Tag Archives: paleo

Day 39-Dena Doesn’t Eat Cheese…

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Drunk Dena, However…That’s another story. Everyone has their weaknesses and temptations when it comes to food.  By now, it is very easy for me to avoid my food allergies of gluten, dairy, and eggs under normal circumstances. I have had enough experiences over the years where I have eaten food containing these ingredients and have felt the negative effects. Logic kicks in and I know to avoid it. On the other hand, give me too many drinks and I need cheese immediately…and I mean immediately. Exhibit A: 30th Birthday,October 2014. Exhibit B: New Years Eve 2015.  I do not know what it is about cheese, but for me…It was what I lived for as a child.  My earliest memories of food obsession was visiting my grandparents’ house. After dinner, my grandma would tell me that I had enough macaroni and cheese and would put the tupperware away in the fridge.  I recall sneaking into the fridge quietly and would help myself to additional noodles.

I guess what I am trying to say is: know your temptations.  Is it a specific food? Is it situational?  Try to be aware of what they are so you can do your best to control the situation.  Do not keep these items in the house if you can avoid doing so. If you are going to a party, eat something small before hand and do not be afraid to pack your own snacks. My favorites are mixed nuts and cut up vegetables like celery and carrots. Last week, we went to a super bowl party and Cliff had to remind me that it would be weird to bring left over pork so I refrained from doing so.

In addition to cheese, I learned that another weakness of mine is desserts that I can technically eat because they do not contain ingredients that I am allergic to. This past Saturday, Cliff and I had some people over to our apartment and I wanted to make some dessert.  I found this amazing Paleo friendly 7-Layer Bar recipe as well as a Paleo Egg-Free Chocolate Coconut Macaroon recipe online that I decided to try.  Now remember, just because something is Paleo or gluten free, does not make it healthy!  It had been over a month since I had sugar and various items like alcohol and grains so I wanted to treat myself and see how my body reacted off the detox.

Between Saturday and going to a friend’s house warming on Sunday, I consumed a few drinks, grains (quinoa), starchy vegetables (sweet potato), chips, soft corn tortillas for homemade tacos, and my Paleo friendly desserts sweetened with honey. The most noticeable reaction that I had was in response to the sugar.  There was a lot of honey in the desserts that I made and as I got shaky after tasting them for the first time!  I decided that Monday I would get back on track. To do this, I knew that I could not have any left overs Paleo desserts in our apartment.  I had to give all the leftovers to Cliff to bring in to give out to his co-workers.  If I brought them into my own work, I would gravitate towards them throughout the day. Interestingly, the past couple of days has been harder at night for me. Monday I had the worse headache.  It’s crazy how my body was feeling withdrawal just from indulging during the weekend. Also interestingly, I  have been craving something sweet at night and I have been snacking on grapes after dinner to try and satisfy my cravings.  In hindsight, the smart thing to do would have been to introduce one item at a time to see how it made me feel. Maybe next time!

-Dena

Cliff Day Almost Finished: The hardest part of cooking right…

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is cleaning all your stuffff.  If we did not have a dishwasher, this whole detox would have gone a much different direction. I’d like to apologize for going MIA for a little bit there, life got busy.  We are still doing the detox (albeit with a slip up or two, ie super bowl) and it is still going great.  Dena has finished up her 30 days and she will be continuing it into the foreseeable future.  I will be done on February 6 and I will be continuing for the most part.  Any meals out will be anything goes and all meals at home/lunch will be sticking to the diet.  Alcohol will be consumed responsibly.

So, I know youre dying to know how much weight we’ve lost, how great we now look, and all about the great things we’ve been cooking.  Ill let Dena dive further into her stats when she posts, but for me now I am around 138, down over 8 pounds!  I’m considering this as low as I want to go and will be increasing calories to above 2000 each day (at least trying to).  Before/after pictures will be posted.  I can definitely see my face looking less inflamed and the abs are back.  Dena most certainly did not catch me checking myself out in the mirror.. As expected, I have been struggling most with the going to bed on time, as many nights I have to stay up past midnight to do work.  I feel so old wanting to go to bed before 11.

As for the gym, my elbow has healed, just got the all clear from the doctor, and I am ramping up my weightlifting.  Unfortunately, I have started getting awful shin splints, and I will be starting physical therapy on those.  As for the morning shake, it is time to start adding amino acids, and maybe a touch of creatine.  I have decided that it is a must to go in the morning to the gym.  In fact I decided this last week when I started a blog post but never posted.

“I also need to get my ass in gear in the AM and hit the gym then. This after work at 7 is not cutting it.  Just like I couldn’t do the shake in the morning without protein, I just can’t seem to get a groove going to the gym at night.  Cannot emphasize this enough, remember it all about adjustment and what works for you.”Going at 7 or 8 at night is just not sustainable.  Your energy is completely gone from working all day, you are either hungry or full depending on if you ate dinner, and the euphoric feelings you get from working out in the morning are glorious.  My most productive days at work are after I work out.

All pictures of the food we have been eating can be found on our instagram, and we will be posting recipes later this week,  Get ready to be hungry my friends.

Cliff Day 16: Green Curry Shrimp

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I have been craving Green Curry since we started this detox.  I also see everyone else making it so I thought why can’t I?  I had the day off, and I had the apartment all to myself.  Normally, this means a day of couch lounging and video games, but in the spirit of being less lazy, I went on a journey to create an amazing green curry sauce and overload it with shrimp.

I used the following recipe with a few minor tweaks:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/thai-green-curry-shrimp-recipe.html

I cut out the Eggplant, Shrimp Stock (replaced with extra coconut milk), and added some jalepeno.

After journeying to 4 different stores to find everything I needed, I began cooking.  A short 20 minutes, a can I had to stab with a knife to open, and a huge mess later, my masterpiece was finished. I may not be as eloquent a cooker as Dena, I managed to keep her from seeing the mess I made, but we end up in the same place.  You can pretty much use whatever vegetables you want and make sure to get gluten free/wheat free fish sauce (I used Thai Kitchen).  Dena came to the rescue with what we should eat this over, as she made her wonderfully delicious cauliflower rice.

I want to add I recently purchased an amazing knife that made cutting the vegetables a hell of a lot easier (my hand disagrees) :

Try it out.  Best knife I have ever used.

We have some more Pork Loin in the fridge, along with some lamb loin, so I am excited to see what we do with it next.

As for my weight progress, I have steadied off and I am now 140 even.  I feel and look skinnier, and my former gut is calling me every day upset that every day we drift apart more and more.

mmmm Green Curry
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Cliff Day 10: I pick things up and…

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I put them down.  My first trip back to the gym was a good reality check. I had dreams that I had not lost that much in the months while I was healing, but I was so so wrong.  I did a basic chest workout to get my muscles into the groove of things and nothing seemed to go right.  I was constantly worried about my elbow and I’m not even going to discuss how little weight I could do.  I have always been a skinny guy, and while this has its perks, it also has its downfalls.  Building muscle has been a huge challenge throughout my whole life.  I have tried many different supplements, and nothing has ever gotten me to the point I’ve dreamed of.  I am avoiding any until this detox is over, but I will list out my favorites at some point.  When I have ever come close to a muscle-building goal, I have sustained some sort of injury.  I mean once I had to  take a 4 month break from working out because I hurt my wrist while playing soccer.  That’s right folks, I hurt the thing you are not even allowed to use in that sport.  Now that I am fueling my body with the good food it can actually use, my hope is my gains will go up up and even more up.

NOW, onto the good stuff.  If I told you, you could make pizza out of cauliflower, would that be something you’d be interested in?  WELL, thanks to that magical girlfriend of mine, we had exactly that last night.  Not only that, due to Dena’s allergies, we had to substitute eggs in it with a flax-seed mixture.  It took a LONG time, a bit of “bickering”, and a huge mess in the kitchen, but after all was said and done, it came out great.  I’ve also learned, to never tell anyone I was a dishwasher in High School because my mom’s favorite line, and now Dena’s is…”But we need a professional to do the dishes!”  But I digress.  We used Tomatoes, Basil, and Ground Turkey as toppings.  While i would not call it your every day pizza, it certainly was pretty darn close.  And the best part was we had leftovers.  I haven’t been this excited for lunch since yesterday’s lunch of leftovers!  My weight has grown stagnant, which I am okay with because I am still looking and feeling better every day.  The world needs to understand weight is just a number, and that it is about how you feel, how you look in your eyes, and how you’re treating your body (although I wouldn’t object to weighing 170 built of pure muscle). Napoleonic Complex much?