paleo diet follow up

the paleo-diet, now dead, has not been missed. 


In its last, final days, it was really a struggle between me, lack of salt/carbs, and muscle soreness. 
When i talk to the others about the muscle soreness that I had, they said that they had experienced the same feeling as well. Interesting, I wonder why this happened? I heard that if you stay on the paleo diet longer that you just get more energy, so maybe that was the part where you have to struggle through the detox and  then reap the rewards later. However, the lack of caffeine also was completely awful. My BF and other friends don't seem to have the same level of addiction as me, but then again, they don't have to go to work at 5:45 in the morning and then have a full busy day as well. During the diet, I felt so very tired all the time that I had trouble running around school doing all the fun (not fun) stuff I do everyday. 


Here is what I realized about carbs after the paleo diet: they are the building blocks of modern society. not only do they taste great and make a good pizza, but you really do feel better when you eat them. I noticed after I stopped the diet, as I was walking to work early in the morning, that my legs didn't seem as sore as they had in the days before, as well as the fact that I was not as groggy and starving even though I had not eaten yet that day. The carbs just formed this little energy ball that I had reserved in me, and I didn't feel awful and tired that morning. It was great. I had been wondering, during paleo-fest, how I did all the things that I normally do each day without feeling so tired. I realized that it truly was carbs and everything else modern that I take for granted. 


I would also like to point out at this moment, that there was a yahoo news article on 30,000 year old bread: during the paleo era they had bread. Bread. Bread is a wonderful thing that we don't appreciate enough. 


All was not wasted on the diet, though. Here are a few things I think I will keep with me:

• ketchup is delicious and I love it, but it does not need to go on all foods, and can be used in moderation
• dairy products, though I love my ice cream and fro-yo's, are not really good for me, personally. Most of the time I now realize that they make my stomach feel weird/hurt somewhat, therefore i should enjoy them, in moderation/infrequently
• Larabars are delicious! They are the only "paleo-approved" granola-y type bars, and the one I had today only has 3 ingredients, which is cool/way better for you than eating a granola bar with 3000 ingredients, 5 of which you can say. Plus the flavors are tasty, and having something good for you, that I can just grab when I'm in a rush is better than not eating/eating something I have to pay 2x as much for on campus. 
• it is very hard to find things without salt. Why? because salt is miraculous and makes everything taste way better. But you don't need much of it. 

That's my summation of the paleo diet. It really is good to do it, for a little while, so that you like the things you can't eat during it more after the diet is over. That first margarita? Divine! Sandwiches? Awesome! But I think I knew those things already... 

paleo diet day 3,4

well, these two days of the paleo plan were pretty hard.

it was taco night, everything a taco is is forbidden on the paleo plan, including the irresistible chips and salsa. But alas, I resisted them. BF and I ordered shrimp salads, while everyone else had yummy dollar tacos. Not to say that the plain shrimp salad was bad, it was just not a dollar taco, dripping in grease and salty salsa, washed down by a cool salty margarita. Yes, I love margaritas and they are so very banned from the paleo diet.

The next night, we went to a sustainability mixer, meet and greet type deal, and I was starving. So starving, in fact, that I was willing to eat ANYTHING that this restaurant would serve. Plus, it was at The Farm of Beverly Hills. Which is a great place. Eating anything they serve, would be, of course, breaking paleo, but I was starving! And as one of my friends noted, if a caveman saw a buffet, he would not avoid the carbs.
Luckily for me, there was a small selection of some paleo-friendly foods. Picking at the cherry tomatoes, cauliflower, and strawberries, I was depressed. There was a whole f-ing cheese platter! Waiters were running around with truffled mac and cheese, it was obscene. Carbs and dairy products were laughing in my face. Really.
I succumbed to the free wine. The Paleo Diet book says that you can have wine in moderate amounts. As a college student at an OPEN BAR, it would have been wrong of me not to have any wine. WRONG, paleo diet or no. Therefore, as my civic duty I had wine. It was terrific. I loved every calorie of it. Every moderate ounce. I regret nothing.

paleo diet recipe

apple snacks


ingredients:
1 (or more) fuji, gala, or granny smith apples
cinnamon
pumpkin pie spice


directions:
slice the apples in pretty even slices, so that they all cook evenly. then put them on your baking sheet, for the toaster over. It helps to spray some pam or put some sort of non-stick on the tray first. Then sprinkle them with pumpkin pie spice, and a little bit of cinnamon too, for good measure. Then put them in the toaster over on broil at 350 for around 15 minutes, but watch them to make sure that they don't burn (duh). 
Let them cool off a bit, and enjoy!


You can also refrigerate them to make them last longer, but I'm pretty sure they won't last that long anyways. 

paleo diet: day 2

this is day three, but i didn't have time to do day two yesterday so here it is. 


day two of paleo diet was okay. Breakfast was great, I had a two egg omelet with onions and peppers, seasoned with some garlic and pepper. Yum! It was really filling all the way through my classes. I felt like I had energy and was able to focus well enough in lecture. 


Lunch was scallops, calamari, and shrimp. I cooked them with some garlic and onions and pepper, and they were tasty. We ate them with figs and sautéed veggies. It was pretty good, but was not filling enough for the bf, although this meal kept me full till dinnertime. After lunch though, I was immediately sleepy and during work I crashed, and was pretty sure that I was getting sick. I don't blame this on the diet, though. I'm pretty sure the reason you catch an illness is more than two days before...anyways, I felt very much like I was getting a cold, so after work I skipped my  usual workout. 


For dinner I had salmon with broccoli and onions, which was a lot of salmon, but it seemed really fresh and tasted good plain. I can't say I didn't want to add any salt to my broccoli, but I  resisted the temptation, which is hard for me because I am a salt lover. I love ketchup and anything with tomatoes, salt, or any combination of the two. Thus, this is one of the challenges of the diet for me. I went to bed early so that I could get up early for work the next day, which was a good decision because today I felt much much better and not cold-ish at all. 

paleo diet: day 1

today was the first day of our paleo diet. 
we decided to start today, as mondays are generally good for starting things, you know, first day of the week and all. It went easier than I expected. I'm probably just not started with my withdrawals yet...


morning
I wake up at 5:45 so that i can go to work. on my way to work i have my 'paleo-approved" larabar, pecan pie flavored, which is made with dates, almonds, and pecans. Thats it. It was good, but it was kinda like eating half a candy bar. It was sweet and tasty but for breakfast, I knew I would probably be hungry again really soon. I would buy that flavor, it does taste a lot like pecan pie.




the time between work ending and lunch (10:30-12) I was very hungry but looking forward to what the bf had brought for lunch. energy-wise i was no more tired than i usually am when i open the coffee shop. the biggest problem was that I didn't get to have my morning coffee, which makes me really grumpy and generally not too fun to work with. I had some green tea though, which is semi-allowed, I think, so that was a dissatisfying amount of caffeine, but what are you going to do? No head aches or anything so far.


midday
for lunch my bf brought some salmon patties from trader joe's, which were great and very easy to cook. we also had pears and avocado, and I was totally full after the meal. It was pretty simple, just pepper to season the patties. The only thing I thought of after lunch was that i was sleepy, but that's pretty normal for me, I almost always drift off at some point in post-lunch classes. This time though, I did not. Maybe it was just that the class was entertaining, but I am going to assume it was because of my delicious and healthy lunch. 


My workout went really well, which is surprising cause I thought that it wouldn't be all that good, as I thought I was tired. But, I was able to work out for 40 mins, and usually I work out for 30. good stuff so far for the paleo diet.


evening
for dinner we had some grilled vegetables and salmon. I really can't think of anything more cave-man like than cooking with fire, and fire is delicious at cooking things, so it was a good dinner. Onions, eggplant, and carrots were all lightly seasoned with garlic and pepper, no salt (sad), and we quite good. The salmon was also good without any seasoning, really. 
After dinner, I feel kinda tired, but its been a long day, so that's not that weird.


day one, paleo diet still on, and doing good.

The Paleo Diet Challenge

Usually, I am a vegetarian.


However, I am also a college student, which means that there is really often sake-bombing to go to, fish taco nights, and other fish eating events which cannot be avoided, which leads to my flexi-vegan ness which usually means that I don't buy any dairy, fish, eggs, meat, for myself. I'll just eat it when other people serve it to me, or we are at a restaurant and the most vegetarian thing is cheese pizza. I don't eat chicken or beef ever. In any way. Usually I cook for my boyfriend and myself, and though he does love meat, I think that I do a pretty good job with what I have. 


However, there has been an eating challenge posted to me, by said boyfriend, to do the paleo diet. 


What is the paleo-diet? Its where you don't eat anything good, comforting, or my favorite, Yogurtland. That means no tapas baguettes, no frozen yogurt, did I also tell you, NO BREAD??? That means no sandwiches. Especially grilled cheese sandwiches, a staple of college student life. It also means NO BEER. Did I mention I am a college student? Half of my daily dietary calories come from beer. I love beer. Its great. It comes in so many flavors, so many varieties, oh just talking about it makes me feel great. Therefore, the paleo-diet sucks. However, there is the slight chance that somehow, it will make us taking the challenge feel great. So great, that it will overcome the terrible side effects (drinking wine at the local college bar on pint-night, no more late night fro-yo, no sandwiches, no pizza, the list really does go on...) 


So for the next month, starting Wednesday (dinner party tues prevents paleo-ness) three of us (me, boyfriend, boyfriend's friend) will embark on paleo diet challenge. 


These next few days, I will enjoy my bread, salt, beer, and everything else post-paleo that I can think of. (PB&J? That too? So sad...)