Daily (b)Log - It's More Than Just Food

This morning began with a big glass of water and a 5 mile run. Marathon training has officially begun! My run felt good and strong, I set out just to do 4 miles but felt good so I ran another half mile and then walked the last half mile. I need to get a new strap for my heart rate monitor, I'd like to see where my heart rate is at while I run.

Once I got home from the run I made some beef bacon, which was pretty good although I prefer the taste of pork bacon, I also cooked up some zucchini and 3 eggs over easy. It totally hit the spot!

Ugh, the rest of the day wasn't as good. I had a horrible case of the munchies. I ended up having a little binge that included 2 Larabars, a burger, fries and a mini blizzard. Oh and 2 cans of diet coke and a large diet coke from dq. I was so wired from the caffeine that I couldn't fall asleep last night. I ended up staying up reading until 1 am.

Ugh, I hate when I can't sleep and although I didn't eat nearly as much as I have in the past I still made some poor choices.

Daily Food (b)Log

Today is Sunday which means lunch out after church. This morning started simply with a huge glass of water, no time for breakfast and I really didn't want to start the day with a Larabar as I like to treat those as a dessert these days.

After church we went to a Mexican place with friends. I have found that Mexican restaurants pose the biggest obstacle to eating paleo! My goal when eating Mexican is to just avoid wheat and eat sensibly. Today I had enchiladas with rice and beans. It was very tasty and totally worth it. I succumbed to the diet dr pepper and had two huge cups of soda. I'm still working on cutting out the soda.

When we got home we cleaned up the house and while I was working on the new curtains for our kitchen I snacked on a Larabar and some watermelon.

For dinner I had another bun less burger and some baby carrots. For a snack I had some pistachios and a coconut milk, strawberry, mango Popsicle that I made. The Popsicle was creamy and amazing! I will definitely be making more as long as berries are in season.

80/20 Philosophy

It's Sunday and that means eating out. Throughout this primal/paleo journey there are two things that I have had to adapt and they are Sunday lunch and the church potluck. Most of my church friends don't even know that we try to eat paleo because Sunday tends to be our 20% in the 80/20 ratio that Mark Sisson advocates.

The way that I describe our eating to others is to tell them that we aim to eat foods that makes us feel good most of the time. I haven't sworn off any foods completely, although gluten is the one I strive to avoid the most. This way of thinking has definitely helped me to see this as a lifestyle and less like a temporary diet.

This way of thinking also means that I never "ruin" my diet or go "off plan." when I eat things that aren't paleo I don't stress too much. I begin to stress when my clothes get tight or I feel run down and tired all of the time. That's what motivates me to eat simply and thoughtfully. I don't stress when we go to restaurants or over to a friends house for dinner. It has been quite liberating to take away the pressure and just live my life eating as well as I can.

Daily Food (b)Log

Hello again, it's been another great food day. We started the morning with a trip to the farmers market and then the natural grocery store for supplies. I wasn't feeling hungry this morning so I just drank a big cup of water. Around noon we came home and fired up the grill. The husband grilled up some burgers while I set up the fixin's. I had cheese on my burger with a side of pickles and watermelon and of course, these were bun-less burgers.

Our kitchen table was finally ready to be picked up today so we borrowed a friend and his truck and while the boys were out getting my table and chairs my friend and I planned out her new bathroom. I helped her pick flooring and wall color and granite for the counter tops. I can't wait to see it all come together, it's going to look great and really got me thinking about our shower and how I'd like to change it up a little.

Anyway, we hung out for quite awhile and then came home and I wasn't terribly hungry so I just had an apple and a chocolate coconut Larabar.

I ended the night with another bun-less burger. My diet coke consumption was 1 can today and I drank tons of water.

Food (b)Log

I've been feeling a little stuck lately. Summer always seems to be a bit of a challenge for me, I have no real schedule and am on the go a lot and traveling which has historically led to weight gain or at least stall during the summer months. In order to combat the stuck feeling I thought I would blog about what I'm eating for the next week or so. I'm hoping that this will give me the accountability that I need to get moving in the right direction.

So, for breakfast this morning I ate 4 pieces of center cut bacon, two pastured eggs scrambled and a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese. It was very tasty.

So far my diet coke count for the day is 1 can. Hoping to get this down to 0 soon!

Lunch today was a club salad from Schlotzsky's. It came with black beans (I tried to pick around those), avocado, tomato, lettuce, bacon, ham, egg & feta. I skipped the croutons and side of bread but did use about a tablespoon of ranch dressing. This salad was soo good and so big that I left a lot in the bowl. I drank unsweetened iced tea.

I had a Larabar for an afternoon snack and then leftover pork chops with some guacamole and cheese. I had some unsweetened decaf tea and some Riesling with frozen strawberries.

As a late night snack I had some olives and some more cheese. All in all today was a pretty good day. I'm looking forward to the Farmer's market tomorrow morning where I'll pick up more eggs and fresh veggies.

My Morning Smoothie

I know that when I read blogs I really like seeing what other people eat, maybe it's weird and maybe it's just me but judging by the number of food bloggers in the world I would guess that I'm not alone in this. So, I thought I'd share with you what a typical breakfast looks like for me. Now, I alternate between a smoothie, eggs & bacon, and sometimes a Larabar if I'm in a real hurry. Since it's summertime smoothies have been winning lately :)

I recently purchased a magic bullet and it has taken my smoothie making to a whole new level. Totally worth the money! I generally start each smoothie with frozen fruit (organic of course). On this particular day I used strawberries, blueberries and mango. I have found that I am not a fan of blackberries or raspberries in my smoothie. Blackberries leave yucky seeds and raspberries tend to upset me tummy. I have also used a tropical blend which included banana, strawberry and mango and while I'm not a huge fan of banana in the smoothie this one turned out pretty darn tasty. To add a little additional sweetness to my smoothie I also add a spoonful of crushed pineapple to my smoothies and when I have it I'll add a handful of spinach. With the pineapple added in you really don't taste the spinach, I promise!

 

In addition to my fruit I also add in some fish oil. Now, before you groan about fish burps and what not let me just tell you that high quality fish oil is flavorless. I buy Carlson's fish oil with orange zest, they also have a lemon version. The flavor comes from the orange peel so there is no sugar just a nice citrusy taste and smell. It's pricey but you really do get what you pay for and after having taken cheap fish oil capsules while doing South Beach back in '04 I will gladly pay for my giant bottle.

Now, in order to get things going you are going to need some liquid. If I used fresh fruit I wouldn't need nearly as much liquid but with frozen fruit you want a good amount of liquid. I've use a variety of things for my liquid. Almond milk is ok but I didn't love the flavor combination, I hate yogurt in a smoothie (not sure why but that's my feeling), I've added straight water which is refreshing, lately I've been using this coconut milk. With the pineapple and strawberry and mango it makes for a nice refreshing tropical smoothie. I ran out of my carton coconut milk a week ago and so I opened up a can and just added some water to thin it our and it worked great and was probably significantly cheaper than the carton but since the husband uses this in his coffee I try to keep some on hand.

I put in enough liquid to cover the fruit and other ingredients. I have sometimes had to add more liquid halfway through because it gets stuck but I like my smoothies on the thick side.

Once you've got all of the ingredients in just twist on your blade and pop it in the Magic Bullet and let it go for a few minutes. It doesn't take long! I like to drink mine with a bendy straw straight out of the mixer cup and I'm generally too lazy to put the colorful ring around the top to make it pretty!

There you have it, my morning smoothie.This would make a great night time snack too. Now, this is pretty high in carbs for anyone who is looking to reduce their carbs or for those who are primal but you could use only berries and put in more veggies. I've been thinking cucumber would make and excellent smoothie. I love to have these on a running day to give me the energy to get through a tough run. They are better than a GU and taste so much better too!

Homemade Fruit Leather

I was having a tough time finding grass-fed, organic jerky made with no soy or sugar, so, what's a gal to do? Buy a dehydrator and make your own! Now, I did play around with some recipes for homemade venison jerky but I'm still working on perfecting the recipe, it's not quite ready for prime time so I thought I'd share a simple and tasty sweet treat. I made peach fruit leather and it turned out darn tasty!

I started with a bag of frozen organic peaches since it was early March and the farmer's market wasn't open yet. I also used a half cup of unsweetened apple sauce for texture and sweetness.

 First step was to thaw out the peaches (I didn't quite get them all the way thawed since I was impatient). The second step was to put the peaches and apple sauce in my mini chopper and went to town. I ended up with a nice smooth and quite tasty mixture that I would totally feed to a baby if I were to have a baby.



 The next step is to prepare the dehydrator. I found out the hard way that you need to grease the fruit leather insert. I chose to use some coconut oil since I'm paleo and vegetable spray is not so paleo.


 I simply smeared it on with a paper towel. An added bonus was the added flavor of coconut!

 Once the dehydrator was ready I spread the puree into a nice uniform thickness.  Once it was looking all pretty and smooth I put it in the dehydrator, plugged it in and set it on one of the medium temps. It took about 4 hours to fully dehydrate. Since I had multiple trays in at once I stopped it periodically and moved the trays around (I was using plastic wrap on some trays so the air flow wasn't ideal). The result was irregular shaped but very tasty peach fruit leather! It would have been great if it had been all perfectly rectangular or round but that's not what you get with a round dehydrator.

I've heard that you can do this in a regular oven in which case you could get your nice neat shapes. I also experimented with berry's but found the seeds to be a problem. If I do blackberry or raspberry again I'll strain them to get all of the seeds out. I also used made a batch using a "tropical blend" with banana, strawberry, mango and some applesauce and that was darn tasty. For my next batch I'm thinking strawberry and pineapple! I'll let you know how it goes :)

Back to Basics!

After the horror that was April I finally made it through the end of the semester, I finally got a handle on my stomach pain and I finally got back to basics with my eating!

Apparently I had gastritis and the medicine that they put me on finally started working and I haven't had a bit of pain in about a week. The only pain I've had was when I ate some almonds. Apparently, I have a bit of an almond intolerance, I won't be eating anymore almonds!

I did great being back to paleo for about 2 weeks and then the in-laws came to visit. I love having company but it is really hard to eat out so often and stay paleo. I did alright until the weekend and then the chicken fried steak and flour tortillas proved too strong of a pull, I just couldn't resist!

Today we started fresh with our paleo lifestyle. I'm looking forward to feeling like myself again and getting all of the crud out of my system.

A Month of Not-So-Paleo Eating

After coming home from the marathon over Spring Break (I'll post on that eventually but you can see all of the pictures on my Facebook page) I haven't been able to get the grains and sugar back out of my diet. I've managed to go about 3 days at most. Thankfully my weight has pretty well held steady during this time just going up and down by about 3 pounds.

Right now I'm on a mini vacation while the husband is working a softball tournament and I've been going on a culinary tour of the little city where we are staying. It's been tasty but it's all going to have to end soon.

My main struggle with eating paleo has been eating out. I can generally find something low carb on the menu wherever we go, but that's not the same thing as eating paleo or primal. We probably go out to eat more than we should but I'm not sure I'm ready to give that up. There are several reasons, one is that I hate my kitchen. I dread having to cook in there. It is amazing how much you really need countertops next to the stove and how frustrating it is when you don't have counter space. Second, I am exhausted when I get home and really don't want to cook. Lame, I know, I should utilize the crockpot and such but I don't because I'm not in planning mode. Third, my stomach has been killing me lately! All of the stress I've been under for the last month has led to the production of excess acid which has led to feeling like my heart is going to explode even while taking two nexium and a zantac every day. While I know intellectually that eating better will help with this last complaint, I just can't get my body to cooperate.

With all of these excuses, let's call them what they are, they will be gone soon! We close on our new house in just 4 days and then we move in one month later and the kitchen in my new home is light and airy and open to the living room. So excited! Also, school is almost done for the year. I just have to grade final exams and then submit my final grades and it's over, my research papers are due the following week and the home buying process will be over by then as well. All of the current stressors will be coming to an end soonand while I know that new stress will come up I'm hopeful that I will not be challenged in quite the same way next year!

I guess all of this is to say that while I haven't been focusing on my health this past month I haven't given up on living a primal life. I truly believe it's the best way to live and am looking forward to giving it 100% beginning on Monday morning :)

A Paleolithic Update

One of my 12 goals for the year was to go paleo, to attempt to eat like a cavewoman. So, how's that working out? Very well, thanks for asking! I have been living a primarily starch-free, dairy-free, legume-free life for over two months and I feel terrific. I also recently gave up soda for the lenten season which means I've cut out artificial sweeteners almost entirely as well. Since the New Year I have lost 13 pounds, my clothes are fitting better and I'm no longer getting the crazy sugar highs and lows.

One of the biggest comments I get from those around me is "so, what do you eat?" Well, a typical day of food starts with a frozen strawberry, pineapple and coconut milk smoothie. Today I put some orange flavored fish oil in it which sounds disgusting but it really has no flavor at all, high quality fish oil is expensive but it doesn't give you the nasty fish burps. For lunch I have a few hard boiled eggs, carrots and celery, an apple with some almond butter, an orange or other fruit and maybe some cashews or a Lara bar. I usually spread my lunch items out over the course of a few hours. For dinner I have a little more variety, last night we had salad with meatloaf. Sometimes we have chicken breasts cooked in bacon grease or perhaps an omelet with veggies and bacon or sausage. All of our food is organic and our meat and eggs are grass-fed and/or free-range. I drink a lot of water and unsweetened iced tea throughout my day and a lot of times I end my day with some dried fruit for a bit of sweetness. So, basically, I eat normal foods that most people eat but I leave out the extra filler.

Some interesting things that I've made recently have been some banana muffins (using almond flour and super sweet bananas), strawberry coconut ice cream, and almond chocolate chip "cookies." It's been fun experimenting with my food again.

I'll be honest, I have eaten some non-paleo foods in the last 2 months including ice cream (my biggest weakness), pizza, and a McD's burger and I do notice a difference. When I eat sugary, dairy laden, gluten-filled foods I feel sick and yucky so I try not to eat them.

In addition to eating a different way I've also been trying to get enough sleep. There is no such things as going to bed too early. I'd like to get to a point where I can go to sleep and wake up naturally with no alarm. I managed to do it last night by going to bed around 9:30 and waking up just before 7 this morning. That's a lot of sleep but I must have needed it :)

My next step is to work on the work outs. I've been "training" for my marathon and so my focus has been running and cardio. My next fitness goal is going to be to do a real push up, on my toes and not my knees. I'd also like to do a pull-up some day. I'll still run but I'm going to focus on shorter distances like 5k's and only one half marathon this year.

Life is good!

Living La Vida Paleo

I mentioned on my weight loss page that I began reading about a paleo lifestyle around Halloween this past year and gave it a trial run between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The trial was successful and so the husband and I decided to give it a real honest shot after the New Year. Beginning once I was home on the 2nd we cleaned out the non-paleo foods from the pantry and went shopping. Eating paleo means meat, lots of veggies, some fruit, healthy fats and saying no to starches and sugar. The basic idea is to eat like out hunter-gatherer ancestors prior to the agricultural shift. That means no corn, no wheat, no dairy and trying to eat as little processed food as possible. My favorite explanations of the paleo lifestyle comes from Sarah Fragoso of www.everydaypaleo.com. She explains how simple it really is, no counting, no measuring just eating good food and being more active. The first book I read though was from Robb Wolf called The Paleo Solution. In his book Robb explains the science behind the lifestyle and my nerdy side really connected with it.

One of the interesting conundrums about paleo is that cardio is discouraged or at least our traditional notions of what cardio does for your body are discouraged. If you think about it, the hunter-gatherer did much more walking with bursts of all out run-for-your-life moments than running at the same speed for hours on end. She also did more heavy lifting. So, while I really enjoy running I think I'm going to try and shift my exercise focus once the marathon is over. More heavy lifting, less running.

So, how is all of this working out for us? Well, we have managed to eat out about 5 times in the last two weeks while only eating non-paleo foods once and I'm down 9 pounds. I'd say that's pretty darn good. I have energy when I run, which I was concerned about given the decrease in starchy carbs. Overall I feel really good and I haven't struggled with the crazy cravings nearly as much as I thought I would. I have indulged in some dark chocolate once and I made some cookies last night using almond butter and chocolate chips (not strictly paleo but not bad considering my goal is 95%). I plan to keep on keeping on and I'll check in again in a few weeks.