Power outages, snow, and mayhem.

It started on the 14th of January and didn't stop until around the 19th. About 15 inches of snow later we were stuck at home with no power and no cell phone service (we don't have a land line either). I also didn't receive my absoultely necessary Full Circle produce delivery on Thursday morning because of the weather. It's safe to say eating Primal in an environment like that it near impossible! We had NO food! :( Good thing the in-laws live next door...

When all was said and done the snow melted away and I finally got my much needed produce delivery yesterday morning. Our snowed in week was just one more solid reason eating Primal has changed my outlook on food. I felt like crap eating what everyone else was eating. I was bloated constantly and even put on some weight. I'm happy to say as of yesterday morning things are back to normal. I got up early and made a scramble with red peppers, spinach, and bacon. After eating several bites I felt a bit nauseous. I can only attribute that to falling off the wagon this past week. You have no idea how glad I am to be back! :)

Primal Philly Cheese Steak Pizza

I found this incredible pizza crust recipe and knew I wanted to give it a try. I made the crust according to the recipe, but I put my own spin on the toppings and went with a philly cheese steak style.

Ingredients:
(I don't usually use exact measurements.)
one green bell pepper, diced
half on onion, diced
some steak, cut into tiny bite sized pieces
organic marinara sauce (I got mine at Trader Joe's)

Forgive the awful cell phone pictures. I couldn't find my camera.

I precooked these toppings by sauteing them in a pan together over high heat until the onion and peppers were slightly soft.

After taking the crust out of the oven I realized it was slightly over done around the edge, but the center was still a little soft. Next time I will probably bake it at 400 instead of 425 and watch it closely.

I slathered on a little marinara sauce, threw the toppings on, then a little mozzarella cheese. Then put it under the broiler for a minute or two to melt the cheese. This was agony for me because I could see the edges of the crust getting darker and darker, but I knew the cheese needed to be melted.

When all was said and done this pizza was yummy! The burnt edges were actually pretty tasty too. I'm looking forward to trying it again with different toppings.

Monitoring Fertility Signs

As a woman that is currently trying to conceive I have been keeping a close eye on what this lifestyle has done for my body. Losing weight at this point is just a bonus, since my main goal is to conceive and have a thriving healthy pregnancy and baby. This might be a bit too much info for some readers so those that are squeamish look away now. Primal has done wonders for my cervical mucus! Even non-fertile cervical is showing up in abundance. I chart my basal body temperature and recently started using a fertility monitor, but without the fertile watery and/or egg white cervical mucus your chances of conceiving go down significantly. At this point I would give you a link to my BBT chart, but my husband and I have decided that once we do conceive we would like to keep it to ourselves and close family for awhile. However take my word for it, eating a Primal diet is already having great effects on my body and I'm looking forward to see what other changes I notice.

Primal Challenge

Starting on January 3rd I started a clean Primal challenge that my sister in-law put together. Now I'll be honest, the holidays did their number and I didn't stay as Primal as I had hoped I would. I didn't completely fall of the wagon. However, I did my fair share of abusing the "80/20 rule". This challenge came at the right time. I knew I was going to be striving for 100% Primal as soon as the chaos of the holidays was over. Speaking of the holidays, gosh did they throw off my routine! Anyway, this challenge has been pretty awesome so far and it hasn't even been a week. My sister in-law has an online message forum that is dedicated to the members of the Primal challenge. We log our meals and rate how we feel we did each day. We have access to a number of different messages board for support, recipes, resources, and more. If you haven't already I strongly suggest you research what the Primal lifestyle is all about. And read The Primal Blueprint! I downloaded it on my kindle and haven't been able to put it down since.