I’m Back!

Hello everyone!

So sorry I have been away for so long. Things have been very busy with uni and work and I haven’t had time to sit down and properly write a post.

I went to the ball and while my dress did zip up, it was still a little tight so I ended up hiring another dress to wear.

My friends and I at the ball! I am the one in the middle 🙂

So… paleo…

Firstly, I just want to say that I respect all opinions people have on various diets/lifestyles etc. and the following is just my opinion and personal experiences.

To me, the paleo diet seems great on paper. Only eating fish, nuts, meat, fruits and vegetables sounds good but in theory I found this really hard to stick to. I eat a lot of food and I loveeeeeeeee carbs. There’s nothing more appealing to me than a big bowl of pasta or warm freshly baked bread (bread is rare for me as I mostly eat gluten free which makes it taste even better when I do eat it!). That being said, I found it really hard to stop eating carbs and I found I was always hungry. I also found it hard to find different meals to eat other than the typical meat and veggie dinners. I did find a few great websites that offered inspiration, (if you want to check them out I will post the links below) however when I tried to make a few recipes I couldn’t get them to taste very nice. 😦

It was also quite expensive for me to buy good quality meat so unfortunately I couldn’t afford to eat meat for every meal and when I did have meat I only had a small amount. I then had to bulk up each meal with vegetables and don’t get me wrong I love vegetables, but when you are having them so often every day I got sick of them really fast.

A few things I did notice while I was paleo was that I felt better. In my normal everyday eating, I tend to not be so strict on the amount of dairy I consume. I figure that a tiny amount every few days couldn’t hurt too much, so I will occasionally have a little bit of cheese and some butter (if I am being really naughty… chocolate ice cream – my weakness). However, not having any dairy at all definitely made my body feel better so I am going to try and cut down on the small amount that I do have. Besides, coconut milk cacao ice cream is just as good as the naughty stuff, and it doesn’t make me feel sick! (My favourite brands are So Delicious and Coco Luscious – Coco Frio is pretty average)

So I say farewell to paleo! But not completely… I like the idea of cutting down carbs, so while I will not give them up completely, I will give them a break every few days, and when I do have carbs I try to always select the best possible carbs like quinoa, brown rice and pasta that doesn’t include corn (due to corn being mostly GMO).

Overall, I do not think I could make the paleo diet sustainable for me, but for all of you successful paleo eaters, good on you! I really don’t know how you do it! The only way I could make paleo work for me would be if I had a personal chef to cook all of my meals and provide me with lots of variety.

P.s. my Dad made me a lemon and honey drink the other day with fresh manuka honey and it was ahhmazing!

Jordie

xo

Links:

http://cravebytaylor.com – I just checked and Taylor’s website is currently unavailable! 😦

http://gi365.co/food/paleo-primal/

http://cavegirlinthecity.com – Kenzie also has a list on her website for her top ten paleo bloggers

Finger-Lickin’ Good Paleo Chicken Soup

My homemade chicken soup is probably the best thing I make. I always make a big batch when my boyfriend, Clinton, or I feel sick. I try to use mostly organic produce, premium filtered water and organic, free range (and pastured if I can find it!) chicken breast and drumsticks (for the bones). I find that chicken breast gives the soup a really nice flavour and whenever I make it with no breast and just the drumsticks, it doesn’t taste the same and isn’t as good.

The secret ingredients to my soup are as follows:

• Ginger
  • Aids digestion, relieves nausea, eases headaches and sore throats
• Garlic
  • Reduces length of common cold, reduces blood pressure, improves bone health
• Turmeric
  • Anti-inflammatory, helps prevent cancer, aids against depression
• Paprika
  • High in vitamin A, vitamin E and iron
• Cumin
  • Aids digestion, improves immunity against the common cold
• Pink salt (I use either Himalayan rock salt or Murray River salt)
  • Regulates water content in the body, promotes a healthy pH balance, promotes blood sugar health
• Black pepper
  • Improves digestion and intestinal health

Not only are all of these ingredients super healthy for you, but also make soup taste ah-mazing! These ingredients, along with all the vegetables and chicken, make for a hearty and healthy cold and flu cure!

This soup is mostly paleo, but I use about a teaspoon of butter and coconut oil to fry up some of the vegetables. If you want this to be a paleo dish, simply add more coconut oil to replace the butter. Also replace the potato with more sweet potato or pumpkin. Some paleo eaters include sweet potato whereas others do not.

This recipe serves four.

Ingredients:

• Coconut oil (for frying)
• Butter (for frying)
• 1 leek
• 1 brown or red onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 knob of ginger
• Sprinkling of turmeric
• Sprinkling of cumin
• Sprinkling of paprika
• 2 carrots
• 2 potatoes
• 1 sweet potato (I didn’t have a sweet potato so I used more potato)
• ¼ pumpkin
• 1 handful of snow peas or beans (I had leftover snow peas in the fridge)
• 1 small head of broccoli
• Any other vegetables you want to add – zucchini, brussel sprouts, squash etc.
• 2 chicken drumsticks (I didn’t have any drumsticks in the freezer so I didn’t add any this time)
• 1 chicken breast
• Sprinkling of dry or fresh rosemary
• Enough filtered water to cover the vegetables
• Massel chicken stock (powder)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 large handful of spinach (to serve at the end)

Method:

1. Slice the leek and the onions (not too big, can be small if you’d like), cut the garlic and ginger into small pieces.

2. Add butter and coconut oil to a large saucepan or pot on a medium heat and add the leek and onions and fry until soft. Add the garlic and ginger now.
   

   Fry the leek and onion until soft and add the garlic and ginger.

3. Wait a few minutes and add turmeric, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Stir and cook the spices with the vegetables.

Add the spices and stir into the vegetables.

The vegetables should turn a yellowy colour from the spices.

4. Add the carrot, potatoes and pumpkin (and sweet potatoes if using) and cook on low to medium for about 7 – 10 minutes.

Cook the carrot, potatoes and pumpkin (and sweet potato if using) for 7 – 10 minutes.

5. Prepare the snow peas, broccoli and any other vegetables you are adding while you wait. Also cut the chicken breast into small cubes and sprinkle on some fresh or dry rosemary to the chicken pieces.

Add the snow peas and broccoli (plus any other soft vegetables you are adding).

Sprinkle rosemary onto the cubed chicken breast.

6. Add enough water to cover the vegetables and boil. Add the chicken breast and drumsticks (the boiling water will poach the chicken fairly quickly).

7. Wait for five minutes and add the remaining vegetables. Add in some chicken stock and more salt and pepper (I like to add about 2-3 tablespoons of chicken stock so add as many or as little as you like depending on the flavour).

The pepper, pink Himilayan salt and chicken stock that I use to flavour my soup.

8. Let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes or until you want to serve. If you are letting the soup simmer for a long time, add the broccoli about 20 minutes before you serve if you like it crunchy!

Add the snow peas and broccoli (plus any other vegetables you are adding).

9. Dish up the soup into bowls and evenly distribute a large handful of spinach over the top of the soup.

Add some fresh spinach and enjoy!

10. Enjoy!

I hope you like this recipe and if you are having it when you feel sick then I hope it makes you feel better. Happy cooking!

Jordie xo

20-Day Paleo Challenge

On June the 5^th I have a university ball with my friends. I bought a dress last year (around March) that was on sale and only had one size left. It fit me perfectly and was a pretty good price so I bought it. I have wanted to go to a university ball so I bought the dress to wear when I decided to go to one.

TRAGEDY. I tried the dress on last night to make sure it still fits me. It seems to be a size too small now! I was thinner last year as I was pretty sick with stomach issues. While I still do have some issues with my stomach, I am feeling better this year and have put on a few kilos. I haven’t gained that much weight but if I want to wear my dress in a few weeks I will need to be stricter with what I eat.

I have decided to do a 20-day paleo challenge! Not only will this help me lose weight (no grains or bad sugary stuff), it will allow me not to eat dairy or gluten (which I am sensitive to anyway and suffer from bloating when I eat these foods) and I will get to try out this way of eating to see what all the fuss is about!

I try to stay away from gluten as often as possible because I feel pretty lousy when I eat it but dairy is harder to resist! The only time dairy really affects me is when I drink cow’s milk. However, I am super excited to try this way of eating! I will post again about this after I have finished the challenge to let you know what I think about this way of eating, if my symptoms have reduced and most importantly if I fit into my dress!!

I will start the challenge tomorrow (Monday May 18^th) and finish it the day after the ball (Saturday June 6^th). I will also try to post any recipes, tips, tricks or meal plans I come across during my two weeks of eating like a cave lady.

If you eat the paleo way I’d love to hear any advice or recipes you have for me.

Wish me luck!

Jordie xo

The Paleo Way

Since watching The Perfect Human Diet I have been really interested in trying this way of eating to see what all the fuss is about! I hope that soon I can try a paleo eating challenge.

I found some pictures that basically describe the paleo diet in a simple way:

I really hope that this can help my gut issues!

The things I am worried about concerning this way of eating is going cold turkey on grains and dairy products. I don’t drink milk, but I do add butter to things that I cook and like to have cheese occasionally. I do have grains at least once a day and I worry that I might be left feeling hungry for the first few days until I adjust!

Another issue that I have is with breakfast. If you like eggs then this way of eating will be no problem for you but I really really dislike eggs. Okay, partly true. The only part of the egg I like is the yolk, but the whites.. ew. I have really tried to like egg whites, I really have. I tried mixing them into the yolks and making scrambled eggs which didn’t help much (still ew). I made eggs sunny side up (removed most of the white but left some so I would eat it) and let the yolk dribble over what little white I had left.. but much to my disappointment.. still extremely ew. I was thinking maybe a green smoothie? If anyone has any ideas please comment below as I’d love to hear!

I also suffer from seasonal allergies so I hope eating the paleo way can help with this.

To make this diet even better I will try to incorporate bone broth as often as I can. Bone broth (broth made with good quality meat bones) has many health benefits including:

* speeding up the recovery of an illness

* healing and sealing the gut lining (important if you suffer from leaky gut)

* fights inflammation

* promotes healthy hair and nail growth

* promotes strong and healthy bones

* reduces joint pain

* promotes easy digestion of the valuable nutrients found in the bone broth

I am thinking of trying the paleo way in the next few weeks. I’ll keep you updated!

Jordie xo

The Perfect Human Diet: Film Review

I recently watched the documentary The Perfect Human Diet.

The documentary began with presenter CJ Hunt explaining how he suffered a heart attack at a young age and how his heart condition has affected his health. He also explains how this led him to search for a natural solution. He mentioned that he switched to a vegan diet but after a few years of eating this way he was lacking energy and wasn’t feeling as good as when he first started the diet. This led to him beginning a ten-year search for the perfect human diet.

Even though the film was loaded with scientific facts, they were presented in an understandable way, which made it a captivating film to watch. The film features a lot of different scientists, archaeologists and professors.

One very interesting scene shows Professor Loren Cordain describing to CJ how much we have changed over time. Professor Cordain used a hundred yard football field as a time line where he discussed how far and where we travelled over the world and what other foods we have introduced into our diet. He also discussed how our diets have greatly changed since we began farming and processing our food.

The paleo diet consists mostly of fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, eggs, lean meats, poultry and fish.

The Perfect Human Diet closely follows the paleo diet, which consists of animal proteins (chicken, fish, beef etc.), fruits, vegetables, eggs and nuts. It is important that the produce you eat is of high quality* (grass fed beef, pastured free range chickens, organic fruits and vegetables and raw nuts that do not have salt/coatings added). Grains (bread, cereal, pasta), dairy and sugar are not allowed on the paleo diet as science shows that our bodies are not designed to eat this type of food.

The part of the documentary that I found most interesting was when CJ interviewed Dr Lane Sebring who has been recommending the natural diet of our ancestors to his patients, who are seeing great results. Dr Sebring and CJ head off to a local supermarket to go through the aisles to find out which foods to eat when on this diet and which foods not to eat.

Another aspect of the documentary that I found interesting was the different scientists opinions about how our bodies and brains have developed over time from the introduction of proteins (from animal meat) and omega three fatty acids (from fish) into our diets.

I really enjoyed this documentary and I highly recommend watching it. I knew a bit about the paleo diet before I watched this film but it was still really interesting to see the science behind it all.

I’d love to hear if anyone has seen this documentary or is living a paleo lifestyle, so please comment below if this is you!

Jordie xo

*If you are looking for high quality, grass fed and free-range meats, Grass Roots Urban Butchery has a large selection of high quality, local meats. http://www.grub.com.au/ourfarmers.aspx

Another great website to visit if you are looking for local free-range and pastured chicken is the Flavour Crusader: http://flavourcrusader.com/blog/2011/09/free-range-chicken-australia/#qld

If you want to find free range meat and eggs that are ethically raised then visit http://www.humanechoice.com.au to find a farm near you!