BY www.donna.org:

A "doula" is a professionally trained birthing coach.  The word "doula" comes from ancient Greek meaning "a woman who serves".  Doula's are trained to provide continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to mothers before, during and just after birth.  "Studies have shown that when doulas attend birth, labors are shorter with fewer complications, babies are healthier and they breastfeed more easily."

Why I've Hired A Doula

The main reason I've decided to hire a doula is that I will be PCSing (relocating) to Ft Bragg North Carolina when I am 8 months pregnant.  I plan to deliver at Womack Army Community Hospital which has anywhere between 8-12 providers (doctors) and 6-10 midwives.  I've heard Womack described as "an assembly line of births" because of the large population at Bragg.  This doesn't seem so far fetched because, lets be honest,  us military folk are really good at two things:  Blowing stuff up, and reproducing!  ;-)  Due to the large amount of providers at Womack I will probably have a stranger delivering my son.  There is no way to meet every provider and midwife before the birth.  Hiring a doula from the area will ensure I have a professional by my side who knows my fears, my history, my hopes for the birth, my preferences, and has an established relationship with me.  This will help me relax and allow my son to come as quickly as he'd like to.

Check out this great video my Doula sent me on the benefits of having continuous support during D-Day:

Fear

My biggest fear is not the pain of labor, but that unnecessary medical intervention will be performed which can have repercussions throughout my labor, the rest of my life, and even worse, can effect my son negatively (see video below "Avoid Unnecessary Interventions").  Our bodies are designed to do this.  Any intervention (small or large) could have consequences immediately or down the road for mother or baby.  I pray I will have an uneventful birth and can bring him into this world naturally, but am also learning as much as I can about what could need to be done in the event of an emergency.  Having my doula there will help me make INFORMED decisions about medical intervention if the situation presents itself.  She may also know of natural alternatives that I am not familiar with.  She will NOT replace sound medical advice in the event of an emergency, but she WILL add more to my "bag of tricks/tools" to make the day more comfortable for my husband and me. 

Another perk of having my doula present is the "safety blanket" for my husband.  Although he will be my "head coach", having an "assistant coach" there will help him relax knowing that he has back up, doesn't have to remember EVERYTHING we've learned from our birthing classes, and has someone who can step in if multiple people are needed to support me in different ways (or if he needs a break).  He is probably MORE nervous about D-Day than I am, and has repeatedly volunteered to go through the pain for me.  Which I have graciously said "Okay" to! Ha! I wish! :-D  Having our Doula present will give him the added confidence that together we will be able to do this.  Having her there will take stress off of both of us so we can enjoy the birth of our first child and strengthen our bond as husband and wife even more.

Finding A Doula

I got a list of Doula's in the Fayetteville area from my Bradley Method Of Natural Childbirth instructor.  I contacted all of the ladies and did several phone interviews (googling "questions to ask during a Doula interview" to help me conduct the interview), and decided on one who I felt most connected and in tune with.  She is well educated, has lots of experience, and is supportive of my choice of natural birth.  She has also taught me a lot since hiring her.  She's answered endless amounts questions, and is my "go to gal" for credible information.  Google is great, but you never know how credible the info is.  She's been a wonderful addition to my "birth team" already, and I haven't even given birth yet!  

Show Me The Money!!! 

Since insurance usually doesn't cover the cost of hiring a doula I was a bit worried about how much it would be.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the ladies I interviewed worked on a "sliding scale".  There was a very reasonable base line cost ($200 for my doula), and then another payment of anywhere between $100-500 due upon birth depending on how much my husband and I can afford.  My doula gave us the option of making payments at our convenience.  After speaking with the ladies about payment all of them ended the conversation with telling me that if finances were the ONLY thing keeping us from hiring her that she would work with us to find a cost that fits our budget.  WOW!  These ladies are truly doing their work for the betterment of their clients vs. to make a living.  I was very impressed. 

Training For The D-Day (insert Eye Of The Tiger music)

On a different note, after speaking with many moms I've realized that a lot of woman don't do much to prepare for the big day.  That surprises me.  Maybe my HUGE fear of this major event has made me more information hungry than most, but like I've said in past posts, I look at the labor/birth process as the most physically and emotionally demanding event in my life.  Just as an athlete would train for an Ironman race, I am going to train for my sons birth.  There are a lot of things you can do to help condition your body and mind for it.  Most of the exercises make me look ridiculous and have given my husband endless amounts of laughter, but by golly, I'm gonna pelvic rock till the cows come home if it will help this boy get out easier!  :-P

This is an amazing compilation of real woman speaking of their personal experiences.  "Birth doesn't have to happen to you".  Get as much info as you can to prepare for one of the most important days of your life.  From lamaze.org.

The following are videos my doula sent me (see full site here) in order of how labor progresses.  They are great snip-pits of information and are about 2 - 3 minutes in length.  I hope if you are pregnant (or planning to have children in the future) that these videos will "wet your appetite" for more information on the subject.  You can prepare for this.  You can train your body for this.  You don't have to be a patient in a hospital... Birth doesn't have to "happen" to you.  You can be a participant of your child's birth. You have the chance to make it a beautiful and wonderful experience rather than a horror story. (Of course I say all of that without actually having ever experienced it (haha), but I've read inspiring stories of others who have achieved beautiful births that have given me hope of following suit.) 

INTRO: Safe and Healthy Birth

Let Labor Begin On Its Own

Walk, Move, and Change Positions

Avoid Unnecessary Interventions

Get Upright and Follow Urges To Push

Keep Your Baby With You

http://www.lamaze.org/PushForYourBaby-Video

D.A.R.E To Keep Kids Off Drugs (for heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer)!

Ohhhhhh I'm SASSY today!! I normally keep my sassy comments in my head (other than when I am talking to my husband of course) but today I had a hole in my brain-to-mouth filter and let one slip out.  I was picking up my refill of the standard prenatal vitamin from the pharmacy today when the lovely woman helping me started going into the schpeal of how to take it and possible side effects.  She said "Now it has a little more iron in it which can cause constipation in the majority of those taking it, so if you experience that just call your doctor and have him prescribe you a stool softener and that will keep you regular".  My reply... "(insert little laugh) Yeah... Because I couldn't possibly just eat more vegetables and water right?" I was met with silence and a confused look from the lady so I quickly said thank you and left.

Okay okay, so it wasn't SUPER sassy.  I'm sure my husband would agree I've said sassier, but those types of things get under my skin and hopefully my passionate feelings of negative judgement for the general medical practices of this nation didn't make the woman feel badly about trying to help in the only way she probably knew how.  See, now I feel bad.  Oie... My conscious is too big!

TOUGH QUESTIONS:
Anyway!  I'd like you to ask yourself this:  How much medicine do I take on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?  How much medicine do I give my children?  Is the medicine for chronic (long term) ailments, or for acute (short term)?  Are you taking any medication to treat side-effects of other medication?

DON'T GET YOUR PANTIES ALL IN A BUNCH:
Now don't get me wrong, I believe that medicine/drugs have a place in this crazy world of ours... but what I believe is that it is a VERY SPECIFIC place.  Anyone who has an ailment or disease that medical intervention is absolutely necessary is excluded from this blog post so stop getting all huffy puffy about your personal situation with necessary medication.  I'm not talking to you.  I do not condemn the use of medication... I condemn the OVER use of medication when it's not solving anything... when it's masking symptoms rather than solving the problem!

U.S. culture today would have you believe that medicine is the CURE.  Most of the time guys... IT'S NOT!  It is a symptom reducer.  It does not fix the actual CAUSE of the problem... rather it minimizes the EFFECTS of the cause.  Kapeesh?  I've said it once, I'll say it again:

FOOD is the purest form of medicine for our bodies... 

and can also be the slowest poison! 

Our bodies will "put up with" a lot before finally breaking down.  We are truly miraculous beings... but eventually, our bodies can't heal the damage done by the foods we eat day in and day out, and that is when disease occurs.  It's a tough lesson to learn because our choices don't affect us now.  They may affect us 5 years, 10 years, or even 50 years down the road.  We think we are young and invincible, until we're diagnosed with diabetes and high blood pressure when we are in our 30's.  Enter medication!!!  Yay! I can still eat ice cream and use my medication to control my broken body!

Eating Poorly Is Like Using Dial Up Internet

I'll wrap this up... Not convinced eating crap out of a box with added chemicals, fake sugars, and mystery ingredients is bad?  Think of it like this:
If we don't eat what happens?  We die, right?  So eating is a pretty important part of life, wouldn't you say?  If food is so important to life why do we treat eating healthy as an option rather than a necessity?  Food is what our body runs off of.  It is our gasoline.  Eating poorly is like trying to surf the internet on dial up.  "OH DEAR BABY JESUS JUST LOAD THE DARN PAGE ALREADY!!!!!!!"  Its just not that effective.  Sure, you can facebook with dial up, but its not going to be very enjoyable.  Sure, your body can fuel its cells, repair the damage, and continue working with poor food choices... But it's just not that effective.  Eventually you will throw your lap top against the wall and call to upgrade your internet....  Eventually your body will break down and something will manifest (disease/sickness).

So rather than medicate the effects of a problem when it finally manifests... why don't you solve it by putting down the activia, and sugar free ice cream, and eat a darn apple!  Start feeding your body properly so that true healing can occur and eventually your medication is no longer required.

Label for Low Fat Activia - I count THREE different types of sugar.  Aspartame, Fructose, and Sucralose.  Seriously... THIS is supposed to be better than a REAL piece of fruit?  Oh but look at all that fiber to keep you regular!  A whopping THREE GRAMS!! Hot Damn! It's a SUPER FOOD!  (Barf!)

  

Things That Tick Me Off!!!!

This post is categorized as "random rant".  You've been warned.

Pet Peeve #1:  

"Poor Mrs Military wife... You have the hardest job in the military"

Oh that saying gets under my skin.  Really... Being a military spouse is the "hardest job in the military"?  Really?  No friend... no it's not.  I stay home surrounded (or at least a plane flight away) from my family who can hold me, call me whenever I want, and support me while my husband is living in a shack in 110 degree weather, "hoping" the random mortars that get shot over the base walls don't actually hit anything (aka HIM while he sleeps).  I get to hold my child every day (well I will when he is born).  Get to celebrate his birthdays.  Get to snuggle.  And yes, even get to drag him out of the commissary kicking and screaming because I wouldn't buy him cheetos.  Even the latter is a blessing in my husbands eyes, because at least I am there!

Yes, I move every 2-3 years.  Yes, I have to essentially start from scratch in my career/job every time I move.  Yes, I am often far away from my hometown.  Yes, the pay doesn't always cover EVERYTHING I could possibly want.  Yes, when living on base I usually wake up to the sound of soldiers singing cadence at 5am. Yes, the military is not just a job, but a complete lifestyle.  But my "job" as a military spouse doesn't hold a candle to the actual job of military members.  I am blessed beyond measure and am so grateful there are men/women that are willing to volunteer to serve our country because frankly, I am too scared to.  I am glad they have enough guts, pride, and sense of duty to make the leap into the unknown.  My job is not hard.  I get to love and support a man I believe in.  A man I look up to.  A man that loves me enough to sacrifice so many things for me.  I am blessed.  My job is not hard.

Pet Peeve #2:  You're Pregnant!  

NOW is the one time in life you can eat whatever you want!!! 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  If one more person tells me that I am going to start swinging!  When pregnant our bodies are insulin resistant... we are essentially fat storing machines for 9 straight months!  AND what we eat directly influences the ENTIRE LIFE of the baby inside us.  Maternal nutrition and health has been linked to childrens' body fat throughout life, immune system function throughout life, and emotional/behavioral disorders throughout life.  This is NOT the time to eat whatever we want!  This is the time to eat only good stuff to 1) not gain a million pounds that we will then have to work years to lose when the baby is out, and 2) give our children the best start in life!  

Pet Peeve #3:  Oh you're pregnant?  Don't run, lift weights, get your heart rate up, bike, row, walk, lunge, or sweat! 

Labor/Delivery:  It's like giving a person who can't swim (and is quite terrified of the deep end) nine months notice before being pushed into the pool without a lifeguard.... I guarantee that person is going to take those nine months to learn to swim right?!?!  Why is labor/deliver so different in our culture?  We think pregnancy is an excuse to get lazy and eat junk.  Pregnancy is a nine month warning before the most physically demanding event of your life will happen.  Personally, I'm doing anything and everything in my power to prepare for this event (physically, emotionally, spiritually).  I couldn't possibly run a marathon without months of training before hand... the same goes for labor!

A Weeks Worth Of Paleo Dinners

My husband takes leftovers to work everyday and told me he was "the envy of all the other guys" because of all the yummy food he brings for lunch.  He then told me he gloated that his wife makes him breakfast, and packs his lunch for him every morning.  Just telling me that renewed my enthusiasm for taking care of him in this way.  (Mind you, it's taken me 7 years to teach myself how to cook, and to care enough to actually help Jese eat well outside of the house! lol Four years ago I would have laughed at him for asking me to pack his lunch for him!) Isn't it funny how something so small as complimenting me in front of others makes the inconvenience all worth while?  If men only knew it took so little to make us happy...  :-)

So anyway!  I've been on a roll with my meal prep this week and wanted to give you my menu to try in your house.  All are 95-100% Paleo:

MONDAY: Easy Taco Salad
Ingredients -

• 1# Ground Bison (you can also use beef)
• 1 Pack Taco Seasoning*
• Baby Spinach (enough for 2-3 salads)
• Salad Toppings - I like red/yellow/orange bell peppers, and onion (fresh)

Guacamole Dressing:

• 2-3 Avocado's**
• Garlic Powder to taste
• Lime Juice to taste
• Sea Salt to taste

*Taco Seasoning - this is a convenience item that is not 100% paleo... I look in the spice isle and compare all of the taco seasoning packets available and choose the "most paleo" one.  It usually means the one that has the most recognizable spices, no chemicals I can't pronounce, and sugar (which is the non-paleo ingredient).  You can easily mix your own, but life is busy and this is a convenience item I allow every once in a while)
**Avocado - Usually you can get away with 1/2 an avocado per person as a guacamole topping but since I am preggo I need more fat for baby's brain development and get to eat as much as I want!!! :D SCORE!

PROCESS:

• Brown bison in a skillet
• Add in Taco Seasoning with 3/4 cups water.  Bring water to a boil then turn down heat and simmer until water is almost completely evaporated.
• While meat is browning/simmering, cut up bell peppers and onions
• To make the guac, cut up as many avocado as you would like to use (again I do about 1 per person, but 1/2 per person is more of a non-preggo serving size).  Place avocado meat in a small dish and mash with a fork.  Add in Garlic Powder, Lime Juice, and Sea Salt to taste (add a little at a time as to not over do it!).
• Top baby spinach with fresh cut peppers/onions, taco meat, and guac.

ENJOY!

TUESDAY: Agave Grilled Chicken with Citrus Mint Salsa
Agave Grilled Chicken with Citrus Mint Salsa... YUMMM!!!!
RECIPE: INGREDIENTS:
2 large oranges
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
½ cup chopped Italian parsley
2 green onions, finely sliced
3 Tbsp. mint, chopped
2 Tbsp. capers, rinsed, drained and coarsely chopped
2 Tbsp. orange zest
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
Sea salt/ground black pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2-3 Tbsp. Amber agave nectar


CITRUS MINT SALSA:
Chop up oranges into small chunks. Place in medium bowl. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, green onions, mint, capers, orange zest, lemon zest, and red pepper flakes. Toss lightly and season with salt and pepper to tastes. Set Aside.


AGAVE GRILLED CHICKEN:
Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat. Brush the grilling rack with olive oil so the chicken will not stick to it. Brush the chicken on both sides with the agave nectar and season with salt and pepper to tastes. Grill chicken until done. Spoon salsa over chicken.





WEDNESDAY: Strawberry Bacon Chicken Salad
Serves 2 with chicken left over
Ingredients:

• 1/2 - 1 bag of Baby Spinach
• 3-4 chix breast
• 2 cups Chicken Broth
• Salt/Pepper to taste
• 1 container of fresh strawberries
• 1/2 red onion
• 4-6 strips bacon per salad (no nitrate bacon... nitrates act like a carcinogen in your body.  Look at the ingredient label to see if your bacon has it.  Usually health food stores sell no nitrates bacon)
• Slivered almonds
• Strawberry Vinaigrette (or any dressing of choice.  I use a store bought one I found with no high fructose corn syrup and only ingredients I could recognize as real food!)

PROCESS:

• In a covered skillet cook chicken breasts on med/high heat in a shallow pool of chicken broth (to keep them from drying out).  Add salt pepper to taste.
• I turn the chicken over every 4-5 minutes.  It usually takes 15-20 minutes to cook but my grocery store only sells REALLY thick breasts so just cut into the breasts periodically to check if it is done.
• While chicken is cooking, also cook the bacon.
• While chicken and bacon are cooking cut up strawberries, and red onion, throw in individual salad bowls with baby spinach.
• Once chicken and bacon are done, cut them up and toss into salad.
• Top each salad with slivered almonds and a small amount of dressing.

Use the leftover chicken tomorrow to make the same salad for lunch! :D Yummmm!

THURSDAY: Coconut Crusted Shrimp

• 1 lb large shrimp, tail on peeled and deveined
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 Tbs Mrs Dash Southwest Chipolte
• 1 Tbs Garlic Powder 
• 3 egg whites
• 2 cups coconut flakes

PROCESS:  Pre heat oven to 400. In a mixing bowl, stir together the coconut flour, salt, and cayenne pepper. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy.  In another bowl, pour the coconut flakes.  Taking one shrimp at a time, dry well with a paper towel and dredge each shrimp in the coconut flour mixture, dip into the egg whites and then roll into the coconut flakes.  Bake on a lightly greased (with coconut oil) baking sheet for 12- 15 minutes or until the shrimp are pink and the coconut flakes start to brown.

FRIDAY: Chicken Salad
This is another 95% paleo recipe.  There are ways to make paleo mayonaise for chicken salad, but I've tried it a few times over the last year and it just takes WAY to freaking long!  So I just buy the Olive Oil mayo in the jar.  If you look at the ingredients they usually list canola or soybean oil before the olive oil so you know they use more of the first than last in the recipe.  Oh well! Also a lot of the recipe is not exact measurements.  Just put in however much you like and taste test as you go.

Ingredients:

• 3-5 chix breasts
• approx 2 cups chicken stock
• garlic powder/salt/pepper to taste
• appox 1-2 cups mayonaise 
• approx 1-2 tsp honey mustard (I buy in a jar and check the ingredients for any chemicals or mystery items)
• 1 cup craisins or raisins or both
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans or both

Process:

• In a large skillet put chicken breasts, chicken stock, and garlic powder/salt/pepper together and heat to a boil.
• Once boiling, turn down to a high simmer and flip chicken periodically until they are cooked all the way through (usually 8-15 minutes depending on how think your breasts are). 
• Drain skillet and remove chicken and place in large mixing or salad bowl. 
• Shred chicken (I use my pampered chef lettuce scissors which are AWESOME for shredding meat)
• Now from here on out its up to you how much of the ingredients you want to put in the mix.  I usually use a small jar (approx 1 cup) of mayo for 5-6 breasts (but I like my salad a little bit dry so you  may want more).  
• Add in 1-2 tsp honey mustard - Dont add too much, it will ruin the salad unless you REALLY like mustard. 
• After mixing the mayo/mustard in,  add a little salt/pepper, and then stir in as many craisins/raisins/walnuts as you like... I like A LOT!   

I will pile the chicken salad on top of a big bowl of baby spinach, and fresh strawberries for a great dinner or lunch! 

Ahhhhh!!!! Don't get your nutrition info from companies trying to sell you something Mom!

The more I grow as a fitness and health professional the more I am enraged (yes, enraged) by the messages the public receives from the media and advertisements.  There is so much conflicting information out there that none of us stand a chance of knowing what is and what is not healthy.  Most of this conflicting info comes from advertisements for products the company is trying to get you to buy.  So moral of the story... if something is trying to be sold, the "credible" research it is boasting about is probably not that credible at all.

Exhibit A:  

Corn Sugar or Cane Sugar: Body Can't Tell The Difference

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA (okay you get the idea)- 

This drives me INSANE!!!  There IS a difference between High Fructose Corn Syrup and Cane Sugar.  HFCS is created in a lab.  There is nothing natural about it.  Fructose, although found in fruits and vegetables, is very dangerous in its unnatural forms and in high doses.  "A recent USDA report found that the average American eats 152 pounds of sugar each year, including almost 64 pounds of HFCS (Kresser, 2012)".  The problem with fructose is that the body does not treat it like natural sugar.  Rather than being delivered into the bloodstream and then taken into the cell with the help of the hormone insulin, fructose goes straight to the liver to be converted to fat (usually deposited around the mid-section).  The body treats fructose as if it were a toxin like alcohol.  AKA Your body treats it like poison because it IS in fact poison.  (Kresser, 2012)  So why is this important for preggos?  1) Whether you are preggo or not HFCS is BAD, poison, toxic for your body.  2) HFCS, and any sugar at that, crosses the placenta and enters your growing baby's body.  So not only are we poisoning ourselves, adding to our own midsection inches, and increasing our chance of developing diabetes (gestational and Type 2), obesity, heart disease, auto immune disorders, cancer, etc...... But we are ALSO poisoning our growing babies.  Enough said.

Hungry for more sugar education? Watch this:

Onto Exhibit B: 

Grain = Healthy - I call Bull Sh..!!!  

Ugh... this one is the worst I've seen thus far.  It truly plays to our "common sense" and to our own frustration with not knowing what is and what is not healthy.  They then insert their product at the end to help you come to the conclusion that their Grain is truly Great!  Oh they also have very tall, skinny model types telling you all of this... insert subliminal message of "eat this cereal and you will grow ten inches and drop 30lbs".

The next post I am going to write is about Grain and Soy (the two most toxic "health foods" out there).  I'll touch on grain just a little now.

Grain, like all living creatures, is equipped with a means for survival and reproduction.  Humans can run away from their predators, blueberries can be eaten and get their seeds deposited back into the earth in warm fertilizer to grow more blueberries, but grains can neither run nor be pooped out knowing that the next generation will live on.  When eaten they are destroyed.  Their plot against their predators?  Destroy the predator from the inside out.   They do this in multiple ways:  Upon consumption they produce toxins that damage the lining of the gut of whatever ate them.  These toxins then bind to the good nutrients we eat making them unavailable for our body to absorb.  Lastly they rip up our intestinal tract to leave lasting damage and make it harder for future nutrients (like protein) to get in.   Think of grain like a steel bristled grill brush scraping the insides of your intestines.  Yup.  Sounds fun!  But wait, I eat grain at every meal Cassandra and I feel fine?  I double dog dare you friend to take out all grain based products from your diet for a month.   30 days.  Thats all.  Then have a bowl of your favorite cereal.  The horrible pain that will ensue will show you just how much damage those toxins are doing to you.  Since most of us have eaten grain/flour based foods since infancy we do not realize the damage being done because we've always lived with it. 30 days.... I dare you.

Obviously this is dangerous for anyone and everyone, but it goes without saying that when growing a human your body and baby needs all the good nutrients it can get.  If our GI tract is damaged taking the time to put thought into what we eat for us and baby is a little silly since a lot of the good nutrients aren't able to pass through the damage and get into our systems.   Wait Cassandra!  Did you just tell me that since I don't want to give up my honey nut cheerios that I can eat crap all day because even if I ate the good stuff it wouldn't get in?  No friends, I am not saying that.  I am trying to make the point that this "health food" is not so healthy, and in the history of mankind has never been consumed in the amounts that our modern society consumes it (well maybe except for medieval times and I dont know about you but rickets, the plague, and God knows what else does not sound like a good time to relive in human history.  Their sickness was not about unsanitary conditions but mostly about a failure to thrive from the poor quality calories being consumed when replacing a hunter gatherer diet with the "civilized" farmers diet of that time.)

(On Guard!)

Modern food pyramid diets of 5-7 portions of "healthy" grains does not equal looking like a model in a field of wheat! It equals modern diseases in our later years.  So if you don't want a side of cancer with your Cheerios you might want to read more on this crazy Paleo thing we're all talking about!!

Don't listen to these commercials friends.  They are full of it.  They are sleezy car salesman dressed up like a handsome dad or mom.  The devil shows himself in the cover of beauty and pleasure.  Don't believe what he says!  (Yes I just called these companies the devil lol)

Here is a very pleasurable recipe that the devil has not touched:

Pineapple-Glazed Chicken Skewers - 

"Make It Paleo" Cookbook

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup pineapple diced
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 TBSP ginger, minced
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 TBSP cilantro minced (I didn't add this in)
• 3 chicken breasts
• 3 cups pineapple cut into chunks

PROCESS:

• Combine diced pineapple, olive oil, garlic, ginger, lemon juice, and salt in a small bowl
• Puree mixture in a blender or food processor
• Pour back into the small mixing bowl and stir in the minced cilantro
• Set mixture aside to use as a glaze during grilling
• Preheat grill to medium-high heat (we don't have a grill so I used a broiling pan and broiled the skewers in my oven)
• Skewer pieces of chicken and pineapple on metal or presoaked bamboo skewers
• Grill skewers for 12-15 minutes (or until chicken is done), turning every 4 minutes
• Each time you turn the skewer brush them with the pineapple glaze (I practically drowned my skewers in the glaze because I had so much of it!)

Be prepared for awesome in your mouth! Yummmm!



Kresser, C. (2012). 9 Steps to Perfect Health. 

Delayed Umbilical Cord Clamping: Beneficial or Doesn't Matter

I know this isn't Paleo but it goes along with the "primal" way of doing things.

Here is a very simple explanation of why not cutting the umbilical cord right away is beneficial to baby:

I also thought this next video was interesting.  It's 15min long so here are some good points he makes if you don't want to watch the whole thing:

The umbilical cord is the baby's oxygen source inside the mom.  As long as the placenta is attached oxygen rich blood is still being delivered to the baby and breathing solely through the respiratory system (lungs) is not a necessity.  By cutting the cord while it is still filled with blood (pulsating) we are cutting the primary oxygen source that the infant has been relying on for 9 months and forcing them to breath on their own.  Main question to ask yourself is why would the risk of cutting off an oxygen source to your baby be created if there is no benefit or reason to cut the cord immediately?  Obviously some high risk situations need the baby rushed to a different location for treatment, and that would constitute a reason to cut off the oxygen source.

The main point is:  "We are the only animals that do this (cut the cord right away).  I would claim that we don't do it because we really think that it is a good idea or that we have any conscious thought that we really need to cut the umbilical cord right away.  I think we do it because it's just a development of our technology...  I think if you go back a few hundred years there wasn't a pediatrician there.  There was a mother, there was a blanket, there was a breast, and the baby was born put on the mothers belly and there was no real reason to cut the umbilical cord right away.  But now we have a warmer, we have nurses, we have all kinds of things and it seems convenient to just clamp the cord, get the baby off to the warmer and people don't really think about it." Dr. Fogelson

If there is no advantage to cutting the cord right away... why not leave it alone until all of the blood, oxygen, stem cells, and nutrients are delivered to the baby and breathing through the respiratory system has had a long period of time to be practiced and established.

Here is another (shorter) video on the same subject: