Living Clean: The Dirty Month of July

For the first 6 months of this year my husband and I pretty much ate a 90% Paleo diet. We were sugar-, complex carb-, gluten- and dairy-free most of the week. We did cheat here and there, especially when we went out to dinner, but for the most part we were living a pretty strict Paleo lifestyle.

The results were amazing - I lost 25 pounds and two dress sizes. My husband is the thinnest he has been in 15 years (I don't even want to know how much he has lost because I will be totally jealous - damn men and their easy weight loss). We felt great: more energy, better sleep and neither of us got sick during those six months. Then July came...

...and we fell off the wagon - hard. Half of July we spent away from our house - our safe haven, where we always have a stocked fridge and pantry full of clean cooking condiments. We started off our vacations trying to be good (packing trail mix and other healthy snacks) but then we quickly found ourselves indulging in potato chips and Helluva Good dip (and it lives up to it's name friends). We were basically on an all-carb, all-sugar and all-processed food diet.

And I went from exercising 4 times a week to once or twice if I was lucky when I was at home and basically not at all while on vacation. The fact that I was recuperating from sinus surgery at the beginning of the month didn't help the situation either.

After a month of eating like we used to and lying around like slugs we felt like shit - fat, greasy, lazy, soft, jiggly shit. I can't believe that before January this was the way I used to eat! Whatever, whenever. Never reading labels, never caring about what I put in my mouth, and eating until I felt sick. No wonder I have always battled with my weight. You eat crap, you feel like crap, you look like crap. Simple enough.

So as of this week we are once again back on the wagon. The fridge is stocked with grass-fed meats and organic fruit and veg, and we are back to making (90%) of our meals ourselves. This week we have put the grill to work overtime -

- Veal chops with a dry rub of Chipotle pepper, minced garlic and dry mustard (with grilled zucchini)
- Shrimp with Old Bay seasoning (with tomato and onions sauteed in ghee)
- Grass-fed burgers with dry mustard, minced onion, dijon mustard, salt, pepper with grilled onions and baked sweet potato fries

And tonight is steak tips (pre-marinaded and purchased from Whole Foods - not paleo, but this is where we aren't being as strict as before) and grilled eggplant that I received from the Boston Organics delivery this week. I will let you know how that goes, as they are the skinny bright purple eggplants, and I am a little scared of them!!

My goal is to try a new recipe from Pinterest each week, and then report back to you all with my comments and photos of the results. So stay tuned for more updates and recipe info in the very near future!!