Hello and welcome to week 4 of my Gradual Paleo.
I have now made it into my fourth week of my Gradual Paleo. The only thing left to give up is dairy. Dairy for me is like the week 1 of my Gradual Paleo and rather easy. Out of the things that I am giving up I can take or leave dairy. I probably have a fair amount of it due to habit.
Cheese just goes so well in stuff, but a homemade tomato sauce is just as nice isn’t it? And of course you can replace milk with coconut milk. I don’t drink tea or coffee so milk in drinks isn’t something I worry about. If I have tea it’s always a herbal tea – so who needs milk?
I am now just a week away from embracing whole 30 and it’s so exciting to take it that step further.
I am also still rather excited over my weight loss last week (you can read about it here) and anything this week will be a great bonus.
Day 1
Today is day 1 of dairy free and I feel like this is going to be a breeze. I follow the idea that if I am hungry I eat and if I am not hungry I don’t. Otherwise I feel like a cow in the field that just eats grass all day for the sake of it.
For today I have a lovely lunch. We have leftover sausages from the barbecue at the weekend so I end up having sausage, chips and tomatoes. At first glance you are probably thinking “that is not very Paleo” but with the sausages being Paleo friendly and the chips made from sweet potato you can soon see that you can have your favorites in a Paleo way.
In the evening I have a lovely stroll with the puppy and the downside of all this weight that I have lost is that now I am hardly burning anything from light exercise.
Day 2
It is day 2 and for lunch today I make something completely new and wish I hadn’t. It’s not that it doesn’t taste great, it’s because its August and having the oven on high for an hour means that even 12 hours later it is super hot. No more oven for us I think!!!!
We have a chicken thigh tray bake with lots of seasonal vegetables, some honey and olive oil and a chicken thigh on top. I could just eat this everyday!
In the evening it is the time of the soup machine to do its magic and we have butternut squash and leek soup and a salad on the side. While the boys tuck into all their fresh bread I can’t believe how satisfied I am with a salad.
Day 3
It is day 3 and I manage to burn quite a few calories in the morning thanks to our monthly food shop. The cash and carry is busy and carrying Sofia around in the baby carrier makes fantastic exercise.
It also gets me thinking about food and I had a vegetable curry in the slow cooker waiting for me for when we got back.
It is delicious and I notice Dominic (who doesn’t follow Paleo) has his with lots of bread and butter. And he does say that even though it tastes delicious that he wants to know where his carbs are and that men are supposed to have lots of carbs.
In the evening I have some boiled eggs and I am rather used to them not having bread to dip into them now. They are then washed down with a lot of figs.
Figs are in season in Portugal right now and the next door neighbor (who grows her own) brings me a massive basket of them and as I am the only one that likes them I end up eating the lot.
Talk about an excellent natural sugar kick…..
Day 4
This morning I feel motivated so I go around the track at the local park while Dominic is in the supermarket with the kids. I end up doing 24 minutes of jogging, 10 minutes of power walking and 5 minutes on the exercise bike.
It feels great and what worries me now is that with me having a normal BMI that it takes more effort to burn calories so I am slowly increasing my exercise habits. I am incredibly unfit though and this is a big deal for me to be at this level.
When I get back Dominic makes me a tasty tomato omelette and I am surprised by how little calories are in it – just 160……this is not bad considering I have burned over 450 calories.
I am planning on starting my whole 30 next week and I intend for a big part of the exercise to be about toning as even though I have a lot of weight in my stomach area I believe things like sit ups will have a big impact on it.
For lunch Dominic dishes up pork steak and fresh vegetables. I just love steamed cauliflower and carrots and we have not had pork steak in ages. But because I don’t like fat and grizzle the puppy is rather happy to finish off my food for me.
I also end up with stomach cramps in the afternoon and a few dashes to the toilet – note to self “don’t eat excessive amounts of figs” as it will come back to haunt you. So I skip eating in the evening as I am still feeling rather rubbish.
Day 5
Is it day 5 already? I am enjoying Paleo so much that it no longer feels like torture or a need. I am getting less sugar cravings now and when I do it is soon solved with a piece of fruit.
I wonder what my obese self would have thought of me without chocolate?
Today I have a Ragu for lunch. However it is not just ad ordinary one with mince and pasta and some tomato sauce. It is a healthy Paleo one. It is full of healthy vegetables (butternut squash, carrots, tomatoes) and comes with a small portion of mince and lots of tomato sauce. It is delicious and even Dominic doesn’t complain at losing his pasta.
In the evening we have soup and salad. Well I end up giving my soup to Kyle as I have made way too much salad.
I find it a bit weird living off less than 700 calories. But I used to bump it up with chocolate and drinks that were non-Paleo and had about 1200 calories a day so now that I am without these and without a big replacement this is what I have ended up with.
Day 6
It is day 6. After a long walk in the valleys with Kyle, Sofia and the dog I come home and make an egg salad. I felt that it’s about time I had some protein especially after burning just over 600 calories on a morning walk.
I am constantly worried about overdoing the eggs and buying 12 a week and mainly having them myself is extreme so after today (with me having 4 small ones in 2 days) I will be giving it a rest for a couple of days.
In the evening I make a small amount of kebabs – well Italian pork kebabs that look like sausages. They are served up with a super size portion of fresh tomatoes and green peppers. Totally yummy and much better for me than the chips and hot dog buns that Dominic & Kyle have.
Then there was supper…….Kyle comes racing in from playing next door and shouts “I have pudding” I look up expecting to see a big chocolate cake and feeling deprived to instead him presenting me with a massive dish of fresh figs. I am so glad I am the only one in the house that likes them.
They are delicious and so addictive!
Day 7
It is the final day of my gradual Paleo – I will soon be joining the world of Whole 30. For breakfast I have a couple of leftover figs from yesterday as I still have a couple left from yesterday.
For lunch I dip someone of the last of the cucumber into my honey. Come tomorrow I will be giving up the honey and a lot of other things too. So it will be nice to have one last moment with it today.
For dinner I am testing out a new recipe and make some slow cooked chicken with roasted butternut squash and honey roasted carrots. It is delicious. Thankfully the butternut squash we have is a really big one so there are no arguments over who gets the last bit.
The Results
I jump on the weighing scales and it is that worry that when you have had two amazing weight loss weeks that you are going to slow down, is deep in my thoughts. The end result is that I have lost another 1.2 Kilos. Into pounds this is 2.6 pounds. I now weigh in at 72 kilos/158.5 pounds/11 stone 4.5 pounds.
The End Of The Gradual Paleo
I have now completed my Gradual Paleo.
This means that during our time of gradually introducing the Paleo lifestyle into my world I have lost 11.5 pounds and have gone from 12 stone 2 pounds to 11 stone 4.5 pounds. This feels amazing and I am so pleased.
But it goes beyond the weight as I am also very pleased by how much better I feel. I feel healthier and I feel full of life. I want to get out and do things and I am really not missing the food that I am no longer having.
I do wonder whether I could do Paleo forever though. In many countries Paleo items are regularly available but here in Portugal they are not. There is no almond flour, coconut flour, almond oil, avocado oil and such like because it’s not something the locals are interested in. Dark chocolate is also only 70% dark and therefore doesn’t fall under Paleo rules.
So if I did it in the long term I would never be able to have a cake or a pudding again and that is a big deal to me. But we will see how I feel once I have done the Whole 30 and adjusted my body to its long term needs.
Now watch the video:
You can find out even more about how I got on via our week 4 video: