30 Day Challenge, Day 8 (It's Working!)

Ballerina is amazing.  She's become a Paleo "missionary".  Her friends at school have ceased their teasing, and now peer over her lunch with interest.  They sidle up to her and ask her what Paleo meal she has today, which makes other friends ask, "what's Paleo?"  And everyone looks at her food longingly and says, "wow, that looks really good."

I love to listen to her tell me about her day.  In those ten minutes between school and the ballet studio, it's just her and me in the car together.  She munches on the Paleo snack I bring for her, and tells me in between bites who has a crush on whom, which teachers are awesome, how her social life is going, and what insane thing the school served for lunch that day (which is always some combination of bread and sugar and cheese).  Oh -- by the way -- the school is trying to encourage more people to eat school lunch, claiming that they work hard to put together healthy and nutritious meals.   To entice more people, they will be giving a free cookie to everyone who eats school lunch this week!  Hooray!  (Does anyone else find this ironic?)

So, after an entire week of this challenge, I honestly want to answer the question, "How's that been working for you?"  I've already mentioned my own satisfaction with the changes I've experienced (don't worry, I won't give you a detailed account of my bathroom visits -- although I did discuss them with my sister on the phone this morning, and she was quite amused).  But I've been waiting to know how it's been working for Ballerina.  Because if this doesn't work, I just don't know what will.  Please, let this be working.

When I picked her up after class today, she told me she feels lighter, smaller.  More confident in her leotard.  "Feel this," she says, squeezing her side.  "It feels really lean," I reply, not having anything to compare it to.  I mean, it's not like I took a baseline squeeze of her waist last week.  Then she says something that amazes me:

"I can't wait to weigh myself!"  Those are words that would not have escaped her mouth a week ago.  Besides, I've taught my daughters religiously that scales are mean and they lie.  Which is why we don't own one.  I happily threw my bathroom scale in the garbage a few years ago and decided to never buy another.

After dinner (which was delicious), I took my girls to their dad's house.  A few minutes later, my cellphone rang.  "Mom, guess what?"  It's Ballerina.  I'm thinking she's about to tell me she accidentally left something at our house when she says,

"I've lost four pounds!  And that's fully dressed and after eating dinner!"

RIGHT ON!  I tell her to let me know what tomorrow morning's weight is, because it will surely be less.  I'm so grateful I could cry.   How's that been working for us?  It's working!!!

*edit*  I just saw this on Ballerina's facebook status:  "Thank you, DinoChow!! I can tell we're going to be good friends :)"  And thank you, Mel, for giving Paleo such a cute nickname.


Today's food:

Meal #1
Blueberries, walnuts, coconut milk

Meal #2
Scotch Egg
sweet peppers
figs

Meal #3
Fresh Crunch Salad (Ballerina and I agreed to name it that.  It's a mixture of carrot coins, diced jicama, diced cucumber, chopped cilantro, chopped boiled egg, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  When I got home from dropping her off at class, I made one for myself, but instead of olive oil, I mixed in a tablespoon or two of pureed pumpkin.  That gave it a nice creamy texture.)

Meal #4
Homemade Turkey Sausage
Paleo Pancake Smorgasbord
Buckwheat Blueberry, Almond Pumpkin, Apple Cinnamon  (which I made using my homemade plum applesauce, because I'm awesome like that.)
Frozen, thawed apricots

I was very impressed with the homemade sausage.  It really tastes like sausage!  Here's what I did:

Throw this in the blender, and whir together until fennel seeds are broken up sufficiently:

½ T. salt

1 T. chili powder

½ t. fennel seed

½ t. ground black pepper

Dump mixture into a quart size freezer ziploc bag with one pound of ground turkey, and smoosh it around until the seasoning is well mixed into the meat.  Refrigerate for a couple hours for flavors to fuse.  Cut a corner off the bag and squeeze sausage lengths into a hot frying pan.  Turn the sausages during cooking so they brown evenly on all sides.

Ingredients for Apple Cinnamon pancakes (see my lovely homemade plum applesauce?)

Homemade Turkey Sausage, amazingly delicious

Unsweetened thawed apricots make the perfect topping.