When I have no willpower

These past few days have tested my willpower and I have found myself lacking. What happened? Well, I'll tell you...

On Tuesday morning, I had a nice little trip to the orthodontist, where I received a partial retainer. This retainer spans the front six teeth on my bottom jaw and will readjust my teeth which are starting to crowd. Seriously, am I that vain that I want to correct a slight crowding that I promise nobody but me notices? Fortunately, no. Apparently small bottom jaws and jaw clenching runs in my family. And I've noticed my teeth have moved and gotten more crowded over the past 6 months. So I'm trying to be proactive and correct an issue that will only get worse with age by using a removable retainer, which is cheaper and faster than doing something like Invisalign, which would move ALL of my teeth instead of just the front ones. Clearly I am vain enough that I refused to get braces at age 25. Thanks, but no.

So, my orthodontist started by flossing my teeth with sandpaper. Yeah, it's about as exciting as it sounds. The sandpaper floss trimmed down the sides of my teeth to allow space for them to be realigned. Then he ninja-ed this small concoction of metal and plastic onto my teeth. OWWW! It felt like it was wedged into place and never coming out. Anyways, the whole thing took maybe 15 minutes and I managed to get to work (10 minutes away) by 8 when I had a 7:30 a.m. appointment. At least they're prompt, right?

I lasted at work for a few hours before I decided that I needed to eat something, since I hadn't eaten breakfast. (I had forgotten that I had the appointment until 20 minutes before I was supposed to be there. Oops.) I removed the retainer, breathed a sigh of relief, and carefully started eating my Guacamole To-Go. After flossing and brushing my teeth, it was time to reinsert the retainer. Luckily I was in the bathroom for this event, because I totally broke down crying. That would have been awkward at my desk. One of my co-workers was kind enough to give me some Advil, which held me over for a bit, but the pain was enough to drive me to distraction. After struggling to focus on work, I eventually gave up and went home 30 minutes earlier than I intended.

What did I do after leaving work? Went to Whole Foods to pick up some dinner. 

What did I end up getting in addition to dinner? Chocolate almond coconut ice cream, Miles of Chocolate (gluten-free brownie), and dark chocolate covered cocoa nibs. Yep. Within 48 hours of finished 21DSD, I went wild with chocolate. Because I apparently have NO self control when I don't feel well and am in pain. Must work on that. I've had candy since getting the retainer (letting the chocolate melt in my mouth).

And the toughest part? My standby vegetable snacks from 21DSD are too hard. Eating carrots is next to impossible with how sore my front teeth are. And while eating a carrot using the side of your mouth like Bugs Bunny is cool and all, it's just plain ridiculous to try. I've been chewing a lot of things with my molars the last few days. Like the rib-eye steak I ate half of for lunch today.

So what healthy Paleo snacky foods can I have that are light n the chewing front? I dunno. Avocado. Grapes? Pre-cut pear? Suggestions anyone?

Guacamole To-Go

What do you do when you have half of an avocado left-over from breakfast? And how do you keep it from going all brown and gross? Easy peasy. Let's make some guacamole.

Guacamole To-Go

1/2 avocado with pit

5 drops lime juice

sprinkle each of

 -garlic salt

 -pepper

 -cumin

 -cayenne pepper

 -chili powder

Cut your avocado in half, use the half without the pit for something else. Rub the lime juice over the other half of the avocado. Then, sprinkle the spices/salt over the flesh. (Keeping the pit will keep a bit more surface area from being exposed to oxygen and turning brown. Lime juice helps, too.) And that's it. Store in a Ziploc bag, trying to get as much air out of the bag as possible. Then eat later.

The photo above shows the avocado 6 hours after I prepped it. Still looks nice and green to me.

21DSD - Follow-up

Well folks, I finished! I will admit that I didn't do a FULL 21 days. I made it to day 20. So in one way you could say that I failed because I didn't last the full time, but it wasn't like I gave in to a craving. One of the women on my crew team invited me to a crepe-making party at her friend's house on Saturday night. I was super excited to be invited and potentially start cultivating a new friendship, so I didn't want to go into my little spiel of "I follow this thing called the Paleo diet" as we stood outside of the Panera Bread where our team socializes after our Saturday and Sunday morning practices. And it's weird to say, "Yes! I want to go to a crepe-making party. Oh, but just so you know, I'm not going to eat any crepes. Or the fruits or cheeses that you want to put inside the crepes... In fact, just give me a bowl of meat and I'll be good." So I made the conscious decision to just eat crepes. They tasted pretty good, but it wasn't some mind-blowingly awesome experience for my taste buds. And by the time I came home, my stomach was super bloated. Bummer.

I cut out sugar for 20 days. And I decree that it was good. Here's what I learned, or re-learned, about myself (in no particular order):

1. I am so very much better at cutting things out completely than trying to do this thing called moderation.

2. I don't really crave sweets during the day. I mainly just crave distractions. For instance, when something particularly stresses, upsets, frustrates, or bores me, I like to have a mini break to give myself a chance to regroup, which usually comes in the form of a snack. It gives me an opportunity to get up, walk away from my desk, and possibly talk/vent to someone else.

3. I can have fun without drinking (like Memorial Day weekend).

4. I need to cut down on my consumption of nuts. I found that I replaced my fruits/sweets snacking with almond butter, which means I probably consumed too many nuts and my stomach didn't appreciate it. I must remember that while our ancestors were hunter-gatherers, they didn't have easy access to pounds of conveniently shelled nuts.

5. There are a few things that truly excite me to think about or talk about. One of them is Paleo; another is crew. And I'm loving that I'm doing both right now. Even though waking up early on the weekends is difficult to do because that means I have to restrain my socializing and night life a bit, I ALWAYS feel happier after crew practice. And I often find myself thinking about blog posts as I go about my day. I'll be walking to my car and thinking about how I want to write about the benefits of apple cider vinegar, or working out and thinking about analyzing the benefits of combining a good workout routine with Paleo and how it's hard an intense workout routine will affect how many starchy foods you'd consume while doing Paleo (i.e., sweet potatoes).

6. I still need to find a suitable balance of work, cooking, blogging, working out, and hanging out with friends. Currently, the working out portion has been absent from most week days. Maybe I just need to learn to blog faster? Is that possible? I don't often proof-read what I write as it is now. I'm not sure if I can speed that up.

7. I have a nervous habit. I pick at my lips... like literally pick at the skin of my lips, and if my lips aren't completely smooth, I end up pulling off any imperfections. I really dislike imperfections.

8. I have a hard time planning out food for the week. As much as I would love to cook everything up in advance and plan easily based on the foodstuffs that I have available, I still haven't perfected that skill. That's something I intend to work on.

9. I need to take a two-prong approach to caring for my body: internally and externally. Eating healthy is a good call, but I think it should be supplemented by taking care of your skin, hair, and eyes, so that you don't get sunburned, don't strain your eyes too much by too much sun or improper eyewear, and don't fry your hair with hair dryers, curlers, straighteners, etc. I've invested in castor oil, grapeseed oil, jojoba oil, and additional coconut oil for a skin care regimen.

I'm sure I recognized/learned more things, but that's all I can think of right now.

Oh, and I apologize for not posting much last week. I tried to "catch-up", but I got distracted by prioritizing hanging out with friends instead of blogging. As much as I love talking about Paleo and how it pertains to my life, there are some times when I'd really like to talk (or write) to something or someone that will talk back. Sadly, or fortunately, my blog has not yet developed a mind of its own. So last Friday, I cooked this up for breakfast. Every once in a while, I like my breakfast to be all fancy-like: Lamb chops with fried egg, avocado, and bacon. Magic in your mouth!

I met up with my girl KAOS for Tex-Mex dinner. It took them two tries to get my order of carne asada right. The first try was some pork thing. Who knows. Anyways, she came over to chill with me while I started packing. We ended up watching a musical (singing and dancing) episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I first saw this episode three-and-a-half years ago at a Buffy Musical Sing-a-long, held at a nearby park. My college buddy MN was kind enough to let me drag him along so I didn't have to go by myself. (In case you haven't noticed, I really like going to random things like sing-a-longs, celtic festivals, and obscure sporting events.)

So that's some of things I ate this weekend. As well as a spinach and sausage crepe with a tomato paste-based sauce.

In case you're wondering what went into the crepes, we made neutral (neither sweet or savory) crepes. The recipe was:

1 kg flour

2 L whole milk

12 eggs

Pan fry with a little bit of vegetable oil. Easy, right? And TOTALLY non-Paleo.