31 Days of Primality

In the last couple of years, I have built quite a collection of cookbooks from several paleo/primal authors.  I've also slipped off the paleo bandwagon way too often.  I love to cook, I feel great when I eat paleo/primal, and the recipes in these books look fantastic, so why not try to eat paleo/primal from these recipes each day?  The sugar habit has been the most difficult to break, far worse than giving up gluten or gross vegetable oils.


May 2011 - 31 Days of Primality - Click here.


June 2011 - 30 Days of Primal Eating and Exercise:
New rules for June:
1.  Eat primal/paleo every day as much as possible.  Butter, some cheese, dark chocolate allowed.  I altered this first one a bit because the mind games that play in my head if I venture off the paleo road are worse than not eating totally paleo all the time.  So I added "as much as possible" to give myself permission to live, as Richard Nikoley encouraged this week in his blog, Free the Animal - see sidebar of blogs. I eat real food probably 95% of the time and even when I don't, the non-paleo stuff I eat is excellent quality.  As Mark Sisson encourages, 80/20 is OK.  It's not like I am eating Twinkies, for pete's sake.
2.  Incorporate exercise according to the guidelines from The Primal Blueprint (Mark Sisson), The Paleo Solution (Robb Wolf), and Everyday Paleo (Sarah Fragoso).  


So here we go:
June 1:
B: Sausage and egg, OJ mixed with water
L: Ham and cheese rollups, YouBar (almond butter, dates, coconut, cocoa)
    A couple pieces of dark chocolate
D: Ham and cheese "sandwich", heavy cream with frozen tropical fruit made into a smoothie
NOT an optimal day of eating, but pickings were slim in the fridge and time was short.


Exercise:  First day of strength training with a trainer!  Evaluation (bodyweight squat form, hip and shoulder angles and flexibility, etc), learning how to do proper squats with some light weight on a bar (about 10 kg, 3x5), 50 kettlebell swings, 15 presses with just the bar.  Some stretching.


June 2:
B: Sausage.
L: Leftover meatballs with homemade tomato sauce. A couple of pieces of dark chocolate.
D: Kosher hotdogs, fresh snow peas sauteed in butter, a few potato slices baked with the dogs. One scoop chocolate ice cream. 
Went to get some veggies and other items from Expressly Local in Lancaster, PA tonight so hopefully the eating patterns will look a lot more paleo this week.


Exercise:  Nice easy walk on an absolutely beautiful, dry, breezy 75 degree day with the dog and daughter.  About 2 miles.  Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) setting in about dusk, but the walk helped to alleviate most of it.  I can live with it.


June 3:
B: 2 hardboiled eggs with 1 slice GF toast and butter
L: salami, snow peas, hardboiled egg (Oddly a good combo)
S:  A GF cupcake (ugh, didn't need that)
D: Homemade spaghetti meat sauce - big bowl, no noodles, coffee


Exercise:  After work, cleaned house:  vacuumed entire house, scrubbed entire bathroom literally - enough exercise for one day.  :)


June 4:
B:  2 scrambled eggs in butter. Coffee.
L:  Sliced chicken breast, cooper sharp cheddar cheese, mayo, wrapped in lettuce. 
D: Fiesta Mexico restaurant - Chopped steak and chorizo with onions, tiny amount of refried beans and rice, diet coke, some corn tortilla chips and salsa.  The meat was awesome and I even brought some home!


Exercise:  Stacked hay in barn, took 2-50 lb bags horse feed from car uphill to barn into bin, cleaned chicken pen - very rustic day :)


June 5:
B:  Omelet with leftover chorizo/steak mixture, raw milk cottage cheese
L:  Raw milk yogurt, liverwurst, cheddar cheese, 2 rice crackers
D:  Grilled grassfed steaks, salad, fresh local strawberry/blueberry fruit salad, grilled asparagus, portabellas, a couple of roasted marshmallows


Exercise:  rest


June 6:
B:  Sausage, orange juice and water.
L:  Leftover steak with asparagus and portabellos.
D:  Sliced chicken breast and cheddar cheese lettuce wrap.  Probably a few too many marshmallows.


Exercise: Some bodyweight squats and pushups, stretching, some mobility stuff from http://www.mobilitywod.com/

June 7:
B:  2 scrambled eggs in butter
L:  Leftover steak with some GF pasta salad with peas and carrots, couple pieces dark chocolate
D:  Fresh spinach, avocado, bacon, hardboiled eggs, olive oil
Exercise:  Strength training at McKenna's Gym - my arms and shoulders will know this tomorrow


June 8, 9 10:  Hmmm, lost these three days somehow - moderate exercise (Mumford and Sons concert!), OK food.  Let's move on.


June 11:  
B:  Bakery on Main cereal with half and half (don't know why but I craved some seeds today)
L:  Sliced turkey, salami, muenster cheese, a few potato chips (cooked in lard), chocolate chip cookie
D:  Braised escarole with apples, chorizo, crimini mushrooms, squash, coconut oil, salt and pepper.
Exercise:  Walk.


June 12: 
B:  Egg, salami, cheese omelet.
L:  Not so hot - potato chips and cream cheese, GF chocolate cake 
D:  Chicken, peas, artichokes in a coconut milk thai soup 
Exercise:  Lots of gardening - 5 vegetable garden raised beds, several flower beds.


June 13 - 17:  Sorry, but bored with the daily tally.  Let's just say it is a basic repeat of the above with continued strength training, which I love.  As of June 19th, I am joining in with the Paleohackers to track how the paleo diet affects me throughout a month.  This is a group of women who want to see how the paleo lifestyle may affect women differently from men by keeping track of some physical, emotional, and behavioral traits over 30 days.  Should be a good experiment.  I'll finish out this month on here with some progress reports and continued exercise information.  My goal is to reduce the sugar and gluten-free substitute habit.  Almost everything else is dialed in and the exercise is already showing results.