A Better Week!

Update! I have started to lose weight again despite pigging out on tortilla chips during the Super Bowl. Yes, I know that tortilla chips aren't in keeping with the paleo diet but it was a craving I just couldn't resist. Hopefully, I got it out of my system and I won't slide again (at least for awhile!). So, as of today, I have lost 10.5 pounds since the beginning of January and my clothes are definitely fitting better. Hooray! I am hopeful that I will meet my goal by the end of the month - only one more pound to go. Then, I will set my next goal of ten more pounds by June 1. Then, I will be back to the weight I was before I got married.

But getting back to the Super Bowl... I may be a cranky old lady but did some of the Super Bowl ads bother anyone else? It was hard to find an ad that didn't feature a woman scantily clad and for no good reason. Take for example, monster.com's ad of the beaver violinist. At the end of the ad it shows him reclining in a hot tub with a bikin-clad woman. Okay, I know that they're stretching reality with a violin-playing beaver to begin with but why would he be attracted to a human? The ad was really funny and eye-catching on its own without them throwing that in.

Then, the ad for Bridgestone tires has a man placing more value on his tires than his wife who is wearing some kind of tight black latex top. The Bud Light ads weren't exactly enlightened either in terms of their portrayal of women but that wasn't a big surprise as it was a beer commercial.

Dockers and Dodge both played on fears of male emasculation. Um, I really liked that car for myself by the way. Maybe they should've thought of viewers like me when they created that ad.

I know that the Super Bowl is supposed to be all about being macho but there are women viewers. According to marketingprofs.com in an article by Gary Myers:

• Who watches the Super Bowl? Approximately 100 million viewers, with more than 40 percent of them women.
• Who spends the most money as a consumer? Women spend approximately 85 percent; men spend only 15 percent.
• Who focuses more on the game—and who on the commercials? Though many women love football, and a lot of men enjoy seeing the new commercials, women focus more on the commercials... and men more on the game.

So, it seems like maybe the advertisers should be targeting their ads more to women during the Super Bowl. I'm not saying that there should be ads for tampons or makeup but maybe show a little more respect for women when creating an ad for beer or tires. We are not property and we're not out to emasculate all men - really we're not. Putting us down is not going to get us to buy your products.

My son has his five-year checkup with the doctor this morning. I have a lot to discuss with the pediatrician so I'm hoping I can keep alert. I had a hard time sleeping last night because of all the congestion from this cold. I am so ready for winter to be over!

Two weeks down of the Paleo Diet!

This is getting easier now. It's been two weeks since I've started the Paleo Diet. So, that means, I haven't had any grains, dairy, soy, potatoes, sweet potatoes, legumes or coffee in two weeks. I haven't had any processed foods at all. In addition, I've eliminate sugar, stevia, maple syrup and honey from my diet. I think that honey or maple syrup will occasionally make it's way into my diet but for now it's out. In addition, I've tried increasing my activity level. In the mornings I wake up and do some stretching, crunches and push ups and some strength training with some light weights.In the afternoons I do some Wii Fit, trying to get a balance of cardio, strength training and yoga for about 30 minutes. The end result has been a weight loss total of six pounds and counting. I feel less irritable and my clothes are starting to fit a little better. To celebrate I had one itty bitty square of dark chocolate this afternoon. Since it was nearly 80% dark cocoa I felt satisfied even with such a small amount.

I do have some small cravings and I have to fight some bad habits I used to have. The other day there was a smidgeon of homemade bread left on the counter. Like I did in the past, I picked that piece up and started to pop it into my mouth. I stopped myself in time and put it in the trash instead. Another time I nearly cleaned a serving spoon off that had some brown rice on it. Again, I stopped myself before I ate it. However, this made me reflect on something. Whether or not I believe that grains have a negative effect on my body it certainly wasn't helping my weight to be popping a little smidgeon here or a spoonful there of stuff into my mouth. Little things like that really add up over the day. It pays to be conscious of what we're putting in our bodies and to really think about what we're eating.

I got a little creative with my lunch today. It's a cold, rainy day here and I simply couldn't bear the idea of a cold salad - my usual lunchtime choice. So, I opened the refrigerator to see what was there and ended up making a kale soup instead. I came up with this without the help of a recipe and I'm happy to say it was delicious. I heated up two cups of frozen turkey stock (thank you Doug for going to the trouble of making that from the turkey carcass last Thanksgiving and freezing many containers of it), added a choppped up onion, a chopped up garlic clove and a chopped up carrot. Let it cook until those vegetables were tender and then added a whole bunch of chopped up kale, covered it and simmered for about 10 minutes. Then, I added some chopped up turkey bacon (nitrate free!) at the end just long enough for that to get warm. I felt so full and satisfied with this lunch and it was nice and soothing on such a yucky day. This is what my bowl of good stuff looked like:


Here's hoping I'll be posting a similar success story next weekend. My son is having a fifth birthday party on Sunday and I'll be making cupcakes for him and his friends. It may be very difficult to resist that tempation. Regardless of how I do that day I am going to allow myself a small piece of cake on his actual birthday. It will be interesting to see how I feel the next day.