Monthly Archives: January 2011

The Whole30 or Tell Me I’m Not Crazy

Posted on January 31, 2011 | 1 Comment

I like structure. No, that’s not it. I don’t necessarily like structure. I do, however, need structure. Well, I always seem to do better when I have structure framing my life. And after evaluating the past few weeks and reading this post on Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger, I’ve come to the conclusion that, right now, I need to do something drastic, something gritty and hardcore. I need to reboot and do something drastic, something with lots of structure and rules. And that is why *deep breath* I have decided to do the Whole30.
The

Right off the bat, let me tell you that the Whole30 is not for everyone. Hell, I don’t even think it’s necessarily for most people interested in the paleo/primal lifestyle. It’s pretty hardcore and yet, in a lot of ways, it’s not that different from what I’ve been doing. The Whole30 is a commitment to eating “cutting out all the inflammatory, insulin-spiking, calorie-dense but nutritionally sparse food groups for a full 30 days”. What does that mean in laymen terms? It means:

  • No grains – no bread, no cereal, no rice.
  • No dairy – no butter, no milk, no full-fat yogurt.
  • No legumes – no peanut butter, no lentils, no beans (exceptions for green beans, snow peas, and snap peas which are considered more veggie than bean).
  • No added sugar – no honey, no agave, no adding sugar to anything.
  • No processed crap food – this is about eating real, clean food.
  • No white potatoes – which I generally avoid anyway for their high starch content.
  • No alcohol – think of this 30 day period as a detoxing cleanse of sorts.
  • No cheat days – this is for every meal of every day for the next 30 days. No birthday cake, no special occasions, nothing.

Some parts of the Whole30 are definitely going to be harder than others for me. I’ve already given up grains and white potatoes, and I rarely drink alcohol, so that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve also been trying to eat whole, unprocessed foods for a while.

It is going to be hard not having cheat days. But in a way, I’m glad there will be no cheat days because this week, cheat days turned into a slippery slope. Last night I had pizza from Pizza Hut, which did fit into my 80/20 plan, but still made me feel bad because I knew it was crap food and I could have done better. Not having any cheats will probably be the hardest part for me. I already know I have several birthday parties and birthday cakes coming up next month. Saying no to cake is going to be hard, but not impossible.

It’s also going to be hard to give up dairy. That was the one part of the paleo diet to which I was so resistant, and one of the main reasons I consider myself to be paleo/primal instead of just paleo. I drink my coffee with milk every morning, so the next 30 days will probably be tea-drinking days instead. And I’m used to cooking with butter, but that’s why I bought the coconut oil in the previous post.

Added sugar is going to be the hardest. I gave up sugar in my coffee, but I could not give it up in my tea. I’ve been drinking some form of sugar, whether rock sugar or honey with my tea and giving that up is going to be the absolute hardest part of the Whole30. I had been depending on that sweetened cuppa to satisfy my remaining sugar cravings. From now on, I’ll be going plain or sweetened with a touch of fruit juice.

Wow. Take another deep breath. I said this was going to be hard, right? But I haven’t gotten to the hardest part yet. For the next 30 days, there will be no measuring, no weighing, no scales of any kind. I’ve gotten a lot better about weighing myself, but the very idea of not weighing in for the next 30 days, of not having any measurements of progress to compare is really scary. It goes against everything the control freak in me stands for. It’s anarchy. But it’s mandatory.

So, that’s the Whole30 in a nutshell (there’s a lot more information at the Whole9 site for those who might be interested). But that’s the how, not the why. Why am I doing the Whole30? What am I hoping to gain from 30 days of such strict living? I’m hoping to push the “reset button” on my life. This is basically a 30 day reboot for my system, a chance to cleanse the impurities out of my body and reset my metabolism. I’m setting my body up as the “control group”, so that afterward, when I start to add certain foods, like dairy or even grains, back in, I can monitor the effects they have on my health for better or worse.

I start today, and the 30 days will be up on March 1st. This might just be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I’m going to do it.

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Cooking with Coconut Oil

Posted on January 26, 2011 | 2 Comments

Traditionally, I’m a butter/olive oil kind of gal. The whole paleo/primal obsession with coconut has always seemed odd to me. I didn’t grow up eating a lot of coconut. Sometimes I’d eat a slice or two of the creamy flesh, but that was it. And when I became a teenager, I thought coconut was bad. It was one of those bad fats that should be eaten in moderation or avoided altogether. But the paleo/primal communities postulate that coconut oil is good for you and their science seems to back them up.

I finally got the opportunity to try it this past week when my local co-op had a sale. So, how did I fare cooking with coconut oil?

I decided to make my standard eggs and spinach go-to meal. I usually eat this for breakfast or lunch a couple of days a week, subbing in whatever green veggies I have available and sometimes throwing in a handful of cheese.

I generally throw in a little bit of butter and a handful of chopped spinach and stir until the spinach wilts. So, instead I put a teaspoon of coconut oil into the pan, watched it melt and put in the spinach.

I was surprised how quickly the oil melted and realized that I might need a little bit more. The oil is in solid form in the jar, but apparently melts at 76 degrees F. So I added another teaspoon and when the spinach was sufficiently wilted, I added three beaten eggs seasoned lightly with salt and pepper.

The eggs took a little bit longer to cook than I expected. In fact, the oil behaved very differently in the pan than butter. Whereas I would expect the butter to melt, begin to froth and even brown, the oil just melted. And the eggs didn’t firm up as fast. I generally keep the heat low so I’ll have plenty of time to stir and allow the creamy curds to form, but with the oil, I had more than enough time.

So, the ultimate test – how did it taste? Well, right off the bat, I noticed something different. For some reason, I didn’t realize that coconut oil would smell and taste like coconut. Nor did I realize that it would be sweet. So the sweet coconut flavor was certainly different. Not necessarily bad, just different. And the texture of the eggs was definitely different. They were very creamy and the hint of sweetness actually paired well with the spinach and cheese.

The verdict? I’ll be cooking with coconut oil again, but I don’t know that it’s a replacement for butter. Ghee might be a better option for those who don’t like the taste of coconut like my husband. However, I’ll definitely be replacing the butter in my diet with coconut oil for the next 30 days as I go the Whole30 (more on that in my next post) since dairy is forbidden, and as I get used to cooking with it and start using it for more things (I’ll be interested to try it for high-heat cooking), I’m sure my opinion of coconut oil will only go up.

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Posted in food, paleo/primal, recipes, whole30

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Do You CSA?

Posted on January 26, 2011 | Leave a comment

Where do you get your fresh vegetables? The grocery store? The local co-op? A farmer’s market? While all of those are perfectly okay options, have you considered buying a share in a local CSA?

The acronym “CSA” stands for community supported agriculture. Basically, you buy a “share”, investing money into a local farm. In return, you receive weekly shipments of seasonal produce for the duration of the growing season. It’s a great way to eat locally grown, often organic produce that’s in season. And it’s a great way to expand your cooking skills and food experience. You see, with a CSA, you don’t always know what you’re going to get. One week you may get tomatoes, peppers, carrots and beets and the next you may get arugula, blueberries, zucchini and okra.

Last year, I chose to buy a share with Frontwards Farm in Makanda, Illinois. I actually started about halfway through the growing season, and getting a boxful of fresh veggies, herbs and sometimes fresh eggs was truly wonderful. See all of those lovely veggies in my header – those are all from one of my CSA boxes. I even created one of my signature dishes, my Spicy Thai Basil Chicken around the wonderfully fragrant basil that showed up in my box for a month. Even better, I met the wonderful couple who grew my food and harvested my eggs. Having that personal connection and knowing exactly what went into your food, and exactly where it came from – to me, that’s what eating clean, whole and local is all about.

Up front, the cost of joining a CSA may seem steep, but I assure you, the breakdown is really quite affordable. Last year, the cost was $30 a week. I don’t know how much you spend on food per week, but I found that very affordable and completely worth it. I mention this now because this is the time of year when most CSA’s open their sign-up lists. For local readers, you can sign up with Frontwards Farm here. For others, Local Harvest is a great site to find a local CSA near you. If you’re interested in eating healthy, eating local, and eating well, you may want to look into joining a CSA for the 2011 growing season.

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Delicious Paleo – Bobby Flay Style!

Posted on January 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

Eating healthy and eating paleo doesn’t mean having to eat tasteless bland food. One of the things I enjoy the most about living paleo/primal is getting to cook again. I’ve always enjoyed cooking and since living paleo means eating and cooking with whole foods, I get to cook a lot more.

This is an adaptation of a Bobby Flay recipe I found on the Food Network. When I’m watching my carb intake and not wanting to eat a lot of starch, I omit the potatoes and double the amount of brussel sprouts. You could also substitute another root vegetable for the potatoes – I think the brussel sprouts and bacon fat would pair well with turnips or parsnips. You can also substitute the bacon for the pancetta if you can’t find it at your local grocery store.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta

  • 3 tablespoons bacon fat
  • 1/4 pound sliced pancetta, diced
  • 3 shallots, thinly sliced
  • 1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
  • 8 small potatoes, cut into eighths
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 lemon, juiced

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Remember, this dish starts on the stove top but finished in the oven, so use a pan that can do double duty for both. I prefer my trusty cast iron skillet, but a roasting pan or other oven proof pan saute pan would also work.

Heat the bacon grease over medium heat in your skillet. Add the diced pancetta and stir until nice and crispy. Remove the pancetta for later. To the pancetta crumbles and bacon grease still in the pan, add the shallots and cook just until softened. Put in the Brussels sprouts and potatoes and stir to ensure that everything gets evenly coated. Salt and pepper to taste, then pop the whole thing into the oven. Check in about 15 minutes and stir. You want the potatoes to be cooked all the way through – a knife or fork should easily pierce the flesh and the edges of the sprouts should be nicely browned. Remove from the oven and stir in the butter and lemon juice. Before serving, sprinkle the reserved pancetta over the dish for some additional crunch. And enjoy!

We served ours with lovely porterhouse steaks and a caesar’s salad, but I think this would make a great accompaniment to almost any meat. For those who usually dislike brussel sprouts for their mushy texture, let me assure you that you will love these. They completely won over my husband who usually hates brussel sprouts. Roasting the sprouts retains some of their crunch and prevents them from becoming water logged and gross.

In retrospect, I wish I had taken a picture to share, but it wasn’t until afterward, when the sprouts and steak were happily sharing a room in my belly that I realized this would make a great paleo recipe!

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One Week

Posted on January 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

So, it’s been just over a week since I went back to the paleo/primal lifestyle. In that week,

  • I’ve reacquainted myself with the fine art of the omelet.
  • I’ve completely kicked the carb cravings.
  • I’ve started taking vitamin supplements, including fish oil and calcium.
  • I’ve tripled the amount of vegetables I eat during the day.
  • And I’ve lost a pretty significant amount of weight!


Check that out! When I weighed in last Tuesday, I was at 224.3 lbs. But when I weighed in this Tuesday, only one week later, I weighed 217.8 lbs for a total loss of 6.5 lbs! Not too bad for a week! And I have a feeling that as long as I keep to strict adherence of the paleo/primal lifestyle, I should continue to lose weight fairly quickly.

In terms of measuring progress, I’m trying not to get as obsessed with the numbers on the scale as I did last time. You might have noticed that I did not weigh in every day. I’m trying to only weigh in every now and then so that those tiny fluctuations that I sometimes experience won’t drive me crazy.

I’m also going to start tracking my progress through measurements and photographs again. I wasn’t going to start that until I got back down to where I was back in September, or at least until I started working out again regularly. But, I think I might go ahead and measure/photograph myself to establish a baseline. I don’t think there’s anything quite as compelling as photographic evidence and I think it will be interesting to see my body start to change again. I’m not sure whether I’ll be posting the pics here – some of the books I’ve read recommend taking the pics naked or as near to naked as you can stand. And I’m not sure I’m entirely comfortable posting pics of my body in its current state (which is probably ironic for those who have known me in my former internet guises).

For the next week, I need to

  • Set up a meal plan so I’m not eating the same thing every day,
  • Go grocery shopping to restock my pantry with paleo/primal friendly options,
  • Get my butt back into the gym. I’m aiming for cardio and circuit training,
  • Call my personal trainer. I’m not looking forward to the torture of our sessions after not working out for five months, but I gotta do it,
  • Take better care of myself, and
  • Relax and let the stress melt away.

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