Day 6 & 7

It's the weekend! We got off to a late start today (up late last night) and had to hurry to squeeze in our workout before heading to our friend's for the 49er's game (which they won!). Heading out of the house, we knew we were going to a football game and that meant two things: beer and pizza. The first evil temptation. To make things easier, we stopped Chipotle on the way and loaded up on chicken bowls with guac. I avoided the beer at my friends and opted for gin -- which also turned out to be a bad idea! not because of Paleo, but because I never drink hard alcohol. After some shenanigans there, we drove home and I made kilbasa in the skillet with some of our left over veggies.

Sunday, we headed to Santa Cruz for some surfing. I just got a new board so I was pretty excited to try it out. We had a great day in the water and came out exhausted and starving. My buddy suggested hamburgers, which was exactly what I wanted! We headed over to Betty Burgers, where they offer a "bare back" option for all of their burgers and to top it off they get all of their burger meat from a local organic farm. Sorry, no pics of the burger!

For dinner, I adapted the Moroccan Chicken recipe from page 46 EP to include green beans instead of broccoli and use Tamari Soy instead of Coconut oil (both substitutions because that's all I had).

Energy and brain-wise, I felt great Saturday and Sunday (aside from a little gintoxication). I had a lot of energy in the water on Sunday, but I don't feel like it was any more than usual.

Meals (Day 6):

• Breakfast: Skipped
• Lunch: Chipotle, where I got a bowl with chicken (no rice), veggies, and guacamole. ($7.90)
• Dinner: Kilbasa, Veggies, & Quinoa (~$15.00*)

Meals (Day 7):

• Breakfast: Bacon & Omelette
• Lunch: Lettuce wrapped chipotle burger! (Mad Mex - 1/2 lb. burger w/ guac and chipotle sauce $6.49)
• Dinner: Moroccan Chicken with Coconut Amino Soy, carrots, & green beans

Cost Breakdown:

* So, I've decided that it's not necessarily useful to breakdown my costs so granularly. I will track prices when I buy an individual item (e.g. Betty Burger). Otherwise, I plan to make one trip to the grocery store per week and I'll note that.

Kilbasa w/ Quinoa

Moroccan Chicken Sizzling Up!

Chicken's finished. Checkout how much the carrots and beans have softened up.

Serving it up!

Day 4 & 5

Day 4 was a busy day! Had an intense workout in the morning, a soccer game right after work (with no subs!), and then attended a panel discussion after that -- not to mention forgot my pants in my friend's car and almost ended up going to the discussion in my soccer shorts! So, not much time for making dinner, but I made due.

Although, I was pretty worn out after the soccer game, I didn't feel totally exhausted. My head felt clear all day and I didn't zone out during at the event afterwards either. So, pretty positive on that front.

Today was an easy day. I skipped my workout in the morning because my knee was pretty sore from the game yesterday. So I slept in a little... and that was very much appreciated. Had another good day of thinking clearly and feeling both positive and energetic.  I didn't drink as regularly throughout the day because I got rid of my giant water cup and I've been lazy about getting up for water. I'm a little suspicious about the quality of the food from the buffet at lunch since I've been feeling a little gastro-bubbly since.

Meals (Day 4):

• Breakfast: Hard Boiled Egg ($0.16)
• Lunch: I had a very yummy and large Omelette with Smoked Salmon, Spinach, Onion and Goat Cheese from Café Epi to fill me up for later ($2.24)
• Dinner: I grabbed a slice of meat lovers pizza at the event and ate the toppings. Then I snacked on the bag of mixed nuts I brought. Afterwards, we stopped at Chipotle, where I got a bowl with chicken (no rice), veggies, and guacamole. Mmmmm. ($7.90)

Meals (Day 5):

• Breakfast: Hard Boiled Egg ($0.16)
• Lunch: Company Buffet Lunch - Mexican. Chicken, Beef, Salad, Fajita veggies ($0)
• Dinner: Hamachi Nigiri & Seaweed Salad - Uzumaki Sushi ($2.97)

Cost Breakdown:

Each meal was pretty much a fixed cost, since they were all pre-prepared.

Day 3

Yummy eating today! Thai food for lunch and steak based food again for dinner. Prep time for dinner was a mess because I didn't have half of the ingredients I needed. Apparently this is going to take a little more foresight than my normal meal process.

Although I'm still not expecting to see many results, I felt OK today. Energy-wise, I was really tired this morning. I believe that's directly related to starting the Insanity workout routine and going to bed late again. Also, I've got a lot on my mind work-related.  Brain-wise, I had some good conversations and didn't feel murky at all.

Lunch was minimal, but dense. Plus, I got some bonus sashimi. I wasn't hungry at all during the day. I did have two orange juices and two coconuts juices though =) I brought some mandarin oranges to my desk, which laid untouched all day.

Meals:

• Breakfast: Started the day with a hard boiled again, which didn't break in the pot =) ($0.16)
• Lunch: Kang Kai-Nor Mai - Thai City (Red curry and coconut milk and bamboo shoots with chicken. (Medium Spicy)) ($2.17)
• Dinner: NY Strip with Sun-dried Tomato topping & Warm Arugula Salad (Everyday Paleo pgs 66 & 127) ($20.34)

Cooking the bacon and scallions

The finished product - Yum!

Cost Breakdown:

Breakfast - 1 egg =~ $2/12

Lunch - $2.17

Dinner - (Whole Foods and Safeway):

• Strip Loin NY $7.99
• Lemon $0.00 (off the tree)
• Sun Dried Tomato $2.69
• Artichoke Hearts $3.35
• Green Olives $0.23
• Bacon $2.11
• Scallions $0.17
• Walnuts $2.30
• Arugula $1.50

Day 2

Pretty simple food-wise since I ordered food for lunch and dinner. Energy-wise, I didn't get a full eight hours of sleep, but I am not feeling too drowsy, also not feeling too energetic; I'd say just standard. Brain-wise, I felt pretty productive today. I'm not expecting to see any results at all yet though.

I was pretty hungry after lunch, but just had a lot of water and coconut juice, which seemed to hold me over. Yesterday, I snacked on an apple, but today I didn't have any snacks. I was hungry again after dinner, but thirty minutes and an apple juice later I felt fine.

I read some interesting content today about paleolithic humans eating and storing grain. It was by Leigh Peele, who seemed a little aggressive about it. I guess those must have been the fat ones!

Meals:

• Breakfast: Started the day with a hard boiled again, which broke in the pot =(
• Lunch: Chicken Shawerma - Mediterranean Grill House (Tender marinated chicken breast, seasoned slowly roasted, shaved thinly, served with rice and your choice of salad or hummus)
• Dinner: Chicken Fajita Salad - Chevy's (Sizzling grilled fajitas, chilled greens, sauteed poblano peppers and onions, cotija and jack cheese, pepitas, fresh avocado, pico de gallo and tortilla strips tossed tableside w/ Apple Chipotle Vinaigrette)

Cost Breakdown:

Breakfast - 1 egg =~ $2/12

Lunch - $2.15

Dinner - $0.09 (Company covered $13.11)

Anecdote of the day -- Apparently I wasn't the only one to eat a hard-boiled egg for breakfast just before riding my bike to train stop. I, however, may be the only one who did these things and did not throw it back up directly onto the platform immediately upon arrival. Gross!

Day 1

I've been toying with the idea of trying Paleo out for a while now. I started reading Everyday Paleo this weekend and got motivated enough to start things out this week. Hopefully this will be the first of at least thirty posts of a similar subject.

There's enough content on Paleo on the web (and I know very little currently), so I'm not going to to go regurgitating things. Rather, I plan on documenting just my meals, costs, and thoughts along the way.

Meals:

Breakfast: one hard boiled egg ($0.16)
Lunch: Embarcadero Salad - Hobee's (An entrée salad with spring mix, grilled breast of chicken strips, pears, apples, walnuts, dried fruit, and bleu cheese in a raspberry vinaigrette.) ($2.00)
Dinner: Ginger Beef with Mango Salsa ($15.03)

Cost Breakdown:

Breakfast - 1 egg =~ $2 / 12
Lunch - The cost after my company's contribution was $2.00
Dinner (all purchased at Whole Foods):

• iStrip Loin NY $11.29
• Mango $1.25
• 1/4 Red Onion $0.49
• Avacado $2.00