Is anyone out there? Time for a reboot

I haven't posted to this blog for over a year, mainly because it was a whole foods/primal/paleo/grain-free eating blog and I haven't eaten that way in a long time.  Until now.

I had my second baby (Marshall) three months ago.  I had a difficult pregnancy-- I was exhausted, nauseated, lots of back pain and cranky, while wrangling a not quite two year old and a nearly full time job.  It was a lot and I didn't eat as well as I should have and I definitely didn't get enough exercise.  If we have any more kids I do not want to go through pregnancy so broken.

When my second was about 8 weeks old I started really feeling ready to get my life together, stop languishing in the land of too much sugar and grains and get back on track.  I joined a new gym that does only personal training of the high intensity kind-- I like Cross Fit fine but I needed something a little more one on one given my propensity to injure myself.  And at the end of January, after Max's second birthday  I said good bye to all but a tiny bit of sugar (I still have a few bites of very dark chocolate here and there).  

I had been eating dairy for over a year, but Mars is starting to develop eczema so it's a good excuse to ditch it for awhile and see if he improves.  In the week since I've been off it my digestion has been better, so I suspect I'm better off without it. 

What's working?  Planning and cooking ahead a lot.  I work 2 long days a week, and on the other days it's not practical to cook 3+ meals a day with two little kids underfoot.  I plan our dinners on the weekend, shop for most of it, and cook ahead some stuff.  That combined with making extra every time so I don't have to cook every night is helping.  I am still struggling with how many carbs and how much to eat to slowly get this baby weight off but support breast feeding- more on that later.

So this week, here's what we are eating:

Sunday: we had beef taco salad.  No real recipe, just a bunch of cumin and garlic in ground beef, plus lettuce, avocado, salsa and cheese for the guys. Not going to lie-- we also had Phad Thai today.  Sometimes you just need take out.

Monday: leftover taco salad
Tuesday: Crock pot pot roast, yams, broccoli
Wednesday: zuchini "noodles" and meat balls
Thursday: sausage/yam/apple bake (recipe soon)
Friday: no bun burgers

What I made ahead:
egg casserole-- I throw some kind of meat (sausage, ham, ground turkey etc), some vegetable (kale/broccoli), and a dozen eggs in a 9x13 pan with some salt and pepper and maybe garlic or basil and bake it.  It was better with cheese but it's still good and it saves me time making breakfast.

yams-- between me and the two year old we go through an insane number of these. I also some times do squash but prefer sweet potato.

roasted vegetables-- I am on a brussels sprouts kick, did some broccoli too.

mushrooms-- this is seriously one of my favorite things.  Incredibly delicious on anything savory

I made some bacon too but ended up snacking on half of it.  I think bacon is my new candy.  Oops.

Lunch is always leftover dinner from the day before (or a couple days if I made tons). 

I have lost somewhere between 2-5 pounds so far-- it seems to vary.  At least it's going in the right direction-- I still have around 15-20 pounds of baby weight to go.  It doesn't come off as easily the second time, in case you are wondering. 

Time to feed the baby and think about bedtime.

Lessons

I think I knew this, but reminded myself this weekend that I need to have meat protein at each meal.  It doesn’t matter if I am otherwise eating good food, if I eat eggs or dairy as my protein more than one meal in a row I do not feel good at all.  Since I cut out sugar and grains I also have been getting random episodes of feeling shakey/jittery, like my blood sugar is bottoming out.  I am sure this is a temporary adjustment but I perhaps need to increase my good carbs for the time being while my body adjusts.  I had friends over this weekend and did have a gluten free cupcake (ok fine, or two) and it did NOT make me feel good.  Always helpful to reinforce good habits!

My mostly paleo baby is possibly trying to self-wean.  He REALLY likes food but I was planning on nursing him until 18 months or so—we will see if that happens.  Right now he only is nursing maybe once or twice a day and zero to two times at night (last night I had to get up to pump at 3am because he was still sleeping soundly—a first!) Our ND recommends we both take some cod liver oil and vitamin D so we will work on getting that in, though I do give him tuna and sardines occasionally at least. This morning he tried egg yolk for the first time and loved it (though he likes just about everything!).  He does have a tendency to get a little constipated (oh you so want to know this I’m sure)—I am not sure if it’s hard for him to digest some of the stuff I’m giving him, or he needs some probiotics or something else.  So we are experimenting.  When it gets bad I back off on the protein and give him mostly fruit and a little starchy vegetables for a couple days which seems to help.  Now that he is nursing less I feel like he needs protein though so it’s a guessing game.   He also LOVES bananas which is not helping things move along. 

I made chili with ground beef and a little liver (shhhh, don't tell) and homemade bone broth for dinner.  How have I never made beef bone broth before?  It is unbelievable.  In fact, I might drink some right now before I go to bed.