So yesterday morning while my husband and I were getting ready for work, our 8 year old daughter was in the kitchen making her lunch. Now this act always makes me proud, something she would do last year some mornings.... but since it's been summer she hasn't really been the one packing her lunch for day time care... but yesterday she knocked my socks off and put a big ole smile on my face when she announced to us she had packed her lunch. She had carrots, grapes, an apple muffin, a lunch meat roll up and some mandarin oranges all packed up and ready to go. It was really the first time I felt like she is owning our food choices....
She's been on a modified food plan for about a year now, gluten free, dairy free, etc so she's probably eating pretty close to paleo for a longer time than we have. Except since school ended last year we'd been letting her try gluten and peanut butter again... so she did have some re-adjustment to go through.
Everything I read in preparation for making these changes said to get everything that wasn't paleo approved out of the house, that way your children can make their own selections because every choice they have is an approved one. Yesterday was an awesome example of exactly that. She owned her new lifestyle and probably never even realized it, but it still made momma proud.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Hunting and Gathering
I went grocery shopping a week ago Saturday night and I just had to giggle as I looked down into my basket. I should have taken a picture or something. There was nothing but produce bags in my basket. I loaded up on so much whole, healthy, organic fruits and veggies. I think my trip was about 90% organic, only because there we a couple of things they didn't have in organic variety... I'm realizing that the higher cost is off set by the health of myself and my family. My items included things like kale, bell peppers, zucchini, carrots, celery, apples, peaches, plums, bananas. There was such a beautiful rainbow of colors coming from my basket.
During my weight loss journey over the last year and a half, I tend to have a million comparison pictures the comparison shot that kept coming to mind was one of me before... before I woke up and realized what I was doing to my health, my body, my family before. I would buy processed boxed and freezer foods. I would go for convenience items over whole natural items. Compare that basket of old to this one of new... I felt very good about the money I spent this weekend making those whole healthy choices.
Instead of spending my weekend in bed, napping my life away... I washed and prepped veggies. I soaked walnuts, pecans, cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds and then dried those nuts. I plan to make my own trail mix with the nut varieties and some raisins and dried dates.
We invested in a food dehydrator that weekend so we would be able to make our own apple chips, banana chips, zucchini chips, even beef jerky. Since we are now so much more aware of what goes in to our food supply, we have determined that it is just a better choice to make these things ourselves than trying to buy them at the store.
I hope to someday learn more about canning and maybe make some home-made pickles and salsa.
We also picked up a juicer that my mom had but wasn't using. Last monday I started my day with a kale, spinach, celery, carrot and apple juice... my husband had a celery, carrot and apple juice.... and I was able to make home made apple juice for my 8 year old daughter. It was pretty funny when she said "That doesn't look like REAL apple juice" I realize what a blessing it is to teach her NOW what real food really does look like, since what we purchase the stores now days, doesn't resemble REAL food very much.
I have to say that I am finally, fully embracing a healthy lifestyle. Not only am I living a healthy lifestyle but my whole family is and we all benefit from that.
During my weight loss journey over the last year and a half, I tend to have a million comparison pictures the comparison shot that kept coming to mind was one of me before... before I woke up and realized what I was doing to my health, my body, my family before. I would buy processed boxed and freezer foods. I would go for convenience items over whole natural items. Compare that basket of old to this one of new... I felt very good about the money I spent this weekend making those whole healthy choices.
Instead of spending my weekend in bed, napping my life away... I washed and prepped veggies. I soaked walnuts, pecans, cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds and then dried those nuts. I plan to make my own trail mix with the nut varieties and some raisins and dried dates.
We invested in a food dehydrator that weekend so we would be able to make our own apple chips, banana chips, zucchini chips, even beef jerky. Since we are now so much more aware of what goes in to our food supply, we have determined that it is just a better choice to make these things ourselves than trying to buy them at the store.
I hope to someday learn more about canning and maybe make some home-made pickles and salsa.
We also picked up a juicer that my mom had but wasn't using. Last monday I started my day with a kale, spinach, celery, carrot and apple juice... my husband had a celery, carrot and apple juice.... and I was able to make home made apple juice for my 8 year old daughter. It was pretty funny when she said "That doesn't look like REAL apple juice" I realize what a blessing it is to teach her NOW what real food really does look like, since what we purchase the stores now days, doesn't resemble REAL food very much.
I have to say that I am finally, fully embracing a healthy lifestyle. Not only am I living a healthy lifestyle but my whole family is and we all benefit from that.
Awesome beginning to week 3
Yesterday our little one was sick so I stayed home with her. She woke up throwing up and as she was resting on the couch I kept going through the items of the B.R.A.T diet… Banana’s we had, so after a few hours I let her try a banana. When that stayed down, Rice, Toast, nope… not in our household. Applesauce, hummm… My husband had the great idea “why not try to make some” So away I went to the kitchen with an organic apple and food processor. I cut up the apple and removed the seeds and most of the core. Dropped those into the food processor, scraped down the sides, food processed some more. Hummm. It looked like chopped up apple, not quite apple sauce. Then I remembered we had some organic Apple juice in the fridge that we had purchased for our daughter prior to getting our juicer. So I added a little apple juice to the mixture and what do you know… it actually looked like apple sauce. I dished it out into a bowl and delivered it to my ailing wee-one. She gave it thumbs up, since she was deep in some cartoon at the time. (It was the only way to keep her down all day long, fill her with kid’s movies and cartoons) I was feeling super-momish as I served it up to her and she actually liked it. Pretty cool when you’re able to feed your kid a whole food item that you know exactly where it came from.
Since I was home from work yesterday I had a little more dinner prep time. I knew I was making Pork Chops but I really had no idea how I was going to make them. I have a tendency to overcook pork, leaving it tough, dry and not very tasty. I got out my Everday Paleo book and jumped to the section with Pork in it. Hooray! There was a pork chop recipe. I didn’t have all the ingredients listed but I had most of them so I figured I’d wing it with what I had. You start buy cooking apple in coconut oil until tender (Your also suppose to cook shallots but I don’t honestly know what that is exactly and I didn’t have any) Once the apples are tender but not quite cooked all the way you remove them from the pan, add another tablespoon of coconut oil to the pan. You take your pork chop and rub cinnamon into both sides of the pork chop along with some sea salt. Once that’s done you sear each side of the pork chop for 2 minutes. Once that’s done you’re suppose to add ¼ cup of white wine to the pan, but if I had wine in the house I’d drink it… haha. I knew I had some red wine vinegar so I thought well… might as well give that a shot. In case it gave it to much of a vinegar taste I used a little less than ¼ cup. You add that to the pan and then put the apples back in, cover and cook 8-9 minutes (maybe longer depending on how thick your chops are).
I decided I was going to make sweet potato fries with the coconut oil left over after cooking the pork chops so I moved the pork chops to a cookie sheet and put them into the oven to stay warm while I made the rest of the meal. I cut up a sweet potato into little fries and dusted them with cinnamon and sea salt since the pork chops had the cinnamon and apples I thought it would help tie the meal together. I fried up the sweet potatoes and served the pork chops and sweat potatoes with a lovely little green salad, spinach leaves, and pickles.
Well earlier in the day I had considered making this fruit cobbler I’d seen in my Everyday Paleo book, I had mentioned it to our daughter as something we might try and do later in the afternoon, but then dinner came upon us and I just got busy and forgot about it. Well my wonderful husband said we could still make it so I ran to the store to pick up some more honey (We were out) They started cutting strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, combining almond meal, coconut oil, cinnamon, etc. I arrive home and drizzle honey over the fruit and then we all crumble the almond meal mixture over the fruit and put it in the oven for a while. When it was done we served our daughters with some coconut milk ice cream and ours with some So delicious coconut creamer. It was warm and delicious, a little like warm cereal, a little like granola, a little like cobbler. We thought about adding walnuts to it, other kinds of fruit, seems like the possibilities are endless and it was a super yummy comfort food type treat for us.
Tonight we had an awesome combination of left overs. This weekend I had made some really delicious meat balls using grass fed beef, pork sausage, grated carrots and grated orange bell peppers. We also had 3 small left over pork chops which I reheated in the oven with some fresh cut pineapple to keep it from drying out. We decided to make a salad using green leaf lettuce, spinach, strawberries, mandarin oranges and walnuts. So it was a very refreshing, almost tropical meal. Oh so yummy and a super use of left overs. YAY!
Our Second Week of Paleo Eating
So a few days back I gave the Everyday Paleo book to our daughter and asked her to mark some pages of dishes she would like to try. My husband did the same. We’ve been working our way through everyone’s selections.
We made one of my husband’s picks “Rockin Moroccan chicken” last week. It was a combination of broccoli, carrots, olives, raisins, chicken, spices. It was the most interesting, colorful beautiful blend of flavors. We all tried it and enjoyed it. I honestly never would have thought to mix and combine the ingredients but it really was good.
We also tried one of my daughter’s choices for Shrimp tacos. She loves shrimp and we decided for these first attempts at the recipes we would try them as written. We are all trying to venture out and try new veggies. This one had onion, bell pepper, garlic, shrimp, salsa verde and chili powder. You serve the cooked mixture in lettuce leaves with radish and lime juice. Needless to say I had to really convince our daughter to try her choice, if we left out all the things we wouldn’t normally eat we would have had garlic chili shrimp tacos, which would be rather plain. Once I got her to try it without looking to see what she was biting into at the time she liked it. The whole family enjoyed this blend of flavors and finished off the whole meal since we weren’t sure how it would re-warm for left overs.
Another pick of our daughters was Apple muffins. This was our first paleo baking attempt. I was pretty excited about it since I had soaked and dried a lot of almonds earlier in the week, I was excited to try making my own almond meal. She and I worked to grind up almonds and she sifted them through a sifter until we had enough almond flour to make apple muffins.
http://everydaypaleo.com/2010/07/07/server-problem-solved-and-paleo-apple-muffins/ She had to go to bed about the time these went into the oven, but her daddy and I tried them hot out of the oven and were pretty pleased. She had one for breakfast the next morning and loved them too.
I think I might make them with the apple grated next time. I’m not sure about the apple chunks but the flavor of the muffin is really good. I also thought this would be a good basis for a carrot cake type muffin, banana nut muffin, zucchini bread type muffin. Seems like the possibilities are endless here and I look forward to trying others in the future. We are still making our way through the 18 muffins this mixture made. They are definitely great grab and go, packable snacks. These will probably be our friends come school time.
Another exciting creation for me was the almond that was left over after making almond flour, it was a little course and wasn’t able to be sifted so I took all that was left and put in back in the food processor. I turned it on high and watched as it went around and around. I worried my poor little walmart food processor was going to burn up before the almond meal was made, now I was really worried about it, but figured might as well give it a shot. To my surprise it actually started to look like Almond butter. I had some olive oil so I added a little bit of that and some sea salt to the mixture and blended it more until it was a nice smooth consistency.
I have been in the habit of saving our old jars to re-use and I just happened to have one from a previous almond butter purchase. I was so excited about my creation that I relabeled it to Dawn’s Home made Raw Almond Butter. My husband tried it and likes it. My daughter tried it and loves it. She has decided that I should make it and then she and her daddy can sell it. She is sure we would be rich from my home-made almond butter.
I just feel like a wonder woman when I get to make these things myself, making the almond flour and making the almond butter. I mean what can be better than giving your family whole natural foods that YOU made? I have no doubt about what is in them, no weird ingredients I cannot pronounce. No need to go google search a word to find out if its some form of MSG and going to make me sick. I know without a doubt what I’m putting in my mouth and the mouth of my family. I feel like the best mom ever when I can hand my daughter a snack and know that it is truly healthy for her.
I am so excited by these changes. I know that it takes more time, it takes more planning. I know that there are times I just want to grab some quick and easy no brainer, junk. But when we make these amazing creations, I am just so proud of what our family is doing together to better our lives!
We made one of my husband’s picks “Rockin Moroccan chicken” last week. It was a combination of broccoli, carrots, olives, raisins, chicken, spices. It was the most interesting, colorful beautiful blend of flavors. We all tried it and enjoyed it. I honestly never would have thought to mix and combine the ingredients but it really was good.
We also tried one of my daughter’s choices for Shrimp tacos. She loves shrimp and we decided for these first attempts at the recipes we would try them as written. We are all trying to venture out and try new veggies. This one had onion, bell pepper, garlic, shrimp, salsa verde and chili powder. You serve the cooked mixture in lettuce leaves with radish and lime juice. Needless to say I had to really convince our daughter to try her choice, if we left out all the things we wouldn’t normally eat we would have had garlic chili shrimp tacos, which would be rather plain. Once I got her to try it without looking to see what she was biting into at the time she liked it. The whole family enjoyed this blend of flavors and finished off the whole meal since we weren’t sure how it would re-warm for left overs.
Another pick of our daughters was Apple muffins. This was our first paleo baking attempt. I was pretty excited about it since I had soaked and dried a lot of almonds earlier in the week, I was excited to try making my own almond meal. She and I worked to grind up almonds and she sifted them through a sifter until we had enough almond flour to make apple muffins.
http://everydaypaleo.com/2010/07/07/server-problem-solved-and-paleo-apple-muffins/ She had to go to bed about the time these went into the oven, but her daddy and I tried them hot out of the oven and were pretty pleased. She had one for breakfast the next morning and loved them too.
I think I might make them with the apple grated next time. I’m not sure about the apple chunks but the flavor of the muffin is really good. I also thought this would be a good basis for a carrot cake type muffin, banana nut muffin, zucchini bread type muffin. Seems like the possibilities are endless here and I look forward to trying others in the future. We are still making our way through the 18 muffins this mixture made. They are definitely great grab and go, packable snacks. These will probably be our friends come school time.
Another exciting creation for me was the almond that was left over after making almond flour, it was a little course and wasn’t able to be sifted so I took all that was left and put in back in the food processor. I turned it on high and watched as it went around and around. I worried my poor little walmart food processor was going to burn up before the almond meal was made, now I was really worried about it, but figured might as well give it a shot. To my surprise it actually started to look like Almond butter. I had some olive oil so I added a little bit of that and some sea salt to the mixture and blended it more until it was a nice smooth consistency.
I have been in the habit of saving our old jars to re-use and I just happened to have one from a previous almond butter purchase. I was so excited about my creation that I relabeled it to Dawn’s Home made Raw Almond Butter. My husband tried it and likes it. My daughter tried it and loves it. She has decided that I should make it and then she and her daddy can sell it. She is sure we would be rich from my home-made almond butter.
I just feel like a wonder woman when I get to make these things myself, making the almond flour and making the almond butter. I mean what can be better than giving your family whole natural foods that YOU made? I have no doubt about what is in them, no weird ingredients I cannot pronounce. No need to go google search a word to find out if its some form of MSG and going to make me sick. I know without a doubt what I’m putting in my mouth and the mouth of my family. I feel like the best mom ever when I can hand my daughter a snack and know that it is truly healthy for her.
I am so excited by these changes. I know that it takes more time, it takes more planning. I know that there are times I just want to grab some quick and easy no brainer, junk. But when we make these amazing creations, I am just so proud of what our family is doing together to better our lives!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Social pressures
So there is a very real part of this process that I think everyone needs to prepare themselves for... I thought I was ready but last night proved I was not. Last night was a wonderful celebration for our family, we went to dinner with pride in our hearts and happiness on our faces. We invited the whole extended family (9 of us) and headed off to Outback steakhouse. I had consulted my dear sweet friend and the online menu (who knew they had a gluten free menu?? too cool) and felt prepared as I stepped into the restaurant. I knew I was going to be very specific about my order, I knew some of the other people at the table might comment, but I was armed, I was ready, I was determined to have a dining out experience without blowing day 3 of our 30 day challenge.
Now our daughter hasn't really had any problem with this lifestyle change (that I knew of), we send her with a lunch kit FULL of options so that she can never claim that she's going without. Our usual lunch this week has been lunch meat wraps, we found alot of nitrate free, uncured, etc type options and have enjoyed the portable options of layering them up with some lettuce in the middle... we have enjoyed them so much that come day 3 we were out of several of our meat options (See previous post about still trying to learn how much to buy... 1/4 lbs is not enough for 3 people.. lol) so yesterday I had to make her a salad, she loves spinach leaves so I put some in a tupperware with some of the boars head natural smoked turkey crumbled on top, I was afraid that wouldn't be enough so we also had some Carving board rotisserie chicken so I crumbled some of that in too (even though this isn't something we would buy again, too many additives) ... So she was set and we were off... Never heard anything else about it. Apparently she didn't like it and filled their ears full of complaints.
Her favorite thing at outback is their garlic mashed taters. Since I'm still new to this lifestyle and so far everything I've read says no white taters (conflicting info on sweet taters, still eating this occasionally) I told her no she couldn't have the garlic mashed taters, besides I'm sure they put milk in them too. She love broccoli and I told her she could have that which of course lead to a head down on the table, pout fit. Since we were there to celebrate and I wasn't going to have her pout up the evening, I took her out front and had a talk with her. It was one of those mom moments which you have to exercise patience... by the end of it I had her repeating "It's silly to cry over mashed potatoes!" We had recovered and headed back to dinner with the family. Now something must have happened while we were outside, I still haven't really heard the whole story yet, but the bottom line is that feeding our daughter whole, healthy foods, apparently means to outsiders that we are starving her, she is suffering, it's not fair, etc.
We stopped by the grocery store to buy a few more items and I stayed up in the kitchen until 10pm making dozens of wraps, some more muffin meat loaves, pre-cooking some chicken tenderloins, washing and ziplocking grapes, cutting up pineapple (our daughters favorite fruit), etc. I was determined that no one was ever going to think she was doing without again! As I stood at the sink washing dishes from the evenings events... I began to cry, the voice of doubt crept into my head, I felt like it was my fault that my family was dealing with social pressures, I had researched this lifestyle, if it wasn't for me then they could go on eating things that seemed somewhat normal, we ate pretty healthy before. I had an over the top thought of sending her with twinkies and ding dongs... I mean apparently crap food is normal food so why not just let her have her fill, there were lot so really negative thoughts running around in my head. And this is why I want to share this part of the process... so that others can be more prepared for what pressures they might feel.
Fortunately I have faith, so I prayed. I know that I am doing the right thing for my family. I know that I did not pressure them into this lifestyle. I know that we will all be happier and healthier because of these lifestyle changes. I know that we can get through this.
Now our daughter hasn't really had any problem with this lifestyle change (that I knew of), we send her with a lunch kit FULL of options so that she can never claim that she's going without. Our usual lunch this week has been lunch meat wraps, we found alot of nitrate free, uncured, etc type options and have enjoyed the portable options of layering them up with some lettuce in the middle... we have enjoyed them so much that come day 3 we were out of several of our meat options (See previous post about still trying to learn how much to buy... 1/4 lbs is not enough for 3 people.. lol) so yesterday I had to make her a salad, she loves spinach leaves so I put some in a tupperware with some of the boars head natural smoked turkey crumbled on top, I was afraid that wouldn't be enough so we also had some Carving board rotisserie chicken so I crumbled some of that in too (even though this isn't something we would buy again, too many additives) ... So she was set and we were off... Never heard anything else about it. Apparently she didn't like it and filled their ears full of complaints.
Her favorite thing at outback is their garlic mashed taters. Since I'm still new to this lifestyle and so far everything I've read says no white taters (conflicting info on sweet taters, still eating this occasionally) I told her no she couldn't have the garlic mashed taters, besides I'm sure they put milk in them too. She love broccoli and I told her she could have that which of course lead to a head down on the table, pout fit. Since we were there to celebrate and I wasn't going to have her pout up the evening, I took her out front and had a talk with her. It was one of those mom moments which you have to exercise patience... by the end of it I had her repeating "It's silly to cry over mashed potatoes!" We had recovered and headed back to dinner with the family. Now something must have happened while we were outside, I still haven't really heard the whole story yet, but the bottom line is that feeding our daughter whole, healthy foods, apparently means to outsiders that we are starving her, she is suffering, it's not fair, etc.
We stopped by the grocery store to buy a few more items and I stayed up in the kitchen until 10pm making dozens of wraps, some more muffin meat loaves, pre-cooking some chicken tenderloins, washing and ziplocking grapes, cutting up pineapple (our daughters favorite fruit), etc. I was determined that no one was ever going to think she was doing without again! As I stood at the sink washing dishes from the evenings events... I began to cry, the voice of doubt crept into my head, I felt like it was my fault that my family was dealing with social pressures, I had researched this lifestyle, if it wasn't for me then they could go on eating things that seemed somewhat normal, we ate pretty healthy before. I had an over the top thought of sending her with twinkies and ding dongs... I mean apparently crap food is normal food so why not just let her have her fill, there were lot so really negative thoughts running around in my head. And this is why I want to share this part of the process... so that others can be more prepared for what pressures they might feel.
Fortunately I have faith, so I prayed. I know that I am doing the right thing for my family. I know that I did not pressure them into this lifestyle. I know that we will all be happier and healthier because of these lifestyle changes. I know that we can get through this.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
And so... it begins
So the family and I have officially begun our 30 day primal/paleo challenge. I have been eating mostly primal/paleo for a few weeks but last Thursday we decided to go off the reservation in the name of "live it up" before we begin our plan. By the weekend we were so looking forward to the beginning of our 30 day challenge and so sick and tired of yucky food. I tried to make mental notes of all the side effects and symptoms. Headache, acne, a general fogginess of mind, not to mention the over all yuck feeling.
I tried to be a good convert and cleaned out all the cabinets, fridge and freezer. Everything is bagged up on the floor of the kitchen ready to be delivered to a friend of mine who can use all our expensive gluten free foods (that contain rice and soy which we will no longer eat). I need to haul those on out of here.
So here is our bare cabinet after I trashed or donated everything from inside. (By the way! It is amazing to see how many canned goods you owe which are actually expired. lol) Reminds me of Old Mother Hubbard ... that poor dog wouldn't get a bone out of our cabinet either. HA!
So the family and head headed off to the grocery store in search of lots of goodies to fill our cabinet, fridge and freezer with. We are trying to buy as much organic as possible, trying to get uncured meats and grass-fed beef, etc. We are still in the balancing stages of determining which things we really should not compromise on and which things we can work with. Between the expense and availability of some items, we are still tweaking what to get, where and when.
Here is a picture of a few of the goodies from our hunting and gathering expedition. I spent the evening washing, bagging and prepping what food items I could. We didn't go shopping until late sunday afternoon/evening so I didn't get to pre-cook meals like I had hoped, but we were in this together so I knew we could make it work.
We are also still in the process of determining how much food 3 people will eat throughout the course of a week. We don't want to over buy and have fruits/veggies go bad before we're able to eat them but we are also finding that it's only Wednesday and we already need to restock most everything! HA! Guess it will be a process that we will figure out as we go. Right now I'm thinking... More is more! (instead of less is more).
So we also decided to break down and get a Sam's club membership. I'd heard that they had good deals on nuts, olive oil frozen organic veggies and even meat sometimes. We spent yesterday afternoon roaming about the store and did get some almonds, a big ole jug of extra virgin olive oil, some avocados, some larabars, some liters of water and I think that might be it. I discovered that our now empty pantry might just be a good place to store veggies that don't have to be refrigerated... as long as I don't forget they are in there and let them go to waste. So here's what the cabinet looks like now.
I've got some green beans which I saved from the initial cleaning out of the cabinets. We might try them after our 30 days is up since I hear they can be controversial and we are doing our best to stay true to our 30 day commitment.
I've attempted a few things that I've seen or read about... I think I got a little overly ambitious our very first night, we got home a little later than planned but I already had my menu in mind so instead of realizing that it was late and my family was hungry, I just jumped right in and got to cookin. So I saw this recipe posted by CaveMomma http://cavemomma.com/2011/07/31/sarah-jane-fried-chicken/ and thought oh that sounds pretty good and simple enough. So I put some coconut oil in the pan and got to work on my chicken, walnuts and egg. Unfortunately about half way through the process I think I realized the family was hungry and I believe I might have been rushing things along cooking over to high a flame since some of the goodness got a bit burnt.
I honestly felt like our first paleo dinner was a complete and total failure, but then again I have huge expectations for myself almost all the time. The family ate, no one hit a drive thru and now that is has been a couple of days I realize that in and of itself means we had a successful first day.
Last night we had a much more successful experiment, I took our longhorn grass-fed beef and made meatloaf in the muffin tin. I was trying to figure out what to use instead of crackers. I knew I could use egg and seasoning, I've had meat loaf without tomato sauce so I wasn't worried about that. We had some carrots so I thought I'd make 1/2 the batch with shredded carrots and the other 1/2 just meat, eggs and seasoning. To my surprise, both were very good and the whole family seemed to enjoy the carrot ones so we have claimed those as a WIN!
I actually ended up making another batch tonight for easy grab and go lunches or in a hurry dinners. YAY! I felt redeemed!
Our daughter was trying to help me come up with a side item since all we really had was lettuce and spinach and we just had that the night before. We knew we also had apples so she sat down with our Everyday Paleo book http://everydaypaleo.com/ and started looking up every recipe that had apple. She came across a lovely little apple flower type thing that we decided would make a beautiful dessert. So here is her creation thanks to the recipe in the book. The recipe called for almond butter, blueberries and a raspberry, we had cashew butter, blackberries and a strawberry... it came out super yummy! We all enjoyed it very much! My favorite part was getting our daughter involved, we've been in such a hurry that I haven't had as much time as I would like to include her in the making of meals, hopefully we can spend more time on the weekends doing that soon.
That gets you started on where we are so far this week. I definitely have alot more to say and need to blog a few things off my chest about tonight's meal, but alas it is almost 11pm and with our 6am wake-up I don't want to cut my sleep time short since I have read and know how important that is too. So I will say... more to come :)
I tried to be a good convert and cleaned out all the cabinets, fridge and freezer. Everything is bagged up on the floor of the kitchen ready to be delivered to a friend of mine who can use all our expensive gluten free foods (that contain rice and soy which we will no longer eat). I need to haul those on out of here.
So here is our bare cabinet after I trashed or donated everything from inside. (By the way! It is amazing to see how many canned goods you owe which are actually expired. lol) Reminds me of Old Mother Hubbard ... that poor dog wouldn't get a bone out of our cabinet either. HA!
So the family and head headed off to the grocery store in search of lots of goodies to fill our cabinet, fridge and freezer with. We are trying to buy as much organic as possible, trying to get uncured meats and grass-fed beef, etc. We are still in the balancing stages of determining which things we really should not compromise on and which things we can work with. Between the expense and availability of some items, we are still tweaking what to get, where and when.
Here is a picture of a few of the goodies from our hunting and gathering expedition. I spent the evening washing, bagging and prepping what food items I could. We didn't go shopping until late sunday afternoon/evening so I didn't get to pre-cook meals like I had hoped, but we were in this together so I knew we could make it work.
We are also still in the process of determining how much food 3 people will eat throughout the course of a week. We don't want to over buy and have fruits/veggies go bad before we're able to eat them but we are also finding that it's only Wednesday and we already need to restock most everything! HA! Guess it will be a process that we will figure out as we go. Right now I'm thinking... More is more! (instead of less is more).
So we also decided to break down and get a Sam's club membership. I'd heard that they had good deals on nuts, olive oil frozen organic veggies and even meat sometimes. We spent yesterday afternoon roaming about the store and did get some almonds, a big ole jug of extra virgin olive oil, some avocados, some larabars, some liters of water and I think that might be it. I discovered that our now empty pantry might just be a good place to store veggies that don't have to be refrigerated... as long as I don't forget they are in there and let them go to waste. So here's what the cabinet looks like now.
I've got some green beans which I saved from the initial cleaning out of the cabinets. We might try them after our 30 days is up since I hear they can be controversial and we are doing our best to stay true to our 30 day commitment.
I've attempted a few things that I've seen or read about... I think I got a little overly ambitious our very first night, we got home a little later than planned but I already had my menu in mind so instead of realizing that it was late and my family was hungry, I just jumped right in and got to cookin. So I saw this recipe posted by CaveMomma http://cavemomma.com/2011/07/31/sarah-jane-fried-chicken/ and thought oh that sounds pretty good and simple enough. So I put some coconut oil in the pan and got to work on my chicken, walnuts and egg. Unfortunately about half way through the process I think I realized the family was hungry and I believe I might have been rushing things along cooking over to high a flame since some of the goodness got a bit burnt.
I honestly felt like our first paleo dinner was a complete and total failure, but then again I have huge expectations for myself almost all the time. The family ate, no one hit a drive thru and now that is has been a couple of days I realize that in and of itself means we had a successful first day.
Last night we had a much more successful experiment, I took our longhorn grass-fed beef and made meatloaf in the muffin tin. I was trying to figure out what to use instead of crackers. I knew I could use egg and seasoning, I've had meat loaf without tomato sauce so I wasn't worried about that. We had some carrots so I thought I'd make 1/2 the batch with shredded carrots and the other 1/2 just meat, eggs and seasoning. To my surprise, both were very good and the whole family seemed to enjoy the carrot ones so we have claimed those as a WIN!
I actually ended up making another batch tonight for easy grab and go lunches or in a hurry dinners. YAY! I felt redeemed!
Our daughter was trying to help me come up with a side item since all we really had was lettuce and spinach and we just had that the night before. We knew we also had apples so she sat down with our Everyday Paleo book http://everydaypaleo.com/ and started looking up every recipe that had apple. She came across a lovely little apple flower type thing that we decided would make a beautiful dessert. So here is her creation thanks to the recipe in the book. The recipe called for almond butter, blueberries and a raspberry, we had cashew butter, blackberries and a strawberry... it came out super yummy! We all enjoyed it very much! My favorite part was getting our daughter involved, we've been in such a hurry that I haven't had as much time as I would like to include her in the making of meals, hopefully we can spend more time on the weekends doing that soon.
That gets you started on where we are so far this week. I definitely have alot more to say and need to blog a few things off my chest about tonight's meal, but alas it is almost 11pm and with our 6am wake-up I don't want to cut my sleep time short since I have read and know how important that is too. So I will say... more to come :)
Friday, July 29, 2011
Cave Transformation
So tonight I undertook "Cave" transformation... or shall I say creating caves. I went out to the store to buy some black out curtains for our room and our daughters room. I had done some online searches and saw that Walmart, Target and Anna's Linens carried them. Since we have a Walmart here in town I thought I'd check there first. Needless to say I was super pleased to find black curtains which will match the one set that already does a great job of "blacking-out" in our room and even found the exact number of panels in "Eclipse Kids" in a lovely purple color for our daughters room. I thought I was going to have to get two sets for her room a plain white black out set and some pretty pink or purple set so she wouldn't necessarily catch on to my blacking out her room plans. I came home and proceeded to begin installing said black-out curtains (forgot to mention the curtain rods I also purchased)
It was super tempting to just screw the mounts into the wall, I always hate drilling the holes putting the little plastic do-hickey's in, then screwing in the mounts, but I wanted to do it right since I imaged the blackout curtains were probably pretty weighty and we had two panels per rod since our windows are something like 77 inches across in each bedroom. I did it the long, strenuous, "Right" way all by myself. At one point I was getting super frustrated and somewhat tired from the manual screwing (stupid brackets didn't really allow enough room for the power tool to get in there and do the job) then I just sort of channeled my inner momma bear and grunted and got it done. It sure felt good to go into each room, turn off the lights and take inventory of any other sources of light.
We had given our daughter an alarm clock several months back, not because she needs it to wake up with, but instead because sometimes she wakes up entirely too early!! (especially on the weekends) It is really amazing how bright everything else becomes when your room is pitch black. So I unplugged her clock and took it out of her room completely and she also had a little CD player/radio that had a red display light which quickly lit up the whole room... unplugged that too. She's been at her mom's for the last couple of weeks for summer vacation... so my plan was to have her blackout curtains up when she returned, in hopes that maybe she won't so much notice the pitch black darkness of her room, but more just the normal adjustment period of getting use to your room again when you've been sleeping elsewhere for a couple of weeks. One thing that I really noticed when I tested out the darkness... she's got glow in the dark stars and paint all over her ceiling and BOY HOWDY!! Those stars glow BRIGHT when you first turn off the lights. Hopefully that will give her enough light to feel comfortable and fall asleep.
I can't wait to test out our room tonight. I mean I am a professional sleeper as it is... I am out like a light about 2 minutes (or less) of my head hitting the pillow, but I do get up several times a night to go potty. I read somewhere that often times it's not really that we need to get up so much as something else wakes us and then we get up. I noticed that our neighbors security light goes off right outside our window probably hundreds of times a night, it picks up when a car drives down the street so its on again, off again constantly. I am hoping that the addition of these black out curtains will eliminate any sleep disturbance created by that security light. My hubby is a much lighter sleeper, so I am also hopeful that the blackout curtains will bring him a full, peaceful, deep, restful nights sleep.
Cave no. 1 and Cave no. 2 are ready and waiting. The next step in our primal/paleo lifestyle is complete. :)
It was super tempting to just screw the mounts into the wall, I always hate drilling the holes putting the little plastic do-hickey's in, then screwing in the mounts, but I wanted to do it right since I imaged the blackout curtains were probably pretty weighty and we had two panels per rod since our windows are something like 77 inches across in each bedroom. I did it the long, strenuous, "Right" way all by myself. At one point I was getting super frustrated and somewhat tired from the manual screwing (stupid brackets didn't really allow enough room for the power tool to get in there and do the job) then I just sort of channeled my inner momma bear and grunted and got it done. It sure felt good to go into each room, turn off the lights and take inventory of any other sources of light.
We had given our daughter an alarm clock several months back, not because she needs it to wake up with, but instead because sometimes she wakes up entirely too early!! (especially on the weekends) It is really amazing how bright everything else becomes when your room is pitch black. So I unplugged her clock and took it out of her room completely and she also had a little CD player/radio that had a red display light which quickly lit up the whole room... unplugged that too. She's been at her mom's for the last couple of weeks for summer vacation... so my plan was to have her blackout curtains up when she returned, in hopes that maybe she won't so much notice the pitch black darkness of her room, but more just the normal adjustment period of getting use to your room again when you've been sleeping elsewhere for a couple of weeks. One thing that I really noticed when I tested out the darkness... she's got glow in the dark stars and paint all over her ceiling and BOY HOWDY!! Those stars glow BRIGHT when you first turn off the lights. Hopefully that will give her enough light to feel comfortable and fall asleep.
I can't wait to test out our room tonight. I mean I am a professional sleeper as it is... I am out like a light about 2 minutes (or less) of my head hitting the pillow, but I do get up several times a night to go potty. I read somewhere that often times it's not really that we need to get up so much as something else wakes us and then we get up. I noticed that our neighbors security light goes off right outside our window probably hundreds of times a night, it picks up when a car drives down the street so its on again, off again constantly. I am hoping that the addition of these black out curtains will eliminate any sleep disturbance created by that security light. My hubby is a much lighter sleeper, so I am also hopeful that the blackout curtains will bring him a full, peaceful, deep, restful nights sleep.
Cave no. 1 and Cave no. 2 are ready and waiting. The next step in our primal/paleo lifestyle is complete. :)
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Portable Primal Breakfast
So I've been searching the internet and brainstorming for portable paleo/primal breakfasts. My husband needs to be able to nuke and run and once school starts the wee-one needs a warm and go meal too. I have been getting up and frying myself a couple of eggs each morning, it doesn't take long and gives me a nice protein enhanced boost to my day, but they probably don't think running eggs in the morning is a good thing. So I saw this wonderful idea out in cyberspace world where someone took muffin tins, put a tomato in the bottom, bacon around the sides and an egg in each one. Well we are tomato people so I thought, why not try the same thing but with sausage in the bottom instead.
So I cut the Jimmy Dean All-Natural Sausage my husband normally eats on an english muffin and put the patties into the bottom of a muffin tin. I put those into the oven at about 350 degrees for a while. Once the sausage started to cook, I pulled them back out of the oven and tried to line the edges with bacon. We have a really old muffin tin that isn't very deep, so I ended up taking the sausage patties out of the tin and putting the bacon around the edges of the tin and then slipped the sausage back into the bottom of the tin, inside the bacon wrapped edges. I put these back into the oven for a while.
I then cracked three eggs into a measuring cup (for easy pouring) and put some coconut milk in with the eggs. Hubby likes his eggs fluffy if he's going to eat them so I wanted to make them good in hopes he would enjoy my creation. I added some salt and some pepper and stirred up the egg mixture. I pulled the bacon and sausage out of the oven, at this point they were mostly cooked. I then carefully poured the "scrambled" eggs into the muffin tin.
While the eggs, bacon and sausage were cooking in the oven, I hopped into the shower and dressed for work. When I came back I moved them up to the top rack and broiled them just for a few minutes to get them a nice yummy golden brown on the tops.
Aren't they super duper yummy looking.
To make them easy grab and go I put each one in a small Tupperware container so that each morning we could just grab one out and microwave it. I think I might also try cupcake holders so that we could just store them all in ziplock bags, grab one out, microwave it on a paper towel and head out the door. Less room in the fridge and less dishes to wash.
So I cut the Jimmy Dean All-Natural Sausage my husband normally eats on an english muffin and put the patties into the bottom of a muffin tin. I put those into the oven at about 350 degrees for a while. Once the sausage started to cook, I pulled them back out of the oven and tried to line the edges with bacon. We have a really old muffin tin that isn't very deep, so I ended up taking the sausage patties out of the tin and putting the bacon around the edges of the tin and then slipped the sausage back into the bottom of the tin, inside the bacon wrapped edges. I put these back into the oven for a while.
I then cracked three eggs into a measuring cup (for easy pouring) and put some coconut milk in with the eggs. Hubby likes his eggs fluffy if he's going to eat them so I wanted to make them good in hopes he would enjoy my creation. I added some salt and some pepper and stirred up the egg mixture. I pulled the bacon and sausage out of the oven, at this point they were mostly cooked. I then carefully poured the "scrambled" eggs into the muffin tin.
While the eggs, bacon and sausage were cooking in the oven, I hopped into the shower and dressed for work. When I came back I moved them up to the top rack and broiled them just for a few minutes to get them a nice yummy golden brown on the tops.
Aren't they super duper yummy looking.
To make them easy grab and go I put each one in a small Tupperware container so that each morning we could just grab one out and microwave it. I think I might also try cupcake holders so that we could just store them all in ziplock bags, grab one out, microwave it on a paper towel and head out the door. Less room in the fridge and less dishes to wash.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Pitty Pat... Paleo
I'm guessing most folks probably don't consider their footwear as part of their lifestyle change... I however have considered mine as part of the changes I'm making. As I was reading Mark Sisson's "Primal Blueprint" alot of what he was saying about training and being active barefooted made alot of sense to me. If this whole process is getting back in touch with the way we were designed to function, then I could totally see his point about how training barefooted allows and requires your muscles to work together in different ways than they do when you have the support and stance provided by wearing shoes of different sorts.
I've been running 5K's since August 2010 and in that time I have seen runners in their "five fingers" I always thought they were the strangest thing until I started understanding why. I shared some of my findings with my husband and he actually did alot more research about the Vibram five fingers. I was given some cash for my birthday and wanted something tangible to purchase as a "gift" else I would probably by guys and groceries with my "birthday money" so we went to REI and I purchased a pair of Vibram five fingers. These little babies are apparently increasing in popularity and are fairly hard to find in sizes. I lucked out and got mine first try, but we did a bit more shopping about to find some for my husband.
We are both proudly "Five Finger Freaks" now... (my term) It is amazing how much we have already noticed about how our feet prefer the "bare-footed-ness" of their design. We often comment about how unnatural and/or uncomfortable our feet are now in work shoes and other shoes.
I have not yet worked my way up to running in my five fingers, which is the reason I bought them. They say you really have to work your way up to your normal distance so I've just been wearing them as often as possible and doing Zumba in them. They say you should run 10% of your normal distance for the first two weeks then increase by 10% every two weeks there after. I'm hoping to run in them at my next big 5K event in September so I better start running in them soon. I hear alot of folks say they actually run faster in their five fingers. It will be interesting to see how they perform for running. I very much enjoy them thus far.
If you'd like to learn more, check out their FAQ at http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/faq/barefoot_running_faq.htm
I've been running 5K's since August 2010 and in that time I have seen runners in their "five fingers" I always thought they were the strangest thing until I started understanding why. I shared some of my findings with my husband and he actually did alot more research about the Vibram five fingers. I was given some cash for my birthday and wanted something tangible to purchase as a "gift" else I would probably by guys and groceries with my "birthday money" so we went to REI and I purchased a pair of Vibram five fingers. These little babies are apparently increasing in popularity and are fairly hard to find in sizes. I lucked out and got mine first try, but we did a bit more shopping about to find some for my husband.
We are both proudly "Five Finger Freaks" now... (my term) It is amazing how much we have already noticed about how our feet prefer the "bare-footed-ness" of their design. We often comment about how unnatural and/or uncomfortable our feet are now in work shoes and other shoes.
I have not yet worked my way up to running in my five fingers, which is the reason I bought them. They say you really have to work your way up to your normal distance so I've just been wearing them as often as possible and doing Zumba in them. They say you should run 10% of your normal distance for the first two weeks then increase by 10% every two weeks there after. I'm hoping to run in them at my next big 5K event in September so I better start running in them soon. I hear alot of folks say they actually run faster in their five fingers. It will be interesting to see how they perform for running. I very much enjoy them thus far.
If you'd like to learn more, check out their FAQ at http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/faq/barefoot_running_faq.htm
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Soaking my nuts...
Got your attention? hahaha
Yes indeed! I have started soaking my nuts!
So if you've read some previous entries you know the spark that finally lit my fire was terrible abdominal pain caused by gut damage and MSG exposures. So here I've been trying to eat clean, no more peanuts or peanut products, no more grains or soy, really trying to eat clean and start incorporating alot of primal/paleo eating ideals into my day to day life. Well I would notice I was still getting some abdominal discomfort after eating almonds. I bought raw almonds and still, bit of discomfort. I went back and read some emails from my friend and dear advisor and sure enough one of her old "gut damage" healing protocol emails suggested not eating nuts unless they had been soaked 4 to 6 hours. I did some reading and discovered that folks "soak their nuts" before eating them. I thought well what in the world is that for? I had a million questions, could you soak them ahead of time? did you have to soak them just before eating them? did they get mushy and soft? what was all this nut soaking about.
Then I came across this site http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/07/soaking-nuts.html and learned that you soak your nuts to weaken the enzyme inhibitors built into the nut which can cause digestive issues for those like me with gut damage. Apparently soaking the nuts can also help release beneficial enzymes. I figured what the heck, it's worth a shot.
So I purchased a package of raw almonds and put them in a mason jar filled with warm sea salt water (note here... don't use a mason jar... when the almonds swell the tapered top makes it a pain in the bootay to get the nuts out) I left the almonds to soak overnight, then emptied the jar into a strainer (with the help of a butter knife..lol) and rinsed the almonds, removing any lose skins that came off during the soaking process.
I then spread the almonds on a cookie sheet and placed them into the oven to dry. The lowest setting on my oven is 170 so just slightly above the recommended 150 degrees. We just might have to invest in a dehydrator.
I don't like to leave the oven on when we're sleeping or not home since we have a gas oven, so I dried the almonds in the oven until bedtime last night, then again this morning when we woke up, then after we returned from the farmer's market, on through the afternoon.
I ended up taking the almonds out of oven around mid-day because I was planning to roast a chicken to use for more bone broth so I decided to package the almonds in ziplock bags. It was about this time I got the great idea to get creative. I decided to put a little bit of olive oil in each bag with different seasonings and invited my husband to get in on the creative fun. We came up with Southwest Chipotle Seasoning (Mrs. Dash), Dill weed, Cinnamon, Chili Powder and one batch of plain. We put the seasoning into the bags and then massaged the seasoning and oil around all the almonds. Once the oven had cooled from the chicken roasting, I created little dividers in the foil and returned the almonds to the oven for a couple more hours.
Once they were done drying and cooling I put them back into the zip lock bags and put those labeled zip locks into the freezer (since its my first time soaking and drying nuts I want to be sure that they don't have the chance to mold if I missed any moisture) I am very excited about the different flavor possibilities and look forward to getting creative with our daughter and seeing what sort of flavor combinations she comes up with too.
Plus it's alot of fun to say "I'm soaking my nuts" :) Enjoy
Yes indeed! I have started soaking my nuts!
So if you've read some previous entries you know the spark that finally lit my fire was terrible abdominal pain caused by gut damage and MSG exposures. So here I've been trying to eat clean, no more peanuts or peanut products, no more grains or soy, really trying to eat clean and start incorporating alot of primal/paleo eating ideals into my day to day life. Well I would notice I was still getting some abdominal discomfort after eating almonds. I bought raw almonds and still, bit of discomfort. I went back and read some emails from my friend and dear advisor and sure enough one of her old "gut damage" healing protocol emails suggested not eating nuts unless they had been soaked 4 to 6 hours. I did some reading and discovered that folks "soak their nuts" before eating them. I thought well what in the world is that for? I had a million questions, could you soak them ahead of time? did you have to soak them just before eating them? did they get mushy and soft? what was all this nut soaking about.
Then I came across this site http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/07/soaking-nuts.html and learned that you soak your nuts to weaken the enzyme inhibitors built into the nut which can cause digestive issues for those like me with gut damage. Apparently soaking the nuts can also help release beneficial enzymes. I figured what the heck, it's worth a shot.
So I purchased a package of raw almonds and put them in a mason jar filled with warm sea salt water (note here... don't use a mason jar... when the almonds swell the tapered top makes it a pain in the bootay to get the nuts out) I left the almonds to soak overnight, then emptied the jar into a strainer (with the help of a butter knife..lol) and rinsed the almonds, removing any lose skins that came off during the soaking process.
I then spread the almonds on a cookie sheet and placed them into the oven to dry. The lowest setting on my oven is 170 so just slightly above the recommended 150 degrees. We just might have to invest in a dehydrator.
I don't like to leave the oven on when we're sleeping or not home since we have a gas oven, so I dried the almonds in the oven until bedtime last night, then again this morning when we woke up, then after we returned from the farmer's market, on through the afternoon.
I ended up taking the almonds out of oven around mid-day because I was planning to roast a chicken to use for more bone broth so I decided to package the almonds in ziplock bags. It was about this time I got the great idea to get creative. I decided to put a little bit of olive oil in each bag with different seasonings and invited my husband to get in on the creative fun. We came up with Southwest Chipotle Seasoning (Mrs. Dash), Dill weed, Cinnamon, Chili Powder and one batch of plain. We put the seasoning into the bags and then massaged the seasoning and oil around all the almonds. Once the oven had cooled from the chicken roasting, I created little dividers in the foil and returned the almonds to the oven for a couple more hours.
Once they were done drying and cooling I put them back into the zip lock bags and put those labeled zip locks into the freezer (since its my first time soaking and drying nuts I want to be sure that they don't have the chance to mold if I missed any moisture) I am very excited about the different flavor possibilities and look forward to getting creative with our daughter and seeing what sort of flavor combinations she comes up with too.
Plus it's alot of fun to say "I'm soaking my nuts" :) Enjoy
Snacks
So snacks are probably going to be a big part of our primal/paleo lifestyle. We are all pretty use to eating 6 small meals a day and while I know primal/paleo eating says to eat when you're hungry.. I have a feeling that we will continue to be healthy snackers. So I'm always keeping an eye out of snack ideas/options. Here are a few that we've tried so far. (Some of these end up being meals - ie: smoothies)
SMOOTHIES
Last weekend I had some spinach that I really needed to find a way to use. I purchased it with the intention of using it in salads, but with my abdominal discomfort I was trying not to eat raw veggies last week. My friend told me that blending them up should break down alot of the cell walls and prevent stomach pains from having them so I thought I'd make some fruit smoothies.
I secretly hoped my family might be feeling a little adventurous and try it too, but alas they voted for the more traditional fruit only version. haha
We blended banana, strawberry, spinach, vanilla coconut milk and ice to make some yummy fruitie smoothies. They were very tasty and filling. Our daughter couldn't even finish hers but did give it rave reviews (sans spinach).
Later in the week I also made a "Green Meanie" using the last banana, unsweetened kefir (not paleo but part of my gut healing plan) and spinach. It was a light green color and tasted sort of like banana and yogurt. It was pretty good and super filling.
Friday I made a blackberry and kefir smoothie which was very good except all the little blackberry seeds settled to the bottom and kept coming up my straw. Blackberries may not be the best smoothie fruit. Might have to stick to eating those whole. haha!
KALE CHIPS
So I finally found Kale at the store week before last and last weekend finally got to try making Kale chips for the first time. I found a video recipe on Mark's Daily Apple so I went about making Kale chips. You take Kale, wash it really well, dry it well, then tear it into bite size (chip size) pieces. You then coat it with a tbsp of olive oil, sea salt and whatever flavoring you like. So I made that batch and it end up being SUPER salty. Guess I got carried away with the Sea Salt, but the taste and texture wasn't bad so I thought I'd make up another batch this weekend.
Step 1: Break the kale off the bunch and wash the leaves well. Make sure you really wash the kale well. If you are buying organic there are lots of little nooks and crannies. If you are buying non-organic there is alot of room for pesticides etc on the leaves. Scrub a dub those leaves as best you can. I usually lay a couple of dish towels out on the counter and put the leaves face down on the towel to dry. I will come back with another towel and pat them dry if I'm in a hurry, otherwise you could just leave them laying out for a while to air dry.
Step 2: Once your Kale is washed and dried, you can begin pulling the leaves off the stems of the Kale plant. They say to just tear it in chip size pieces with your hands. I made two separate bowls out of my bushel of Kale so that I could try experimenting with a couple of different flavors.
Once you've gotten all the leafy parts off the plant you can add 1-2 tbsp olive oil to the bowl and massage it into the kale with your hands. I used less sea salt this time since last time I over salted. One batch I added lemon pepper seasoning to and the other batch I added chipotle seasoning (note: WAY to much chipoltle seasoning this time.. eekk)
Step 3: Lay the leaves of Kale out on a cookie sheet (I like to cover mine with foil for easy clean up). You want the leaves to be laid out on the sheet so that each one can dry out. I found it best if they aren't touching (I got lazy and put a bunch on one cookie sheet which just meant that it took forever for them to dry)
Step 4: Put into a low temp oven to dry. The video recipe said 200 degrees for something like 12 minutes. I think she has a tiny oven because mine did better in a little bit higher temp over. The low temp oven works fine, it just takes alot longer. Check them after a while and short of shift them around, if the edges are still soft they need to dry longer. They will be stiff and crispy when they are ready to come out.
Step 5: Leave them to cool for a while on the cookie sheet. Then you can enjoy them as a snack or I have found that you can keep them in a zip lock bag (left open) for a couple of days. They won't be as crispy as they are straight off the cookie sheet but it works well if you need some snack options throughout the week with no pre-time.
NUTS
The other night I thought I'd try soaking some cashews for a few hours and then drying them in the oven. Well I think they mean to soak your raw nuts because when I soaked my roasted cashews, they got really soft. So I put them in the oven to dry them for a few hours. They never really did crisp up, either because they were already roasted or because I didn't leave them in the oven to dry long enough. I wanted to snack on them. Toward the end of the drying time in the oven I sprinkled some chipotle seasoning on the cashews. That was pretty tasty.
(aside: I occasionally have a square of 88% dark chocolate which I don't think is paleo but I read about it often on other blogs and sites so I've been incorporating it sparingly)
So when the nuts came out of the oven, I didn't want to wait for them to cool down or anything, I put them on to a paper-towel and decided to just throw a square of chocolate on top. Chocolate and nuts, sounded like a pretty good treat to me. Well by the time I carried my snack into the other room, the chocolate was an ewie gooey wonderful mess! haha! There was nothing civilized about it, but it was tasty. There was to much to eat in one sitting so I got the idea that maybe I would take the rest of it and put it into the freezer, creating this yummy nutty chocolate treat. So I put the leftovers in a plastic tupperware and put it in the fridge. The next night I did indeed enjoy a very tasty cold chocolaty nutty salty/sweet treat. YUM!
More nuts... (I'm nuts for nuts) see next blog
SMOOTHIES
Last weekend I had some spinach that I really needed to find a way to use. I purchased it with the intention of using it in salads, but with my abdominal discomfort I was trying not to eat raw veggies last week. My friend told me that blending them up should break down alot of the cell walls and prevent stomach pains from having them so I thought I'd make some fruit smoothies.
I secretly hoped my family might be feeling a little adventurous and try it too, but alas they voted for the more traditional fruit only version. haha
We blended banana, strawberry, spinach, vanilla coconut milk and ice to make some yummy fruitie smoothies. They were very tasty and filling. Our daughter couldn't even finish hers but did give it rave reviews (sans spinach).
Later in the week I also made a "Green Meanie" using the last banana, unsweetened kefir (not paleo but part of my gut healing plan) and spinach. It was a light green color and tasted sort of like banana and yogurt. It was pretty good and super filling.
Friday I made a blackberry and kefir smoothie which was very good except all the little blackberry seeds settled to the bottom and kept coming up my straw. Blackberries may not be the best smoothie fruit. Might have to stick to eating those whole. haha!
KALE CHIPS
So I finally found Kale at the store week before last and last weekend finally got to try making Kale chips for the first time. I found a video recipe on Mark's Daily Apple so I went about making Kale chips. You take Kale, wash it really well, dry it well, then tear it into bite size (chip size) pieces. You then coat it with a tbsp of olive oil, sea salt and whatever flavoring you like. So I made that batch and it end up being SUPER salty. Guess I got carried away with the Sea Salt, but the taste and texture wasn't bad so I thought I'd make up another batch this weekend.
Step 1: Break the kale off the bunch and wash the leaves well. Make sure you really wash the kale well. If you are buying organic there are lots of little nooks and crannies. If you are buying non-organic there is alot of room for pesticides etc on the leaves. Scrub a dub those leaves as best you can. I usually lay a couple of dish towels out on the counter and put the leaves face down on the towel to dry. I will come back with another towel and pat them dry if I'm in a hurry, otherwise you could just leave them laying out for a while to air dry.
Step 2: Once your Kale is washed and dried, you can begin pulling the leaves off the stems of the Kale plant. They say to just tear it in chip size pieces with your hands. I made two separate bowls out of my bushel of Kale so that I could try experimenting with a couple of different flavors.
Once you've gotten all the leafy parts off the plant you can add 1-2 tbsp olive oil to the bowl and massage it into the kale with your hands. I used less sea salt this time since last time I over salted. One batch I added lemon pepper seasoning to and the other batch I added chipotle seasoning (note: WAY to much chipoltle seasoning this time.. eekk)
Step 3: Lay the leaves of Kale out on a cookie sheet (I like to cover mine with foil for easy clean up). You want the leaves to be laid out on the sheet so that each one can dry out. I found it best if they aren't touching (I got lazy and put a bunch on one cookie sheet which just meant that it took forever for them to dry)
Step 4: Put into a low temp oven to dry. The video recipe said 200 degrees for something like 12 minutes. I think she has a tiny oven because mine did better in a little bit higher temp over. The low temp oven works fine, it just takes alot longer. Check them after a while and short of shift them around, if the edges are still soft they need to dry longer. They will be stiff and crispy when they are ready to come out.
Step 5: Leave them to cool for a while on the cookie sheet. Then you can enjoy them as a snack or I have found that you can keep them in a zip lock bag (left open) for a couple of days. They won't be as crispy as they are straight off the cookie sheet but it works well if you need some snack options throughout the week with no pre-time.
NUTS
The other night I thought I'd try soaking some cashews for a few hours and then drying them in the oven. Well I think they mean to soak your raw nuts because when I soaked my roasted cashews, they got really soft. So I put them in the oven to dry them for a few hours. They never really did crisp up, either because they were already roasted or because I didn't leave them in the oven to dry long enough. I wanted to snack on them. Toward the end of the drying time in the oven I sprinkled some chipotle seasoning on the cashews. That was pretty tasty.
(aside: I occasionally have a square of 88% dark chocolate which I don't think is paleo but I read about it often on other blogs and sites so I've been incorporating it sparingly)
So when the nuts came out of the oven, I didn't want to wait for them to cool down or anything, I put them on to a paper-towel and decided to just throw a square of chocolate on top. Chocolate and nuts, sounded like a pretty good treat to me. Well by the time I carried my snack into the other room, the chocolate was an ewie gooey wonderful mess! haha! There was nothing civilized about it, but it was tasty. There was to much to eat in one sitting so I got the idea that maybe I would take the rest of it and put it into the freezer, creating this yummy nutty chocolate treat. So I put the leftovers in a plastic tupperware and put it in the fridge. The next night I did indeed enjoy a very tasty cold chocolaty nutty salty/sweet treat. YUM!
More nuts... (I'm nuts for nuts) see next blog
In the Beginning
So I'd been researching and learning more about primal/paleo eating plans while following the transition plan for Medifast which adds one food item per week (ie: veggies one week, fruit another, etc) I still wasn't 100% anything since occasionally I would have off plan foods/treats, but knowing that I was transitioning off of this "all or nothing" plan allowed me to just adjust my daily intake accordingly instead of just going hog wild off the deep end and eat anything and everything in sight. One night my husband and I decided we were going to grab some Chik fil a for dinner, so I logged my food into my daily calorie tracker and decided that I would have a Chicken sandwich, I made other adjustments through the day and was at peace with my planned choice and my total calories/carbs for the day. That evening I started having horrible stomach pains, I couldn't figure out what in the world was wrong with my stomach. I was couldn't go to sleep until about midnight because my stomach was hurting and burning and then woke up again about 12:30 in pain again. I decided to go soak in the bathtub since I wasn't sleeping anyway. I started reading Robb Wolf's "The Paleo Solution" and stayed awake in pain until about 3am when I remembered I had some crystallized ginger from before I had my gall bladder removed, the only thing that seemed to help with stomach cramping back then. I ate a few chunks and finally got to sleep.
The next day I emailed my friend and said I needed to know everything I could to do heal gut damage, that I needed to start taking my stomach pains seriously because it was obvious that there was something wrong with my stomach since I was hurting after meals so frequently. She had previously told me about the wonders of "bone broth" but I had never heard of gut damage and really didn't think I had anything like that. After my all night stomach pain and chest cavity burning, etc I knew that it was definitely time to start doing what I could on my own. She sent me several links to bone broth recipes previously and that day I printed everything I could find. I really thought that all my pain must have been from the peanut oil Chik fil a uses to fry their chicken. I had only recently heard that peanuts and peanut oils can contribute to "leaky gut" which was another thing I had never heard of and obviously in denial about possibly having. She also told me that Chik Fil A was a big MSG user, I started looking up ingredients online and even called the store... sure enough... MSG! The really disturbing part is that my husband I and were on their site the day before reviewing their allergen page and thinking how awesome it was they were so up front about their allergens (because of our daughter's eating plan and sensitivities) I guess MSG isn't classified as an allergen because it wasn't until I went and read the actual ingredients that I saw the offender. Hot doggit! I had been MSG'ed again. I started getting really mad at our food industry... if these additions to our food were making me hurt so badly, what in the world was it doing deep down inside my body? Worse yet, what is it doing to our children? So this anger pushed me a little further down this road to start living primal/paleo.
That night I went to the store and made a few purchases toward my primal/paleo lifestyle. Now please forgive me since I am still in the learning stages, I am going to make mistakes and get the wrong products occasionally, but instead of putting any sort of "pressure to be perfect" on myself I'm taking this as a learning process and each new thing I learn moves me closer and closer to that primal/paleo lifestyle I hope to live someday. I knew ginger could help my stomach pains too and my friend suggested making tea from ginger root, lemon and honey. The other items are just things that I've read about and wanted to start building up my cabinet supply a few items at a time so it wouldn't be so expensive to begin all at once.
My plan was to start with some bone broth, since it takes a good 24 hours to cook down and pull the healing properties of the marrow out of the bones, I wanted to get that started sooner than later so that I could start the healing process. Since it was Thursday night I didn't want to roast my own chicken and then begin the process so I purchased a rotisserie chicken and turkey breast.
So the first step was going to be removing the meat from the bones. I was really hesitant about this process, since I tend to buy those boneless skinless cuts of chicken or breasts that are already cleaned, skinless/boneless etc. So I was getting brave here.
As I stood at the counter pulling meat from the bones (which was surprisingly easy) I actually started feeling a shift within myself. This simple act of removing chicken/turkey meat from the bones started making me feel like I was in control again. I was literally taking control of what I was putting in my body. I made two Tupperware containers, one with chicken and the other with turkey. These were going to be used throughout the week for other meals. The bones, skin, fat, etc I was reserving aside to become part of the bone broth.
Once the meat was completely removed then I filled the crockpot with 4 quarts of filtered water, 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar 1 whole bulb(?) of garlic and 1 tsp of sea salt. I then added all the bones and turned the crockpot on high. It was almost 9pm when I was finally ready to let it do it's magic.
I learned that it probably would have been better to heat the water first so it wouldn't take so long for the mixture to get to boiling but live and learn. Once it all comes to a nice boiling bubble then you turn it down to low and cook for up to 24 hours.
I wasn't really sure what to expect smell wise, I guess I figured it would smell something like it does when I cook a pork tenderloin or something in the crockpot, I thought maybe it would have a yummy garlic smell. I woke up at one point in the night and noticed this strange smell. It didn't smell like spices or chicken, I don't really know how to describe it other than just odd. I'm guessing its just the smell of the skin, fat and bones breaking down. It's not a bad smell, just not anything I was expecting.
The next morning (around 6am) I was excited to lift the cover and see what it was looking like. I guess I left quite a bit of the meat and fat on the bones. I didn't even both trying to get the meat off the wings I just through the whole thing in there. So the next morning all the meat, skin, and fat was floating on top. I gave it a little stir and left it to do its magic all day long.
We were planning to come home right about 24 hours after it all began so I was pretty excited to see what it was going to look like by the end. We ended up meeting up with my mom for a movie and got home a couple of hours later than planned but I figure that was just that much more time for the broth to do its thing.
When we got home I turned off the broth and let it cool for a couple of hours. I was really curious about how it was all going to taste.
I purchased a wire strainer and once it was cooled I strained the broth into a bowl, catching the bones, skin and meat and leaving just this lovely bone broth to be packaged and enjoyed.
The bones were really neat. They were so soft that you could squeeze them between your fingers and they would just crush. It was really pretty interesting and I'm still trying to research and see if there is anything that they would be good for... seems like they could be used for fertilizer or something. If I find anything I sure will share it.
I then used a measuring cup to put the broth into smaller Tupperware containers for easy storage in the refrigerator and freezer. I read on a site somewhere that you could put the broth into ice-cube trays for easy single servings of the broth for cooking vegetables and so I put some of the broth into an ice-cube tray. I think my husband thought that was a bit nuts but he was going along with it, I mean what did he have to lose? I was already making home-made broth, something I have never dreamed of doing.
I enjoyed a cup of the broth right then and there. It felt so good to know that I was doing something to move my life/health in the right direction.
I have enjoyed the broth almost every single day over the course of the last week. I would warm the broth and drink it straight, I would put some of the meat from the chicken and/or turkey in with the broth and have soup. One night I even took some chicken, turkey and left over pork tenderloin... warmed them up in a skillet, added some spinach and some broth and cooked it all down into this hardy meal.
I even managed to get my husband to try it one night when he wasn't feel well. It said it was alright, I guess that means it didn't suck. HA!
My next adventure with bone broth I am going to roast my own chicken before making broth out of the bones. Should be interesting. :)
The journey begins/continues...
The next day I emailed my friend and said I needed to know everything I could to do heal gut damage, that I needed to start taking my stomach pains seriously because it was obvious that there was something wrong with my stomach since I was hurting after meals so frequently. She had previously told me about the wonders of "bone broth" but I had never heard of gut damage and really didn't think I had anything like that. After my all night stomach pain and chest cavity burning, etc I knew that it was definitely time to start doing what I could on my own. She sent me several links to bone broth recipes previously and that day I printed everything I could find. I really thought that all my pain must have been from the peanut oil Chik fil a uses to fry their chicken. I had only recently heard that peanuts and peanut oils can contribute to "leaky gut" which was another thing I had never heard of and obviously in denial about possibly having. She also told me that Chik Fil A was a big MSG user, I started looking up ingredients online and even called the store... sure enough... MSG! The really disturbing part is that my husband I and were on their site the day before reviewing their allergen page and thinking how awesome it was they were so up front about their allergens (because of our daughter's eating plan and sensitivities) I guess MSG isn't classified as an allergen because it wasn't until I went and read the actual ingredients that I saw the offender. Hot doggit! I had been MSG'ed again. I started getting really mad at our food industry... if these additions to our food were making me hurt so badly, what in the world was it doing deep down inside my body? Worse yet, what is it doing to our children? So this anger pushed me a little further down this road to start living primal/paleo.
That night I went to the store and made a few purchases toward my primal/paleo lifestyle. Now please forgive me since I am still in the learning stages, I am going to make mistakes and get the wrong products occasionally, but instead of putting any sort of "pressure to be perfect" on myself I'm taking this as a learning process and each new thing I learn moves me closer and closer to that primal/paleo lifestyle I hope to live someday. I knew ginger could help my stomach pains too and my friend suggested making tea from ginger root, lemon and honey. The other items are just things that I've read about and wanted to start building up my cabinet supply a few items at a time so it wouldn't be so expensive to begin all at once.
My plan was to start with some bone broth, since it takes a good 24 hours to cook down and pull the healing properties of the marrow out of the bones, I wanted to get that started sooner than later so that I could start the healing process. Since it was Thursday night I didn't want to roast my own chicken and then begin the process so I purchased a rotisserie chicken and turkey breast.
So the first step was going to be removing the meat from the bones. I was really hesitant about this process, since I tend to buy those boneless skinless cuts of chicken or breasts that are already cleaned, skinless/boneless etc. So I was getting brave here.
As I stood at the counter pulling meat from the bones (which was surprisingly easy) I actually started feeling a shift within myself. This simple act of removing chicken/turkey meat from the bones started making me feel like I was in control again. I was literally taking control of what I was putting in my body. I made two Tupperware containers, one with chicken and the other with turkey. These were going to be used throughout the week for other meals. The bones, skin, fat, etc I was reserving aside to become part of the bone broth.
Once the meat was completely removed then I filled the crockpot with 4 quarts of filtered water, 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar 1 whole bulb(?) of garlic and 1 tsp of sea salt. I then added all the bones and turned the crockpot on high. It was almost 9pm when I was finally ready to let it do it's magic.
I learned that it probably would have been better to heat the water first so it wouldn't take so long for the mixture to get to boiling but live and learn. Once it all comes to a nice boiling bubble then you turn it down to low and cook for up to 24 hours.
I wasn't really sure what to expect smell wise, I guess I figured it would smell something like it does when I cook a pork tenderloin or something in the crockpot, I thought maybe it would have a yummy garlic smell. I woke up at one point in the night and noticed this strange smell. It didn't smell like spices or chicken, I don't really know how to describe it other than just odd. I'm guessing its just the smell of the skin, fat and bones breaking down. It's not a bad smell, just not anything I was expecting.
The next morning (around 6am) I was excited to lift the cover and see what it was looking like. I guess I left quite a bit of the meat and fat on the bones. I didn't even both trying to get the meat off the wings I just through the whole thing in there. So the next morning all the meat, skin, and fat was floating on top. I gave it a little stir and left it to do its magic all day long.
We were planning to come home right about 24 hours after it all began so I was pretty excited to see what it was going to look like by the end. We ended up meeting up with my mom for a movie and got home a couple of hours later than planned but I figure that was just that much more time for the broth to do its thing.
When we got home I turned off the broth and let it cool for a couple of hours. I was really curious about how it was all going to taste.
I purchased a wire strainer and once it was cooled I strained the broth into a bowl, catching the bones, skin and meat and leaving just this lovely bone broth to be packaged and enjoyed.
The bones were really neat. They were so soft that you could squeeze them between your fingers and they would just crush. It was really pretty interesting and I'm still trying to research and see if there is anything that they would be good for... seems like they could be used for fertilizer or something. If I find anything I sure will share it.
I then used a measuring cup to put the broth into smaller Tupperware containers for easy storage in the refrigerator and freezer. I read on a site somewhere that you could put the broth into ice-cube trays for easy single servings of the broth for cooking vegetables and so I put some of the broth into an ice-cube tray. I think my husband thought that was a bit nuts but he was going along with it, I mean what did he have to lose? I was already making home-made broth, something I have never dreamed of doing.
I enjoyed a cup of the broth right then and there. It felt so good to know that I was doing something to move my life/health in the right direction.
I have enjoyed the broth almost every single day over the course of the last week. I would warm the broth and drink it straight, I would put some of the meat from the chicken and/or turkey in with the broth and have soup. One night I even took some chicken, turkey and left over pork tenderloin... warmed them up in a skillet, added some spinach and some broth and cooked it all down into this hardy meal.
I even managed to get my husband to try it one night when he wasn't feel well. It said it was alright, I guess that means it didn't suck. HA!
My next adventure with bone broth I am going to roast my own chicken before making broth out of the bones. Should be interesting. :)
The journey begins/continues...
Friday, July 22, 2011
About Me
About me eh…
I’m a 35 year old woman who’s trying to find a healthy balance in life. Over the last year and 1/2 I have lost alot of weight. I started changing my life in January 2010, I was 247 pounds, on blood pressure medicine and under the threat of being put on cholesterol lowering medicine. I followed the Medifast plan (a meal replacement plan) for 11 months and 2 weeks until I reached my goal weight of 125 pounds in January 2011. Upon reaching my goal weight I followed the transition plan from Medifast, slowly reintroducing more whole foods back into my life.
In March 2011, I was diagnosed with gall stones and underwent a cholecystectomy. In the time building up to my surgery and for several weeks after my surgery I ate alot of foods that were in no way good for me. I gained 27 pounds post-operatively and decided to go back on the Medifast plan to lose the weight I’d put on since my health issues and surgery. What I found in the weeks that followed was that I would follow the plan, lose weight, then have a bad day and just go hog wild with bad foods. This roller coaster ride of on plan = losing weight, off plan = gaining weight, etc etc went on for a few months.
My birthday is the last week of June so I took the last two weeks of the month and seriously pigged out… in 2 weeks time I gained 19 pounds. I started to recognize that I was heading down a destructive path and possibly developing some sort of eating disorder because when I was off plan, I wasn’t just dabbling in a few off plan treats, I was binge eating. My stomach was constantly bloated and in pain from all the crap I was stuffing myself with. I was miserable, yet I was doing it anyway.
After that experience, I came to the realization that I needed to find a way to accept myself as I am and stop trying to define myself by a number on the scale. While I am fearful that one day I will wake up severely obese again, the alternative of obsessing over my weight was not healthy either. I began the transition process again. I decided that for me it was time for me to find a whole food eating plan and work on losing/toning through exercise and being active.
Making peace with the idea of transition was very freeing. Realizing that while I’m not 125 pounds, I am still wearing a size 6 pants, still running 5K’s and living an active lifestyle. I wrote out my transition plan, took current weight and measurements (along with a “here I am now” picture).
I had been talking back and forth with a good friend who follows a paleo lifestyle for health reasons. I was intrigued but I didn’t know if I could give up, grains, dairy, legumes, etc. (which is really odd seeing as I’ve lived without them for the last year and 1/2) We talked alot about the lifestyle, recipes, etc and after a while I started doing some research myself.
I have had a couple of terrible MSG reactions over the last several months. I guess after so long of not being exposed to MSG foods when I mistakenly get something I am in horrible pain for hours. I started getting really upset with our food industry for adding such terrible things to our food supply. I mean if this is the effect it has on me, what in the world is it doing to our children, etc. This started me thinking even more about whole foods and clean eating.
I wanted more information about Primal/Paleo plans and have since read The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf and am about 1/2 way through the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. I think I will next dive into the Paleo Diet by Dr. Loren Cordain.
I have been eating mostly primal/paleo over the last couple of weeks and to my surprise I haven’t been gaining weight. Previously I thought the only way I could keep from gaining was by always falling back to the Medifast plan… for the first time in over a year and 1/2 I’m completely Medifast product free.
The other day I reached for a flavor packet for my water and decided I would check some of the ingredients of this water infuser I would use several times a day before. Holy smokes, it just makes me so much more aware of the processed and chemical junk I was putting into my body. It pushes me farther and farther toward the idea of primal/paleo whole foods.
While I am still learning about the whole lifestyle and understanding exactly how to implement it into my life, I am making more and more decisions with that lifestyle in mind. To my surprise my family has jumped on board too and come August 1st we are launching the whole family on the 30 day challenge. We are going to commit to paleo eating for 30 days and evaluate what benefits we all see as a result. I am very excited about the possibilities in store for me and my family.
My husband and I have an 8 year old daughter who already eats an alternative eating plan due to some attention issues identified by her teacher last year. While most people wanted us to medicate our daughter we researched alternatives and have been able to help her focus by eliminating gluten and diary. We have found that she is most sensitive to dairy and can get away with small amounts of gluten and peanuts (both of which had been previously eliminated). Since she’s already use to eating a modified plan, we figured we might as well take the whole family down the primal road and see what benefits we might experience as a whole (bye bye grains, dairy and peanuts – legumes).
So here is where the blog title originates… In an attempt to keep the experience light and fun for all of us… we have approached it as our Caveman plan. We explained that we are going to eat like cave men did (except I’m going to be cooking my food and buying it from the store..lol) Our daughter seems pretty excited about this idea. We might even take some caveman pictures, do some caveman drawings on our fence, who knows… but we want it to stay light and fun… so Dawn of a Cave Woman is born.
I hope to document our journey into the primal/paleo lifestyle, talk about our struggles and what we learn along the way. I hope to post some pictures of what we eat, how we play, what we learn about ourselves. It should be a fun learning experience and maybe even life changing too.
I’m a 35 year old woman who’s trying to find a healthy balance in life. Over the last year and 1/2 I have lost alot of weight. I started changing my life in January 2010, I was 247 pounds, on blood pressure medicine and under the threat of being put on cholesterol lowering medicine. I followed the Medifast plan (a meal replacement plan) for 11 months and 2 weeks until I reached my goal weight of 125 pounds in January 2011. Upon reaching my goal weight I followed the transition plan from Medifast, slowly reintroducing more whole foods back into my life.
In March 2011, I was diagnosed with gall stones and underwent a cholecystectomy. In the time building up to my surgery and for several weeks after my surgery I ate alot of foods that were in no way good for me. I gained 27 pounds post-operatively and decided to go back on the Medifast plan to lose the weight I’d put on since my health issues and surgery. What I found in the weeks that followed was that I would follow the plan, lose weight, then have a bad day and just go hog wild with bad foods. This roller coaster ride of on plan = losing weight, off plan = gaining weight, etc etc went on for a few months.
My birthday is the last week of June so I took the last two weeks of the month and seriously pigged out… in 2 weeks time I gained 19 pounds. I started to recognize that I was heading down a destructive path and possibly developing some sort of eating disorder because when I was off plan, I wasn’t just dabbling in a few off plan treats, I was binge eating. My stomach was constantly bloated and in pain from all the crap I was stuffing myself with. I was miserable, yet I was doing it anyway.
After that experience, I came to the realization that I needed to find a way to accept myself as I am and stop trying to define myself by a number on the scale. While I am fearful that one day I will wake up severely obese again, the alternative of obsessing over my weight was not healthy either. I began the transition process again. I decided that for me it was time for me to find a whole food eating plan and work on losing/toning through exercise and being active.
Making peace with the idea of transition was very freeing. Realizing that while I’m not 125 pounds, I am still wearing a size 6 pants, still running 5K’s and living an active lifestyle. I wrote out my transition plan, took current weight and measurements (along with a “here I am now” picture).
I had been talking back and forth with a good friend who follows a paleo lifestyle for health reasons. I was intrigued but I didn’t know if I could give up, grains, dairy, legumes, etc. (which is really odd seeing as I’ve lived without them for the last year and 1/2) We talked alot about the lifestyle, recipes, etc and after a while I started doing some research myself.
I have had a couple of terrible MSG reactions over the last several months. I guess after so long of not being exposed to MSG foods when I mistakenly get something I am in horrible pain for hours. I started getting really upset with our food industry for adding such terrible things to our food supply. I mean if this is the effect it has on me, what in the world is it doing to our children, etc. This started me thinking even more about whole foods and clean eating.
I wanted more information about Primal/Paleo plans and have since read The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf and am about 1/2 way through the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. I think I will next dive into the Paleo Diet by Dr. Loren Cordain.
I have been eating mostly primal/paleo over the last couple of weeks and to my surprise I haven’t been gaining weight. Previously I thought the only way I could keep from gaining was by always falling back to the Medifast plan… for the first time in over a year and 1/2 I’m completely Medifast product free.
The other day I reached for a flavor packet for my water and decided I would check some of the ingredients of this water infuser I would use several times a day before. Holy smokes, it just makes me so much more aware of the processed and chemical junk I was putting into my body. It pushes me farther and farther toward the idea of primal/paleo whole foods.
While I am still learning about the whole lifestyle and understanding exactly how to implement it into my life, I am making more and more decisions with that lifestyle in mind. To my surprise my family has jumped on board too and come August 1st we are launching the whole family on the 30 day challenge. We are going to commit to paleo eating for 30 days and evaluate what benefits we all see as a result. I am very excited about the possibilities in store for me and my family.
My husband and I have an 8 year old daughter who already eats an alternative eating plan due to some attention issues identified by her teacher last year. While most people wanted us to medicate our daughter we researched alternatives and have been able to help her focus by eliminating gluten and diary. We have found that she is most sensitive to dairy and can get away with small amounts of gluten and peanuts (both of which had been previously eliminated). Since she’s already use to eating a modified plan, we figured we might as well take the whole family down the primal road and see what benefits we might experience as a whole (bye bye grains, dairy and peanuts – legumes).
So here is where the blog title originates… In an attempt to keep the experience light and fun for all of us… we have approached it as our Caveman plan. We explained that we are going to eat like cave men did (except I’m going to be cooking my food and buying it from the store..lol) Our daughter seems pretty excited about this idea. We might even take some caveman pictures, do some caveman drawings on our fence, who knows… but we want it to stay light and fun… so Dawn of a Cave Woman is born.
I hope to document our journey into the primal/paleo lifestyle, talk about our struggles and what we learn along the way. I hope to post some pictures of what we eat, how we play, what we learn about ourselves. It should be a fun learning experience and maybe even life changing too.
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