Day 7: Kill All the Things

My first Whole 30 pretty closely followed the normal timeline. I was fine, then had major low-carb hangover, then was majorly pissed off, then exhausted, then cravings and dreams, then amazing energy that led me to do another month and a half of Whole 30. This time's been a little different. Immediately on Day 1, I was having major cravings. Not good. Maybe I just wasn't mentally or grocery prepared. I still wasn't sure the day before if I was going to commit to it, but Day 1 rolled around and I made the good choice. I was super, can't-keep-my-eyes-open on Day 3, and Day 5 I strayed. I went to the movies and out to dinner, and while I stuck to gluten-free, I definitely wasn't Paleo. I was back at it yesterday, Day 6, which was fine.

Then today, Day 7, I felt really strong against cravings, but also like I wanted to Kill All the Things. I ran errands with my parents and everything was annoying me. EXCEPT when they got frozen yogurt from Costco. I thought it would be really hard to resist the Costco food court (cheese pizza, anyone?), but I was totally fine. There was a moment when we drove by a McDonald's and I could almost taste a Big Mac (which is weird, because McDonald's is not one of my craving triggers, and I rarely eat there), but didn't really give it a second thought.

A good breakfast probably helped. I made these honey muffins from Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations. Yum! I bought more ingredients and plan to quadruple the recipe tomorrow and refrigerate the leftovers for breakfasts for the week. I know, not Whole 30. I may as well just call this 30 days a Paleo Challenge, because it's definitely not Whole 30. Oh well, I'm happy with it. Snack was roasted pumpkin seeds. Late lunch was a lettuce wrapped sandwich. And dinner was BBQ chicken breasts, sweet potatoes, pineapple, and spinach.

Breakfast!

 

Lunch Wrap

 

Busy crafting!

After dinner I got busy crafting and making mayonnaise using this recipe. I've tried to make it before with other recipes and failed. Multiple times. Or I thought it smelled weird so I threw it out. But not this time. This time, it was perfect. I followed the recipe to a T and came up with this beauty that I get to snack on all week

The perfect homemade mayo

 Ok, time to have a square of dark chocolate and try not to kill anyone before bed.

Oh, and another potentially related side effect of Day 7- brain fog in the form of choosing the wrong word while speaking several times. Electron instead of electrolyte. Utility instead of utensils. Things like that. Weird.

Back at it

Well it's been a few months of ups and downs. The biggest up? I finally got hitched! B and I got married in the Bahamas surrounded by our closest family and friends. It was an absolutely perfect day and week.

The downs aren't nearly so bad as the ups were good, but I've slowly been straying from Paleo (and any sort of good eating) again. I keep trying to remind myself that it's all a process. A journey. There probably is no end point to this journey - it's something that I'll be working on for my entire life. I figure as long as I'm making more good choices than bad, I'm doing alright.

So after wedding prep, moving, a week-long wedding and a week-long honeymoon cruise, all filled with fabulous (non-Paleo) food, it was time to get back on track. As of June 3rd, I'm on a modified Whole 30. Modified to be slightly less strict than a traditional Whole 30. In my past 2, I've found that being so strict tends to bring up some food-related neuroses and disorders from the past, so I'm just trying to be smart about it. Still no grains, no dairy, no legumes. Some pre-packaged food (mostly in the form of a Primal protein shake), Lara bars, mayonnaise. I will probably make a paleo pancake, which is expressly forbidden on a traditional Whole 30. I'll eat out and probably won't check to see if my steak is grilled in soy oil. So sue me. It's still a whole helluva lot better than what I've been doing in the past few months. And it's part of the journey.

Anyway, have to wrap this up because the Day 4 Brain Fog is hitting pretty hard right now.

Days 1-3: feeling pretty good, except some tiredness at the end of day 3. Day 4: so. tired. foggy. etc.

A Few Days at a Time...

More of the same.


Saturday, 01/05/13
Weight: 141.0
Breakfast: Homemade turkey sausage (bleh, needs some tweaking), egg, 1/4 avocado, chai tea
Lunch: Leftover Jalapeno Garlic Chicken, peppermint tea
Dinner: Leftover elk paleo spaghetti, roasted broccoli
Snacks: nothing
Notes: I was feeling super cranky today and basically spent the whole day in my pajamas. I really wanted to go get some Taco Bell, but I sequestered myself in my apartment and ate leftovers. What an exciting life.

Sunday, 01/06/13
Weight: 140.8 (So close to the 130s!!!)
Breakfast: 1 Gross homemade turkey sausage,  2 eggs, chai tea
Lunch: (DON'T KILL ME) Slice of Costco cheese pizza (it was heaven, at the time)(gluten digest and super enzyme taken before lunch), pepsi, 1/4 Costco frozen yogurt
Dinner: Sesame orange salmon, leftover roasted broccoli
Notes: Yeah, not the most Paleo lunch I've ever eaten. I went there planning for it, though, and I'm trying not to feel guilty about it and I want to just move on. I do feel sick though. Joints increase popping, stomach distension/bloating, extreme energy crash ~2 hours after eating. We'll see how my face is tomorrow...
More Notes: Stomach is doing lots of rumbling and talking to me after dinner... it may have to do with lunch, but also seems to do this after I eat salmon.

Monday, 01/07/13
Weight: 141.4 (The pizza undid me)
Breakfast: Gross turkey sausage (they're almost gone), 1ish egg, chai tea
Lunch: (cafeteria, paid for by work) some kind of kebab, tons of broccoli, roast beef, sweetened green tea
Dinner: Salmon Salad
Snack: green tea (needed the caffeine), broccoli, mandarin
Notes: This was a crazy, busy, snowy workday so my food is WAY off. And I'm not sure if it's from the pizza yesterday or what, but I was EXHAUSTED all day. Like having trouble keeping my eyes open. Come to think of it, it could be because I only managed to eat about 1/4 of my breakfast before work got too crazy and the food got cold and I forgot about it. Or the crappy cafeteria lunch.
Exercise: First time back at yoga in over 2 months! It felt good.

Tuesday, 01/08/13
Weight: 141.8
Breakfast:
Lunch:
Dinner:
Snack:
Notes:

Wednesday, 01/09/13
Weight: 141.6
Breakfast:
Lunch:
Dinner:
Snack:
Notes:
Exercise: Yoga

Thursday, 01/10/13
Weight: 142.2
Breakfast: 2 turkey sausages, 2 eggs, black tea, raspberry leaf tea
Lunch: Ranch chicken and sauteed bell peppers, mandarin
Dinner: (Shhh, don't tell the paleo police) Taco Bell (I only ate about half of it and felt sick, so I stopped)
Snack: (Don't tell the Paleo FBI) Movie theatre popcorn and seltzer water/soda mix
Notes: P to the M to the S is so much fuuuuuun.

Paleo Asian Dressing

Omg you guys. This stuff is goooood. It tastes very similar to the Asian dressing at a local restaurant that I love (but that dressing is probably full of sugar and omega 6s.). I'm going to put this dressing on a salad tomorrow. Tonight I'm baking some Orange-Sesame Salmon and making an extra piece for lunch tomorrow. So the salad will be organic spring mix ($3.99 from Costco), salmon filet, 1/2 an avocado, diced, 1 bell pepper, sliced, and this amazing dressing drizzled allll over it.

I didn't measure the ingredients for the dressing, but here's my best guess:

1 teaspoon coconut aminos
1 teaspoon gluten-free dijon mustard
juice of one mandarin orange
1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 clove of garlic, minced
a dash or two of crushed red pepper

Put all ingredients in a jar and shake it up. This amount looks good for my large lunch salad, so if you're serving more people, double or triple it. Voila! Paleo Asian dressing!

P.S. Hermione says 'hi'!

Quick Start

Here's my attempt to keep myself accountable during this part of my Paleo journey. 2 weeks of easing back into it, a 30-day Paleo challenge with my gym starting 01/14/13, and hopefully the 21-Day Sugar Detox after that.

Wednesday, 01/02/13
Weight: 145.6
Breakfast: 2 eggs, chai tea
Lunch: (didn't have any food in the house to bring) orange glazed pork chop and steamed veggies from the dining hall
Dinner: Elk Paleo spaghetti
Snacks: Almonds, 2 squares dark chocolate, 2 applesauce squeeze packets, roasted seaweed


Thursday, 01/03/13
Weight: 143.6
Breakfast: 2 turkey sausage patties, 2 eggs, chai tea
Lunch: Tuna made with avocado stuffed in a pepper
Dinner: Elk Paleo spaghetti
Snacks: Almonds, carrots, 1 square of dark chocolate
Sleep: Tired from 4-7, Energy rush right before bed (9pm), Almost 9 hours of sleep but still exhausted in the AM

Friday, 01/04/13
Weight: 142.6
Breakfast: 2 turkey sausage patties, 2 eggs with sauteed onions, 1/4 avocado, green tea
Lunch: Elk Paleo Spaghetti, carrots, applesauce squeeze packet
Dinner: Jalapeno garlic chicken with cauliflower rice
Snacks: Almonds, 2 squares dark chocolate, peppermint tea, snack bag of Classic Lay's Potato Chips (oops!)
Notes: Stomach upset after chips and dinner :(
Sleep: I must not have had enough fat with dinner because I'm dragging pretty bad and it's not even 9pm

Whoa, Almost a Year Away (And a Recipe)

Well I didn't mean to abandon this blog for almost a year, but here we are. My abbreviated Paleo journey:

December 2011to January 2012 - Heard about Paleo for the first time and began researching
March 2012 - Moved across the country and pretty much gave up on trying to implement the Paleo lifestyle
August 16, 2012 - Sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, I started super clean Paleo. Over 2.5 months, I lost about 17 pounds and 2 pants sizes.
November 2012 to December 2012 - Started slipping from Paleo with National Novel Writing Month, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Gained 4 pounds, started sleeping like crap again, joint pain, constant stomach pain, and my face looked like a pizza.
January 2, 2013 - Once again, sick and tired, I committed to clean Paleo again.

Tonight's meal was jalapeno garlic chicken with cauliflower rice. I saw this somewhere on Chowstalker but can't find it again, plus I changed it up enough so it's my recipe now :). Probably wear gloves or be careful with the jalapenos. My hands are still burning a couple of hours later. I used my new mini-Cuisinart food processor for this, and it sped up the whole process. You certainly don't need one, but it will make it go much faster!

Jalapeno Garlic Chicken

2 tablespoons of coconut oil and/or ghee (I combined them)
1 white or yellow onion, chopped
8 cloves of garlic, minced
2 jalapenos, most of the seeds removed, diced
2 chicken breasts (or whatever cut you have handy), cut into small pieces
Juice of one lime
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the oil in a pan over medium-low heat
2. Add the onions and saute until translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle a little salt over them to get them sweating.
3. Salt and pepper the chicken chunks, and add them, along with the jalapenos and garlic, to the pan
4. Squeeze the lime or dump the juice over the pan
5. Cook until chicken is cooked through

Serve over cilantro cauliflower "rice" (I used the recipe from the amazing book Practical Paleo - if you don't have it, go order it right now)

Ok, one more recipe on the books. I hope to keep it up this time!

Paleo Indian "Butter" Chicken

This was my first attempt at cooking Indian food. I'd previously been scared away by words like "garam masala" and "ghee", but after eating this dish a couple times at various Indian restaurants (and being impressed every time), I finally had to give it a go. And with my new paleo knowledge (including ghee), I figured I couldn't mess it up TOO much. So, I set out to make a paleo version of this delish dish, but couldn't find one that seemed just right. I ended up adapting mine from this one.

A few notes about the spices:

• For this recipe, it's easiest to pre-measure the spices into a single bowl and have them all ready to dump in the pan.

• If you can't find all the spices (or don't want to pay the outrageous price for cardamom...), you could probably live without a few of them (fenugreek, cardamom, and coriander). But you'd lose the essence of the dish if you didn't add the garam masala and chili powder, at the very least.

• Garam masala is a dry, ground Indian spice mix. You should be able to find it in your grocery store's spice aisle or at a specialty or health store.
  

I originally tried to make this with boneless chicken thighs, but with my aversion to "weird" meat, and the fact that pretty much the only form I've seen chicken in is boneless, skinless breasts, it didn't go well... Next time I'll definitely use breasts. My butcher shop even has pre-cut breast strips (they call them stir fry strips) for the same price as the whole breast, so I'll get those and save myself a step! But, if you're not crazy like me, and want to save a few bucks a pound, then you could use thighs.

Other than that, this was pretty easy to make and REALLY yummy. It was so good it distracted me from taking any pictures. Brock (who had never even tried Indian food before he met me) had two big helpings, so it will definitely be put into the regular rotation.

Indian "Butter" Chicken
3 Tbs. coconut oil (or fat of your choice)
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 in. ginger root, peeled and minced
2 tsp. garam masala
1 Tbs. chili powder
dash cayenne powder (optional, add more for more spice)
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground fenugreek
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1 tsp. sea salt
1 can tomato paste
1 can coconut milk
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 in. chunks (pastured, organic, if possible)
4 Tbs. grass-fed ghee

Cauliflower "Rice"
1 head cauliflower
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. grass-fed ghee
1/2 tsp. salt

1. Melt coconut oil in large saucepan over medium heat
2. Add onion and sauté until almost translucent
3. Add garlic and ginger; cook while stirring for a minute or two, until garlic is fragrant
4. Add in garam masala, chili powder, cayenne, coriander, fenugreek, cardamom, and salt; stir to make a paste
5. Stir in tomato paste and coconut milk
6. Turn heat down to low and add chicken to the sauce
7. Cover and let simmer for about 15 minutes, until chicken is cooked through
8. After chicken is cooked, add ghee and stir until melted

While the chicken is simmering in the sauce, make the cauliflower "rice":

1. Heat a large pan over medium heat; add olive oil and ghee (1 Tbs. of each)
2. Wash cauliflower and cut into chunks
3. Chop up into rice-sized pieces in a food processor or blender (or with a knife, in the absence of either of those)
4. Add to hot pan; sprinkle with salt
5. Sauté for 7 or 8 minutes, until heated through and slightly soft

Serve the "butter" chicken over the "rice", and enjoy!