Meal Pinning Monday

April 30, 2017

I'll be honest with y'all, this Whole30 lasted a week and turned into more of a Half30. I honestly don't see it as quitting in the least bit. 

I've done the whole thing before. I know what my trigger foods are (those layered brownies sitting on my counter I made for my students) and that I should avoid them. 

However, a few days in and I realized something. I just need to cut soy, wheat, and dairy and all is good in my food world. No stomach aches from eating dairy, easy. Soy isn't hard to cut simply based on the fact that if effects estrogen and with my family history... there's no reason to encourage breast cancer. (yes I eat sushi and soy sauce on occasion, but it's not weekly or even bi-weekly)

The issue I'm having is whether or not to cut grains. I'm in the process of going to see a doctor and getting blood work done and hopefully allergy testing to answer some questions I've been having, but I've read a lot that is you don't have gluten in your system that it will show up as a non issue even if it is one. So I almost feel like I should be eating some wheat just in case until I get some tests back. 

Anyone have experience with this that can give some advice on whether or not to cut it? I feel better overall with limited dairy and wheat, but I'll down pint of Bluebell in the name of answers. 

Now, this weeks menu. And yes there's a touch of dairy because this one recipe looked too good to pass up. 


[What is Meal Pinning Monday?]
MPM is how I meal plan for our little family. I once spent a lot of time searching the web and my recipe books hunting for new recipes and ideas for what to cook every week. Then, Pinterest came along and made meal planning much easier for me. Every weekend I look over what I have pinned the prior week and decide what I would like to cook and make my grocery list from these recipes. MPM came about as a way to share what I am cooking, and to also see what others are cooking every week to hopefully get even more dinner ideas from other bloggers. If you don't pin your recipes feel free to just share what you are cooking.

Monday - Blueberry Cheese Coffee Cake, Eggs, & Sausage

Tuesday - Chicken with Roasted Green Beans (that I never got to last week)

Wednesday - Crispy Smashed Chicken with a Chopped Salad 

Thursday - Chicken Tacos - Against All Grain Cookbook

Friday - Chicken Nuggets with Fries (I don't know what I'm having in place of fries, anyone have a good keto/primal diet suggestion)

Saturday - Eating Out

Sunday - White Pork Chili - Against All Grain Cookbook

Breakfast - Breakfast Sammy with 90 Second Bread, Egg, & Bacon (great low carb breakfast)
Lunch - Curry Chicken Salad with Chopped Salad (I'll post the recipe when I do a meals recap this week)

......................................................

I'm almost hating the labels of Paleo/Primal/Keto just because of the extreme take people do with all of them. I feel like I need to classify this so people don't think I'm some crazed yo-yo dieter because of the terms. This was a discussion that was had this week in case you were wondering. 

I stick to a Paleo/Primal way of eating 90% of the time simply because it makes me feel better, I learned that after my first Whole30. In that month I got rid of postpartum hemorrhoids and my gums quit bleeding with grains out of my diet 90% of the time. I can't say 100% because cake will continue to exist on this earth. Honestly, gluten free flour doesn't make the same cake or bread and sometimes a person needs real cake or bread. End of that story. 

Now "Keto" is just how I'm trying to shed the last few stubborn pounds before we get pregnant again. That just means I'm eating lower carb, moderate protein, and higher fat. Which I've had to play with because the standard 5% carb for Keto makes me feel like I haven't slept in a year. For my height and weight I can get away with about 35-50ish net carbs (sticking closer to 35) and feel okay. Now the fat (thank the good Lord that non fat is no longer a thing) runs closer to 100 grams a day. Protein is about 90. I find the first issue I ran into with this was that I nearly quit vegetables to get the lowest carb possible, that left me exhausted. Once I upped my carbs and went back to a more Primal (just Paleo with some dairy) way of eating I felt better. Still losing that 10 as slowly as molasses runs, but I've hit the lowest weight I've had since I've quit breastfeeding with this. Long term? Not really. 

Once I'm at a goal weight I'll play with my carb intake and see just how high I can get it to stay in a maintenance weight mode. In case your thinking "Girl you're skinny why are you doing this?" Let me just say that I don't come from skinny genes. My family has a history of weight issues, diabetes, and a whole gamete of things that I (after reading tones of health and fitness books over the years) have determined that maybe it's diet related. (Not diet as in South Beach, but the word diet as in a way of eating.) So you could say I'm running a self experiment. One that hope to say that when I'm 80 I won't be on a ton of meds and won't have any self induced medical issues. 

This isn't something I've talked about in a few years and thought it was probably time to clear that up, real life people know... but the blog doesn't get my entire thought process.