What I ate today:

• 2 free range eggs, with 1 tbsp mayo and 5 strips pastured bacon
• 6 oz grass-fed carne asada cut beef, with 1 tbsp butter. Big mug of homemade chicken broth.
• Slow cooked chicken, 1/2 avocado, slice of onion, diced tomatos, lime juice.
• Sliced jicama -- quickly becoming a favorite snack.
• 2 oz cheddar cheese
• 2 glasses red wine
• Coconut oil with 1/3 oz dark chocolate
  

I've discovered I am really liking the unsweetened herbal tea. I use any kind of tea that has a hint of berry to it (TAZO Passion, Celestrial Seasonings Wild Berry Zinger, and my favorite from Cost Plus Tropical Crimson). I never thought I would get off the Splenda bandwagon. I used to drink Splenda sweetened tea every morning, and have at least two diet Dr. Pepper or Coke Zero every afternoon. Once in a while I would treat myself to a Sugar Free white chocolate peppermint mocha from my favorite coffee place. Not any more. I would guess I've been off of sweetners for about two months. The other night I took a tiny sip of the Bret Micheals Diet Snapple (I can't remember the flavor) and all I could taste of the aspartamine. Icky!! These days I'm perfectly happy with unsweetened tea, seltzer with lime, and plain old water. Water can be livened up with lemon, lime, mint, cucumber or berries.

As you can see, I'm still having a bit of an issue sticking to Paleo. Primal......no problem. But Paleo, I can't seem to let go of butter, cheese, wine and dark chocolate. Granted, quantities are definitely going down, so that is an improvement. I gotta let go of these excuses and go just one week without them.

Day 2

Day 2 didn't go so well. I started off great, then went to do a happy hour review with some friends, and feel into the old trap of having a cocktail, which turned into another, and well, you know how that goes. Eating wise, I did ok. I'd say overall it was a decent Primal day, but no where near a Paleo day. Guess I will be starting Day 1 part 2 on Friday! Here's what I ate today:

• Grass-fed beef jerky (2 oz)
• Organic Granny Smith apple
• Organic collard greens made with pastured bacon, red onion and homemade chicken broth, and a 5-oz grass-fed steak burger
• Chop Chop Salad - lettuce, chickpeas, chicken, provolone, salami and vinaigrette
• 1 small square dark chocolate with sea salt
• 1/2 organic sweet potato, baked, with 1 tbsp butter
• 1 oz chopped pecans
• 4 cocktails - vodka with club soda and lime

Overall, not bad, but not even close to Paleo with the booze, chocolate and dairy. Not going to beat myself up too bad, since it could have been so much worse (like I could have had pizza and fried mozzarella when I was out but I didn't). No idea what the stats were.

Day 1 of Paleo Challenge

I've talked about challenges before, and I realize that I have given excuse after excuse as to why I didn't persevere. But after reading the Whole 30 challenge again, I ventured into Paleo today. My challenges will be giving up dairy, sweeteners and alcohol. These have obviously been a barrier in my quest to lose weight, and it's time to get serious. I love Melissa's "tough love" attitude over on the Whole9 blog. Her mantra? "Giving up heroin is hard. Fighting cancer is hard. Changing your eating habits is NOT hard."

Today started off with a bit of IF. I ate Tuesday night about 9:30, then didn't eat today until lunchtime. Here's what I ate today:

• Grass-fed, all beef hot dog with mustard.
• 6 oz grass-fed rib eye steak, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 baked organic sweet potato with 2 tbsp coconut oil and cinnamon, organic collard greens
• Chai tea with 1/2 cup coconut milk, vanilla and cinnamon.
• 10 local cherries
• Unsweetened herbal tea

Stats are: 1348 calories / 47g carbs / 109g fat / 54g protein

One day down, 29 more to go. :)