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

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!