Ten Days of Real Food!

I've been reading through the 100 Days of Real Food Blog for some months now. 

I find it encouraging that this woman decided to learn more about the food she ate and was feeding her family and then led her family on a journey to see what would happen if they cut out all processed foods for a definite period of time. She's done two documented 100 days of real food pledges: "The Original"  and  "100 Days on a Budget." I'm currently reading through her blog posts on the latter pledge. 

She encourages readers who might find giving up processed foods for 100 days intimidating to try a 10 day pledge. Seemed doable.

As I shared in my last post, one of my goals for 2014 is to gradually make my way to eating a mostly (85%) whole foods, unprocessed diet. I woke up one Monday morning in late January and thought "What am I waiting on?! I'm taking the 10 days of real food pledge today!"

I didn't follow the rules perfectly. But I kept trying. Because I'm usually the type to quit when I have a slip-up or for some reason end up not following a plan exactly, the fact that I kept trying even though I couldn't do the pledge perfectly is significant for me.

Day 1:

"Breakfast"- Green juice and a banana

Lunch- homemade stove stop mac and cheese, steamed cauliflower and broccoli, avocado with evoo and sea salt

Snack- raw organic pistachios, clementine orange, apple sauce

Dinner- shrimp fried rice, raw kale salad

Dessert- homemade gluten free chocolate chip banana bread

Liquids- water, green tea with raw honey, red wine

"Real food" included meat( preferably local and organic), dairy (preferably organic), fruits and veggies, whole grains, nuts, and seeds, and all the wonderful things you can make with these unprocessed ingredients. It excluded refined sugars, refined grains, deep fried foods, and all food products made from those ingredients. Store bought/ packaged items where allowed as long as they had no more than 5 ingredients and all the ingredients where whole (i.e 100% whole grain bread, pasta etc). Raw Honey and Maple Syrup were the only sweeteners allowed [in moderation]. The pledge permitted alcohol.

For my heart you see...

The rules and the entire Real Food deal are best explained on the website. I highly recommend checking it out and reading the blog posts. The site also has ton of recipes and resources for the real-food curious!

The blue corn tortilla chips were a no-no

 

I'll keep trying the pledge until I can do the 10 days perfectly (maybe one day I'll make it to a 100). But for now I'm pleased with how much healthy food I consumed (and am still consuming) consistently.

Self Care and Exciting Mysteries

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I would consciously and unashamedly dedicate November to my well-being.  I planned to actively take care of myself with more nourishing, home-cooked food, more abundant and higher quality sleep, more reading and writing, more lying in the dark listening to beautiful music (what, you don't do that?), more moving my body, more aloooone time but-and-also more time with friends not named Hannah (although I do love her and my time with her very much).

I've been marginally successful. I've done more cooking than in previous months and although I currently can't stand the sight of a green smoothie, I've increased my salad intake tenfold (or five threefold, whatever). I've had more alone time and spent more time with non-significant-other friends. On the other hand, I haven't read or written as much as I've been wanting to, my daily exercise still only comes in one form: my 10 minute walk to and from work, and the listening to music in the dark thing has been a no-go.The very, very great news is that I have an entire half of a month left to continue to make progress, and I will use those two weeks well!

In other news:

My life is in crazy flux! So many things are changing in so little time. In less than two weeks I will end my term at my current job (I have so many things to wrap up) and be on my way to Nashville, TN for Thanksgiving! Immediately after returning to Chicago, I will start a new full time job (praise), settle into a new apartment, play kitten mommy for a month, and possibly begin preparations to start another Master's program (part time). I'll share more details as these things happen but just know that my head is spinning! A couple of weeks ago when this was all still very uncertain and I was in danger of an anxiety meltdown in my office, my dearest Han, via Google chat, encouraged me with these words:

" I love you dear. Pray to Jesus for patience. I will try to find you some inspirational recorded thoughts from someone smarter than me, but until then just try to love this time as more of an exciting mystery than a scary secret."

I loved that last bit especially and decided from that moment on that "scary secrets" were out and "exciting mysteries" were in. Women's group last night reinforced this for me. During prayer, one of the women asked that God would help us all to celebrate and rejoice at what S/He is doing in our lives instead of allowing anxiety and fear to have center stage. Another woman prayed that we would all find peace with uncertainty and weakness, knowing that it's in those things that God's certainty and strength are exemplified.

I'm still scared. A lot can still go wrong how am I moving all of my shit?! . But in this moment, I'm choosing to make the joy, hope, and excitement of everything larger than my fears.

Oh, and in case you didn't catch it in the first picture, this happened:

3 weeks into my new do, it's already grown out from the starting 1/4 of an inch

Nearly 4 weeks ago, I asked Han to shave my head for me, and she did (she's done it several times before). I did it for completely different reasons than the first time and I love it more than I did the first time.

I think it's a good look for 25. 

Tuesday Tales

In pictures and videos:

Breakfast- "Eat Your Greens Smoothie": Spinach, frozen banana, blueberries, ground flax, soy milk, water. I also had 1/2 cup of lentil soup.

Lunch- Veggie Pita I added some of my homemade hummus and balsamic vinegar. 5 oz of baby carrots not pictured.

Came home, logged into Facebook and saw this.  My first thought was "Oh shit, getting quoted..." So what if it's my girlfriend quoting me...

I watched 3 minutes of this 10 minute workout video and decided I wasn't working out today:

I had a little motivational talk with myself and decided I could absolutely work out for 10 minutes. So I did this video:

Next came this raw kale and avocado salad, with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing (in the jar) I made this evening:

Scrimp pasta for dinner! 

#WasAlmostVeganToday 

Oh Discipline

One day I'll be able to call myself a disciplined human being. I'll introduce myself that way: "Morgan Service, disciplined human being here!"  Ok, maybe not. But it would be nice to know that if I did, I wouldn't be lying!

I did not meet my sleep goals for August. I have not, so far, met my unprocessed food goals for September. And I have troubles. Multiplied breakouts- depressive/ anxiety episodes-breaking out in hives every day again-constipated troubles. Sorry [not sorry] if that's TMI.

I've been having technical troubles too. My computer was out of commission for a while because my charger went kaput. Then my phone died and I received a less than stellar replacement. I can no longer compulsively check Facebook or Instagram (verb) every bit of my life. This forced semi-disconnection from social media is good though (I think). I know my father is relieved that I will no longer exceed our monthly data limit. You win Daddy-o, you win.

These past 7 and some weeks have not been all bad, however. I started exercising semi-regularly again. I've also journaled a few times after a many-months-long dry spell.

And I have other new things happening:

1. I'm loc'ing my hair! This is my second attempt ( I started the process in the late spring of 2011 but quit by the end of the summer) and I am sticking to it. So far I am a month in. I wore my baby locs out for a week but am now wearing yarn wraps (no, that's not me in that video) over them. Because honestly, the baby locs stage is just a little too rough for me right now. Not rough as in hard or burdensome. Rough as in "yikes, I don't feel as pretty as I want to!" And I'm fine with that being the reason I'm currently wearing braids.

2. I started a  blog on Tumblr! www.aqueerfaith.tumblr.com. I'm using it to discuss my experience of Christianity and non-heteronormative sexuality. I found it very hard to keep the blog focused because there are so many amazing, beautiful, funny, clever, poignant things on tumblr. To address that problem, I also made a secondary tumblr blog www.mfoodfaithfemme.tumblr.com for my other interests.  

My very first post where I detail the persons to whom A Queer Faith is dedicated.

3. I renewed my library card--it expired in mid-May--and I'm thrilled to be able to borrow books again! Right now twenty three of them are lounging on top of my bookshelf. There's that discipline problem again. But as my good friend, Bianca, put it, "what am I supposed to do?! They're free!"  I'm currently reading 10 books at once Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. So far, I like.

4. I have a camera again (I lost my last one on Valentine's day earlier this year)! A camera separate from my phone! And praise the Lord, because my "new" phone does not take very good pictures and getting pictures off of it onto my computer is more than a trial! Hannah gave me this camera for my birthday. Technically I've had it for a couple of months, but when I brought it back from Nashville, I left it at Han's place and it remained there until this past weekend. I purchased a memory card for it on Saturday and have been a very happy girl ever since.

I look like a professional, don't? 

I used it to take this picture of the pita bread and hummus that I MADE FROM SCRATCH tonight. Can you tell that I'm SLIGHTLY proud of myself?

I won't give up the fight to turn myself into a consistently healthy eater. My latest weapons:

 More to come on this when I can share something that will make you proud of my growing discipline.

Adieu.

Paleo Trial: Days 16-18

So....

Things have fallen apart. The collapse started slowly with the popcorn and Hot Tamales, peaked on Halloween when my roommates and I had a huge bucket of candy and no trick-or-treaters (you figure out what happened), and is now tapering off. Sigh. Now, I definitely don't think I'll be able to tell just how beneficial the Paleo diet was or could have been for me. I'm going to post what I ate on Days 16, 17, and 18. I'm currently on day 22. We will call days 19-21 the "lost days" and I won't talk about them. The shame is too great.  We'll see if I can at least finish strong and do Paleo really well from days 23-30. I think I am over it though. This was exciting at first but I really don't think it's something that I can do all day every day. Quality, cruelty free meat is just too much for my budget! It really stresses me out--buying pricey meat and worrying about not having enough of it when I have so many different kinds of beans sitting in my pantry (I have a post coming up about this)!! AND it's also kind of boring. Beef, chicken, fish, beef chicken fish, beefchickenfish, maybe lamb, sometimes goat, a little pork, beefchickenfish, turkey. Boiled egg, scrambled egg, poached egg, omlette. Repeat.  LOL. OK...I am being completely unfair. There are tons of ways to get creative with your meat (and I absolutely love ground beef, pork, and salmon--grass fed, wild). But I just don't like preparing meat as much as I like making plant-based meals. I think a big part of that is that I'm still battling with how I feel about eating meat regularly.  On a good note though, one of my main fears has been put to rest--eating a lot of meat will not automatically make you constipated! The fiber from the fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds has proven to be sufficient for my digestive system. Yay for being regular!

Day 16

Meal 1
I could do better
Green tea  (w/ a bit of honey and stevia!)
Banana
Apple
Almond pumpkin bars made by paleo friend at church
Meal 2

Bbq pork
Lettuce
Orange
Meal 3

Chicken leg and thigh
Roasted onions
Grapes
Day 17
Meal 1

I often end up eating breakfast at work b/c I'm always running late!

1 serving green smoothie- 2 cups chard, ¼ raw soaked almonds, 2 tbs ground flaxseed soaked overnight, 1 apple, 1 frozen banana, ½ avocado, water to blend. Yum.
Omlette-2 eggs, onions, nutritional yeast and a bit of sea salt
Snack
1 cup grapes
Meal 2

2 cups red leaf lettuce
Roasted Chicken breast
½ avocado
Snack
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup raw cashews
Peppermint tea
1 gala apple
Post work out meal
2^nd serving green smoothie
Meal 3

I loved this meal so much!

6 oz wild Alaskan salmon: broiled with an amazing honey-mustard glaze!
1 baked acorn squash with coconut butter and sea salt (so good!)
2/3 cup steamed mixed veggies
Day 18
Meal 1
Green Smoothie- 2 cups tastoi, ½ avocado, 1 gala apple, 1 banana, ¼  cup raw almonds, soaked, water to blend.
Omlette from 3 eggs and ½ a large yellow onion
Snack
½ cup grapes
¼ cup raisins and handful of raw walnuts
Meal 2
Roasted chicken
1/5 cups red leaf lettuce
½ avocado
Snack
Banana
Meal 3
Second serving  green smoothie

I love ground beef. Made some  for tomorrow’s meals and I just love that kind of still raw bloody beef taste it has. Mm.


I decided to leave my thoughts about ground beef unedited. Gross right? But so true. Yum.

Paleo Trial: Days 13-15

Ok,

I'm just going to come right out and confess. On Saturday night (day 15) I ate popcorn and Hot Tamales (the candy)!!! My roommates and I watched The Shining, in honor of Halloween weekend and those were our movie watching snacks. The good news is that the popcorn was fairly healthy since we (well, they) popped it from the original kernel, in a pot w/ olive oil (as opposed to the not so healthy microwave variety). My body definitely reacted though. Within 5 minutes I was super bloated! The bloating lasted for hours, in fact I was still bloated when I went to sleep and felt pretty uncomfortable when I woke up the next morning.  And that morning, Sunday, I put a bit of raw honey and stevia in my tea! And after church on Sunday I had a little pumpkin ball thingy that a friend of mine made, the ingredients of which included maple syrup, rolled oats, and sugar. AND that same friend gave me a few slices of a pumpkin loaf she'd made the previous evening. The loaf was made from almond flour and thus completely grain free and "essentially" paleo-friendly but there were maple syrup and chocolate chips in it! Then I had some more Hot Tamales on Sunday night because the huge bag was in our living room and it was literally calling out to me. Ok, not literally, but still. Overall, I don't feel bad about my minor Paleo deviance. According to the Whole30 people I technically need to start the 30 day trial over because I interfered with my body's resetting process. According to Loren Cordain (author of The Paleo Diet), however, everything is alright, I've just used up my "open meals" for the week (although those things don't qualify as "meals" really) and I'll always be fine as long as the majority of the food I eat is strictly Paleo! So. I am ok. I think I am going to tack an additonal 2 days on to my trial though to make up for Saturday and Sunday.

Day 13

Meal 1
Hot water w/ lemon
Green smoothie #3 "Mangolicious Strawberry-Mint" -strawberry, mango, mizuna, mint, water, ground flax, cinnamon, soaked almonds, dash of sea salt. I'd give this one a 6. Again, just not sweet enough.
3 Salmon cakes
Snack
Jasmine green tea
Banana
Dried fig w/ a few raw macadamia nuts
 Meal 2
Chicken breast
1 cup lettuce
½ avocado
An orange
Snack
2 figs
Handful of macadamia nuts
Salmon cake
Meal 3

Garlic Shrimp  (I cooked an entire bag of frozen shrimp and ate nearly ¾ of it in one go!!)
1 cup Russian kale sautéed with olive oil and garlic
Small piece of paleo sweet potato pie
Peppermint tea
Day 14
Meal 1
Hot water w/lemon
Green tea w/ a touch of raw honey (gasp I know I cheated)
banana
Green smoothie #6 “Vanilla Chai” smoothie- 2 cups greens (mix of kale, mizuna,and  chard), figs, soaked chia gel, soaked almond, soaked sunflower seeds, avocado, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, dash of sea salt, ice....meh. I guess i'd give it a 6.5/7. I was impressed that you couldn't taste the greens. And I suppose it did taste "chai"-ish. I just didn't like it a whole lot overall.
leftover broiled garlic shrimp
Snack
1 fuji apple
Meal 2
2 cups steamed cauliflower
1.5 Salmon cakes
2 small clementine oranges
Small piece of paleo- friendly sweet potato pie
Meal 3

Grilled chicken salad from Leonas w/ Italian dressing. I should have learned my lesson about dressings by now. I doubt it was Paleo approved. I felt very allergy-y after eating it. I need to make my own dressing
My salad came with an amazing looking loaf of bread. I nearly cried b/c I wanted to eat it so badly. I gave it to my roommate though. Sigh. The no bread thing is just getting harder and harder.
Day 15
Meal 1
Green smoothie #7 "Choc-Chai Smoothie" -2 cups mizuna, soaked sunflower seeds, soaked almonds,  water,  soaked chia gel, avocado, figs, dates, cacao powder, ccinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, dash of sea salt. Again, impressed by the no-greens taste but wasn't a big fan over all. 6.5/7.
Meal 2

Left over Leona's Salad mix
Can of sardines ( I made a sardine salad!)
Roasted red onion
Rest of paleo sweet potato pie
Snack

I roasted a whole chicken on my own! I need practice lol.

2 tiny roasted chicken wings (this was unintentional. I was cutting/tearing my roast chicken into pieces and the next thing I knew there was a tiny, crispy chicken wing in my hand and i thought to myself "I can either put this in the container or just eat this little thing right now!" I chose the latter. Same story for the 2nd wing.
Apple,
Small taste bites of bbq country style pork ribs
Meal 3

Handful of grapes
slow cooked bbq country style pork ribs (my first time cooking pork. HUGE success :D)
Salad (STILL had leftover salad from Leona's)
Banana
Peppermint tea

Oemmgee- popcorn and hot tamales, my “open meal” while watching a movie with my roommates….super bloated. FOR HOURS.  Still bloated as I go to sleep typing this.

 

So I am behind on updating. As I type this I've just completed day 18. I'll share what I ate days 16-18 tomorrow! I must say I don't know what I'm currently making of ths diet. The novelty has worn off some and I miss being an aspiring vegan. More on that later, though. Who knows, I might feel differently in another 2 weeks!

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.

Paleo Trial: Days 7-9

Hey!

I am a little behind on updating but don't worry, I am still going Paleo strong! The past couple of days have not been great though. I have been craving bread like a crazy person. Due to poor planning, and I think not having enough meat in my meals, I have been snacking too often. I made the mistake of buying dried mango slices from Trader Joes this weekend. They were pure mango--unsweetened, unsulfured-- but still a big problem! They were very addictive. I kept wanting (and going back for) more. I have also been eating way too many raw cashews! In It Starts With Food, the authors classify sugar, processed foods and refined foods as "food with no brakes" because they are so easy to over consume. I've realized that even though dried fruit and raw cashews are healthier than a lot of things I could be eating, they still fall into the "food with no brakes" category for me. I can never stop at one serving of these foods, so I really need to be careful with them. Another not good thing--I made muffins. Apart from having 1/2 tsp of baking soda, they were made with all "Paleo" ingredients--Almonds (ground into almond flour, eggs, coconut oil, banana, apple, cinnamon)--but they also proved addictive even though they weren't really sweet. I made them for my small group meeting but ended up having 4 left over. I ate all 4 of them today. Sigh.

But I will not dwell on that. Instead I'll focus on the fact that I haven't had any sugar, gluten, or dairy for 11 whole days. I am proud of myself. I am nearly halfway through my 30 day trial!

Here's what I ate on days 7,8, and 9. (I am just copying my food journal from MS Word into this post so it's going to include the random thoughts I had while I typed up what I ate each day)

Day 7
Meal 1
 2.5 cups Green smoothie-soaked almonds, water, kale, pear, banana, flax oil, flaxseed
2 scrambled eggs
Meal 2
4 cups chicken soup,
¼ cup cashews
5 olives
Meal-ish 3 or snack

1 large pear sautéed in ghee and cinnamon with 1 tbs raw almond butter.

 Very rough day. I waited too long to eat lunch…poor planning/ unfortunate circumstances so by the time I got home I was ravenous! And the chicken soup just didn’t cut it for me. I had 4 cups! And was hungry not too long after and I didn’t have anything paleo approved that was easily fixable (time do a little grocery shopping!) and then I just really wanted to order pizza. Ahh!

Day 8
Meal 1
2 fried eggs
1 pear
1 banana
¼ cup raw cashews
Meal 2

Lunch at Global Café -Large chopped cobb salad romaine, baby mixed greens, chicken, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkin seeds, avocado, bacon, hard cooked egg, balsamic vinaigrette. It also came with blue cheese but I asked them to leave that out. I am pretty sure the balsamic vinaigrette had some no-no ingredients in it…but oh well.

I feel a hard period coming up. Since yesterday evening I’ve really wanted bread or some kind of pastry! I would even settle for sweet potato fries! Ughh. It’s so bad that I almost cried today while having lunch (meal 2) with a friend as I explained to her how much I REALLY REALLY wanted some bread.

Snack
Another banana
Raw baby carrots

Cup of strawberries
Another ¼ cup raw cashews

Feeling a weird kind of swelling in my throat.

 

Meal 3

½ cup steamed mixed veggies
Curry goat w/ parsnips
1 plantain, half fried, half baked

Day 9= Disaster!!

Meal 1
Smoothie- 2 tbs soaked chia seeds, ¼ raw soaked almonds, 1.5 cups water, 2 lettuce leaves, ½ avocado, 1 frozen banana, 1 tsp green superfood powder “Amazing Grass” brand—yech.
Meal 2
Curry Goat
Strawberries
Carrots
Raw cashews
Banana
Meal 3,
Dried mango
Dried mango
Dried mango
Cashews
Macadamia nuts
Dried figs
Munch munch munch
Meal 4

Pan fried dover sole fish (never again buying this type of fish!)
1 cup spinach sautéed
½ avocado
I put waay to much salt on the spinach and fish L.
Oh and I’m eating dinner at 12:28 am this day is officially a fail for food.
The good news is I went grocery shopping all day today and am pretty prepped for the week.


There you go! I want to say that Days 10 and 11 were better but you can be the judge when I post about them tomorrow.

Paleo Trial Days 4-6: My tummy's gonna s'plode.

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!)

1 Jerk chicken drumstick

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!