2 weeks in....

Hello hello hello!

So, it has officially been two weeks since we have made the change to the Paleo lifestyle. And things are going great!!! Cody has lost 11lbs in the two weeks, and I have lost 8lbs. We had to both make a come back from the Zio's we had last weekend- Cody had gained 5lbs back, and I had gained 4lbs.... FROM ONE MEAL!!!! That is pasta and cheese for ya! Insanity! But we are still going strong and loving our new found lifestyle. We both enjoy cooking so much more than we did before, especially experimenting with new food, ways of preparing, and spices/marinades!!!

Yesterday, I did have another "cheat" moment...not day, because it did not ruin the whole day for me. I went to a friend's baby shower. I had a small sandwich with turkey on a roll, a small piece of cheese, and olive oil mayo on it. I also had some strawberries and grapes, two deviled eggs, and a piece of delicious cake (that my sister made, by the way :) it was a hit!) Just because of one meal being out of the guidelines, does not mean that everything is ruined. I know I have said this before, but yes, you can go super hardcore and never "cheat" or treat yourself to something different. And yes, you will lose weight more quickly if you are not backtracking every weekend. But, on the same token, if this is going to be a permanent lifestyle change, then why drive yourself crazy over it?  I gained a whole 1lbs from that little baby shower meal. No biggie my mind. I am not planning on doing something like this every weekend, either. I allow myself treats here and there, at parties, holidays, special occasions, so on and so forth. I do try to choose well, if there are options to do so, but besides that, I let myself enjoy the event. Just because of my goal to feel and look better on my wedding day, I think I am going to be slightly more strict when it comes to those types of situations, but again, I'm not going to be super hardcore... for now. If my goals with my fitness change, like I foresee them doing, then yes I will probably go 100%.

I guess my whole point with this is to find the best balance for you. And decide what your goals are, and adjust your eating habits to that. But let's be honest, I can't resist my sister's cake, and I am definitely going to enjoy myself on my honeymoon... especially if it is all inclusive :)

Anyhoo, what else has happened this week.... I have had a few friends that are definitely considering or have already started trying out Paleo!!! Very happy for them and excited for their journey! But no hard feelings if it doesn't work out for them... its NOT for everybody, that is for sure. All I know is how Cody and I have benefited. We both feel so much better, we can tell our bodies are handling this way better, and we are losing weight. Over the weekend, 4 people have freaked out at how much Cody has lost. I am thinking he has lost more inches than weight, because everyone is saying that he looks like the Cody from 3 1/2 years ago, when he first moved to Kansas City to be with me. And, he got carded today for liquor. He looks so young!!! Probably doesn't help that he shaved off his beard, but still! LOL

Okay, time for an easy recipe that was a hit tonight at my mom's house.

Quick Green Beans!!!

2 cans of french cut green beans
2 tablespoons of olive oil
garlic powder
pepper
sea salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Drain and rinse the green beans. Pour them into a baking dish, and pour the olive oil on them, as well as sprinkling the garlic powder, pepper and sea salt over them. I do it by sight, and I just make sure there is a light dusting of all three over the beans. You can really play with the amount of olive oil as well... I really just drizzle a bit over it. Then, work it all around with a spoon until all of the beans are even covered. Add more of less of each item to taste! Bake for 30 minutes.

Easy, yummy, and plenty for a few meals. Done and done. Be sure to cover and refrigerate. This is a very common recipe, this is just how I go about making them myself.

Welp, that's all I have for tonight ladies and gents.  I hope that every one has a great week, and that the weekend comes quickly!!!

My motto:

Grocery List and Meal Ideas

Greetings my fine Cavemen and Cavewomen!

Wow, three posts in a row. I'm doing pretty well so far! :)

Today I was talking to a friend about her interest in Paleo. We were discussing how to not get discouraged and how to have a good start so you want to stick to it. I was surprise when she said "You make it look so easy!" To which I responded, "Actually, it is easy. Once you get into it and find an easy system." That, and doing your research makes all of the difference.

Because of this conversation, I thought it might be helpful to share with you all what my grocery list generally looks like, and the sorts of meals I semi-plan for the week.

Here is what my last two grocery lists generally looked like:

Meat-
4 kc strips
4 pork tenderloins
2 bacon wrapped pork filets (yes, you can have bacon!)
6 pre-marinated chicken breasts
1 pkg turkey bacon
2 cartons of eggs (we always try to get organic and free range, just depends on pricing that day.)
1 carton egg whites (we like to mix egg whites with one normal egg for breakfast. Help keeps the cholesterol down.)
1 pkg of frozen salmon (we usually buy this at Costco frozen in a bag, just because we don't eat it as often as the other meats, so it keeps longer this way.)

*Keep in mind that we do not buy all of this every time. More regularly we get steak, just because it is harder to buy larger packages of it like you can chicken, and doesn't handle the freezer as long as other meats that are packaged better. We already have a large package of Harvestland chicken (but we wanted to try some of the pre-marinated ones) and a package of salmon. Harvestland is awesome because the chicken is cage free, no steroids, no hormones, no antibiotics, no animal by-products, all veggie diet, AND, one of the coolest things is that you can buy it with each piece individually wrapped inside of the larger normal package. This is extremely helpful, so that you don't have to cook it all at once, or end up wasting a few pieces by trying to freeze them unpackaged. As for the pork, I am not a huge fan of tenderloins and filets personally, at least not as much as Cody, so he usually gets that just to treat himself. Oh, and another time, we treated ourselves to some pork ribs. I do love ribs! There was a great deal going on at our store, so we decided to go for it. Also, we prefer not to buy the bagged frozen chicken. For all of our meat, we try to either go straight to the meat counter, of if that is closed or we can't get everything we want for a reasonable price, we go to the packaged section of meat. Not the frozen isle, unless absolutely necessary (or  its salmon, as I mentioned earlier.)

Veggies-
1 tub of triple washed salad (ready to eat, which is convenient. The one I got was a "spring mix" mixed with baby spinach.
1 large pkg organic baby carrots
2 large butternut squashes (the other time I got 2 spaghetti squashes)
1 stalk of celery
1 stalk of broccoli

*One trip, I also got frozen spinach for smoothies. From what I have read and from what they were saying on The Perfect Human Diet documentary, sometimes frozen veggies are better, because they are flash frozen. This means that the hold their nutrients over time, while fresh veggies do not. This is also helpful because frozen veggies tend to be a lot less expensive.

Fruit-
5 or 6 apples
1 pkg organic grapes
3 avocados

*I also sometimes either get some raspberries and blackberries for smoothies... sometimes frozen, sometimes fresh. And some oranges too, if I'm feeling frisky that day.

Misc-
Olive Oil (when we are out)
Olive Oil cooking spray (ditto)
seasonings and sea salt, when needed
roasted, unsalted cashews and sunflower seeds, usually from the self serve organic area
foil, which we use a lot for baking and grilling
vinegar (balsamic and red wine, for adding flavor to meats and for dressing recipes)

And that, my friends, is it. About 20 items max. I would say it is normally closer to 15, just because we don't go through it all in 2 weeks. We can go through the fast lane!!! :) We do shop weekly, just to restock on things here and there, but it is not a full shopping night for us. We want to make sure that we always have what we need on hand, that way we don't end up without something, get lazy, and run to a drive thru. Yes, the meat does get pricey, but our grocery bills have not gone up very much, and to us, our health outweighs the extra money.

So, now, our fridge and cabinets look like this:

Pretty empty compared to how they were before! Marinating meats, frozen meats, eggs, veggies, and fruit in the fridge. Vinegar, olive oil, nuts, and random extras like honey and maple syrup. And PB2, for those days when you just need something special :) Also, this is just the top couple of shelves on the left side of the pantry, and the right side is twice as big... which is all empty now. I have space to store more kitchen stuff!!!

As for meals. Basically, we cook a few steaks or chicken to last a few days of lunch and some dinners. But normally we cook our meat for dinner right at dinner time. I boil enough eggs for snacks through the week as well. Cody likes his veggies raw, but I like mine cooked. So one night, I might make some butternut squash, another night, throw a bunch of carrots and broccoli in with whatever meat I am cooking. I just make sure that I have something else besides salad, celery, and raw carrots to eat so I don't get tired of them. I also prewash a bowl of grapes and leave them in the fridge. That is handy for snacks or when a sweet craving kicks in. You can sometimes catch me standing at the open fridge, popping grapes in my mouth until my sweet craving subsides.

Here is an example of a normal day of food for me:

Breakfast- scrambled or over medium eggs. My honey makes them for me every morning :) He is a keeper!!!

Mid Morning- 1 apple, and sometimes some a few cashews. If I get really hungry early, I go ahead and get my 2 boiled eggs out of the fridge and have those as well. I don't bring the eggs everyday, but when I do, I always have them either mid morning or mid afternoon.

Lunch- Meat, so either chicken or steak usually, just because it is easier to pack and eat at work. Some veggies, usually either baked butternut squash (YUM) or a salad. And some grapes.

Mid Afternoon- I usually don't finish my grapes at lunch, so I bring them back with me to my desk to snack on the rest of the afternoon. If I still have cashews, I might have a few of those too. (And possibly the 2 boiled eggs, as I mentioned before.)

Dinner- Meat (again, usually steak or chicken.) Veggies, so come cooked carrots and broccoli, or my beloved butternut squash. And probably a few grapes again.

All Day- LOTS OF WATER!!!!

That about covers it. I eat a lot throughout the day to keep the hunger away (so I don't end up going for the cookies that a coworker brought,) and to keep my metabolism going. We like to keep it pretty simple on the day to day. I do switch it up every so often, and make a fruit and spinach smoothie or something to help fight hunger and cravings. I have been exploring a lot of recipes as well, so some Paleo bread might be added to my day at some point as well!

One more thing before I call it a night. I have found another very helpful website. Here is what the main page says:

Primal Docs is a network of over 500 physicians, healthcare practitioners, and independent businesses with a practical and evolutionary approach to health and nutrition. We are at the forefront of what is “Real Healthcare Reform”.

http://primaldocs.com/

You can find doctors that support paleo, and they also have a ton of articles about Paleo, from how it affects your health, dealing with people's reactions to you being Paleo, and many many more topics that I found very helpful. Then even have recipes and events!!! Very cool.

Well, I apologize for another long post. I have a lot of information to share, and I am excited to be able to share it all with you. I know the length of my post will start dying down once I get all of the basics out of the way. I hope you all are enjoying what I have had to offer so far and that it has been helpful in starting your journey in trying Paleo. I have not been doing it long, but I am (obviously) very passionate about it already, and I hope that I help other people to find that as well.

Have a good night everyone!

Helpful Information

Hey all!

Just wanted to share some of the useful links that I have been using.

A lot of people have been surprised at how much red meat we are eating. The is a large misconception that red meat is bad and chicken is good. Here is a helpful link that explains why you should eat more red meat. It also talks about it in The Perfect Human Diet documentary I wrote about in my last post.

http://paleodietlifestyle.com/which-meat-to-choose/

This website has a TON of useful information all about eating Paleo. Why to eat certain things, and why not. It also has some recipes!!!

Another website I have been referring to quite a bit is Paleo Cupboard. This site has a TON of yummy looking recipes. I also follow them on Instagram, and they post pictures of their recipes all of the time. The link I am posting now goes directly to the 10 Paleo tips for beginners. All of these are SO TRUE. I think my favorite is #4:

http://www.paleocupboard.com/10-tips-for-beginners.html

4. Don't think of this as a diet

This is a lifestyle and it requires that you modify many parts of your life to make it work. If paleo doesn't work for you 100%, adjust it so that it does. If you feel deprived and are not happy then this will not work. My husband and I will have a "cheat" meal every couple weeks, and we enjoy a glass of red wine every now and then. Find the plan that works for you and your family.
 

I agree with this 100%. We truly do not think of this as a "diet" in the terms of just to lose weight. It is a diet, as in a way of eating, a lifestyle. When archaeologists study how people ate in different time periods, or when zoologists study animal's eating habits, what do they call it? Their diet. That word has become so associated with losing weight, that people don't even realize anymore that it really just means how you eat. Diet as a verb, to me, is more of the idea of losing weight. So, get the idea out of your head now that the whole purpose of this is to lose weight. The purpose is to feed your body what it truly needs. The weight loss will come with it naturally.

 

Here is another way to think of it that has really changed my perspective: Food can either be medicine or poison. We so mindlessly put stuff into our bodies that was not meant to, and we are destroying ourselves for something that we don't need. I used to think, oh well we all die eventually anyway, I want to enjoy what I eat. But what if a lot of today's ailments are caused by the non-human food we are putting into our bodies? Every day people are literally feeding themselves chemicals, whether it be how the food is processed, or what the companies are actually putting in them. There is a lot of information out there that shows this to be true.

 

Jamie Oliver is one of my favorite celebrities out there. He is doing nothing but trying to help people see how poorly we are treating our bodies, and how these large food companies are literally poisoning ourselves. Here is a great article about one such instance:

 

 

Chef Jamie Oliver Proves McDonald’s Burgers “Unfit for human consumption”

 

http://naturalrevolution.org/chef-jamie-oliver-proves-mcdonalds-burgers-unfit-for-human-consumption/

 

McDonald's cheeseburgers are "unfit for human consumption" because of washing the meat in ammonium hydroxide before we eat them. HELLO! They literally bath the meat in a chemical, and then fry it up and slap it on a bun for us. And we wonder why everyone is getting cancer?! What is even crazier, is that you will not see this on mainstream news- that is a whole other blog topic right there.

 

Okay, I have a few more links for tonight. This is another recipe website that has a ton of delicious ideas:

 

http://paleomg.com/

 

And I think the description of this one says it all:

 

"The Paleo mom is a scientist turned stay-at-home-mom who shares recipes, explains the science behind the paleo diet and its modifications, and blogs about the challenges about raising a paleo family."

 

http://www.thepaleomom.com/

 

LOVE that!!!!! For you mommas out there that have asked me about doing this with kiddos! (you dads, too!)

 

Oh, and one more for my Kansas City friends...There is a Paleo restaurant!!!

 

http://www.operahousekc.com/Paleo-Grill.html

 

You can expect to see me there in the near future!!!

 

Anyway, I hope all of this information will help you to be able to make an informed, confident decision on whether or not this is the right path for you. I know I am hooked. And the food is DELICIOUS too, if you go about it right!!!

 

Welp, I'm off to put together my lunch for tomorrow!!!!

 

Hope everyone has a good Tuesday!!!

 

~Sammi

 

 

Welcome!!!

Hi there!!!

Welcome to my page that is dedicated to anything and everything Paleo!!!

I know some of you already know me, but for those of you who do not, here is a quick run down of who I am:

My name is Samantha, and I live in the Kansas City metro area. I currently work for a large jewelry company; I basically sit in a cubicle all day. I am engaged to a wonderful man named Cody, who is also Paleo, and is currently in school for drafting and design. We just bought our first home almost a year ago, and we will be getting married on May 17th, 2014!!! I am in the middle of planning it, which he has actually been a big help on! So you may hear a little bit about that :) We met in college where I was originally studying Fine Arts, and then later Sociology. I have not painted in quite a long time- something that I need to get motivated in again, because I do love it. I am quite the nerd, listening to How Stuff Works Podcasts every day at work, mostly Stuff You Missed In History Class and Stuff You Should Know!!! Love you ladies and gents!!! I am also somewhat of a book worm- but not as much as my fiancé, he has read somewhere around 30 books this year so far!!! Maybe more, I have lost count. My favorite books are The Hunger Games series, Between Shades of Gray (not 50 shades!) Harry Potter, of course, and many, many more. I have two truly favorite T.V. shows, Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, although we don't have cable and really do not watch a lot of T.V. We also have four children... furry children, that is. Two dogs, and two cats. The dogs are named Sheldon and Hagrid. Sheldon is a coonhound shepherd mix, and Hagrid is a lab airdale mix, or a labaire, as they are apparently called. The cats are Sultan and Squeek. Sultan is a Bengal, and squeak is a tabby Siamese mix (or so my grandma says.) We are one big happy family! At least for as long as I can hold Cody off from having kids. :)

What else... OH YES! I have recently become Paleo!!! What is Paleo you might ask? Well, let me tell you!!! The basis of Paleo is to eat only what we could have when people were primitive. So, meat, eggs, veggies, fruit, and nuts. That is about it. No grain, no dairy, no extra sugar. I know, I know, "no pasta? No yogurt?!" That's right. Just the basic stuff we could have gotten our hands on before agriculture, technology, and bakeries stepped in. If we couldn't hunt or gather it, then don't eat it!!! Now, that isn't to say we eat everything raw and blah. Yes, raw veggies are better, but you can cook them on Paleo. We use plenty of seasonings on our meat, but only olive oil and sea salt. No vegetable oil, no table salt. And very little sea salt, I might add. But from what I have read so far, as long as it doesn't have a ton of regular salt in it, everything else is okay.

I want to also say that there are a lot of differing opinions on what you should and should not eat on Paleo. Some people say none of one thing, while others say yes to it. I say, do your own research and decide what is best for you. For example, PB2, the powdered peanut butter cocoa stuff that you can buy nowadays. I was craving something sweet besides grapes or apples, and peanut butter sounded mighty delicious. So I got online and did some research. You are not supposed to have peanuts on this "diet" (we will get to that later) but some argued that because the oil is taken out, that it is okay in small quantities. Others said NO! And some said, I have it sometimes for a sweet craving. So, what did I do? I made some paleo ice cream with PB2, almond milk, and honey. Because you know what? I have changed my eating habits so drastically, that anything that I am doing right now, is better than what I was doing before. Cody and I have both decided that we are not going to be super hard on ourselves. Yes, 95% of the time, we are going to stick to this way of eating. But when it comes to hard core cravings, holidays, birthdays, weddings (OUR wedding too ;) ) we are not going to limit ourselves. But, that does not mean that we are going to fall back into our old ways either. Once you start, you don't want to go back! We both feel so much better not eating all of the processed, fried, crazy stuff that we ate before.

Speaking of before, one might be wondering why we made such a quick, seemingly drastic change. Well, over the last three years, Cody and I have both been text book yo-yo dieting. Losing 20lbs here, gain it back there. Go on a different diet, quit a few months later and gain it all back. We have done a number of diets, all that work very well, but that have a lot of limitations and that can be expensive. Then about a month and a half ago, we had an emergency room visit. Cody woke up with severe abdominal pains, and we rushed to the hospital. They admitted him that night for severe gallstones, and removed his gallbladder a couple days later. For those of you who do not know Cody, even at his heaviest, he does not appear to be obese. He generally looks broad and fit. Even when we were dieting, he would have people ask him why. But yes, he did eat very unhealthy, lots of fried and fatty foods. And it caught up with him. After the hospital visit, it was a wake up call for both of us. The hospital put him on a low fat, low carb diet to help his body transition without the gallbladder. We decided to stick to it, just to start eating better. About a month later, Cody had lost about 10lbs, and I lost around 5lbs. (MEN, puh!) And then about a week and a half ago, we were being couch potatoes one night after a long day at work, and we decided to watch this documentary called The Perfect Human Diet. You can watch it here http://www.youtube.com/movie/the-perfect-human-diet for $3.99, unfortunately, or on amazon prime, where we watched it. However you are able to get your hands on it, if you are interested in trying Paleo, WATCH IT!!! It made so much sense as to why this is how humans should eat. It had such an impact on us, that the following weekend, we literally emptied our fridge, freezer, and cabinets, and gave away all of the food we could not have on Paleo. I'm talking probably a couple hundred dollars worth of food. We then went to the store and stocked up on lots of meat, including steak, chicken, and salmon, and fruits, veggies, and nuts.

Bam. That was it. That was all it took and we were hooked. Since then, about a week and a half now, we are so hooked and so passionate, that, well, I'm writing a blog about our experience and progress. Because here is the big part of it- this is not a gimmick, this is not just about losing weight. This is a lifestyle change to make a healthier you. Yes, we have both already lost quite a bit of weight for the short amount of time- since we started, Cody has lost almost another 10lbs (in one week) and I have lost another 7lbs now. On the low fat low carb diet, it took a month for Cody to lose 10, and me to lose 5. In a weeks time on Paleo, we have doubled that. So yes, you can and will lose weight on it. But that is not what the big picture is about. It is about giving your body what it truly needs. As the documentary says, human food versus non-human food. And that totally makes sense now. Especially, after Friday of last week. Ladies, you know what it is like when it is almost "that time of the month." Cravings up the wazoo! And my boss bought us some cupcakes. Cupcakes that had eggless cookie dough as the "icing." Well, I don't have the best self control normally when it comes to food. So I ate it. And the crazy thing was, that I really didn't enjoy it like I used to. Yes, it tasted good, but it wasn't the same good that it used to be a week ago. And, to top it off, it kind of made me feel sick. Now, after that realization, I have lost most of those cravings. Yes, I do miss pasta sometimes, but not like I did when I dieted before. I don't want to go back this time. I feel that good.

You may feel like it is a hard change, or that you don't have the time to cook a lot, or lots of other excuses. But honestly, we do not spend a lot of time in the kitchen. More than before yes, because I spent maybe one or two nights a week in the kitchen really cooking before. Now, one of us does cook almost every night, but it is not time consuming. Narrow down what you want to make, and do it. Get lots of meat for the next few days cooked, and prep some fruit and veggies too. Like, tonight, I made 6 steaks in the frying pan, and baked some butternut squash (which I recently discovered is DELICIOUS.) We also have fruit, salad, carrots, and celery ready to go. I also boil plenty of eggs for the week. Done, easy. The other concern that we had before starting was spending so much money on meat. Turns out, if you aren't spending the money on the other stuff, like pasta, frozen meals, boxed rice and sides... you spend about the same amount, maybe a little bit more. All depends on how you go about it. We have been buying a lot of steak, so this weeks groceries were a bit higher than normal, but not so significantly that it is affecting us. There are ways around that, like I will be looking more into coupons and such, but I was planning on doing that before too :) And, in the long run, our bodies have become more important.

So, to end this extremely lengthy first post, I want to say, do your research. Use good old Google, read a book about it (there are plenty) or even search Paleo on Pinterest. That is where I have found a lot of my information, as well as millions of delicious recipes. I will be posting hopefully a couple times a week with our progress, as well as helpful information that I have found, and of course, yummy recipes!!! And, hopefully soon, I am also going to be starting my journey in becoming more fit!!! That means, running, walking, weights... whatever I can get myself hooked on more quickly. I used to be very active, so hopefully some of that motivation will come back to me.

Please, feel free to ask any questions. I do not have all of the answers, and I am still doing research myself. But, I do know my experience so far, and I am happy to share it.

Now, off to boil some eggs! Everyone have a wonderful week!!!