What's in What You Eat?It is said you are what you eat, from your head to your feet. So why not know… What's in what you eat?

When following a solid eating plan, the occasional treat is eventually going to happen, and should happen. While some people think if they are going to treat themselves, they should eat whatever they want, the truth is that some things should never be consumed, and some are going to have a bigger impact on the body and your progress than others.

Rule #1: Keep them rare.

Having one good meal of eating and then taking a break isn’t going to get you anywhere. Same goes for eating good one day and then going off. Try to keep them to once per week.

Rule#2: Don’t plan them.

People often like to say something in the lines of “I’ll go strict until Saturday and then have a treat then” or have their own reasoning behind planning in a treat meal. It is much better to avoid it and just let it happen when it comes up socially. What happens when you eat a treat Thursday night by yourself and then you get dinner invitations the following night? The once a week treat is now happening at least twice.

Rule#3: Avoid fake food

Even during a well earned treat meal, synthetic food should be avoided. The destructiveness of this is too high for it to be worth it. Eat real, good food. Especially avoid trans fat and high fructose corn syrup.

Rule #4: Avoid fast food

Don’t have your treats be at McDonald’s or Dairy Queen. Go for something that tastes better and doesn’t violate rule #3

Rule #5: Stay gluten free

The recovery time for eating gluten can be as much as 2 weeks. It really isn’t worth it at least to me anymore to put my body through that struggle.

Here’s a list of the best and worst treats you can have. When searching through the dessert menu at a restaurant try one of these before you go into the real bad areas.

Desserts:

Best:

-Dark chocolate
-Coconut milk ice cream
-Flourless chocolate truffle cake (often on menus)
-Chocolate mousse (often on menus)
-Chocolate covered strawberries
-Panna Cotta, Creme Brulee, Flan, Custard (often on menus)

Ok:

-Milk chocolate
-Dairy Ice cream (includes gelato, frozen custard, frozen yogurt)

Avoid:

-Cake
-Cookies
-Brownies

Non-sweets:

Best:
-Sweet potato fries

Ok:
-Gluten free grains (rice, corn, etc)
-Legumes
-French fries
-White potatoes
-Potato chips

-Corn / rice tortillas / chips

Avoid:
-Bread
-Pasta
-Wheat tortillas / chips
- Any gluten containing grain

I am going to try to start a new segment called “Paleo in Seattle” featuring restaurants, grocery stores, and other relavent places in the city. They’ll be listed in the pages to your right with a more in depth discussion and hopefully pictures as a blog post.

As always, feel free to submit any places to check out.

Here’s how it will work:

Taste: Scale of 10 (Even if it is nutritious, it still needs to taste good)
1-4: Unappealing
5-7: Moderate
8-10: Delicious

Nutrition: Scale of 10 (Just how Paleo friendly is it?)
1-4: Cheat meal
5-7: Ok once in a while
8-10: Very paleo friendly

Filling: Scale of 10 (Will you be hungry after the meal?)
1-4: Very light
5-7: Satisfied
8-10: Full

Price:
$: $10 or less entree
$$: $15 or less entree
$$$: $20 or less entree

Overal Value: Based on the above, how good it is for Paleo
1-4: Look elsewhere
5-7: Fine
8-10: A favorite

Friday April 25th:

8:00am:
-1 Hard Boiled Egg
-1 Banana
-Orange Juice

10:30am:
-Pistachios

12:00pm:
-Chicken Ceaser Salad
-Fruit Cup

6:00pm:
-Salad w:
-Lettuce
-Spinach
-Broccoli
-Green Peas
-Mushrooms
-Chicken
-Beef
-Olive Oil/ Vinegar

Cheats:
-Dairy in Ceaser Salad

This was the last day for this Paleo trial. I enjoyed it very much and the energy boost was amazing. I stopped my usual routine of struggling to wake up in the morning, and was easily able to get up each day. I’ll decide at what level I want to do this if at all once I am done reading “The Paleo Diet” by Loren Cordain.

Thursday April 24th:

8:00am:
-1 Hard Boiled Egg
-1 Orange
-1 Banana
-1 Cup Orange Juice
-Smoked Salmon

10:30am:
-Pistachios

12:45pm:
-Mixed Green Salad W/ Chicken

3:45pm:
-1 Hard Boiled Egg
-1 Apple

5:15pm:
-Organic Baby Carrots

9:00pm:
-3/4 Chicken
-Mixed Green Salad w/ Nuts

Wednesday April 23rd:

8:00am:
-2 Hard Boiled Eggs
-1 Banana
-1 Orange
-2 Cups Orange Juice

10:30am:
-Handful Pistachios

12:30pm:
-2 Chicken Breasts

CHEAT:
4:30pm:
-1 scoop Baskin and Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip Ice-cream

7:15pm:
-Salmon W/ Green Onions
-Stir Fry Vegetables:
-Broccoli
-Green/ Yellow Peppers
-Mushrooms
-Onions

-Grapes

The sun was out and I was really craving some ice cream. Ben & Jerries decided to go out of business so I was stuck with B&R. I felt horribly after eating it; bloated, tired, and had a weird feeling in my throat. Made me want to keep going with Paleo.

Other Improvements:
-Chicken at lunch had questionable ingredients. It was from QFC and everytime I get it there is different ingredients listed, I believe they printed the wrong label and what I ate was just chicken with nothing bad.
-Ice cream was an obvious mistake
-Salmon was cooked in soy sauce, making it not truly Paleo

I will try to finish Thursday and Friday strong and then take a break over the weekend. I don’t know how fully I will be able to continue after this week, though I will try.

Tuesday April 22nd

9:30am:
- 1 Hard Boiled Egg
- 1 Banana
- 1 Orange
- 1 Cup Orange Juice

10:45am:
-Handful Pistachios

12:15pm:
-Taco Salad
-Handful Pistachios
-1 Banana
-Water

3:15pm:
-1 Hard Boiled Egg
-Apple

7:15pm:
-1/2 Chicken
-Mixed Green Salad

Dessert:
-Organic Apple Sauce

Cheats:
-Taco Salad contained cheese (and was from a school cafeteria)
-Organic Apple Sauce contained added sugar

Monday April 21st:

8:15am:
-Smoked Salmon
-1 Hard Boiled Egg
-Orange Juice

12:15pm:
-2 Chicken Breasts
-Water

4:45pm:
-Canned Tuna W/ Canola Mayo

7:00pm:
-4 Egg Omelet w/
-Onions
-Smoked Salmon

-Left over salmon from last night
-Mixed Green Salad w/
-Lettuce
-Black Olives
-Broccoli
-Carrots
-Green Peppers

Water

Dessert:
-1/2 Grapefruit
-1 Bowl Organic Apple Sauce

Possible improvements:
-Salad Dressing’s first ingredient was sugar-nothing artificial in it though
-Applesauce contains added sugar
-Canned Tuna has some preservatives in it

I have been reading up lately on the Paleo Diet. It is based off only eating foods that the hunter/ gatherers of the Paleolithic societies had available. The diet is made up of eating lean meats, chicken, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. There are no processed foods allowed as well as no wheat, potatoes, rice, soy, processed/ fatty meats. This is obviously a very hard diet to follow but it is worth experimenting with. Here is what I ate today.

Sunday April 20th:

10:30am
-3 Scrambled Eggs
-Smoked Salmon
-Orange Juice
-Orange
-Banana

3:30pm
-Chicken Caaser Salad
-Apple
-Water

5:30pm
-Handful Pistachios

7:30pm
-Salmon w/ spices, onions, lemon
-Stir fry: W/ Garlic and Parsley Flakes
-Green Pepper
-Yellow Pepper
-Broccoli
-Onions
-Mushrooms
-Side Salad
-Cucumber Salad
-Water
-Strawberries
-Grapes

While this is the concept of an ideal diet, this blog will continue to update information for non Paleo foods and restaurants as well. I partially cheated having dairy cheese in the Caeser Salad.