Day 4

Today I had cramps, which is weird because it's not even that time of the month. But it FEELS like it. I'll chalk that up to some weird detox side effect that my body must be going through without sugar and chocolate.

M1 - eggs, eggplant, bell peppers, kale
M2 - lettuce, cucumber, ranch, steak, banana, walnuts
M3 - sesame orange chicken, spinach, broccoli, mango
WO - I benched today 5x5 of 82.5 lbs. I thought about going up to 85, which is where I failed last week but I want to build my confidence up slowly and attempt 85 lbs this weekend. If I fail 85 lbs this weekend, then I will switch to a 3x5 for bench... which kinda sounds enticing at this point. I was also pretty sore from squats yesterday. I was going to walk today, but going to the gym to lift sounded better.

I did a ton of cooking today. That is not normal for a week day. But the time just materialized somehow. Fruit jelly with my daughter, then we tried sesame orange chicken, breakfast sausage, then made a breakfast casserole with the sausage... and then I made her french toast for breakfast tomorrow. I was pretty excited to find a loaf of gluten free bread at Jimbo's yesterday on clearance! For 99 cents! And it was still soft! So yeah, I had to buy that.

Tonight I asked my daughter if she was ok with the foods I pack for her lunch. Because I remember when I was younger, I was a little embarressed that my mom packed me hot foods like ramen. And I remember her bringing me lunch, her hand opening the door to my 4th grade classroom, and slowly, quietly, placing my lunchbox on top of the shelf that was by the door. And the embarressment I felt! I feel horrible now for remembering that, especially since I am a mom now and pack my child all sorts of non-traditional lunch foods. But she seems to be ok with it. Today even, she ate almost all of the paleo lunch I packed for her: caulirice, broccoli, and beef stroganoff. I was pretty ecstatic about that.

She did ask me last week though if I could start packing her a "sweet treat" every once in awhile. Because, she says, everyone in her class gets them. So then I started naming off kids to see if they had sweet treats, and she says no to all of them. Sigh. And so the peer pressure begins! The funny thing is I asked her what would she like for a sweet treat, and she starts naming things like fruit juice and banana bread. Ok... I can totally live with that. But I told her no cookies or chocolate. Well I may bend on that in the future. But we'll start with non chocolatey things for now.

I really enjoyed having her in the kitchen with me today. I got her to start eating a salad every day so that she could grow tall enough to ride the bigger rides by herself at Disneyland next year. "As long as," she said, "the salads have my favorite, mango and meat". Easy for now, because I don't even have to put dressing. But I'm afraid she is going to get sick of that, so we'll need to come up with some other lettuce combinations she is willing to try.