On the Menu at the Henry's

A couple months ago Andrew decided he was ready to get healthy and lose weight. He has gone back and forth a ton of times with wanting to and then quickly getting back into his normal routine. This time I was wanting to lose weight too and was wanting to feel better. I knew that if I changed everything around the house that it would be much easier to stay on track. I wanted it to be a gradual life change rather than a quick fast diet.


We decided to do basically the Paleo diet but we definitely incorporate some whole grains and some wheat. We also do minimal dairy intake. I got rid of regular flour and bought almond and coconut flour which is what I have been using for all the baked goods. I use unsweetened almond milk in place of regular milk. I 've made my own organic mayo and ketchup that are on the paleo plan. We use almond butter and sesame butter in place of peanut butter. I also have been buying 90% organic produce. I use dark chocolate in place of regular chocolate and we keep TONS and TONS of fruit and veggies around all the time. For oils I have been using safflower oil and coconut oil.


The problem with eating healthy all the time is it really does get super expensive. So here are some of the tricks I have figured out...


Find a local veggie stand or use your locals farmers market. You get tons more for your money. There is a veggie stand on the corner right by our house and I stock up with their homegrown organic zucchini, tomatoes, squash, berries and peaches. Then the things that we use all the time like sweet potatoes, spinach, field greens, onions, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers I actually buy at Sams. You can also get a frozen veggie blend that is really good to have on hand. It's a package with cauliflower, broccoli and carrots and I use that when I don't have any money to buy fresh.


For meat I go to Sam's at the beginning of the month and buy two packages of fresh all natural chicken; they come in packages of 12-14 chicken breasts that are $14.00. I also buy the chicken breasts tenderloin b/c they give you more in those packages and it's cheaper. We also buy big packages of chicken legs and thighs with the bone b/c they are so yummy to cook with and super cheap. I usually pick one extra meat or fish to have on hand when I'm there; pork, ground beef, tilapia or even steak sometimes. After I buy it I come home and divide up the meat into 1 gallon ziplock bags for each meal and freeze them. I date the bags and then I'll just take out whatever meat I want to use and put them in the sink to thaw at the beginning of the day and that way by 4:00 they are ready to use.


So here is our result... Andrew is slowly but surely losing weight (18 pounds so far). He is staying on track with this diet b/c I have time to cook good stuff and there's no way to cheat at home. Do we cheat sometimes?.. Yes! I can't resist Chick-fil-a chicken nuggets and fries every once in a while and I do crave a good chocolate chip cookie every once in a while. Andrew cheated all weekend when he was at the lake, he couldn't resist some good southern cooking by his mama. When he got home from cheating all weekend I asked him how he felt all weekend and he said he had the worst stomach problems all weekend. And when I splurge and eat chick fil a I feel rotten the rest of the day. Overall this new way has made us feel so much better and made us have more energy. I can seriously tell the biggest difference.


Sawyer doesn't mind it either, he eats what we eat and enjoys all of it. In fact at home instead of asking for fruit snacks, he's asking for pistachios, almonds and fruit. I will say he becomes quite the binge eater when he's at other people's houses. If he knows someone has fruit snacks or cookies or anything in that realm he will ask for snack after snack at our friend's houses. Sorry to my friends whose pantries he's cleaning out! We are going to keep a few extra things around so he doesn't act like we are starving him when we go other places.


Hope some of you find this helpful. I did this because I've had a few people request info on what we are doing. I also hope you are enjoying some of our healthier recipes that I'm featuring. Let me know if you try some of them!


Here are some of the sites I get my recipes from... I'm still new at this so send along any other sites you might know about!


http://fastpaleo.com/
http://www.multiplydelicious.com/
http://everydaypaleo.com/


Happy Tuesday! Have a great night!