Sunday, August 19, 2012

A day on the Paleo Diet

So, for some crazy reason, I have decided to try out the Paleo Diet!  Have you heard of it?  A friend recommended it to me a year ago, so I got the book and it landed on my bookshelf.  With an ulcer that won't fully heal, I decided to give my body the natural recharge Paleo is supposed to provide.  I am following the original Paleo Diet (this book).  Not the 2.0 version, or the one created after that (that will come in a few weeks).  In a nutshell, this means no dairy, grains, starchy tubers (think potatoes), legumes, added sugar or added salt.  That pretty much leaves you with meat, nuts (limited to 4 oz if you want to lose weight), fruit and vegetables that are not tubers! 

Breakfast is by far the hardest meal for me.  Coffee with out milk/cream or sugar?  No yogurt?  No muffins, pancakes, bagels or toast?   No waffles with cottage cheese?  NOOOOOOO!!!!

Here is an example of what I eat in a day.

Breakfast:


 Coffee with unsweetened coconut milk, chicken breast, sliced apple and a handful of grapes.  Having meat for breakfast (other than bacon) is still kind of weird, but it keeps me satisfied a lot longer than my breakfast of choice before Paleo.  I used to make a smoothie with yogurt, milk and fruit. 

Lunch:

Salad, homemade salad dressing, walnuts, grapes and red pepper
Everything in the salad but the red pepper came from our farm share.  Lettuce, radish, cherry tomatoes, red pepper, purple cabbage and carrot.  A rainbow of flavor!  I made the dressing with the juice of one lemon, 1 Tbsp olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic crushed.  I put it in a mason jar to let the flavors blend and put it on top when the salad was made.  Mmmmm!!!  The walnuts did a good job making the meal stick with me for a while.

Snack:

Coconut milk smoothie
 One cup of unsweetened coconut milk, 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries and one banana!  Believe it or not, my sweet tooth is satisfied with this afternoon smoothie.  I will mix it up from time to time and use different frozen fruit, but we recently purchased 60lbs of frozen blueberries for $99, so we are stocked up!  A great way to add antioxidants to my day. 

Dinner:

Crockpot Chicken Cacciatorie

Ingredients: 

1 lb chicken pieces (I used boneless thighs)
1 onion sliced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped (they didn't have any, so I improvised)
1 lg celery stock chopped
1 lb chopped or pureed tomato
3 garlic cloves - one whole, two minced

That's it!  I used the onion as my base layer, then put the chicken on top.  I mixed up the celery, red and green peppers and garlic and placed them on top of the chicken.  Then I poured the tomato puree on top, set it on low for 8 hours and forgot about it until 6!  I made noodles


It was so delicious!!!  Nothing added.  Just vegetables and meat.  Who'd a thought it would turn out so good?
 
Believe it or not, the whole thing is growing on me.  I can deal with no ice cream, bread, or added sugar/salt.  As a general rule, we should limit that kind of stuff anyway.  The yogurt, milk and grains (quinoa, barley, steel cut oats) have proven to be difficult, but the funny thing is... I don't crave sweet stuff as much as I thought I would.  The great thing about this plan is that, generally speaking, you can have as much meat, fruit or vegetable as you want.  So, when I want something sweet, I'm not deprived of sugar all together like some other diets.  

The health benefits will be worth it in the end.  That's the opinion today, anyway!
Stay tuned.

Linked to Homestead Revival

8 comments:

  1. I read about the Paleo diet in Trail Runner Magazine. I have no discipline for diets, or cutting things out. Try as I might I always fail. Your meals look tasty, but the breakfast would leave me hungry. The dinner is more like it. Post your thought after you have been on it for awhile I am curious.

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    1. I will be posting quite a bit on here regarding my Paleo journey, so stay tuned! The breakfast thing is still quite a struggle as far as creativity goes, but I really am not finding myself that hungry. Eggs are a good standby, but there is a limit of 6 a week with the version I'm following, so I find myself eating leftover meat along with a bunch of veggies/fruit. Once the farmers markets/CSA's are done, I have a feeling this could get tough!!!

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  2. Oooooooo Paleo sounds very interesting, I've been "all natural" for about 4 months now, not as grass roots as paleo but I've definately received increased health for doing it..not to mention a much smaller waist line:) Don't know about you on your paleo plan, but I don't suffer toxic hunger any more, I simply get a normal hunger when my body is empty and there is no longer any discomfort of feelings of urgency. Well done and your dishes look delicious.

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    1. Eliminating all the toxic stuff from my diet has really helped me feel better too. I am very careful with what I chose to feed our family. I only buy local meats, get produce from our CSA, and am very careful with what I add to mealsOur grocery budget is kind of outrageous, but to be able to put this kind of food on the table for my family is very important to me. They Paleo has taken it one step further. Once I have a good grasp and understand it more, I may put the whole family on version 3, and I may find a way to do it frugally fashion!

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  3. Could you replace potatoes with turnips? I don't think turnips are tubers....

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    1. I think they are compared to carrots, aren't they? If so, they should be limited on Paleo.

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  4. Paleo Diet is basically what our ancestor used to eat millions of years ago,
    before agriculture came into existence . It is also referred as “Hunter’s Food” as they used to gather it from here and
    there by hunting animals or collecting from plants and trees paleo diet

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    1. Very true! It is also known as the caveman diet. When you think about the lifestyle of the cavemen/hunters, they didn't have the conveniences we have now.
      Being on this diet did just what it claims: It recharges your gut! It forces balance and you start to feel normal again. It also did something with how my brain was functioning because I felt sharper than I had in years!
      With the holidays, I fell off track a bit, but once New Years and all the bad food is behind me, I'm going back at it full force.
      Do you follow this diet?

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