My Paleo Experience, week 4

• Monday, October 3^rd…another weekend with some indulging (but not a whole lot…definitely not as much as the previous weekend) is done and over and back to the work week.  It’s just so much easier for me to be regimented when I’m at work.  So long as I’m feeling strong and confident and not vulnerable like a couple weeks ago when I had that emotional upset and then one of my higher up supervisors brought in donuts for us and I ate 2.  Oops.  I did have a couple handfuls of almonds that wasn’t on my eating schedule, but that’s okay.  All the extra fruit really does leave me feeling mostly satisfied, so I’m guessing I just needed whatever nutrients are in the different fruits which is why I was craving fruit so badly last week…mostly watermelon.  I’m definitely loading up on the watermelon this week!

• Tuesday, October 4^th…I skipped my surf & turf lunch and ate only my fruit while I was at work.  But, what I did was bring my breakfast to work with me instead of eating it at home, that way it wouldn’t be such a strain for me to make it the whole shift with eating just watermelon and pineapple (but, it was a strain and I broke down and went to Cane’s…ugh) today in favor of going out to eat at Plucker’s after work for a fundraiser they were doing for a local camp for kids with parents that have survived or are going through cancer treatment.  I wasn’t working overtime, I love Plucker’s, and I love an awesome charity.  So I went and I got the Gut Grenade burger with cheesy waffle fries and a spiked lemonade.  Yea I’m gonna regret all of this tomorrow.  Good thing I was too full for the brownie w/ice cream.  HA!

• Wednesday, October 5^th…I was right, I regret yesterday’s food choices, but only in the sense that my stomach is a hot mess today.  The food was delicious, so I don’t regret that part.  But, as a result of the queasy tummy I woke up with, I didn’t start eating until way late in the day.  And even then, I wasn’t really hungry.  I was just eating because I thought that it might make my stomach feel better if I put some food in it.  And it did.  Oh and you’re going to love this, when I worked the night shift tonight, there was a BBQ spread.  The meat part wasn’t the problem.  But there were cupcakes (I had 4…oops), macaroni (I had a 2 small portions), coleslaw (had a little of this too), and potato salad (had a taste of this) as well.  I skipped the bread, though.  Do I get points for that?  No?  Well phooey.

• Thursday, October 6^th…stuck with it for the most part, but ate a LOT of dates.  I’ve been craving dates so much lately.  Guess I need something that’s in them? 

• Friday, October 7^th…there was a brownie with ice cream.  I am majority failing at paleo this week.  Ugh.  I blame TOM for this…not really a good excuse, but it’s the best I’ve got.

• Saturday, October 8^th…no plans with friends this weekend so I can stick more to my paleo ways all weekend!  Or, at least, was the plan.  I had a $7 off reward for Schlotzsky’s and I went and spent it on a turkey bacon club on rye and...I'm almost ashamed to say...a cinnabon.  *sigh*

• Sunday, October 9^th…went for it and made me a paleo-ized pizza!  Well, sort of.  I was going to make the paleo pizza crust recipe (see end of post), but instead bought a packaged gluten free pizza crust and it was okay.  I also ate the final, left over lunch portion from last week of lamb and shrimp and sweet potatoes, but that’s where my “being good” ended.  There was pie.  Ugh.  I’m not sure what my problem is lately, but I need to get a handle on it. 

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I hope you aren’t getting bored or annoyed with my paleo updates.  I really hope that if this is a lifestyle or way of eating that you’re thinking of exploring and considering trying out that my posts about my experience help give you some insight into how it affects my body and works for me.  Everyone will be different, but it’s always good to get as much information as possible before you make a drastic lifestyle change.

I noticed recently that my skin is softer and clearer (fewer blemishes) than it was before I started eating this way the majority of the time.  I’ve tried to be as open and honest about how things are going for me and if I indulged in gluten/grains/dairy/legumes/etc, I make sure to make a note of it.  I do think it’s important for me to note aches and pains and bloating and headaches and light headedness and whatever else I’m feeling in relation to when I ate those non-paleo food items.  I’m going to be starting to try out some paleo recipes, so I’ll be including those with these posts when I start that up.  I recently “bought” (read: downloaded all the free Kindle editions available on Amazon) a bunch of paleo cookbooks and am really looking forward to adding more variety to my days. 

I’m not perfect and I do fall “victim” to my emotions and urges.  I try to make the best decisions available to me, but sometimes 4 homemade cupcakes just sounds amazing, or a brownie with ice cream is more appealing than taking the extra time and effort to make my own crust from scratch to have a paleo-ized pizza.  And that’s all perfectly fine.  I just have to consider the “consequences” of those choices.  I’m going to get headaches, have achy joints, have horrible heartburn, and be bloated (and, as a result, I’ll pack on a few pounds of water weight that will take me almost a week of eating paleo again to get rid of). 

I certainly ate off paleo a fair amount this week.  More than I’d really prefer to.  But, after Wednesday on the night shift’s BBQ spread, I did my best and stuck to my paleo ways for the rest of the work week.  Geez, what happened to “it’s easier for me to control my eating during the work week” statement I made?  Out the window with that one!  Totally jinxed myself, I guess.  So, I’m sorry that you’re following along to hear about how my PALEO diet and experience with that is going and I’m eating paleo like 60% of the time and what the eff ever the other 40%.  That’s not ideal no matter how you slice it.  I think it’s okay to be a little lax for a couple to maybe 3 meals a week, but to still keep them sensible and of a reasonable portioning.  On Tuesday, I straight up PIGGED OUT.  I really do want to do this way of eating long-term, so I seriously need to get it together.  It’s not that I’m craving these other foods, they’re just presenting themselves to me and I’m like, “sure, why not?”  I need to just plain stop that crap.  Because that’s what it is…crap. 

This coming week’s menu will consist of:

Before and during long run fuel: sweet potato waffles, paleo-friendly nutrition bars, and dates

Breakfast: sausage & boiled eggs

Lunch: pork chops with homemade paleo BBQ sauce

Snack: acorn squash stuffed with garlic beef stew

Dinner: watermelon

Overtime snacks: apples & nut butter, grapes, almonds

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This week’s featured recipe is Paleo Pizza Crust!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup tapioca flour (or arrowroot flour) (plus more for rolling out dough)

• 1/3 cup + 2-3 tbsp coconut flour, separated

• 1 tsp sea salt

• ½ cup olive oil

• ½ cup warm water

• 1 large egg, whisked

Instructions:

• preheat oven to 450°F

• combine the tapioca flour (or arrowroot flour), salt and 1/3 cup coconut flour in a medium bowl.

• pour in oil and warm water and stir.

• add the whisked egg and continue mixing until well combined.

• add 2-3 more tbsp. of coconut flour – 1 tbsp at a time – until the mixture is a soft but somewhat sticky dough.

• turn out the dough onto a surface sprinkled with tapioca flour and knead it gently until it is in a manageable ball that doesn’t stick to your hands.

• place the pizza dough ball onto a sheet of parchment paper.  Use a tapioca floured rolling pin to carefully roll out the dough until it is fairly thin.  You may end up using another few tbsp. of tapioca flour at this point.  You will need it to keep the dough from being too sticky.  But don’t overwork the dough or add TOO much more tapioca or your dough will be too dense.

• place rolled out dough (on its parchment paper) into the preheated oven onto a hot pizza stone or sheet pan. 

• bake for 12-15 minutes, depending on how “done” you want the crust to be before putting on toppings.

• top with desired toppings and bake for another 5 minutes.

Recipe yields enough dough for a 12-14 inch pizza crust.