Blogging the Menu: Day 106-108

Two days in Milwaukee for computer training.  You know who was in the class?  Me.  That's it.  Just me.  In a "101" computer class for a program I already kind of know how to use.  Zeus bless the instructors.  It has to be awkward teaching a "class" of one.  Especially when that one is a tattooed loudmouth with multicolored hair and a deep love of cursing.  They were both pretty cool, though.  I'd go out drinking with them.

It wasn't a complete waste of time, but it was a little fucked up that I had to drive all the way to Milwaukee and stay in a hotel for it.  On the plus side, I got to have dinner with an old friend (meaning we've been friends for a long time, not that she is-or I am-old) and go to Trader Joe's.  Trader Joe's is a wonderful place full of whole foods and creative candy.  And wine for three dollars.  Three dollars.  I clearly bought some.  I didn't drink it, but I bought some.  I was tempted to drink it.  Really tempted.

On to the menu!

Here's Thursday's menu:  RxBar for breakfast, JJ un-wich for lunch, and a three course dinner at the Rumpus Room in Milwaukee.  Holy shit do you need to eat at the Rumpus Room the next time you're down there.  We had an appetizer that boils down to "You there!  Bring meat and cheese!  Enough for two ravenous women!"  It was a platter of two kinds of meat (a salami and some mortadella), three kinds of cheese, figs, cranberries, honey, and olives.  The brought bread, too, but who gives a shit about bread when there's a plate of meat and cheese?  The second course was a salad with beef carpaccio and grapefruit sections.  Deeeeeeeeelicious.  The main course we split.  Seared scallops, sweet potato puree and brussels sprouts sauteed with side pork.  Amazing.  So I had cheese, and one beer.  Off with my head.

Friday?  Dried fruit and nuts and coffee for "breakfast", then nothing until I got home around 2pm.  Training finished up early, so I just hammered home.  Then proceeded to eat several venison sticks.  Dinner was mandarin chicken prepared by my loving husband.

Atop some spaghetti squash.

I ate some cherries for a snack later on.  Trader Joe's has the most amazing selection of unsweetened dried fruit.

Lovely.

Today things got back to normal.  I went to the gym (seriously my first "real" workout is over a week) and had some free WOD fun.  I made breakfast like normal.

I couldn't finish all the pancakes.  When you use 2 eggs it ends up being a lot of food.

My husband made spaghetti sauce on Thursday while I was gone.  It's even better after it's set for a day or two.  This recipe (from Well Fed 2) calls for balsamic vinegar and it has a fantastic bite.

Seriously, get in my belly.

I found a lonely packet of prosciutto in the fridge, so I made porkitos.  Porkitos and dried cherries were a perfectly nice snack.  I ate them in front of the dog.  She was not amused.

It's fucking bacon chips.

We made bacon wrapped chicken strips and roasted broccoli for dinner.  First go at this, and they were pretty good.  I think the oven was too full, because they didn't get as crunchy as I expected.  Still a winner, though, and the kids gobbled them up.

I mean, what's not to like?

 Then I had a little after dinner treat.

Amaretti.

Tomorrow I have to take the kids to the gym for the challenge club meeting.  I'm debating taking the dog.  That might be a little ridiculous.  We'll see.

I was having this "Ermahgerd, husband works on Sunday!  When am I going to get a run in?!?" and then I remembered I don't have to work until 9pm on Thursday!!  I can run whenever I want!  Monday I'm going to CF at 9:15 and say hi to the group I used to work out with.  Tuesday will be 5:15 with my usual crew.  Wednesday 9:15 and the kids are at daycare/school so afterwards I'm going to hit the FRT for 5ish miles.  I am psyched.  One week of shadowing, then a whole week off, then it's on.  

I've got cleaning, cooking, and garden building to do!  So much time to accomplish whatever I want!  There may even be time for sock knitting.  

All my CF and running people that I've hardly seen these last two weeks?  I'm coming back!  

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Blogging the Menu: Days 103-105

Can I just tell you how hard it is to do a daily blog with a new puppy?  Pretty fucking hard.  Electrical cords are apparently delicious, because the animal has been attempting to eat every one in the house since Sunday. I've been more successful at blogging than getting to the gym, and that's a little pathetic.

All that's about to change, though.  I worked my last non-third shift today.  I have 2 days of out of town computer training to round out the week and then I'm officially a third shifter.  I can't wait for everything to settle into a routine again.  I'm over my cold and the weather is improving which makes me itch to run, but everything has been so AAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAaaaaAAAAAaaaaAAaAAAaaaa around here for the last 2 weeks that I can't work, care for all the small humans in the house, constantly keep an eagle eye on the new dog, workout, AND sleep.  Something had to give, and it was the gym.  Fortunately, the cafeteria has been providing plenty of healthy meals and we've been cooking at home as well so at least foodwise I'm still on track.

I am so looking forward to a daily workout.  10 days off is tooooooo looooooong.  I forgot how to do everything active.  Well, we've been walking the dog...

On to the menu!
I forgot to take a picture of my breakfast on Monday.  It was 2 eggs, bacon, and pineapple.  Nice and Zoney.  Lunch was leftover chili with zoodles.  The zoodles make this.  It is so good, and was better the second day.  Sunday night I slept for shit because I was on puppy duty and she got up every single goddamn hour.  Nature makes babies cute for a reason.  So you won't kill them in a sleep deprivation induced rage.

Dog in the kennel, kids napping.

My sock club shipment arrived, and being the 90 year old lady I am, I was very excited.  I get a skein of sock yarn, 2 patterns for socks, and 2 cookie recipes.  This shipment included a recipe for Amaretti, which I made paleo by subbing raw honey for the sugar.  They are beautiful and delicious.  And pretty Zoney, truthfully.  Made with eggwhite, almonds, and honey, they hit all the Big Three.  Definitely a "sometimes" treat, but not the worst thing for a person.

Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.

I made Rosemary Pork Burgers for dinner.  This recipe is so beautiful and simple with such a bright flavor.  I love it.  I stuffed this one with goat cheese and it was divine.  Just pan fried as I couldn't operate the grill, and simultaneously watch the children and the dog.  Oh, BTW?  Kids will try to murder each other the moment you begin food prepping or pick up a knife.  A new puppy will try to murder the children or shit on your carpet the moment you put your hands in raw meat.  I learned a valuable lesson:  KENNEL THE DOG WHILE YOU COOK.

Seriously the best use of goat cheese ever.

Tuesday I worked a day shift after 2 nights of minimal sleep.  Getting the kids off to school and making it to work on time went shockingly well considering my general state of hhhhuuuuuuhhhhh?  But I sure as shit wasn't together enough to pack a lunch.  Cafeteria to the rescue.

Ye olde standebye.

And because being tired makes me hollow and I'm basically a Hobbit:

Second breakfast.

The resident thought the combo was odd because fruit is so healthy and bacon is not.  But she had candy for breakfast, so I let that slide.  I went down to the chemo cave to learn about an aspect of the computer system that I'll have to use infrequently.  At around 2 I was hungry for lunch, so here it is.  Chicken salad and tea.

Boring, but easy.

The hubs made meatballs for dinner.

Mmmmmmeatballs!

This morning I felt a little better since I was off dog duty last night and actually got a reasonable amount of sleep.  I barely made it to work on time, though, so cafeteria it was again.

I spend a lot of time isolating the pineapple.

Lunch was build your own nachos.  For me that means meat, lettuce, tomato, olives, jalapeno, and a shitload of guac.  

Not exactly nachos.

Dinner was leftover pork burgers and roasted cauliflower.  Serviceable.  I'm teaching myself to enjoy cauliflower florets.  It's going....okay.

Pork burgers are awesome.

I haven't been snacking as I should.  Mostly this is because my meals have been closer to 4 or 5 blocks than 3 as I haven't been making them at home as often.  I also haven't felt hungry between meals because of that fact, so I haven't been "eating just to eat".  My second breakfast day was an exception, of course.  I've had a few Amaretti, which I think counts as they are calorie dense and relatively complete.  The cafeteria isn't 24 hours, so once I'm third shifting it I won't be able to rely on it.  I'll also have plenty of time in the evenings to make my meals and I'm looking forward to it.  

So pretty.

After a week of consciously trying to remain "in the Zone" I've been pretty successful.  I haven't really noticed excessive hunger, and if I've felt hungry "early" it's because I forgot to eat my snack or there was an imbalance in my previous meal that I was able to correct.  I lost just shy of 2 pounds, which is fairly impressive as I feel like all I do is stuff my face.  I don't feel deprived (except for cheese which I want all the time) and aside from the stress I cause myself by not getting enough veg carbs (who can eat that much salad/veg?  I ASK YOU WHO?  OR WHOM? OR WHATEVER IS GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT) I've been reasonably chill about it.

I wonder if I could find the 150s again.  It's only 6lbs away...and perhaps that 29 inch waist is out there somewhere as well.  

Oh.  I also want wine.  Maybe with some cheese.

And I want to go to the gym.  And for a run.  Or maybe both in one day like a boss.  I'm so excited for days off!  Days off!!!  And I put in a vacation request today, too!  A vacation request!!  WHO AM I?!?

Blogging the Menu: Days 101 and 102

It's been busy around here the last couple of days!  We spent about 9 hours travelling on Saturday and had a semi-sleepless Saturday night.  Today was all about busy boredom, just like having a new baby.  What were we travelling for?  This little girl.

This is Lucy.  

She traveled remarkably well, minus a little whining initially.  One little accident at my SIL's house (my fault, she was whining and I didn't take her out right away) and the rest of the trip was flawless.  Thanks to my lovely co-worker for bringing over her over-the-seat DVD players.  The kids were occupied the whole trip with minimal whining!  Woo!  She didn't eat much the last couple of days, but she's peeing and pooping (outside!!) and getting lots of treats.  Last night aside from a midnight outing she slept through.  I'm on duty tonight, so we'll see how she does.  Tomorrow we're off to the vet and PetCo for a Kong ball and a dog bed she can snuggle into in the living room.  She'll be crated while we eat (which she seems mostly cool with), while we're gone (haven't dealt with that just yet), and overnight (so far so good).

Making new friends is exhausting.

On to the menu!
Eating has been pretty decent, even with the new arrival and the general upheaval that brings.  I took this picture so you could see the kitchen chemistry I mentioned last week.  See the emerald green color?  That's backing soda and Sunbutter at work.  Still pretty tasty, though.

Chemistry is delicious.

We stopped at Hardee's for lunch.  I had a lettuce wrapped burger and a couple of curly fries.  Not the best road food, but certainly not the worst.  The place was about 20 minutes before we hit the breeder's place and timed out well.  They even had a ball pit for the burning off of energy.  Winning.

Meh.

After pick-up and the drive to my SIL's place, I was hungry.  My lunch wasn't the most balanced, and didn't keep me full for long.  This RxBar and the dried fruit kept the hangry at bay while we were on the road.

It was an apple heavy day.

We got back to town around 6pm.  There wouldn't be time to cook anything at home so we stopped at Little Cesar's for one of the hot 'n ready pizzas.  And then I sat with two pizzas and breadsticks on my lap, inhaling their forbidden fragrance the rest of the way home.  I was salivating like Pavlov's fucking dog, and I wanted that pizza so bad I could literally, literally taste it.  But I didn't eat it.  I had leftover broccoli beef instead.

Not pizza.

Weird little snack a bit later.

One block, bitches.

Our little puppy friend is an early riser, so we had breakfast well before 7am.  I was cleaning up the fruit remainders so that's banana and blackberries mixed together.  Surprisingly tasty combo.

Three blocks of tasty.

We pretty much chased the puppy around all day.  The kids are being so fucking strange.  They wanted the dog, but only seem to want her in theory.  They all want to play with her, but don't want to actually touch her.  P is probably the closest to "getting it".  He will pet her while she sits in his lap and roll a ball for her, but spend any time away from her (nap, etc) and it's back to square one.  C calls her, then hides from her.  L lets her hair hang in front of her face and holds her arm out practically asking the dog to jump.  Sigh.  They'll get it eventually.  So far we are lucky, and little Miss Lucy is calm and cool as a cucumber with little bits of puppy crazy mixed in.

Lunch was leftover Country Captain chicken.  I didn't have much veg in the house to use for carbs, so I went the fruit route.  There's curry in the chicken recipe, and the pineapple was a nice compliment.

It's colorful, anyway.

My one block snack was a coconut milk latte and a meat stick.

I know.  Odd.

Later on I was just fucking hungry, so I ate this RxBar so I wouldn't eat pizza.

Not really satisfying.

Went to the grocery store and got backed into by a teenage boy in Mom's minivan.  Not entirely his fault, a car in front of me came whipping out of a parking spot (conveniently located behind a truck with an extra long bed) and I had to hit the brakes hard.  Then when I realized the dude wasn't stopping, I put her in reverse and let her roll back.  I would've been clear if the other car hadn't backed straight out in front of me. Then bonk I felt the van hit me.  Going 0.5mph.  The stupid little compact car that triggered the whole thing never saw me.  I actually felt really bad for this kid.  He was really nice, and I could tell he was pretty worried.  We exchanged information, and I'll follow up with his parents tomorrow.  The damage to my car was pretty minimal, and he basically had a slightly dented bumper.  First collision for me in a looooooong time.  

Meh.  It's a 6 year old paid off car.  

You can tell by the filth how much I care about aesthetics.

Got the shopping done, and came home in time to have Cincinnati Chili with zoodles.  This was really tasty, and there's enough for leftovers which is pretty boss.  My spiralizer broke, but I think I paid all of $10 for the thing and I've gotten plenty of use out of it.  We recycled it.  

This would be the shit on cheese fries.

So now we're watching Cosmos and Game of Thrones is DVRing.  After taking puppers out for the last time she'll hit the crate for a 15 howl break and I'll hit the couch.  I figure it'll take about a week for her to "get" the crate at night.  I'm sure it's disorienting for a little one.  Shit, I let my kids cry, a dog ain't no thing.

So much good TV to watch tonight.  I'll be up forever.

Blogging the Menu: Day 100

This might be the first day I've remembered to photograph everything I ate!  How appropriate for a milestone such as this.  People have asked me how long I intend to do this.  I don't know, really.  Maybe 6 months?  A year?  It'll get weirder when I'm working thirds because my days will be nights half the time.  We shall see, we shall see.

Tomorrow is puppy day!!  The breeder is in Fairchild which is about 180 miles from here.  We're taking everyone, so that means 6-8 hours in the car tomorrow.  That is going to suuuuuuuuuuuuck.  The kids are whiny travelers when we go to Point, going twice as far is going to be painful.  Hopefully a movie or two will keep them from freaking out, and if we're lucky perhaps they'll sleep a bit.  Tonight I have to clean out my car and square away the house so there aren't little toys ripe for choking or delicious shoes lying around.  Not sure how we're going to manage the toilet training thing overnight.  Maybe we'll take shifts like we did with L.  I'm not sure how many times during the night the average puppy needs to piddle, but I guess we'll find out.  I hope to baby dolphins that the weather doesn't suck this weekend.  I've had enough of this schizophrenic horseshit to last the rest of my life.  It's 50! and pouring! and hailing! now snowing! now windy to the point of pain!

Today when I left my house it was warmish an overcast.  By the time I got to work (12 minutes later) it was pouring rain.  I got completely soaked walking into the building.  My hair was matted to my head and water was running down my neck.  I looked like shit all day because (silly me) I had actually styled my hair and used hair product.  Hair product is stupid.  Old ladies have this shit on lockdown.  I used to think rain bonnets were ugly and weird, but you never see an old woman with fucked up hair.  A couple of minutes of ugly is a lot better than 10 hours of it...and I'm pretty old now.

On to the menu!
I brought my breakfast and lunch today, but I did have to buy a couple of things in the cafeteria.  I had the pancakes and walnuts, but I needed some bacon.

Probably more bacon than needed for 3 blocks.

But maybe not.

I spent today hassling the central pharmacy staff.  We also had some meetings, which I could actually attend without too much issue since I'm still not a real pharmacist.  It's novel to go to a meeting and not be worried about the voicemail and IM and referrals building up while you're away.

Lunch was the last of the leftover salisbury steak and mash, plus salad to round up my carbs.  There's a little olive oil and some olives on the salad for fat.

Look how balanced!  Ooooooo, aaaaaaaahhhhh.

I've decided salad annoys me.  It's not that it tastes bad, because it doesn't, but it's a lot of work.  You have to chop all those veggies (or in my case stand in line at the salad bar) and eating a salad takes forever.  It's really hard to snarf down a salad, unless it's a chop salad and everything is cut really small.  Just navigating the lettuce into my face requires more coordination than I really have.  I didn't even finish this salad, because after working on it for half an hour (after eating the other part of my lunch), I just wasn't interested anymore.

I did remember to eat my snack, thought it was somewhat delayed.

So random.

Tonight was breakfast for dinner.  One of my co-workers was talking about mashing cinnamon rolls into the waffle maker today at work.  I had purchased cinnamon rolls for the kids (they love them and when we do breakfast for dinner I buy them as a treat), and since we didn't get home until 6 it seemed a lot faster than preheating the oven and baking them.  I cut them into "sticks" and drizzled the icing on them.  The kids went apeshit.  So cinnamon roll waffles, strawberries, and bacon was on their menu.  I had spinach sauteed with hot Italian sausage and an egg.  Do you know how much fresh spinach you have to wilt to get this portion? A shitload.  Seriously, like 3/4 of a bag and it's still barely one block of carbs.  Hence the blackberries. This was quite good and very filling.  It's also pretty colors.

Who's a wholesome little dinner?

I'll probably snarf down a little snack later.  I don't know what yet.  Maybe some nuts and a couple of prunes.  It'll be early to bed for me tonight so I'm not dealing with kids in the car while frazzled and tired.  

So everything is as clean as it's going to get, and the car is ready.  A new adventure is about to begin!

Blogging the Menu: Day 99

I did not go to the gym this morning.  I set the alarm, I woke up, I heard the rain on the window, and decided that I didn't want to drive across town to row.  Now I have to run repeats on the treader.  I don't wanna.  Tomorrow the husband has to work day shift which means rushing around to get the kids to daycare and make it to work on time.  This week working days has been so odd.  I forgot how much 7-5:30 sucks your time away.  Next week will be weird as well, but after that I'm off for 6 days.  SIX WHOLE DAYS.  Am I on vacation?  NO!  That's my fucking rotation!  Then I'll be nights for a week while I learn stuff, then I'll be off for SEVEN WHOLE DAYS!!!  Wheeeeeeee!!!!!!  So on my weeks "on" I'll be hitting the gym/running in the evening (which will be my morning) and my weeks off I'll be splitting my time between 5:15am and 9:15am depending on my husband's work schedule.

I got some nice warm fuzzies at work today.  One of the Neos welcomed me home, a colleague in Metro told me he's really glad I'm back, and random staff members in the halls stopped me to say hi.  It's a good feeling.

I'm finally feeling almost well.  It's been a while recovering from this.  I still cough a bit, but it's almost resolved.  I need more sleep, but who doesn't?

My challenge Journal is full, so I ordered a new one in an effort to be better at tracking the Zone.  I can keep the blocks I use most frequently recorded in one spot so I can stop Googling "How many cups of X in a Zone block".  If you're looking for a food log or workout journal or a combo of both, I would strongly suggest JournalMENU Then have tons of options, mostly CrossFit related (but not all), and their customer service is amazing.  The journals range from $12ish dollars on up depending on how much stuff you want included and how big you want it to be.  Go check it out.

On to the menu!
Breakfast was cafeteria style.  The problem with working in the hospital is that the cafeteria is right there and they also have this nifty program now called "Dine and Debit" which means you can use your ID badge to pay for food and it's deducted from your paycheck (up to a specified amount).  That's dangerous, because while our cafeteria has plenty of shitty food options, they also have lots of healthy ones.  It's tempting to not boil my own eggs (which I should never do, because I do it wrong) or cut my own fruit since I can get it so easily on the fly.

Lots of bacon fragments today, but they are so crispy perfect...

Lunch was chili (no beans!) and fruit.  I considered salad, but the salad bar was mobbed and I didn't want to wait.  So here you have it.

Cincinnati chili.  Pretty good stuff.

I also got a snack while I was down there.  No fat, and the orange is technically 2 blocks of carbs.  But I ask you, who the fuck eats half an orange?  So it was a one-ish block snack.  I ate it around 3:30pm.

Mandarins are easier to "block"

Dinner was Country Captain chicken.  Chicken thighs, lots of onions and peppers and raisins and bacon bits. I had about 3oz of meat, I counted the onions/peppers/raisins on the chicken as one block since the recipe calls for a shitload of them and they cook down quite a bit, that's one block of blackberries and one block of leafy greens + tomato.  I tossed some olives on the salad for fat.

Delicious and so colorful.

My husband is the man.  What is not awesome about walking in the door and smelling fabulous dinner just waiting for you to eat it?  Nothing.  I am looking forward to contributing to the family culinary experience soon, though.  In addition to providing fresh veggies that I grew myself (with the help of my kids).  

For my snack tonight it's looking like a venison stick (from my father in law, they're smaller and more snack size than the Maplewood ones), a couple of prunes, and a macadamia nut.  Seriously, one macadamia nut is one block of fat.  Snacks are the weirdest part of Zone eating for me.  They feel really disorganized because I'm eating stupid quantities of all three macronutrients.  If I was eating dairy it wouldn't be quite as odd.  After 4/19 I'll be adding dairy back in.  Probably not yogurt (at least not often), but cheese for sure.

Saturday is puppy day!  We'll be in the car forever, but hopefully will make it home without incident and our new baby will settle in easily.  It's been a long time since I've trained a dog!

Maybe I'll get on the treader in the morning...

Blogging the Menu: Day 98

This one is 100% boring.  Seriously.  Skip it.

On to the menu!

Breakfast was banana pancakes.  The formula recipe yields 1 block protein, 2 blocks carbs, and some amount of fat, I don't know.  My head exploded trying to calculate it.  Today I added an extra egg to the recipe to make it 2 blocks of each.  The result was a firmer pancake that was easier to flip, more uniform in shape and golden-brown-ness, and a larger portion (duh).  They didn't taste any more "eggy" than before, so I'll make them this way from now on.  I added bacon and a little maple to round out to 3 blocks.

It made 6 pancakes.  This was a big breakfast!

Lunch was a chicken salad and fruit from the cafeteria.  I can't get my shit together when I work days to make a lunch.  I should do it the night before, but I don't wanna, so I don't.  When I switch to overnights this won't be an issue.  Also I forgot to photograph it.  It was pretty standard.

I fail on the snacks, because I didn't eat one this afternoon even though I should have.  I wasn't hungry until about 4pm, so my lunch was balanced, but I didn't eat a snack so by the time I got home at 5:45 I was ravenous.  It was broccoli beef night.  One of my favorites.

It's hard to balance a mixture.  I'm estimating this to be 3-4 oz of beef (so 3-4 blocks) and about 1 block of broccoli.  It was delicious.  Afterwards I ate a couple of dates to make it a 3 block meal.

Later I'll have a venison stick, a couple of prunes, and a couple of macadamia nuts for a 2 block snack. That'll be an 11 block day.  

Exciting, right?  I told you to skip it :)

Today I spent a little time with the floor pharmacist learning what they do all day so I know how to hand off appropriately and document the things they need to see during the day.  It was very instructive.  I also did 5 competencies which was mind-numbing.  Ah well, once they're done I'm all caught up and ready to finish my training.  I can't wait to be a real pharmacist again.

I have to pack a bag for the gym/shower/workday tonight so I can get my workout in tomorrow.  Had to pass up the opportunity to run with a friend because I'm on days this week.  That will never be an issue again in just about a month.  Woo!

Blogging the Menu: Day 97

Day 1 of ALL ZONE ALL THE TIME.  It wasn't too bad, though I completely forgot about the snack aspect which means I still have a block or 2 to eat tonight before bed.  I'll figure this out at some point.

I went for an eye exam today, first one in almost 6 years or something like that.  I had the whole deal, including the full medical history since I'm using a new clinic.  Do you know how hard it is to convince someone that you don't take daily medication?  "No, really.  Nothing.  No.  Not even vitamins.  Nothing.  I'm serious."  They look at you like you're either a) lying or b) crazy.  "Not even a multiple vitamin?!?"  "No.  I eat an extremely nutrient dense diet."  "Um, okay."

I had my eyes dilated and the optometrist used this horrible lens/light combo to (I'm assuming) check my flap from LASIK.  I learned that my vision remains essentially normal (ie, no glasses required) but that a slight prescription would help relieve the eye strain I'm having at the end of the day.  I will only need my schmancy Dior framed glasses for "computering" as C calls it. The dilation hung around while I was shopping for frames and I realized just how fucking crazy I looked when I picked the boys up from daycare.  Seriously, like I'd just done a big lick of LSD.  I felt myself telling everyone I'd been to the eye doctor so they wouldn't call CPS.

The boys are very healthy 4 year olds.  P is enormous, in the low 80s for percentile of height and 90th for weight.  He's a sturdy boy.  When he hits you, you know it.  C is nearly the same height percentile, but 63rd for weight.  He's a spider monkey.  Both of them apparently have large tonsils, which explains why they snore (and why it's worse when they're sick).  This is another place where it's hard to explain that your kid takes no medication, and you don't know if he has any allergies because beyond fever reducers he's never taken anything.  "Do they take any daily medications?"  "No, nothing."  "Not even a multiple vitamin?"  "No, they eat a very nutrient dense diet."  "Um, okay."  Hopefully we won't have to go back until their 5 year well child.  I don't think we went to the doctor at all this last year.  We barfed a lot, but nothing requiring medical intervention.

On to the Menu!
I calculated my Zone blocks at 12 using the formula in the book.  Most plans seem geared toward 11 or 13, so I figured I'll shoot for 12 but if I fall one above or below I'm not going to sweat it.
Breakfast was leftover pumpkin spice pancakes.  I figured the pancakes themselves were just about 2 blocks of balanced nutrients, so I added some bacon, a little maple syrup, and a few walnuts to round it up to a 3 block meal.

The emerald green color didn't show up as much as I thought.

The morning was spent running around to appointments and to Costco.  They had the most beautiful berries.  I can't say no to beautiful berries.  This is a 3 block lunch.  3ish ounces of salisbury steak, roughly one block of carbs for the cauli mash (1 block of cauliflower is like 4 cups of raw, this is mash so less volume) and mushrooms, and 2 blocks of carbs for the berries.  I figured there was a fair amount of fat already in the beef, but I poked a little ghee into my mash to make sure.

This was a lot of  food, and it took a while to eat.

We had girl scouts this afternoon and it was L's turn to bring snack.  I opted for kid sized bottles of water (my kids are deeply fascinated with these, and they beat "juice" boxes) and fruit leather.  It seemed to go over pretty well.  I would've had a fruit leather, but I didn't have any fat or protein to balance it and honestly after that lunch I wasn't at all hungry.

For dinner I made sweet potato hash with hot Italian sausage and runny eggs.  This was simple, fast, and 3 blocks easy peasy.  I got my new food scale just in time to weigh out an ounce of sausage.  Winning.  This was really good, and also really filling.  

Just sweet and spicy and wonderful.

I still have 2 blocks left to eat today and I'm stuffed.  A venison stick and a couple of dates should be about right a little later.  Or a lot later.  This is going to be harder than I thought.  Vegetables aren't very carb dense, and my lunch box isn't equipped for 12 cups of cauliflower.  I was going to focus more on veg than fruit, but fruit is certainly more portable.  We'll see what shakes out.

On the whole, today went well.  I wasn't hungry, I didn't notice any flagging energy.  Day 1, done.  Bring on Day 2.