Thursday, January 5, 2012
Paleo and Couponing
Well last night my wife cooked another awesome meal. We ate steak stir fry, with garlic, green peppers and onions cooked in olive oil oil. We also had asparagus and home made trail mix that consisted of walnuts, almonds, dried cranberries, blueberries, apples and apricots. The best thing is my wife is what you would call an coupon extremist so we only spent a little over $8.00 for all of that plus squash, zuchinni, cabbage, potatoes and other vegetables. So far, this diet has fit in to our budget and hopefully it will continue to stay that way. Now I am not the expert on couponing so I am not going to go into great deal of length on that, but having a wife that is awesome at it and also teaches classes on couponing is an awesome thing. Slowly but surely my little family is jumping on the Paleo ban wagon. It is an awesome sight to see my girls want fruit or trail mix, instead of pop tarts and other sugar filled snacks that they have been use to eating.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Happy New Year
Hey guys and gals HAPPY belated NEW YEAR. Been traveling a lot, you know home from Afghanistan, then to SC, then to FL and back. Eating pretty dang good too. Just last night we had Spinach Stew for dinner. Yeah so now that I am getting my wife and kids on the diet, my wife is coming up with her own recipes. Look forward to helping or at least sharing my experiences as I changed my lifestyle and became paleo eater.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Traveling
Man traveling sucks.... A long flight, just to get to the ATL and find the earliest flight to Fayetteville is completely full so here I sit in the airport just pondering on what to do. I guess the answer to that is pretty easy....get on Facebook...Blog some...Twitter some and maybe read a little. It's not like I can get in my car and leave so I have to make the best of it.
The flight here was hard trying to stick to the Paleo diet. Most airlines give out nuts or some other type of snacks, not Omni. Our option was candy bags and soda and now I feel like I have been hit by a train. Not eating isn't good for me either. So what did I do you ask well, I had some candy bars asked for bottle of water but kept getting the little cups of water that are on flights. So I broke down got a pepsi, then a coke, and another coke. Aw eating well I ate the chicken breast meal, both times. The first was served with rice, nope I did not give in did not eat the rice or all the other wheat stuff in the box that I was giving. The second was served with mashed potatoes and veggies. So I devoured that thing, to include the thing they called a salad. Then it was down to the last serving a sandwich. So I ate jut the meat, broke down one more time and ate the salt/vinegar potato chips(so good). Then landing in ATL, hungry again, no debit card, no cash. Oh wait I have a ten euro in my wallet, ah found it got 11.10 in exchange. So I broke down after going from this check-in counter to that trying to get an earlier flight, yea right. So I passed a checkers, looked at my other choices. So broke down and ate a burger. Well you know it is not the perfect Paelo meal plan. But what do you do, not saying that what I ate was even good choices but they where mine, guess later tonight I will pay the price. So fun to travel.
Friday, December 30, 2011
MEALS
My typical daily meals include:
Breakfast: Three or four scrambled eggs with diced ham, peppers and tomatoes,two slices of bacon, two slices of sausage and fruit. My fruit may consist of pineapple, cantaloupe, honey dew or bananas depending on what is available. I normally drink cranberry juice or pineapple juice.
Lunch: (Typical Monday in the DFAC); Two hamburger patties(no bun), vegetables,salad and a water.
Dinner (Typical Monday in DFAC); Chicken tenders, vegetables, salad and water.
I am currently deployed so there are not many choices on vegetables but a typical salad consist of lettuce, red and green peppers,carrots, cucumbers and bacon,ham or turkey. I will top the salad off with fat free Italian Dressing.
Breakfast: Three or four scrambled eggs with diced ham, peppers and tomatoes,two slices of bacon, two slices of sausage and fruit. My fruit may consist of pineapple, cantaloupe, honey dew or bananas depending on what is available. I normally drink cranberry juice or pineapple juice.
Lunch: (Typical Monday in the DFAC); Two hamburger patties(no bun), vegetables,salad and a water.
Dinner (Typical Monday in DFAC); Chicken tenders, vegetables, salad and water.
I am currently deployed so there are not many choices on vegetables but a typical salad consist of lettuce, red and green peppers,carrots, cucumbers and bacon,ham or turkey. I will top the salad off with fat free Italian Dressing.
I Never thought, But you gotta read this
As I prepare to start college as a fourteen year military veteran, I sit back and think about how I would be if I had started the Paleo diet back in 2001.
2001: I was stationed at Fort Bragg for the first time and I decided to start a high protein diet. However, I made a few big mistakes, I did not cut out my soft drinks or Alcohol so I consumed loads of carbohydrates and I was not getting the rest I needed. Needless to say, my weight hiked to 240lbs, went on my version of the Paleo diet and lost about 25lbs. I held that weight off for around a year but during that time I was married and then divorced and as most everyone knows when divorce happens it is rough so it had an effect on my weight again. I PCS'ed to Germany and did two-15 month tours in Iraq while going on and off my high protein, low carb diet.
2007: I had a great time in Germany BUT I left Germany in 2007 weighing over 250lbs. My neck got very large and to this day my neck is what kept me from getting the Uncle Sam boot out of the door.
2008: I find myself back at Fort Bragg, still over 250lbs, showed up from Fort Irwin CA, Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) failure, busted tape(was 4.5 percent over the Army’s allotted height and weight scale). At the time I was 72inches tall, 258lbs, 17.5 inch neck and a 44 inch waist. I started another diet, the pill popping, going to the gym, running my butt off diet. The only problem was that I hurt everyday. I was doing it meeting the Army’s minimum requirement to stay in but not get kicked out.
2011: I have lost enough weight to pass an APFT and weighh in. Hooray! So I am now in my third unit finding myself en-route for Afghanistan. My wife is pregnant,we have a one year old, and a 5 year old when I leave. I was still big(a size 38). We get here in Afghanistan and it is just a joy. I get assigned as a security force section NCOIC. I have some gung ho troopers and an LT with a Nutrition degree so we worked out like crazy. LT taught us proper lifting techniques, proper dieting, and life changing decisions.
One day while in the mess hall, someone asks the LT, “Sir what do I need to do to loose weight?” and Lt replies,"Change your diet and make it a life changing diet, not a 30 or 40 or even a 60 day diet." I looked at him and thought to myself hmmmmm, I can do that and I am tired of being fat and over weight. Later on, I overheard LT talking to another NCO about this book wrote by Robb Wolf, I did not get all the details, but I was in and just needed to know what to do. Lt proceeded to explain to me what was going to happen and we started two days later than moved to another Base in Afghanistan. We had been working out together, eating, and almost everything for about four months then September roles around and I am headed home on Emergency leave. I arrive home telling my wife what I can and cannot eat but two days into being home, I open the fridge and to my dismay there were no eggs, bacon, or anything that I could really eat. As I'm trying to figure out what to do, my soon to be two year old comes down stairs wanting a pop-tart and like always I give her one. My stomach is growling so I decided to eat the other one in the pack. Now I had been on this diet plan for just over 35 days. I ate that pop-tart, and I paid for it dearly.
Now back to Afghanistan...I Get back and we do a weighh in, I was 218 and after the taping of my abs and neck I was 5% under my allotted percentage then Thanksgiving roles around I eat me some pie....by God it is Thanksgiving and I am in Afghanistan so I think I at least deserve a piece but boy did I pay for it….yep bathroom bound. Now It is almost 2012, I sit in a coffee shop in Kuwait, waiting to leave for my R/R leave. I have put on 4lbs since my weigh in and itcould be fat but I highly doubt it. It is more than likely water because on December 1st the outside temp dropped like crazy but all that aside I had been living about 80% Paleo. For four months I have been living and working in combat theater on the Paleo/Caveman diet. Has it been easy?No, but it has been fun. I've enjoyed getting to learn from my LT, reading books on it and now I'm getting to going to college for my degree. This deployment has sucked but I have gotten things in order. My wife and kids are starting Paleo with in the next few days. This journey is going to be even better with my close family and even extended family starting on the Paleo diet.
2001: I was stationed at Fort Bragg for the first time and I decided to start a high protein diet. However, I made a few big mistakes, I did not cut out my soft drinks or Alcohol so I consumed loads of carbohydrates and I was not getting the rest I needed. Needless to say, my weight hiked to 240lbs, went on my version of the Paleo diet and lost about 25lbs. I held that weight off for around a year but during that time I was married and then divorced and as most everyone knows when divorce happens it is rough so it had an effect on my weight again. I PCS'ed to Germany and did two-15 month tours in Iraq while going on and off my high protein, low carb diet.
2007: I had a great time in Germany BUT I left Germany in 2007 weighing over 250lbs. My neck got very large and to this day my neck is what kept me from getting the Uncle Sam boot out of the door.
2008: I find myself back at Fort Bragg, still over 250lbs, showed up from Fort Irwin CA, Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) failure, busted tape(was 4.5 percent over the Army’s allotted height and weight scale). At the time I was 72inches tall, 258lbs, 17.5 inch neck and a 44 inch waist. I started another diet, the pill popping, going to the gym, running my butt off diet. The only problem was that I hurt everyday. I was doing it meeting the Army’s minimum requirement to stay in but not get kicked out.
2011: I have lost enough weight to pass an APFT and weighh in. Hooray! So I am now in my third unit finding myself en-route for Afghanistan. My wife is pregnant,we have a one year old, and a 5 year old when I leave. I was still big(a size 38). We get here in Afghanistan and it is just a joy. I get assigned as a security force section NCOIC. I have some gung ho troopers and an LT with a Nutrition degree so we worked out like crazy. LT taught us proper lifting techniques, proper dieting, and life changing decisions.
One day while in the mess hall, someone asks the LT, “Sir what do I need to do to loose weight?” and Lt replies,"Change your diet and make it a life changing diet, not a 30 or 40 or even a 60 day diet." I looked at him and thought to myself hmmmmm, I can do that and I am tired of being fat and over weight. Later on, I overheard LT talking to another NCO about this book wrote by Robb Wolf, I did not get all the details, but I was in and just needed to know what to do. Lt proceeded to explain to me what was going to happen and we started two days later than moved to another Base in Afghanistan. We had been working out together, eating, and almost everything for about four months then September roles around and I am headed home on Emergency leave. I arrive home telling my wife what I can and cannot eat but two days into being home, I open the fridge and to my dismay there were no eggs, bacon, or anything that I could really eat. As I'm trying to figure out what to do, my soon to be two year old comes down stairs wanting a pop-tart and like always I give her one. My stomach is growling so I decided to eat the other one in the pack. Now I had been on this diet plan for just over 35 days. I ate that pop-tart, and I paid for it dearly.
Now back to Afghanistan...I Get back and we do a weighh in, I was 218 and after the taping of my abs and neck I was 5% under my allotted percentage then Thanksgiving roles around I eat me some pie....by God it is Thanksgiving and I am in Afghanistan so I think I at least deserve a piece but boy did I pay for it….yep bathroom bound. Now It is almost 2012, I sit in a coffee shop in Kuwait, waiting to leave for my R/R leave. I have put on 4lbs since my weigh in and itcould be fat but I highly doubt it. It is more than likely water because on December 1st the outside temp dropped like crazy but all that aside I had been living about 80% Paleo. For four months I have been living and working in combat theater on the Paleo/Caveman diet. Has it been easy?No, but it has been fun. I've enjoyed getting to learn from my LT, reading books on it and now I'm getting to going to college for my degree. This deployment has sucked but I have gotten things in order. My wife and kids are starting Paleo with in the next few days. This journey is going to be even better with my close family and even extended family starting on the Paleo diet.
Coming Soon!!
My wife is currently gathering recipe ideas for me to share on the blog. Hope to be sharing with y’all soon.
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