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Friday 3 June 2011

Learning

I've been learning so much about the paleo diet/lifestyle recently, thanks mostly to Robb Wolf and Chris Kresser's podcasts, and some more blogs I've found. It's really encouraged me to stick to the diet because it's got the most solid arguments I've found in nutrition to date. Since I started doing paleo, I suppose for about only 2 months now, I've made a few tweaks- I started off eating nuts everyday but I've cut way way back on this. I've also learnt about being more choosy with my protein sources with better omega 6:3 ratios, so I'm going to be eating less poultry and mostly organic beef and oily fish. My meals are usually eggs and/or fish for breakfast, leftover dinner or a fish salad, maybe an avocado, for lunch, and usually some beef and veggies for dinner. I try to keep fruit to a minimum; berries, apple or banana every other day.
The only problem is, every few days I give into something non-paleo, almost always chocolate or ice-cream. Anyway, I'm working on it. I wish I'd more time to expand and the whys and a bit of more info on what I've learnt, maybe there'll be some time over the weekend.
Here's a selection of this week's meals:

Turkey breast and collard scramble (breakfast). Coffee in a cut mug my mum bought me:)

Turkey breast salad with avocado. Yum, finally I've come to love them.


More turkey, a salmon fishcake (homemade, with tinned salmon and some leftover boiled potato) and top of courgette ribbons in tomato sauce (onion, garlic, oregano, chilli powder and passata).


Half a sirloin steak, a big pile of butterhead lettuce with olive oil and balsamic, and a big spoon of Dijon mustard with herbs de provence.


And after that, I had this delicious concoction for dessert: two very ripe bananas mushed up and vanilla extract stirred into a tub of Fage yogurt and frozen.

So delicious, and satisfied my ice-cream cravings far better than any actual ice-cream, much creamier, tart and less sweet. I'm trying to keep dairy low, but this makes a nice treat and is healthier than regular ice-cream, which is by far my biggest weakness!

Oh, and before I go, a final piece of news- starting in the autumn, I'm starting another degree, this time in biology. It'll be by distance learning while I work, and I thought it would be the most enjoyable way to begin training for a career related to nutrition. I almost began a nutrition course a while ago, until I found out the organisation running it were quacks. I feel a strong scientific foundation will be the most insightful and give me a broad base and range of choices as to what direction to pursue after the course.

3 comments:

  1. I have so many questions!!!

    This is so exciting, starting a new course. What school? I'm looking into something similar as well.

    How are you feeling? It looks like you've added veggies back into your diet. Is it working for you? Were the grains and beans the problem?

    You sound happy and like you are enjoying the paleo! :-)

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  2. Yeh, I eat loadsa veggies now, I just keep the starchy ones minimal. I sort of incorporate specific carbohydrate/FODMAP rules into my veggie choices and that has really helped keep away the IBS monster (I have no bloat, and no more wind than a normal person, and it's not smelly like when I ate wheat). I always thought SCD looked like such a pain in the butt to implement, but that was back when I was vegan and taking away all those SCD illegal foods would have left me fairly low on choices, it totally works though. Definitely beans and grains were a big problem for me. I am still really stressy and not sleeping as well as I would like and still am fairly constipated, but it's not uncomfortable anymore, if that makes sense. I really need to do a more complete post on my food choices and the IBS, and I hope to get something sent to you for your article over the weekend!
    The course is a BSc in natural sciences through the Open University here in the UK. You can choose modules to either make it biology, chemistry, physics. It's going to take me about 4 years, since full time it normally takes 3 and I'll still be working full time. It's going to be tough going but I'm super excited!

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  3. i think it's very interesting to see how you're adapting to your lifestyle changes. i'm currently on a more vegetable-based, ayurvedic-ish change. not hardcore (i try to steer away from things with set-rules in case i go a bit OTT) but avoiding cow dairy certainly

    it's fascinating to find out how it affects the everyday- even malt loaf has whey in it! boooooo!

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