Thoughts after Week 2

Although not technically over, the hard part of the second week is over. At this point, I have three weekends, two full work weeks, and two more weekdays ahead of me. I'm nearly halfway.

I think my reactions to seeing and smelling fatty, sugary, very-n0n-paleo-ly foods has definitely been different this week. I still want these things when I see them, but the desire passes much more quickly. Its become a lot easier to focus on the positive aspects of this diet, ie what I AM able to eat, as opposed to the negative aspects, ie the delicious foods that are completely forbidden.

That said, its not obvious whether this is a function of the mental effort involved in extended dietary discipline, or a function of changing my body over to strict paleo inputs. Probably a little bit of both, but I think the mental aspect is the major player here. Which is actually a great thing. Although when I started planning this month it was mainly for dietary and performance reasons, I quickly realized that this would be quite a mental challenge.

See, I tend to be a very compulsive eater. The least bit of stress sets me off, dreaming of unhealthy comfort foods (this compulsion is actually almost gone. hm..). Also, whenever I'm kind of hungry (ie not completely full) and I see or smell something kind of delicious, I want that food right then. If I'm hungry and I walk by a pizza parlor or bakery, I will think that pizza or pastries sound fantastic. This makes shopping very difficult when hungry.

Now, I'm usually fairly good at resisting all of these temptations, but that's kind of a relative term. I can justify eating deliciously pretty easily by telling myself its a one time, spur of the moment deal. Which it seems like it is, because hey, its right when I saw those pizza rolls and ice cream that I realized what I was really craving right now was pizza rolls and ice cream. What a coincidence! Surely this coincidence merits a bit of indulgence?

Like I said, frequently I resist this scenario, but not nearly enough. What's worse is that I don't feel that I have much control over it. Some weeks I'll just throw in the towel and not even try to eat well. I had one of those last month; it was disgusting.

So the first week was full of behavior like this, only without giving in. The rabid desire to eat cheese and cookies was still there, but it was a bit less distressing because I couldn't linger on it too long, knowing it wasn't an option. This second week has been noticebly easier in that respect. There have been temptations, including a cheesecake at the office, onion rings, pizza, brownies, a different kind of brownies, turkey burgers. The temptations have been on par for a normal week, but the time I spent obsessing about them was a fraction of what it usually is.

Hopefully this is a permanent power, something that stays with me for a long time. I think I'll still be able to get worked up over some really diet destroying food, like fried twinkies and frozen pizza rolls (so good, so un-paleo), but if I am less distracted by every little thing, maintaining a good diet will be that much easier.

Poblano and Carrot Salad with Salmon, Steak and Watermelon

The usual lunch, running low on assorted vegetables though, so only poblano, carrots and snow peas to top my baby spinach. Salmon from Joe's; I didn't feel like cooking chicken on a Thursday to let it sit in the fridge all weekend.

I'll probably get back on the chicken come Monday, but I'll also be doing much stricter zone then. I still have to think about how I'm going to execute that, and it will definitely require more planning than I've gotten by with so far.

The finally, steak again for Friday dinner. In the absence of drinking and pizza, this keeps me going. I picked up a top sirloin 8 oz steak from Whole Foods, a small sweet onion and a small Fuji apple. Sadly, I had no access to olive oil, so I had to cook this all with vegetable oil (better than the corn oil that was available). The steak was great, and I always love caramelized onions.

Just now I had a snack of three slices of deli turkey, six roasted almonds (are those roasted in oil?) and half of my remaining half baby watermelon. Watermelon is addicting.

Turkey Bacon! Egg, Onion, Blueberries

I made an awesome discovery last night: the Applewood Farms turkey bacon is almost exactly one zone block of protein per slice at 6g protein, 1.5 g fat. Its not the same thing as real bacon, but its a welcome break from ground turkey.

Three slices turkey bacon, two eggs, a quarter of an onion sauteed in olive oil, about 3 ounces blueberries, fish oil and an alpha lipoic acid capsule.

Definitely not too many carbs this morning.

Pork Chop, Ratatouille, Watermelon

I added a new simple meat dish to my repertoire: pork chop. Rub with olive oil, plenty of pepper and a little kosher salt, throw on the pan, done.

Also heated up some of the ratatouille and had half a tiny seedless watermelon. Maybe a little carb excessive overall.

Salmon, Illegal Snow Peas Salad

No chicken, so salmon from Joe's. Unless they cook it in butter, its got to be paleo. And its damn good.

Salad of baby spinach, poblano pepper, raw broccoli, snow peas, carrot, almonds, pine nuts, flaxseed oil, lemon juice, pepper.

I finally got to the actual "what you can eat" chapter in the paleo book, and there are a few surprises. Snow peas are technically legumes, and are out. They might have some lectins, which is paleo's main complaint, but come on. I'm eating them raw, in shell. That can't be bad for your right? Lots of fiber?

I'll finish off this bag and not buy more I guess. Too bad because they're a great, cheap salad filler that tastes pretty good.

After reading SO MUCH about omega-3s, I had to pick up some more fish oil to shore up my omega-6:omega-3 ratio. Although the paleo book doesn't actually discuss fish oil much (if at all), it goes on and on about the importance of omega-3 fats and what foods are good sources of them. Flaxseed oil has a good ratio, so I'm using that for salad dressing, and possibly making "paleo mayonnaise" later.

Anyways, I've basically read enough about omega-3s to take them seriously, and will be taking a shot of fish oil twice daily going forward.

Turkey, Blueberry and Almond One-Blocker

Only time for two slices of deli turkey, not enough blueberries, and 3 almonds. I'm guessing this is about a one block 'meal', but I need to get a food scale to train my eye for meat blocks.

Supplemental Salmon, Chicken on Salad, No Cheesecake

Typical lunch, supplemented with some salmon because I was low on chicken. Smaller, simpler salad than previous days, which took me much less time to get through.

There was a cheesecake in the office for a birthday today. Cheesecake is extremely un-paleo (diary, sugar, high fat), and I've been considering it for October 1, but I found myself surprisingly uninterested. Not that I wouldn't have liked some, but that it really didn't distract me much at all.

Way too many almonds and some blackberries for 'snack' around 6, no time for dinner, but some deli turkey, almonds and an apple around 1 am.