Paleo Food Adventures!

So I've been doing the Paleo thing for just under 3 weeks now. I think it's going pretty well, I am DEFINITELY sleeping better than I used to. That, I think, has been the biggest difference so far. Some days I am waking up feeling almost rested, which hasn't really happened since I was a kid.

I didn't check my body fat or anything right before starting, but a few weeks before, it was regularly around the high 25 and low 26 range, when sitting at about the same weight as I am now. This morning, on a whim, I weighed myself with my profile, and it was low 24. Now, this could just be a fluke, because bathroom scales are notorious for giving not so accurate measurements, but it has been pretty consistent in its accuracy or lack there of, so I'm going to go with this being an actual drop. A small one, but I'll take it.

Ideally I want to get to around 20%. My non-athlete friends will be all "that's way to low to be healthy for a girl". My guy friends will be all "20%, you fatty" and hopefully a few, educated, friends will appreciate that 20% is a pretty good spot to be as an athlete and a women.

I think, in the last 3 weeks, I have cooked and baked more than I have in the last 3 years combined. My kitchen has never seen so much use, other than to put a frozen pizza in the oven hahah. So many dishes!





My staples for lunches have been vegetables cooked in a pan with some olive oil and random spices, and either chicken or steak. I cook up a whack on Sunday afternoons and put it in my lemon grass take out containers and into the freezer. This system is working out pretty well, an hour or two in the kitchen and I've got 6 or 7 lunches/dinners ready for the week.

Breakfasts have tended to be eggs of some sort, scrambled, fried, or in a quiche. I made a spinach quiche on sunday, cut it up and put it in the freezer for the week. It freezes, thaws surprisingly well. I've also been drinking coffee with coconut oil pretty much every morning. I know, that sounds gross, and the flavoured coffees probably aren't the strictest paleo, but whatever. It gives me a tonne of quick access energy and I like it. You can read more about this at the bullet proof coffee website. Since I'm also not eating dairy, I skip the butter, but I know lots of people who love it that way to.

Sweet potatoes are my new favourite thing. They are so delish. I don't know why I didn't eat them all the time before. Jon made a batch of roasted sweet potatoes the first week I started this diet and I was hooked, just chopped up, with some olive oil, rosemary, shallots and garlic. Stick them in the oven for an hour or so and bingo, amazing.



He also made this casserole thing, which was delish, but the texture got a bit ... stewish after being frozen and microwaved.









Everyone says they could never do paleo because they love bread and carbs to much. I'm not a big bread eater, but I do love sweets, and cakes and ice cream. There are a LOT of really good paleo alternatives. Like the cup cakes I made for my birthday on Wednesday. They were really good, and full of nutrients and not processed junk. I also just made a chocolate zucchini loaf, which is also very tasty, it sounds weird, but it's super moist and has a great texture. But, I think, the greatest thing I have discovered since starting this is new lifestyle is Paleo Chocolate Frosting shots. OH MY GOODNESS. The most amazing thing in the world.


Last weekend was the provincials, I wasn't fighting, so I wasn't too concerned about what I would eat. I brought along a couple clementines, some dark chocolate, and some almonds and walnuts. I didn't even think that there could be kids will allergies there when I was packing my lunch, so I didn't open the bags of nuts, which left me with very little food for the day. They gave us some coupons for Tim Hortons, and Subway, but nothing there was really edible for me, so I didn't use mine. Now, 4 weeks ago, eating as little as I did would have destroyed me, I'd be getting light headed, insanely grumpy and would have had a killer headache. I'll be honest, I got a bit tired, and wasn't feeling amazing by the end of the day, but I didn't have nearly as bad a time as I would have eating the old way.

Tomorrow is Grapplers Quest, I'm fighting in 2 absolute divisions and refereeing the rest of the day. I am going to have to pack a bit smarter this time. I'm going to bring my zucchini loaf/muffins, the trail mix I have for snacks all the time (yes, it has nuts, but unless the facility says it's nut free, I'm going to eat them. It was probably silly of me to not eat them last weekend). I'm also going to bring a bunch of berries, apples, and coconut water. That should be able to fuel me for the day. It's going to be strange not getting a giant bowl of pasta the night before a tournament, but hopefully my body has had enough time to adjust to eating like this that it will perform well on this alternate fuel.

I'll let you guys know how it goes.

I've gotten a bunch of recipes and ideas from PaleOMG. Juli has some great ideas, and is hilarious so I've been spending a lot of time reading on her site. A lot of her recipes use dark chocolate chips, which I'm trying to avoid (they have added plain sugar, at least the ones I've found). But that is where I got the cupcake recipe and some other ones I've saved for Christmas!