Paleo Trial: Days 10-12

For the past week, I've been reading The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat by Loren Cordain, Ph.D. Apparently he was one of the first people to really publicize the Paleo diet and his books are listed in the "Resource" section of It Starts With Food. I find this listing a little funny as there are significant differences between the type of Paleo diet the Hartwigs (the ISWF authors) endorse and the type that Cordain endorses.

The Whole30 people (the Hartwigs) say that fat in your meat does not matter as long as the meat is grass fed, pastured, and organic. Cordain says ALWAYS choose the leanest cuts of meat. Always. The Hartwigs advocate cooking with ghee and coconut oil and say that eating sweet potatoes is fine. Cordain says absolutely no potatoes of any kind and that olive oil is the only oil that should be used for cooking. Cordain also says that walnuts are the best nuts to eat because of their favorable omega 6-omega 3 ratio. The Hartwigs say that walnuts are the absolute worst nut to eat. Wanna use flax oil? The Hartwigs say "NO!" Cordain says "sure!!" Wanna add a little sea salt to your food? Cordain says "NO!" The Hartwigs say, "absolutely....and while you're at it use a little table salt too so that you get enough iodine in your diet." Cordain says no more than 6-12 eggs per week. The Hartwigs say 3-5 eggs per meal baby. Wanna snack on some fruit? Cordain says "go ahead." The Hartwigs say "ehhh...you really shouldn't be snacking. Least of all on fruit alone. If you MUST make sure you add lots of protein and some fat to that snack!" 

Most significantly, Cordain is all about the stone age.The foundation for all of his pro-Paleo diet arguments is that early humans ate this way and thrived on this diet. As I mentioned in my initial post about deciding to start the Whole30 program, the Hartwigs hardly refer to early humans but rather cite a ton of current scientific/ medical research proving the benefits of the foods they advocate eating and the negative consequences of eating the foods they deem "less healthy."

So just like over in Vegan city,  Paleo town is filled with "experts" who don't necessarily agree with one another on the best way to live their chosen diet. I'm curious about what I'll find in the third Paleo book I pick up.

In other news, in an effort to step up my green smoothie game, I recenly purchased the ebook Green Smoothie Magic: 132+ Delicious Green Smoothie Recipes That Trim And Slim . I have decided to make each of the 132 smoothies and rate them! I have made four so far and have only really liked one. I think the main reason I haven't been blown away by any of the recipes is that the fruits that I've been using have not been that sweet and I haven't been adding any sweetener. The great thing about all the recipes though is that they each have AT LEAST 2 cups of greens in them and you really can't taste them once everything is blended. Tomorrow, I'll be making a "Vanilla Chai" smoothie and I'm excited to see how something with 2 cups of greens in it can still taste like chai!

Anywhoo here's what I ate on days 10-12 with some random notes included:

Day 10

 Meal 1

My breakfast vs. Emile's breakfast. Why does the 4 year old have more food than I do?

Green smoothie-"#1 Classic Pine-Mint Smoothie" -spinach, mint, pineapple, avocado, water—approx  3 cups. I'd rate this one a 6.5. Wasn't sweet enough for me.
2 Hard boiled eggs
1/2 cup strawberries
Small handful of raw cashews
Pre workout snack
2 dried figs
Big slice of dried mango
2 small handfuls raw cashews
Meal 2

Baked almond crusted dover sole (have I mentioned that I hate Dover Sole fish?)
1 cup spinach
½ cup green beans
 Meal 3

Stuffed bell peppers (red bell pepper w/ ground turkey, onion, garlic, zucchini, tomatoe, egg, spices)
Romaine lettuce
2 Paleo “apple muffins”
Dried mango slices

Day 11
Meal 1

Green smoothie-"#2 Cinnamango Smoothie" 2 cups chard, mango, mint, water, cinnamon, sea salt, vanilla extract. Another 6.5 for the same reason.
Half of a stuffed bell pepper w/ fried egg,
¼ avocado
Apple muffin
Meal 2
2^nd serving green smoothie
Banana
Fuji apple
Half of a stuffed bell pepper
1 cup raw romaine lettuce
Meal 3

3 dried figs
1 kiwi
1 cup green beans
2 cups seasoned ground turkey (leftover bell pepper filling)
½ avocado’’
1 small sweet potato
2 apple muffins!!!
Snack
Banana
2 dried figs
A few pieces of pan cooked chicken breast that I made tonight for tomorrow

Day 12
Meal 1
Green smoothie-apple, mango, tatsoi, parsley, mint , flaxseed, water
2 fried eggs
¼ cup raw cashews

About 10 minutes after finishing everything I had the worst acid reflux every in my life. Shit burned. And I’ve been feeling “reflux-y” all day since L

Rooibos peppermint tea. Amazing.

 Meal 2

2^nd serving of green smoothie
Chicken breast
2 cups romaine lettuce
½ avocado
Snack
Banana
4 oz organic unsweetened apple sauce
3 dried figs and a handful of raw macadamia nuts
Snack 2
Small handful cashews
Small bowl of fruit-frozen strawberries and pineapple
Meal 3

2 salmon cakes (recipe from It Starts With Food)
½ avocado
Green beans
Snack 3
Frozen pineapple

Fin.