Week 1 Complete!

I have to say, I feel pretty darn fantastic right now. I have resisted every temptation, every opportunity to slip, and stuck to the Whole30 like glue. And my body is thanking me for it!
I don't feel hungry at odd times of the day, I don't feel sleepy one minute and wide awake the next, none of these insulin peaks and crashes making me feel like crap and make my PCOS come out to play.
I feel healthy.
It is also great not trying to keep track of every single calorie that enters my body, or leaves it via exercise. After counting calories for so long, it was second nature, but also an obsession. I wouldn't say I had an eating disorder (please, I'm overweight!) but I definitely thought and worried about calories most of my waking hours and panicked on  daily basis about it. No-one wants to be weighing carrots or crying over accidentally drinking regular coke. I would slip, eat a bunch of bad stuff, and yes I would enjoy it at the time, but the next day, and the day after that, I would want to punish myself for it.
But now I am eating good proper food...with fat! Oh my word. When I was dabbling in Paleo, I would ignore their suggestions about fat intake; I felt that that was a sure fire way of ballooning, and it would have been actually. As I was not 100% Paleo, the dairy and other 'treats' that I was eating daily would have made me put on weight if I ate a bunch of fat too. My body would get it's energy from sugar, while happily spreading the fat to my stomach!

 I know I know, it has only been a week! I am sure that I will change my mind about some of this, but for right now I am happy.

Today I spent the day making food to take back to University with me tomorrow, so that I will have some Whole30 meals ready to go for the first week of term. I made cumin carrots, Tex-mex scotch eggs, and a hhuugggeee shepherd's pie again! It is going to be tricky once I am back at uni. Going out with friends will be challenging, and living with other people will test my will power, but I am confident that I will see this through. I want that massage at the end of it!

Sugar-Less Haze

Day 4 of the Whole30 is nearly over. Thank god. I thought this was going to be fairly easy. I smirked to myself a little when my Whole30 Daily newsletter on days 2 and 3 told me I was probably feeling tired and grumpy. 'Not me!" I gayly cheered and sprang up to eat half of a scotch egg, moaning in satisfaction at the yummy, meaty, goodness! Then I woke up on day 4.

The novelty had worn off, and I was left in a crashed, sugar-less state. I felt lethargic and dozy. I even felt a little angry; "What is the point in all this? Surely a diet coke or a nibble of some chocolate will do anything to me. Those aren't the problem." It didn't help that I had arranged to go to the cinema to see The Hobbit with a friend. The cinema is like a utopia for me...pic and mix sweets, chocolate, diet coke, popcorn, and all other types of sugary goodness. I never have gone crazy like you see some people do; a tray of nachos dripping in fake cheese in one hand, a large popcorn in the other, an even larger drink under one arm, and a sharing size bag of M+M's that they are clinging to with their teeth. No, I get a drink and a small amount of sweets and leave it at that. Today, I had brought with me some carrot sticks. And boy was I not impressed. I munched on them with disdain while sipping a soda water. I could hear those chocolate covered brazil nuts that were quite literally calling out to me "Jenniiiffeerrr, just one bite, we won't do any harm!" Thankfully I ignored them and got sucked into Middle Earth.

I felt proud that I hadn't caved; that I had stuck to my guns and not given into temptation. But I also felt weak. It is only day 4 and I am already finding it tough! !here are another 26 days that I need to contend with yet. Also, what happens after the 30 days? I truly believe in the Paleo lifestyle, and I have to say, that up until today, my body felt so much...well...cleaner I suppose because of the past few days. I will obviously be eating Paleo after this Whole30, but it did make me realise that there are things in my usual Paleo diet (perhaps not everyday but often enough so as not to be justified as a treat) that definitely do not fit into the Paleo framework! How will I contend with those? Well, I have a few weeks left to work this out. Luckily, there is great help and support on the Whole30 forum and I am sure that it will all become clearer once my brain has come out of the sugar-less fog that currently surrounds it! Bring on day 5. I have a feeling that it will be much better than today. I shall leave you with a festive giggle that I found here...

 Anyone else feeling a bit crappy? Whether it is from the Whole30, a detox, or an extended hangover from New Year!

Cooking Up A New Year Storm!

I have made it to the end of day 2 of my first Whole30! Yay me! To be honest, it hasn't been that hard so far. The food has been yummy and filling, and fairly easy to make. In fact, the hardest thing about the past two days was sitting in Starbucks! I work really well there and having my usual sugar free hazelnut latte pretty much makes my day. Alas, this drink is definitely NOT Whole30 compliant...dairy and artificial sweeteners are a big no no. Today I had my first black coffee. And it was gross. My brother was with me and said that I just have to power through, that eventually I will love black coffee. Hmm, this may take a while. For the next 30 days I will just have to be content with trying the various fruit teas that they offer, with the occasional caffeine fix that the black, gross tasting gloop will provide.

So what have I eaten in the past two days? Yesterday I roasted some chicken thighs and some carrots rubbed with cumin. Yum. Today has been a big cook-a-thon where I roasted some more veggies, made a Shepherd's Pie, and made some Scotch Eggs! These recipes came from 'Well Fed', the recipe book that I have been raving about! As I am British, I wanted to try out the 'traditional' recipes first.
The Shepherd's Pie was made with ground lamb and topped with mashed cauliflower instead of potato. It came out really well; the taste was lovely and full of depth. The presentation of it leaved much to be desired though! A bit sploggy, if that is a word. I feel that it works as a description for it! Next time I will use a food processor to puree the cauliflower, as opposed to just using a fork. It will hopefully make it much smoother and easier to dish out.

Now for the main event...the Scotch Eggs! These are beasts. Literally, the size of Mr T's fist. Instead of using breadcrumbs on the outside the recipe asked for ground up pork rinds. While I was in the supermarket, I looked at bags of pork scratchings but found that they were jammed packed with names of preservatives and other ingredients that I had trouble pronouncing; those were going no where near my mouth. Instead, I bought some pork rind and made my own!

For my first attempt I feel pretty proud of myself. They definitely look like Scotch Eggs at the very least! Next time though I will add in some more herbs to the sausage meat (homemade I might add!) and put more of the pork rind crumbs around the outside.

I hope everyone has a brilliant New Year! Remember to make some resolutions for 2013, but they need to be achievable. All goals have to be SMART:

S- Specific
M- Meaningful
A- Attainable
R- Relevant
T-Timed

There is no point setting yourself up for a failure; find something that you can reach and go get it.

I Have Definitely Been 'Well Fed'!

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a lovely day full of family, friends, presents, and of course food. I sure did. Too much chocolate. And turkey. It was all totally worth it though!
I wanted to share with you one of my presents that I received from my sister:

It's a copy of 'Well Fed', the amazing Paleo recipe book by Mel from The Clothes Make The Girl!! I have been wanting this for months and I finally got it! My sister lives in America so can get hold of it more easily than us over here in the UK. That is one annoying thing however, some of the recipes call for ingredients that we can't get. Grrr. I am going to have to improvise when she wants me to use jicama.
You should see some of the recipes in this book though. Chocolate Chili? Erm yes please. Especially as it is completely Paleo! Other things that I am looking forward to making: Italian Sausage and Eggplant (Aubegine) Strata, Paleo Scotch Eggs, the Best Stir-Fry Sauce Ever, and Velvety Butternut Squash. In fact, I can't wait to make them all.

Well, today is Boxing Day so we are off for a nice long walk to kid ourselves that we have burnt all the calories we consumed yesterday, so that we can do the same with all the leftovers today.

Did you get any new recipe books for Christmas?

What do you and your family eat over the holidays?