Friday, November 25, 2011

In Hindsight...

...maybe taking Thanksgiving Day to myself wasn't the best move. 

Aside from a two day trip to NY this past week for a family event, I hadn't had a day off (read: day to myself) for over two weeks.  Yesterday, instead of driving to my mother's or going to one of my friend's family's houses for the typical Thanksgiving dinner, I opted to stay home to relax, unwind, and collect myself. 

Turns out having time to myself means I focus that much more on the food I'd really rather be eating.  I was fighting every excuse not to give in on the 30 day experiment.  

I'm suffering from a severe lack of variety.  I eat similar meals almost daily; some items (ie. eggs and fish) twice a day.  I attempted making mashed butternut squash yesterday.  The taste was much different than I expected and not to my liking.  I ended up making sweet potato home fries instead.  However, it turns out my taste for sweet potatoes only goes for half of a potato.  Out of my desperation, I spent $20 this morning on raw nuts at an expensive health food store that will most likely only last through Saturday.  After yesterday's fail with butternnut squash I decided to give mushrooms a try.  I've always been a fan of mushrooms, but whenever I cook them they've turned out bland. 

I chopped up a quarter of a red onion, two large cloves of garlic and a full pack of mushrooms.  I dry pan fried them all with a lid.  They smelled amazing.  Too bad the taste wasn't the same.  I know the options are endless, but I'm running out of ideas!

Today I feel slightly better mentally.  However, yesterday I was planning on giving up at the week mark.  I'm hoping I can find enough self-restraint and creativeness to stick to the diet. 

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On another note, I did a bit of reading yesterday and finally figured out why so many Paleo recipes, cookbooks, and websites allow you to eat foods that seem to go directly against the premise of the diet.  As I see it, there are two version of the "Paleo diet."  The first is what I'm doing - strictly eating only what a caveman had access to.  This version cuts out all processed foods and limits you to raw, fresh ingredients.  The second and what seems to be the more popular version is what I will call the "Paleo Nutrient diet."  This version takes the nutrient profile that would have been provided in a caveman's diet and attempts to replicate it with modern foods.  This is why you see Paleo recipes that call for butter, oils, cured meats, sausage, cream, and even dark chocolate; all of which are not allowed in the former.  This is why I feel as if I'm stumbling around in the dark with recipes.  

That fact had been bothering me for awhile.  So while true paleo recipes are near impossible to find, at least now I can stop yelling "HYPOCRITE!" at my computer screen.  haha

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Questions
1.  How was your Thanksgiving?
My body feels relaxed, but my mind went crazy dreaming of non-Paleo foods all day.  

2. Do you function better when you have free time or when you're kept busy?
I tend to be more productive and less critical when I'm kept busy.  It's rare that I feel productive when I'm given true "free time."  Even time spent attempting to relax never feels accomplished. 


Swim fast.  Bike smart.  Run hard. 

3 comments:

TriGirl said...

My understanding of why people take on the strict paleo diet is to determine what foods they are sensitive/allergic to. The strict diet acts like a detox, then they slowly start adding things back in (dairy, wheat, etc...) one at a time, to see how they react to each.

If you're not worried about that, I would think you could do the "Paleo Nutrient diet" and still feel like you are achieving your healthy eating goals :)

Ironmom (Julie) said...

Just to clarify a bit further…

Paleo does not allow dairy or meats cured with sugar. It does allow healthy oils, like grapeseed, coconut, and olive. It does not allow peanuts or any other legumes.

There's another school of thought called primal that says that dairy is not that harmful for most people. It allows butter and cream, etc., and says that as an **occasional** indulgence, dark chocolate, wine, and cheese are decent choices. I don't think primal would allow processed sausage, but you could easily make your own sausage with primal ingredients.

The BEST resource for all things primal is a website called Mark's Daily Apple, and he backs up his recommendations on nutrition and exercise (and sleep, and lots of other stuff) with current research.

Coy Martinez said...

Ok Kurt, I'm driving over to your house, putting you in my car and we're gonna drive to the nearest Mexican restaurant and having them cook us up a crazy good bit of fajitias accompanied by margaritas! It'll be the Aztec diet and we'll be a secret! :)