Sunday, December 30, 2012

30 Day Paleo Challenge: Starting January 1

Hi everyone. There will be typos in this I'm sure because it's late and I'm trying to post as much as I can before church and being busy tomorrow sorry/not sorry :). This post will hopefully help you get started on your 30 day journey. First let me say that I recommend you do it for 30 days without cheating AT ALL and after that if you enjoy it you can incorporate your cheat must have items here and there. If you can do it for 30 days you can do it for life so don't cheat yourself by cheating. You want to know how your body responds so you can say that it really worked or didn't work or that you hate it or love it. The trick is finding what works for you without feeling like you are missing out on something or going overboard. Also make sure you get some physical activity in 3-5 days a week. I say cardio at least 30 minutes or more combined with some kind of strength training. That can be home workouts Zumba jogging walking whatever. DO SOMETHING! I have weave and a full time job and I still workout lol. Seriously though it is diet AND exercise. One or the other without the combination doesn't give you the best results. You will feel better if you move and do something. With that said here are my tips based on my experiences. Please feel free to venture out and find what you feel is helpful for you.


HELPFUL WEBSITES:

www.tinaturbin.com (She makes AMAZING paleo and gluten free foods and she is super sweet and awesome. You can also follow her on instagram. Her name there is paeloglutenfreerecipes)

nomnompaleo.com (She is also awesome. Some non paleo items in there but still helpful overall and very creative. She is also going to be posting recipes I think daily to help people who are starting this January 1. I just looked at her blog today and yep still delicious. The first few things I made and tried were from her website (egg muffins and spaghetti squash)

google.com (Seriously, if you are not sure if it's paleo... google it. If you have items in your pantry and not sure what to make, google it. If you have an idea of some foods you want to combine...google it...if... okay you get the point right :)) 
 

HELPFUL BOOKS:

I haven't bought any as yet but I have heard good things about these two books (Amazon). 

The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordein, Ph.D.
and
Everyday Paleo


HELPFUL APPS:

Instagram (I have gotten inspired just from typing #paleo and seeing what people posted that they were currently eating. You can always get inspired from a picture and some people are nice enough to share their recipes)

Myfitnesspal (I used this when I was calorie counting but when I started paleo I used it not so much to keep track of my calorie intake but the amount of sodium and protein I was consuming. with paleo you are generally lower in sodium since you are only technically allowed to use sea salt and you are not using a lot of processed foods that have a lot of sodium in them to keep them preserved. Not mandatory but its nice to see how what you are consuming is affecting your weight and energy etc.)

GET A FOOD PROCESSOR:
(not required) You can find a cheap one on Amazon and make yummy desserts and other dishes.

IF YOU HAVE A JUICER, JUICE:
(not required) I just got one and am in love. I try and juice at least once a day. Been doing that for a week and will be doing a 3 day cleanse to challenge myself for the new year.

STILL CONFUSED?:

It's okay. Just do your best and don't try and spend a bunch of money unless you feel like you need to. I shop at Fresh and Easy, Ralphs, and Food 4 Less. I get most of my veggies and fruit from food for less because its cheaper and I'll go to other places for specialty items. Do your best to get grass fed stuff but if you can't just focus on getting that for the red meats and focus on leaner cuts of meat like chicken or focus on the seafood. Always read the labels. If you get bacon get uncured bacon only. If there is a bunch of crap that you don't know. When you go shopping you will skip a lot of aisles. Get used to it. Have fun and check out different people's websites you find. There are a lot of creative people out there on the web. Also if you are interested in workouts my fitness/ paleo inspiration Christina is a certified trainer for Crossfit I can send you her information privately. I can't afford Crossfit but I get plenty of workouts in on my own :).

SCARED YOU CAN'T DO IT?:
Make a list of all the foods you love that you think you can't have. Check and see if they are paleo, if not think of something that you wouldn't substituting with. For example. Anyone that knows me knows that I am in LOOOOVE with french fries. But that's not paleo so when I crave fries I eat plantain chips or taro chips. Dip em en guacamole, salsa, eat it with tuna. Delicious. I love mac and cheese, no substitute for that but if I had a craving for that which was rare in my 30 days I just focused on the results I had so far and told myself it wasn't worth the setback. Are you in love with desserts? Well good news you can eat all the fruit you want in place of all those bad desserts you love. You can also eat some dark chocolate here and there. Or you can try almond butter with apple slices. Smoothies are great too. Try different options before you convince yourself that you need to cheat. You can also message people on here that are doing the challenge and keep each other accountable. If there is food you love and your wondering what you can replace it with ask me and we can think of something to replace it or something for you to do to forget it :).

Okay that's it for now. Goodnight/ good morning!


 

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Introduction to Me

Hi. My name is Francia and I am a Social Worker and Paleo-lover. As my coworker Niki would tease me and say when I started this journey..."I've drank the Paleo Kool-aid", and looks like I'm not turning back. It's taken me a long time to go back to blogging. Haven't done this since my undergraduate days when I used to do random rants about classes and my love life (those days are long archived to never see the light of day..haha), but I figure now is as good a time as any to start back up again.

First let me start by saying I am NOT an expert in ANYTHING paleo or fitness related. However, I have had a lot of success and frustrations in my weight loss journey and for the first time I feel motivated enough not just to post about what I am doing but to help someone else who may find this life style a match for them. So, if you are looking for a quick fix or some miracle, I'm not it. Just being me and I thought this would be fun and helpful since I've been posting all of my food and on Instagram and Facebook for all to see anyway :). My hopes for this blog are for continued motivation for myself and  and others and to share with friends and whoever else is interested. If you don't like it...well you can just click the little "x" and be on your way.

So... where do I start??? How and why did I start Paleo?

In September 2011 I was almost 180 lbs. This is after getting myself down to 150 for my wedding in October 2010. So basically I lost 30 lbs for the wedding and gained it all back. I somehow gradually gained weight that I had lost from eating crazy and not caring or having time to care about my health. Some of that weight was gained from a combination of being happy in my marriage which they say is normal where you both gain weight after the wedding but the bulk of that I think was gained from stress and bad eating from working at DCFS. I hated that job with a passion. So much so that I would have anxiety every Sunday night thinking about returning to work the next day. Yes my friends... It's called emotional eating. And although I have a supportive loving husband he can't take a fork away from my mouth lol. Or should I say fries :). So anyway the point is I was gaining weight and getting less and less motivated to shed it off with every lb I gained. My supervisor even thought I was pregnant at one point because my stomach was bulging out. Not cute.

I was unhappy and I needed a change. So I prayed and talked to my husband and decided it was time to quit my job and find a more rewarding one. Left DCFS and started at my current job July 2011 and after a few months I got motivated by my coworker Carla (one of my fitness inspirations) to join a boot camp to jump start my fitness journey again. I joined Los Angeles Adventure Boot Camp for a month on a $40 groupon deal and started hiking 3 days a week. I still ate what I wanted but ate smaller portions and counted calories with Myfitnesspal and that helped me lose 10 lbs I a month. Took me two more months to lose another 10 lbs and I was happy and comfortably plateaued. Worked out for months and months and began to get frustrated that I couldn't lose anymore weight so I just said ok this must be my body's ideal weight since nothing is coming off. I tried working out longer, eating less calories, protein shakes, slim quick (made me feel like I was on PCP and didn't lose a lb or an inch), and finally realized I needed to change my diet.

Flash forward to August 2012 when I got inspired by another friend of mine Christina who does Crossfit and would post these amazing paleo dishes. I was like damn she's eating bacon and she's ripped like that?? I need this diet in my life. So I messaged her asked questions and decided to try it 28 days before my cruise with my husband.

I had been working out consistently for a year anywhere from 5 to 7 days a week and had been annoyed with the lack of progress with my inches and lbs. I started Paleo in September 2012 and decided to just see how I felt and if I would get any results and it kind of turned into a crack addiction lol. I kept trying all these new recipes and losing weight like crazy. First week I lost 7 lbs second week 5 more lbs and it just kept gradually coming of after that. Soon I kinda stopped keeping track because I was just feeling so good about how I looked didn't care how much I weighed as much as I did how my clothing fit. I am down to 138 and a size 4. Haven't seen those numbers since high school early college. I now eat paleo about 90 to 95 % of the time and allow myself a cheat item or two here and there. I can't stop taking about it because I can't believe that I can eat good tasting food and still be healthy and look good. I'm more confident than I have been in years and so that's why I say I have drank the kool-aid. I've posted some before pics I took when I started boot camp sept 2011 (first two pics) and recent pics from this month and last month. I've been same weight for the past month plus or minus a lb. But gaining more lean muscle. I'm flexing in the pics but my goal is have them be like that without flexing eventually :)

This blog I hope will inspire you regardless if paleo is for you or not. Always set your own goals and make sure you set mini goals and not compare to others so you don't get disappointed. As promised I will post recipes probably weekly and do breakfast lunch dinner so people can have options for the week. Look forward to what this will or won't be. Enjoy and thanks for taking the time to read. I will do another post with start up info since this one is too long already. I encourage you guys to take a before pic if you decide to do it. I hated my before pic when I took it but I'm so glad I did because now I look back at it and think wow our bodies can do anything that we allow them to.