Root's Paleo Challenge

[Root]

My lady friend and I have entered into a 5 week Paleo challenge at our gym. Our goal is to loose weight.

Here are the guidelines:

No Grains, No Legumes, No Added Sugar. No Dairy. No Excuses.

Allowances:You can have - but are not obligated to have - the following:

Two (2) Paleo alcoholicdrinks per week (e.g. - a glass of organic red wine, tequila, hard cider) and no stockpiling drinks. Make them count.

Two (2) Paleo treats per week (e.g. - one (1) serving of baked Paleo goods, full fat cultured yogurt, 85% chocolate, etc). Please be reasonable with your serving size and note that one (1) serving is rarely a dozen of anything.

One (1) 'off the reservation' cheat meal over the course of the challenge.

I'm pretty good with making Paleo lunch/dinners. For breakfast, I typically have one of the following, 2 of which are not really Paleo
1. Eggs with any or none of the following: bacon, peppers, mushrooms, onions
2. Slow-cooked oatmeal with fresh berries and a tablespoon of Vermont Grade B maple syrup
3. Cottage cheese and fresh pineapple.

Anyone care to share some Paleo breakfast ideas?

[Acala]

My breakfast is usually eggs with a bunch of different vegetables scrambled in - garlic, onions, peppers, spinach, chard, kale, tomato, mushrooms - whatever is on hand. And then on the side some bacon or smoked salmon. Then a little bit of fruit. Variety comes from the different vegetables and spices.

[Root]

I'm trying not to get into the habit of eggs everyday. I don't know why really, I do love them. I can vary flavor by using different veggies and then bacon once or thrice a week.

I also save my bacon fat to add flavor to veggies used for other meals.

[specsaregood]

No much help here. going primal helped me rediscover my love for eggs. now I just eat eggs every weekday with some leftover meat mixed in and cheese.

the one thing I make sure to avoid is anything with any sort of sugar as I found that anything with any type of sugar or carbs makes me famished by lunch, but a meat omelet and I'm good until dinner. I leave the sugar or carbs for late lunch snack or dinner.

[donnay]

Today's breakfast:

Omelet with mushrooms, onions and bell peppers and salsa on top when finished cooking. 1/2 cup of fruit salad with walnuts and sliver of almonds. My fruit salad has blueberries, apple, banana and grapes. All organic.

1 cup of organic coffee.
1 6oz. glass of water with a tbsp. of apple cider vinegar w/MOTHER.


ETA: I forgot I season with; Turmeric, garlic and Celtic sea salt.

[green73]

steak

with or without the eggs.

[Root]

For the record, today I weighed in at 212 pounds and I'm 5'11". We have committed to each other to crossfit workouts 4 days a week with an occasional bike ride mixed in.

[helmuth_hubener]

Get Primal Quick and Easy Meals by downloading this:

http://kickass.to/mark-sisson-the-pr...-t5477488.html

It has quite a few recipes.

Also, my advise to you is: Don't be in any hurry to lose weight! Eat all you want; don't deprive yourself. Just change the type of food you eat. Dieting doesn't work. A couple things I've posted on the subject:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post5465701
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post5480310

I'm no expert! Just passing along what seems to be the best, highest-quality information on the subject.

[dannno]

Hmm well I would consider eating pastured eggs every day, or at least regularly, it's a pretty good staple and will balance some of the bad fats you may get from bacon or pork products (which also have good fats and is generally ok to eat pretty regularly if it is pastured imo).

Grass fed steak and eggs is superior and a fantastic choice if you can afford to do that.

What I usually do is make coffee and whip some grass-fed butter and coconut oil into it. 1-2 tbs of coconut oil + 1-2 tbs grass fed butter (I personally think this is paleo, but technically is against your guidelines so you can choose if you just want to do the coconut oil and you can try adding in butter after the challenge is over)

Then I usually just have like 4-5 slices of bacon and 3-4 eggs. The bacon I get is pastured so it is ok but isn't the best thing to eat but it has a lot of fat that i need for my energy for the day, I try not to eat carbs for breakfast and will eat my paleo carbs later in the day usually so I mix the high fat bacon with so many good fats that it is ok. In fact, pork fat is superior to chicken fat (though a lot of that I think is dependent on the animal's specific diet)

[trey4sports]

paleo cereal is good. nuts (pecans, almonds, etc) with unsweetened almond milk. Mix in fresh strawberries, blueberries etc and you're good to go.

[Lindsey]

Does oatmeal break the no grains rule?

[Root]

Get Primal Quick and Easy Meals by downloading this:

http://kickass.to/mark-sisson-the-pr...-t5477488.html

It has quite a few recipes.

Also, my advise to you is: Don't be in any hurry to lose weight! Eat all you want; don't deprive yourself. Just change the type of food you eat. Dieting doesn't work. A couple things I've posted on the subject:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post5465701
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post5480310

I'm no expert! Just passing along what seems to be the best, highest-quality information on the subject.

I thank you and will read through the links later tonight. I'm in no hurry to lose weight. I used to be 280 and it's taken me years to get to this point. I love to cook and eat too so that won't be an issue.

[Root]

Hmm well I would consider eating pastured eggs every day, or at least regularly, it's a pretty good staple and will balance some of the bad fats you may get from bacon or pork products (which also have good fats and is generally ok to eat pretty regularly if it is pastured imo).

Grass fed steak and eggs is superior and a fantastic choice if you can afford to do that.

What I usually do is make coffee and whip some grass-fed butter and coconut oil into it. 1-2 tbs of coconut oil + 1-2 tbs grass fed butter (I personally think this is paleo, but technically is against your guidelines so you can choose if you just want to do the coconut oil and you can try adding in butter after the challenge is over)

Then I usually just have like 4-5 slices of bacon and 3-4 eggs. The bacon I get is pastured so it isn't the best thing to eat but it has a lot of fat that i need for my energy for the day, I try not to eat carbs for breakfast and will eat my paleo carbs later in the day usually so I mix the high fat bacon with so many good fats that it is ok. In fact, pork fat is superior to chicken fat (though a lot of that I think is dependent on the animal's specific diet)

Good deal! I can afford that a few days a week, at least for now...

I stopped drinking milk a few months ago, and have grown used to almond milk coffee.

[Root]

paleo cereal is good. nuts (pecans, almonds, etc) with unsweetened almond milk. Mix in fresh strawberries, blueberries etc and you're good to go.

I really don't like nuts. I know I should eat them however. Fruits I'm saving for dessert.

[Root]

Does oatmeal break the no grains rule?

Yeah, it does. I love oatmeal with fresh berries too. It's only 5 weeks.

Thankfully I have 2 gallons of apple wine fermenting that should be ready by this weekend.

[specsaregood]

I really don't like nuts. I know I should eat them however. Fruits I'm saving for dessert.

For the first year and such I made some nutbars that I had for breakfast everyday. lost lots of weight that way. I posted a bunch of nutbar recipes in another thread around here somewhere.

[Feeding the Abscess]

Don't do crossfit style workouts until you've lost a good amount of weight and are at least reasonably athletic and coordinated. You're asking to tear ligaments or otherwise injure something pretty severely if you try to work out like that while being overweight and untrained.

[Root]

Don't do crossfit style workouts until you've lost a good amount of weight and are at least reasonably athletic and coordinated. You're asking to tear ligaments or otherwise injure something pretty severely if you try to work out like that while being overweight and untrained.

I've been doing CrossFit for almost six weeks now. I'm in reasonably good shape. I am expert level skier who also mountain bikes, and hikes regularly during my off-season. Pulled a quad two weeks ago and it healed up much quicker than I expected.

[Root]

Official starting stats:
Weight - 211.6#
Waist - 39.5"
Hips - 42"

[Nirvikalpa]

Paleo pancakes are my new favorite meal.... for any time of day. Just 1 egg + 1 banana, mixed, and put into a skillet with some ghee or coconut oil. omfg. it's the only way I consume eggs (just... don't... like... the ... texture).

Since you don't like nuts, "Enjoy Life" has a nice seed and fruit mix I've been nomzin' on. I found them at ShopRite.

[heavenlyboy34]

3 egg omlette or scrambled eggs, topped with salsa (I prefer verde), cheese, and sour cream. If you have grilled chicken, that goes well on it as well.

[Root]

Paleo pancakes are my new favorite meal.... for any time of day. Just 1 egg + 1 banana, mixed, and put into a skillet with some ghee or coconut oil. omfg. it's the only way I consume eggs (just... don't... like... the ... texture).

Since you don't like nuts, "Enjoy Life" has a nice seed and fruit mix I've been nomzin' on. I found them at ShopRite.

Cool! Thanks. I can't stand the Springfield ShopRite on Morris Ave. It smells like stale produce in there. Or death. I'll make a special visit however, as I need some decent snacks still.

[Root]

3 egg omlette or scrambled eggs, topped with salsa (I prefer verde), cheese, and sour cream. If you have grilled chicken, that goes well on it as well.

I actually had salsa omelette today but with 1/2 avocado. Sour cream is dairy, so that's out but sounds great!

[specsaregood]

Cool! Thanks. I can't stand the Springfield ShopRite on Morris Ave. It smells like stale produce in there. Or death. I'll make a special visit however, as I need some decent snacks still.

I thought that was what all shoprites smelled like. I can't stand that place, I drive 15min further to go to wegmans instead every week.

[Root]

I thought that was what all shoprites smelled like. I can't stand that place, I drive 15min further to go to wegmans instead every week.

I wish there was a wegmans nearby. I do most of my grocery shopping at Trader Joes but sometimes I go to A&P. Both are 10-15 mins further away. That smell grosses me out. When the local SR was renovated a few years back, they actually got the smell out for a few months, but it returned. Puke.

[Nirvikalpa]

Cool! Thanks. I can't stand the Springfield ShopRite on Morris Ave. It smells like stale produce in there. Or death. I'll make a special visit however, as I need some decent snacks still.

If you try it, make them small (small enough they can fit on a flipper) and make sure you use good oil so they won't stick - or you'll make banana-egg scramble. take it from the expert in banana-egg scramble

otherwise, they turn out nomiful and like this:



and also just to brag... cashew-creme "cheesecake" with date/almond crust (paleo):



mostly everything can be paleo-ofied. I love it!

[Root]

^ That looks delish! I will give them a try for sure and let ya know how I make out.

[Suzanimal]

My favorite breakfast happens to be Paleo...

2 fried eggs over easy on a bed of organic spring mix (salad), when you cut up the eggs on the salad the yolk is the salad dressing. It tastes better than it sounds.

[specsaregood]

My favorite breakfast happens to be Paleo...

2 fried eggs over easy on a bed of organic spring mix (salad), when you cut up the eggs on the salad the yolk is the salad dressing. It tastes better than it sounds.

Make it an arugula salad and I'm with you.

[Root]

My favorite breakfast happens to be Paleo...

2 fried eggs over easy on a bed of organic spring mix (salad), when you cut up the eggs on the salad the yolk is the salad dressing. It tastes better than it sounds.

Good idea! My breakfasts have all been eggs since last Wednesday. I'm growing ok with it. Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and fresh basil is now my 3rd favorite breakfast.

As of Saturday, I've lost about 3 pounds. I've been asked not to weigh my self until Wednesday again, and then only weekly. Sigh, my ocd doesn't like that, but ok.

I feel fantastic and I'm sleeping better, but still need pharmaceuticals to get more than 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. It sucks, but I'm hoping that when the nightmare I've been living with for the past year or so ends in a few days that will change. Oh yeah, bought a new bed which arrives on Sunday. Super excited about that .

I went mountain biking for the first time since starting crossfit this weekend. Holy $#@!!! Mind blown. Exponential improvement in my performance not only on the climbs, but overall balance, handling/cornering and absorbing the terrain. If this is what 6 weeks of crossfit does for my biking, I'm stoked to see what 6 months will do for my skiing.