Garlic Chicken

• 2lbs chicken, cut in bite sized pieces
• 1 carton crimini (baby bella) mushrooms, sliced 
• 2 shallots, coarsely chopped
• 6-10 cloves of garlic
• 1 carton chicken stock/broth
• 1/4 c. white wine (optional--not to be used during the first 30 days)
• creamed coconut
• coconut oil/ghee/evoo
• Salt & Pepper

1. Add 2 tablespoons of coconut oil to a large saute pan and melt over medium heat.  Alternately, melt ghee or warm evoo.
2. Add chopped shallots.  
3. Saute shallots until translucent, about 5 minutes.
4. Add sliced mushrooms.  Allow mushrooms to cook about 3 minutes before stirring to let them caramelize a bit.  Continue cooking, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes or until mushrooms are soft.
5. Season with a heavy pinch of kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste.
6. Remove shallots and mushrooms from pan and hold in a heat proof dish.
7. Increase heat to medium-high.  Using remaining fat in the pan (add more if needed), quickly brown chicken pieces.  It is not important for them to be cooked thru at this point.  It is only important they be browned to develop their flavor.
8. Add white wine (if using) or water to deglaze pan.  (To "deglaze" means to add a liquid to the pan to loosen the caramelized bits from the bottom of the pan--use your spoon to help loosen the bits. This adds depth of flavor)
9. Add enough chicken stock/broth to cover the bite-sized chicken pieces. Reduce heat to low and allow the liquid to reduce by half.  
10. Add the shallots and mushrooms to the pan.
11. Add creamed coconut one spoonful at a time until the sauce is a rich creamy texture.  (About 2 tablespoons, but adjust to taste)

Once upon a time, in my pre-paleo days, I would serve my garlic chicken on top of jasmine rice.  And I still do.....every once in a great long while.  In my experience, rice every now and again is ok, but you need to make the personal judgement call based on how you look, feel, and perform.  

Now, instead of rice, I serve this on top of zucchini "noodles" (thin sliced zucchini strips blanched in boiling salt water and sauteed for a minute or so with some coconut oil or ghee), kelp noodles (http://www.kelpnoodles.com/), or every now and then, Paleo Pasta (http://www.paleopasta.com/).  Also great to leave the chicken in whole breast pieces and top with the mushroom and shallot sauce.

Enjoy!

Back in the saddle....again

It's been a LLOONNGG time since my last post--but with good reason!

I have been blessed with an amazing and very close family....and that sweet family of mine has been through some pretty tough challenges in the past few months! Hours after my last--and first--post, my husband's great grandmother, Hattie Woodall of Scottsboro AL passed away. My hubby had been out to sea for quite some time and she passed the day after he got back--we got on a plane the next day to be with the family.

A week later, my grandmother, Janice Wallace, took a pretty brutal fall. She had severe bruising and even swelling of the brain. We weren't sure how she would fare, so I flew home to help care for her. Thankfully, she pulled through! She is still plagued with headaches and is still a little tipsy some days, but most definitely on the mend :)

Shortly after returning home from helping with my grandmother, my sweet grandpa John Pritchard became very ill...he has been struggling for a long time with heart and other health issues. I almost went to Minnesota to be with family, but after 36 or so hours of being 'touch and go' my grandpa seemed to improve. My hubby and I really wanted to go visit; our schedules are just so crazy we thought it would be a few months before we could make the trip. Sadly, my grandpa passed away last week. We made the trip to Minnesota to say our goodbyes.

All of the family things...and the holidays...and even a HHUUGGEE snowstorm that left us without power for a few days really threw a metaphorical wrench in my paleo gears. In the midst of all of the upset in my family, I did conclude a 'challenge' in my boot camp group--despite my 'slip ups' in diet and understandable inconsistent workouts, I managed to improve over 50% in all areas of my workout--pushups, upright rows, sumo squats, and wallsits. All due to--in my belief--the positive changes in my eating thanks to being Paleo and the amazing strength gained in my boot camp workouts :)

I did ultimately put eating clean and really committing to my workouts on a shelf...with some pretty icky consequences. No regrets--I did what I did and put my family first! But man oh man did my tummy let me know that I really do need to eat like a cave woman and that the 'Standard American Diet' is truly super icky!!

I'll spare you all the details and just sum it up--I had been eating a clean healthy paleo diet and working my bum off in my workouts. I lost weight, was sleeping well for the first time in years, and all in all felt amazing!! When I quit doing that I really paid the price with tummy aches, severe fatigue, headaches and all and all just feeling plain crummy!!

Before my trip last week to Minnesota, I had committed to a full 21 days of pure paleo...I quit after a week when I went to visit my family. But in that week, I truely felt an amazing difference! By day two, the tummy aches were gone--day 4 no headache--and day 6 I felt my energy coming back!

Now--I am back home--no immediate emergencies on the horizon--and am ready to really commit to this! I'll be starting a fresh 21 day cycle of pure clean paleo eating and some awesome kick butt workouts through eplifefit.com (AMAZING resource and community--check it out!!) I am truely excited to get back on my path to health and fitness :)

Stay tuned--I am excited to share my success and discoveries along the way!

Naomi
the "Paleo Pupil"

Welcome to my journey...

Hello all soon to be friends and followers!  I know there are literally a million plusdiet, foot, fitness, and all around heath focused websites and blogs out thereso I am happy and humbled you decided to give mine a read.  Thank you!!

I am not a doctor,a nutritionist, or even an expert in any right--however I am a normaldown-to-earth lady who is looking to make some change. My guess is that you arein a similar situation

In all honesty...I really have been a fairly healthy and somewhat slim girl as long as I canremember...that is until about a month before I married my AMAZING husband. Inpreparation for the wedding and honeymoon (all you ladies out there know whatI'm talking about) my Dr. changed my birth control. I went to my final dressfitting at 127lbs…1 month after my final fitting, 1 month after the day my Dr.changed my birth control...I walked down the aisle at 158.4 pounds. Thankgoodness I had decided to wear a corset as part of my wedding attire! Now, Iknow that 158.4 pounds may not really s that 'huge' per say....but huge for meand crazy when you look at a 30 pound increase in a month. Never mind the factI was stressed... I wasn't eating...and was running around like a chicken withmy head cut off ;) and somehow I still managed to gain an ASTRONOMICAL amountof weight. The physical ramifications ...obviously huge. The emotional ones...even bigger. My hubby never said a thing and I tried to play it off...but whenI got pictures back from the wedding and honeymoon, there was no denying Ineeded to take action.

So...like mostpeople I went to my doctor. Well, that was a waste of time! She said 'your bodyjust wants a baby...it's normal and natural for any woman at this stage in yourlife'. She even suggested I go off birth control without telling my husband. Iwas 23. While I know many ladies out there have had a baby by or before 23years old... I hadn't nor was I ready to have a baby. I thought my doctorsounded beyond a little crazy...so....I decided that I needed to change doctors.The next doctor I went to was so focused on building her 'weight loss program'that she really failed to figure out what truly was going on.  Don't get me wrong...being a bit chubby andhaving a doctor that was promising potential skinniness...I was sold!! I paidWWAAYY too much for all sorts of supplements and prescription diet pills thatweren't covered by my insurance...followed a ridiculous diet...felt likecrap...and didn't lose a pound. It was around this time I knew there had to besomething better...but didn't know where to begin. I had heard a lot of thebuzz around 'whole grain' and 'organic' foods and decided to see where thatwould go. Slowly but surely I did lose some weight focusing on no refinedstarched or sugars and avoiding all things 'white'...but that was only a fewpounds and I had to work so so so hard for every last ounce.  Frusterated and irritated and tired of tryingso hard without getting any results, I decided it was just time to 'accept' mynew 'fluffy' physique.

Fast forward a year or so.  Bynow, I had been married almost 3 years and the Hubbs and I decided it was timeto try for a 'little bundle of joy' of our own. We tried for months andmonths...of course it was fun...but we weren't getting any 'results.'  I decided that it was time to talk to yetagain another doctor.  This time however,it was not my crazy crack pot 'you just need a baby' doctor or my doctor tryingto make a name in the weight loss world...I went to an OBGYN with a sterlingreputation.... We were, after all, trying to make a baby ;) After hours ofconversation and blood tests and temperature charting and all sorts of othercrazy garbage...my doctor came to the conclusion that I have PCOS--poly-cysticovarian syndrome. Google that junk--it's not fun and can be pretty depressingwhen all you seem to want--at the time-- is a baby!!

The primary focusin treatment with PCOS--at least with my OBGYN was weight loss, so, he put meon a SUPER low calorie diet and prescribed Adipex...if you aren't familiar...It is an appetite suppressant stimulant drug that is used to help patientsneeding to lose weight. And lose weight I did--about 20 pounds!!-- it wasgreat!! I felt a little glimmer of hope J  MyOBGYN decided that was enough weight to potentially boost myfertility...so...instead of more Adipex...he prescribed a bunch of fertilitydrugs.

Ugh.

If you or anyone you know has been through fertilitytreatments...you know it truly is a living hell. My poor sweet amazingWONDERFUL husband took it like a champ!! I was moody, downright EVIL, and Igained a bazillion pounds! (ok...so not a bazilion...but I did skyrocket from150/160 to over 200 in just 3 months...I'm only 5'4"....on a 'tall' day …withshoes.  Trust me...it wasn't pretty J)

See that chubby girl surrounded by all those cute guys??

That's me--March 16, 2010 (they are all my brothers and my hubbyif you're curious).  At this point, I wasat the height of my weight gain due to fertility treatments.  I saw that picture and literally melted I toa ball of tears.

I guess somewherebetween blaming the fertility meds and thinking weight gain didn't matterbecause I thought I'd be pregnant soon I had gotten huge.  And sad. And miserable…and when I honestly look back on it I just avoided reality.One day it hit me like a wall.  I wasworking for a company where my uniform was scrubs.  All of the sudden, one day I couldn't get mynow 'fluffy ' butt into them.  Never mindthe fact that they were too big when I started there! That weekend, the hubbyand I were going to go on a 'date' and I literally could not fit into a singlepair of pants that I owned.  Needless tosay that ended in me being a sobbing blubbering pile of goo and I refused to goout. God love my husband...he is so sweet to me!!  He told me he loved me and that I wasbeautiful to him, no matter what.  I lovethat man!

Shortly after that'fateful' weekend, my husband got transferred to Washington state (he is aSubmariner in the U.S. Navy). Shortly after his transfer, he got sent tosea...so I was ‘alone’ for a few months. In that time, I decided to be 'crazy'and go off all the ridiculous meds all my crazy doctors had put me on... Bloodpressure meds...fertility meds...anti-seizure meds (for migraines, notseizures) blood sugar meds...basically you name it I was on it....I was 26 andfelt like I was 90. In conjunction with going off all my meds (not something Iwould suggest without talking to your doctor first) I started a pretty intenseworkout routine and subjected myself to a very 'blech' diet. I did lose almost40 pounds that summer!  (The secondpicture is me after losing those 40 lbs) I was pretty miserable though, I was always hungry...always tired...buthappy to be slimmer!

Through all ofthis, I had this friend—who is now a HERO—who was also unhappy with her weight.I didn't get to see her very often but every time I did she just looked betterand better.  Finally....I couldn’t helpit, I had to ask what she was doing.

She told me itssimple..."I'm eating Paleo and going to Boot Camp Diva’s.”  That sounded way too intense to me, but Ikept watching and she kept changing....and finally I couldn't stand back anymore.

I asked “WHAT ISPALEO?”  She said very simply “...nograins, legumes, or dairy....” and my heart sunk!! I am a girl that loves agood chunk of crusty French bread and a saucer of EVOO with a little sea salt,pepper, and a great glass of wine J The idea of giving up my favorites made me sad!

But, as Icontinued to watch... She continued to shrink...but more than just gettingtiny... She had more energy...She was more motivated...more involved with herkids...more positive about LIFE in general. I really respected that and really wanted that.  I was tired of feeling like I wasn’t in theright body.  I was tired of notsleeping.  I was tired of feeling cruddy…soI decided it was time to make a change.

Well...a littleover a month ago...I decided to jump on this crazy band wagon...I did myresearch and planning and stressing and decided I needed to go for it—no holdbarred.

I am now 3 weeksin...3 weeks of Paleo under my belt and 3 weeks of Boot Camp Divas has kickedmy butt... But I am down 6 pounds...a can already see a difference in mybody...I can feel a difference in my energy levels...put simply.. I FEELAMAZING.

So....welcome tomy journey. I am learning this as I go along; please feel free to join me on myjourney. I am the “Paleo Pupil”....I hope you will join me in my journeylearning about changing my eating, changing my lifestyle, and changing myhealth overall.

Its going to be a great journey!

Take care--Loveand Best Wishes

--Naomi

“The Paleo Pupil”