This is more than a week overdue, but, as they say, better late than never. Actually, it’s my OCD more than anything else that drives me to finish blogging about the challenge–once I start, I gotta finish.

For some reason, probably all those fries and wings at the Bar Bill the night before (which was repeated almost exactly this past Friday, too), I woke up early Saturday morning and decided to just get up.

I snacked on some of those awesome Paleo pumpkin cookies around 5 a.m.

Before our snowshoe trek, I made myself a Paleo pumpkin gingerbread smoothie, with a frozen banana, pumpkin, almond milk, molasses, almond butter, chia seeds, and vanilla protein powder. In the future, I think I would omit the almond butter and banana as I don’t think it needs either–they’re just extra calories. If I used plain protein powder, I might keep the banana for sweetness.

After snowshoeing, Andrew and I brought Hadrian to the dog park with hot chocolate. I snagged a couple homemade Larabars, too.

Not pictured: our late lunch of Pasquale’s pizza and wings at the Layers’ house. Yup, I ate pizza. And drank soda. It was fantastic. Not Paleo.

Also not pictured: dinner with Abigail and Marvin at one of our favorites, Arriba. Two margaritas, chips and queso and a chicken quesadilla. Also fantastic. Also not Paleo.

Went to bed–I’m sure–with a much-too-full tummy.

We met Marv and Abigail at McDonalds (of course) on their way out of town Sunday morning. I wasn’t in the mood for anything meaty or eggy, so I went with the oatmeal and a milk. Not Paleo, but arguably the ‘healthiest’ choice at said establishment.

I’m pretty sure Andrew went off to church and I stayed home to prep my food for the week, and afterward we took Hadrian for another spin at the dog park. It’s becoming our new favorite hangout with other dog-owning friends on the weekends.

Anyway, Andrew and I went on a little ‘date’ to Taste and shared a fresh Belgian waffle. Wow. So good.

Last Sunday was also the Super Bowl, and we hosted a few close friends at our place. I threw together some veggies and dip, chips and salsa, and a white chicken chili. Pigs-in-a-blanket, Paleo chocolate peanut butter cookies and taco salad were brought by friends.

Stacey’s taco salad was fantastic. Again, I went to bed with a VERY full tummy that night, too.

I did think the event was a perfect opportunity to make those Paleo Mocha Bacon Brownies, from Practical Paleo.

I made them ‘extra bacon-y’ by using some bacon fat in addition to butter when making the brownies. I can’t say I loved them, but I did hear the leftovers were huge hits with some of Andrew’s GF and Paleo co-workers.

I felt our last weekend on the Paleo Challenge wasn’t really very ‘Paleo,’ but it is what it is. Or was. To me, it felt like a weekend of ‘debauchery,’ but Andrew didn’t share my view.

So that’s that. I’ll write a separate blog on how we felt about ‘going Paleo’ and how our eating pattern may or may not change from here on out.

In case anyone is wondering, Andrew and I have definitely relaxed a bit on the ‘challenge.’ Everything I make at home has still been Paleo (and will be up until the Super Bowl–we’re hosting), but eating out of at someone else’s house are ‘challenges’ I just don’t always feel like tackling. Thankfully, I’m not sensitive to gluten, so I can relax. Giving Paleo a try has opened my eyes to the challenges my patients and future clients (who either have dietary restrictions or subscribe to the eating pattern) have when grocery shopping or eating out.

Breakfast: Never quite managed to eat at home–still rushing off to the hospital in the morning! Two egg muffins with salsa, chicken sausage, kraut and a Clem. Great combo.

Mid-morning: Coffee and my mini-trail mix.

Lunch: Eaten close to 2 p.m.! Got stuck going over assessments with my preceptor… Chicken stir-fry and an apple with almond butter.

When I left the hospital, all I wanted was some hot chocolate. Not a normal craving of mine, but sure. Our plans for the evening got all turned around (kinda like last Friday), so I’m glad I indulged in this treat to tide me over for awhile… (I also indulged in a little retail therapy too…it was a stressful week!)

Instead of heading to the gym for 5 p.m. spin, I met Andrew and friends at our local watering hole where I ordered the chocolate cherry stout. OMG. Amazing. And I don’t even usually like stout.

Our friends were wanting Bar Bill, our wing place (best in WNY!), so we popped next door to get a table. I chugged some water–always a good idea when drinking and my fool-proof way to avoid a hangover–before we sat down at a table.

Their fries are absolutely phenomenal, so we started with some of those:

Everyone got an order of a different wing flavor; I chose medium and Andrew got his favorite: Cajun. We split a beef on weck sandwich. Enjoyed with an Irish ale.

Needless to say, I haven’t slept well the last two nights….all that indulging! Ready for a normal day again.

I’m still day(s) behind at this point, but I’m workin’ on it. I woke up this morning (Saturday) around 5:30 and figured I might as well get some things done. Blog posts, notes to friends, emails, weekly log for school …

Anyway, THURSDAY. Long day; left at 7 a.m. and got home after 10 p.m. And Andrew wonders why I was a crab Friday morning…

Breakfast: Two Apple strudel muffins with bacon and a Clem. A heaping for up of kraut as I ran out the door.

Mid-morning: My 25-cent cup of coffee from the ECMC cafe as I did assessments.

Lunch: Salmon on salad, roasted cauliflower. Still didn’t eat the applesauce thing.

Afternoon snack: trail-mix. Did I ever tell what was in it? Dried pineapple and mandarin orange slices (a trader joes find), almonds and dark chocolate.

And this is probably when the intake for the day started going downhill…

Left ECMC and went to a friends’ house to hang out/kill time before book club that evening. No point in driving all the way home to turn around and come all the way back to Buffalo like 30 minutes later. My friend made hummus and had lots of veggies and GF crackers and things for us, which was sweet. We painted our nails and chatted about our rotations.

Dinner: there is always enough food at book club that it can be dinner, so I’ve stopped eating beforehand. There are also 2-3 GF ladies, so I knew the Paleo Pumpkin cookies I brought would be well-received. SO GOOD! Recipe can be found at thegirlwhowentpaleo.blogspot.com.

I enjoyed lemon-dill hummus (my new favorite!), GF crackers and a bean/corn/avocado mix. For dessert: Paleo pumpkin cookies and chocolate cake made with beets–my first grain in the entire challenge! I thought it was funny that I managed to over-indulge in all these ‘healthy’ foods and treats. The cookies may have been Paleo, but it doesn’t mean they don’t have sugar (honey)!