Tag Archives: Paleo Diet

The New Plan

Posted on by Arielle

My weigh in this morning was 147.6 .  The plan I drew up at work the other day involved me getting from 149 to 147 this week, but this isn’t bad, and so I’m going to modify the plan a bit accordingly and present it here.  I’m giving myself a timeline for each weight loss increment, a timeline that I think is quite reasonable.  And I really am going to try to start posting an accountability post every Friday.

Weigh Loss Goal Calendar:

8/26: 149.0 (Weigh first Friday after 25th birthday and all of that extra indulgence)

9/2: 147.6

9/9: 146.4

9/16: 145.4

9/23: 144.4

9/30: 143.6

10/7: 143.8

10/14: 143.0

10/21: 142.4

10/28: 141.8

11/4: 141.2

11/11: 140.6

11/18: 140.0

11/25: 140 (Thanksgiving, no weight loss.. no weight gain?)

12/2: 139.6

12/9: 139.2

12/16: 139.0

12/23: 139.0 (Christmas Season/will be road tripping)

12/30: 139.0 (Christmas)

1/6: 139.0 (New Year’s)

1/13: 139.0 (Will be visiting friends in Dallas)

1/20: 139.0 (Will be road tripping)

1/27: 139.0 (ditto)

2/3: 139.0 (settling in to Seattle)

2/10: 138.8 (here is where I will start to try to lose .2/week until I like my body)

Here’s the plan for getting there.

Monday: Paleo Diet, with a built in calorie count of approximately 1700.  15 minute run as well as strength training for my chest, back, shoulders, abs and thighs

Tuesday: Paleo Diet, except that if my weigh in is less than last week’s Tuesday weigh in, I get one “cheat” meal at whichever food truck is parked in front of the BPL on my way to work that day.  Other than the food truck dish, built in calorie count is about 1400, bringing the day to probably around 2000-2200 calories. 20 minutes of biking/reading as well as my biceps, triceps, calves, and hamstrings workout

Wednesday: Same as Monday

Thursday: Paleo Diet, with a built in calorie count of approximately 1700 calories, also 20 minutes of light cardio as well as Tuesday work out

Friday: If weigh in achieves goal, I can have a treat with my coffee at the coffee shop and then later in the day some kind of foodie adventure.  All other meals should be Paleo-y, and I should try to stick to about 2400 calories or less.  If I don’t make the weigh in, stay on the 1700 calorie diet and try to make it Saturday.  Same workout as M/W.

Saturday: Unless I make the weight from a failed Friday, in which case I get Friday’s food plan, then it’s back to the 1700 plan.  Same workout as T/R, except I’ll probably play tennis instead of biking/reading.

Sunday: On 1700 calorie Paleo diet.  Off day gym-wise.  I just bought a basketball, so I’ll probably play that.

Paleo “Fried” Chicken

Posted on by Arielle

I mean it’s baked, but I breaded it.  I mean there was no bread involved of course, but I coated it.  I’d never cooked any kind of drumsticks before, so this was a fun new experiment.

Preheat the oven to 425.

Ingredients:

butter or coconut oil (did 3 drumsticks in butter, 3 in coconut oil)

coconut flour

cayenne pepper

Trader Joe’s Flower Petal grinder thingy

and the crumbs left over from some “cheesy” kale chips

Ingredients, Using Butter

1. Melt the butter or coconut oil (or if it’s the summer your coconut oil will already be liquid)

Ingredients, with Coconut Oil

2. Mix whatever paleo-coating stuff you’ve got on hand in a bowl (you certainly don’t need kale crumblies.  Coconut flour, ground flax seed, seasonings, almond meal, whatever you’ve got or is in your price range, any medley of any of these probably works just fine, judging by how easy this was for me).

3. Learn from my mistake and peel off the fat before “bread”ing the chicken, to keep it paleo.

4. Then dip each drumstick in butter and/or coconut oil (I think the coconut oil ones tasted better, but that shit is really expensive).

5. Next roll the stick around in your bowl of all that other stuff.

6. Put these guys on a lined cooking sheet and pop ‘em in for 50 minutes.

Before Baking

Close Up

Voila:

"Fried" Paleo Chicken

It was delicious.  As was my mushroom, squash, lemon-blueberry vinaigrette salad.

In dieting news, my last low weigh-in was last Thursday, August 4, weighing in at 146.4.  My goal was to “be good” (Paleo-y) all week and get down to less than that by this Friday since I’m going to Portland, ME for a day trip and will be eating all kinds of ridiculously indulgent food there.  Unfortunately, while the scale has been slowly creeping down from the highs after overeating last weekend, it doesn’ seem to be on a trajectory to get there by Friday.

But I had a conversation about it with myself.  I said, “Arielle, okay so you plan to go to Nosh Kitchen because you’ve just got to try the Apocalypse Now Burger: a pork and beef patty, American cheese, crispy pork belly, bacon, foie gras, house mayo and cherry jam on a brioche bun ($20).  Okay, I get that.  You do need to try that.  You really have to.  But.  You Do Not Have To Finish Everything On Your Plate!  I know you were raised against waste, and it feels like you’re wasting your money if you don’t finish food or take it home (which you really can’t do in this case), but stuffing yourself full of an extra 1500 calories after you’re full does not help anyone!  You’re going to pay the same amount, and the same amount of food will be used.  I wish we could have reasonable sample of food in this country (even of unreasonable food, in this case), but that’s not going to be an option.

“Also, I know you wanted to try their ‘world famous bacon dusted fries’ ($5), but let’s get fucking real here.  First of all, it’s going to be a huge order of fries, and remember it was just a month or so ago that you wrote that rule down for yourself that you’re never allowed to order a serving of fries without someone there to share them with you?  Secondly, good god, how much money do you want to spend at this place for lunch?  Thirdly, why don’t we try to leave that place not feeling like a bloated,weighed down piece of crap who’s no longer excited and energetic about strolling around beautiful Portland and will no longer have any appetite left over for dinner whatsoever but will still force herself to eat it because of her blog, because it’s her plan and because, in that bizarre, convoluted reasoning that happens when she gets that full and wants to feel better, she tells herself that somehow eating more will help?

“And while I’m at it, YOU’RE PLANNING TO HAVE FOIE GRAS POUTINE FOR DINNER (at Hot Suppa)?!?!  What the fuck is wrong with you?  You can go there another time when you’re with someone, split the goddamn poutine, and try the fried green BLT, which is mostly just a good idea which you should learn to make well at home, but anyway, go find a healthier option for dinner.  Jesus, what is it with Portland, ME and foie gras anyway?  Or what is it with foie gras popping up on menus more often in general lately?

Anyway, I am not going to stand for you spending most of Friday feeling like a fat piece of shit, nor is it okay if you undo any progress we’ve made in getting in shape by doing these horrible things to  your body.  From now on, let’s remember, you do not need to finish your food.  You don’t even really enjoy the last half of it.  It doesn’t help anyone – it just makes you fatter.  One day we’ll be in a relationship and will be able to share food so we don’t have to waste it, but that day is not today.”

Paleo CocoNutty Fruit Salad – Yes, Back to Paleo

Posted on by Arielle

After a few weeks of not dieting, I got to the place where I’m no longer as insane about food, no longer ever having quite the over the top gorge fests of the off diet day.  My Friday weigh ins since the last post were:

7/15/2011 – 148.2 (down from the terrifying 149 from the previous week)

So I seemed to be getting healthier but also leveling out.  I started incorporating a bit of calorie counting and Abs Diet-ery back in.  I was shooting for a reasonable 1800 calories per day, eating 200-400 every 2-3 hours, not counting too much, but knowing generally how many calories certain meals and snacks are and trying to be conscious of keeping things reasonable.

Then my hold request for the book The Paleo Diet (by Dr. Loren Cordain) finally came in, I read it, and I’m swayed.  You can Google the Paleo Diet if you want to learn a lot about it obviously, but the idea is that you eat like we evolved for 2.5 million years to eat, before the agricultural revolution, before bull shit processed crap, etc.

So I eat lean, free range (as much as possible) meats, up to 6 cage free and omega 3 enhanced eggs per week, an ounce or two of nuts per day and as many fruits and vegetables as I want (keeping unsweetened dried fruits to a couple ounces tops per day).  No legumes (including peanuts), no starches (sweet potatoes or an on-the-fence item) no fatty meats, no processed meat, no dairy, no grains, no sugar.. I’m probably forgetting things, but you get the idea.

With this, I shouldn’t have to count calories at all, which it what I’m going for, besides being healthy and thing of course.

I’m on the 3 cheat meals per week plan, which Dr. Cordain calls phase 1, but the thought of having fewer meals per week for good restaurant meals, something from my beloved bakeries, interesting non-Paleo recipes, dinner parties at others’ places, our ridiculous tasting parties at Trader Joe’s, etc. makes me want to cry, so I don’t think I ever plan on “advancing” to any further levels.

I still cheat at least a little bit almost every day though, but hopefully it’ll get easier.  It’s just that there’re always free donuts or brownies or ice cream or whatever around at work :[

Everyone says that following the Paleo Diet makes you feel amazing, more alive, more awake, healthier, etc. etc. that I'm trying to convince myself that not eating the sugary baked goods and whatnot is like taking happy drugs, that not eating those things will make me high, if you will.

Last Friday, I weighed in at 147.8.  I'm no longer feeling panicked to get this down fast, but I really really do want it to be moving in the right direction, at least a little bit, each week. Please please please please please.

My Paleo Breakfast this morning:

"Diets" are Fun.

I used up the last couple of ounces of roasted chicken strips from Trader Joe’s super convenient roasted chicken pack and sliced up a couple of heirloom tomatoes to put alongside the chicken.

But the salad is the thing I’m proud of:

Paleo CocoNutty Fruit Salad:

blackberries, blueberries, sliced up peach, walnuts, 1 or 2 teaspoons of coconut oil, ground up flower pepper (an amazing new product from Trader Joe's)

Trader Joe’s crazy awesome new Flower Pepper:

So far I've put it on eggs, fruit salads, chicken, tea and coffee. I can't imagine on what this stuff wouldn't go.

Black Peppercorns, Rose Petals, Calendula, Lavender, Cornflower

Last week, when I was still using up all my non-paleo foodstuffs, I made the salad with some goat cheese crumbles, which was also amazing.

Mmm, peach, blueberry, blackberry, walnut, coconut oil salad. Impress the shit out of your friends!

A breakfast with a view!

Paleo BLT

Posted on by Arielle

Because I was making Paleo Pancakes with bacon, I decided I might as well try to utilize the opportunity to see if the pancakes could also work as a sort of bread substitute so that I could have an effing sandwich on this diet.  With bacon in the fridge, the obvious move was a BLT.

Pancakes from Breakfast, Now to be Used as Bread

So the rest is obvious.  Just put bacon, lettuce and tomato between.  For me, this meant two slices of bacon, 2 slices of tomato, some wasabi arugula from Trader Joe’s and a tiny bit of mayo.

BLT from above

open-faced

BLT, as seen on the way to my mouth

Pancakes aren’t perfect as bread obviously, but it held up pretty well!  I plan to experiment further with ways to make Paleo-approved sandwiches.

Paleo Pancakes

Posted on by Arielle

I’ve always found the question of whether or not someone “knows how to cook” to be an interesting one.  I won’t go off on it right now, but I’ll just warn you that because of my neophilia, I almost never cook the same thing twice (except for the things I eat for my diet of course), and so I tend to bumble my way around the kitchen, concocting quasi-failures or quasi-successes depending on your attitude.

Here’s my first attempt at a Paleo dish that isn’t just a chop and sautee affair:

Paleo-pancakes

(I took this recipe from Jenna, who has a helpful blog with recipes called Paleo-Project.com)

All you do is beat

  • 2 eggs
  • 2 chopped up bananas
  • and a tablespoon or two of almond butter

Or you can put them in a food processor.  Unfortunately, I had neither a good beater nor a food mixer on me the morning I did this, so I wound up putting it in the blender, which probably made it too thin.  Also, I didn’t have almond butter on me, so I substituted sunflower butter, which is still on the Paleo diet and shouldn’t have had too much effect on the consistency.

I also don’t have a good pancake griddle, so I just had to use a skillet.  Jenna suggests using coconut oil to grease the pan, but I’d cooked up some bacon to go with pancakes, so I used that.  Except then I thought, “Mmm, I want bacon grease flavor and yummy coconut oil flavor,” so I poured a little of that in too.

Predictably, my pancakes fell somewhere short of perfect.

This was mostly fine, as I had no one but myself to please, and I didn’t need to be buttered up with the aesthetic.  They were pretty tasty.  Basically, they tasted like bananas.

I also fried up some bacon, and had a but of unsweetened strawberry preserves and sunflower butter.

a closer look

I did, however, need two good pancakes for the lunch I’d be making.  Fortunately, as you go along with pancakes, you get better at figuring out just quite what level of heat works best.  On my 1-10 gas stove, I found about a 3.5 was optimal for these.

These would be bread later: