oh yes. it will be beautiful.

So after going back and forth....and forth and back again, my matt and I have not yet made any real solid wedding plans....until now (almost).

Since there is a plethora of amazing wedding eye candy to feast upon each and every day, I do a lot of blog-lovin. Maybe too much. Well, just one week ago I feel in love with a wedding feature on one of my favorite sites, 100 layer cake. It wasn't like head over heels, that would be, like, so cool. It was real, honest and one of those moments you're like, "yeah. this is right. YEAH! this is sooo right!"

Feast your eyes lovelies.

Tuscany. Just our parents and siblings. mayyyybbbee our friends of honor, mayyyyybbbee not. And it would still be less than a 'traditional' wedding, or at least what the books...er..sites... say as 'traditional'.

And my Matt was really, really excited about this.

What about you? How does your significant other involve themselves in the plans?

does your life get in the way of planning a wedding?

Hello dear readers. I'm so sorry I've been ignoring you the last few days. You see, I could go on and on about very large work related activities that I've been swamped with lately, and I could go on to explain how even though it's stressful sometimes, I still love my job, but I'll spare you the details.

How are you? How is your body doing? How is your mind, your planning and how was your breakfast?

I'm still Paleo-ing for the most part. I've taken the 80/20 approach now, which means that I have decided to eat Paleo 80 percent of the time, and non paleo 20 percent of the time. I feel really good, I especially love going out to eat my non paleo meals, because I've found that I can't really keep strong if there are non paleo foods in my house. (you know, that moment of weakness where all you want is something that is not a carrot or apple? you're strong all day and then you eat dinner and you just need something else to eat? Yeah, I know).

I'm learning that I stay at my feel good weight of 135 pounds if I am Paleo-ing all week. If I have, let's just say one Saturday night of a non paleo meal out and some wine, and then maybe a non paleo lunch on Sunday, guess what? I am 137 on Monday. I know it takes 3500 calories to gain a pound, so there is no way I'm actually gaining two pounds each weekend, but something is going on in my body. It's saying, "oooh sugar! Ooh flour! Let's stay in her body until next Wednesday!"

I've also decided to go off the pill after this month's pack, to see if the artificial hormones may be making my weight loss more difficult.

I've also had to be extra careful with my food these last two weeks because I've had to major shows the last two weekends. (okay okay it comes out....I am a professional modern dancer and I perform about eight times a year). When I'm on 'show week' I choose not to work out to add some extra insurance that I don't injure myself before a show. So since I'm in the middle of a two (different) show marathon like I am now, I can't go to the gym until I'm done with the shows. Yes, I'm dancing, but my body is so used to this kind of activity that I have to be putting in six to eight hours in the studio/theater dancing intensely for it to affect my weight.

Anyway. Sometimes it seems that my life gets in the way of planning or thinking about a wedding. Maybe that's okay though, because it's only one day after all.

wait...you mean I'm getting married?

Do you ever forget you're engaged? Because I do. A lot. I think it's mostly because we haven't set a date yet. Our goal is to set the date by Jan 1, 2010. We do know that the wedding will be summer of 2011, but we have to decide our guest list, budget and date. By Jan 1. It's not that hard really, we just want to make sure it's right.

We both knew that we wanted a long engagement, because we'll only be engaged once, and we want to enjoy it, and not be crazy busy planning every micro detail. But...it is a little hard to not micro manage when we have the time to micro manage. Right now I've been trying to take his take on his perspective, which is, don't think about it for awhile, because it's only one day and the more you stress about it before hand, the more control you'll want to have on that day and the less you'll enjoy it, and the more you'll want to go back and make it happen again.

I don't want to be one of those brides who has regrets, wants the wedding to be over now because it's so stressful or wants to re-live the spotlight of the wedding day (and I don't want to spend ridiculous amounts of money for something like a ceremony program that if we're lucky will be recycled and not thrown away). Frankly, I don't want to be in the spotlight. I'm a dancer, and I perform all the time and that is an adrenaline rush I don't want on my wedding day. It should be about bringing our families together to witness our public commitment for life. That's rather humbling, actually.

The greatest thing about all of the wedding blogs out there, is that as brides we can get a little glimpse of each couple's special day, and how they decided to interpret a wedding. And while I love a beautiful party, and making name plates out of Goldie Locks spun hair as thread for home made paper from the loves notes of my fiancee......that's not what a wedding is about (to me, at least) I'm not marrying myself, and the good Lord knows my fiancee isn't marrying me to watch me unravel in a pool of desired perfection for our guests to be wowed at. I'm finding that the more I read about other people's weddings, the more I'm drawn to couples that decide to elope privately, or with a very small guest list. It seems much more cost effective, and personal.

What do you think? How did you decide the feeling you were going for at your wedding? Cool and casual? Formal and romantic? How did you come to those conclusions? Help a sister out!

Suga, suga

image from Raya Carlisle Photography

Hey honey, honey....

You are my Candy Girl!

Oh Sugar! Why are you like crack! Why am I having withdrawals from you!

For real. All I want is sugar. And how fitting is it that tomorrow is Halloween, an entire holiday (if you'd like to call it that) devoted to spooks and sugar.

PALEO GODS KEEP ME STRONG!

Paleo is going well. It's still pretty hard most of the time, but I've successfully kept off five pounds in a little over a week, so that's pretty good. For those of you just joining the game, on Wednesday October 21, I decided to go cold turkey Paleo. (Paleo = No grains, No Dairy, No Sugar) It's true that I've had two cheat meals, both including one serving of grains and one serving of dairy. The funny part was, after each of those cheat meals, I gained a pound (or after one of them, TWO). Obviously our weight goes up and down every day depending on how much food we have that is digesting, and how much water we have.

But, I find it very interesting that my body holds on to wheat like nothing I've ever seen to try to gain weight. So, it was a very strict Monday though Friday but I've managed to knock back down the wheat-weight gain from last weekend, making my weight five pounds lighter than when I started Paleo-ing.

I made some killer paleo muffins, which aren't 100% paleo because they have Baking Powder in them, and honey in them (yes, honey is a type of sugar) but I'm treating them like a 'transition' paleo food. They are pretty good! They aren't too unsweet (I know, I know. I want sweet sugar foods so I was worried these would taste like cardboard) and have a lot of fat from the coconut, so they really satisfy. Want the recipe? I thought so.

Coconut Paleo Muffins

1 cup almond flour (I have a hard time finding it in the grocery, so I make it with a food processor and raw almonds)
1/2 cup whole ground flaxseed meal (I like Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 tsp of baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup maple syrup or honey (I used Royal Jelly)
1 1/2 tsp coconut extract (if you don't have it, just skip it)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp coconut oil

Preheat Oven to 350

Mix together all ingredients until smooth. (really. it's that easy.)

Pour into 6 muffin cups greased with coconut oil and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Recipe adapted from Eating Stella Style by George Stella.

Mmmm, mmm honey. Your kitchen will smell divine when these babies are done baking. Don't worry about making a double batch, they will go bad in six days and you don't want to eat more than one in a day, so why waste those precious ingredients?

I stored mine at room temperature, but I'm going to try to refrigerate them this time because when I made them last week they started going bad sooner than they should.

For a real treat, pour or spread (depending on what temperature you keep your coconut oil) a little bit of coconut oil on top as 'frosting'. Trust me, with all of the good fat from the coconut oil and the heaviness of flax and almond, it won't be so hard saying no to seconds.

See? When we are eating real food, our bodies get real with us. They say, 'that's enough' when it is.

Go Paleo! You're hard sometimes, but you will be worth it!

For those of you wanting a little more explanation of why being Paleo is a good thing, check out this.

Happy Haunting!