Project Gray-leo

Buy Nothing Month is is over, which means it's time for a new, non-exercise-related project! I've been feeling pretty uninspired in the kitchen lately, so the last time I was aimlessly wandering around Chapters while Shannon was in her music lesson, I picked up a copy of Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo.

 While I am always leery of any diet that excludes entire food groups, I have seen firsthand the benefits of eating the Paleo way (if you aren't familiar with it look here for more details) and I think in many ways it makes a lot of sense: lots of protein, healthy fats, minimal grains, and no sugar or processed junk. Practical Paleo is a gold mine of nutrition information, recipes, tutorials for kitchen basics, meal planning, and how-to's and supplementation for eating to accommodate chronic conditions, athletic performance, and fat loss. There are multiple 30-day meal plans, and big, beautiful pictures of all the recipes...honestly, it is everything you could possibly ask for in a cookbook. And the icing on the cake is that the author has a website (www.balancedbites.com) where you can download all of the grocery lists and other resources. Awesome.

 Following one of these 30-day meal plans seems like a great way to bust out of my food-prep rut, break some bad habits that have been worming their way back into my daily life, and expand my family's horizons.

The children, however, did not share my enthusiasm for trying some new things. They met my proposition with suspicious glares and hairy eyeballs. They wanted to know what kind of new things.

 Fish, I offered, and lamb. I showed them some pictures of the recipes to try and drum up some excitement over this project. When that didn't work, I tried the gross-out reverse psychology trick: liver! Stuffed mushrooms! ROASTED MARROW BONES! Ha ha, yum yum yum!

 Nope. With desperation in their eyes, they asked me what would happen at lunchtimes when Dad's cooking. I played my last card. Fine, I said. You don't have to like everything. But I expect you both to be willing to try everything, and for the love of goats, be polite. 'Cause I'm the BOSS!!

So this weekend, my mission will be to pick up some groceries and get some advance prep done for the week...cause I'm not going to lie, this is a big undertaking. WAY more cooking than I usually do - which is sort of the point for this plan - but I don't know how realistic it is. The other caveat that I foresee from looking ahead at the next 30 days is that it's going to be pricey...but I could be wrong; it's very possible that armed with a meal plan I will spend less than I usually do with my laissez-faire approach to grocery shopping. 

Sunday is day one. Stay tuned...

100 in 100 update: 55 days in, 51 workouts down. Feeling unstoppable, baby! Whooee!