Paleo Challenge - Week 2

Well week 1 of this Paleo challenge was a breeze! I really only felt hungry on the first day, and after that have been feeling pretty darn good. No real cravings for anything, except for pizza on Saturday night, which was satisfied by Pete Evans’ Meatzza! That will definitely be going on the meal rotation – so many possibilities of different flavour combinations. I’m going to experiment with a Vietnamese chicken Meatzza next weekend, based on our favourite pizza from Crust.

My version of the Meatzza

I haven’t yet managed to fit in any exercise, and I’m struggling to figure out when I can actually do any. The kids are awake by 6am (I say ‘by’ because sometimes it is much, much earlier) so I can’t sneak in a quick workout before they get up, and then by the time we get them into bed of an evening, then cook and eat our dinner, it’s nudging 9:30pm and all I’ve got left in me is to stare at the TV for an hour before falling into bed. Little Miss has also now dropped her day sleep, so I’ve even lost that blessed midday break that I’d become so accustomed to.

I know the answer to this problem is to instigate Family Dinners and eat with the kids at 6pm, but it just does not work for our family at this point in time, as you may have read before on this blog in my post Family Dinners? F*@k that!

This week I’m going to try and do a 15 minute workout on the cross-trainer while Mr McD sits with the kids eating their dinner, and see if that is do-able.

Our meal plan for this week is based almost entirely on Pete Evans’ Family Food cookbook. I also have his other one, Healthy Everyday, but I find the Family Food one much more realistic and practical.

Here's our meal plan for Week 2:

Paleo Challenge Week 2 meal plan - click to enlarge image

Boris the Bellini is getting a good workout, even if I'm not. I made basil aioli, coconut yoghurt, chocolate granola, cashew hummus, macadamia ‘cheese’, curry paste, Moroccan sauce, meat balls and waffle mixture in Boris last week, with a similar amount of use expected this week. I really don’t think I’d be able to cook so much from scratch without him (I hope I haven’t jinxed myself saying that, he’s just out of warranty!).

Apart from the three main meals, I’ve been snacking on veg sticks with hummus (made with cashews rather than chickpeas), tins of plain tuna, natural almonds, and coconut yoghurt, plus two almond milk coffees per day. 

I definitely feel less foggy, more alert and more energised. And far fewer digestive issues, which is a blessing for everyone! I've also managed to not have a wine all week too, so perhaps that has something to do with feeling less foggy ;)

I'm looking forward to all of the dishes on this week's meal plan - week 2, here we come!

I’d love to hear how you squeeze exercise into your schedule, please share your secrets!

I've linked this post to I'm an Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Mondays