Monthly Archives: August 2013

So first things first…I have not been blogging.  Just life I suppose.  As summer vacation is winding down my children are becoming more and more intense and difficult to entertain.

Trips to the pool and park are “booorrrriiiiinnnng”, bike rides are no fun, my food is horrible our back yard sucks, they have no toys, so and so’s mom lets them watch Power Rangers …. blah, blah, blah.  Needless to say the closer we get to September 3 the better because, while I love them, they are driving me nuts.

Something I owe you.  Back in July I mentioned that sometimes when you want to make a big change in your life it helps if you go forward as if that change has already happened.  Well for me, it was hard to be all “new and shiny” when I was looking at the same old face in the mirror.  So one day I took a picture….

This is yours truly.  I am blessed with really fine, poker straight hair.  The down fall is that I have a tonne of it.  It used to drive me nuts, it was about a 45 minute process to comb out, condition, blow dry and style….if I wanted it straight.  If I wanted it curly that was another hour of work.  As a result this is what I did ….

Yeah, I cut off about 14 inches of hair.  Then I highlighted it.  Well, hello new person!  How are you today?   I love it.  I love the change, except on the days where I wake up looking like this…

So there’s that.  Then I wandered through July trying to get myself organized.  Really organized.  I entered August ready to rock it.  Armed with my Weight Watchers tracker, my fitness dvds and a new attitude towards eating a healthy balanced diet in which no food group was summarily dismissed.

Well, here we are three weeks later.  I am down a few pounds, my cardio has improved a little…and I look pregnant.  I am not pregnant.  After following my weight watchers to a T, eating my healthy whole grains for three weeks I can not fit into my pants.  Seven pairs of them actually.  I am a full size larger in less than a month than I have been for two years.  Yeah!!!!  Mission accomplished.

Not so much.  In as little as three weeks I went from feeling mediocre, at best, to being exhausted.  I am bloated….beyond bloated really, I am chronically nauseated, and my fat pants feel tight.  What the hell?  That was my Friday.  I lived Friday in a world of “what the hell”.  Then I went out to organize the baskets under my coffee table.  Guess what I found?

Yeah….It Starts With Food.  It was one of three diet/nutrition books that did not get sent out for recycling in June during the massive overhaul of my bookcase.  So I pulled it out and stared at it.  Thinking, this has so many valid points….its a shame you let yourself get distracted by the fringe elements.  Then I wandered upstairs and pulled “The Paleo Solution” off my shelf.  Maybe they were right?  Maybe I could modify my diet to be back in line with paleo.  Maybe I should do the Whole30 again, that would clarify if my guts are upset from all the grains I have been eating…plus it is a nice way to “reset” for the fall.  I talked to the husband.  He agreed to JOIN me this time.  No more me going it alone and watching while he scarfed popcorn and Pepsi in front of the tv.  So it was settled…me and the hubs would be embarking on a Whole30 starting September 1.

Then, last night we realized our fridge had moved on and was now watching over us from refrigerator heaven.  Well, that explains why all our milk, meat, and produce kept going bad this month.  As we started emptying the contents of our fridge to bring downstairs I was blown away by how fast fresh food goes bad.  Two day old pickerel….fuzzy, 5 day old home made pasta sauce….fuzzy.  Strawberries, blueberries, milk…all turned in less than a week.

Then we started checking the jars in the door….mayonnaise….still good?  Creamy salad dressings….still good? Commercial pasta sauce…still good?  What in the world?  How did these products, all of which were opened in July, not go bad?  Why are they still edible if our fridge has been on the fritz for several weeks now?  I mean milk was a solid, rancid glob in three days….why does my mayo still smell, taste, and look fine?  WHAT IS IN MY FOOD?

So here I am today, about to set off to Sears, Leon’s, The Brick, and other fine kitchen appliance stores and I dawns on me.  Why should you wait until September 1?  Why?  When you know the food in your fridge, even though it is organic, is so laden with chemicals (and sugar….lets not forget about the white death) that is can sit in a warm fridge for weeks on end and not go bad?    The truth is, I shouldn’t.  I emptied my fridge of the mayo, the salsa, the tomato/pasta sauce, the dressings, the bbq sauce, and the ketchup (gasp, do not tell my kids).  I am whipping up fresh homemade versions of all of them today and tomorrow.

I used to scoff at the paleo-ites who “made it all, all the time”  now I am determined to be one of them.  Simply because food should go bad.  It should decay.  That is how we are supposed to know if it is good for us.

Posted by Queen Potato in Uncategorized