But you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at it. Despite the fact that I've eaten a pound of ground beef, 5 whole eggs, and 2 drumsticks in 2 days, my tummy is actually smaller/leaner looking than it's been in a while.
Guys, on the one hand I am having a BLAST with this Paleo thing. On the other hand I am full of worries! Tonight marks the end of Day 6 and I have noticed a few significant changes already! I'll start with the unpleasant stuff first:
-My poop is different and not as regular as I'd like and my tummy is generally uncomfortable. Here and now at the end of Day 6, however, the discomfort is less than it has been so yay. According to the readers of It Starts Wtih Food, "digestive distress is common and may take a few months to completely resolve," pg 214.
-I'm peeing alot more! This is something I noticed right away and it wasn't associated with drinking more water because I wasn't drinking more water right away (I am trying to now though to help with my tummy discomfort). Goodbye extra water weight!
-I'm worried about the volume of meat/animal protein I'm consuming. I just can't seem to escape that. I know that I'll worry less once I know more about how this diet is affecting my body.
Good things:
-My sugar and refined carb cravings are manageable. Much more manageable than they were when I was on a vegan diet high in flour products, beans and grains!
-I feel a lot better than I thought I would this first week. I haven't had headaches or been crankier or more fatigued than usual which is something I expected, and something that the authors of It Starts With Food, warned their readers about.
-I am pretty full most of the time! This has been strange for me. On Day 5 my breakfast and lunch were 5 hours apart and when I had lunch I didn't actually feel like I needed to eat but I figured that it was about time that I did. I know that in my previous post about Days 1-3 I said that I felt like I needed to have 4 meals + snacks each day but that has definitely changed.
-My energy levels are staying stable throughout the day! Normally between 12noon and 4pm I experience a severe dip in energy (this has frequently resulted in me needing to take a quick "nap" on the couch while Emile watches tv or plays with his trains) but that hasn't happened in the past 6 days! I'm definitely not bounding with energy...when I wake up in the mornings I still feel like I could use an extra hour (probably because I do actually need an extra hour) of sleep and I still feel very drained at the end of the day but my energy levels decline steadily over the course of the day instead of dipping dramatically, spiking (after snacking on something), dipping, and spiking like they had been before I started Paleo.
-I am having an absolute blast researching and cooking new meals. I've found a ton of paleo blogs and I'm already obssessed! At first I was a little "ehhh" about the ickiness of dealing with raw meat, but it's bothering me less and less.
-And finally, I've been having spontaneous bursts of optimism and happiness. Haha. I don't know if this is solely because of the diet change but I think it's related. Maybe my moods are better regulated because I'm not eating any refined or extra/added sugar or proccessed foods.
I could say more but I think it is time to share what I've been eating!
Day 4
Hot water and lemon
Meal 1
1 serving green smoothie-2 cups red kale, 1/s avocado, 2 cups water, 1 banana, 2 tbs almond butter. 1 tbs ground flaxseeds
Omelette, 2 eggs and 1/2 cup mustard greens.
Snack- handful of raw cashews, 1 pear. Emile ate half of the pear.
Jasmine green tea
Meal 2
2nd serving of green smoothie
1 medium baked sweet potato
4 oz baked wild salmon (seasoned with lemon juice, garlic powder, sea salt and black pepper)
I couldn't finish this meal in one sitting. I ate the second half 1.5 hrs later.
Meal 3
Roasted purple cabbage and onion (fantastic!)
2 cups of raw green leaf lettuce
Day 5
Jasmine green tea
Meal 1
2 boiled eggs w/ roasted purple cabbage and onion
Pear sauteed in ghee and cinnamon
Meal 2
2 jerk drumsticks plus 1.5 cups lettuce+ handful of cashews and 1/2 avocado
Meal 3
Ground beef cooked in ghee with a red onion and seasoned with garlic powder, seal salt, and black pepper. Because of this meal ground meat might become a new obsession. It was so good that I kept eating it out of the pan. And before I knew it I'd eaten too much to have any space left for the blended salad I'd planned on eating with it :/.
Day 6
Hot water and lemon
Meal 1
1 serving of green smoothie: 6 small-medium red kale leaves, 1/4 cup soaked raw cashews, 1 banana, 1 pear, 2 tsps flax oil, 1 tbs ground flaxseed, 2 cups water.
2 eggs, scrambled
Meal 2
2nd serving of green smoothie
seasoned ground beef and raw baby carrots
Snack (I had a meeting and needed something to eat until I could have dinner)
1 large Fuji apple and raw baby carrots
Meal 3
1/4 cup raw cashews
2 cups chicken soup ( I see why people call it comfort food mmmm :) ).
Things I plan to do differently in Week 2
-Eat more veggies! and fruit, but most importantly veggies
-Eat less meat haha. I've had lamb, salmon, chicken legs, chicken wings, ground beef, and before the week is out goat will be on that list. I think I want to stick to two main meat sources per week.
-Eat less eggs. By the end of this week I'd have eaten about 16 eggs in one week.
-Cook with more coconut oil instead of ghee
-Make a meal plan before grocery shopping!
Ok that's all for now. Stay tuned for days 7-9!
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