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.

Day 2

Breakfast: Ham omlett (2.5 oz ham, 3 eggs) and a cup of fruit salad (plum, kiwi, banana)

Snack: Larabar (deeelicious)

Lunch: boiled egg and another cup of fruit salad (light, but right after crossfit- I wasn't super hungry)

Snack: Larabar

Dinner: BLTT, Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Turkey. Two trimmed slices of crunchy bacon layered with crisp, cold tomatoes and organic turkey wrapped inside two large leaves of romaine lettuce.

Workout: 21, 15, and 9 reps of Hand Stand Pushups, Ring Dips, and regular Pushups

Day 1- Not so bad

By the end of yesterday I began to suspect the confidence I gained through success I had all day on the Paleo might begin to wain in the next week... That said, it has not worn off yet. My breakfast came in two parts, a small pick me up on the way to CrossFit, and the rest after I got home. Without further adu, my first menu:

Breakfast: 4oz Mango Naked Juice

Breakfast 2: 2 Eggs, scrambled with 1.5 oz organic shredded turkey. While I scrambled the eggs, I diced half of a Roma tomato and picked 3 large, fresh leaves of basil. I placed the eggs 'n turkey in a bowl, sprinkled shredded basil and freshly ground pepper over it, and added the fresh tomato (still cold). Absolutely divine. I also ate an apple with this meal for a carbohydrate boost.

Eggs are almost like a wonderful cheese substitute, the whites are like a light mozzarella and the yolk like a mellow cheddar. I'm working on a theory that eggs will be delicious in almost any context you would normally find cheese, so the classic basil-tomato-mozzarella combination is what inspired this meal.

Snack: A handful of raw almonds combined with a handful of HUGE fresh raspberries. They were seriously gigantic- I could have stuck one of these raspberries on the end of my nose and joined the circus! This snack is a great combination because the almonds are flavorful, nutty, sweet, but leave your mouth a little dry, and the raspberries are usually varying levels of sweet and tart, but always nice and juicy- combined these two practically dance.

Lunch: Cool lettuce wraps. Inspired by the appetizer bearing the same name on the Pei Wei menu, I sauteed some chopped chicken in lemon juice, cracked black pepper, garlic, minced shallots, and red pepper flakes. The red pepper flakes are in total control of the heat in the dish, so if you like it spicy, apply liberally, if you hate spice, leave it out completely! Since I would be taking this meal to work, I then wrapped two washed, large lettuce leaves (I prefer romaine, more vitamins and more flavor) in paper towels. You can eat this meal like they serve it at Pei Wei, and use the whole lettuce leaf to wrap around your chicken filling like a burrito, but I find that to be messy and gives you some bites with almost no filling and others with almost no lettuce, so I tear bite-sized pieces from the lettuce and use it to pick up some filling- Moroccan style!

You may be catching on to the fact that there are many flavor components missing from this diet that seem impossible to use a substitution for, such as Salt. Yeah, kind of a big one. Many low-cholesterol diet gurus will encourage you to use lots of herbs such as rosemary on your proteins to make up for intensity lost in the flavor from not using salt. I totally agree with this idea, EXCEPT that I personally only crave french food every once in a while, and any meal that primarily tastes of rosemary tastes french! What should I use in place of salt in other situations? SHALLOTS. The shallot is one of the most underrated, tragically under appreciated flavors in food. A shallot is like the kinder, more tactful middle child of the onion family, both in flavor and reputation. The onion is loud, brazen, often offensive, and yet everyone knows it better than the shallot! Shallots can be used in many more applications than the too-strong onion, and the depth of flavor, I have found, is an ideal substitute for salt- it's subtle, but adds a LOT to the dish.

Snack: Apple and iced herbal tea.

Dinner: 2 medium boiled eggs with black pepper and 3 oz shredded turkey.

Dessert: Sliced banana with fresh squeezed orange juice drizzled over the slices, dusted with cinnamon.

I'm not tallying or otherwise recording just how much water I've been drinking, but unless herbal tea is listed, assume at least 16 oz with each meal, 8 oz with each snack, and more throughout the day.

Workout: Lunge 100 meters, then do one burpee for each lunge. I ended up doing 89 lunges, 89 burpees. I don't remember the time so I'll edit it in later today.

Opening Explanation

Today I began a personal challenge of following the Paleolithic Diet for a minimum of 30 days. I have been working out at a Crossfit gym for about 5 months now, and my trainer encourages anyone who is serious about achieving superhealth, or peak fitness in his or her body to follow at least the Zone lifestyle if not the Paleolithic food plan alongside the Crossfit workout regime. A number of people at my gym have already attempted the Paleolithic challenge, some with success, but most of them without much variety.
As a trained chef, I love good food that is packed with flavor, so a monotonous diet, no matter what the health benefits, is not an option. Therefore, when I decided to take on the Paleo diet, I knew I would be creating lots of recipes to keep me interested, and I created this blog to start as a sort of food journal, both to share the healthy recipes I create and to hold myself accountable to follow through with this challenge. Hopefully some of the people who will be starting the Paleolithic lifestyle in the future will get some use out of my recipes as well. That said, here are the restrictions of the Paleolithic Diet in a nutshell, and if you care for more detail, email me or go pick up the book at your local library!

1. No Grains
2. No Legumes (that includes soy)
3. No Refined Sugars (except natural honey)
4. No Dairy
5. No Salt
6. No Peanuts
7. No Cocoa
8. No Alcohol
9. Unlimited Fruits and Vegetables
10. Unlimited Lean Meats

There is apparently an ongoing sort of controversy as far as vinegar goes, so I will allow it, but only occasionally. Also the Paleolithic book neither forbids nor discourages cooking with real wine, as long as the alcohol is cooked out and, again, it is used sparingly. I will leave these two ingredients open to discussion for the first week before I use either of them in any of my recipes, and if I am corrected they will be added to the list of forbidden items. I will post each day's workout, meals, and musings within 24 hours of the last meal of the day. Feel free to comment with words of advice, encouragement, or critical opinions about the recipes to keep me accountable!