Journal of a Busy Mom

living one day at a time

Embracing Change: Going Paleo

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There has been a big change in our family’s diet this month. We’ve been gluten free for about 7 years now. Mostly the boys because they have Celiac Disease. I have a whole page on Celiac Disease for more information. My daughter and I were probably 90% gluten free. Well, January 1st we went Paleo. Yes, Paleo. So I am going to be sharing a lot of new recipes all of which are Paleo (therefore, naturally gluten free)

This is the book I got to get me started. It is really good. I liked that the first half of the book taught me about the diet and the second half is recipes.

If you are not familiar with the Paleo Diet check out these sites:

Paleo Leap

The Paleo Mom

Basically, the diet consists of meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts and fats. There is no dairy, soy, grains, beans, potatoes, and corn. I should say mostly no dairy, since we can still have butter. Pretty much it is cutting out processed food as well. Needless to say, I had to overhaul my pantry.

For the past month I have been scouring Pinterest and my cookbooks to find Paleo friendly recipes. It has been very interesting. Somedays, I am very resentful!

So why are we doing this?

I could really care less what the “cavemen” ate. It really comes down to allergies and overall well being. My hubby and son are now pretty much lactose intolerant as well has gluten free. Many people who have Celiacs end up not being able to have dairy. I have Thyroid disease which really requires I eat way healthier than I do. My daughter has Type 1 diabetes. She does not need the ups and downs of sugar, carbs, etc. So all in all, our whole family needed a diet makeover.

The Paleo diet seemed to fit what we all needed: no gluten, no dairy, no sugar, and a healthier diet.

We are committed to 30 days of hardcore Paleo (especially for Mom and Dad) and then we are going to try and add some things back like beans, rice, organic potatoes, and maybe MAYBE GMO-free corn?! I’m just hoping.

Realistically, we are thinking 80/20. Eighty percent of the time we will be Paleo and 20% we’ll have some cheat days. I rather call them Treat Days, sounds more positive. I don’t like to cheat.

So, happy, happy, joy, joy….

Ligia

Physical Fitness Tests

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I’ve been “testing” my family’s fitness level using some online tools that I’ve found. Having worked in the public school, I know that each year fourth and seventh graders take the President’s Fitness Test. I have a 4th and 7th grader this year so I decided to figure out what tests we could do at home and how we could challenge ourselves. Here are some links to these websites that helped me design my own President’s Fitness Test.

National Fitness Requirements

Fitness Test

The 1-Mile Walking Test

ExRx Fitness Testing

Basically, we are doing push-ups, sit-ups, and the 1 mile. We did a baseline and now I’ve challenged them to do one more each time they do their push-ups and sit-ups until they get to their goal. Once that becomes easy, they can continue adding on. I did create a simple spreadsheet to keep track of our starting place and our progress.

Ligia

Weight Loss and Fitness Goals

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I’m trying to teach my children that its not about weight but fitness. So, I have to lead by example. For most of my lifetime I have struggled with my weight. By most standards, I am not considered overweight, but I consider myself overweight. I don’t like this or that about my self. I’ve done everything under the sun to lose or keep off weight. Now, approaching 40, I need to take a realistic look at myself and see that at this point in my life its about Maintenance and Fitness. There, I said it: Maintenance. I will never again see the 120s but I can maintain my weight were I am. So I am revising my 2013 goal. I am no longer striving to lose 7 lbs. My new goal is to maintain my weight this year but I also want to get more physically fit.

1. I plan to do 30 minutes of any kind of exercise 5 times a week.

2. I plan on getting to 10,000 daily on my Fitbit.

3. I plan on doing 2 days of some kind of weight bearing exercise.

4. I plan on working towards doing a 5k by the end of this year.

5. I plan on inputting all my food into my Lose it App. Why? I tend to over eat if I am not conscious of what I am eating so if I plan to maintain I need to know what is going in my mouth all the time.