This past weekend I spent with my folks up near Arlington. I took my dad to the Texas Rangers (MLB) Fan Fest, as his Christmas gift from yours truly. What a fun day!!! We ran bases, sat in the dugout, hi-fived the horseshoe, got pics with players, and one autograph from Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez. Only my most favorite baseball player EVERRRRR!!!
But the food... GAH! There wasn't one single remotely optional choice for food... I should have brought my own, but didn't plan for that well enough. My fault. But I managed. The chicken and veggies (sans butter) at Salt Grass was well worth the wait! And I'm glad I loaded up w/ eggs and a banana before we left.
I had asked my mom to do some shopping before the I got there. She picked up some eggs, fruit (apples, bananas) and cooked a paleo chili recipe I'd found that used ingredients they wouldn't shy away from. (They don't explore food at all. They are super basic and standard). The plus side to this is that 1. They wouldn't get something "fast", and 2. they have some food left that isn't based in sugar and doesn't require butter.
My sister and I both worry about their nutrition. They make choices that are too often based on "convenience" rather than health. We are trying to teach them and have a more positive influence on their food intake, but it's hard to do when we only see them maybe 5 times a year (and that's being generous!) ... the effort continues.
I was glad to have them both ask me more detail about Paleo, and want to know how, why, and what. I did my best to share and not over-explain, but to get them interested. So fingers crossed that I was able to plant a few seeds, and they will look for opportunities to do better for them, and for my sister and I. We'd like them to be around a while :)
Mom made chili, based on the recipe I'd sent her. Bless her heart, she tried, but ... sitting down to the table, I asked if she had a hard time finding the Grass fed beef. I think I knew deep down what she would say, because it doesn't click with her that companies will actually add hormones and "coloring" to make things appear "healthy", unknowingly altering the make up of the meat / food. She simply said "well, I was having trouble finding it, so I got the best the had at the meat counter" ... She tried... I appreciated it. And it was definitely a step up than the usual.
This was after she called while at the store to gasp at the eggs. "Christy, they're all brown. This is terrible". Apparently she'd never encountered a brown shell egg before. Bless her heart. I laughed after I got off the phone.
I'm glad she's supporting me in the best way(s) she can.
I'm hopeful that it will "click" one day. It's taken me years to get to this point. Each one better than the one before. And I know next year will be even more knowledge in my back pocket.
At this point, I'm 15 days in to my paleo journey. There's not a moment that I'm not thinking of my menu, planning the next recipe, and looking for new things to try. I have cooked more "meals" lately than I ever have, and for that, I'm proud of myself. There are things I enjoy and things I don't, and I know I need to expand my recipe stash. I just need to get a bit more brave and step out of my cooking comfort zone a little more.
I miss bread. I miss Spark. I miss Queso and Creamy Jalepeno.
We wrap this up on the 11th and I'm looking forward to maintaining a "mostly paleo" diet with a tad bit of leniency and a cheat day every now and again.
Weight loss total in 15 days - 5 lbs. I'm good with that.
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