Changes

I'm still working on the blog name change. Apparently none of my friends wants to leave a comment. Oh well...I guess I'll keep this fab prize to myself. I've been working crazy busy between my two jobs (my "real" job and my writing jobs) and have barely any time to do anything. So I'll get on it asap, I promise.

In the meantime, I've also been thinking about ebooks and photo quality for said ebooks and what I'm going to do about that. I mean, have you seen my photos? They totally suck.

On another note, I'm totally sick. Sore throat, headache, fever, and most recently, a runny/stuffy nose. Awesome. I had terrible carb cravings tonight (mostly pizza) that I managed to resist, but I went way over my planned caloric intake for the day with a bedtime snack of frozen blueberries and raspberries in coconut milk. mmmmm. This is what's left:

Check back soon for a new recipe.

New Blog Name

Since this blog is definitely going in the Paleo direction for the most part, I'm considering a blog title change. The URL will remain the same, but the new title should represent health and fitness, with a general Paleo/Primal (grain-free, sugar-free, legume-free, processed foods-free) tone.

I'm also debating making an recipe e-book at the end of this year. I just need to figure out how to take great photos. ;)

So, readers - I need name suggestions. I've had "Paleo Edge" submitted so far. I'm considering "Paleo Health and Fitness." Leave me some ideas in the comments. If I choose your suggested blog name, you'll get something cool.

One week on Low-Carb Paleo AND Salisbury Steak Recipe

I'm now on day 9 of low-carb paleo....except I can't count last night. I had a friend over and we made a bunch of tequila-and-club-soda-with-lime drinks. They were meant to be margaritas but I totally forgot. Anyway. As usual with alcohol consumption, I kind of strayed from the whole "eat in moderation" rule and ate about 3/4 of a batch of almond crackers with asiago and artichoke dip. Oh well.

For dinner I tried out a new Salisbury Steak recipe. The site is not a Paleo one, but the recipe is low-carb, gluten-free, and Paleo friendly. It does contain dairy, but you could use coconut milk instead of cream in the gravy.

Please excuse the picture, we ate our dinner before I thought to take photos. This is a pic of the leftovers.

It's a fantastic recipe but I did change it a bit. I've found I don't need egg in my ground beef to hold together patties, so I omitted the eggs from the original recipe, and cut the almond flour into 1/4 cup. Here's my altered recipe:

Patties:
1 lb pastured ground beef
1/4 cup ground almonds (almond flour)
1/2 tsp each: black pepper, onion powder, sea salt, prepared yellow mustard (use ground mustard if you have it)

Gravy:
2 cups beef stock
5-7 mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp black pepper
dash of salt (depends on if your beef stock has salt in it to start - mine doesn't)
dash of celery salt
2 dashes of wheat-free soy sauce (Bragg's makes some)
1 tbsp cream
1-2 tsp arrowroot flour (used as a thickener instead of flour or cornstarch)
2-3 tablespoons water (to mix with the arrowroot flour)


Directions:
Start the gravy: place the mushrooms, beef stock, and seasonings into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over med-high heat. Reduce to simmer for about 20 minutes. Taste and see if it needs more salt or pepper. Turn off the heat a few minutes before you want to thicken it. Stir in the cream. Just before serving your meal, mix the arrowroot flour into a small bowl or cup with a couple tablespoons of water and blend with a fork. Pour that into your beef stock/mushroom mixture and mix with fork. If it's not quite thick enough, repeat the process with 1/2 to 1 teaspoon or so of arrowroot flour. (Waiting to allow the gravy to cool a bit will help guarantee your arrowroot starch doesn't break down in heat and fail to set.)

Mix the meat ingredients together and form into 3 or 4 patties. Cook on a baking sheet or baking dish for 25 minutes at 350F. Broil for 2 minutes at the end. Remove to plates and ladle gravy on top.

Serve with a side of mashed/whipped cauliflower and a nice veg - I used sauteed asparagus. MMMM.

Turkey Breakfast Sausages

One thing I miss is pork - not that you could tell from my last three blog posts, right? It's not cut out of my diet due to the whole paleo thing, it's just that I don't make it much because Ben can't eat it. I can't even cook it when he's home, or he'll react to it.

My absolutely favourite pork items (besides bacon) are breakfast sausages, and cheddar smokies...neither of which I am willing to eat anymore. Bacon is even a hard sell for me these days, unless it's nitrate free. Breakfast sausages and smokies are full of disgusting fillers, nitrates, wheat, and a whole lot of other stuff I don't even want to think about. But I digress.

I miss sausage. So I found a couple recipes to make breakfast sausage out of ground turkey, and bought a package of organic ground turkey (not as good as pastured but until they start selling that in the grocery store, I'm stuck). I've always been very dubious of ground turkey, chicken, and pork. My brother makes turkey burgers all the time but the last time I used it I didn't like it, and haven't, since. So this was a total experiment.

I used the recipe from cavemanfood, with a few changes because I didn't have exactly the same spices. But they turned out really well, aside from being kind of dry and needing salt - which was totally my fault because I missed that line in the recipe. I'm not sure if you can buy anything other than "extra lean ground turkey" but if you can, choose one that's not so lean. Or maybe baking these would keep them moist. I don't know. ***edited to add: I made up a double batch and added 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil to the meat mixture before forming into patties. Made a HUGE difference in texture and moistness.

Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp of each: ground ginger, red hot pepper flakes, cumin, black pepper, nutmeg, oregano
1/4 to 1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp of poultry seasoning (or 1/4 tsp ea of basil, sage, and thyme-mine has other stuff in it too but it worked fine)
1 lightly beaten egg

Mix all items together. The original recipe suggests you refrigerate it for an hour to let the flavours meld. I didn't and they turned out great. You'll have to use some kind of oil in the pan so they don't stick. I used a 50-50 mixture of cultured butter and organic olive oil.

Now, if I can find me some pastured pigs and order some ground pork, I'll be making up thousands of these puppies and throwing them in my freezer for when Ben's not home.

In case you're interested, each 120g serving has around 130 cals, 1g carbs, 1.6g fat, and 27g protein. Wowza! Add more fat grams and calories for the type of oil in which you decide to cook them. For some perspective, I used a .65kg package and got 8 flat little patties out of it. Two of those patties is 120g. This is a fantastic high-protein, low-fat and low-carb meal option!

Pork Tenderloin with Blueberry Sauce

I've been really trying to stay away from fruit for the last week, since I'm trying to dial in my carb intake (more specifically, my fructose intake, which goes directly to liver glycogen rather than blood). This, of course, will go back to normal once I hit my goal weight/fat loss target. For now, though, I'm sticking to berries when I absolutely have to have some fruit.

So I was trying to find some inspiration for a sauce for pork when I stumbled across the Paleo Plan website and from there, the Pork Tenderloin with Blueberry Sauce recipe. I altered it a bit, cut the amounts in half, and made up a batch. I didn't add honey or any other sweetener, because I figured the blueberries would be sweet enough. I was right. All it needed was a bit of salt to be perfect. My sauce didn't come out looking quite so...saucy, but that's ok. It was still delicious. I used a very small amount of sauce on a large amount of pork for this lunch. Today is supposed to be a workout day (legs) but I'm just not feeling it right now. Maybe tonight I'll do a nice Yoga video to change things up a bit. I trust that one skipped leg workout is not going to throw me off-track.

I had precooked some pork tenderloins in my slow cooker, so all I had to do was spoon this sauce over top for the first meal. Today, I threw some sauce into a small saucepan and laid the remaining tenderloin on top, heated it through, then shredded it up with two forks. I'm telling you, I'm loving the whole shredded-meat thing. Yums. I also had 1/4 of a cucumber, 1/4 cup of fermented (with kefir) cabbage, some grape tomatoes, and some Swiss cheese. I ate a HUGE amount of the pork - over 200g. I'll not be eating now until later tonight, around 8-9pm (it's only noon now), so this meal, which is also my fast breaker, has to last me all day. My total nutritional value work up for this meal: 439 cals, 61.5g protein, 11.75g carbs, 17g fat. Not too shabby.

I must say, this whole Paleo-style eating is really expanding my horizons when it comes to trying out new things. And you know what? I don't miss grains, sugar, potatoes, or processed food one little bit.

As for weight loss, I now have less than 15 pounds to go before I hit my (max) target weight range. I'm getting pretty excited. I know it's not going to happen overnight, but it's happening. And I'll most definitely be at a bikini-ready level of fitness by the summer. Good times!

Ginger Apple Pulled Pork

For the last 5 days now (plus today), I've been eating low-carb paleo. As in, under 50g of carbs a day, and none of those are from starchy vegetables. A small amount are from fruit, but not much at all. It's part of an experiment I'm doing after I listened to a podcast by Robb Wolf. If you want to listen to some, there's a list of podcasts in my sidebar. Click on "The Paleolithic Solution w/Robb Wolf" and listen to the very first one he did. He talks about reasonable amounts of carbs and how to lose fat.

Anyway. So that's where I am right now. I've hit my ten pounds lost mark since I went Primal/Paleo at the beginning of January, but I would be much farther ahead if I'd not had a 2-week falling-off-the-wagon incident. Regardless, I am where I am and am moving forward!

So. You want the recipe for my Ginger Apple Pulled Pork, do you? Good for you. You'll love it. Feel free to adjust as you go. Mine was pretty much unsweetened, because I'm keeping that to a minimum. The original recipe from paleOMG calls for honey and garlic, which I omitted. Actually, I didn't totally omit garlic; I did use a pinch of garlic salt. It doesn't seem to affect me nearly so badly as "real" garlic. (For those reading who don't actually know me, my body can't digest garlic.)

I made enough "sauce" to cover about 9oz of pork. I had 2 pork tenderloins that I cooked in my slow cooker on the weekend. I cut off 9oz worth and threw the pork in on top of the finished sauce, heated it up, then shredded the meat with two forks. It worked perfectly. We had it with some Brussels sprouts sautéed in coconut oil. So so so awesome. <3

Ingredients:
1 apple, peeled and cored, chopped
2 T chopped onion
1 t olive oil
1/2 c chicken stock (you could use beef stock, or water if you don't have stock)
1-2 t grated fresh ginger (use dried ground ginger if you don't have fresh - 1/2  t should be enough)
1/4 t paprika
1/4 t cinnamon
1/8 t garlic salt
1/8 t onion powder
pinch black pepper
pinch sea salt

Directions
Heat the olive oil and onions in a small saucepan and cook until the onions start to caramelize. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook until the apples are soft enough to mash with a masher or fork.

Throw the meat on top and stir it around. Heat it through, then shred with a fork.

Shove it in your face.

~
You could totally multiply this recipe and cook an entire tenderloin in it in the slowcooker, then shred the meat at the very end. I would say to at least double the recipe if you're using a 1-lb tenderloin, and cook it for 8hrs at least on low. If you want a bit more sweetness, go ahead and add 1-2 T of honey or maple syrup when you're putting in all the ingredients.

Nutritional info for the entire meal, which counts 8oz of pork tenderloin and all of the sauce, even though I didn't actually eat all of the sauce:

537 cals
52g protein
25g carbs
27g fat

Please leave a comment if you make this!

No Wonder North Americans Are Fat.

Here's a quote that literally jumped off the page at me while I was reading the Wikipedia article on the Paleo diet:

More than 70% of the total daily energy consumed by all people in the United States comes from foods such as dairy products, cereals, refined sugars, refined vegetable oils and alcohol...

WHAT!?!?

Does that seem anything less than totally ridiculous to anyone other than me? I mean...ok. When I was eating crap, I ate a lot of crap. But never that much. 70 percent??? And when you figure that probably everyone who eats this way is ALSO eating far, far, far too many calories to start with, that's an enormous amount of  crap. That stuff isn't even food. This type of diet translates into obesity, heart disease, infertility, PCOS, stroke, diabetes, and cancers, and probably many other health problems. Those are just the obvious ones.

These days, I'm eating ZERO cereals, refined sugars, refined vegetable oils, and alcohol. I eat cheese (raw swiss) once in a while, and I'm not adverse to having a glass of raw milk or putting a bit of cream in my coffee. But that's really practically nothing. Not even one percent of my diet. Not even 0.10 percent!

The only sugar I'm eating now (which is extremely rare, in any case) is honey and maple syrup. And guess what? I'm not really craving it. I'm eating so low carb at the moment that I'm in ketosis as I write this. Go ahead, look it up if you want (click on the word "ketosis," I made it a hyperlink for you).

That's the point. Our bodies were MEANT to be fat burners, not sugar burners. And that's what mine is doing. It's burning the fat right off of my ass. And that's the way I like it.

Source: Wikipedia

Staying on Track

I will be the first to admit that changing your lifestyle - when you've got deeply ingrained bad habits and preferences - is difficult. Expect to have setbacks. Figure out what works best for you; some people do really well on a 80/20 primal or pale/treat or cheat foods. Some have to do 100% primal or paleo, and some fall somewhere in between.

I've tried to have cheat/treat days or even just treat meals. It doesn't work very well for me. I have found that it opens up a can of horrible cravings and failed willpower, which cycles down into eating garbage every day until I have to start all over. I've just recently experienced this. Today is my second day on track after about two weeks off the wagon. In that two weeks, I ate inordinate amounts of pizza, some ice cream, and drank beer and vodka. Although that doesn't seem like a lot compared to most people's Standard American Diet, it's not really conducive to the lifestyle I want to explore - AND it stopped my weight loss process. I actually gained a couple of pounds back from water retention (caused by grains/excess carb consumption).

So, I'm back on track. I'm seriously going to work on staying under 50g carbs on rest days and under 100g on training days. It's actually what Gemma (personal trainer) recommended, but I wasn't really being serious about it. Now I'm going to buckle down and JUST DO IT. Once I'm at my goal weight (in about 20 pounds or so), I'll obviously consider adjusting my intake and ratios, but for now, ketogenic is what's going to get me there.

Pancake Tuesday!

Just because I eat paleo/primal doesn't mean I can't have pancakes! Today is Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Tuesday and so I made a special PWO-meal. I made two versions of pancakes, one for me and my daughter, and one for my husband (who doesn't like my version). My version is made from almond butter, eggs, yogurt, vanilla, and cinnamon. I used maple syrup on top, so I didn't include the honey from the recipe. I made a half batch, which resulted in 10 2-inch pancakes.

I also enjoyed some breakfast sausages (wheat, nitrate, and sugar-free) and some frozen raspberries...and some maple syrup, as I said. Delicious! Here's a pic of what's left of my lunch (forgot about taking a pic until halfway through)...

This is a fairly high-cal meal due to the fatty sausages and the almond butter, but that's ok. It's a workout day! I'll have to make sure I get lots of protein later, since this meal was kind of low. Macros: 1090 cals, 71g fat, 70g carbs, 46g protein.

For my husband's pancakes, I used 1/4 cup almond flour, 1 tbsp coconut flour, an egg, 1 tsp vanilla, and some cinnamon. They were much more like regular pancakes. The almond butter ones are not.

Primal Macaroons

Today I made a batch of plain salted almond crackers, and figured I might as well use up some of the shredded unsweetened coconut in my cupboard. Originally I bought it to make coconut butter, but I killed the attachment on my immersion blender. :(

Not sure where I got the recipe, but here it is:
2 egg whites
1 cup coconut flakes
1/16 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract (real)
pinch salt
cinnamon (optional)

Mix egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold in maple syrup, vanilla, and salt and stir until just combined. Stir in coconut and cinnamon. Drop onto parchment lined paper in rounded teaspoons and bake at 325F for 12-15 min. Check at 12 min, do not overbake.

Mine were a little brown when I checked at 14 minutes, hence the caveat about checking at 12 minutes. They taste fine though!

Nutritional info (for 4 macaroons if you get 28 out of the batch like I did):
100 cals
8g fat
4.8g carbs
2g protein

Omelette Muffins

I'm constantly on the lookout for easy, inexpensive yet TASTY primal/paleo snacks for me and my family. Tonight I was browsing through an ebook I got from Mark's Daily Apple - called "The Primal Blueprint Reader-Created Cookbook." It's absolutely chock-full of delicious primal recipes. I wish I had a fully-stocked kitchen and freezer right now so I could make all of the dishes!

One of the recipes that caught my eye is the "Omelet Muffins" on page 11, submitted by Amy Schoenherr. I took the basic instructions (6 eggs, filling you want, bake at 350F for 18-21 min) and created what I'm sure will be a hit. I know I find them pretty darned tasty! Now hopefully I can convince my snack-picky husband to try them!

For my muffins, I stirred in 1/4 cup of chopped roasted chicken breast; about 1/4 cup of mild chunky salsa (sugar free); and some leftover sauteed red, yellow, and orange pepper rings in to a half dozen eggs. This made 8 muffins. Here's an actual recipe for people who need that kind of thing:

6 eggs beaten
1/4 cup salsa
1/4 cup chopped red/yellow/orange sweet peppers
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup chopped chicken breast
some freshly ground pepper

Mix all ingredients together and then spoon or ladle into lined muffin tins. Bake at 350F for 18-21 min or until knife inserted comes out almost clean (will continue to cook for another couple minutes, do not overcook). Cool slightly and enjoy! Eat while warm. Store leftovers in fridge. I assume you could freeze these, too.


I admit that I didn't wait quite long enough for them to cool down to the point where I could peel the lining paper off them without sticking, but they were awesome, nevertheless. I'll definitely be making these in the future. I'm envisioning Greek versions with chicken, feta, tomato, and kalamata olives chopped in; Western with bacon or ham, onion, and green pepper; and a deluxe version with bacon, mushrooms, and green pepper. MMMMMM!

I entered the info into Sparkpeople and figured out the nutritional info for you all in case you bother with that stuff. I used XL eggs so make sure you do, too.

Calories in each muffin: 100
7.9g fat
1.2g carbs
6.3g protein

How awesome is that!?!

Week 2 Day 5 of BBB

It's late Friday evening, closing in on the end of the second week of Brutal Beauty Bootcamp. I'm pretty pleased with how things are going, notwithstanding that stupid piece of junk in my bathroom that calls itself a scale. Grr!

Ok, ok. I understand that it's a bad thing (supposedly) to weigh yourself every day. I understand that sometimes you can see the scale not move (or even go up!) yet still lose inches. I get it. I really do. But. I weigh myself every day. It's just a thing I do. And it's not because I want to punish myself about what I ate yesterday, or didn't eat...it's because, well...I kind of look at this like an experiment.

For example: I've noticed a trend over the last two weeks. The day after a training day, my weight is always up. It seems that the more carbs I eat, the more my weight goes up. It's a positive correlation. My calories are on-target, my protein is nice and high, I'm eating REALLY CLEAN...there's no other reason why I could be gaining weight. So, it must be water.

Last week, when I first noticed it, that weight (plus some) disappeared by the morning of the next training day. Today, I was up a pound from three days ago (the morning of my first workout day this week, the furthest I can get from a carb re-feed).

Last night, I got curious. I can't really tell much by my waistband if I'm losing any fat from the belly. I see some change in my face and neck, but I haven't measured my neck (hmm should do that, now that I think of it). So I measured myself. I was pleasantly surprised. In total, since I last measured myself at the end of December, I've lost an inch off my waist, an inch off my thigh, 3/4 of an inch off my upper arm, and an inch off my bust measurement. Wow. Not bad for - essentially - two weeks of serious bootcamp and one week of half-assed somewhat Paleo eating and a couple workouts!

I'm pretty pleased. I think I'll keep this up!

End of Week One of BBB

It's Sunday evening, which marks the 7th day of Brutal Beauty Bootcamp. I've completed all three training workouts now - a three-day split, as per my preference. I'm feeling pretty good.

I worked back and biceps on Tuesday, legs on Thursday, and chest/shoulders/triceps on Saturday. I did not get a chance to do sprints, mostly because my legs and arse are so damned sore from Thursday's workout! The crappy snowy weather doesn't help, either. I've asked Gemma for some ideas for some in-house sprint workouts.

I've been within calories for the week - 1200 on rest days, 1500 on training days (plus or minus 200 on a couple days, it all evened out in the end, so I'm all good). I'm working at a deficit because I'm cutting. I'm not aiming to gain a lot of muscle, because you can't bulk and cut at the same time - science doesn't work like that, yo. In any case, I'm aiming to improve my protein intake in the next two weeks to keep it over 100g a day. I'm also going to try to keep my fat below 50g on training days, and carbs below 50 on rest days. The carbs restriction is part of my plan, but the limit on fat grams is my idea. If I lower my fat intake, that'll leave me more room for protein whilst staying within my macros.

So - how am I feeling about the restricted calories? I'm doing pretty well, all things considered. I get occasional cravings, mostly for sweet stuff. Or potato chips. Or bread. But really - it's all the same, right? Carbs = sugar. So I bought some red seedless grapes and froze them, I'll enjoy them on training days. Sweet and crunchy! I also made almond flour crackers, but they're wildly addictive. I might need to be careful with those! Here's a pic of one:

They were super simple to make. 1 cup almond flour, 1 egg white, and a pinch of salt. I sprinkled a bit of salt on top before I put them in the oven. I'll post the recipe later.

I actually seem to feel fuller on rest days, likely because of the higher fat and lower carbs. Did you know that carbs actually activate your hunger pangs? Ridiculous. I'm reading Robb Wolf's The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet and it's fully of cool geeky science stuff about food and the human body. It's written in a manner that non-geeks will enjoy (or you can skip those parts) as much as people like me (ok, I'm totally a geek when it comes to nutrition and stuff).

I'm losing weight, too. On Friday, I was down 3.5 pounds since my "before' weigh-in. I had actually dropped down 4 pounds but it went up half a pound Friday, probably because my legs sucked water in to repair the damage I caused them on Thursday. Yowza! It will be interesting to see if these incredible losses continue into  the second week.

I'm really enjoying the interaction and support from the other BBB participants and Gemma, the personal trainer in charge of us all. She gave me some tips and suggestions on Friday during my FB Chat check-in.

Are you wondering what a typical meal looks like on a rest day? Here's a photo of my dinner from tonight:

That yellowish/cream blob that looks like mashed potatoes is actually an equal mix of rutabaga and cauliflower with butter and pepper. I love it - it's probably my most favourite side veg! The beef patty is made from pastured beef, a splash of ketchup, and some mustard. It wasn't quite 5oz after I cooked, it, so the calories are probably counted a bit high here. Oh well. Here's a cut and paste from MyFatSecret.com for this meal (beside the items, the first number is fat grams, the second number is carbs, third numbers is protein, and last number is calories):

1 baby carrot, sliced:  0   1.32   0.33   5

¼ C broccoli              0.10  1.73  0.57  8

1 T butter   11.52  0.01  0.12  102

1/3 C cauliflower   1.41  1.72  0.76  21

5 oz ground beef    21.26  0  26.35  305

1/3 T ketchup  0.02  1.24  0.09  5

½ C sliced mushrooms 0.09  1.79  0.29  8

1/3 C rutabaga  0.09  3.76  0.55  17

Totals: 

34.61g fat   

12.72g carbs   

30.14g protein   

479 calories

I am so full, I have no need to eat anything more tonight, so I'll be a little under my cals for the day, which is fine (only by about 65, so nothing serious). I'm boiling water for a tea right now, and will drink a couple more glasses of water before bed.

So - there you have it! One full week done, 11 to go!

Stay tuned for that almond flour cracker recipe (with directions)!

Training Day #1

I must say that I was a little apprehensive today before I started my first Boot Camp workout. It was designed to be done strictly at home, using bodyweight in exercise such as pushups and chin ups, and light 10-lb weights such as with hammer curls and one legged deadlifts, which is all I have at the moment. I thought maybe it wouldn't be intense enough for me, or - conversely, that I wouldn't have the strength or energy to get through a workout due to the restricted calories and inadequate amount of protein I've been forced to adapt to due to low food budget. By the way, I totally LOVE one legged dead lifts! Who knew?

I'm very pleased to say that I kicked ass on the workout today. My strength did not appear to have suffered since a) my protein is so low; b) my cals are lower than I like; and c) I've not worked out regularly for over a month, aside from last week. In fact, I am convinced that my back is stronger than ever and that I will actually be able to do unassisted chin ups (no jinx) by the end of this 12-week course. Yay!

Additionally, the back and biceps workout designed for me is crazy. Simple, with 5 moves (plus ab exercise added by me) meant to be done in sets of three, they all piled up to make certain movements slightly uncomfortable tonight. I really pushed myself, and know that I'll probably be really feeling it in the morning. (Each of the three-day split routines have five moves plus abs - planks, bicycle crunches, or hanging leg raise.)

Tomorrow is a rest day, and I plan on working on some articles, basic house stuff, and generally not moving very much. My calories will be lower tomorrow, and my carbs lower too, so I'll have to be careful about what I put in my face. I am really looking forward to seeing the results at the end of the week, to find out if strict adherence will actually net me a loss of 2 lb this week, as I anticipate. We'll see.

Diet Analysis

Upon analysis of my diet - not diet, as popular society thinks of a diet (I mean, food and beverage intake) - I have come to realize several things.

1) I don't drink enough water, since one cannot count caffeinated beverages as water. I can fix that. As of tomorrow, I will aim to drink at least 2L of water a day, or eight 8oz glasses for you people who don't do metric. NB: I have zero intentions of reducing my coffee intake, so forget it.

2) I don't eat enough protein, but I cannot do anything about that, because I am poor. I know one of my major goals is to gain muscle, and you can't do that without protein. I am going to aim for 60g per day, even though I should be getting at LEAST 100g according to popular wisdom, but that just isn't feasible at this point in time. When I start making more money, I'll buy my protein again and start eating more meat. I promise.

3) I generally don't eat enough calories, period. My average this week (Sunday thru Thursday) is 1214 calories with Thursday's being the lowest at 995 and Wednesday's being the highest at 1407. My BMR (basal metabolic rate), which is the number of calories my body uses just to EXIST (breathe, pump my blood, digest food, etc) is (supposedly) 1512  per day. That means that, on average, I'm consuming around 300 too few calories per day just to live. Which means that, theoretically, if I stayed in bed all day and did absolutely nothing, I would lose weight. Add in all my activity (working out, walking, playing with D, cooking, etc), and that weight loss should be accelerated. And I should probably be hungry. I'm not. I will talk to my personal trainer in the AM to see if she has any suggestions. Considering that my #1 goal IS to lose fat, I'm not worried. As long as I have the energy to get through my days and my workouts, I'm ok with being on the lower end of calories.

Primal Lunch (pre workout) October 27, 2011

I'm not sure I'm a fan of quinoa. Having said that, that's what I had for lunch today - a stirfry with quinoa as a base instead of rice. Did you know that quinoa is not a grain, but a seed - and therefore allowed on a primal diet? Quinoa is very easy to make, is totally good for you, chock-full of essential amino acids - and has a slightly nutty flavour. If you decide to try it, make sure you buy organic because it can be high in nitrates if grown conventionally. You can get it at bulk stores. It even comes in fancy colours - red, black, and the regular colour.

Dinner last night (and lunch today) is organic red quinoa, ground beef from pastured cows, broccoli, zucchini, onion, and mushrooms, with a dab of HP bold. (That's the shiny brown part in the photo, I guess I should have stirred it in first LOL.) Carbs are fairly high in this, so if you're keeping your carbs low, you might want to eat this on a workout day. One serving of quinoa is 1/4 cup, and has 170 kcals, 3g of fat, 30g of carbs, and 5g of protein. Wowza, that's a lot of protein. Long-grain brown rice only has 5g of protein in a whole CUP!

I actually didn't eat the larger chunk of apple,and so didn't count it when figuring out the nutritional info on Fat Secret. There's a half-cup of cottage cheese in that measuring cup, with salt and copious amounts of black pepper. Baby dill pickle. mmmmmm salt. If you'd like to see my food and exercise log, check it out at FatSecret.

This meal broke a fast of almost 20 hours. Feel great!

Nutritional info for the meal:
401 kcals
8.18g fat
46.77g carbs
33.75g protein

18% fat, 47% carbs, 35% protein

The scales told me today I have lost another half pound. Today is Week 4 Day 3 (so almost 3 and a half weeks since I started Primal and LG). Woohoo!

By the way, my post from Tuesday is up on the FFF blog - go have a look.

Sample Primal Rest Day Lunch

I got a lot of comments on my FB status when I posted the pic of my post-workout lunch yesterday. Here is what I ate for lunch today, on my rest day:

• salmon salad in half a green pepper
• 1/4 of an english cucumber, sliced
• half an ounce of swiss cheese
• 2 baby dill pickles

That's it. Macros: 286 calories, 14g fat, 13g carbs, and 27g protein. I will probably make a smoothie to up my protein a bit, and to make sure I don't get hungry before dinner.

Sample Primal Post-Workout Meal

People have been asking me what I'm eating, since going Primal - no grains, no sugar, and no processed foods. Here is a sample meal, post-workout. 3 half slices of bacon (I baked it), 1 chicken thigh skin on, half a sweet potato fried in tallow, and 2 eggs scrambled.

Macros for anyone who cares: 480 cals, 30.9g fat, 15.9g carbs, 32.8g protein. Fat makes up around 1/2 my daily intake, and I stick to under 60g carbs a day, except for workout days, when I go up to 75g (I add in half a sweet potato and maybe half a banana).

Regular food items are cottage cheese, cheese, whole milk, chicken thighs, roasted chicken (when I can afford it); ground pastured beef; pastured stewing beef; carrots; zucchini; broccoli; "cauli mashed" which is mashed turnip and cauliflower blended together with butter, salt and pepper; frozen berries; bananas on workout days; sweet potatoes on workout days; bacon; steak; salmon; spinach; other veg.

Do I miss bread, rice, and sugar? Not a chance. Not one little bit.

Am I hungry?  Never. Well, I'm getting kinda grumbly by noon, but if I keep myself busy it's not bothersome at all. And I'm never hungry between meals. Never. That's what you get for getting lots of protein and good fats.

My average daily caloric intake is around 1200 kcals. 50-55% of that is fat, 35% (minimum 100g) protein, 15% carbs. On workout days I'm going to try to reduce my fat and increase carbs just a teensy bit in my post-workout meal and see if it brings about an increase in strength gains.

I will have a protein smoothie in a couple hours, with a whole frozen banana, 1 scoop protein powder (made from pastured raw milk, minimally processed, sweetened with stevia), maybe a raw egg, and 1 cup of whole milk. Maybe some cocoa. That will bring my protein intake for the day up to 62.6g. For dinner, I will likely have a spinach salad, a side of cauliflower mashed, and some slow-cooked beef chunks and carrots.

Oh yeah, almost forgot - total weight lost: 6.5 pounds in 3 weeks. And I'm stronger, which means that I'm adding muscle weight, which means I've lost more than 6.5 pounds of fat. 

Primal Recipe - Coconut Shrimp with Tropical Dipping Sauce

For dinner tonight, I made coconut shrimp with tropical dipping sauce. It was delicious - and very easy to make. The only thing I would change is to buy raw shrimp next time, because with the ones I used being precooked they were a LITTLE overcooked...but considering I detest looking at raw shrimp, it's probably never going to happen. hah.

Here's the (somewhat) recipe:

• shrimp - as many as you think you'll eat
• raw egg, whisked to mix yolk and whites together, in a bowl
• coconut flour in a bowl
• shredded unsweetened coconut, medium grind (you could use coarse, but I think  medium is better) in a bowl
• coconut oil in which to fry the shrimp
• frying pan

For the dipping sauce:

• Plain yogurt, with the whey drained off - use a metal sieve or a piece of paper towel. Let it sit on your counter for an hour or so. The dip should be served at room temp anyway.
• 1 can of crushed pineapple - you could use any kind, really, since you'll be blending it together.
• A little of the juice from the pineapple
• Shredded unsweetened coconut
• A pinch or two of xylitol (this is a sweetener that's actually GOOD for you - it stops dental cavities and restores the pH in your mouth so you are much healthier - and it doesn't require insulin to metabolize, so it's safe for diabetics! Get some at your local health store - just make sure it says "Non-GMO" on the label.)
• Immersion blender or food processor

Directions:
Take up a shrimp by its tail and dip it into the egg, making sure to coat it on all sides (the tail does not have to be covered). Let the excess drip off, then dredge it through the coconut flour. Dip it again into the egg, then dredge it through the coconut flakes and lay the shrimp on a plate. Continue until all of your shrimps are coated. Toss any of the remaining flour or coconut.

Put some coconut oil in the bottom of a pan. I used my stainless steel high-sided skillet. You only need about 3-4 Tbsp to do it if your pan is 8-10". Let the oil heat up until a piece of coconut dropped in sizzles. Don't get the oil TOO hot. Place the shrimps in one layer leaving some space between them into the oil. Let cook for 2-3 minutes and then flip. Make sure the coating is light golden brown. If you're using raw shrimp, follow the instructions for cooking time - but I think it's about the same. Just make sure you have enough oil in there. Once you flip the shrimp, cook them until the 2nd side is nice and golden brown, then remove to plate.

Mix all the dipping sauce ingredients together and blend with immersion blender or food processor until the pineapple pieces are fairly small, almost incorporated. Add xylitol to taste. Add pineapple juice until it is the desired texture. Serve at room temp and store any leftovers in the fridge - this would be great with some frozen blueberries! You could even partially freeze it and eat it as frozen yogurt! mmmmmmm Tastes like a pina colada!


As I said, I used pre-cooked, peeled and de-veined shrimp from Walmart - you can get 2 lbs of the stuff for around $8. I did about 35-40 shrimp, used 2-3 Tbsp of coconut flour (from Bulk Barn), and about 2 Tbsp of coconut.That served 2 adults and a 3-year old. We had a few leftovers because I was stuffed before I even ate my salad!

I served the shrimp with a baby spinach salad with red pepper, English cucumber, and a balsamic vinaigrette sauce I made using balsamic vinegar, olive oil, xylitol, salt,  pepper, and some onion powder.

The best part about this meal is how GOOD it is for us. Shrimp - 4oz worth - has over 100% of the daily recommended tryptophan (which helps restore good sleep habits), 64% daily selenium (helps protect against cancers); around 48% daily protein (!!!); 40% of the daily recommended value of vitamin D (although we eat about 5-7 times the RDA); 30% of the RDA of B12; 20% RDA of iron; about 18% of RDA of omega 3 (the good fats); plus vitamin B3, zinc, copper, and magnesium! IN JUST 122 calories. Not that I'm counting calories, of course.

The yogurt I used was fresh and made for me ever two weeks. So we also got a serving of some good bacteria to help keep our guts populated with good flora to prevent illness and to aid in maintaining healthy weights.

All around a great recipe, and one I'll definitely make again.

Edited to add: nutritional info on shrimp taken from HERE.

Day Four Primal/IF

Today is Day Four of my new lifestyle, and the scales this morning (I know I said I wouldn't weigh myself for a week, but I was curious) say I've lost two pounds in two days. Now, I'm not sure how much of that is normal fluctuation, but I hope that what I'm doing is working.

Yesterday was my long fast day. I ate dinner normally with Ben and D on Tuesday night (spaghetti and meat sauce with zucchini, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and red pepper over brown rice pasta) and had nothing but water for the rest of the night. I wasn't really hungry when I went to bed, and I wasn't hungry when I woke up. I had black coffee in the morning, and then D and Harley and I went for a walk later in the morning. I started getting a rumbly stomach at some point during our walk, but nothing unmanageable. I realized I was probably a bit dehydrated, so drank tons of water when we got home. I started getting hungry around noon, which is usually when I break my fast on regular days.

I started fantasizing about food. haha! I didn't actually make it 24 hours, because I realized that would leave me with zero time to eat, since I had a meeting to go to last night. So I ate bacon, 2 eggs, and some leftover spaghetti sauce (no pasta). I didn't even finish it all, had zero cravings for bread, and was so full! D and I had a nap shortly after that, and I wasn't hungry again for HOURS. I went to my meeting, and totally was able to walk by the treats table with cookies and banana bread, with zero cravings!!!

I made a side trip on my way home to stop at Bulk Barn and the grocery store to pick up some items for Thanksgiving Dinner on Sunday. I'm taking broccoli salad (mayo, vinegar, a little sugar - will use xylitol, broc, crispy bacon, and grated cheddar); lemon and lime coconut flour muffins; and peanut butter balls. See? You don't have to starve to death on this Primal thing..you just don't eat grains or sugar or processed crap! (ok, I'll be eating a little sugar, but that's better than a LOT.) The best part about bringing dessert is that I'll know there's stuff there I can eat. The pb balls use natural peanut butter, honey, and coconut flour for consistency. You can add chocolate chips, but D can't have it. And even the carob chips had sugar as the first ingredient, and soy was high up on the list on ALL of the chips. Ew. No thanks.

I'll be able to eat pretty much everything I want at Thanksgiving dinner, I might even have some potatoes. We'll see. I will NOT have stuffing, not that I do normally, and I hope that I can make the gravy so I can use arrowroot flour instead of flour or cornstarch (and it's awesome and easy to use)....other than that, I can have everything, in moderation of course. But I'll probably make that day my long fast day, so I can eat as much as I want without worry. I will break my fast when we get there at 1630 and will be able to enjoy appetizers and such, if there are any.

Last night before bed, I had some apple and swiss cheese with D. Now remember, the only other thing I ate all day was bacon, eggs, and spaghetti sauce. So I should have had more calories, but I wasn't really hungry. I SHOULD have had a big glass of milk with that, because I ended up hungry at 2200 when I went to bed, and ended up getting out of bed and drinking it around midnight, which was 2 hours past when I had planned to stop eating. But I figured it was better to do it then, than to be super hungry this morning and not make it to noon as intended. I'll have to figure out a way to get more calories into me on days when I'm ending a long fast. That's the trick - to make sure you get ENOUGH calories, else your body won't lose weight.

I spent a lot of my time Tuesday night and Wednesday writing out recipes that use coconut flour. I found a great website called Coconut Recipes that has hundreds of recipes that use coconut milk, coconut oil, shredded coconut, and/or coconut flour. I'm excited to say that I found recipes for pretty much everything I think I'll miss - desserts, a sweet-type bread (i assume it's like banana bread texture), muffins, pancakes, tortillas, english muffins, even! I'm going to make a tortilla today to see if they taste ok.

Speaking of coconut flour, you can buy organic coconut flour at the Bulk Barn for really cheap - it's around $3.59 or something for a pound of it. It costs upwards of $10 a pound in the U.S., so I'm relieved it's more affordable here. You can also buy coconut oil at the Bulk Barn, as well as shredded unsweetened coconut. You CANNOT buy xylitol there, for that you have to go to a health store like Quartermaster in London (although the brand they sell is made with GMO corn) or Red Thistle on Norwich Ave here in Woodstock. You can also order it online at Xylitol Canada. Make sure the one you buy says "Non-GMO" on the package.

I will be trying out a few of the coconut recipes over the next few days and weeks, and will post the recipes and reviews.

Flour. Rice. I don't have particularly overwhelming cravings for these things. I miss being able to have a bagel or sandwich, but I don't think I'll die without it. Processed junk is convenient, but we don't really eat much of that anyway. Rice crackers, I'll probably miss, since I enjoy eating them with a snack of apple and cheese, or with peanut butter. Maybe I'll see if I can make some crispy little Primal crackers. Or pick up some nori or something. mmmm nori.

I've decided I'm not going to eat rice, either - it's very high on the glycemic index, and I felt like crap Tuesday night after I had the brown rice pasta. It's just not worth it. I think I'll save my rice days for when we have sushi. Once I've lost 20 pounds or so.  18 to go!

Edited to add: I must say, since going on this Primal diet and cutting wheat and sugar (and using xylitol), my teeth feel GREAT - no tartar! And my breath doesn't stink, even first thing in the morning. How cool is THAT?