Day 19

Day 19 of 21DSD

Starting my day out right with an AMAZING cup of coffee. I swear, I gulped down this entire cup of coffee like it was sweetened by the nectar of the Gods. Alas - the only thing in this coffee was grassfed, unsalted butter & coconut oil. This organic sumatra coffee was fantastic!

Afterwards, I made a fabulous breakfast - Chorizo & eggs and home-made coconut tortillas. My first time to ever make tortillas!!! It was a lot easier than what I had assumed. My kids absolutely LOVED this meal. They loved it so much, that I packed them these "tacos" for lunch. After I dropped off the kids I got to taste these babies & OH EM GEE. I could eat these all day. Suuuuuriously.
I got the tortilla recipe from the Paleo Comfort Foods cookbook. It was super easy - check that book out if you haven't already.

Know what is in the food you eat - ALWAYS check the ingredients. Food ingredients should be simple & understandable.

For lunch, I wasn't too hungry, so I made a smoothie. It was deliciously comforting.

Some of you have asked how I made today's meals, well - here ya go:
Bfast: Cook chorizo in a pan. After this is cooked, add in your eggs. Stirring occasionally.
Coconut tortillas - 1/4 cup coconut flour, 8 large egg white, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 cup water. Whisk together until there are no lumps. Place coconut oil in a pan on medium heat and put about 3tbsp at a time of your mixture. Flip once the bottom side is light brown.
Smoothie: Blend a handful & a half spinach with one green apple & 1 cup of coconut milk. BAM!

Day 19 Meals:

1. Coffee w/butter & oil

2. Chorizo egg tacos

3. Green smoothie

4. Water

5. Grilled chicken salad

Day 19 Supplememts: 

1. Cod liver oil

2. Fish oil

3. CLA

4. Yellow dock

~ Until next time,

Ruby

Day 18

Day 18 of 21DSD

Today was a lot like yesterday. I slaved my life away playing "catch up" on cleaning - baseboard scrubbing, mopping, dishes, laundry. Sadly, I still have a bit left to do before the house is completely done.

I took a break from my slavery and went to crossfit. It was an awesome workout - lots of moves with plates & 400m run to warm up. Big deal: I did a hand stand for the first time!!!! The WOD was the following:

Front Squat 3-3-3-3

For Time:

10-8-6-4-2

Dumbbell Snatch (per arm) - Heavy

Burpees

Handstand Push-Ups

The lack of sugar cravings I am now feeling is Ahmazing! It's crazy how much your body adapts taste wise :)

Day 18 Meals:
1. Coffee w/grassfed butter & coconut oil
2. Small bowl of cinnamon green apple in coconut milk
3. Water
4. Tuna Avocado over spinach w/asparagus, portobello, carrots w/pumpkin & almond milk smoothie
5. Paleo Corndog w/jicama fries & paleo ketchup

Supplements:
1. Cod liver oil
2. Yellow dock
3. CLA
4. Fish oil

~ Until next time,

Ruby

Day 17

Day 17 of the 21DSD: Everything went well today. It was my husband's first day back at work after being off for 6 weeks. Luckily it wasn't as lonely as it could have been, because my minions were home to wreak havoc. School holiday. I got a lot of much needed house work done, yay. I got basically N O T H I N G accomplished while my husband was home. It was a love/hate feeling.                                         My kids really enjoyed the gluten free bread recipe I found. It was also husband approved. I was pretty nervous about it because I couldn't taste it due to two of the ingredients. The kids made, what looked like epic, almond butter & banana sandwiches. They chose their "poison" - carrots on the side for my son & broccoli on the side for my daughter. It doesn't always go this smoothly. I kept waiting for the world to crash and burn. I didn't hear once, "where's the chips mom?". 

I woke up like a kid on Christmas. Why you ask? Because I got to try my bulletproof coffee. I brewed my coffee, then threw the butter & coconut oil in the blender w/the coffee, and anxiously poured it into one of my favorite coffee mugs. My initial taste thought was hm... this is buttery. So, I decided to give it a few more sips.... then the cup was empty! I actually ENJOYED an unsweetened cup of coffee. It was so creamy & delicious! The energy I felt afterwards was endless, hence my baseboards being clean now. I highly recommend giving this a shot. Seriously, like now.

Beautiful "bulletproof" coffee outcome.

Day 17 of 21 DSD Meals:
1. Coffee w/1tbsp butter, 1 1/2 tsp coconut oil
2. All the water!
3. Two egg omelet w/turkey in it & okra
4. Left over spaghetti squash, chicken, & spinach
5. 8oz of Coconut Water
6. Scrambled eggs, two slices of bacon, brussel sprouts, roasted carrots, 1/2 avocado
9. One green apple
10. 1 fresh carrot

Supplements taken:
1. Yellow Dock
2. Fish Oil
3. CLA
4. Cod Liver Oil, fermented



~ Until next time,

Ruby

Diet

So, the word diet bothers me. In my opinion, a diet is a temporary fix, not a lifetime fix. I understand this fully because I use to be in the same mindset. However, I will re-iterate this, I am not on a diet. I have been through a lifestyle change for the past year and I continue to transform my eating habits into the best lifestyle for my body and my family.

The reason I am bringing this up is because I got asked recently "How long are you going to be on a diet for?" Sigh. While I am participating in a 21 day sugar detox, the word diet is not listed here might I add, all that means is that I am being 100% strict on my already ingrained eating habits with no treats or cheats. I am challenging myself to eat better and hoping to get long lasting habits that stay with me throughout the course of my life. I am not doing a detox to lose weight.

There are no quick fixes to lose weight, and if you find a quick fix, I guarantee that as soon as you stop whatever you are doing, you will gain the weight right back. In order to successfully lose weight and maintain a healthy weight, you have to transform your life by eating proper, clean meals & getting physical exercise - not starving yourself, taking diet pills, doing temporary food diets. Transforming years of bad eating and your life is NOT easy. It is very difficult at first but gets easier in time. You will constantly have temptations to eat the old crap you use to, because it's easier, but nothing worth having comes easy. If you want to feel better about yourself, evaluate what you eat, get rid of the crap, and start eating whole foods & adding in a walk here and there, and so on. I know I sound like a b word, but the truth is a cold hard explicit deleted. Strive to be healthy the right, long lasting way, not the easy temporary diet way. You CAN do this - you just have to decide if you really WANT to.

Take Two

My first meal today was fabulous - we woke up late, so it was brunch. I took one egg, and a little bit of almond flour. Seasoned the almond flour with celtic salt, pepper, cayenne, & garlic powder. Dipped the chicken in egg, then almond flour, then placed it on the stove in a small amount of coconut oil. I pan grilled it to perfection. I turned the oven on 350 & roasted the okra in olive oil & pepper, as well as the carrots in olive oil & cinnamon. The cauli mash was leftovers in the fridge. The pancakes were the following ingredients; 1 green tipped banana, splash of coconut milk, almond flour, flaxseed meal, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, 1 cup of egg whites. I had originally planned on these to be waffles, but after an epic fail in the waffle maker, (it was too wet of a mix to come together), these became pancakes.

Dinner was the following - spaghetti squash w/marinara, grilled chicken breast, & sauteed spinach. Spaghetti squash can seem scary because you have no idea what the hell to do with this big yellow veggie, but I'll tell you a secret, the hardest part about preparing it, is cutting into it. I really need to invest in good knives. SO to prepare spaghetti squash, you simply cut it vertically in half & scoop out the seeds & strings. Face the squash face down (insides facing the pan) and bake for about 20 mins on 350. Pull it out of the oven and take a fork and scoop out the insides - Viola! So afterwards I seared the "noodles" w/garlic and celtic salt, then added gluten free/no sugar added Rao's marinara. I really liked this marinara sauce, it was pricey, but well worth it. I grilled the chicken breast stove top in olive oil & seasoned them with oregano, celtic salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and thyme. One they were finished, I moved them over and sauteed spinach in the chicken juices. Easy, peasy! The finished master piece is shown below.

While I had dinner going, I looked through reviews of a bread recipe that I could give a try to make for my husband's sandwiches. I decided to go with this one at Elanas Pantry. I will let you guys know whether it was a nay or yay with the husband, but I can tell you, it smelled pretty good & was not stiff feeling. I couldn't taste test it because the 21DSD states no arrowroot powder, or maple syrup. Shown below is a picture of all of my ingredients before I mixed them up, as well as the after product. Looks tasty right?

•  Arrowroot powder
• Flaxseed meal
• Unblanched almond flour
• ACV (apple cider vinegar)
• Baking soda
• Celtic Salt
• Maple syrup
• Four eggs
• And I added sesame seeds to the top

Gluten Free Bread

Noms!

Lastly, I capped off my night with something I have been DYING to try since I first read about it. But before I tell you what it is, let me explain why you see a picture of Irish butter. I kept seeing people talk about "Bulletproofing their coffee" on different blogs I came across, as well as in the 21DSD forum on facebook. You can read more about this bullet proof coffee conundrum here. I will briefly explain what it is - basically you get organic coffee beans, beans that do not mold, grind them up and make the coffee. Then add 1-2tbsp of GRASSFED unsalted butter, and 30grams of MCT oil, blend and you get a frothy cup of coffee. When I read this, I died! Butter - in coffee? Har! However, I was intrigued. My thoughts; Pure, grassfed butter is more or less heavy cream. I love creamy coffee. This is a good way to get healthy fats in my system. Sure, I'll try it! So after doing research, MCT oil can be found in coconut oil. I already have that, so I'll substitute MCT for that. However, the only butter I have is ghee.

I went to our local Basic Foods and they didn't have this brand of butter. So on to HEB I went. Sadly, the only Kerrygold I could find was this whipped, low fat kind. Fail. I drove home hearing the charley brown song in my head with my head down. I was going to have to order this butter online and wait to try it! Oh the injustice! I researched what site to order this butter from and almost ordered it, but decided to check at HEB one last time after reading that it could possibly be located by the cheese. I did a quick scan and didn't see it, but right as I was going to turn around, I spotted the gold and silver Kerrygold packages! SCORE!!

So, it was too late to have coffee so brewed a cup of my chai green/black tea mix. Added 1tbsp of kerrygold butter & 1tsp of coconut oil & blended it. I cautiously took a sip and oh mah gerd, it was this frothy goodness!!  Please note the creaminess of the the cup! I can NOT wait to try this in a cup of coffee tomorrow morning. I have not been drinking coffee at all lately, so we shall see. Again, to learn more about this bulletproofing your coffee - visit google or Bulletproof Exec Website.

~Until next time,

Ruby
Day 16DSD

Absence

Day 16 of 21DSD!

So, my sister informed me that I am slacking on my blogging. I will not disagree with her.. LOL. I've been a bad blogger, a bad, bad, blogger. I've just been busy living my life.. sigh. But I promise to do better ;)

Six days have passed since my last entry. I've posted a slew of pictures to let you know what kind of foods that I have been eating. I can tell you, my favorite thus far was the bangers and mash - sausage w/mashed cauliflower - AMAZING.

My meals have basically been; eggs and a meat with chai black/green tea blend, water, acv/lemon/water, pumpkin pancakes, banana pancakes, fish/veggies.

As of right now, I am making spaghetti squash w/spaghetti sauce and sauteed spinach and chicken. NOM!

Day 16 Meals:
1. Banana pancake, pan grilled almond flour chicken, roasted carrots, roasted okra.
2. Water
3. Water, lemon, ACV
4. Chai green/black tea mix w/coconut milk & cinnamon
5. Spaghetti squash w/gluten & sugar free spaghetti sauce, spinach, grilled chicken
6. 1 cup coconut water

Activities: Tennis, Brisk 1 mile walk, 30 push-ups.

 

This is what I have been doing in my spare time instead of blogging ^ so be angry at the book ;)

~Until next time,

Ruby

Satisfaction

Day 10 of 21DSD:

This morning I woke up and my stomach was u p s e t. I drank a glass of water with lemon & apple cider vinegar to help calm it, as well as a cup of bone broth. It calmed down eventually but let's just say it took me awhile to regain an appetite. That being said, there is nothing more satisfying than having your kids enjoy the wholesome meals or snacks that you cook.

I made my kids hot cocoa as a snack and they raved about it. It was so simple and was not the processed crap you buy at the stores! The best part - they didn't even realize that they drank coconut milk! Mom 1, Kids 0.
The ingredients for the hot cocoa were;

• Organic, unsweetened cocoa powder
• Coconut milk, full fat, canned
• Gluten free marshmallow's
• 1 tsp of maple syrup

That's it, it's as simple as that! The kids absolutely loved this hot cocoa, citing that it was 'the best they have ever had.'

Ah, sweet satisfaction.

I was on a roll tonight, because I cooked an epic meal for dinner that had every one of my family members saying mmmmm! I cooked oven baked chicken, sauteed red chard, roasted carrots, & cauliflower mashed "potatoes".  It was the bomb!!

Here is how I cooked my food;

• Season the chicken with rosemary, thyme, garlic powder, Celtic salt, & pepper. Put a tbsp of coconut oil in the oven pan and put in the oven on 400. Cook until the outside is crispy enough to your liking. Viola! You can make these even more sassy by squeezing a fresh lemon atop these. Noms.
• Put bacon grease or olive oil in a pan. I used bacon grease. Saute two cloves of minced garlic & as much onion as you like. Then add the red chard, saute.
• Set the oven to 350 & place chopped carrots in a pan with olive oil & cinnamon. Cook until the carrots look roasted.
• Boil cauliflower with seat salt until soft. Please cauliflower in food processor or blender. Add ghee (or grassfed butter), Celtic salt, pepper. Blend together.

Easy, peasy way to make a satisfying dinner for your family that everyone will love! <3

Day 10 Meals:

1. 1 cup of bone broth
2. 1 glass of acv/lemon
3. Chicken, carrots, chard, cauli mash
4. 1 green apple, pecans, coconut, cinnamon in coconut milk
5. Water, water, water
6. 1 tsp cod liver oil