Day 2... I want to crawl in a Cave.

Alarm clock went off at 6:15 this morning. Who's idea was this? We decided to do an early morning workout with our friend (and personal trainer) Drew and his girlfriend Ashleigh. I'm going to predicate this post by saying they are both in waaaayyyy better shape than I am. Needless to say I almost threw up/passed out/died... And while I made it through the workout, when I got home I stood at the bottom of the stairs for 20 minutes pondering how I was going to hoist myself up them. As you could probably predict, we somehow talked ourselves into doing a high intensity circuit workout on day 2... The Workout... Its a CrossFit style workout that we did in a normal gym with normal equipment... so no need for specialty items.

As far as our meal plan is concerned, we got a little more creative but still nothing too extreme; again we want to make it as simple as possible at the beginning.

Pre-workout: Since it was super early and we needed something in our stomachs we cheated a bit and used a brand name soy based protein powder. Could have been a ton worse, but we will be reviewing some Paleo friendly protein powders in the coming days.
Breakfast: Two eggs over easy (I cooked mine in left over bacon grease, I poured out the greases and just left the pan coated in it... Jill cooked hers in butter) with sea salt and pepper and 3 pieces of bacon.
Lunch: Basically same as yesterday... Spinach salad with carrots, green and orange peppers... But today we used tuna instead of turkey and added mushrooms. We also used our homemade salad dressing... and it was freaking awesome (recipe below).
Dinner: Spaghetti and meat sauce... with a Paleo twist. We used spaghetti squash for the "pasta" and our meat sauce was a Paleo friendly sauce (recipes are everywhere online) with ground turkey for the meat*. It was absolutely delicious! The spaghetti squash was sort of sweet but very close to the consistency of pasta. Next time we will try zucchini noodles, as friends said they love that as a pasta substitute as well.
Here is how we made it:

Take a medium spaghetti squash and cut it in half:

Scoop out the insides with a spoon:

Put one squash in upside down in a bowl with 1 inch of water, microwave for 7 minutes (repeat for next half)

Careful! Its flipping hot! Now, use a fork and scrape against the walls of the squash and take your bounty and put it in a bowl. When your finished with both squash, add your meat sauce and Bon Appetit!

*We use, and have always used, ground turkey for anything that calls for ground beef as it tastes almost identical and is much healthier. On that note, I learned this lesson a couple months back (thanks Ashleigh), there is ground turkey(usually 80/20 lean to fat ratio), lean ground turkey (93/7) and lean ground turkey breast (99/1)... For the most part we try and get the turkey breast, but at minimum get the lean ground turkey. Try it for tacos (Taco Tuesdays!), meat sauce, hamburgers or whatever else calls for ground beef.

We also made homemade salad dressing (Delicious!) and homemade granola.

Salad dressing: It is super simple and very tasty if you like balsamic vinaigrette.

• 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar;
• 1 crushed clove of garlic;
• 1 tsp dried oregano;(I think it would be better if fresh but we just used the ones from our spice rack to see if we would like it)
• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil;
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste;

Put ingredients into a a jar with a lid and shake well.

We've used quite a bit already in the 2 days we've had it. :) The above recipe makes almost a full salad dressing jar.

Granola:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, unsalted
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 2 tbsp raw honey
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup dried cranberries OR blueberries OR raisins (or combo)

**I don't like coconut so we didn't use it, and we also used a raw, unsalted mixed nut blend (No peanuts!) instead of just pecans. For the dried fruit we bought a organic mix of dried berries (no sugar or sugar substitutes) from Publix in the Greenwise section.

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Add nuts, seeds, and coconut to large mixing bowl. 
3. Melt coconut oil in microwavable dish, then mix in honey, maple syrup, cinnamon, and salt. Stir until consistency is even.
4. Pour onto nut mixture and toss to coat evenly. 
5. Spread thin on a baking sheet (parchment paper makes for easy clean up.)
6. Bake for ~20 minutes or until coconut browns, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
7. Mix in dried fruit.
8. Allow it to fully cool before eating. Enjoy with plain Greek yogurt or milk (as you would with traditional cereal.) 

It was good, nothing too amazing, but good. The reviews I read on it says its a good substitute for cereal if used with almond milk or raw milk for all of you dairy users. I'm going to try that in the next couple of days... Because I looovveeee cereal! I also took a scoop and added some almond butter to it, rolled it into a ball and froze it... I think I will do that for the next batch we make as it was easier to grab and snack on (plus I freaking love almond butter). Either way, throw some granola in some Ziploc bags and they are a great snack( good for the sweet tooth too).

Nothing too crazy went on today. It was a Thursday so we didn't have to worry about the weekend bug biting us to cheat. I will say that we are still learning as we go; our good friend Jenna pointed out that butter is NOT Paleo... Something that we have been utilizing with all of our meals. I have read numerous articles, many from Paleo sites, stating that using butter with vegetables helps the absorption of nutrients of up to 75% better than eating them alone. So with that in mind we are going to continue to use butter for now as I research this more. We also decided to have a cheat meal (meal, not day) once a week to keep ourselves sane... $10 says that the meal will be pizza every week.

I noticed that I had a bit of a headache later in the day. Not sure if it had anything to do with my body detoxing, as I have read about the "Low Carb Flu" that some people experience on the Paleo diet. I will keep track of this and mention if it continues.

Now, to humble me a bit... Below are my starting measurements:
Weight: 188lbs This is the heaviest I've been, at 5'8 I've normally stayed around 170lbs
Calf:14.5"
Thigh: 22.5"
Waist: 36.5" I'm a slim guy and have always been in decent shape, but I've never been over 34" in my life.
Chest: 40 3/4"
Arm:14.5"
I will re-measure at least once a month and track my progress of here.

Roses: Jill- Dinner and the homemade salad dressing  Keith- Same

Thorns: Jill- Lack of options (we'll get better as we go)  Keith- Continuously hungry, lack of snacking.







Here are some interesting books I came across... I want to note that I have not read them nor have a review for them, but just wanted to give some more references for people looking for more! :)