Weekly Menu

GAPS
Specific Carbohydrate Diet
Weston A. Price
Paleo Diet
Nourishing Traditions
BED

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone out there? I'm telling you I have spent hours doing research on nutrition. Hours and hours and hours. I've been reading that the things we have been told to eat for weight loss/health (soy products, low fat dairy, butter substitutes, whole grains, canola oil for example) are actually things we should avoid. And the things we have been told to avoid for weight loss or because they are unhealthy (such as bacon, lard, full fat dairy products, eggs, coconut oil, butter) are actually good for us! Who knew?! Not me. Basically they all say that it's not saturated fats that are the link to heart disease, it's the over consumption of processed foods and grains.

It's exactly the opposite of what I have been told for years and it's certainly not what the US food pyramid reflects so it's hard to wrap my mind around it, but the one thing that is hard for me to ignore is they all embrace real food and home cooked meals which I know are better for us. I still have so much to learn about this, but I must say I feel better cooking my daughter's meals from scratch because I know exactly what she's eating and I like eating real foods, too. Doesn't hurt that I have read many, many testimonials that say that eating like they do has cured people of all sorts of ailments. And I know I feel more energetic and have been getting lots of compliments. At least three people have said I look younger!

I kind of chuckled to myself when my friend was over this weekend and I was preparing grain- free waffles. She said something to the effect of, 'You know you are teaching your daughter that you should cook and prepare all these goodies. You should be careful.' I was like, "That's exactly what I want to teach her! That things should be prepared at home from scratch because they are healthier." My goodies are typically grain-free and prepared with maple syrup or honey. They are tens times healthier than anything store bought and I am proud of that.

Anyway, on to this week's menus. From now on I am only planning five. Two days can either be leftovers or I will eat out when I have a sitter. I have decided we will have soup twice a week for the rest of the winter. It's economical and filling.

Monday- Spaghetti
We will eat jarred sauce from Trader Joe's (can't cook everything from scratch!) and serve it with rice noodles (yes, we are trying to eat fewer grains -- starting with wheat)

Tuesday - Roasted Chicken and Carrot Kugel.. still haven't made it!
Will pick up a roasted chicken from Whole Foods on the way home as well as some fish and lettuce. Chicken is on sale on Tuesday.

Wednesday - Broccoli Cheese Soup. I am hoping she will like broccoli this way.
Or maybe Egg Drop Soup.

Thursday - Spinach Ricotta Chicken Bake

Friday - Butternut Squash Soup (using the chicken bones to make the stock) and Green Salad

Other things I may make this week if I have the energy:

Bread.
Baked apples.
Pumpkin bars.

I'll post the recipes in a separate post.

And there you have it! Now on to the stats:

Weight - 147.6 My scale is acting kinda wonky and giving me totally different readings each time. This weight came up twice though so I went with it. Maybe it's time for a new battery? I need to edit last week's comment based on what I have learned this week. Nuts and fats are fattening, yes, but when you eat grain-free (which I was not) weight gain doesn't happen. I did eat better last week though, hence the weight loss... even though I ate Reese's Cups and pizza! Next week will be better. I have my cream cheese brownies to bring to work for my sugar cravings. ;-)
Vitamins - most days
Joint Pain - minimal
Exercise - none... but look what I bought:



Wish me luck!
Have a great week!