Remember Lucy’s Winter Gala? Well yesterday was the Spring Gala!  They sang The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Lu did much better this time.

But FIRST, FOOD! (Fun Lucy pictures below all the food 🙂 )

Breakfast=Granola Bar:

I used some oil in them this week and they are holding together so much better.  I think I need to update the recipe.

Lunch=Leftover Curry:

Surprisingly, it wasn’t as good the second day.

Snack=Wrinkled peach and some nuts (unpictured):

Dinner=FREE dinner from BJ’s.  Our waitress comped us “just because”:

Salmon, rice and veggies.  It was just okay but nearly the only thing on the menu that didn’t have gluten.

So, the GALA.  I was late because of a pretty bad accident on the freeway and so we got seats that did not have a good view 🙁

She’s in the green sweater.  When she came out she just sort of stood there and looked at everyone like WTF?!?!?!:

And then they sang it one more time and she saw me (I stood up to take a picture) and she got this HUGE smile on her face (I caught the tail end of it):

After the Gala we did activities in her class.  Daddy helped her plant a flower:

After we left, we took Lu to the park:

And then we went to BJ’s for dinner:

My big girl.  She no longer needs a high chair.

It was a nice day…

The day started off with a pretty gross looking and nasty tasting smoothie.

1 cup almond milk + 1 scoop protein powder + 6 frozen strawberries + 1 tsp honey = ICK

For my morning snack I had a yummy granola bar:

And for lunch I was craving Pad Thai.  It was just okay.

But then it was time for dinner.  I had a really busy day and didn’t get home until 6:15.  I had NO CLUE what I was making for dinner and I just came home and started pulling stuff out of the fridge.  We sad down 20 minutes later to this:

Yellow curry chicken.  It was seriously DELISH.  I just cut up some onion, garlic, chicken, zucchini, and mushrooms and sautéed them in a pan with honey, curry powder, and salt.  I then added a can of light coconut milk.  YOM X1000.

Lu LOVED it and proceeded to get it ALL over herself.

Lu loves Daddy!

Daddy loves Lu!

I finished up the night with some ice “cream” and granola bar crumbles.

I want more but won’t have any.  🙂

Work has been INSANE lately.  INSANE.

Life has been too.  I’m ready for a break!

I hate it when I conceive of something that I think is going to be so good and then it’s gross.  That was dinner tonight 🙁

First though, LUNCH!

I had a mish mash of stuff for lunch and I was really worried that I would be hungry after this:

Rice, green beans, beet salad, cauliflower, and some hummus.

Surprisingly, I didn’t even think about being hungry until my drive home at 5 PM.  I had a peach and some cashews.

Work was a doozy today so that could explain why I didn’t feel hungry OR I just wasn’t legitimately hungry.

On my drive home I created a masterpiece in my head.

In reality?  Not so much.

I tried to make Gluten Free and Dairy Free Mac and Cheese with sausage and broccoli.  I loosely based my recipe on others out there using nutritional yeast and cashew nuts ground up.  Ummmm….ick.  It was really unappetizing.  It was totally edible but it wasn’t yummy.  We did eat it but the leftovers did not get saved.

Lucy, who hates real Mac and Cheese, gobbled it down.

Crazy kid.  I was just remarking to Shaun that in the last 7 days or so, her intelligence has really started to shine through.  She’s also able to communicate MUCH more than before.  It feels like overnight she went from a cute little kid to a SMART and cute little kid.  Like REALLY smart.  Some of the things she says and does just amaze me.  I know I’m biased but when your 19 month old is building cars and houses out of Duplos (the big Legos) and following all the commands in a book and DOING THEM correctly, it makes you go “hmmm….she GETS it. WOAH.”  Yep, she’s awesome 😉

I mentioned earlier today that I saw a Life Coach yesterday (I feel incredibly silly saying that) and that she had some great techniques for me.  The first?  Think of myself as an adolescent girl with low self esteem that has come to stay with me for awhile.  Anytime I feel bad about myself or start putting myself down, treat ME like I would that adolescent girl.  This seems really simple and obvious but it was a big breakthrough for me.

Another one? Say the things that I want to hear to myself. Don’t rely on others to give that to me.  Give it to myself.  LOVE IT.

And the last little tidbit that I’ll share?  By accepting ME for ME, it doesn’t mean that I’m forever going to have this body.  It just means that I love myself and I am going to take care of ME and the body will follow.

Again, not groundbreaking but SUPER helpful.  Even though today was quite difficult, it wasn’t difficult emotionally for me and that’s a SUPER WIN.

Well, it didn’t actually EAT my post but it prevented me from having time to post a post :)  I fell woefully behind on laundry folding and had about 2 weeks worth to fold.  We spent ALL NIGHT last night folding laundry.  It was fab.

Rewind to yesterday’s lunch.  A whole bunch of goodness thrown into a bowl.

Rice, mung beans, pinto beans, roasted cauliflower, roasted garlic, avocado, and hummus.  YOM.

The hummus REALLY developed more flavor overnight and tastes EXACTLY like Trader Joe’s version.

For my snack, I had my first peach of the season.  It’s organic but from Mexico :(  My list of fruit that I can eat is so limited right now that I decided to go for it and actually it was really yummy.  Sucks that it was from Mexico though.  At least it’s not Chile!  I say that because of the distance it traveled, not because I have anything against Chile.

Dinner last night was fabulous.  Salmon, green beans, rice, and a beet and fennel salad.

Lu gobbled this up and LOVED the beets!  We kept hearing “Moe. Beets.  Moe Beets.  Moe Beets Pwease!”  She ate ALOT of beets.  So many that I had to warn daycare that she may have pink/red output today and that they shouldn’t worry.

While folding and watching the best show on TV (Parenthood), I had a scoop of fruit sweetened soy ice “cream” topped with the other half of my granola bar.

This morning was a rest day from exercise and so I had (big surprise) a granola bar for breakfast!!!

Of note, I fired my therapist last week.  She was great for everything BUT my body issues.  I was having MAJOR issues last week and I went in there and was basically told that I was acting crazy.  She told me that Ritalin would help me lose weight or alternately I could try anti-depressants that have the side effect of weight loss.  She also brought up liposuction.  I pretty much left there traumatized-worse than I was before I went. 

SO, I’m trying 2 new people this week.  Yesterday I saw a “Life Coach” and she was seriously AMAZING.  Tomorrow, I see a therapist and if I gel with her, I may use her with some supplementing from the Life Coach because insurance doesn’t cover the Life Coach but does cover the therapist and I do think I need to see someone every week but can’t afford the Life Coach every week.

I’ll be back later to discuss some of what the Life Coach shared with me.  It was VERY powerful stuff.

I was feeling particularly down about my body and my weight struggles last week and my husband lovingly responded that I should workout more since it makes me feel better about my body.  Rather than get mad at that statement-which I totally could have-I agreed with him and I’ve committed to working out more.  No more excuses.

This morning was my third day of working out and I didn’t hate what I saw in the mirror while I was on the spin bike.  Hooray for small victories!  I am taking a day off tomorrow because I don’t want to overdo.  But I have plans for a run on Wednesday.

Before spin this morning I had half a granola bar:

I know I’ve already said it but I LOVE these things.

Class was good!  I could definitely feel the hike and run on my legs but not in an awful way.

After I got home, showered, and took Lu to daycare I got to come back home and make some eggs:

5 mushrooms, a handful of spinach, garlic, and 2 eggs.  Oh and of course some Tapatio!  Señor Tapatio Hombre says “WAZZUP!” from the upper left corner 😉

Eggs are such a great breakfast food but I REALLY have to be in the mood for them.  I love eggs over easy or poached with toast but scrambles?  I have to have a craving.  This was extremely yummy.  Maybe when I’m working from home permanently you’ll see more of them. 

Today, I’m WFH because I have a dentist appointment to get a cavity filled.  Of note though, since I’ve stopped eating gluten and started my new regimen, my gums have VASTLY improved.  My dental hygienist was actually cheering!  I take extremely good care of my teeth and gums and still have issues (bad genes) but they are getting better!!!  It makes sense though, I was all inflamed from feeding myself poison (for me) and now I’m not, so my gums aren’t inflamed either. Win-win!

Okay, off to go do the job that pays the bills.

I can’t believe the weekend is over already.  It seemed to zoom by!

I had a pretty great day today.  It started with sleeping in until 8:30-ahhhhh!  And then I had some toast to fuel up for a run.

GF bread, homemade almond butter, all fruit apricot jam.

Then I went on a 4 mile run.  I ran the entire way without stopping and it still took me 57 minutes.  HA!  That run used to take me 36 minutes or less.  Oh what 3 years and a baby will do to you.  I felt great though and I did do a 5 mile hike yesterday.  I realized that ever since the Ironman, I’ve either been trying to get pregnant, been pregnant, or had Lucy.  It’s time to put the baby excuse behind me and get running!

I decided on my run to train for a race.  It’s really the only thing that keeps me motivated and I’m ready to be motivated.  I decided to do a half marathon and I found one in Boise on 10/10/10.  I’m really excited!  Want to hear something utterly silly? I kept thinking to myself “a half marathon is NOTHING.  It’s not enough.  I might as well not race.”  How silly is that thought?  My last race was an Ironman and there’s no where to go but down from one of those…well unless you do an Ultraman or whatever that crazy race is called.  So I got over my “half marathon is not enough” mentality and I’m doing a race!  I’m hoping to do it in my new Vibram FiveFingers but learning to run (almost) barefoot is quite a challenge and takes a good 5 months to work up to any distance.  We’ll see if I can do 13.1 miles in them come October!

After my run, I had some honeydew and nuts to tide me over until lunch.

I took a shower, threw some laundry in and then headed to Whole Foods for lunch and this weeks groceries.

I ate this sitting outside in the beautiful weather:

And another view:

It was delish!  I have a new addiction to green olives.  SO good.  I also LOVE hummus on my salad-and you can’t forget that roasted garlic.

I got all my groceries for the week.  I tried to spend $100 and sadly I went $20 over.  When everything is organic, grass fed, and gluten free, it gets expensive! Over $40 of that is in meat alone.  I REALLY wish my hubby could eat a meal without meat and be satiated.  It’s never happened and I don’t foresee it happening anytime in the future.

I did get some coconut water as a treat before leaving the store:

After the grocery store we went to the park. Lu was very interested in playing with her helmet but not wearing it.  So no bike riding for her 🙁

After the park we dropped off some of our pots at a friends house-terra cotta pots aren’t really something you want to move!

We also stopped at Safeway to get Shaun some potato salad for this week’s lunch.  Lu and I stayed in the car and she learned her newest word “Peek-A-Boo!”  Too cute 😉

Once we got home, Shaun took a nap and Lu and I played Legos.  Lu has become QUITE the Lego builder.  She used to only make towers but she made a house and a car tonight-no joke!  She’s talented.  I also did some research on learning to run barefoot and then I made some almond milk!

YOM.

I had originally planned to teach Shaun how to make chicken, rice, and veggies for dinner-I’m going to be giving him cooking lessons on some easy dinners so that I can have a break once in awhile.  We forgot though, that he had a dinner to go to tonight to celebrate his race.  So off he went to that and Lu and I ate a pretty simple dinner.

Rice, pinto beans, mung beans, roasted cauliflower, avocado, and Tapatio! Lu did not have Tapatio but instead had butter on hers.  YAY good fat!

After I put her to bed, I made some granola bars for the week.

I have been MISSING these.

I also made some Cilantro Jalapeño Hummus.

I finished up the night with a scoop of fruit sweetened soy ice cream.

Covered in crumbled granola bar:

And now it’s time for bed.  5:30 wake-up in the morning!

I made mung beans for lunch and Lu gobbled them up!  She never ceases to amaze me.

For breakfast we both had oatmeal.

Mine was topped with ground flax and homemade almond butter.  It had about a tsp of maple syrup mixed in.

Lu’s had some maple syrup and almond butter mixed in with bananas on top.  She liked it.

We went to her last swim class for awhile.  She FINALLY walked across the floating hippo!!!  YIPPEE for her.  She’s blowing bubbles and kicking (sometimes) and she knows to hold her breath when she is on the edge and is jumping in.  I’d call it a success!

The weather was beautiful so I decided to BBQ some chicken for our lunch.  While I BBQ’d Lu gardened.

Look at that tongue!

Pardon the Cliff Bar on her face 😉 She was absolutely filthy when she got done.  I’m telling you, she’s a kid now!

Lunch was BBQ’d chicken, mung beans, and broccoli.

And some roasted cauliflower.

When Lu gets up from her nap, we’re going for a hike!

I took my camera to lunch today and I took a picture only to realize that I forgot my SD card at my desk.  Total N00B mistake!

I did have some nuts for snack:

And then for lunch, I had brought leftovers from last night but my friends convinced me to go to lunch.  What I took a picture of that didn’t get transferred to my card was a plate with carne asada, rice, and refried beans with guac and lots of Tapatio.  It was good.

For my afternoon snack, I knew that I wasn’t really hungry per say but I needed a break so I made some decaf English Breakfast tea with 1 tsp honey and some unsweetened soy milk.

It was just what I needed.

Tonight was sushi Friday and we decided to go to the restaurant.  Lu did great!  She loves Edamame and it keeps her occupied! 

Then they brought out our first set of sushi:

I ate the 3 avocado rolls and 2 sake (fresh salmon).

Next up:

Maguro!  This tasted too fishy to me without soy sauce (soy has wheat in it).  So I only had 1 piece and Shaun ate the rest.

Next up:

The B Street Roll: spicy tuna wrapped with sake and avocado.  I had 4 pieces of that. Lu had 6 California Roll and Shaun had the other 6.

I had also ordered miso soup that they forgot, so that was my dessert.

I also ate lots of this:

I love pickled ginger!  I know it has sugar in it but it is OH so good!

Lu finished the night with watermelon.

I’d say she liked it!  It probably felt great on those 2 year old molars that are coming in.

I am going to finish the night up with some cantaloupe.

Tomorrow morning we have swim lessons and then a hike planned for the afternoon.  It should be fun!

I miss banana, I really do.  To refresh your memory, I am staying away from fruit that is really high in sugar in order to stabilize my glucose levels.  I won’t lie, it’s hard.  I did have half a banana in my smoothie today and it was SOOOOO good.

But first, for full accountability, I did end up having half a cantaloupe last night while watching the best episode of Survivor EVER.

I probably should have JUST had that and not the oat/chocolate thing I made because I was craving refreshing sweetness and instead that oat thing was more heavy sweetness.  This cantaloupe was REALLY good.

Last night I got everything ready for the gym in the morning but when my alarm went off I was so discombobulated that I hit snooze twice and fell back asleep.  So much for that plan.  7 hours is not enough sleep anymore and if I’m going to be getting up at 5:30, then I need to be asleep by 9:30.  That’s hard.

This morning, I made the half a banana smoothie:

In that bad boy:

-1 cup homemade almond milk
-1 scoop Mediclear protein powder
-1/2 small banana
-6 frozen strawberries
-~2 cups spinach
-2 TBSP ground flax
-1 tsp honey

The banana made all the difference!  Have I mentioned how much I want a Viatmix?  Yes, I REALLY want one.  But $400 on an appliance just isn’t in the budget right now 🙁

Oh and I saw my doctor yesterday-NO Hashimotos!  YAY!!!!!  I do have hypothyroidism and I am now taking some thyroid to help with it.  Let’s hope this is what I need to be 100%!

Tonight I had my recent “go to meal.” You know the one that you almost always have the ingredients for and the one that almost always sounds good.  But first, lunch!

This is a goulash that I made the other night. In that bowl is leeks, garlic, green beans, grass fed ground beef, salt, curry, coconut milk, and GF noodles.  I just threw it together last minute the other night and it was GOOD.

Here was my snack, with my new placemats:

~15 cashews and 5 strawberries.

And then, onto my go to dinner:

Rice, beans, avocado, and Tapatio.  YOM.  I also made some broccoli and brussels sprouts with garlic and a bit of coconut oil.  ‘Twas delish!

It was girl’s night while “Dada. Go. Bike.” (according to Lu).

Lu says “What?”

She no longer tolerates a baby fork. I tried to give her one since our smaller metal forks were all dirty but she begged for a metal one.  So I gave her a big one. Surprisingly, she did quite well.

She’s getting too cute for words.

Lastly, I had a really gross looking dessert.  I took about 1/4 cup oats, 2 TBSP ground flax, 2 TBSP water, 2 tsp honey, and 1 tsp cocoa powder and mixed it up and nuked it for about a minute.

It wasn’t my best concoction but it certainly wasn’t my worst!

Survivor’s on tonight!!!!  YIPPEE!!!