Not 100% Primal

Let me start off by saying, I'm done apologizing on here. From now on, I'll update y'all with what I'm doing, what I'm eating, and what I plan to do for things. I like the idea of a lifestyle blog, but who knows where this'll go! :)

I don't know if I've said this on this blog before, but eating healthy is hard to do. I need to cut myself some slack and realize this. I have to quit being so hard on myself. I don't like that nearly every previous post apologized for not eating right. It's not like anybody really cares! I'm supposed to be doing this for me, but what this blog became was for the benefit of everyone else. I felt guilty when I didn't update. I was disappointed in myself when I cheated because I was priding myself on not cheating.

I also feel that my diet became more about not disappointing my readers instead of what I set out to do. I want to be healthy and my goal is to "live long and prosper" ;) Haha, by which I mean, I would like to live to the ripe old age of 100. But I'm not going to get even close if I don't do something about my health.

I need to learn how to eat better, and I really want to take y'all on this journey with me. I think it'd be cool to look back at everything years from now. Right now, I'm trying to really think about how food affects me. I'm trying to stop myself and ask "Is this going to help me?" "Is this going to hurt me?" A lot of the time, I end up eating bad things because I never stop and think about how it's going to affect me. Or I don't take the time to look at my other options and just go for what I usually get at a restaurant.

I also want to have a vegetable with nearly every meal. I think if I can substitute some of the carbs I'm eating with veggies, at least I'll get the nutrition and I can start eating less carbs.

I'm gonna say right now, that it's not going to be 100% Primal/paleo. It's probably not even going to be 80% Primal. But that's okay. I need to work on my mindset about food before anything else. Eating less and learning when I feel satisfied rather than stuffed.

I do like a lot of Primal foods, so if I find a really good recipe, I'll post it here.

So maybe this will turn into a lifestyle blog. I'm going to try to start blogging about my life more than just the food I eat. I feel like it'll round out my posts more and hopefully be more interesting!

Anyway, live long and prosper,
Sam

I've had trouble over the past couple weeks, I'll admit. I did really bad yesterday with eating and the week leading up to it wasn't great either. I've backslid a little into my old habits but I'm determined to stick with this diet this year.

I've been questioning whether I'm eating enough. When I do Paleo/Primal very strictly, I tend to eat on the low side of my calorie goal for the day. But I tend to feel better.

The last couple of weeks I've just been eating kielbasa and sautéed zucchini for lunch, and by 6 p.m. I've been shaky and had a horrible headache. I think it was my blood sugar. So I added in rice to my meals and that helped, although then I was eating a lot more carbs every day.

And the SUGAR! Oh my goodness, I've been eating sugar non-stop. Iced tea, Smarties, and the like have been filling me up. If it's around me, I eat it.

Yesterday, we went out to lunch at Five Guys and I got a burger and fries (which was amazing!) and then we got ice cream! I didn't mind the burgers and fries, I know they're a lot of calories, but I wanted something nice and filling, even if it was cheating. But the ice cream was too much.

Today I've been eating better, which is a good sign. I hate that I keep falling off the wagon and starting up again just to stop a couple weeks later, but that's what this year is about. Figuring out what foods make me feel the best and eating those.

I know I've had a lot of false starts (and let's be honest, it'll probably keep happening) but keeping this blog up really helps. The only thing I have trouble with is coming up with ideas for these posts, but as long as I do, I'll keep writing.

Until the next post,
Sam

P.S. In May I'm going to New York for 4 days, so you can bet I'm going to be eating pizza and other unhealthy foods. But I'll try to keep that to a minimum so that I can go back to healthy eating once I get back. (Or I'll go overboard and vow never to eat pizza again. Who knows.)

Valentine's Recipes

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so I thought I'd make a post with fun Valentine's Day recipes in case y'all needed some ideas! 😉

The top picture is some chocolate-covered strawberries I made a while back. They've been on my blog before, and it's pretty easy to make them. Just get some strawberries that are nice and ripe, with no visible blemishes, and melt some chocolate. I used the microwave. Then just dip the strawberries in the melted chocolate and lay them on a baking sheet to harden. I would suggest keeping them in the fridge once you make them. That way they're nice and cold, and the chocolate doesn't melt off.

You could also make these with raspberries or blueberries, just make sure whatever fruit you use doesn't have any blemishes because the sugar in the fruit will cause the chocolate to slide off.

Here are a couple chocolatey recipes for V-Day dessert:

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Truffles | My Whole Food Life
This looks so good, and so easy too! There are only a few steps and they involve food processing the ingredients, freezing, and melting. And that's it!

Chocolate Cashew Butter Swirled Candy Cups | Paleo Running Mama
These look really good as well. They're sort of paleo Reese's cups, but shaped into hearts! It's a little more involved than the previous recipe, but I think it's worth it. The end product looks amazing. I haven't tried it, but I have to now!

Here are a couple non-chocolatey recipes:

Bacon-Wrapped Scallops
These look amazingly good. The recipe is a bit unclear on what kind of pan to bake them in, but I'm assuming just some sort of baking dish is fine.

Paleo Shrimp Scampi | the functional foodie
This looks like it'd be good! She suggests putting the shrimp scampi over spaghetti squash, zucchini noodles, or even wilted spinach leaves. If you're not totally committed to being Primal, you could even do it over gluten-free pasta.

And last but not least, Valentine's Day -- from the bottom of my heart stew | High Steaks
I don't really expect anyone to make this, as it's made with beef heart, but I thought I'd put it in here anyway. The pictures are gorgeous, and I remember (when I first found this recipe, nearly 4 years ago) that I really wanted to try it. But no one in my family would eat heart. I don't think I'm nearly as adventurous now. I hate wasting food and I don't think heart would taste very good to me.

But hey, if anyone is adventurous enough to try it, let me know in the comments!

Have a great Valentine's Day! 💖 💖
Sam

(Don't) Pour Some Sugar On Me

Bananas have a lot of sugar in them, but it's natural sugar

So today I thought I'd talk about sugar. I'm super addicted to the stuff. I have some form of added sugar (specifically) every single day. So I was thinking the other day; what if I went a whole week without added sugar? It'd certainly be difficult, but I think I could do it if I ate really good Primal that week. And hopefully it'd cut down on my sugar cravings.

But I'm still scared to do it. I know it'll be difficult and I REALLY don't want to give up sugar. I'll update y'all when I decide to do it, though. And I WILL do it. I just need to do more research about it first.

But while I'm still eating sugar, I am eating a lot less than I normally would. I'm not eating candy, like Smarties or milk chocolate, whereas I would've eaten like 10 packs of Smarties in a day. (I know, that's a lot!) And I would've gotten a really bad sugar headache and crashed halfway through the day.

While I don't really do very much to avoid sugar, here are some tips if you're looking to cut down on your sugar intake.

- Look at ingredients: Look for all different kinds of sugar: fructose, sweetener, etc. You may not realize that something has sugars in it until you check the packaging.

- Avoid canned or boxed stuff: Most of this stuff has sugar in it. Even savory foods like spaghetti sauce (sugar is added to cut down on the acidity) or ketchup (again, to cut the acidity)

- Eat naturally sweet foods: Fruits and sweet potatoes are naturally sweet, just make sure you're not eating too many of them, or the sugar WILL add up!

Also, since milk chocolate has a TON of added sugar, I've been eating 70% dark chocolate from Lindt. It's not super dark, so it's not too bitter for me, but there's WAY less sugar in it than milk chocolate. Which is good. Also it's been proven that dark chocolate is actually pretty good for you. In moderation, of course! 

Here are a couple articles I read about sugar:

5 Common Mistakes People Make When Avoiding Added Sugar
This article is about what many people do wrong when trying to quit sugar.

My Week Without Sugar, Women's Health Magazine
Pretty interesting, one woman's experience with going sugar-free for a week.

Dear Mark: Sugar Cravings
This is a good article that's Primal, centered on sugar cravings.

Anyway, that's all I've got for you guys today!
Party On! ✌
Sam

Over-eating on Carbs

So I wrote the other day about how I'd been eating too many carbs and I wanted to stop. (Okay right now, place your bets, did I do it? 😉 ) I've been trying to be better about it, but long story short, I'm still having trouble. I am well and truly addicted to carb-y foods.

I have a theory about why I'm still having SO MUCH trouble cutting back. I think it's because if I tell myself I cannot have this thing, I listen to myself? Like, I seem to have no trouble when I completely cut something out of my diet. I did it with soda a while back, and I started the new year going gluten-free. But that's only because I set a strict standard. I can have the other stuff, but just not wheat. And that's a good enough reason to stay away from it. But if I tell myself I can have a little bit of something, then I start to over-indulge. That's what happens when I eat carbs.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries, A Recipe

Today I woke up pretty late. It was already lunchtime and I didn't want to eat anything big right then, so I had some grapes.

We bought sweet potatoes over the weekend but we hadn't eaten them so I decided to make them today. I think a lot of people eat sweet potatoes because they have more nutrients than white potatoes.

I've been eating sweet potatoes more often, recently. I found a great recipe for baked sweet potato fries that are a little bit spicy, and they're really good with mustard! (Weird, I know, but trust me. I guess I really like mustard though.) For me, I wanted to like them but I hate how sweet they are (I know they're called sweet potatoes), so this recipe is perfect because they're pretty spicy the way I make them, plus the mustard cuts some of the sweetness.

First Month is OVER!!

Hi everyone! Okay, so I know I haven't updated in a while but I was busy! School is getting busier and busier but I'm determined to keep this blog. Also, I haven't been following my "low carbs" goal like I wanted to. I've stayed away from wheat (with the exception of a burger + bun the other night and breaded chicken yesterday and a couple days ago), but I'm starting to feel like I'm letting myself slip. I keep allowing multitudes of carbs into my meals, whether or not I realize how much I actually eat. I've stopped measuring my carbs too. Which is a step in the wrong direction. 

Above is a picture of me from January (left) and from today (right). I was going to post the first picture in January but I wanted to show some difference, so I kept it till now. I can't tell much of a difference between the two (other than the fact the January one is blurry! 😉 ) but it's not really discouraged me. I just think I need to keep watching what I eat and make sure I don't slip up as much. Besides, I'm doing this for the rest of the year (and on) so I've got time. 

So when I started I weighed 174, but I weighed myself this morning and it was 168! So about 6 lbs. lost! The most important thing to me is that I'm feeling better, but the weight-loss is also a plus.

I've also been trying to stand up straighter since I started. I took the picture on the left after seeing how much I slouched in the above picture. My spine looked super curved and that alarmed me. In the picture on the left, I'm standing up straight, whereas on the right, I am standing like I normally do: slouched over. It's amazing how much better I look when standing up straight.
 I've always had trouble with standing/sitting up straight, but I've been working on it over the past month. I've been trying to be mindful about the way I walk and sit, and trying to stretch my shoulders back and head up, too. Hopefully there's a subtle difference. It seems like it's easier to do now, whereas before it hurt when I sat up straight for too long.

So anyway, this is my way of reapplying myself to this diet. I haven't cheated too badly but since it's a new month I'm trying to be good again. I'm sticking to my guns and eating what's good for me, not just what tastes good (just because mashed potatoes taste good doesn't mean they don't have carbs). This isn't to say that primal food doesn't taste good, because it does. But what I eat ain't healthy. 

The blog post I had planned to write back in January was about counting calories vs. counting carbs. My stance is simple. I do track what I eat and keep track of the calories but that's only to get a rough estimate of how much food I'm eating. If I'm eating good Primal, it's kind of hard for me to get enough calories. So I make sure I'm eating enough by keeping track of that. I'm also keeping track of my macronutrients: protein, carbs, and fat. I want to make sure I stay under 100 g of carbs or make sure I eat enough protein (I've found that ~90 g protein a day is good for me). This way I can look back if I need to and see how much I was eating in terms of these macronutrients and I can adjust my current eating. If I feel sick and shaky one day, I might have eaten too much or too little protein. (Weird things happen when I eat too much protein in one sitting!). And I need to go back to when I felt good. 

I wouldn't really advise you to count calories unless you really have to. Most people tend to obsess about staying under their calorie goal. A calorie counting app should be a tool that helps you with moderation, rather than a source of stress. If you find yourself going over your allotted calories for the day, ask yourself why. Is your calorie goal too low? I find that 1200 calories is much too low for me. I'm in the 1500-1800 calorie range. Check your calorie goal and see if it's really right for a person of your age and gender. 

For me, it helps keep myself accountable for what I'm eating. I have to manually enter the amount of food I ate and I know I also have to post that on here. But I think the good thing about Primal is learning for yourself when to stop eating, because you feel satisfied. But I know that for a lot of people, myself included, it's hard to stop eating once you've started. And counting calories/macronutrients can really help. Whatever works, go with it. Don't give it up because someone on the internet told you to.

Anyway, I will talk to y'all soon,
Stay cool and be Excellent to each other!
Sam

Carbs, Carbs, and MORE Carbs

I've been eating a lot of carbs. Not really purposely, but more or less because I'm always hungry after meals (especially dinner) and I thought it'd be better to eat a baked potato with one meal, or spaghetti with GF noodles, or tonight, Stir Fry with rice. It does make me fuller after the meal, but usually, it's too full.

When I ate the baked potato, it made me feel like I'd eaten way too much. To be fair, it was quite a large potato. But also, it made me lose the feeling of a clear mind that being only satiated can bring. It made me feel a little more sluggish and sleepy. Not a whole lot, mind you, but enough that I noticed it. And I hardly wanted to move after eating because I felt so full.

I kind of wanted to talk about carbs today. Yes, I am still eating carbs, but I am trying to keep them to a minimum. I know they make me overeat and I'm really trying to control that response. However, I've had carb-y vegetables and rice the past 3 days with at least one meal. I for one, feel like that's too often for me. I need to get back to the place I was before. When I said I would only have rice/GF pasta/ potatoes once a week, I meant it. It's hard, but in the long run, I think it'll make a world of difference.

Publix Haul! And Sautéed Shrimp

So today I feel like I ate pretty well! I did have a baked potato with dinner, so that was quite a lot of carbs, but other than that, I didn't have any wheat so that's good. I went to the grocery store with my mom today, as me and my brother are at her house this weekend, so we bought everything we needed.

I Cheated... and That's Okay

So yes, I cheated really badly yesterday. I had things to do and I couldn't eat at home, so I tried to choose the best things to eat at my mom's house. But we hadn't gone to the store so she didn't have much. I started out pretty well though, I had about 2 handfuls of grapes and some cashews at my brother's request. (I was going to have Pringles because of the convenience, but he talked me out of it. I'm glad he did.) However, I then had like, WAY too many corn chips (they were gluten free, doesn't mean they're healthy!). And then for dinner I had red beans and rice. I have allowed myself to have rice and beans, but I ate almost an entire pot of it. :/ SO NOT GOOD.

The 80/20 Rule Tastes Good!

If you haven't heard of the 80/20 rule, let me explain. Basically it's the idea that if 80% of the time, you're eating Primal, the other 20% can be for indulgences that aren't strictly Primal. This is the explanation I like, and the one I'm using. I will get to the reason behind talking about this in a minute.

January Weight (and Hamburgers)

I weighed myself this morning and I was 175 lbs. Based on BMI, that puts me into obese territory. Which, okay, BMI isn't a super accurate measurement. However, it surprised me quite a lot when I looked it up. So I'm hoping that I can get to an average weight through this year.

Since it's January 2nd already, I thought I'd type up some of the reasons I'm doing this. Because I think it's important that you know where I'm coming from and what my motivations are, especially when I'm changing my lifestyle.

Happy New Year!

I started out this new year a little slow. Last night I went to a party, and after being in the car all day traveling back from Mississippi, I had eaten a ton of crap. I had decided that dinner would be a big bad meal so I could at least get it out of my system before I started eating better. So we had Burger King. Not really a great choice!

But going to the party, watching the ball drop in NYC meant staying up past midnight and walking home. I didn't get to bed till about 1 in the morning, but it was fun so no complaints here!

Today I woke up around 10:30 a.m., and because I didn't really know what to eat, I just waited until lunch to eat anything. I want to start eating more breakfast, I feel like it helps me fill up. But while I'm enjoying my time off school and waking up later, I'm probably not going to have much time for breakfast.

I had some Lil Smokies sausages (I don't like the beef ones, so we have the pork/chicken/turkey ones) and I made chicken broth with some bouillon powder we have. I really need to try to get the "no salt/less salt" one because I know it had to be a lot of sodium. That and I also want to try different soup recipes. Ones that rely more on whole foods than soup powders.

I was still a little hungry so I had a little bit of canned corn. I know, I know, it's an indigestible starch. But since I knew we were having green beans for dinner, I didn't want to eat them twice in a day. I'm going to try to stay away from that type of stuff. The other downside is that for as little corn as I ate, it still brought my carbs up to 36 g for today, so far.

We went to my Uncle's house for dinner tonight, and he's eating a paleo-type diet too, so I knew it'd be easy for me not to cheat. I baked a cake for my aunt, as it was her birthday today, but I didn't eat any of it.

He cooked pork and beef on the grill, and had salad and green beans with it. I prefer pork so I only ate that, and I ended up eating two big pieces. It must've been around 7-10 oz. I don't like dressing on my salad, so I just had a tiny bit of salad on the side. Looking back, I should've had more! It was probably only half a serving anyway.

I felt satiated after I ate, but once the cake came out, I was hungry again. I held off eating again until we got back home, and only just ate a teaspoon of peanut butter at about 10:30 p.m. I was thinking about making a whole can of green beans for myself, but my brother talked me out of it. Plus I didn't really feel like cooking so late at night.

In total, I had 1120 calories today, with 55 g carbs, 65 g fat, and 79 g protein.

I've been thinking of my new year's resolutions today and yesterday and I have a few goals that I want to achieve this year. One is eating better. I want to do primal for a whole year, rather than just a month at a time. I think the trick to achieving this is to think of it as changing my lifestyle rather than sticking to a strict paleo/primal routine for just a month. This means that if I do cheat (and I probably will) that I won't be thrown totally off. And also it's more of a long term thing. It's not that I can NEVER eat bread again, or make cookies for special occasions, but that I want to stay away from those things as much as possible, and realize that not eating them all the time makes me feel SO much better.

What are y'all's new year's resolutions? Any big plans for this year?