Ahh…gotta love the holidays, right?
I knew it'd be tough "going paleo" with Thanksgiving around the corner. We had gone 11 days straight/strict paleo with no problems. I didn't have any energy lags what-so-ever, no problems sleeping, etc. I was hungry quite a bit, but eating a lot. After the first I'd say 5-7 days I felt pretty good, and now things are falling into place nicely. We spend a LOT of time prepping, cooking, and cleaning up after food. But, we both feel good and our weight has really stabilized (e.g. no massive weight swings), and I think we've dropped the excess water weight from carrying around a bunch of refined carb calories.
We've tried a few new recipes since going paleo (or thinking about it). My favorites have been the paleo butternut squash (I could eat this at every meal), and spaghetti squash with meatballs. Justin actually made his own "sauce" last night by sauteeing some garlic in olive oil, and slowly adding in white onion, mixed bell peppers, tomatoes, and spices. It smelled heavenly last night, and is sitting in the fridge. Tonight we'll probably use a bit to cook some mushrooms (I know, seriously! Mushrooms! Me!) and use some 'shrooms in the sauce as well. We've got two medium squash at home we'll cook up, and get 1-2lbs of ground sirloin to make some meatballs.
I found the recipe online somewhere. For the meatballs it's just 1-2 eggs (depending on amount of beef) mixed with some garlic, red pepper flakes, beef, and diced tomatoes and basil. I'd never made meatballs before, but I basically hand mixed it all up to a decent consistency, balled them up, and stuck them on some non-stick foil in the oven on 400F for at least 20 minutes, once the squash is out of the oven. While the meatballs are cooking we let the squash cool, fork it into "spaghetti", put it in a baking dish, and then cover that and the meatballs with your sauce, re-warm/bake in the oven for a few and serve. It's delicious.
Here's me updating my training log for the day while Justin makes a mess in the kitchen
While I really like eggs and mixed peppers or breakfast smoothies (pumpkin or frozen fruit with egg white or whey protein), it's probably smarter for anyone looking to lose weight (not me) to stick to lean protein and veggies for breakfast. We do this a few days a week.
Leftover pork tenderloin and baked flank steak with chopped onions and spices along with leftover sauteed peppers, onions, and zucchini
I made dinner one night last week while Justin hopped on the trainer for a SHORT spin and some stretching. We had some yellowfin tuna and chicken breasts. This is how we do it. Plenty of food for a few days.
Sweet potatoes for post-Wednesday ride
Dinner #1:
Yellowfin with a cajun/cayenne pepper rub, roasted squash and broccoli, and lemon garlic string beans
I'm finally eating all kinds of foods this year that I never did before, including: fish (I repeat, "nothing from the sea"), eggs, vegetables (particularly anything green).
Dessert!
I believe it was Saturday, we didn't have any leftovers other than turkey (no veggies), and we'd probably had eggs the day before. Looking for breakfast, so I made us an applesauce fortified with pomegranate, blueberries, pecan pieces, and egg white protein. It was tasty!
Post morning workouts I still usually do a frozen fruit smoothie with fruit, juice (or lately fruit flavored tea), ground flax seeds, and whey protein.
Back to Thanksgiving! It was pretty paleo safe for us as Justin cooked. He prepped the turkey Thursday morning.
We didn't have any twine, so being the MacGyver he is…
Yes, he used dental floss. It worked flawlessly for one, and for two the turkey didn't even have a minty flavor. Score.
Turkey, paleo butternut squash, and the questionnably paleo string beans
I had my first glass of wine (or beer, etc.) in 11 days also. I love wine.
Dessert was baked butternut squash that had been mixed with vanilla, cinnamon, and coconut milk. It was delish. I left feeling full, but not sick to my stomach. That's a first!
Sunday we did Thanksgiving #2 with my grandparents, and boy did I "cheat". We pretty much only snacked on fresh veggies after lunch, but then we cracked open our last Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron (sooo good) to share. Dinner was fairly identical to Thanksgiving with turkey, butternut squash (I told you, I could eat this every meal), and the questionnable string beans, plus some tomatoes and cucumbers. I had some old vine Zin with dinner (again, delish). My grandma had some pumpkin pie leftover in the fridge, so what did we do? We finished it off. I don't even eat pumpkin pie! Once back at home we we polished off our last Stone Ken Schmidt Maui Brewing Co. Coconut Macadamia Nut Porter.
Monday morning it was back to the paleo experiment!
Leftover pork tenderloin, pineapple, and fresh veggies.
Dinner last night we got a bit fattier cut of meat (london broil, which we have never cooked before), and I added some balsamic vinegar to our baked asparagus. Justin grilled up squash, zucchini, peppers, and red onion. I heart BBQ'd veggies.
I can definitely tell a difference "weight-wise" when I eat too much salt and drink, and felt a little listless the next mornings, but generally not all that much different. I don't have any problems without the salt, but Justin was getting headaches (could be a tumor?).
Am I sold on this "way of eating"? In some respects, absolutely. Unfortunately it is extremely time consuming. I have gotten away from having to pre-plan every meal on paper a day or so ahead of time, but we still forget stuff at the store and wind up there 3-4 times a week. Costco Sunday, Henry's yesterday, Trader Joe's today, and Justin is going back to Henry's! We've cut out the weekly trip to Vons for affordable milk and creamer at least!
From what I've found shopping, Trader Joe's has the cheapest and best selection of raw and unsalted nuts as well as unsweetened dried fruit. Costco is the best place for us to get mixed peppers, berries, chicken, huge bags of broccoli and baby carrots, and other random food stuffs (Lara Bars). Henry's for us has the best produce and generally is where we get fish and beef, and sometimes pork. I also get eggs, coffee, and applesauce there.
So, back to the "diet". I feel fine, but really no better or worse than I did before. We aren't running out of energy later in the afternoon (post lunch bread binge), but still reaching for a small cup of black coffee (out of habit, I guess). I've had plenty of energy while doing endurance rides. The real test will be in a few months when I up the intensity and try to figure out where to get more readily available glycogen into my system pre-during-post workouts. For now it works, so I guess we will keep at it!
Up next? We may be trying to make our own applesauce! Watch out!
