"Everything Free" Cooking Doesn't Mean Easier or Faster

Well, it is now 10pm and I am WORN OUT! As you can see from my list I still have a ways to go tomorrow. I think the 3 trips to the store for missing ingredients sort of put a damper in the speediness of the preparing process.
I started with the gluten free and dairy free pie crust. There is a mixture of 4 different kinds of "flours". After all of that was mixed and rolled out, it went into the fridge overnight to chill and be rolled out and baked in the morning. My next task was the green bean casserole. It definitely takes a lot longer to make when your ingredients aren't out of a can. I had fresh green beans that I had to clean and snap. Then I had to slice an onion and saute it and slice up some mushrooms and garlic and saute them. All the while boiling the creamy part of the sauce. The green bean casserole is in the fridge ready to get the homemade "french-fried" (with almond meal) onions spinkled on top and put in the oven.
While this was all going on I was trying to cut and scoop out all the silly insides of the pumpkins! Wow, that proved to be my workout for the day! That took me FOREVER to get all the gunk out. But it is done and they are roasted! (And totally delicious)
The pumpkin cinnamon cheesecake is currently in the oven and I am getting to sit down for the first time in a couple of hours! Whew....finally getting to relax a little and watching one of my favorite shows, Man vs. Food!
Today was a day off from my training. I don't know why but I have a hard time resting. Yet, I am trying to train a lot smarter now, especially since I am in the off season and trying to deal with my health issues. So I am going to be trying something new, training really hard when I train, but training way less. Making it more about quality and not quantity. Another big difference in my training is going to be my cardio and how I approach that. I am going to go a month of solely HIIT or SIT cardio and only 20 minutes or less and only a couple of times per week. The hormonal response that this elicits in the body has much greater response towards my goals. Because I have had so many health problems, I have always had to work a million times harder than everyone just to get the same results, so this is a HUGE paradigm shift for me. I know it is the truth and it is right and I have researched the heck out of it, but of course I have a hard time not just going ALL out "balls to the wall" as they say! This month is going to be an interesting month and we will see how it goes. Some of my goals in this are to get healthy, lose body fat, gain lean muscle, and balance out my life more.
I sure hope I get the response that the science says and am happy with the results and the process. I am also going to try my very best to stay away from almost all the foods that I am allergic to and only have one cheat meal a week and eat clean the rest of the week. That will definitely prove to be difficult considering just HOW MUCH I LOVE holidays and baking. I am hoping that by writing out my daily struggles and accomplishments all of you will be able to keep and hold me accountable. My goal is to lose at least 10 lbs from this morning to the morning of Christmas Eve! (Might end up being more after tomorrow!)
Well, there is there timer for my cheesecake....time to wind down for the night because it is going to be an early morning tomorrow starting with a kick-butt workout with Jerome and then onto more cooking! :)