Week Seven: The Balancing Act

Hiking with baby last weekend!

It's been seven weeks now since I started eating a Paleo\Primal diet. I'm losing an average of 1.5-2 pounds a week and feeling great is pretty normal. The only thing I wish I could change is my level of stress. Unfortunately, eating Paleo doesn't make stress magically go away. It will make it easier to deal with. For the past two weeks, most of my efforts have been thwarted by a lack of money, time, or ability to complete a thought because either something is falling apart, the baby is taking something apart, or some other crisis has reared its ugly head.

Oh, the joys of motherhood. And work. And life in general. Funny though, I've had plenty of energy to deal with it all. Maybe not enough patience, but definitely energy. I'm finding that I really need to work out to deal with my stress levels. The problem is, every time I bring my gym bag so I can work out over lunch, I get a call from daycare telling me my son has yet another fever and I must not only pick him up but usually have to keep him at home the next day. Argh. That happened again today.

There are just some things from our modern day life we can't eliminate. My job is to troubleshoot problems all day, and I'm pretty good at it. There is some stress that naturally comes with it. There's plenty that comes with being a mother to four boys. And there's quite a bit involved with being married to a mechanic (trust me on that one!) In short I feel like I'm always troubleshooting, day and night!

There's also financial stress that won't go away anytime soon unless we win the lottery. Student loans that being paid back, a debt management plan in full swing, child support, daycare...the list goes on! The bills do get paid. There's food on the table. But never much extra of anything. We're thankful for what we have and know this phase of our lives won't last forever. Some days, it does seem that way though.

On the bright side, I've been researching local grass fed meats and will be blogging about it as I learn more. I found a local butcher called Pottstown Meat & Deli that sells them and I can buy it directly from the same farms as well. This is a nice baby step - I can preview the meats before buying a side of beef. I found a surprising array of local pork, beef, chicken, turkey and even buffalo there! Most are pastured. They also carry local, organic eggs and milk.

They also sell the cheaper cuts of meat, so I was able to make my first grass fed purchase for a whopping $12. I was stoked! I found buffalo neck bones for 1.99/lb and beef tongue for 2.99/lb. I thought about trying the Beef Tongue Taco Bites from Primal Palate that looked good. I'm just hoping I can get past how that tongue looks. *shudder*

I made the neck bones into a beef stew tonight that was pretty good. I'd like to tweak the recipe before I post it, since I think I can get more flavor out of it if I cook it differently next time (forgot to do things like braising first!) I cleared the garden I shared with a friend this summer, and had plenty of goodies to throw in the stew, along with a few farmer's market finds. Yum.

I also cooked up the last of the farmer's market squashes- delicata and buttercup. Delicious! I'll post recipes soon. There's tons more to write about and share, just not always enough time! Where does the day go?

Anyhow, I hope you all are having a healthy, happy and primal week!

Kim :)