No Direction Here

I've been away from this blogging business for a little bit. I spent two weeks up north for Christmas and just kind of fell out of my routine. When I got back, I had little motivation to write anything. I couldn't figure out why. I mean, I always have thoughts circling around in my head - sometimes good, sometimes bad - and I actually did type up a few posts but they're still sitting in my "drafts" unedited and unfinished. But again, I have almost zero motivation to do anything with them. Why? I'm not really sure.

I've been picking up in terms of freelance work, which is fantastic. So I've actually been pretty busy with that during the precious free time I have when J is actually taking a nap. And if I'm not blogging for my freelance gig, I just don't really feel like blogging here.

This job also requires that I watch my fair share of reality tv **comments to yourselves...I'm getting paid***. One night, while binge watching an entire season of Kendra On Top, my husband asked me what I thought it might be like if we had our own reality show. And do you know what? It would be pretty flipping boring. Seriously. I am probably one of the most uninteresting people I know. Which is another reason why I can't seem to figure out a direction for my own blog.

Going back and taking a quick look through some of my older posts, I am, for the most part, all over the place here. It started out as a pregnancy/mom blog. But there are a million of those and all of the good niches are taken. I'm not crunchy, nasty or funny. Nor do I really want to slather Baby J's face all over the internet no matter how adorable it may be. I really just do my own thing in terms of parenting and it's not very interesting.

Then it kind of turned into cooking. I love to cook and I love being a stay-at-home mom. So then I thought, maybe just an average stay-at-home mom's blog. I mean, a lot of people do wonder what SAHMs do all day long (one of my unfinished posts was written after hubby made a comment about how I get to nap during the day. Yes, he seriously said that and I almost hit him). And then I got on this Wheat Belly diet kick and messed that whole thing up.

So I think the fact that I just don't have a solid direction here is making it really hard to pick back up.

Although, now I feel like I do have a lot going on. I realized that we are basically going to have to start saving up for a house from scratch. So I have spent a lot of time this past week trying to teach myself how to really budget. I've always loved saving money - finding a great sale gives me such a rush! But the problem is that because I save so much every time I shop, I really end up spending too much because I get ALL the deals! Like, I buy things I really don't need just because I'm getting such a great deal. No good. Basically, we need to make huge lifestyle changes and since payday was today, today was officially Day 1.

So maybe I'll share some of the things I learn along the way. And please feel free to comment and share any tips or tricks that you may have!

So about that Wheat Belly diet...

It's stupid. While some people swear by it, I just can't. I made it a little more than a week. Over the course of that week, here's what I learned:

1) I really don't eat that much bread or pasta anyway. Adding a menial amount of crushed crackers or bread crumbs to one of my recipes is not preventing me from losing weight. Nor is one bowl of protein and fiber packed steel cut oats in the morning.

2) More veggies are good. I actually love vegetables to begin with - especially when they're fresh - and I have been making more of a conscious effort to make more of them since I started this a week ago. So that's a plus.

3) Shiritaki noodles are disgusting. I didn't actually eat them because the smell was so rancid (the package actually tells you to boil or microwave the noodles first to help weaken the "natural aroma" of these nasty things). They smell like chemicals.

4) I just can't do "diets". Just knowing that I couldn't have something only made me crave it. So yes, I totally failed.

Well, at least I tried it, right?

The First Week

I love the NyQuil commercial with the dad who walks into his son's room and says that he will be needing a sick day. But in reality, dads don't take sick days - they take NyQuil.

My cold got the better of me last week and while I couldn't take a day off from J, I did take a few days off from writing. And while I still have some lingering congestion, my head no longer feels like a giant water balloon and I'm not about to drop dead from exhaustion.

So days 5 and 6 of my Wheat Belly diet were pretty decent. I don't remember which day was which, but my breakfasts were pretty much the same: two egg whites and one whole egg. One day I added fresh baby spinach and some feta cheese, while the other day I just added a slice of swiss.

Lunches were leftovers: I finished up my minestrone soup and the other day I had....I actually don't remember.

Dinners: I made a roast chicken and brussels sprouts and the other night was steak and sautéed green beans.

I gave myself Saturday off. And it was bad. Bagel for breakfast, chicken sandwich for lunch, and eggplant parmesan for dinner with chocolate cake for dessert (in all fairness, dessert happened because we went to family's house for dinner)!

Sunday was better: eggs for brunch and I made Spanish chicken for dinner. Normally I serve this dish over rice, but I skipped that last night and served it with sautéed green beans.

The scale was down a total of 1lb. Yup. That's it. Despite the gallons of water and tea that I drank all week, the lack of salt and sugar in my diet together with the lack of carbs and snacks. Granted, I didn't work out at all because I was sick, but the fact that the scale only budged 1 pound isn't exactly encouraging.

My biggest problem, however, with this diet is that I love to cook. I love finding new recipes or tweaking a recipe to make it my own. Now, when I come across a recipe that looks or sounds yummy,  I find myself saying "well, can't make that because it calls for bread crumbs", or something like that.

So I'm thinking that I'll give it another couple of weeks and see what happens once I add workouts to the mix.

And for now, I'm off to make some chicken noodle soup...sans noodles.  

Day 4

I suck at life when I'm sick. For the first time ever, I completely burned dinner. As in, charred and black. I can't even tell you what happened so I'm going to blame it on the fact that I can't smell and my head feels like a water balloon.

Waiting for hubs to get home from work to see what he wants to do about this - my guess is that he'll seize this opportunity to grab some takeout. Fail.

Anyway, the rest of the day was okay. I was craving snacks today - nothing in particular, but I wanted something crunchy. Good thing I threw out all of the chips and chex mix!

Breakfast: 4 small wheat-free, gluten-free toaster waffles courtesy of Trader Joe's. Not so great since they do have potato starch, but I still avoided the wheat.

Lunch: Leftover minestrone soup.

Dinner: Was supposed to be maple pecan crusted chicken with a side of roasted brussels sprouts (those came out just fine) but now it's TBD.

Drinks: Tons of water and tea.

Snacks: I think I had 2 or 3 oranges (I bought an 8 lb bag at Whole Foods for $6 so I'll be eating these for a while!) I also had one square of chocolate.

Overall: Definitely not my best day and I'm only 4 days in. Like I said earlier, my head feels like an overfilled water balloon so I had zero desire to cook breakfast this morning. And as for dinner, I haven't even cleaned it up. I just want it to go away so I can go to bed.

Minestrone Soup

This soup is so easy to make and is a great way to get rid of those veggies in your fridge that are looking a little...well, less than fresh.

Being sick and exhausted, I did this as quickly as I could. There's a lot you can add to this soup (zucchini, fresh green beans, kidney beans, ground beef or turkey, tiny pasta, etc.) but I kept it simple this time.

Ingredients:

• 1 large (or two medium) yellow onions, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3-4 stalks of celery
• 4-5 carrots, peeled and sliced. Or you can use a few handfuls of chopped baby carrots - I never measure these out. I just add however many I want)
• 5 cups beef broth
• 1 can diced tomatoes (I don't drain them)
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• Palmful of italian seasoning

Directions: 

• In a medium-large soup pot, saute onion, garlic and celery until softened in vegetable oil. 
• Stir in the broth, tomatoes, tomato sauce, salt, pepper and seasonings. Bring to a boil. 
• Reduce heat, cover and simmer for one hour. 

If you want to add zucchini, beans, pasta, add after one hour and then simmer another 20 minutes before serving. 

If adding ground beef or turkey, cook the meat first and then add with the zucchini, beans, etc. 

Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese and enjoy!

Day 3

The cold that my husband and J have been fighting off finally hit me at about 3:30 this morning. My head feels like it weighs 100 lbs and my throat is killing me. The fact that J is non-stop on the go is not helping anything. Did I mention that she's climbing things now?

Anyway, while it would be easiest to either skip meals or have my husband bring home takeout, I'm determined to stick to this Wheat Belly thing.

Breakfast: 1 egg yolk, 2 egg whites scrambled with a handful of fresh baby spinach and one slice of swiss cheese. 1/2 avocado and a piece of wheat free focaccia with some cream cheese.

Lunch: One piece of leftover sweet potato kale pizza from last night (my husband normally steals all of the leftovers but he wasn't a fan of this pizza.)

Dinner: I managed to whip up a quick batch of Minestrone soup this afternoon. Sorry, no pictures of the process today.

Snacks: I ate two or three oranges in hopes that they'll help fight this off.

Drinks: Copious amounts of water and tea with honey.

Exercise: Nope

Overall: I feel like crap. J is napping now which is just enough time for me to get this post done and go close my eyes for a bit.

Until tomorrow.

Sweet Potato Kale Pizza

I've made this recipe a few times in the past so I've kind of perfected it. Although tonight, I made it using a wheat free pizza crust and not only was it delicious, but it was filling (I had two slices).

Ingredients:
Pizza Crust

• 2 1/2 cups All-Purpose Baking Mix
• 4 cups almond meal/flour; 1 cup ground golden flaxseeds; 1/4 cup coconut flour; 2 tsp baking soda - mix everything together. This makes enough all-purpose baking mix to last a few days.
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp EVOO 
• 1/2 cup water 

Topping

• 2-3 medium sweet potatoes
• Shaved parmesan cheese
• Fresh kale

Materials:

• Pizza stone (I have the large white stone and am obsessed with it!)
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Pizza cutter
• Mix n' Scraper
• Electric hand mixer

Directions: 

• Peel potatoes, slice and boil until fork tender. Drain when finished and return to pot. Using an electric hand mixer, whip the potatoes. Add a splash of EVOO to give them a smooth consistency (making them easy to spread).
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 
• To make the crust: In a medium bowl, combine the baking mix and mozzarella cheese. 
  
• In a small bowl, mix together the egg, oil and water. Pour into the flour mixture and combine thoroughly.
  
• Lay the dough on the pizza stone and, with moistened hands (I added some water to the bowl which had the dough in it so that I could dip my fingers/hands as needed), press into a 12" circle, forming an outer edge. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350. 
  
• Spread the whipped sweet potato on the crust. 
  
• Add parmesan cheese (I have tried a few cheeses/cheese blends and find the parmesan works the best with the sweet potato and kale) to taste. 
  
• Top with a generous amount of fresh kale, ripped into small pieces. 

• Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and kale is crispy. 

Enjoy!

Herbed Focaccia

It made me happy to find a bread recipe in the Wheat Belly cookbook. Like, really happy. It made me even happier when the bread turned out good. So here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups All-Purpose Baking Mix
• 4 cups almond meal/flour; 1 cup ground golden flaxseeds; 1/4 cup coconut flour; 2 tsp baking soda - mix everything together. This makes enough all-purpose baking mix to last a few days. 
• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Tbsp vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar because that's all I had in the pantry)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 3 eggs, whisked
• 1 tsp xanthan gum (optional) - I have no idea what this is so I didn't use it

Materials:

• Large pizza stone (I have it in white - LOVE this!)
• Spring coil whisk
• Measuring spoons
• Measuring cup
• Pizza cutter

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• In a large bowl, place the baking mix. (I added 2 Tbsp ground rosemary, 1 tsp dried oregano and 1 tsp of garlic powder here).
  
• In a small bowl, combine oil, vinegar, water, xanthan gum (if desired), and salt. Add to the baking mix and quickly mix together. Let sit for 1 minute, then add the whisked eggs and mix together thoroughly. 
  
  
• With moistened hands, place the dough on the stone and shape into an 8 x 12 rectangle. 
  
• Bake for 15 minutes, or until slightly browned. 
• Using a pizza cutter, cut into pieces and store in the refrigerator. 
  

Davis notes that "the sequence of adding the ingredients specified...must be followed as written to avoid the common "baker's ammonia" effect, the result of adding baking soda in the baking mix reacting with the proteins in the eggs, generating an ammonia smell, which is unpleasant. When you add the vinegar first, the acetic acid in the vinegar will react with the baking soda, preventing the reaction with the egg."

Day 2

It's day 2 of my new Wheat Belly lifestyle.

Baby J is still sick - her cough and snot bubbles are breaking my heart - and up a lot at night. So there was no running or gym for me today because I just couldn't get my butt out of bed at 6am (I had been up from 3:20-4:00am).

My second wheat free day looked like this:

Breakfast: Leftover steel cut oats and raisins

Lunch: Cream of mushroom soup with a piece of herbed focaccia bread (wheat free)
             *This soup wasn't bad, but I just didn't love it so I'm not going to bother posting the
               recipe. If you really really want it, shoot me a message and I'll post it.

Dinner: Sweet potato kale pizza

Snacks: Orange

Drinks: morning cup of coffee, ice water

Exercise: None unless cleaning the house counts for something.

Overall: I'm really terrible when it comes to lunch. If I'm not going out to lunch or if there are no leftovers in the house, I usually won't sit down and have a healthy lunch. Today I popped over to the library and I swear I heard Chick-fil-a calling my name on the way home. It's just so easy! And as for leftovers, those are hard to come by during the week since the hubs always takes them to work.

So if I can make it a point to eat a healthy lunch every day, I will consider myself successful.

Pork Fried "Rice"

This recipe is from the Wheat Belly 30-Minute (Or less!) Cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 1 head cauliflower, broken into large pieces
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil, divided
• 4 scallions, sliced (I swore I bought these, but I guess I didn't. So I left them out)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 eggs, whisked
• 1/2 pound pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2" cubes
• 1/4 cup tamari or gluten-free soy sauce (I used tamari)

Materials:

• Executive cookware stir-fry skillet
• Manual food processor
• Bamboo spatula set
• 5" Utility knife
• Large grooved cutting board
• Garlic press

Directions:

• Using the manual food processor, shred the cauliflower. Place in a microwaveable bowl. Cover and microwave for 4 minutes, stirring once, or until desired doneness. 

  

  Cauliflower after going through the food processor

• Meanwhile, heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in the stir-fry skillet. Cook the scallions and garlic for 2 minutes. Add the eggs and stir continuously until cooked through and slightly browned. Remove the egg mixture to a bowl and set aside. 
• Reduce heat to medium. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp of oil to the skillet. Cook the pork, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes or until no longer pink. Stir in the tamari, steamed cauliflower, and the reserved egg mixture. Cook, stirring for 2 minutes, or until heated through. 

*I was going to add carrots for some reason but decided against it. So they are in the picture, but not in the finished product. 

It was delicious. Enjoy!

Day 1

Hi. I'm Chunky McChunkerson. And looking at these pictures up here, on the world-wide web, makes me give real props to my husband. I gather that I need not explain why. 

Day 1 of my Wheat Belly experience

This picture is easily the most personal thing I have ever put on this blog. And the fact that this is out there now scares the crap out of me. But it's the real deal. 

This is me. I am just under 5'8, and this is 8 months and 4 days after having a baby, and 4 days after the end of the holiday season. I'm not proud. 

Today I cleaned out the pantry, fridge and freezer. Among the refuse was: a dozen and a half New York bagels (ouch), a bag of pretzels, Doritos (NOT MINE!), Chex-Mix and Asiago Cheez-its (those were all mine). Looking at it reminded me of what I said to my mother a few days ago: "I don't eat junk food so I don't understand why I'm so fat". I actually believed that I didn't eat junk food, and yet there it was sitting in my pantry (none of it unopened). 

Then I set to work creating a cleaner kitchen. Last night I went through the Wheat Belly Cookbook and flagged all of the recipes that sound good (I am going to be sticking to the cookbook recipes until I get used to cooking wheat free meals), so this morning I started testing some of them out. 

*Actually, I'm lying - I made Pork Fried "Rice" last night and it was surprisingly delicious. 

Here's what my day looked like today:

Breakfast: Steel cut oats (not sure if these are on the "do not eat" list since I haven't gotten far enough into the book yet. But I've heard that steel cut oats are really good for you so I'm running with that for now) that I had cooking in the crock pot overnight. I added just under 1/4 cup of organic raisins. It was filling and satisfying.

Lunch: Leftover pork fried "rice". This recipe uses shredded cauliflower as a substitute for rice and honestly, even my husband was amazed at how much it worked. 

Dinner: Roasted, herbed pork tenderloin (leftover from last night as only half of it was used for the fried rice recipe) with sautéed green beans. 

Snacks: I grabbed two oranges earlier in the day and had a piece of chocolate after dinner...yes, chocolate. 

Drinks: I had my morning cup of coffee but drank strictly ice water throughout the rest of the day. 

Exercise: I took the dog on a two mile walk this morning. I went and actually joined the gym today with intentions of going to classes on days I don't run. However, Baby J is sick right now and therefore up every three hours. Mommy isn't getting any sleep let alone exercise. 

Overall:  At no point today did I feel hungry. I did feel tired, but I attribute that to lack of sleep due to J's cold. Do I think this is doable? Yes. Right now I am feeling optimistic. 

Wheat Belly

A few months ago, one of my best friends started raving about what I immediately thought was the newest fad diet. Isn't eliminating carbs the Atkins Diet? And I'm pretty sure that in the long term that didn't work out well for most people (I heard that as soon as carbs were reintroduced people ballooned).

Long story short, she told me that another friend of hers started following the plan to a "T" and swears that her life has been completely changed. My friend doesn't follow it as strictly - allowing herself little indulgences here and there - and she still looks fantastic and also swears that, overall, she feels amazing; that not only has the weight been melting off, but she has more energy and rarely feels lethargic.

Now, as for me, I've never been able to really follow diets very well. I briefly entertained starting the Dukan Diet (even bought the book) but only because I read somewhere that that's what keeps Kate Middleton so thin. I never read it.

The Wheat Belly Diet freaks me out. When I eat at restaurants, I love the bread. And while I rarely eat pasta, sandwiches or breakfast cereal, I adore waffles and french toast casserole. Eggs benedict, served on their toasty little English muffins, bagels and pizza are also some of my best frenemies.

The problem is that it shows. I am about 40 pounds heavier than I would like to be, and all I see when I look at pictures of myself is a bakery. Buns and rolls galore. Although I'd love nothing more than to fit back into my size 4s, I clearly haven't wanted it badly enough since I just bought a new pair of size 8 jeans. The holidays didn't help and I haven't gone for a run in over two weeks (there was no way I was running in 30 degree weather).

With that being said, I am giving Wheat Belly a try. I just borrowed the book and the cookbook from my library and will be cracking them open today.

Before I start, here are my chief concerns:

1. Wheat is in everything. This is going to be too hard for me to really follow.

2. Cooking is now going to require all sorts of funky ingredients that I'll be lucky if I am able to find in Whole Foods.

3. Food is going to taste like cardboard.

4. My husband is a picky eater. While he's the first to promote healthy eating, his reaction is usually less than pleased when I do make healthy meal ("meh, it's okay. It's healthy" which translates to "yuck").

Hopefully I can make this work. I'm not going to give myself a time frame, but I will document my experience here including when I cheat (because I am bound to cheat at some point). I am starting today - Sunday, January 4, 2015 - so Sundays will be my weigh-in days. Ultimately, I need a lifestyle change if I am going to be successful.

So I guess let's consider that one of my New Year's Resolutions: instead of the banal "lose weight" I will say "I am going to change my lifestyle". Here goes nothing!