The week after

It's been 3 days since I officially finished the Paleo diet. I weighed 61.9 kg today. About 1kg less than when I started. My weight can fluctuate 1kg in a week quite easily, in fact last week I weighed in at 62.8.
I think it's fair to say that I didn't lose any weight on this diet which is a bit discouraging given I didn't have a drink for 4 weeks and it was quite expensive to do!
That said the man-thing lost about 4 kg and is looking significantly trimmer and healthier. I think he found it easier to resist the snacks than I did although he also allowed alcohol.
All in all I would say the Paleo diet can work but only in conjunction with good old fashioned calorie counting.

Week 4 day 5

Two more days until I start drinking again - not that I'm counting - much!
Last night I made a curry Laksa with home-made Laksa paste and "vegetable" noodles. Pretty good although again not enough chillie.
We went to a restaurant last night and found it surprisingly easy to stick to the Paleo diet. It helped that it was a Tapas style restaurant so we ordered all the meat flavored dishes.
Have terrified my mother by agreeing to have dinner at her place then telling her she has to do Paleo. Payback for all those 7am phone calls.

Vegetable noodles

Curry Laksa with home-made curry paste and vegetable noddles

Week 4 Day 3

Blueberry smoothies are the new porridge! They've become my go to breakfast. Very yummy but about 10x the price.
Made a seafood chowder last night and attempted to make some flatbreads out of almond and coconut flour but they fell apart in the pan. Served them as a crumble instead.
He continues to loose weight. I continue to snack compulsively.
Looking forward to a drink on Sunday! Nearly succumbed and had one on Saturday.
Safe to say the novelty has thoroughly warn off.

Week 3 Day 5

Have made chocolate out of Cacoa Butter and Powder. They taste pretty good too! Last night I made a 'corn bread' out of coconut and almond flour which was also pretty good. Will try a seafood chowder next week.
The green curry is getting better and the man-thing has figured out how to make potato chips out of Kumara - still some work to do on the technique though.

Home-made Paleo chocolate

Week 3 Day 1

I feel like we are settling into this eating pattern now. We've largely abandoned the meal plan in the book we were following and started making up our own meals. On Friday night I invented what I'm calling a "Paleo Mexican Flatbread Stack".

Still snacking but more on apples and frozen smoothies than nuts which has to be be a lot better for the waistline. Went out last night and drank soda water with mint leaves, lemons and limes which I've come to quite enjoy.
He, himself loves to cook and I think has been a bit put out that I've been doing most of the cooking since we adopted the diet. I'm letting him cook up on storm tonight on the condition that there's no grains or dairy, we'll see what he come up with.
Right now I think I will probably stick with this way of eating at the end of the 4 weeks, although I'll probably add wine back in.

Week 2 Day 4

Last night's green curry was pretty good for a first attempt. Not quite spicy enough so next time I'll put an extra chillie and some additional spices in. We had it over cauliflower mash with remarkably little complaining from my loved one.
I also made Granola for breakfast which tasted very sweet at the time but was quite palatable this morning. Next time I make it I'll reduce the honey and it should make quite a reasonable quick and easy breakfast.
I also make some chocolate chip biscuits which were an unmitigated disaster. Too crumbly and the Cacao nibs I used for chips are not chocolaty at all!
I guess you live and learn.

Homemade Paleo Granola

Chocolate Chip bikkies - they look alright but they're not

Week 2 Day 3

No blogging for the last few days because I've been studying for an exam.

We have been sticking to the Paleo Diet and I think we are starting to find our feet with it a bit. We've stopped trying to follow the meal plan and started making our own recipes using the permitted ingredients and based on the sort of things we would usually eat. We had a reasonably healthy, high protein diet anyway so it has been more about eliminating the grains and sugars we did eat.

He, himself proudly declared that he has lost 3 kilos. We think this is probably 3 kilos worth of Bourbon and Coke and potato chips. I got weighed at the gym today. I only lost .5 kilos but have dropped 2% body fat (I'm the lowest I've been in over a year), so that perked me up and made me feel motivated to carry on.

Tonight I'm going to try making my own Green Curry Paste (no sugar), I'll post an update on it tomorrow.

Week 1 Day 6 and 7

Made some pretty grim looking Blueberry pancakes for breakfast yesterday and a faux Waldorf Salad which I thought was delicious but the man-thing said made him feel sick all day. A bit of robust discussion about whether to stick to the diet and how strictly it should be followed. Ended up taking about 2 hours and several rewrites to figure out the eating plan and shopping list for next week. Probably not helped by the fact last night was work drinks at the man-thing's office.

Today I stuck with a simple Smoked Salmon omelette for breakfast. Not what was on the plan for today but close enough. Gave the man-thing breakfast in bed which I think made him feel better. He told me later he has lost 3 kg in one week. This was a bit depressing as I suspect I'm putting on weight.

We have agreed to make variations to the menu plan and experiment a bit once we've tried some of the recipes. I am really enjoying the smoothies. Later this week I get to try Granola which I'm looking forward to.

My ugly pancakes

Week 1 Day 4 and Day 5 morning

I am really enjoying the tasty whole food on this diet. The recipes are delicious BUT there is a lot of cooking involved.

Yesterday I got home from work and made dinner, today's lunch and tomorrow's breakfast.

Nutty Grain bars for breakfast this morning and snacks during the week.

Still getting my usual afternoon hunger pangs. I made myself a smoothie and had a pile of nuts and dates and a large piece of Blueberry Cashew slice yesterday. It's hard to imagine I am going to lose any weight at this rate.

Had my regular weigh-in at the gym yesterday and was 62.7 - slightly up on last week. We'll see how I do next week.

Week 1 Day 2 and 3

Day 2 went pretty well with tasty salmon scrambled eggs for breakfast, chicken fajitas for lunch and chile beef for dinner. The Chia Seed Pudding was a bit odd though.

I'm up to day 3 today and fell into a bit of a snacking frenzy. Neither breakfast, which was a berry power smoothie nor lunch, which was left over fittata from breakfast on day 1 were particularly satisfying. So I ate apples, pork crackling and nuts all day.They do say the Paleo diet isn't about calories. I guess I'll see what the scales have to say about it tomorrow.

Dinner tonight is Chicken with Sweet Potatoes. The dessert is Chocolate Strawberry Milk Shake but I think I'm going to jump ahead to the Blueberry Macadamia Squares that are on the menu for pudding tomorrow.
So far there has been an inordinate amount of cooking involved but I'm guessing that gets easier when you know what you're doing.

Also went to the Organics store for preservative free coconut flakes and cacao which set me back another $NZ60.

Week 1 Day 1

Sent my darling out foraging at the local supermarket yesterday with the list of ingredients. The total bill to transform our cupboards into a caveman's paradise was around $NZ400. This should come down over time as there are a lot of high-price items such as Almond Meal and Avocado Oil which will not need to be bought every week. Even so, I think we spent over $50 on nuts alone.

Breakfast was a yummy bacon, spinach and kale frittata with left-overs for lunch during the week. Today's lunch was a no-rice sushi made with carrots, cucumber avocado and smoked salmon. Also pretty tasty. Haven't been too many complaints from the man-thing so far. He's making the pulled pork roast for dinner tonight and was happily trimming fat and rubbing hot paprika all over it this afternoon.