Focus

Yesterday was a long and winding day, beginning with a four-mile walk that ended in the rain, and moving on to a five-hour Sam's Club/JoAnn's/Kroger mission that began AND ended in the rain. On tap for today? MORE RAIN.

There was an inch of rain collected in the gauge this morning. I sure do wish I'd gotten the garden in prior to this week. But it's easier to plant and pull weeds from wet ground than from rock-hard soil. Counting my blessings.

My focus the past month (I began the paleo plan April 6) has been spot-on, and it's working.

Less than a quarter-mile to go. At this point I'd been walking in the
rain for 20 minutes, so when my husband called to see if I needed
him to come pick me up, I declined. I was already soaked!

What have I focused on? Basically eating protein, vegetables and fruits; not eating grains, legumes, dairy and sugar, and getting some kind of daily workout done. The eating part has been STELLAR. Astonishingly so.

For instance: I have two packages of lemon sandwich cookies in my car, left from a long-ago road trip. I don't even have to take my eyes off the road to find them, open them and eat them. That's how road-trip food works, right? Well, I've been on several solo road trips since those cookies landed in the car and I don't even think about them. They'll most certainly outlive me. Because I'm not touching them except to pitch them next time I clean the car.

Part of yesterday's mission was to find spaghetti squash, which is classified as a winter variety and, thus, hasn't been available at Tiny Kroger. Giant Kroger had plenty of them, pricey but still … I was so happy to see them I put three in my cart. (Spaghetti squash keeps well and you can cook and freeze it, as well.)

You can bet I'm planting plenty of spaghetti squash (and butternuts. I picked one of those up at Giant Kroger but returned it to the bin when I realized it was going to cost $7.50!).

I was also on the hunt for coconut flour and almond meal, both of which were on the shelf at GK. I was not surprised to find them there, but was astonished at the price – nearly $9/lb for the almond and $10/lb for the coconut. I've read online that Trader Joe's has coconut flour for $3.99/lb, so I'll be stocking up next time I'm in the vicinity of one. Which will be the end of this month. YAY!

Theoretically I could make my own almond meal. I've tried in the food processor, but not in a coffee grinder. I have made almond butter. Once the almonds begin to release their oil, you might as well keep processing.

I ended up buying one bag of each of the flours, despite the high price. I'm in an experimenting mood and getting a little bored with the morning bacon-and-egg routine. Since I was too tired to bake anything last night, that's what breakfast will look like this morning (SOON!). But tomorrow? Banana pancakes or bread, maybe?

Film at eleven!