Day 30 & What I Think About Paleo

So, Day 30 is finally here. I've made it! I just had my lunch and realised that I don't really miss eating rice. I think I've gotten used to it.

Now, what do I think about paleo?

I found that this diet / lifestyle is definitely easier to follow that a low-carb diet. There's no need to count carbs or to count calories. Counting carbs was really really difficult for me. When I did the low-carb diet, I read labels like crazy.

However, I did count calories this past month because I'm not just doing paleo for autoimmune reasons, etc. I want to lose weight. And in order to lose weight consistently, I needed to have a calorie differential. There's a whole science to this, but basically, I needed to make sure my body is burning off the excess fat that is stored in my body.

That being said, even though I did count my calories, it was pretty easy to stick to my calorie limit - as long as I ate paleo. Somehow, when I'm eating paleo; when I'm eating clean, I find that the foods that I eat automatically have lesser calories. I've done a screenshot from my sparkpeople nutrition page below for the whole of last week to show what I mean:

So, sometimes I eat more than I should and it's usually because I added in sweet potatoes (which I <3)... But, even with the pretty low calories that I ate on some days, I was eating enough to feel full at all times.

Also, I didn't stop myself from snacking. I ate snacks but they were paleo compliant snacks. I would eat an apple or a banana or perhaps a handful of nuts. On a few occasions, I had chocolate (yummy!! but portion controlled). 

Since I'm not 100% on paleo, I do also enjoy my occasional latte and cheese. I don't totally deprive myself when it comes to food. That, I think is the key to not only being successful in following a paleo diet but also in sticking to my weight loss goal. 

I've read online that some people go through a low-carb flu because paleo drastically reduces the amount of carbs that are consumed. But I don't think I went through it. I did get sick about 2 weeks into paleo but I really think it was due to the really bad haze that's happening in Malaysia. 

Now, the question is... would I want to continue with paleo? The answer is "yes". I'm going to stick to this for another month. I'm not going to say now that this will be a forever thing. But 1 more month, at the very least. 

I am seeing results and this is with very minimum exercise - At the moment, I only exercise about once a week for about 30 mins.  

I'm planning to change-up the types of food I'm eating and maybe cut away some types of food. This is to facilitate in weight loss. My goal for October 2015 is to:

1. continue on with paleo
2. reduce the more carb-filled root vegetables (i.e. sweet potatoes)

I'll work on doing more exercise but somehow, I'm still pretty lazy about that. 

Day 29 & A Vege Dish

Today is Day 29, which is amazing that I lasted so long. I'll do a post tomorrow on my month on paleo.

I haven't been 100% paleo, more like 90% paleo - 10% non-paleo. I don't avoid dairy and have milk and cheese in my diet sometimes. 

Anyway, just a couple of hours ago, I had a currypuff (which is a type of pastry and is NOT paleo)... I really am regretting it now. Two hours later and I'm have acid-reflux. 

I don't think I'll be eating pastry anytime soon...

Now, for the fun part, I have another recipe today. 

Sweet Potato Stir Fry

Ingredients 

2 tablespoon of oil

3 cloves of garlic - chopped finely

salt - to taste

1 cup Broccoli florets - cut into bitesize florets

1 cup Cauliflower florets - cut into bitesize florets

1 cup French beans - cut into inch long pieces

1 cup Beansprouts

1/2 cup (about half a fist size) Japanese sweet potato - cut into mini fries size (julienned) 

1/2 cup (about half a fist size) Okinawan sweet potato - cut into mini fries size (julienned)

1. Blanch the vegetables. Start with the potatoes and blanch for about 45 seconds and then add in the rest of the vegetables (without the garlic) for about 30 seconds. 

2. Remove from the water, and drip dry. 

3. Heat up the oil and then add in the garlic. 

4. Once the garlic starts to brown and crisps up, add in the vegetables. Stir fry and add in salt to taste. Once vege is as cooked as you like, it's ready, 

5. Serve and enjoy!

This can be a whole meal by itself. If you want to have some meat in it, you can add in some meat at the end of step 3. Make sure the meat is cooked through before you add in the vegetables as the vege won't take long to cook.

Nutrition information below. Important note: I calculated the information using sparkpeople.com's recipe calculator. I can't be 100% sure of the nutrition information. 

Day 26 & A Recipe

Today is Day 26 on Paleo.

I don't know... Should I even bother counting the number of days? I did tell myself when I started this thing that I would try it out for 30 days. But now, at day 26, I feel that maybe this is pretty good lifestyle to follow. I'm down 5kgs and even though in the past few days, I haven't been losing weight, my trousers have started getting looser and my tummy's gone down 2 inches. 

Anyway, I wanted to share a simple recipe that I use pretty often - even before I started paleo. It's a chicken recipe that I feel is really yummy. 

Oven Baked Sesame Ginger Chicken 

Prep time: 10 mins (but you need to leave it to marinate for at least 30 mins)

Cooking time: 25 - 35 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

4 chicken legs - with fat trimmed away

1 inch piece of ginger - julienned

3 cloves of garlic - finely chopped

4 tablespoons of sesame oil

salt - to taste (I used roughly about 1 teaspoon)

3 tablespoons of fish sauce 

1 tablespoon of honey - if you prefer it to be more sweet, use 2 tablespoons. 

Instructions:

1. Prepare the marinade by mixing the ginger, garlic, sesame oil, fish sauce and honey together. 

2. Rub the salt onto the chicken first, then pour the marinate over the chicken and mix well. Ensure that the marinade coats the chicken well. 

3. Marinate the chicken for at least 30 mins in the fridge before cooking. The longer it marinates, the better it will taste. 

4. Place the chicken into a baking pan and bake for 25 to 35 mins at 200 degrees Celsius. Cooking time will depend on the size of your chicken and also your oven. If it burns too quickly, cover with aluminium foil. 

5. Once cooked (juices will run clear when pricked), serve with a portion of your favourite vegetables. I like to squeeze some lime over the chicken too - makes it extra yummy!

That's all to it. It's simple and easy to make. The chicken tastes good even overnight. I usually use leftovers in my salads. 

Day 12 & Home for the Holidays

I'm back home in peninsular Malaysia for the holidays. I'm so excited but I'm also a bit worried. The past 2 weeks, I've been able to concentrate on eating well because I've been cooking for myself. However, now that I'm back home, it's going to be tough.

Just today, I ate rice - 2 meals in a row! 

I don't know if I should be more upset about the fact that I'm not being paleo or because I've eaten over my calorie limit by 500 calories. 

I've been tracking my food intake with the sparkpeople app and it's really been great. It's helped me to really learn how to control my portions. I've also noticed that if I'm eating good and quality food, instead of the usual processed rubbish, I can eat a healthy portion that makes me full and satisfied without going over my calorie limit of 1,500 calories / day. 

True enough, today,  because I ate a lot of processed food, my calorie intake really shot up. This is even with me eating only half my plate. 

There's no point crying over spilt milk. I did enjoy eating the rice. It was nasi lemak. How can I not enjoy it? Anyway, tomorrow is another day and there's still room for improvement. 

I just have to remember that I can do this and I can be successful in this.  

Day 1

I decided to pick 1st September as the first day of my new lifestyle. I've read a lot of information on the paleo lifestyle and I think this may be it. 

I've tried lowcarb over 10 years ago and it did work. I lost 10kgs easily. However, I felt that it's too difficult to sustain over a long period. I gave up on that diet in less than 1 month. 

However, after reading through a lot of the literature on paleo, I've come to realise that it may be possible for me to sustain this lifestyle. 

I think it has a lot to do with my readiness to embrace this as a lifestyle change rather than a diet. 

So far, I've done the following:-

1. Clean out my pantry - foods with gluten are out and so have processed sugar-full foods.

2. Bought food that are paleo friendly.

3. Opened a sparkpeople.com account and downloaded the app on my android.

I'm transitioning slowly to the paleo lifestyle.