On his actual birthday my husband took the day off from work and drove us up to New York City to go to the American Museum of Natural History. What an amazing place and what a treat for a five-year-old boy who loves dinosaurs. We saw the skeletons of many kinds of dinosaurs including a tyrannosaurus rex, stegasaurus and a saber tooth tiger.
We attempted to see an IMAX film but it was too loud for my kids. Money down the drain but we were okay with that. My son also enjoyed the musuem's discovery room which was geared towards kids his age and then we got in the car to go to a restaurant. Well, the excitement of the day must have gotten to my son because he threw up as soon as we got back in New Jersey. So, no restaurant trip for us (I was so looking forward to those ostrich medallions!) but he was all recovered by the time we got home and enjoyed a very big piece of birthday cake.
Obviously, this was a trying time to stick to the paleo diet but I managed to avoid the pitfalls (mostly). I only had a small lick of the frosting and didn't have any cake or cupcakes at all (I was quite tempted too!). I told myself that if my son noticed my not eating cake I would have a piece. However, he was too involved with his yummy treat to notice that I only had some dried figs. I did give in on the trip home from NYC to have a cup of Starbucks coffee. I got a small white chocolate mocha. The first two sips I was in heaven but after a few more I was kind of repulsed by the sweetness of it and the dairy taste. Remember I haven't had any dairy or sugar in three weeks (honey in two weeks) so my tastebuds have acclimated to appreciating the sweetness of things like fruit and sweet vegetables like carrots or winter squash. The next day, I had pimples on a face that had mostly cleared up and I was completely exhausted. I'm not sure how much of that can be attributed to all the walking I did rather than the coffee concoction but I don't believe that the coffee had any positive effect on me.
The good news is that at the end of three and a half weeks on this diet I have lost 9.5 pounds. My clothes feel somewhat looser on me and my husband has definitely noticed the change in me. He tells me that I look so skinny and that it makes him want to start losing weight too. I see most of the change in my face and my belly. I still have some mommy tummy going on but I no longer look four months pregnant. Hooray! In addition, my energy levels have been somewhat better. I found myself doing a lot of cleaning and organizing last week when I had my period, a time I'm normally completely drained and sloth-like. I'm not as irritable and I have been spending more time with the kids. They still annoy the heck out of me a good deal of the time but I'm not losing my temper quite as much. All positive changes that are encouraging me to stick with the program. I'm hoping that next week I can switch my Wii Fit to EA Active. I'm able to do 30 minutes in the afternoon on Wii Fit and I'm not sore so I think that's a sign I need to do something a little more strenuous. Oh, I saw the chiropractor last night and he had a lot of positive things to say about my spine. Of course, he attributed it to the work he's been doing but I think a good part of the improvement is due to my stretching and doing yoga in the a.m. They've helped to get the nighttime kinks out of my back so I'm not quite as disabled first thing in the morning.
In terms of food, last week I made a yummy beef stew. I used a lot of turnips and rutabagas to make up for the lack of potatoes. Frankly, I didn't miss them. I do still have cravings for french fries and I probably always will. However, everytime I'm tempted I think how poorly I felt about myself when my "big girl clothes" were getting snug. That's enough to keep me in line.
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