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I’m in the mood for bright springy colors… so I’ve picked out these cute coral jeans, a pair of bright cobalt blue jeans and pale yellow capris. I paired a white tank with a white cardigan with the coral jeans.. love, love, love it!

I paired the pale yellow capris with a grey sweater and white shell… but even better than that I had a pale yellow handbag in my closet I had never carried. It was on sale and I had plans for it but never used it. Lucky me!  I’ve not worn the cobalt jeans yet, so we’ll have to see what I come up with.

I’ve also been in the mood to be crafty recently. Pinterest has been the source for several of my projects. For St. Patrick’s Day I found some super cute subway art and signs, I loved the St. Paddys Day set up that eighteen 25 had. So I found free St Patricks Day printables and I was on my way! I was too tired to drag the rest of the St Patricks Day decor out so this was the extent of my festiveness. I will try to do better for Easter.

We ran to Ikea and found a few fabulous goodies. I picked up these great bright green colored frames and a darling tiny bud vase for .79 cents.  I found some spring green acrylic paint  at Michael’s and made the bud vase more St Paddys day appropriate. I picked up a cute green colored vase at Goodwill for $1.00. I did turn a larger ugly clear vase dark green but…. I ended up buying spray paint and finishing it off… it still needs something so it is NOT ready to even be seen, because it is a total mess. It needs fine grit sand paper and a glossy coat to fix it. I’ll post it when it looks at least semi presentable.

We started down the Paleo friendly path because Paul needed to lose 30 pounds and get his cholesterol under control. I no longer make bread every week for him to eat in the morning, I no longer make rice or pasta several times a week. Carl has lost twenty or so pounds and Paul has lost ten. We do have flex days but have learned that flex days should really be flex meals. Flexing all weekend causes MAJOR tummy annoyance after being so good all week.  We focus on meat and vegetables, we eat a lot of salads while trying to avoid most dairy (I cheat on this all the time because I use cheese toward my total protein intake and a couple breve lattes on the weekends), grains and soy.

We favor organic produce, meats and snacks to avoid the extra pesticides, hormones and genetically modified crap that permeates our supermarkets in the US. Start reading labels, you will be stunned what all has soy or wheat included. I mix my own taco seasoning to avoid the MSG in most packets. This is also a good thing to do if you have issues with gluten, many of the spices have extra ingredients that can cause folks with celiac disease to react.

I use coconut creamer by So Delicious in my morning coffee, we try to stick with only one cup of coffee a day (cough.. okay most days), we use dried fruit, organic fruit leather, nuts and fruit as snacks. I look for organic chocolate (no stinkin’ way am I giving up chocolate), coconut or almond based ice creams (nope not giving that up either) for desserts. We found Santa Cruz Organics puts out a fabulous organic chocolate syrup to take the place of our old favorite.  I have been going through and rating the ice creams (because that is the hardest for me to give up). We did set it up so no one feels deprived of anything.

Paul has a flax seed muffin by Flax 4 Life along with a yogurt from So Delicious and a piece of fruit this is a long way from the sugar sweet breads he was eating.

Summer is AMAZING for this plan, Paul learned he liked grilled asparagus and grilled zucchini. Silk puts out a dark chocolate almond milk that is delicious, almonds naturally help to reduce cholesterol plus this really quells that chocolate craving. We cook with real butter, bacon fat, olive oil and coconut oil. We have switched out regular flour for coconut or almond flour. We switched to natural cane sugar (to avoid GMO beet sugars in some of the lesser brands). Remember if it doesn’t specify cane sugar, you can bet it will have a mix of cane and beet sugars.

As you may recall we did kick this switch off with some juicing, but it was a rough road of hoe and I was unable to do it even with the additional protein powder to keep my protein at 100 grams a day (the minimum for me).

Paul is having his cholesterol re-tested this week, mine was tested last week. I was notified my cholesterol was too low!?!?! WHAT??? My cholesterol was normal and has now dropped through the floor.  Cholesterol is actually what feeds your brain, so it needs to stay in the zone so you get enough but not too much.  Cheesecake here I come…