Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

Sunday, 2 December 2012

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!




Sunday, 25 November 2012

Week 2 Paleo Log

Day 14  November 25th 

slept great.
Morning weight:155.8
Breakfast: coffee w/ tbsp of coconut oil, roasted sweet potato
Lunch:2 paleo coconut brownies
Dinner:bit of steak, spinach quich

Day 13  November 24th 

slept good, but only a couple hours, (1am-6am). was at the provincials tournament reffing all day.
Morning weight:156.5
Breakfast:coconut oil coffee
Morning Snack:clementine, blackberries, 30 or so almonds, 1 square of chocolate
Dinner:la luna express order of cauliflower and tomatoes, large fatoush with chicken

Day 12  November 23th 

sleeping by 10/1030.  slept well, less trouble getting up this morning
Morning weight:156.3
Breakfast: coconut oil coffee, still nut much of an appetite
Morning Snack:Honey Crisp apple
Lunch: 1.5 turkey sausage and some roasted sweet potatoes. (probably 1/2 potato worth)
Dinner: 1 sweat potato cooked in a frying pan w/ a bit of olive oil,  but of steak.

 Day 11  November 22nd 

slept well, but couldn't get up in the morning, hit snooze till 830

Morning weight:155.5
Breakfast: 9:00am cinnamon pastry coffee w/ coconut oil (no appetite)

Lunch: a bunch of fast fry steak, and some grilled Mediterranean veggies(ate less then 1/2). lemon water, 1/2 of 1/2 a pint of raspberries
Afternoon Snack:clementine, 1 lindt square, trail mix
Dinner: banana/raspberry/coconutoil/coconutmilk shake, 1/2 pint of blackberries

Day 10  November 21st 

slept terribly, couldn't get to sleep till 2am at least. woke up several times. just not sleepy. mega sleeping in the morning though
Morning weight:155.5
Breakfast: 6:30am 2 eggs with 10 asparagus and a bit of olive oil.coconut oil coffee.

Lunch: 12:00 pm  chicken breast and grilled Mediterranean veggies, clementine
Afternoon Snack: 2 squares of lindt 85%, 1/2 pint of blackberries
started feeling quite sick mid afternoon.  took a 2 hours nap when i got home
Dinner: 7:30pm lemon grass beef coconut curry.
went to be at like 930.

 

Day 9  November 20th 

Slept terribly, had trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep, woke up groggy
Morning weight: 155.0
Breakfast: 8:45am 2 eggs and some leftover sweet potatoes, coconut oil coffee.
Lunch:   Chocolate Mint Tea in the morning, 1:30pm) skinny steak and veggies
Afternoon Snack: 1 square of lindt, 1/2 pint of raspberries, lemon water
Dinner: 8:30pm  chicken breast and leftover sweet potatoes



Day 8  - November 19th  
Slept pretty great. woke up on my own at 6:15am
Morning Weight:  155.8
Breakfast: (7:15AM) coconut oil coffee, 3 eggs scrambled with spinach, chocolate mint tea

Lunch (12:15pm ): chicken and vegetables (broccoli, carrots, water chestnuts pea pods) with montreal steak seasoning (not very good spices) 1 lindt 85% square
Afternoon Snack (1:45pm)  trail mix and another square of chocolate 
got pretty tired and week at jiu jitsu, should probably eat a proper meal before training for 2+hours

Dinner:  830pm  steak and roasted sweet potatoes (in a bit of olive oil with some spices and garlic)