Month: June 2012

Breakfast: Bacon, eggs and steamed green beans. (My go-to ratio is three strips of bacon and two eggs, by the way!)

Now, be forewarned: This is going to be a serious post.

I realize I’m extremely lucky that I have all the time in the world right now to focus on healthy eating and cook my own meals. Practically no one has this kind of time! It would be much, much harder to transition to Paleo eating while working or going to school or staying home with children.

There are plenty of people who don’t have time to eat healthy (or exercise). Those who do these things don’t magically have extra time; they go out of their way to make the time.

It sounds much easier than it is. I’m not saying it’s easy at all. But I’ve come to realize that it’s so, so incredibly important and it is unacceptable to brush it off by saying, “I don’t have time.”

The way I look at time is this: We have time in each day and in each week. Then we have our lifetime. The way you spend the short-term time is a big factor in determining the amount of time in your lifetime.

If you don’t take the time now to take care of yourself, you will probably live a shorter life. If you don’t put healthy, nutritious foods into your body, it will not last as long as you’d probably like.

(It doesn’t have to be Paleo food — I won’t presume that I, as someone who has absolutely zero formal education in health and nutrition, could tell you what is the ideal way to eat — but it does have to be more real food and less processed, sugar-laden crap.)

It is no small task for your body to continue functioning on a day-to-day basis. If you don’t give your cells and tissues and organs the vital building blocks they need to thrive, they will break down sooner rather than later. It’s that simple.

Do you want to look back at the end of your life and think, “If only I’d taken the time to… [eat right, exercise, etc.]”?

To me, it’s not, “Oh, but I’d rather eat these crackers and chips because they’re quick and easy and vegetables take too long.”

It is life or death.

And, once again, I realize that I am incredibly privileged right now to be able to buy good food and cook it and take pretty pictures of it. There are way, way, way too many people who work very hard and either can’t or feel like they can’t afford the money and time it takes to eat real food. It is not fair in the slightest.

But there are many of you who can do it with some extra effort. You have to realize the importance of it. You have to make the time.

It is life or death.

I’m sorry I disappeared over the weekend! I wasn’t home very much at all, but I did stick to 99% Paleo eating! (The 1% was pretty much BBQ sauce and boozing.)

I actually wound up eating some roasted Brussels sprouts and kale with my breakfast on Saturday morning and just had tea at brunch with my friends. The coffee shop only had pastries, muffins and pre-made sandwiches, so it was a good call to eat beforehand!

Where did I leave off? Oh, yes, with my not-so-Paleo margarita on Saturday evening.

El Chupacabra on Phinney Ridge (near Red Mill) does amazing margaritas, and my mom, Don and I scurried over there after we finished exploring the Fremont Fair. I had a mango margarita, my mom had a house margarita and Don sipped a Manny’s.

We just love Chupa!

M & D munched on chips and salsa while I watched longingly, but I held out. I met up with Aaron afterward and we hit the Whole Foods hot bar and salad bar for dinner.

As always, I got way too much food! I ate the whole salad (Romaine lettuce, peas, carrots, zucchini, grape tomatoes, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and olive oil) but only had about half of the pulled pork and saved the rest.

I wound up polishing off the other half on Sunday morning before I went with my dad to Preservation Kitchen for Father’s Day brunch. So, so strange.

Brunch was a delicious Paleo hit!

I had the smoked duck omelette with arugula, which was so good. I asked for no cheese on the omelette, and substituted roasted veggies instead of potato hash and fruit instead of toast. I wound up giving the fruit to my dad, since the omelette and veggies (and mimosa, whee!) were quite filling.

My dad enjoyed skirt steak with scrambled eggs and grits. Yum.

And since we ate at noon, brunch left me full for most of the day.

By the time I got home from the rest of our Father’s Day activities, I was staaarving and too impatient to take a complete meal photo. Picture some bacon on the side of this plate of leftover tilapia and red bell pepper.

And then picture a big salad of Romaine, tomato, more red bell pepper, cucumber and olive oil, plus three dates and three squares of dark chocolate. That about rounds off Sunday and brings us up to date.

This morning, I had my current favorite breakfast: eggs and bacon on a bed of kale topped with garden-fresh chives.

I have appointments with both my PT and chiropractor today, so it’ll be a fun one! And a rainy one. Sheesh, Seattle, always with the rain!

Sorry to get all CAPS on you there, but I’m excited!

I did a 46-minute yoga workout on On Demand and only had to do minimal modifications for my ankle. I did regular downward-facing dogs, planks, warrior poses, etc.! Two weeks ago I did about two seconds of a yoga workout before I realized my ankle just wouldn’t cooperate, so this felt like a huge victory today.

I also did cool PT tricks, like balancing on a foam roller. My ankle didn’t even swell after all that activity! Maybe I’ll be back to running fairly soon? I’m calling mid-July at the latest.

I wasn’t super-hungry for lunch, so I just had a chicken-apple sausage with ¼ of an avocado and an apple with almond butter. Also had a few dates (unpictured) because they’re so damn good.

I just realized that this weekend is the Fremont Fair, which includes the infamous Solstice Parade! Adventurous Seattle cyclists typically paint their bodies and ride nude in the parade, but Aaron and I participated last year by covering up our bits just as we normally would. I think we made up for it with our cool paint jobs. : )

How’s that for body confidence?? I’m working my way back to it!