Week 1: No Grains

I decided to give up grains for Lent this year.  Since I was subjecting myself to the pain, I of course also guilted G$ into doing it with me.  In addition to grains -- bread, pasta, rice -- I'm refraining from eating anything made from regular potatoes -- fries, mashed potatoes, chips.  Sweet potatoes are still on the table, but since G$ isn't the biggest fan of sweet potatoes, I've given him a pass on regular potatoes. 
 
Caveats. Before setting out on this fun torturous adventure, I did create a few caveats, which I realize is completely against the purpose/intent of lent, so don't judge me, G$'s mom.  :)

• No rules for my birthday weekend.  No further explanation needed. 
• Cheat meals are allowed IF we have plans with friends.  If it's just G$ and I wanting to cheat, no way.  However, we do have some dinner plans with friends scheduled at restaurants I've been wanting to try, so I didn't want to limit myself while there. 

Why!?!  Throughout February, I was consistently working out and trying to watch my portion sizes, but didn't see the scale budge, at all.  After a few binge weekends, the scale actually went up and sadly stayed up.  I kept chalking it up to muscle gain after 3+ months of not working out (I'll get to that in a separate post), but if you are losing fat and gaining muscle, you should start noticing your clothes fitting better.  That was sadly not the case. 
 
I knew removing grains from my diet would eliminate a lot of the simple carbohydrates that provide zero nutritional value and force me to eat healthier foods.  Since I refuse to starve myself, not filling up with bread, pasta, or rice meant that I would automatically eat more vegetables so I'd feel full after eating.  So far so good.  

What it means in practice?  Well, one week in and I can honestly say I am not missing grains.  In the mornings, I make a banana, chocolate milk, peanut or almond butter, protein powder, flaxseed, and chia seed shake.  Lunch is either a salad or an assortment of meat/veggie items from the salad bar in the cafeteria at work.  Dinner is a meat with a veggie side. The biggest change for G$ is no oatmeal or cereal for breakfast.  And for the both of us, no sandwiches at lunch. 
 

Salad (left), Random Assortment (right)

I say I haven't missed the grains yet, but I also haven't had a meal that I typically associate with grains.  For example, my favorite Indian meal -- Tikka Masala chicken.  I love it at an Indian restaurant, but I also love the jar of Masala sauce from Trader Joes.  It was one of our go-to, easy-to-cook-after-work-meals.  Despite the fact that I would put chopped spinach into the sauce, it still meant we were eating rice AND naan (bread).  Oh my gosh, nothing is better than sopping up the extra sauce with naan.  I have Chickan Tikka Masala on the meal plan for this week, but instead of rice, using mashed, steamed cauliflower.  Sadly, I could not come up with an alternative for the naan. 
 
Dessert.  G$ always wants dessert after dinner, so we haven't eliminated that.  A handful of chocolate bits chips, chocolate covered raisins, or chocolate covered almonds fill the sweet void there.  I'm excited to try a chocolate chip cookie recipe made with almond meal instead of flour.  If it turns out ok, I'll post the recipe here.   
 
Only 5.5 more weeks until Easter Sunday!  I'll do another update after a few more weeks. 
 
<3
K$

Very Important Puppy

Outside of this quick picture post, since I did the original post about sending Kairo to daycare, I don't think I ever provided an update on daycare. We send Kairo to daycare two to three time a week. In spring through early fall, when daylight savings is in effect and it stays light later, we only send him twice a week. During winter, it's three. With the days so short in the winter, it's nearly impossible to get home in time to exercise him before it's pitch black (and depressing).

Snuggling

"Pelted"

We have been sending Kairo to the same place since he was six months old and couldn't be happier with them. The staff has been pretty much the same for the past 2+ years, so they know him and know us. A typical day at daycare for Kairo involves playtime in the morning until noon, a mandatory nap from noon to 2pm, following by more playtime until we pick him up. The mandatory nap is key, because like small children, tired dogs can get "cranky" and a cranky dog sometimes starts playing sloppy. During nap time, the dogs that will sleep with other dogs are moved into a separate room with a few of the humans. In true Kairo fashion, we know he "claims" some of the humans to sleep on/snuggle during nap time since he sometimes comes home with a perfume smell on him. Spoiled.

One of ladies, Felicia, loves Kairo so much that when G$ and Kairo entered one morning, she exclaimed, "My boo is here!"*  That immediately caused Kairo to do his frantic-butt-shaking-tail-wag over to her, followed by a quick sit for a treat.
 *For those of you who don't know, "boo" is a term of a endearment, usually referring to boyfriend or girlfriend. 

Desperately need to paint the window and door frames.

As I mentioned, Kairo's is a "regular" and has been going there for quite some time. As a little background, there are two separate rooms -- the sweet side and the salty side. They split the dogs up, not by size, but by how they interact with other dogs. The salty side tends to be more rambunctious from what we are told. Kairo, despite being a high energy dog, prefers the sweet side. They've tried putting him on the salty side, but was a bit intimidated and overwhelmed, causing him to not really play with the other dogs. In addition to the different rooms, they also put different colored collars on the dogs -- red, yellow, green -- to indicate to the room monitors which dogs to keep a closer eye on.

Well, last week, G$ dropped the K-Man off at daycare and someone new was working, so they asked Felicia which room Kairo should be put in and what color collar he needed. Felicia quickly responded, "The sweet side and he's doesn't need a collar, he's VIP!" That is how we found out that Kairo is both well-known AND a perfect angel.** G$ and I both have had numerous staff members tell us how sweet he is, which makes us very pleased to hear.
**Just a little puppy-parent bragging.  We know he's not a perfect angel... all the time. :)

Enjoying some spring-like weather this weekend

<3
K$