Mondays...

I would love to think that I am one of those people that bounds out of bed saying, "COME ON WEEK, I CAN TAKE YA'..."  But what I always think in my head is so incredibly juvenile and immature... "Dammit, I gotta' be a grown up AGAIN???"  But I got up, got dressed, got myself presentable and DEVOURED my breakfast casserole "con" avocado and tomato.  CHOMP.  That gets me pretty fired up... as does the freshly prepared lemon water that my hubs gets ready for me every morning now.  Since starting this process I've given up all beverages except for decaf teas and water.  So I'm really into the lemons right now because... well... it makes it a little less like water.  Truth be told, I really love the lemon water.  Can't complain.  So Monday was true to it's name in that my kids at school seemed to be reeling a bit from the full moon, seeing me in the "dunk tank" that wasn't a dunk tank at all, and undoubtedly the mayhem that happened at their houses over the weekend.  Throw a birthday celebration with goopy frosting and "angry birds" rings on top and you've got yourself a real hullabaloo.  Sweet Jeebus... On top of that, the hubs and I were trying to refi our house and something about that fell through because of all the turd sacks that have foreclosed in our area driving our appraisal down.  HOWEVER... Things started to really look up once I got home and had a revelation for dinner.  One thing I'm truly missing is the dairy... the goopy cheesy goodness.  I miss the Bolthouse Yogurt Light Blue Cheese Dressing (which is seriously f'ing delicious for only 35 calories per serving... yeah, after 3 years of trying to lose weight, I'm a walking damn calorie count dictionary) to put on my salads.  I love my balsamic vinaigrette, don't get me wrong, I've gotten pretty stinkin' good at it... but you know how it is to have that creamy sleazy goodness (gotta' insert a "that's what she said" comment here...) on your salad.  I've actually grown to ADORE salads because you can seriously do just about anything in a salad form.  I've recreated a multitude of high grain meals in salad form.  Ohhh... perhaps a week of comfort foods reinvented into salads is to come.  OH MY GOD... that's such a good idea.  I'm liking this theme week stuff.  I'm good with themes.  Give me some parameters and then prest-o, change-o... here I go.

OH!!!  I almost forgot!  I did my 1-week weigh-in... after ONE WEEK of eating pretty darn strict paleo with no "real" cheats (except for an excess of fruit in the strictest of terms), I managed to go from 178.6 on Monday, September 24th to 173.0 today.  5.6 pounds in one week... and I have eaten a LOT of fruit, nuts, and meat.  Granted, there have been a lot of vegetables in there too... but HOLY BALLS!!!  5 pounds in one week.  I know it's the first week so I'm sure that helps, we'll see what next week has to bring.  Pretty awesome... I'll take it.  In the words of one of my students today (who I am seriously starting to be a bit infatuated with), "I really worked off my petutie today."  He rearranged a phrase I use pretty frequently and I really like his version a lot... especially with his sweet big blue eyes.  This kid is totally weird and totally FREAKING AWESOME.  He and his Mom made SCOOBY SNACKS for the class for god's sake.  Seriously?  Gahhh... my job has some perks for sure.  Love!  After school, I worked out and I worked it pretty hard feeling pretty hot shit after my "weigh in."  When I pick the girls up from daycare Lucy always touches me with a disgusted face and says, "Mama's wehhhhhht."  Yeah, I sweat like a man.

Let's see... on to dinner (because that's what I kind of live for).  I hate to toot my own horn here, but I have had a serious love affair with avocado lately and in keeping with the fact that I've been missing the salad "sleaze," I decided to use an avocado to make a creamy delicious dressing for my fajita salad tonight.  WHOA... seriously wow.  So here's how this brain fart took shape... I had half of my avocado from breakfast this morning.  Threw it in a little food processor with lemon (I wanted lime, but realized I didn't have one.  I had lotsa' lemons from my lemon water fetish), salt, pepper, and some white wine vinegar.  I also added some cilantro and a close of garlic.  I whirred that up a bit and added some olive oil.  It was SUPER thick (and fan-freaking-tastic on it's own), but I had some chicken broth left that I hadn't used from dinner and thinned it out with that.  It was REALLY good.  I mean, seriously good... and it was creamy and delicious.  It was PERFECT on top of the browned organic ground beef and sauteed peppers and onions seasoned with cumin and coriander with a little jalapeno from our garden.  I put it all on top of a bed of romaine, topped with some of our garden tomatoes, and then came the green wonder of my avocado-garlic-cilantro-lime-sleazy-sauce.  Awesome.

After dinner, there is NO better way than finishing my day with my girls... we played chase, did the swing, and even played some kick ball game.  I love watching Anna get her "fast feet" ready before we play chase.  It's a charming mix between a seizure and the way a bull looks as it's prepping to charge wiping it's feet in the dirt.  She is seriously somethin' else.  They both are.  A beautiful fall night, two awesome girls, and enough squealing to keep power to a small country... not a bad ending to a very wacky Monday.  Talk about a rollercoaster... shhheeeeit.  ha!

Sooooo... What went in my belly today?
Breakfast:  Said breakfast casserole with tomatoes and avocado... annnnnndddd... LEMON WATER.
No snack today... ugh.
Lunch:  Mixed green salad with half a leftover hamburger patty and chicken chopped on top.  I have been really digging the sunflower seeds... so I put those on top with the balsamic vinaigrette.
Dinner:  MAGICAL fajita salad with... wait for it... avocado-garlic-cilantro-lime-sleazy-sauce.  Had to use it one more time.