Week ??, Meditation & Goals for this year

I had to check this morning to see what week I was on.  I pretty much go with what can I introduce this week.  So last week was dairy, which was week 7.  So that means it's week 8 and intro to grains - which by the way I will not be doing, no gluten free oats, no rice none of it.  I find I feel better without them.  I have no desire to add those back into my meals anyway.  I don't miss grains.  When I did try grains months ago I found that my brain fog was heightened throughout the day.  My mornings would start off good and as the day went on the worse I would feel.  n = 1

UGH!  This was So me for months!!

So, how did last week and dairy go?  I have to say that since I didn't over do it, it went well!  I only added yogurt in and the best I liked was the Maple Hill Creamery grass fed yogurt.  If the Wallaby had the plain greek without the fruit then I would go with either.  Maybe it does exist and I need to go back to their website and take a look and maybe that my store just didn't have it in stock.  I also wouldn't mind trying Siggi's triple cream yogurt.  I find the plain yogurts have the right amount of sweetness without having flavor that I couldn't add to both sweet or savory dishes.  Like last night I had yogurt with plantain fries with sautéed mixed vegetables.  That combination was really good.  I should have taken a picture but honestly it was a heap messy pile of food.  I really should make my food look prettier but hey this is real life and it doesn't always need to look like something you got at an upscale restaurant.

Ok, so it's Monday.  I just got done meeting with Dr Allen.  All I can say is why didn't I ask about this before or remember that coffee is considered a bean and I could have been drinking coffee like 2 weeks ago!  Ah! Oh well!  So I will rotate coffee and peanut butter.  Odd I know, but I love both!  I will have coffee 3 times per week and peanut butter 3 times per week just not on the same day.  Seems like a winner winner to me!

That brings me to my next area I really need to work on.  I think it's really going to start with me going to yoga on a more consistent basis.  I think meditation will flow into that a little better.  Yesterday's yoga really kicked my ass.  WOW, I think I would have been able to stay in chair and goddess pose longer if Saturday wasn't leg day and Sunday morning I didn't run.  Maybe I will try a different form then the hot vinyasa I did yesterday at Center for Yoga.  I hadn't been there in a decade or more!  Long time I know.

I think I have mentioned prior that I am not going to count macros anymore.  It's brought up old habits that I don't care to do again.  Years ago I was a super restricter and I was training and teaching 6 classes per week while eating around 1000 calories a day.  Really not good.  Interesting though that after I found paleo my weight stayed the same until I started doing more AltShift and Keto.  I also changed my exercise to more lifting and less endurance.  I've put on 12 pounds since and only went up 1 size.  So I'm ok with it.

Breakfast this morning - or should I say - fat, protein and carbs?! 

So, I guess that brings me to my last point of all this, goals!  Well, right now it's just one goal.  I have been thinking about it for quite some time.  I am in the winter going to do the nutritional therapy practitioner program.  The intensive is in Ann Arbor so makes it far more economical to get to.  I'll get into that one in another post.  It's late and I need to wind down for the night.

Intro Dairy!

This week is intro to dairy.  I plan on being conservative here.  Since I'm not with any nut butters!  I wanted to find the least amount of sugar (Of course) grass fed greek yogurt.  Since it's shown to be the best for you.  I found Maple Hill Creamery on a special at a local market so I picked up one.  OMG even though it's plain it was so good!  I plan on having some more dairy tomorrow (Friday).  It's a different brand, Wallaby.  It's unsweetened but has fruit, so not sure how that works since it has the same amount of sugars that Maple Hill's does.

I paired this with my breakfast before for a little extra protein and fat.

This chicken bratwurst sausage was from Whole Foods and pretty good.  I sautéed brussel sprouts, green beans and mixed greens in organic vegetable broth.

That was the other big step this week as well.  Every vegetable I bought was organic, as well as every piece of meat was, grass fed or pastured raised.  Whether I noticed the difference or not, nothing physical but they taste so much better.  

 This morning I did an easy slow run at the gym with some rolling hills.  Breakfast was typical so I didn't take a picture, but it did have leftover salmon and the above picture was dinner because that is what Thursday night it!  So good.

Friday mornings breakfast with Wallaby yogurt - the fruit portion wasn't sweet like I thought it would be.  I paired that with some bacon, sautéed kale, fennel, zucchini and onion.  The calories didn't add up to what I have been eating so I was hungry early.  I ate a jerky stick and later for lunch was a banana and my shake.  My workout was lighter (in weights) then what I have been doing.  I had to drop back my dumbbells on chest press from 35 to 27.5 - no clue what that was about.  I dropped almost all my weights back except for bicep curls and triceps.  I just kept going!

Today work bought lunch from a local deli.  Whenever that happens and I order I usually have it for dinner that night.  Even though the deli claimed to have gluten free lunch meat I opted for The cold plate, which is chicken salad, tuna salad on a bed of romaine with tomato and pickles.  The mayo probably isn't the cleanest but I figured it was safer then getting gluten and no I really didn't need to order anything.  But I did and also got a side of potato salad.  Yes, it was everything with mayo today.  I ate half the potato salad then gave the rest to the dogs, it was pretty tasty and so creamy.  I saved the tuna salad for tomorrow at some point, maybe breakfast and ate the greens and chicken salad.  I gave it to the pups for a snack.  They gave you quite a lot!  Was probably a cup of chicken salad.  I should of taken a picture of it.  Everything was tasty but really hasn't set well with me.  I was gassy and had a mild headache - not sure which I can blame that on - the chicken or the potato.  I'm not dwelling on it, I ate it and I am moving on.  It's not going to ruin any progress in the gym or overall.  My gut could have a set back maybe but not sure.

I'm still tracking and I think I am falling into old habits of playing with numbers and how low can I get them to go.  I need to drop it!  I need to rely on how I feel.  If I am truly hungry or not and not "save" calories for night so I know I can splurge on other things.  If I'm hungry then I should eat and if I'm not then no eating.  Simple right.  Wrong!  If you have ever listened to Jason Seib or follow AltShift then you will know where I am coming from.  

UGH!  I may need to buy his new book Body Beliefs.  A mental switch is what I need.

Soon to bed.  My plan for Saturday is a home workout.  20 minutes of PopSugar and then lifting.  Everything that is planned I can do here, so I thought why not!  I have all the proper weights.