Chili Walkthrough

 Low-carb flu seems to be wearing off.  I have shed all of my extra Christmas poundage in just a few days.  Extra padding really can fall off rather quickly after a binge.

Tonight's supper was 2 parts.  Tomie had salmon and broccoli waiting for me when I got home.  Note my own clever touch of Louisiana.  Bam!





Nourished, I started the chili (about a 1.5 hour gig by my watch).

Ingredients (Pictured):

• Ground Axis Deer
• Onion
• Okra
• Tomatoes (2 cans whole, 1 can paste)
• 1 Chili in Adobo
• Seasonings

I also ended up adding 2 squash and some stock.  Chili isn't about having a plan, it's about dismissing our illusions of control and letting go.

Bit of olive oil, brown the onions, and then add the meat.

Wait for the meat to brown (pictured below) and make sure to work most of the big chunks out with your spoon.

Then, I add the stock, tomatoes, and smoosh those up with the spoon.

Traditionally I'd add 1 or 2 beers (which cook into sugars and add sweetness) at this point, but alas, this month that wouldn't fit with my dietary goals.

I chopped the okra while simmering the tomatoes and then, after adding over half the package above, I decided that a bit of diversity was needed, so I hacked in 2 squash.

I hit the gym and let the chili "rest" after about an hour and a half of simmering.

I came home to a very nice bowl.  Not very spicy, actually, and less sweet than I am accustomed too, but nourishing and very good.



Today turned out much better than yesterday and I feel very good about my chances of keeping a decent degree of dietary purity this month.

Next week looks to be a whack of overtime at work, so that might throw a wrench at me, but I'm pretty stoked to see how the month turns out.

Low Down

We are from Brussels!

Despite eating some apples and bananas over the last 3 days, my carb intake has been a bit low compared to Christmas' eat-athon.

From experience, there's usually a spot of the "low carb flu" when you are going ketogenic, and I'm pretty sure I've hit it.  I should be sleeping more.  

I figured the fruit and sweet potato would blunt it, but I'm a bit tired.  

My stomach has been doing well, on the bright side.  

My favorite chocolate in the wide world.

Lunch was an apple, banana, Shepherd's Pie and more of the ubiquitous cabbage and squash.

Tonight I had a lighter supper, bacon cooked to season shallot and Brussel sprouts, more squash and....

88% Endangered Species Extreme Dark Chocolate.

It's my favorite dark chocolate.  It packs a kick and is a bit chalky, but it's got a nice mouth-feel and a couple of rows tends to leave me with a sense of well-being.  This stuff is low-dose heroine.

I am looking forward to making some axis-deer chili with okra and tomatoes soon.  Maybe tomorrow.  

Bit tired tomorrow, going to get some sleep.  Ask me why I got mad at a package of bacon some time.  

Stupid, stupid bacon, disgraced the beautiful pork belly from whence it was carved.  I'm too incensed to blog it!  

Gauciflower, coconut shrimp and sprints.

Killer Quilt!

First things first.  A big thanks to Mrs. Sarah Stocks for making us a killer Dr. Seuss themed baby quilt for our upcoming addition.  Woot!

Today, I got pretty gnarly hungry after eating shephards pie for lunch along with cabbage and turnips.

And, what do we do when we get hungry?

BACON!!!!!

BACON!

Paleo can put you onto some wicked low fat content if you don't take adequate measures.  Four pieces of crispy bacon later, and I was feeling right.

We love bacon grease!

The bacon provides grease for these wonderful little squashes (onions below).

I threw down hard and ate ample animal fat tonight (sorry axis deer, you're too lean).  All you soybean oil and canola oil eatin' peeps need to get the memo.  Bacon grease is where it's at for veggies.  It holds up to heat well (since it's saturated fat) and makes everything taste awesome.

Speaking of saturated fat....





Coconut oil is a great medium for pan frying shrimp.  The rest were boiled, but I felt like playing around.  Tomie and I ate a full pound and a half of shrimp tonight.

To get my fat content up, I added a whack of guac and broc.  You heard it here: It's a marriage made in heaven.

The simple premixed guacamole from our HEB has surprisingly natural ingredients.  To boot, I fail at picking out ripe avocados, so it's a great way to get in some healthy fat calories and keep from getting sabotaged by your own hunger pangs.




I finished tonight with full on zombie-drill 28 Days Later sprints.

5 sets of 20 - 30 seconds full on sprints with a minute of cool-down time between them.  I do these every 7 - 10 days religiously.  It's the one workout I don't miss each week.

It's a simple idea.  Pretend something is chasing you and beat feet.

Sprinting vital, according to Mark Sisson and Tim Ferris as it promotes your GLUT-4 transporters and keeps your food in your muscles and out of your rump.

The spread.  Yum!  (Whack of sweet potato nuked for 5 mins in saran wrap).  

Free free to skip the nerd stuff, but still try to find time to move like something's chasing you.

Success and Failure

Jan-2 was a major dietary and activity success. At 7pm I would have smiled and told you that this day of the 30 day challenge was in the W column. I had 0 grains, no nasty sugars, no legumes, got in a quick workout, played with my daughter (which is play and lift heavy things combined), and was even going to use my brain by finishing up some last minute work stuff...

But before the story of failure, let's talk status, intake and exercise.

Status
Yesterday morning I weighed 161.2 - Just so you know, I'm 5'10. So not bad overall, but there's too much flab and not enough tone, and my energy levels are very low.

Intake

I started my day with bacon and eggs, followed up with a spinach salad with strawberries and walnuts for lunch. Midways between lunch and dinner I managed to get a banana/strawberry/raspberry/blackberry smoothie in, and my wife (who is also doing the 30 day challenge and going Primal this year) made ginger/maple/apple pork chops for dinner. Apologies for the lack of pictures, I'll fix that in the future. Rusty's Shepard's Pie pics make his post look better than mine and I can't have that.

Exercise

Here's my confession... I have been embarrassingly stagnate over the past.... 4 months or so. No sense in placing any blame, it is what it is, and I'm a lazy out of shape slob. That said, I did two sets of 25 crunches and one set of 25 push-ups yesterday. I'll be ramping that up as I start feeling better.

Fail

Ok, I promised a fail - and that would be with Primal Challenge #6 Get Adequate Sleep. It's my weakest category anyway, but mix in a collicky 3 week old, and a large amount of work I needed to finish up before my Belgian team members get into the office at 3am, and the fail becomes epic.

Long boring story short, I managed to pass out in front of my computer at some time after 4am. My wife woke me up around 5:30 and I slept until it was time to wake up for my 7am meeting.

You can imagine how my day is going... I did, however, weigh in at 159.4 this morning and made a breakfast of Almonds and a banana. Lunch will be leftovers from that pork dish and dinner is still up in the air.

More to come - GROK ON!

Shepard's Pie

Rusty here, I hope you all enjoyed Patrick's testimonial.  I know I did!  Welcome, Patrick.

Shepard's Pie, this is a very broad category of foods for paleo peeps out there, since it's a simple way of combining meat, onions, veggies and starchy tubers.  

I browned ground lamb from the farmer's market, with some onions and shallots.  Cast iron is a good choice for this dish since you can pop it straight in the oven and it's heavy enough not to burn the meat and veggies that come in contact with it (heavy pots hold heat better).

Next, I added chopped carrots and green beans (these have been boiled with some uncured bacon for 30 minutes to an hour.

The carrots get plenty tender when the dish is baked.

I covered the dish with turnips, finally with some mashed potatoes.  

If you're avoiding potatoes, this dish can be made perfectly well with mashed turnips (or even thinly sliced turnips) on top.  In hindsight, that might have been the way to go, as my taters dried out a bit.  

The final, cooked pie, took about 40 minutes at 350.  Skipping the potatoes, precooking all of the ingredients like the carrots, or simply aiming for more moist mashed potatoes will generate better results.  

I'm still a bit sore from yesterday's workout (chinups, dips, curls and squats).  Feeling good!  

Work resumes after a lovely break tomorrow, which will limit the time I have to cook.  Boo!

Grok on January.  

A new year, a new life

Welcome, me!

I'm Patrick, a good friend of Rusty's. We've known each other for over 10 years now and have seen each other through the best and worst of times. In March of last year, Rusty introduced me to the Paleo/Primal lifestyle in a time where I was in need of a change. I have always been a small guy, my only issues with weight were not being able to put on enough for whatever sport I was interested in at the time... but then I got married and had kids.

I woke up one morning, stepped on the scale, and saw the biggest number I'd ever registered before. The same day, my wife walked up behind me and grabbed a double handful of my love handles... it was time to do something. Something... but I didn't know what. With work, a 2 year old daughter, and a pregnant wife, I didn't have the time to work out. "Dieting" was something I knew I would fail at. I like to eat good food, and I like large portions... it seemed as if my days of being fit and athletic were drawing to a close. Middle age, tubby dad coming right up!

I guess it was providence that Rusty and another friend of ours were just beginning their investigation of all things Paleo at this point. So, after a bit of reading The Primal Blueprint, I decided to jump in and go for it.

So just like that, we became PaleBros! (Does that translate well to text? palebro like paleo... pay-lee-bro... ok nevermind)

To be brief, it worked for me. Fat melted away and I started feeling good for the first time ever. This isn't an exaggeration. Over the course of the next few months, I found out that I have a gluten intolerance, and have been. my whole life. I finally had an answer to why my stomach has given me problems my whole life. This was great, but it came with a "downside." Whatever tolerance I had built up over thirty years of eating pasta, bread, and other poisons melted away as quickly as the fat did. Eating even the smallest amount of wheat now... well... without too much detail, it sucks. But it helps me make the decision to eat better.

Unfortunately, (I guess) I can still eat corn and rice without suffering. A bit of information that I overused in the later parts of 2011. While I'm not back to where I was, I am no longer where I want to be. So, it's time to recommit, and to document this time.

So from me, look for updates on what I'm eating, how I'm being active, and how I'm improving.

GROK ON

January 1st

January 1 in the south is a day of traditional peas, cornbread, turnips and cabbage.  

Along with bacon, axis deer and onion, this new-years was delicious and nourishing.  Despite eating a bit of peas and cornbread I found myself eating way more veggie plant matter than previous months.

Today I feel nourished and just a bit of that distant hunger you feel after getting off "junk", ala Christmas eating.  

Today's weigh in was a bit heavier than when I left to go home to Mississippi for Christmas eats, about 4 lbs heavier, bringing my grand total over 250 pounds.  

No sweat, I'm going to say that a bit of feast and famine is good for the body, at least Tim Ferris thinks so.  

Peas and cornbread have been eaten.  Now for a full-on grains-legume-dairy free month.  

And for those who are playing along with me, consider hopping aboard JunkFreeJan.