You know how they say, 'the best laid plans go oft awry'? Yeah... that's kind of been this first week for me. I had some ups and some downs and most of my laid out plans didn't really go... well.. according to plan. Last week, I put together a meal plan, a workout plan and a declutter plan. I would say I hit the meal plan about 60% of the time, the workout plan about 20% of the time and a big fat zero on the declutter plan. I'm trying to be more positive in life in general so let's start with what worked. I did really well with my breakfasts and lunch throughout the week. I also started the week well with my workouts. I went back to work after being off for vacation on Tuesday and I knew it was going to be a struggle so those meals were planned and prepped ahead of time.
I'm working towards converting to Paleo based eating habits; I'd like to be about 90% Paleo consistently. I love other food way too much to cut it out completely and it's not really sugar that gets me off track but salty snacky foods like chips and dips and the like. I love cheese as well and I'm not sure I could go cheese-free haha! However, the Paleo style appeals to me because it's about fresh, natural and simple foods. Easy to prepare and cook - which is great when you work on salary like me so you never quite know when or if you're going to get a lunch break or what time you're going to get home at night.
So for this week, I needed something for my breakfasts. I want to start off by saying, I've never been a fan of sweet potatoes in the slightest. But I found a recipe through Pinterest (you can follow me here) from PaleoHacks for Eggs in Hash Brown Nests (recipe and blog here). I tweaked it a little because I'm supposed to be limiting my cholesterol so instead of whole eggs, I used egg whites only and added a little salt and pepper. I wasn't really sure what to expect, since again - "sweet potatoes are gross" but I found that the sweet potato wasn't overwhelming at all, and ended up just giving a slight sweetness to my eggs that I really enjoyed. These will definitely be a repeat breakfast. I used 1 fairly large sweet potato and got seven 'nests' from that one potato. They weren't as crispy on the bottom/sides as they look in the photos on the original blog so I will probably bake them a little longer the next time I make them. I also used a food processer to shred them instead of shredding by hand and that may have contributed to a wetter texture. But all in all - great, easy recipe! It was a winner and definitely a success for me this week.
I did a couple of salads throughout the week for lunch and at dinner - often prepping my next day's salad at the same time of putting together my salad for dinner so that was a time saver and having that meal ready to go in the fridge for the next day made for an excuse-free option. My salads are usually fairly basic - romaine or spinach (maybe both if I feel like it), red bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, green onion, carrots, grilled onions and maybe some nitrate free turkey, (I like the Applegate brand - see here for their website and where you can find their products) hard boiled eggs or on a splurge, some avocado. I have to be careful with avocados because I love them so much! It's really easy to overindulge on them. Typically I just add a little salt and pepper to my salads with oil and red wine vinegar for dressing. I will occasionally splurge on salad dressing and get some Bolthouse yogurt dressing (see here for their website) and I like either their classic ranch or Caesar dressings. They aren't Paleo but again, it's not about being 100% compliant for me - it's about being healthier overall.
I also did well with my yoga on Monday, and Tuesday - It's some beginner flows that I found on Pinterest that are more for some deep stretching. I started to struggle Wednesday morning. I got up and started my flow and somehow managed to fall asleep during one of the last poses. I woke up twenty minutes later on the living room floor, desperately running late for work at that point so at least my breakfast and lunch were ready to go. I don't know if that contributed to the major headache I carried all day Wednesday or not but it was miserable. Wednesday night was one of those not so healthy dinner options. My husband didn't want to "do good" as we call it and we ended up ordering pizza.
But let's talk Thursday. Thursday started off good - I had my egg/hash muffins and my salad ready to go. I went to work and at some point Thursday morning (I don't know when or how), I started noticing my right shoulder/neck tightening up. Then the nerve twinges started. By the mid-afternoon, I couldn't turn my head to the right at all. I went to the ladies room at one point and could see in the mirror that the right side was super jacked up. That whole side of my neck/shoulder was swollen and knotted up and you could physically see a major difference between the two sides of my body. I still don't know what happened or how but it does appear I've either pinched a nerve or seriously pulled a muscle. I tried taking some anti-inflammatories, icing, heating, massage, you name it and nothing has really helped. So here I sit on Saturday morning, still jacked up in the arm and neck (although it does seem to be a little better today and I can move my head a little bit more without that awful shooting pain down my neck and arm). I am a big baby when it comes to not feeling good and I eat poorly when that happens. So my husband went and got me some Mexican fast food Thursday night for dinner to ease my pity party. Friday I went to work and still had a lot of issues but luckily had some frozen burritos that I could take for breakfast and had an apple for lunch.
So obviously, with a jacked up neck and shoulder, I didn't get any exercise in the remainder of the week, nor did I get any decluttering done. I sort of feel like I'm going to be doing good to get a load of laundry done and food planned and prepped for next week. But I'm still going to try. That's what life is about, right? Getting knocked down, picking yourself back up and trying again? With that, I'm off to Pinterest to find some more awesome recipes for the next week, to plan my food out and see what stretches I might be able to find to help this poor old neck out!
Peace, Love and Skittles, y'all. Have a wonderful week!
Rebecca
I'm working towards converting to Paleo based eating habits; I'd like to be about 90% Paleo consistently. I love other food way too much to cut it out completely and it's not really sugar that gets me off track but salty snacky foods like chips and dips and the like. I love cheese as well and I'm not sure I could go cheese-free haha! However, the Paleo style appeals to me because it's about fresh, natural and simple foods. Easy to prepare and cook - which is great when you work on salary like me so you never quite know when or if you're going to get a lunch break or what time you're going to get home at night.
So for this week, I needed something for my breakfasts. I want to start off by saying, I've never been a fan of sweet potatoes in the slightest. But I found a recipe through Pinterest (you can follow me here) from PaleoHacks for Eggs in Hash Brown Nests (recipe and blog here). I tweaked it a little because I'm supposed to be limiting my cholesterol so instead of whole eggs, I used egg whites only and added a little salt and pepper. I wasn't really sure what to expect, since again - "sweet potatoes are gross" but I found that the sweet potato wasn't overwhelming at all, and ended up just giving a slight sweetness to my eggs that I really enjoyed. These will definitely be a repeat breakfast. I used 1 fairly large sweet potato and got seven 'nests' from that one potato. They weren't as crispy on the bottom/sides as they look in the photos on the original blog so I will probably bake them a little longer the next time I make them. I also used a food processer to shred them instead of shredding by hand and that may have contributed to a wetter texture. But all in all - great, easy recipe! It was a winner and definitely a success for me this week.
I did a couple of salads throughout the week for lunch and at dinner - often prepping my next day's salad at the same time of putting together my salad for dinner so that was a time saver and having that meal ready to go in the fridge for the next day made for an excuse-free option. My salads are usually fairly basic - romaine or spinach (maybe both if I feel like it), red bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, green onion, carrots, grilled onions and maybe some nitrate free turkey, (I like the Applegate brand - see here for their website and where you can find their products) hard boiled eggs or on a splurge, some avocado. I have to be careful with avocados because I love them so much! It's really easy to overindulge on them. Typically I just add a little salt and pepper to my salads with oil and red wine vinegar for dressing. I will occasionally splurge on salad dressing and get some Bolthouse yogurt dressing (see here for their website) and I like either their classic ranch or Caesar dressings. They aren't Paleo but again, it's not about being 100% compliant for me - it's about being healthier overall.
I also did well with my yoga on Monday, and Tuesday - It's some beginner flows that I found on Pinterest that are more for some deep stretching. I started to struggle Wednesday morning. I got up and started my flow and somehow managed to fall asleep during one of the last poses. I woke up twenty minutes later on the living room floor, desperately running late for work at that point so at least my breakfast and lunch were ready to go. I don't know if that contributed to the major headache I carried all day Wednesday or not but it was miserable. Wednesday night was one of those not so healthy dinner options. My husband didn't want to "do good" as we call it and we ended up ordering pizza.
But let's talk Thursday. Thursday started off good - I had my egg/hash muffins and my salad ready to go. I went to work and at some point Thursday morning (I don't know when or how), I started noticing my right shoulder/neck tightening up. Then the nerve twinges started. By the mid-afternoon, I couldn't turn my head to the right at all. I went to the ladies room at one point and could see in the mirror that the right side was super jacked up. That whole side of my neck/shoulder was swollen and knotted up and you could physically see a major difference between the two sides of my body. I still don't know what happened or how but it does appear I've either pinched a nerve or seriously pulled a muscle. I tried taking some anti-inflammatories, icing, heating, massage, you name it and nothing has really helped. So here I sit on Saturday morning, still jacked up in the arm and neck (although it does seem to be a little better today and I can move my head a little bit more without that awful shooting pain down my neck and arm). I am a big baby when it comes to not feeling good and I eat poorly when that happens. So my husband went and got me some Mexican fast food Thursday night for dinner to ease my pity party. Friday I went to work and still had a lot of issues but luckily had some frozen burritos that I could take for breakfast and had an apple for lunch.
So obviously, with a jacked up neck and shoulder, I didn't get any exercise in the remainder of the week, nor did I get any decluttering done. I sort of feel like I'm going to be doing good to get a load of laundry done and food planned and prepped for next week. But I'm still going to try. That's what life is about, right? Getting knocked down, picking yourself back up and trying again? With that, I'm off to Pinterest to find some more awesome recipes for the next week, to plan my food out and see what stretches I might be able to find to help this poor old neck out!
Peace, Love and Skittles, y'all. Have a wonderful week!
Rebecca
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