I have a few issues with the Paleo diet/lifestyle. A lot of it makes sense to me (whole foods in the form of lean meat, fresh veggies/fruit, nuts, etc.) but there are parts that don't make any sense whatsoever in our modern age.
One of my issues was that I was understanding the Paleo diet in the sense that you must eat a lean protein source at each meal plus plenty of leafy veggies and some source of quality fat. Ok, fine. Great. However, that is not Paleo....not in my definition. You mean to tell me that a caveman kills an animal and he is thinking, "Oh, let me go find a plateful of leafy things to accompany this meat at every meal." Heck no! He's going to eat that animal from top to bottom until it's gone. Then, there may be a week where he doesn't have any protein from an animal source.
So that was really throwing me for a loop. I just did not understand how it was Paleo if your meals were perfectly proportioned.
Last night, my husband and I were discussing something about eating and I brought up my issue with the Paleo diet thinking. He said something that made me understand SO much about it. He said that the Paleo diet isn't about the proper proportion of protein, carbs, fats. It's about the TYPE of food. Duh. Of course, that's it. I get that. That makes perfect sense. I was just over thinking...as I tend to do!
I guess what I was doing was combining the Zone diet with the Paleo diet. Since we're doing this challenge through Crossfit, they obviously want the portions to be ideal if possible for maximum results in performance (both in the gym and in everyday life). Since we are in the modern age, we can obviously do that because we don't have to kill an animal and eat it until it's gone immediately.
So I am now more ok with the Paleo diet. I think after this challenge we'll probably be an 80/20 Paleo eating family. Not that the 20% will be junk foods, but probably more along the lines of dairy, white potatoes, corn, beans, etc. As long as things are as close to the natural source as possible, I am ok with that.
So although I am not a 100% on board with the Paleo diet lifestyle, I definitely think it's the best guideline out there for the health of our bodies/lives.
Showing posts with label paleo diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paleo diet. Show all posts
Friday, October 14, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Only 4 days in
This Paleo challenge is kicking my butt. Seriously.
I am hungry all the time. I eat additional snacks and eat more protein than a typical serving since I am still breastfeeding our daughter, but I feel like it's not enough. I am going to make guacamole tomorrow to eat for breakfast in hopes that it'll help add some calories in. It's a little tough since I have been dealing with a low supply for a few months now, so I hope this doesn't hurt it.
It doesn't help that we are up every night multiple times a night with our kids. We simply don't get the sleep our bodies need. We get plenty sleep time, it's just that it's interrupted. I'm thinking if I were able to have more sleep, then it wouldn't be *as* hard.
I have been scouring the Internet for Paleo dessert recipes. The fact that we can't even use honey is really hard. I'm not even sure why on this challenge we can't. I did find tons of great dessert recipes that I've pinned for future use.
We have had some pretty good meals from the Paleo Plan. Tonight we are having chicken in a mushroom sauce. We'll also cook up veggies to go with it. Tomorrow is some kind of roast. I'm pretty excited about that!!!
The coconut milk in my coffee isn't great. I wish it were, but it's just not. We've let it thicken in the fridge overnight to see if it would help, but it didn't. So I'm not drinking nearly the caffeine I was (which is great) but it's really affecting me. I really hope I can make it at least the first week without a slip up.
Blah. Day four. Almost behind me.
I am hungry all the time. I eat additional snacks and eat more protein than a typical serving since I am still breastfeeding our daughter, but I feel like it's not enough. I am going to make guacamole tomorrow to eat for breakfast in hopes that it'll help add some calories in. It's a little tough since I have been dealing with a low supply for a few months now, so I hope this doesn't hurt it.
It doesn't help that we are up every night multiple times a night with our kids. We simply don't get the sleep our bodies need. We get plenty sleep time, it's just that it's interrupted. I'm thinking if I were able to have more sleep, then it wouldn't be *as* hard.
I have been scouring the Internet for Paleo dessert recipes. The fact that we can't even use honey is really hard. I'm not even sure why on this challenge we can't. I did find tons of great dessert recipes that I've pinned for future use.
We have had some pretty good meals from the Paleo Plan. Tonight we are having chicken in a mushroom sauce. We'll also cook up veggies to go with it. Tomorrow is some kind of roast. I'm pretty excited about that!!!
The coconut milk in my coffee isn't great. I wish it were, but it's just not. We've let it thicken in the fridge overnight to see if it would help, but it didn't. So I'm not drinking nearly the caffeine I was (which is great) but it's really affecting me. I really hope I can make it at least the first week without a slip up.
Blah. Day four. Almost behind me.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Our son....on the Paleo Diet too?
Our son will be 3 next month. He is a pretty good eater in general. He started off loving tons of veggies, but we became lazy and started introducing convenience foods because...well, it was convenient. So guess what? Now our son who used to love to eat salad, asparagus, raw bell peppers, etc. has developed a taste for bread, crackers, anything salty. This was something that slowly happened over time. And when we finally realized what had happened, we knew we needed to change it, but how?
My husband and I have always tried to eat somewhat healthy. I fell way off the healthy eating train while early pregnant last year and am now just recovering. I think that was the time that our son began developing a taste for lots of processed junk. My husband also enjoyed my cravings for Blizzards and other such treats! And while I don't think anything in moderation is horrible, we were eating WAY too much.
My husband is the one who introduced us to the Paleo Diet by way of Crossfit. The two seem to go hand in hand! I bought the book last year sometime and read about it and thought it made sense, but just wasn't ready to dive in. He's been pretty good about his diet and rarely would eat the pasta or breads in our meals. He would usually have a big salad every night in addition to what we had. Something started feeling wrong though when he wouldn't eat pasta, yet we would feed it to our two year old. Same with all of the "treats" we were giving him. Once I realized it, I talked to my husband and we agreed we needed to not feed our son what we didn't want to eat (although at this time, I was still scarfing down the bad-for-us foods too).
Timing was perfect because within a week I read about the release of a new book "Everyday Paleo" and thought it was perfect for us to try. I was talking to my sister in law about it and she ordered it as soon as it was available. She called as soon as she received it and raved about it. So I ordered one. I'm glad I did. It's a great guide to starting the paleo diet as a family. There are great recipes, a fabulous meal plan and even a starter workout plan.
I liked the philosophy in her book regarding crap foods. Just don't keep them in the house. Period. So we got rid of everything as you see in the photo a couple of posts back. Guess what? Everything's OK. Our son is perfectly fine without bread in the house. And this is the boy that was eating honey toast two or three times a day just the week before the change. He's still "picky" about what snacks he wants, but because we only have good snacks around, that's all he has to choose from. So I really don't care that he wants the same snack every day! He even tried salad yesterday from my husband's plate. He had stopped eating lettuce last year and while we encourage him to always try it again, he never wants to. So to our surprise, he said he wanted daddy's salad and took a big piece of lettuce out and ate it. Yay! It was only the one piece but he didn't spit it out! Hopefully if we can continue, he'll start eating it again. He ate the lasagna I made last night. No noodles. Well, it kind of had noodles....in the form of zucchini strips! He ate it all.
Yes, if your diet consisted of a lot of bread, processed foods, etc., your child will probably protest - especially if they are older than mine...we are pretty lucky that he's still so young. But the answer is clear - don't have the junk in the house and they won't eat it. Yes, they will complain, pout, maybe even cry. But stick to it and within two weeks, they'll realize you are serious.
Now, like I mentioned before, we aren't going at this hard core. We will allow some flexibility, but it'll be outside of our house and our normal routine. For example, we may go to a baseball game tomorrow. Our son will probably have a hot dog....with the bun. It'll be OK. He may even have a juice box. But because it's not part of his daily or even weekly routine, it'll be just fine!
Our hope is that we can build a foundation that he can come back to. I know that there may come a time where all he wants to eat is chicken fingers, but so long as we can control what he's offered 90% of the time, we'll do it. Once he gets into high school and wants to make poor eating choices away from us, that will be his decision. Hopefully by the time he has a family one day he'll come back to the basics of good, natural, whole foods and pass it on to his children.
My husband and I have always tried to eat somewhat healthy. I fell way off the healthy eating train while early pregnant last year and am now just recovering. I think that was the time that our son began developing a taste for lots of processed junk. My husband also enjoyed my cravings for Blizzards and other such treats! And while I don't think anything in moderation is horrible, we were eating WAY too much.
My husband is the one who introduced us to the Paleo Diet by way of Crossfit. The two seem to go hand in hand! I bought the book last year sometime and read about it and thought it made sense, but just wasn't ready to dive in. He's been pretty good about his diet and rarely would eat the pasta or breads in our meals. He would usually have a big salad every night in addition to what we had. Something started feeling wrong though when he wouldn't eat pasta, yet we would feed it to our two year old. Same with all of the "treats" we were giving him. Once I realized it, I talked to my husband and we agreed we needed to not feed our son what we didn't want to eat (although at this time, I was still scarfing down the bad-for-us foods too).
Timing was perfect because within a week I read about the release of a new book "Everyday Paleo" and thought it was perfect for us to try. I was talking to my sister in law about it and she ordered it as soon as it was available. She called as soon as she received it and raved about it. So I ordered one. I'm glad I did. It's a great guide to starting the paleo diet as a family. There are great recipes, a fabulous meal plan and even a starter workout plan.
I liked the philosophy in her book regarding crap foods. Just don't keep them in the house. Period. So we got rid of everything as you see in the photo a couple of posts back. Guess what? Everything's OK. Our son is perfectly fine without bread in the house. And this is the boy that was eating honey toast two or three times a day just the week before the change. He's still "picky" about what snacks he wants, but because we only have good snacks around, that's all he has to choose from. So I really don't care that he wants the same snack every day! He even tried salad yesterday from my husband's plate. He had stopped eating lettuce last year and while we encourage him to always try it again, he never wants to. So to our surprise, he said he wanted daddy's salad and took a big piece of lettuce out and ate it. Yay! It was only the one piece but he didn't spit it out! Hopefully if we can continue, he'll start eating it again. He ate the lasagna I made last night. No noodles. Well, it kind of had noodles....in the form of zucchini strips! He ate it all.
Yes, if your diet consisted of a lot of bread, processed foods, etc., your child will probably protest - especially if they are older than mine...we are pretty lucky that he's still so young. But the answer is clear - don't have the junk in the house and they won't eat it. Yes, they will complain, pout, maybe even cry. But stick to it and within two weeks, they'll realize you are serious.
Now, like I mentioned before, we aren't going at this hard core. We will allow some flexibility, but it'll be outside of our house and our normal routine. For example, we may go to a baseball game tomorrow. Our son will probably have a hot dog....with the bun. It'll be OK. He may even have a juice box. But because it's not part of his daily or even weekly routine, it'll be just fine!
Our hope is that we can build a foundation that he can come back to. I know that there may come a time where all he wants to eat is chicken fingers, but so long as we can control what he's offered 90% of the time, we'll do it. Once he gets into high school and wants to make poor eating choices away from us, that will be his decision. Hopefully by the time he has a family one day he'll come back to the basics of good, natural, whole foods and pass it on to his children.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Temptation
I was at a restaurant with friends last night and was sooo afraid I was going to cave....especially with the bread basket. I'm not really craving grains but I LOVE bread and that is always a highlight of dining out for me! But I didn't and even with the gigantic, wonderful brownie dessert came at the end of the meal, I was able to resist!
I am hoping this 30 days of no sugar will really help me change my taste for sugar. I hope that when I do eat some kind of dessert with sugar again that it'll be super sweet and just a little will satisfy my sweet tooth. Eating an entire pan of brownies in a day is just too much, you know? I want to be happy eating just one.
So I am on the hunt for desserts that are sugar and grain free without tasting like cardboard. Ha, yeah right. But I am sure I can find one and I've got several recipes to try. "Everyday Paleo" has a couple that I am super interested in. The pumpkin pie is something I'll definitely try (especially since I have 6 cans of pumpkin in my pantry) and even her sweet potato recipe from Thanksgiving looks like it would be a treat in itself!
My husband caved last night! :) He was slightly freaking out and wanted to get something sweet. We went to Walgreens and read tons of labels. I am still shocked at what I see in "healthy" snacks on the shelves. He ended up getting a pint of ice cream to share with my mom. It was the only thing that had real ingredients. He also got some peanut butter...which is a no-no on the Paleo diet. But honestly, in my opinion, I think that's not too bad of a special treat. I am really hoping I can make it the full 30 days without caving. I'm just thinking how great that my special treat will be if I can wait that long!
I am hoping this 30 days of no sugar will really help me change my taste for sugar. I hope that when I do eat some kind of dessert with sugar again that it'll be super sweet and just a little will satisfy my sweet tooth. Eating an entire pan of brownies in a day is just too much, you know? I want to be happy eating just one.
So I am on the hunt for desserts that are sugar and grain free without tasting like cardboard. Ha, yeah right. But I am sure I can find one and I've got several recipes to try. "Everyday Paleo" has a couple that I am super interested in. The pumpkin pie is something I'll definitely try (especially since I have 6 cans of pumpkin in my pantry) and even her sweet potato recipe from Thanksgiving looks like it would be a treat in itself!
My husband caved last night! :) He was slightly freaking out and wanted to get something sweet. We went to Walgreens and read tons of labels. I am still shocked at what I see in "healthy" snacks on the shelves. He ended up getting a pint of ice cream to share with my mom. It was the only thing that had real ingredients. He also got some peanut butter...which is a no-no on the Paleo diet. But honestly, in my opinion, I think that's not too bad of a special treat. I am really hoping I can make it the full 30 days without caving. I'm just thinking how great that my special treat will be if I can wait that long!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
And so it begins...
I did it. I gave up sugar.
I want to really keep it out of my system for 30 days so I can truly gauge what I feel like without it. And at the end of the 30 days, if I do decide to try a little to see how my body reacts, I'm hoping I'll get a clearer picture of how it does affect me.
Here is a photo of what we cleaned out of the pantry (sorry, it's a crappy cell phone photo)
We are only on day 4 of 30. It's already HARD. Yesterday I thought I was going to freak out. I'm not really missing the grains so much (although I think my body is definitely adjusting), but I am craving sugar. I really didn't like my husband yesterday and I KNOW he didn't like me. I was reacting very badly to the lack of sugar I am apparently addicted to.
Now, to be fair, I think that the timing of this is quite challenging. Our 3 month old is apparently going through a growth spurt and has decided that she wants to nurse every couple of hours through the night again. So combine the sleep deprivation with no sugar and no grains all of sudden AND the reduced caffeine consumption (since there is no sugar in my coffee, I'm drinking less), it's been pretty tough. Yesterday I could barely keep my eyes open. I was exhausted. So I ran up to the newest little coffee shop and got a Queen Bee Latte that's sweetened with, can you guess? Honey! Finally something sweet! It was wonderful...actually it was a little too sweet! But I completely forgot to ask for it to be half-caff. Yeah, I was a little overwhelmed a little while later with the caffeine high!
So all in all, it's not been bad. We've eaten great meals and love cooking at home so it makes it that much better. I'll list a few of the meals we've eaten:
DAY 1
- Whole chicken in the crockpot with onions (so delicious and gave us plenty of leftovers)
- Red cabbage slaw with cucumber and mango (YUM!)
- BLAT salad - yummy, yummy, yummy, but how can you go wrong when you have bacon and avocado in the same bowl?
DAY 2
- Steak skewers with sweet onions, tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms
- grilled pinapple (oh so good)
- Cauliflower "rice" - not quite mashed cauliflower, but cooked down to be softer than raw
DAY 3
- Spring mix (from our own garden!) salad with leftover chicken for me and leftover steak for hubby, pears, candied (with pure maple syrup) pecans, red onion and avocado. Dressing was just squeezed lemon and olive oil. Sooo yummy. Not sure if maple syrup is "allowed" in Paleo eating, but honey is and I'm assuming if a caveman found some sticky stuff running of out of tree and tasted it, he'd eat it
- leftovers and tons of them! I was a bit worried when I saw the grocery shopping list for days 1-5 in the "Everyday Paleo" book, but we've had tons of leftovers and will definitely be stretching the meals out in the future.
With our son, we've decided that we'll do Paleo at the house, but outside of the house we'll be lenient. For example, his school had an end of the year performance and they had a special cookie as a treat. Fine with us. We just don't want to keep it at the house anymore. We were so good for so long allowing that type of stuff to be special treats, but because we knew the stuff was in the house, it was so easy to just give it to him often. After the 30 days, we will allow ourselves the same type of flexibility. I'm not saying I'll never eat another cookie, brownie, etc. again, but for the next few weeks I want to avoid them!
As far as exercise, I was doing great following the workout plan in the back of "Everyday Paleo" which I started the week before. But once I started the no sugar/grain thing and my exhaustion set in, I couldn't imagine trying to even do one squat. Just walking around the house is wearing me out! I hope that my body recovers a bit over the next day or so to be able to add the workouts in. I have been walking some, so I am not completely being a couch potato!
Oh, and I've lost 3.5 pounds this week. Which sounds great, but my first thought was that it's too much since I'm breastfeeding. I want to make sure my supply stays up. But I think I'm ok since I'm actually eating MUCH better than I was for the first three months of my daughter's life! I've just cut out the pure crap I was eating and I knew it would probably help me drop weight very quickly initially. I'm just going to make sure I keep plenty of protein and enough good fats in the daily eating to help keep my supply going strong.
So far, so good!
I want to really keep it out of my system for 30 days so I can truly gauge what I feel like without it. And at the end of the 30 days, if I do decide to try a little to see how my body reacts, I'm hoping I'll get a clearer picture of how it does affect me.
Here is a photo of what we cleaned out of the pantry (sorry, it's a crappy cell phone photo)
We are only on day 4 of 30. It's already HARD. Yesterday I thought I was going to freak out. I'm not really missing the grains so much (although I think my body is definitely adjusting), but I am craving sugar. I really didn't like my husband yesterday and I KNOW he didn't like me. I was reacting very badly to the lack of sugar I am apparently addicted to.
Now, to be fair, I think that the timing of this is quite challenging. Our 3 month old is apparently going through a growth spurt and has decided that she wants to nurse every couple of hours through the night again. So combine the sleep deprivation with no sugar and no grains all of sudden AND the reduced caffeine consumption (since there is no sugar in my coffee, I'm drinking less), it's been pretty tough. Yesterday I could barely keep my eyes open. I was exhausted. So I ran up to the newest little coffee shop and got a Queen Bee Latte that's sweetened with, can you guess? Honey! Finally something sweet! It was wonderful...actually it was a little too sweet! But I completely forgot to ask for it to be half-caff. Yeah, I was a little overwhelmed a little while later with the caffeine high!
So all in all, it's not been bad. We've eaten great meals and love cooking at home so it makes it that much better. I'll list a few of the meals we've eaten:
DAY 1
- Whole chicken in the crockpot with onions (so delicious and gave us plenty of leftovers)
- Red cabbage slaw with cucumber and mango (YUM!)
- BLAT salad - yummy, yummy, yummy, but how can you go wrong when you have bacon and avocado in the same bowl?
DAY 2
- Steak skewers with sweet onions, tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms
- grilled pinapple (oh so good)
- Cauliflower "rice" - not quite mashed cauliflower, but cooked down to be softer than raw
DAY 3
- Spring mix (from our own garden!) salad with leftover chicken for me and leftover steak for hubby, pears, candied (with pure maple syrup) pecans, red onion and avocado. Dressing was just squeezed lemon and olive oil. Sooo yummy. Not sure if maple syrup is "allowed" in Paleo eating, but honey is and I'm assuming if a caveman found some sticky stuff running of out of tree and tasted it, he'd eat it
- leftovers and tons of them! I was a bit worried when I saw the grocery shopping list for days 1-5 in the "Everyday Paleo" book, but we've had tons of leftovers and will definitely be stretching the meals out in the future.
With our son, we've decided that we'll do Paleo at the house, but outside of the house we'll be lenient. For example, his school had an end of the year performance and they had a special cookie as a treat. Fine with us. We just don't want to keep it at the house anymore. We were so good for so long allowing that type of stuff to be special treats, but because we knew the stuff was in the house, it was so easy to just give it to him often. After the 30 days, we will allow ourselves the same type of flexibility. I'm not saying I'll never eat another cookie, brownie, etc. again, but for the next few weeks I want to avoid them!
As far as exercise, I was doing great following the workout plan in the back of "Everyday Paleo" which I started the week before. But once I started the no sugar/grain thing and my exhaustion set in, I couldn't imagine trying to even do one squat. Just walking around the house is wearing me out! I hope that my body recovers a bit over the next day or so to be able to add the workouts in. I have been walking some, so I am not completely being a couch potato!
Oh, and I've lost 3.5 pounds this week. Which sounds great, but my first thought was that it's too much since I'm breastfeeding. I want to make sure my supply stays up. But I think I'm ok since I'm actually eating MUCH better than I was for the first three months of my daughter's life! I've just cut out the pure crap I was eating and I knew it would probably help me drop weight very quickly initially. I'm just going to make sure I keep plenty of protein and enough good fats in the daily eating to help keep my supply going strong.
So far, so good!
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