Primal Eating – Week Two Recap

Things are easier and harder.

Good news: Most of the craving is gone. As I get farther (or is it further) away from a lifestyle of ingesting grains and sugars, the cravings for them are becoming less and less. I think that I am beating most of the addictions to them that I had. Bowls full of cereal, pies, doughnuts, even ice cream are not the temptations that they were last week.  I would be hard pressed to turn down a big cinnamon roll if I were face-to-face with one, but hopefully my discipline would win out over my salivating gluttony.

Bad news: It takes a bit or work to plan every meal. I got stuck once this week and either had to eat pizza or go hungry. I’m not to the point where I could cheerfully do that, so I ordered pizza with double all the vegetable toppings and light sauce (commercial sauces are loaded with sugar). I didn’t eat the big crust pieces at the edge. Making the best of your situation and eating the food at hand is, I think, in the best spirit of the Paleo Lifestyle. Most of the time I’ve been doing very well keeping on track.

The morning after my pizza indiscretion I had another one of those weird pulsing headaches on the left side of my head. But just the one. The wife gave me a cookie this morning (from the last package of her Valentine’s Present) and I had a huge headache all day, but I don’t think the two were related. My head felt fuzzy when I woke up.

One thing that I forgot to mention last week was the acne. Almost as soon as I stopped eating grains and sugars my face started breaking out. It seems to have finally cleared up this last day or two. I wonder if that could be caused by the stress of diet change rather than the body “purging toxins” as some of the more esoteric foodies believe.

I was hungry last night before bed. I dipped some carrots in cashew butter while I finished the work that I wanted to get done. It was filling and quite yummy! I made beef jerky for my trip to Houston this week. There’s not as much of it as I wanted, but it should be good. I used orange zest instead of red pepper flakes. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

My friend Daniel has been eating this way for some time now and shared a wonderful recipe with me. The family agrees that it should become a traditional weekend breakfast for us. It is Walnut Pancakes made with no flour and no sugar. There are eggs and a bit of honey and of course, walnuts. I’ll share the recipe with whoever wants it.

As usually happens with dietary changes, I have lost weight; more the first week than this week, but I’m still losing. My clothes fit a bit more loosely around the middle. More than that though, it looks to me like my kids are slimming down. I’m really glad about that. I can endure a lot if it means that they are healthier.

The next week I am away from home the entire week! There will be more fruit this week, I know that for certain. Other than that, I hope to stay away from sweets entirely and bread, mostly.

Let me know if you are interested in anything specific or would like more information.