Paleo Day 3

It's the 4th morning of my paleo challenge and I'm feeling pretty good I must say. One of my favorite things about it is I don't have to worry about eating too much. I eat when I'm hungry and I eat until I'm full, and everything I'm eating taste delicious! I already knew fat slows down gastric emptying so that is definitely contributing to my fullness. Plus, I'm still getting lots of great veggies! While I love most veggies, they always taste better when you add some fat! You know it's true ;)

Another great thing is I don't have to measure anything or count calories or any of that non sense that's no fun. The only reason I'm posting amounts on here is so you can get an idea of how much I'm consuming. Nothing is really measured, I just eyeball things and say, "that looks like 3 ounces".

Breakfast Day 3:
2oz ham
1/4 cup pineapple
(left overs)

Dinner: 2/3 cup cauliflower "rice", 1/3 cup pineapple, 4oz ham, 1 tbs olive oil
(left overs from dinner)

So last night was kind of a first big "test" for me. My husband was making himself mashed potatoes and stuffing. (Potatoes are allowed just in moderation, so I'm trying to steer clear for now). Instead of mashed potatoes, I had mashed cauliflower. My husband must be a genius because they tasted exactly like mashed potatoes to me, I kid you not! And all the other food I had for dinner was freaking amazing I could have cared less about that stuffing!

butter roasted chicken (leg & thigh) w/skin, roasted green beans w/bacon
(they were really candied gb bc they got left in a little long-yum!), cauliflower puree
made to mimic mashed potatoes.

*A note on green beans. Mark Sisson says they are allowed. Not really like most other legumes, they contain no lectin, and very low in carbs.
 
Day 3 Nutrition Facts:
Fat: 63.2 grams 58%
Carbs: 34.8 grams 14%
Protein: 68.3 grams 28%

I have a list of things I want to make a part of my diet:

1. all organic produce- (from farmers market when open)
2. grass fed beef (there is a local farm right down the road)
3. free range organic chicken & eggs
4. unpasteurized whole milk (when I use cow's milk)
5. coconut milk, oil & flour

I'm also linking up with Jenn Peas & Crayons for What I Ate Wednesday. :) Lots over yummy stuff over there. Check it out!




 

My 21 Day Paleo Challange

I'm not sure where to begin, so I'll start with how I was first introduced to Paleo. Over a year ago I met, one of my now best friends, Alex @Cucumbers & Cowboy Boots while working at the heath department. When Alex first told me about this diet, I'm not going to lie, I thought the girl was off her rocker . As an RD, it's been drilled into me to push a low-fat, high carb, whole grain diet.  But after a long year researching paleo, gathering tons of info from Robb Wolf and Mark Sisson, and a few others, I started to think that maybe I was the crazy one!!!

Now I have no intention of going in to any serious detail, unless you ask of course :), about the nitty gritty biochemistry of it all; but what I am going to do is take you on my Paleo journey.

To take a quote from Mark Sissons' new book The Primal Blueprint: 21 Day Total Body Transformation: "...The decline in human health prompted by civilization occurred because we departed from what our genes were accustomed to for the previous two million years: meat, fish, eggs, plants, and constant activity. Instead, humans transitioned to brand-new agricultural foods (wheat, barley, peas, and lentils were among the first cultivated crops) and adopted a less physically strenuous lifestyle. The abrupt lifestyle change of civilization- what University of California, Los Angeles evolutionary biologist and Pulitzer Prize winner Dr. Jared Diamond refers to as "the worst mistake in the history of the human race" -dramatically altered which genes were switched on, and which were turned off.

I happen to love the science behind nutrition but I know not everyone does. I may drop in some of that fun stuff once in a while. :)

I'm already on day 3 now so this post is going to have what I ate days 1 & 2 (at the request of my always supportive mother). I didn't take pictures of everything, but I promise to do so from now on. Nutrition facts aren't exact but relatively accurate. It's a little more difficult without food labels! There will be occasional non-paleo things (there is an 80/20 rule) but I will try my hardest to stay close to 100%.

Paleo Day 1: Let the Journey Begin!

Breakfast:
1/2 ruby red grapefruit
2 cheese eggs scrambled cooked in bacon fat
2 slices low sodium bacon
7 oz sparkling white grape juice (not paleo)


Lunch: 1 cup cauliflower "rice" with tomato gravy made from beef drippings

Dinner:
6oz pan fried venison steaks (with smart balance oil-not paleo...need to buy coconut oil)
1/2 cup oven roasted asparagus (w/olive oil)
10oz red wine

Day 1 Nutrition Facts:
Fat: 73.9 grams: 51%
Carbs: 74.8 grams: 23%
Protein: 81.9 grams 25%

Paleo Day 2:

Breakfast:
2 cheese eggs scrambled (cooked in bacon fat)
1/8 cup asparagus (from dinner)
2.5oz venison (from dinner)
8oz sparkling white grape juice (I know, I know, It's gone now i promise)


Lunch/Snack: 1 small honey crisp apple & about 2/3 cup homemade almond butter (made with raw almonds and 1 tbs. smart balance oil-again need to get coconut oil)-husband said using olive oil would be too strong of a flavor??



Dinner: 1/2 cup cauliflower "rice", 1/3 cup pineapple, 4oz ham, 2 tbs olive oil,
6oz red wine. (I'm used to drinking red wine every night so I'm doing better )

Exercise: I stretched did some sit ups, push ups, and squats...trust me, not a lot.

Day 2 Nutrition Facts:
Fat: 101.9 grams 55%
Carbs: 111.7 grams 27%
Protein: 74.2 grams 18%

So far I've actually felt pretty satisfied and not much like snacking, which is great! I guess each day I'll post what I ate like this, if I did any exercise, and how I'm feeling. I'll also talk about goals I have for myself, one step at a time though.

I'M SO MOTIVATED!!! But I wish Alex was here!

Dessert For Breakfast?

I find a lot of misleading nutrition related articles on yahoo often, but sometimes they have some worth reading. This morning I read an article about cereal, specifically cereal marketed to children. Luckily, WIC has a large variety of cereals to choose from if you are on the program, all which are healthy and made of whole grains. But for the rest of America, it's open season. Unfortunately, most of the cereals marketed directly to children are packed with sugar and void of any nutritional value. The company's suck them in with fun commercials and toys and silly cartoon characters. I find it really sad that companys are brain washing our little ones and helping to set them up for a lifetime of unhealthy food choices.

The article on Yahoo, New Report Slams Kids' Cereals, discusses a new report done by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) about the sugar content in children's cereal. It lists the top 10 worst children's cereals based on sugar by weight.

At the top of the list is: Kellogg's Honey Smacks with a whopping (55.6% sugar) You may as well give your child a Twinkie for breakfast!

The report states, "more than half of the 84 brands tested contained at least 12 grams of sugar, or the equivalent of three teaspoons, per serving. That's more sugar than three Chips Ahoy! cookies"

They go on to say, "only one out of four cereals tested met the federal government's proposed guidelines for food nutritious enough to be marketed to children. These guidelines were established to combat the childhood obesity epidemic.

If you're going to eat cereal, stick with those that have a first ingredient of whole grains and no added sugar.

To check out the rest of the cereals on this list, as well as their top 10 cereals that DO meet the nutrition guidelines, click the article link at the top.

Quotes and picture taken from the referenced Yahoo article.

School Lunch in a Downward Spiral

As if school lunches weren't already looking bleak, Congress is taking it to another level.

"A new Congressional bill that looks likely to pass quickly will slow down reductions in sodium by requiring further study on long-term requirements, block whole grains by haggling over the definition, and help pizza stay on the menu by allowing two tablespoons of tomato paste on pizza to keep counting as a vegetable."

Many are outraged by these possible last minute changes, including Mission: Readiness, a group made up of hundreds of retired military Generals and Admirals who have been raising alarms about the readiness of our armed forces due to current childhood obesity. Amy Dawson Taggart, the director of Mission: Readiness, recently stated in a letter to politicians:

"We are outraged that Congress is seriously considering language that would effectively categorize pizza as a vegetable in the school lunch program. It doesn't take an advanced degree in nutrition to call this a national disgrace.”

"They are making sure that two of the biggest problems in the school lunch program, pizza and french fries, are untouched."

The above quotes and photo were taken from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Blog, "Playing Potato Pizza Politics"

How do you guys feel about school lunches? Do you think pizza and french fries should count as vegetables for our children?

WIAW: I have a new addiction

Finally jumping back on the What I Ate Wednesday bandwagon :)

Breakfast: I actually woke up early enough for the first time ever, and made it to Starbucks. And then it allll went downhill from there! I just went to get a coffee, non-fat vanilla hazelnut latte (my fav!). Then I saw this yummy muffin and of course I had to have it. The cream cheese was a little much for me, but it had pumpkin seeds in it which i absolutely love. And then it happened...I saw the naked smoothie. I've seen so many of you make these yummy smoothies at home and I have yet to take it on. So when I saw this one already made, I figured I'd give it a go. Holy crap, it's my new favorite food/drink/amazingness! I'm seriously addicted now. My favorite part about it, aside from the obvious greatness of all the fruits and veggies, is it has no added sugar and no GMOS! yay! I am now ready to attempt making my own fruit/veggie smoothie at home. (This one at Starbucks was almost $4, yikes!)

Lunch: Matt made me tuna salad, which I haven't had in what seems like a million years. I have no idea why, I actually really like tuna salad, I just never think about it. We made a delicious salad to go with it. I used this asian seasame dressing my friend Alex @ Cucumbers & Cowboy Boots left me when they, sniff sniff, moved to Virgina. Probably my new favorite dressing now. I put some honey roasted almonds I bought forever ago from publix on it too and Matt made crutons with focaccia bread. Supper yummy salad!

Dinner: OOOhhhh boy. I LOVE SUSHI!!!! There is something about this one roll I just can't get enough of. If my stomach was big enough, I would have ordered 10 more of it!! I'm not even sure I know what's in this roll, but I think it's tuna, and it's fried... and has spicy sauce, soooo, all my favorite things. I want some right now! Why are all my favorite foods so expensive! boo. And now I'm going to figure out a way to convince my husband we need sushi for dinner...again. :) Wish me luck!

The Future Of HFCS?

Taken from the Nutrition Business Journal:

On Oct. 22, a federal judge recently ruled that a deceptive marketing suit brought against the Corn Refiners Association has enough merit to move forward. The suit focuses on TV commercials comparing high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) with real sugar.

In this brief video, Connor Link, associate editor of Nutrition Business Journal, reviews the interesting twists to the case and explores what this means for the future of HFCS.

Click HERE to see the video.

Whatever, I Do What I Want!

Ohhhh man. I had a married couple come in to see me with their 6 month old. I should have known things were not going anywhere good when the clerk told me that he was being really nasty to his wife out in the lobby. When I asked if the baby was getting any water the dad said, "yeah, glucose water." uhh. In my head I'm all...are you putting glucose tablets in her water?? But instead I said, "What do you mean?" He says, "You know, sugar water." I don't even know where people get this bright idea from! And when I explained to him why NOT to do this, he had the nerve to roll his eyes at me! Then he said, "I have 5 other kids and I'm going to feed this one just like I fed them." I bet they all have a mouth full of rotten teeth too...yea, I didn't say that either...At that point I just said ok and directed everything else I had to say to the mom, who was actually interested. I told her normal stuff...introduce a sippy cup, when to introduce other foods, ext. By the way, dad never even made eye contact with me again, and sat there with his arms crossed the whole time. So, when they went back out to the lobby the clerk up front heard him say, "Everything she said is crap." WHAT! agh! Clearly he knows more than I do about how to feed children, I mean, after all, he has 6 of them and all I have is a nutrition degree and my RD...why would I know anything?

I wanted to go out there and tell him that just having children doesn't mean you know more than I do and it certainly doesn't make you a good parent, and it's blatantly obvious that your not a good husband either...didn't say that either, for obvious reasons.