Paleo cooking/lifestyle thread

Annnnnnd I'm done. If none of us are getting these alleged miraculous benefits there's just no point in moving forward. I did notice changes when I started adopting a more mild version of the paleo diet, stopped eating out and shopped in health food stores. More energy, teeth in better condition, no crashes in the work afternoon, skin with a bit more color, and so on. However, doing this whole30 doesn't seem to add anything. In fact the only thing I'm noticing is that no matter how much I eat I'm never satisfied. I wasn't fat or sickly to begin with so doing this just because I'm doing it isn't a good enough reason. Besides, I had resigned myself literally 2 days into the diet that I would be switching back to some grains, booze, and dairy after I had the finished the whole30. I'm sorry, and link whatever experts you want, but these guys talk like eliminating all grains and dairies from your diet is going to add 20 years to your life expectancy and it's bullshit. Not to mention the health community is far away from a consensus on the paleo diet being the best option. I'm just going to stick with cooking for myself and shopping at health food stores. Maybe it isn't the best I can do, but I'm willing to accept a few risks so that I can enjoy my relationship with food. Now, if y'all will excuse me I'm going to meet some friends for a beer. Fuck the whole30.

 

Nobody has offered a practical solution for my annoying drunk husband

 

I'd suggest doing what I've been doing the past month and a half. Having one meal or day, if it serves you better, where you don't follow the diet. Adding in grains/dairy with every other meal and drinking every weekend doesn't really do much for you. You aren't really doing anything at that point other than...eating. You also don't need to shop at health food stores. Most of their products are no different from regular grocery stores. The only slim difference is organic fruits/veggies, but you can buy those pretty much anywhere now. Grass fed beef, if you are eating that as well, is cheaper and much fresher straight from a butcher.

Edit* The benefits are definitely there with eliminating almost all grains. Even if it's not an immediate thing, taking them out of your diet will improve your overall health. It most likely won't add 20 years to your life, but it greatly decreases your risk of dying from some catastrophic heart problem or otherwise.

 

ANNNDDDDD....
This is exactly why I have been holding on to this stupid thing. I will then be a self professed failure, and I just hate that. One thing I am not is a quitter. But, with that being said, I think I am quitting. I am also a smart gal and I honestly don't think that I will get anything out of seeing this through. Based on everything everybody is saying here, it is kind of pointless (unless anybody can give me a viable reason why I shouldn't of course, I am all ears). It is too strict and making me almost obsess about food, which I really really hate, and supposedly contrary to the focus of this. So my tea thing is a a ritual, it isn't like I am cooking up heroin, where is the harm? If the only benefit to breaking my stevia habit is to make fruit taste better, then I am pretty happy with it as is. If I am just going to add it right back in, why am I arbitrarily quitting for 30 days?

With all of that being said, I just feel so ashamed.

 

That is my point about the Stevia, yet it is specifically prohibited in this Whole30 thing. My deal isn't with Paleo, that I am going to stick with, but this is just way too structured for me. It's not so much a "don't cheat" or "give into cravings thing" for me, it is that I don't see the value for me.

Plus I just had a quick read of their forum because the whole quitting thing is bugging me, and apparently I have been unknowingly cheating the entire time anyway. Who knew that you couldn't have coconut or almond milk from a carton? Not me.

So basically, it isn't like I am quitting, it is like I never even started. Guys I think I found a loophole.

 

Reasons like this are why I never bothered doing the Whole30 program. I mean, I read the Whole9 site regularly and try to pick up useful ideas, but saying that milk from a carton is bad? Child, please. There's a fine line between being smart and being obsessive-compulsive, and "advice" like that tiptoes it. At a certain point, common sense should prevail. As long as you drink coconut/almond milk instead of animal milk, you have the right idea.

For a site that preaches far and wide about "improving your relationship with food," those guys turn it into a stressful, meticulous chore, which is counter-intuitive. I want to enjoy my food, not worry constantly about whether it meets the last 2% of criteria, when I've got the other 98% in the bag.

I couldn't agree more. I may still be cutting my teeth with Paleo*, but Sisson's approach towards food is more sensible. That man's site has made this whole transition more enjoyable and informative than I could have imagined. Better still, he always puts his guidelines (regardless if they concern diet, fitness, sleep, etc.) into proper context, so you get a better understanding of how this food or that activity affects your body, and why you should/should not partake. That's a much healthier alternative to "I'm going to try this and hope it works, because it's good for me, um...somehow."

By no means am I suggesting that you guys should stop doing Whole30, because it has great values and is a very useful dietary compass. But when you begin to worry about things like "this coconut milk might not be good for me after all, because it's not canned," you lose the forest for the trees. You're all smart enough not to get lost in petty details like that.



* - High-five for a sweet avatar reference?

 

I honestly had no idea about it and it didn't even occur to me to read the list of ingredients because I thought coconut milk and almond milk was legit. But once I read that, it kind of solidified every little thing that I was bitching about and I threw in the towel. Basically I haven't been doing it anyway so why continue, and I sure as shit am not going to start over.

Good on you DCC, you are a much stronger woman than I.

On a totally unrelated note, mmmmmm, coffee.....this is how I like it.

(but if it makes you feel better, I won't eat any cheese until you are done)

 

I really like Sisson's approach. It can basically be boiled down to "Don't eat shitty food."


I heard about something yesterday I'm dying to try. Boil then peel an egg. Season some ground beef or use sausage, and basically cover the egg with it, smoosh it up nice and close, then pan fry it.

Must.
Eat.
This.

 

This thread reminds me of way back when I used to be a personal trainer. People would come in all excited at first and they would have a schedule of when they were going to lift and how much weight they were going to lose and would buy all new outfits and read up on it and blabbity blabbity blah. Then it would get hard (I never subscribed to the cute and cuddly approach to training) but they would stick with it, and push through. Then, inevitably, life would happen and they would miss a day or be late to a session or maybe not hit lifts they had hit just last week and they would get incredibly discouraged. It as if they thought that by missing a day they lost all the progress they made and had to start all over. I can sympathize because I remember when I first started out I would freak out if I missed a day (IM LOSING MY PUMP BROSEF!). Now? Eh, sometimes it can't be helped, although I try to keep that to a minimum.
My point is, even though there might have been small speedbumps, you might as well finish it off. Don't think you have to start over, just shrug and move on with the 14 days or 20 days or whatever you have left. One small mistake doesn't invalidate all the work being done to this point, and once you finish doing something challenging like this following Sisson's approach should be no problem.
Of course, last night I had a rib eye, rice and beans, bacon and half an avocado with a big glass of chocolate milk and rocky road ice cream for dessert, so I'm probably not the best person to talk about food.

 

Scotch eggs are awesome. I was a little suspicious at first but they're great, hot or cold. You can bake them if you want to avoid frying also, 375 for 20ish minutes should be good.

 

When I was told they were called Scotch eggs I was excited.



Then I realized he really was talking about food and not Scotch.

Then I was sad.

 

Since we're on the subject of eating clean
Fuck yeah pancakes
There's this awesome diner near the gym I train at, so if I go early enough on a Saturday and bust my ass I'll go there for post-training breakfast. And it's awesome.

 

This is pretty much what I'm planning to do. I suppose I'm a failure for quitting, but I'm just going to look at it like I'm reverting to what I did when I started the paleo rather than the whole30. Limit the grains, stick with coconut milk, and treat myself to the occasional snack/meal. Keep some pasta in the pantry because I don't want to miss out on all those awesome Italian dishes, but other than that I don't need much grains, and aside from pasta I can always favor whole grains, which most nutritionists do recommend. I'm going to stick with the health food stores because when I walk into most grocery stores it feels like you can't buy 95% of what they sell as soon as you read the label. Basically I'm saying I'm going to stay with what was working for me when I adopted the paleo, I just don't want to endure torture (can we call it the torture30 instead of the whole30?) when I don't see myself getting anything out of it.

 

Meh, it's just one meal, it's not going to kill you. If you actually like any of that stuff I wouldn't think indulging for a day is so bad.

 

We can agree to disagree about this. For me, I just wasn't seeing the benefit and never heard anything to convince me otherwise, so I made an educated decision that it wasn't working for me. Plus I didn't like how restrictive it was and how food focused I had to be to stay on plan. For example, my mom has recently become vegetarian and is being as annoying about it as a lot of people do when they decide to eat vegetarian. When she made the comment to me that I was doing the Whole30 so I could feed a food obsession, much like she is with her changes, it confirmed everything I was already thinking.

And DCC, for what it is worth, I completely agree with you on this, you are either in or you are out. The point is kind of NOT giving in for "just one meal". And I hear ya, we have food brought in ALL THE FUCKING TIME, and people seem to get really really overly involved in what I want and don't want to eat ("oh come on....one cookie/brownie/deep fried twinkie/whatever crap they are eating isn't going to hurt you"). Although now that I am a few months in, they must be getting used to it and are laying off a bit. Thankfully because it was annoying me to no end.