oh SNOW!!!!!

So, my Big Guy has to head in to work tonight. Actually, they're putting him up in a hotel around the corner so he can be there in the morning since the snow is supposed to be so bad but he's needed there.

In addition to making sure he has all the usual stuff packed (toothpaste, toothbrush, socks, etc) I made sure that he has the food that he needs to have with him. Luckily, most of his meals are prepped on Sunday when we do our bulk cooking for the week. All I needed to do was bag up his protein powders & creatine and put all this in our favorite (and sadly discontinued!!!) e-bags crew cooler.

In the bag is the following:
A.M. protein powder (2 scoops) + creatine
P.M. protein powder ( 1 scoop) + creatine
2 shaker bottle of milk to mix the shakes
Shredded wheat cereal
OJ
a mozzarella cheese stick
london broil & sweet potatoes with cinnamon & grass fed butter
grilled chicken breast
Knife, fork and 2 squares of 85% chocolate.


This is actually his normal day to day meal plan, not including dinner. (Except for the chocolate. You gotta have chocolate in an emergency, right? That's just there to show the love and make up for a small bit of the shoveling calories he's gonna burn off tomorrow!)

What have we learned here? If you plan ahead and follow through with making sure your needs are met you can face a minor change in plans, or a blizzard, with grace. If these meals weren't prepped ahead of time, we'd be running around here like crazy cooking and packing and I certainly wouldn't have time to do a blog post before he heads out the door!

So, think ahead and follow through. That's how great bodies are built!At last, a use for the giant Muscle Tech bag he got at Olympia!

(note: the Big Guy is NOT a paleo dude - please don't make remarks about the non-paleo foods he chooses to eat.)

How Eating at Home Can Save Your Life

I read a great article on the Huffington Post today. It really struck a nerve with me, since the Big Guy and i have been "complaining" to each other that since we eat so well and are both pretty darn good cooks - we now HATE going out to eat. It doesn't matter how fancy or plain the restaurant is.... we both end up feeling now so great or even flat out sick from eating food that isn't our own. We were wondering how bad people feel when all they do is eat out for every meal.... does it bother them? Are they affected? Do they not even notice that they feel bad because they ALWAYS feel like that? Is this one reason why every other commercial for drugs on TV is for some kind of stomach ailment? (Like that disgusting jingle for pepto? Yuck! " ... nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea!) So sad....

Please read the article here: How Eating at Home Can Save Your Life, by Mark Hyman.

(and for all you die hard paleo peeps - don't be alarmed by mention of beans, etc in the article. Look at the bigger picture, please!!)

US Wellness Meats

Santa gave me a bunch of money for Christmas this year, so I ordered a giant load of meat (beef, pork, chicken) and pemmican and pet burger for the pups from US Wellness Meats. Happily, it all arrived on my birthday (Yesterday!)
The Big Guy is getting me a small freezer for my birthday so, for now, half the meat is living in the freezer at my job until we can go to pick it up. (which entails me clearing a spot in the house for it)
Last night for dinner we had a stir fry of ground beef, cabbage, orange pepper, yellow onions, scallions, ginger and garlic. Delicious! Really, their ground beef is so... beefy and delicious. I think there's going to be some chicken & apple breakfast sausage made very soon.
I also cooked up a batch of the pet burger for the pups and they went MAD! It's very...liver-ish but they really loved it.

In sad news, my dove, Norman, who was well over 25 years old finally died. He'd been sick for weeks and weeks. I thought he was going to die then but I coddled him with lots o fresh cooked foods - sweet potatoes, kale, soaked & sprouted grains and cod liver oil. He seemed to be getting better (he started cooing and doing his little bird man dance again) but I guess he was just too old. He had a good life and I feel confident that I did the best that could be done for him in the end. Sigh. I haven't been without a bird in the house for just about as long as the Big Guy and I have been together. It's sort of weird to notice now how many small sounds they make, even when they're being quiet. Now the silence in the house is deafening.

Tomorrow my doggie daughter goes to the vet for her check up to see if she is still cancer free. I'm fairly confident but still nervous. Wish us luck!

Catching up 12/2010 to present!

Blessed Solstice! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Oh....wait a minute... Did I miss all of that? Yup. Sorry about that.
I guess I got so caught up in he season I just never had time to post here.

Where to begin? It's taken about a month to recover from the Thanksgiving gluten exposure. I'm just now starting to feel better. That Thanksgiving debacle really made the Big Guy and I much more conscious of our food choices over the rest of the holidays, so we had no more bad episodes. Even The Aunt-in law was supportive and cooked up a gluten free feast that rocked. In fact, she went gluten free for the month of January, just to try it out and see if it helps her out. Huzzah!

Our usual junk food infested New Year's Eve was replaced with all home cooked, paleo treats: beef meat balls with fresh basil, garlic and home made sauce; skinless gyoza (pork dumplings) a la Mark's Daily Apple (there's a video of the recipe on youtube, just seach for 'skinless gyoza') and bacon wrapped chicken thigh pieces with honey mustard dipping sauce. Some hard cider for me to wash it all down. The Big Guy had 1 can of Coca Cola. He gave that up entirely this past year, so that was a huge treat for him.

We both felt great the next day, instead of bloated, gassy, tired and achy. So we hit they gym together and had a fantastic training session.

Also, I reached my goal for the 2010. I had decided at the beginning of the year that I'd shoot for a 1,000 lb leg press. I did a 1,038 lb press on December 19th! Whoot! Actually, I did a set of 10 presses. So happy! Then the Big Guy decide he should do a set also, and he did! Amazing!