Tuesday - Day 2

How are you feeling after Day 1? Typically, those who have taken my challenge (including myself!) have headaches or feel tired the first few days. This is normal after coming off of the american high carb/sugar diet. We are all addicted to the sugar! Most of my participants have said it took them about 4 days to get over these side effects and then they started to feel "great" and "energetic"! So, hang in there:)

Day 2 (tomorrow's) Agenda of the Primal 21 Day Challenge:

1. Continue daily movement today and throughout the rest of the challenge: park far away from work, take the stairs instead of elevator, take a break every 30-60 min. from your desk job, or go for a walk.
2. Complete a maximum repetitions workout. At the end of the challenge you will do this again to see how you have improved.
3. Lastly, take a cognitive ability test HERE to compare with at the end of the challenge. I always feel so dumb when I eat sugar/grains and alert when I eat primally, so it will be interesting to compare! {It takes about 45 min.}

Take about 5 minutes to find your maximum repetitions of:

• Pushups (Keep body in straight line, hands shoulder width apart, hands and toes on floor, touch chest to ground. To modify, keep knees on floor along with toes.)

• Sit-ups (Put a rolled up towel lengthways or pillow beneath buttocks and back. Put bottom of your feet together to make a diamond with your legs. When you lie back, reach back as far as you can with your hands and then crunch forward reaching as far as you can with your hands to your toes.)

• Pull-Ups or Chair Dips (Grip the pull-up bar with the top of your hands facing you, wide grip, pull your body up until your chip is above the bar. For chair dips, take a chair and sit just in front of it by gripping your hands on the edge of the chair. Your body will be in a sitting position just in front of the chair. Dip down as far as you can and then push yourself back up.)

• Plank Holds (Get into the pushup position, hold this position for as long as you can.)

• Squats (Stand shoulder width or a little wider if you have long legs. Keep your arms stretched out in front of you and lower yourself down by pushing your buttocks back, keeping your back flat, and keeping your knees behind your toes and going outward rather than inward. Go as low as you can, preferably below parallel.)

Meal/Snack Ideas:

Breakfast- egg frittata

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• a handful of spinach
• sliced mini bell peppers (or other veggies)
• olive oil or butter/ghee
• salt/pepper

Set oven to 350 degrees. Mix eggs well in a small bowl. In a small skillet (I used a small cast iron pan), warm up olive oil/butter on medium heat over stove. Pour in egg mixture. Season with salt/pepper. Sprinkle spinach and bell peppers on top. Let cook until bottom/sides start to become more solid (you can use a spatula to check sides). Then place in oven to finish cooking until all of the egg mixture is solid and spongey. Let cool, add a side of bacon or fruit and eat up!

Here was my breakfast-to-go this morning:

Fried eggs and leftover pulled pork on top of a bed of greens. Seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper!

Lunch- grilled/baked chicken on top of a green salad. Use balsamic vinaigrette or my favorite mixture of lemon juice/olive oil/sea salt as a dressing:)

Dinner- Chicken Broccoli and Cauliflower Rice Casserole 

{My husband and I enjoyed this tonight for dinner!}

 Ingredients:

• 2-3 chicken breasts (I used boneless)
• head of cauliflower cut into florets (leave out big stems)
• head of broccoli cut into florets 
• garlic/sea salt/olive oil (to rub on chicken)
• 1/2 cup coconut milk (cold)
• 2 Tbs arrowroot (to thicken the "gravy")
• 1 1/2 Tsp olive oil or butter (ghee)
• 1/2 cup chicken broth (check ingredients or make your own)
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• a couple dashes of pepper

First, bake chicken by slicing in half horizontally and rubbing down with garlic/sea salt/pepper and placing on baking sheet. Cook at 350 degrees for 20min or a few minutes longer until internal temperature of chicken is 165 degrees. Set aside. When cool, cut into small pieces or shred.

 Next, make the "gravy" by whisk coconut milk, arrowroot, olive oil or butter, chicken broth, salt and a couple dashes of pepper together in a saucepan over medium heat. The mixture will quickly become thick and once it starts to bubble continue stirring for about a minute. Set aside.

 Steam cauliflower florets for a couple minutes (I used our large crockpot by adding some water to the bottom, placing the tin cover on top of that-it sits halfway in the pot-and cover with the lid. Once it starts steaming and getting hot I added the cauliflower, covered with the lid and let it steam for a few minutes.) You could also boil them for a couple minutes. You do not want them very tender. Set aside. Then add the broccoli to steamer/boil broccoli until tender and set aside.

Next, pulse cauliflower in food processor until it makes "rice" or you could use a stick blender to blend it up some. It might be a little mushy, but that's okay! 

Cook cauliflower "rice" in a skillet with a little bit of butter, lemon zest, pepper and salt for a couple of minutes. Add the "gravy" and mix together. Remove from heat. Add chicken and broccoli to combine. Put in a casserole dish and bake in oven for 20min at 350 degrees. Enjoy!

Don't forget to document:

-how you increased your daily movement

-relaxation techniques tried

-energy level {POOR, AVERAGE, GREAT}

-satisfaction level with meals

-hunger level between meals

-struggles

-benefits

If you haven't done so already, take a 'before' picture and if you are really looking to lose weight, take body measurements/weigh yourself.