Happy Day 10 for those of you joining me on this November clean eating challenge.
I hope it is going as well for you as it is for me. I have to say it has been fairly effortless so far. I am not really craving anything too badly, although I am looking forward to a glass of Pinot Grigio when I finish! I always give up drink for November (call it a detox, call it a subconscious effort to do good by my Catholic roots, who knows?!) But it is something I always do. I find the first week or two are usually fine and then I am looking forward to a night out! So far so good though!
The weather at the moment here is unseasonably warm and sunny, so I have been enjoying the weather and going out for long walks with my dog. We done 3 miles the past few days, and 2 on Monday. Tuesday I was active too, helping out with fairly manual work (loooong story).
How I came to the Paleo Lifestyle
I have been active for the past couple of years. I gave up smoking almost two years ago, and was fearful that I would gain weight so I got into running. I ran in a couple of 10K runs and a half marathon but I found that I wasn't a natural runner, and despite running for miles a week, I wasn't getting any faster and I wasn't loosing any weight. Although I looked more toned I knew I needed to loose a few pounds on the scale, but if I cut down on my calories I was exhausted and run down (pardon the pun!). Something wasn't adding up for me.
So I decided to look at my diet as I figured all this exercise was not seeing results, so I would have to look at my food.
I have always eaten "healthy". I always make meals from scratch for my partner and son, and we eat home prepared food the vast majority of the time. (We eat out seldom). I ate salads for lunch and home prepared dinners, rarely including sauces or anything processed during the week. Perhaps pizza at the weekend and a dessert on Sunday. But I was a slave to refined carbs, in particular bread and toast and pasta. I really believed I could never live without my toast!
I spent a few days inputting my daily food intakes into "Fitday.com" and soon realised I was eating far too many carbs. I worried about this as I was also a slave to "lowfat" eating so I did not know how I could drop the carbs and stay full.
I done some google searches and Paleo came up. I think it was actually Sarah Fragoso's "Everyday Paleo" that came up - and I liked the sound of it.
Eating real, unprocessed foods, low in refined carbs but including plenty of fat, protein and veggies. I bought Lorein Cordain's book "The Paleo Diet" and read it but I must admit I was fairly dubious about how I would manage without my bread and toast!
But here I am - almost four months later and more passionate than ever about my journey and doing my first Whole30!
If you are new to this I hope that you too are enjoying it so much you keep it up!
Anyway, enough talking rubbish!
The past 2 days have gone like so food wise:
Day 9
Breakfast:
Liver, bacon, spinach, tomato and onion
My first time eating liver since childhood - it was better than expected, but it might take me a while to love it!
Lunch: A Chicken Indian thing I threw together including spices, coconut milk and ground almonds. Tasted delish, but it didn't agree with me for some reason. Bad digestive issues afterwards. The spices??
Dinner: Minced Lamb Stew
Snacks: Apple
Exercise: 3 miles walk
Day 10
Breakfast: Bacon and Veg Omelette with avocado
Lunch: Smoked Paprika Chicken with Green Bean, Broccoli and tomato salad.
This was a little bland. I tried adding coconut milk as a dressing but it kept sliding off. I needed a dressing!
Dinner: Pork Loin with unsweetened apple sauce, mashed cauliflower, buttered carrots and turnips.
Snacks: Apple, 2x scrambled eggs (maybe!)
Exercise: 3 miles walk.
Ill finish with the following:
Remember - It is important to include exercise in your lifestyle - in particular light exercise like walking with occasional sprints is good. And lifting something heavy. I plan to do some lifting tomorrow. While in my opinion weight loss and a healthy lifestyle are as a result of roughly 80 diet 20 exercise ratio - so you should not use your seemingly easy weight-loss (if that is your aim) as an excuse NOT to exercise. Our Paleo ancestors were not sedentary so include exercise!
That is all for now!
Remember - you are 1/3 of the way there! Keep it up and keep it Paleo :)
