21 down, 9 to go!

I'm in the single digits now, Ladies and Gentlemen! I started school this week so I've been even further behind, but I'm loving school! Yesterday I made what I'm calling "Bachelor's Suffle" where I took some diced deli ham and turkey, chopped up a leftover turkeyburger patty and then added some leftover barbacoa meat from chipotle and heated it all in a skillet with taco spices (paprika, chili powder, onion, garlic, cayenne...) and once it was all heated I added 5 eggs all scrambled up to the mix. I ate some for dinner with guacamole, then for breakfast with fruit and crispy sweet potato chips (unsalted, fried in sunflower oil- TERRA brand, on sale at Target right now)... then for dinner along with some cookies I made from almond flour, banana, almond butter, honey, Carob powder, and egg. I tried to start taking some advocare multivitamins today but in what I think was an unrelated issue I got really really nauseous in the middle of class today so I didn't want to take any chances adding foreign pills to my upset stomach. I also came up with a snack thats kind of an alternative to candy or pretzels, toasted sunflower seeds with honey and cinnamon... deeelish!

What is this, day 15?

I'm FINALLY halfway there! I am stinking at this blogging thing already, and I'm only 2 weeks in! I've done well for the last few days in the sense that I haven't cheated. I figured out that I can eat at Pei Wei, just order Thai Blazing Noodles and swap the noodles for bean sprouts, leave off the edimame. I went to Ihop and ordered the "3 eggs and pancakes" meal deal and swapped the pancakes for two slices of ham, then had a blackberry, strawberry and banana smoothie for the carbs (this was more of a two- part brunch situation than a breakfast and a lunch... not sure that even makes sense). I've been supplementing my diet with snacks of larabars or fruit leathers. I hit a wall on day 13; having gotten past frivulous cravings for things like cookies or ice cream or even grilled cheese sandwiches, I've reached a point where I feel I could fight someone for a bowl of cheerios- no sugar, just simple carbs with SIMPLE PREP. I think my hitting the wall was due in part to the fact that I have been working the morning shift at the coffee house and I am very tuckered out lately- I got home from working out on day 13 and just wanted a bowl of cereal. I didn't want to cheat but I didn't want to cook so I just watched TV until my mom got home and told me to make a quick salad and go to sprouts to stock up on Larabars and sliced turkey. I took her advice and went to bed at 9:15, and the next day was a lot better. Today was day 15 and I'm still on track, though I have indulged in 3 fruit leathers (each equal to 1/2 serving of fruit) which I'm sure would have been better replaced with actual fruit or vegetables, but eh, I didn't cheat and that was a way to sort of... indulge. So I'm halfway there, I think it'll be a little easier knowing I have already done more than I have left to do... but DANG this is hard! I'm planning to try to be more consistent with my posts for the next two weeks, though I start school in 4 days- though this may become my new way to procrastinate studying! I mean, I'd never do that (Hi Mom!).

Days 7, 8, 9 and 10

I haven't cheated, I can promise you that. I have also worked out at crossfit every single weekday that I have been on Paleo. I honestly don't remember the exact meals I consumed on days 7,8, and 9 but they were mostly combinations of grilled chicken, fresh fruit, eggs and almond butter. I do have a few notable things from those days to report though: I successfully made my very first egg over easy! I usually prefer medium because you often have some small amount of uncooked white in an over easy egg, and I also have never been able to flip it over without popping the yolk. So yeah, that was very exciting! Also, I met my family at Anamia's Mexican restraunt on day 8, and was frustrated the whole way there because I love being invited to family stuff but I'm beginning to notice the fact that there is almost nothing I can order at any restraunt except grilled chicken or dry salad or a combination of the two, so I was either looking forward to another rather boring dinner or waiting to get home and make a slightly more interesting egg dish. When I arrived, however, inspiration struck! I ordered a sliced, grilled chicken breast a la carte, with a side of guacamole and limes. I mixed the guacamole with some of their super spicy red salsa and spread it thickly over the breast, then drizzled it liberally with lime juice. The lime gave it an almost salty finish, and the creamy, spicy avocado sauce was as good as any queso sauce I've ever had, (and made me feel considerably better than any queso sauce has ever made me feel after I finished eating). On day 9 I took some vegetable-based breading I have been experimenting with (containing nothing forbidden by the Paleolithic Diet) and made chicken fried chicken nuggets, fried in a combination of canola and olive oils. It worked great! The vegetable breading actually added more flavor than regular breading does! If you'd like to try it I can't tell you my secret but I'd be glad to make you some breading, just comment or email me and we can work out price based on quantity desired. As for day 10 here was my menu:

Breakfast: Ginger Snap Larabar

Lunch: Cafe Express Grilled Chicken with Pesto sauce (always double check and make sure the pesto either does not contain parmesan or can be made fresh without it) and sweet potato fries (unsalted) with basalmic vinegar and extra pesto sauce to dip them in

Dinner: Chipotle barbacoa beef with lettuce and spicy fresh red salsa. No rice, beans, tortillas, sour cream, or cheese. Also a small iced herbal tea.

Workout: 8 minutes of pullups where I did 1 pullup in the first minute, 2 in the 2nd, 3 in the 3rd minute, etc. Then 5 rounds of 5 deadlifts and 10 box jumps. I deadlifted 85# and did step ups for 4 of the 5 rounds rather than the full jumps. My time was 4 min, 44 sec. I also had a HUGE breakthrough, and did my first (and second) full, completely unassisted pull up EVER!

Day 6- Settling into routine

I did a lot better on day 6 than the last 2 days, eating at least something at each mealtime and even fitting in a snack. I think I have now arrived at the point in every diet where the dieter develops a regimen of fallback foods that fit the diet and are delicious, but aren't varied. I know there are virtually unlimited combinations of marinades, cooking methods, and ingredients available to me on this diet, and I am mostly falling back on three particular proteins as vessels for different flavors; chicken, turkey, and eggs. These are, obviously, the least expensive animal proteins available and conveniently some of the leanest ones. The great thing about eggs is that there are so many different things you can call something that is essentially the same dish, your diet can look varied to onlookers even when you do fall into a rut; Scrambled, Pan-Scrambled, Omelet, Frittata, Egg Stir-Fry; Fried Eggs, Over-Easy, Over-Medium, Over-Hard; then there are Poached, Boiled and Baked. So somedays I'll make my scrambled eggs with turkey or ham frittata style, adding the turkey when the eggs are almost totally cooked, and flipping the whole mass over for a few seconds before flipping it back onto the plate, turkey side up. Other days I'll add the toppings a little sooner and eventually fold the whole thing in half into a lovely omelet, but it has no textural of flavor difference from the frittata. Anyway, I will work on adding some excitement to my diet, in the meantime here is the Day 6 Menu:

Breakfast: Red Delicious Apple (which lived up to its name completely)

Snack: Half of a banana

Lunch: Two grilled chicken breasts from some chicken restaurant near my mom's work, with a side of baked sweet potato (plain) and mashed butternut squash (also plain)

Dinner: A fat turkey sandwich from Panera sans bread, sauce, cheese, or chips on the side. (but with lots of tomato and romaine lettuce)

I am seriously looking forward to day 8 when I will start allowing myself a small amount of vinegar to cook and dress my food with- of all lemon juice can compensate for the missing ZIP in a dish, but I have not found anything on paleo that makes up for the TANG that vinegar adds.

By the way, anyone who is missing things like ketchup, mustard (if you aren't doing vinegar), relish and salad dressings, I highly recommend you experiment with replacing those condiments with different types of salsa- you can find flavors that range from sweet to hot, smoky to essentially tomato juice, crunchy and chunky to pureed and smooth. Just be sure to check the labels, many sauces have hidden ingredients like dairy and soy. The great thing about salsa though is that anyone with a blender, food processor, or a strong arm can make their own and know exactly what went into it! BEWARE sauces that are in principle innocent, such as pestos: they are not cream sauces, but CHECK THE LABEL; most store-bought pestos contain quite a bit of parmesan and other cheeses. Pestos are incredibly easy to make and I plan to post some scratch recipes on this blog in the near future, but in the meantime, if you feel your sauce will be too oily or herbal without the parmesan, add some artichoke to the recipe: it will add a surprising element of creaminess and another dimension to the flavor.

Day 5- Susanna 3, Paleo Challenge 2

Again, I did not cheat today, but this time it was more forgetfulness than necessarily lack of food availability that gave Paleo a clear advantage. I woke up with just enough time to be hygenic and get ready for work before I had to go, and in my haste to remain on time, I forgot to grab breakfast of any kind (we were also out of Naked Juice, I thought- looked in the wrong fridge). My kind boss let me off early so I was able to join my family for lunch at Tin Star, where I ordered...

Lunch: A "bowl" with just lettuce, grilled chicken and grilled shrimp; I poured two little cupfuls of their incredible tomatillo salsa verde over the salad and it was better than any dressing, though the shrimp lacked pizzazz in general.

...I got home, and got caught up in some stuff that ended up with me at my sister's place, where I had...

Snack: a glass of 100% pure orange juice. this was literally the most satisfying thing I have consumed in 5 days.

... At this point I rushed off to church, which lasted (I am not exaggerating) from 5pm until 9:45pm. When I got out of church I had to drive 25 minutes home to go to both houses I'm pet-sitting at and feed the cats and try to get to sleep in time to feel rested for work at 6:30am the next morning. I did eat something to quiet my grumbling gastric grouchiness...

Dinner? 2 oz shredded turkey (the last of my rations)

...before giving up and going to bed.

Day 4- Susanna 3, Paleo 1

NO, I did NOT cheat or otherwise mess up on the paleolithic challenge, HOWEVER, this day was... the equivalent to the day in caveman days when the hunters didn't catch anything. Maybe it was storming, maybe they were slow- either way, apparently living like paleolithic man occasionally (or perhaps frequently) means not actually eating anything at all. I started the day ok...

Breakfast: Naked Juice (very berry)

...thinking that I would be able to stop for some type of protein on my way from one work location to another shortly after- this did not happen. I zoned out while driving on the highway and arrived at my second work location before I even realized it. I was working at a cake bakery, by the way, so food was technically available to me the entire time I was working, but only in the sense that cake is the same as edible food, which in the paleolithic age it is not. So I waited for my lunch break, and my boss offered to pick something up for me. the benefit of this was a trip saved and opportunity to actually eat lunch, but I had to think of something off of a fast food menu I don't know by heart and order it quickly, so I told her to get me...

Lunch: Grilled chicken salad, dry

... it arrived and was a lovely arrangement of fresh greens and grape tomatoes with sunflower seeds anointing the foliage, with 4 skiiinny strips of cold grilled chicken arranged neatly in a way that reminded me of modern art. This upped my protein tally for the day to a little less than 2 ounces. I finally got home from work at about 5, and immediately broke into my stash of emergency food...

Snack: 2 cold, hard-boiled eggs and an ounce of shredded turkey with black pepper

...and ran off to church. After a "Death comes unexpectedly" sermon straight out of Pollyanna, I went to Central Market to grab a quick but healthy dinner before heading home...

Dinner: 3.5 oz grilled salmon, pineapple chunks, and a handful of raw sunflower seeds

...I learned some important things about grociery store dinners: salmon is extremely overdone in grociery stores, salmon isn't very good cold with no lemon juice addorning it, and even salmon can have strangely textured fat deposits throughout the fish so that you have to pick the flakes apart to avoid a slimy, fatty, oily texture invasion in your mouth. This is why I bought a 7oz piece of fish and only ate about half. The pineapple, however, was amazing. So ends my sad attempts to nourish myself on day 4 of the Paleolithic challenge, but I DID NOT CHEAT!

Day 3

Breakfast: Naked Juice Green Machine (4 oz)

Snack: 2 Eggs scrambled with 1.5 oz turkey in a pan lightly coated with garlic infused olive oil.

Lunch: 5 oz spicy shredded beef over chopped dark-leaf lettuce with spicy red salsa.

Snack: Larabar

Dinner: Grilled chicken marinated in basil, lemon juice, olive oil, pepper & garlic, over 2 cups broccoli which had been sauteed in olive oil and toasted garlic.

Dessert: Dried mango and pear chips.

Workout: Run 1 mile (in 105 degree heat, I might add!), 3 rounds for time of 15 wall balls (12#) and 15 Pullups.

Tonight's dinner was my biggest temptation so far and possibly one of the biggest I will face during this challenge. It was my dad's birthday and my mom made one of my favorite meals, grilled chicken (as above) over spinach fettuccini with a cheesy, bell pepper cream sauce on top, served with sister scheubert's yeast rolls (with lots of butter), & salad with dressing. I tried to make my dinner at least resemble everyone else's so I made a bed of broccoli in place of the green spinach and ate the marinated chicken. I also passed up scratch chocolate cake and ice cream. It can only be uphill from here... I hope. I am also having a hard week in other areas of my life, starting a new job and dealing with money, friends, etc, and I do feel like if I stick to the challenge for the next few days it'll be a breeze when the other things in my life start letting up a little.