An average pinay *trying* to adapt the Paleo diet. Please don't get offended by my variety.
So it’s been a while since I’ve updated. We tried a few new successfull and not so successful paleo recipes. We still keep at it on weekdays + workout but the weekends have been especially bitter sweet. Any tips on staying strong when not at home? Hahaha
So I’ve disappeared for a while. Work kinda ate me up the past few days hah! But I love it. Don’t you just love it when you work for a company that appreciates you? I digress.
So yeah I started this new regimen- a detox tea you take for 28 days. I must admit, Ive tried EVERYTHING when it comes to weightloss. Teas, pills, diet coffee. The most successful I guess were the pills but they were kinda scary with the side effects and all. It is hard keeping the weight off as well when you dont lose the right way, mainly because you dont develop good eating and exercise habits.
So I got a chance to try this tea and I went for it since I’ve been trying to eat clean and exercise anyway- no harm in adding a little boost. So this is all natural and organic. no weird side effects really… Maybe I pee a bit more? It does have diuretic effects after all. It’s no magic either so i doubt you will see visible changes if you dont change your lifestyle.
I am bad at reviews so here’s what i like;
1. The fat burn blend is yummy!
2. The morning blend actually soothed my hyperacidity when i was expecting it to make it worse- my tummy is sensitive to tea
3. No laxatives! Have you tried teas with senna leaves or something like that? Horrible. And i get bouts of constipation after. Not fun.
Results? Lesser bloat, that’s it. But I’m just on day 4 so I’ll update you soon!
So the dreaded date night came last weekend: where to eat?!
We discovered this restaurant in Eastwood that serve local and organic food and we were so happy that we had at least one option around the Metro. It was a bit pricy but knowing the prices of quality ingredients and the effort you have to put in preparing them, I guess it was pretty reasonable.
I wanted try their cauliflower rice but decided to choose the Chicken fried in duck fat and Carlo chose the meat on meat burger. We were so happy that they offered the option of switching the sides for sweet potato fries! We ordered their best selling melon iced. tea sweetened with raw wild honey, as well.
Well, the waiter came back to inform us that the sweet potatoes are not available and offered us regular fries. I patiently told him I can’t have potatoes nor rice. He came back only to offer us RICE. Not fun. I mean cmon if we wanted fries and all that, we could’ve chosen a less expensive restaurant. We asked to pay the difference to have aaparagus ana mushroom and after a long discussion in the kitchen, They let us change the sides at no extra cost as a one time courtesy. All good.
After all that hassle, the burger came with buns lol. Oh well. Carlo had it while i sliced a bit from the juicy burger patties.
How was it? It was delicious actually. From the mains to the home made roasted banana ketchup to the sides- everything was made thoughtfully and excellently. Still too expensive for everyday meal for my standards but not a waste of money in my opinion.
So I’ve been trying a few coconut flour bread recipes and the only one I liked was this recipe for English muffins. As I don’t own ceramic ramekens, I baked it in a loaf pan haha!
Carlo on the other hand has been craving for chili the past few days and he found a recipe for a bean-free one online. We forgot to buy tomatoes so we decided to use the tomato sauce packs we bought pre-paleo craze and yes, we forgive ourselves for that. Heck we even had sinigang and rice today because, hey Friday! #cheatdaycoupon
So grassfed meat is not easy to find in Manila. I think you can find it in some weekend markets and I found an online shop with a farm somewhere south that sells grassfed stuff too. I’ll link you when I find it again. To our surprise we found some Aussie grassfed beef in Hypermarket MOA last Sunday and the price isn’t so different from local beef!
Not sure if it’s the fact that it’s grassfed or that Aussie beef is just generally better but it was delish! We just fried these babies in a bit of butter and served it with baked garlic sweet potato fries. Yum!
After a few attempts, I finally found the perfect coconut flour pancake recipe. This awesome recipe makes really fluffy pancakes and you can barely notice the coconuty texture of the flour. I usually add chocolate (unsweetened) and/or bananas.
Well today I attempted to something a bit too… Ambitious? I made banana pancakes with apple rings inside. The banana clumps didn’t help much in the form and they were so hard to flip. Yummy with butter and cinnamon though!
So I started a new blog just because I think I am getting too annoying on Facebook with all my daily food pics (easier to stop sharing I know, but I can’t!). So yeah, the happy middle- I shall keep a blog for those who are truly interested and I will spare the rest of my family and friends of my kitchen adventures.
And if by chance you are one of the curious ones, there’s probably one question on your mind- ARE YOU GOING CRAZY MEG?!
Well just for the fact that I am suddenly spending most of my non-work hours in the kitchen, then maybe. But do I really think certain food groups are bad, and that we haven’t evolved enough, and that we have to “activate” almonds, and should just graze throughout the day and binge at night (supposedly around the time when we supposedly have finished hunting and cooking all day had we lived in caves– or wait, is this the warrior diet?) and all those bs-sounding stuff? Not really. (case in point: the wine in the pic lol. red wine’s the least offensive alcoholic beverage, but non-Paleo nonetheless)
Do I strictly avoid all non-Paleo ingredients? In the Philippines, sadly it is not very easy to access grass fed meat (much less grass fed butter). We have spotted one or two sources as of yet but grass fed butter is ridiculously expensive (meat not so much actually, but the supply is very limited). We are also not so strict about other dairy stuff, as we occasionally substitute almond milk with full fat (real) milk. We try to cook with butter and olive oil as frequently as we can but if we occasionally want deep fried chicken or tilapia, vegetable oil is the way to go and yeah, we forgive ourselves for that. As I read somewhere, being 90% Paleo for a lifetime is better than being 100% Paleo for two weeks.
Why Paleo?
The basic principle is what has worked for me.
Honestly, I started on a whim. I didn’t even read about the nitty gritty, I just gave it a shot. I have always subscribed to low-carb, high fat/protein diet, well basically because it was what worked for me in the past. I just needed some structure to it and Paleo sounded doable at that time. Also, the idea of going back to basics simply means less preservatives and processed stuff and that sounds right to me.
I think there is no “one diet for all.” Some thrive on a vegan diet, but for the life of me, if I go one day without meat, someone in my 10-mile radius might just end up being dead meat. Srsly. I go hungry easily, I don’t feel satiated at all. I feel deprived. Don’t get me wrong, I love vegetables and salads and smoothies. I have them everyday. But I can’t just live on them alone!
The Carbs Deal
White rice and white bread and ice cream and chocolate smothered anything and potato chips and glistening puff pastry- I love these, you better believe it. So much so that I practically lived on them the past few months. The thing about sugar and simple carbs, it takes great self discipline to keep them as “treats.” Science has proven that sugar is addicting. You get a high, you crash, you want more. I gained back all the weight I’ve lost for the wedding and I was feeling HORRIBLE. I was always sluggish and I get these hypoglycemia-like episodes, like I would have these sudden almost-gonna-pass-out hunger pangs and even after I ate, the feeling wouldn’t go away right away. I suspected that I was starting to develop insulin resistance so this is also part of my motivation.
So do I avoid carbs altogether? Nope. I don’t even think we are technically on a “low-carb diet” since to qualify as low carb, one’s daily diet should have around 100g of carbs max a day, much lower if you do the Keto diet. Nope, we eat more carbs than that in the form of fruits mostly (we have smoothies for breakfast every other day at least) and snack on them regularly especially bananas. I bake coconut flour goodies and use raw wild honey as a sweetener, and would once in a while have camote fries, hash etc. We just make sure to keep our sources right and have our carbs with protein. It just keeps our energy stable throughout the day.
Fat is my friend
I am so over the low-fat craze. Read up and recent studies show that the real enemy is not animal fat but sugar and simple carbs.
It’s not boring
The last time we went on a diet was for our wedding. The main goal was to lose weight, obvs. We really didn’t put much thought to our food though. We mostly stuck with roast meat and salads. Or roast veggies. Some sugar free whole grain bread. Low cal anything. As long as we are within our caloric limit. Did it work? With exercise, a resounding yes. We got down to a decent size in two months (decent- not bikini-body level but cmon, 2 months!). Thing was- it was boring. Anything that is not home cooked sounded so much better and counting calories sucked. We had cheat days that turned into cheat weekends and then cheat months.
Paleo-ish diet *feels sustainable for me. As soon as I found good alternatives for flour and rice, the possibilities were endless. We had more variety on our plates now than back when we didn’t even bother what passed through our pie holes. And I don’t feel deprived at all. Do we have cheat days? Usually around once a week. Out of convenience. A drive through when we’re on a rush or a burger we can’t resist when we’re on a date or a rice meal when eating out with friends (we don’t want to be THAT weird). But the rest of the week is not torture at all. It takes thought- the meal planning, and time to prep, but it also makes you creative and I guess the satisfaction of practically making your own everything (bread, spreads, “rice”, desserts) helps you enjoy, like really really enjoy food. And no calorie counting at all.
Have you placed your bets on how long I’ll stick to this yet? I’m not sure either! (no pressure, self! whatever works!) So far I’ve lost 7lbs in two weeks with exercise. Let’s see if this is enough motivation for me too!
*on our third week so please check back in a month or so lol
Meg's Paleoish Kitchen 