Introducing Crash!

Crash! Is our new puppy and I believe the "!" Is important in his naming. Crash! is an Olde English Bulldog and we got him this last thursday and he is 9 or 10 weeks. He is such a goofball and he is also berserk, his name is fitting because when he gets a full head of steam, he crashes into everything. The kid has no idea of his strength and his size. He is very intelligent and we got him house broken in just two days (mostly; he's still a puppy). He is very headstrong and stubborn so he is going to take a lot of effort to train him. He sits anytime food is around, and is learning to lay down and he is pretty good around juliette as long as she doesn't have one of his toys. Crash! loves to play and he plays pretty hard right now and he's got some sharp little teeth so we are working to make sure he knows who he is playing with. We hope to teach him to sit, lay down, stay, go to bed and anything else that it seems like he will pick up. We are excited to train him.

I admit I wasn't thrilled to get a dog so quickly. I wanted to wait till we got our own house but Shae has wanted a dog since we got married and it was only a matter of time before she broke me down and made me see her way. Two years and some months later, I feel like I fought the good fight but lost. It isn't really a loss because Crash! Is so much fun. 

The Olde English breed is a good breed because they don't have the same health problems that AKG English Bulldogs have. Also, they are drastically cheaper dogs. Can you believe that English Bulldogs are $3000 dogs? Yeah right. Not with all the health problems they have with their hips. Anyways, we are super excited to have him. He is a wonderful addition to our family and he has adopted us just as quickly. 

Married for life

So I just kind of stumbled across this book at Walgreens today. It was just hanging on an end-cap with some other books that I just thought were journals. It's a cute little find, and when i opened it up, it just kind of reminded of all the little things married couples have told me over the years. When it comes to marriage, I don't really think there's any magic formula, it is all pretty common sense, but it boils down to be the best person you can be for your partner. I think what happens is we do what's natural and that is, when we get busy, have kids, go to work, go to school, we accidentally start focusing on ourselves in an effort to try to provide for our spouse and for our family. Even in the best relationships, we innocently, and absently mindedly begin to forget who is most important to us. Which is our family, but somehow we make it seem, in our minds, like we are most important. What I really like about this book is how it simply states those concepts in a clear and concise manner. It's like one of those desk calendars where there's some sort of funny picture or quote for each day of the year. I believe there are about 50 to 100 of these "good ideas", and I wanna try to remember each of these little concepts on a daily basis, ponder them, write about them (here or in my personal journal) and really try to sponge up on a daily basis something  on how to take care of my wife and my family. It's a neat little book and am excited to see how it helps our relationship. Who knows, maybe it will just be a table book but I hope that we can really learn and grow from it. Check it out 

Married for life: inspiration from those married 50 years or more, Russ L. Potter, II, Bill Morelan

ISBN: 978-1-59530-329-5

Whole 30

Lately, Shae and I have really been working on making ourselves better in a lot of different facets. Mentally, spiritually, physically. We found alot of different rewarding techniques and changes, and we have found a new one in this diet called the "Whole30" diet. When it comes to diets, both Shae and I are not really into fad diets, and we have been very fond of the Paleo diet and what we decide to have our family live. Whole30 is kind of a jump start into paleo in that it's a bit more restrictive, but this picture here gives a general overview of what the diet is. We started back in mid-March and the changes that we've had have been pretty great. I've lost about 10 pounds so far, after hitting a high of 196 I was really ready to fix that. Shae has lost weight too, but I will allow to her to keep that disclosed. Sufficeth to say she has good reason to make other mommies totes jelly.

What makes this diet unique is the focus to take out any additional sugar, or refinement out of meals. That takes out a lot of different "healthy" option additions, especially when it comes to sauces and dressings. I was amazed to find so many products added sugar to things I couldn't imagine actually needing sugar. Hot sauce, Tomato sauce, are two of the more prevalent items that I can think of right now. It also cuts out a lot of things related to soy because their are so many different conflicting ideas and science behind it. I like the concept of it all, "If you have to check if it's good or not, probably just don't eat it". Good mantra.

We will probably go back to Paleo in 30 days because whole30 really cuts out anything that is even a "Cheat" meal. A cheat meal is any paleo substition for traditional food that would not normally be in this diet because of it's ingredients. For example, if you were craving pancakes, it would be a "Cheat" meal to instead make pancakes from bananas and eggs. Well, guess what. We did it anyways.

That right there, is some of the best pancakes I've ever had, and they are simply egg, bananas and whatever else crazy Shae decides it needs. Super good, super quick. 

But what I love about this diet is the way it makes me (us!) feel. Better amounts of sustained energy and just a better feeling after eating. Losing the weight is really secondary, but it feels good to eat, feel good, and still lose weight doing it. What I also love is we have found substitutions for everything. Coconut (everything!) and cauliflower has been a godsend. A lot of people might be familiar with Cauliflower mash, but are less familiar with cauliflower "rice." Holy crap, I will never need to eat grains again. Like seriously. Look at this: --------->
That right there is the best Red Curry that I've had in a long time. Coconut milk, bell pepers, bazil, chicken etc. We also used that cauliflower rice to make sushi. Because sushi grade fish can be really expensive, we decided to keep it cheaper and we used shrimp instead. This is still a little bit of work in progress because as it turns out, sushi is hard to roll, especially when you don't have any of those nifty tools that Sushi chef's use to roll them perfectly. For a couple white kids in Fresno, I think it turned out alright and it tasted even better.

The other thing that has changed our life is the spiralizer. The spiralizer is this nifty device that you spin in a circle (hence spiral-izer) that shaves down whatever it vegetable or fruit into a thin noodle like shape. What is awesome about that, is it has made spaghetti a lot easier to cook without actual noodles. In the past we have always done it with spaghetti squash and we really love it, but it is time consuming and kind of a pain, or a labor of love. I love spaghetti squash but would happily replace it with something easier. Voilà. Spiralizer. One particular meal was spiralizer zucchini with a stuffed portobello mushroom with red sauce. Come on. Ridiculous. Anyways this diet is a lot of fun for Shae and I and I don't mind the extra dishes that have to be done with all the extra cooking. I've lost quite a bit of body fat switching to the diet and I think Shae feels like she is doing well too. Here is to healthy living and enjoying a diet that makes you feel good