Hello and a big welcome to my week 2 of my gradual Paleo.
This week is what I dread the most and what I believe I will find the hardest about going Paleo. I love my carbs and they often form a very big part of my daily food intake. I will often have Weetabix for breakfast, lunch will often involve bread and I cook pasta at least three times a week. Then my meals wouldn’t be complete without either chips or rice to go with them.
So as you can see this is a major impact in my diet. I am also finding that my favorite alternative to potatoes (butternut squash) is currently out of season, so it’s going to hard work.
When I look at other parts of going Paleo like quitting dairy and processed foods I don’t see a problem, but this one is going to be the hardest part.
Also I find that the hardest thing is breakfast – I am worried that even when I am hungry I am going to end up skipping it, out of fear of what to have. I am not a big egg fan, I hate bacon and meat for breakfast is just weird. Maybe I will just snack on fruit or green peppers or maybe even boiled eggs.
Who knows?
So bring it on as I am always up for a challenge……
Day 1
Well I end up sat in the kitchen about to head out to the beach having leftover picnic salad for breakfast. Not the best of ideas but I am learning that when I don’t have time to cook, that whatever is available in the fridge is perfect.
For lunch it is a picnic on the beach. What gets me about this is that trying to make a picnic that has no carbs is a nightmare. Everything that I would normally have in a picnic has carbs in it and this is proving to be difficult.
I would normally have things like salad sandwiches, pastries, tuna wraps, homemade biscuits and loads of other similar things.
I end up doing the usual things for the boys and then I end up with:
- Cucumber with soft cheese
- Tuna salad
- Tuna stuffed peppers
And yet I look at these three and they are not Paleo, they are just carb free. To be Paleo in a few weeks I will have to do them without dairy. So maybe picnics are not a good thing for us? Not that I mind there is a restaurant nearby that does chicken kebabs with salad and prawns and that would be delicious and totally Paleo.
Day 2
For day 2 I am already skipping breakfast. I am starving hungry but have loads to do and work to think about. Plus I hate all the usual breakfasts that most people on Paleo have and roll on lunch.
For lunch it is salmon with some broccoli cooked by Dominic – it is delicious and well worth waiting for!
Then in the evening he makes me a delicious pepper and cheese omelette. Now this has a little cheese in it, but I could imagine having this everyday (minus the cheese) once I am on whole 30. It sounds like a fantastic plan.
I wash down the omelette with Dominic’s homemade pudding. Puddings is something I am going to miss from next week, but I am already thinking up tasty ones with alternatives such as honey, apple etc.
Day 3
Onto day 3 and I have hard boiled eggs and tinned tomatoes for breakfast. I feel like I am about to fall into the trap of these on a regular basis. This is because I am not the eggs and bacon kind of person and I am struggling to find breakfasts that don’t involve carbs.
I don’t actually miss carbs as such as I thought I would, its just trying to plan a life without carbs that is proving to be so difficult.
For lunch I make chicken in a coconut sauce for lunch with lots of lovely vegetables. Dominic has made some lovely pudding yesterday so we have the leftovers after lunch and they are super yummy. I am really going to miss my sugar when I lose it next week.
In the evening we have sausage fried rice (using cauliflower so carb free) and some spare sausages that I have leftover in the fridge. I am really getting into my meat with vegetables or salad at the moment.
Day 4
It is day 4 and it feels amazing to have passed the halfway point this week. I am noticing the benefits of the lack of carbs and I am finding that I am getting a lot more energy than I did before.
It still feels weird not to have bread all the time and of course not to have cereal for breakfast but I am starting to get used to it.
Tinned tomatoes seem to be my natural calling as they are so easy to just heat up on the hob and I am also worrying that too many eggs is going to result in bad cholesterol levels. I always associate eggs with this and even though we can often get through six in a week, getting through this amount in 72 hours is scary.
Day 5
For breakfast = broccoli soup. Yes I know – soup for breakfast sounds stupid. But its full of nutrients, lots of fat burning foods, no eggs, no fat and what else is there not to love about it.
We have a soup machine so it makes it super easy to do and then Dominic & Kyle also have some for lunch too. And I find that economically it is often to difficult to be able to have meat three times a day and this makes an excellent use of cheap vegetables.
In the evening we have one of my all time favorites = pulled pork. I just love this meat. I would usually have it inside wraps but instead have it with some cauliflower rice and some salad. Healthy yet super tasty!
This also proves that you can have an amazing Friday night supper and then not feel like you are missing out.
Day 6
It is Saturday and after taking the dog for a walk with my son and burning over 600 calories I need something high in protein to stop me from eating everything in sight.
I have boiled eggs and cucumber for lunch and the cucumber works well because its very watery so it helps with my dehydration from the heat.
Then for dinner we have a family barbecue. Barbecue is my world at the moment because with multiple meats and lots of salad its perfect for satisfying me. I don’«t even get jealous of the boys and their burger buns!
Day 7
So it’s Sunday and Dominic is requesting a Sunday roast with roast potatoes and Yorkshire Puddings. Well he can go out and have them and leave me here, because he not cooking his delicious roast potatoes when I can’t have any!
Instead I make slow cooked chicken that we have been given from our neighbor (she has a huge chicken house next door) and I cook it with Mediterranean vegetables, a spicy tomato sauce and sweet potato mash.
Absolutely amazing and keeping me protein fix up means that I don’t want more.
The Results
So there you have it I am at the end of week 2 and this Gradual Paleo is not as bad as I thought. I don’t feel deprived but then again ask me that again next week once I have quit sugar. As my life without chocolate is going to be a very tough one.
I jump on the scales thinking that I can’t cope with yet another 0.1 kilo off as it gets really depressing when you put the effort in and then hardly lose anything.
Well I am shocked to see that I have actually lost 2 kilos (nearly 4.5 pounds) in just one week. I could gladly go carb free forever if I can keep this up. I doubt it will happen again next week though, because I believe my two really good weeks have finally paid off.
Dominic is also losing weight every week because he eats similar to me. He hasn’t quit his bread but the lack of naughty foods around is adding up.
Now watch the video:
You can find out even more about how I got on via our week 2 video: