As some of you may know, and most of you probably don’t, July 8th, 2010 is the official international Paleo Meet-up day.
Seattle seems to be leading the board with the most interest, but we want to make it even bigger.
You are all invited to the official Seattle Paleo Meet-up party at 6:00pm at Golden Gardens.
More information and RSVP here:
http://www.meetup.com/PaleoDiet/10969/
On another note, it is time to get this blog back up and running. Expect more frequent posts from here on out.
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
At nearly every Indian restaurant I have seen, there is a common trend of offering a $7 all you can eat buffet during the lunch hour (usually 11:30am-2:30pm). Curious to try new foods I went into one looking to see if anything primal emerged. This is what I found:
Buffet line stocked full of meat, typically chicken, lamb, and goat with numerous raw or cooked vegetables for side dishes. Sure it may have some sugar or soy in the sauces, or it may not, but it is primarily high animal protein, high vegetables, and as long as you can resist the Naan bread is also grain free. Also no word on if the animals are free-ranged.
Bengal Tiger (Roosevelt)
Butter chicken, tandoori chicken, cucumber salad, regular salad, eggplant puree
Masala (Northgate)
Chicken curry on the bone, Tandoori chicken, salad, greek-like salad, raw broccoli, spinach puree
Taste: 10
Nutrition: 8
Filling: 10 (All you can eat!)
Price: $ (Typically $6.95)
Overall Value: 10
Ingredients not confirmed to be 100% free of soy, grains, artificial ingredients, and added sugar
I am still amazed at having this as an option for lunch, and there are so many Indian restaurants with this in Seattle that anywhere you go you aren’t far from your local Indian Lunch Buffet. If you have never tried them, the time is now!
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Chipotle Mexican Grill is by far the highest quality fast food chain in the country. They are all about free-ranged and grass-fed meats and other than the 0.5 grams of trans fat found in their tortilla, taco shell, and corn chips (don’t eat these) they don’t use any artificial ingredients in their food. It is all customizable so it is quite easy to get a primal meal here:
Bed of lettuce, grilled vegetables, pico de gallo, choice of meat, cheese, sour cream, guacamole
I usually do double meat and double vegetables.
Taste: 10
Nutrition: 10
Filling: 8
Price: $
Overall Value: 9
Ingredients not confirmed to be 100% free of soy, grains, artificial ingredients, and added sugar
Restaurants all over the country and the millions of people who dine at them often share a strong misconception about a particular class of food.
My diet mainly consists of meat, fruit, vegetables, seeds, and nuts, so it would be safe to assume that any menu that says served with “seasonal or fresh vegetables” would be good to go for myself and everyone else trying to up their vegetable intake. So what causes my extreme sadness when I get my entree? What do I see when I look for my vegetables? I see this:
Corn
Corn is not a vegetable. Corn on the cob is still not a vegetable. Regardless of how you prepare corn, it is not a vegetable. Corn is a grain. Corn grows like a grain, is used like a grain (corn flour) and has the same high glycemic starchy inflammatory properties as all other grains do. Please, stop serving us corn as a vegetable.
Beans
So many forms of beans are served as the “vegetable” side everywhere. Whether it be green beans, snap peas, pea pods, loose peas, or anything else with the word “pea” or “bean” in it, it is not a vegetable. It is a legume and contains all the negative health attributes that legumes have.
Soy
It is much less common to get a side of soybeans as the vegetable, but it is still possible. Also, a lot of times meats will say they are fed a “vegetable diet” consisting of soybeans as a main staple (along with corn of course). Soy”beans” are not vegetables, and as they sound, they are legumes.
Potatoes
Ok yes technically potatoes are vegetables but honestly who thinks of them as such? If you order a side of vegetables are you really wanting potatoes? Most people wouldn’t think getting mashed potatoes or french fries counts as eating vegetables. I know when I order, I definitely don’t want potatoes as my vegetable. Do you?
Hopefully this cleared up some confusions about what is a vegetable and what isn’t. I can only hope that someday I don’t have to question the restaurant staff of what vegetables come with it to see if they actually are vegetables as stated.
Have any of you had this happen to you as many times as I have?
Let me know.
Sonrisa Modern Mexican
Sonrisa is a Mexican restaurant located in the University Village. Mexican restaurants often have a Paleo potential and this is no exception. For Paleo, there aren’t too many things available but this one particular meal I had could be repeated many times.
“FAJITAS
Sauteed red and yellow bell peppers and white onions. Guacamole, pico
de gallo, flour tortillas. Ancho Grilled Chicken $17 ~ Adobo Skirt Steak $18 ~ Adobo Shrimp $17 ~ 2-Combo $18″
Leave off the tortillas (which really are unneeded) and you have yourself a meal. Start it with a Heart of Palm salad if you are really hungry. The meal also comes with some lettuce piled with cheese.
Taste: 10
Nutrition: 8 (Meat used was likely not 100% grass-fed, sauce tastes sweetened)
Filling: 9
Price: $$$
Overall Value: 10
Ingredients not confirmed to be 100% free of soy, grains, artificial ingredients, and added sugar
While it is quite expensive, this restaurant is very good. It is also opened until midnight or 1am depending on the night so it is always nice to have a late-night Paleo option.
Another great place to stay Paleo is Whole Foods.
Whole Foods Market (RSQ)
If you don’t know what you are doing and just dig into the salad bar..you may be shocked on how high the price is causing you to miss out on the excellent products Whole Foods offers. So while the salad bar definitely has the potential to be Paleo there are other options that you can check out.
Option 1:
Over in the carving station next to the made to order burritos, they have a few meal deals.
Of the Paleo options, you can get a half all natural chicken with two sides for $6.99, marinated pork shoulder with two sides for $9.99 and depending on the day there are other choices that might show up for meats. Here are a few of the combinations I have made:
Entree: 1/2 chicken
Side 1: Mixed vegetables (onions, peppers, squash, zucchini, more?) with seasoning.
Side 2: Sherry mushrooms
So how was it?
Taste: 8 (Add some guacamole or other dressing / sauce and it goes to 10)
Nutrition: 10
Filling: 10 (I could barely finish it)
Price: $
Overal Value: 10
Ingredients confirmed to be 100% free of soy, grains, artificial ingredients, and added sugar.
Option 2:
The Corner Cafe serves made to order grilled items with huge Paleo potential
Large beef patty served with bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, and avacado. I went for the side of sweet potato fries
Taste: 9
Nutrition: 7 (Meat used was not 100% grass-fed and the fries are Alexia brand which is coated with some non Paleo but all natural ingredients)
Filling: 8
Price: $
Overall Value: 8
Ingredients confirmed to be 100% free of soy, artificial ingredients, and added sugar.
The fries contain: Sweet Potatoes, Oleic Canola Oil And/Or Sunflower Oil And/Or Safflower Oil, Modified Food Starch (From Potatoes), Rice Flour, Corn Dextrin, Salt, Leaving (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Extractive of Paprika, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate (Added To Preserve Natural Color).
Option 3:
Build your own. Meat from meat department, not Prepared Foods
100% grass-fed lamb, steamed broccoli, guacamole, caramelized onions
100% grass-fed ground beef, steamed broccoli, guacamole, caramelized onions
The absolute best deal and highest quality option is to bring over grass-fed meat from the meat department. From there for $2.99 you can get 2 sides (steamed broccoli, grilled vegetables, sherry mushrooms). Guacamole is $0.50 extra and caramelized onions are $0.50. Get creative! You can piece together an awesome meal with effort.
Thank you Whole Foods for helping Seattle out!
Just letting you all know I re-uploaded Simplistic Destruction 1 and the Mighty O Donuts interview in higher quality for your viewing pleasure.
As a reminder, the interview is raw footage so part of it may have audio and or visual problems. I was not the camera man and am also not responsible for the terrible camera work at times 
Enjoy!
Sorry for the delay in posting these. It seems everytime I go to a restaurant that is Paleo friendly I forget my camera. Luckily this time one of my friends I was with had an iPhone on hand.
Southlake Grill
Located about one block west of REI is the Southlake Grill. This is one of four locations, each with a different name but the same menu (Greenlake, Eastlake, and Lake Forest).
Besides the typical salads, this restaurant has a number of Paleo choices.
Here’s what I had:
“Grilled Boneless Half Chicken: Natural Washington Grown Chicken with an orange-basil sauce, garlic mashed potatoes & seasonal veggies.”
The mashed potatoes, were easily substituted for sweet potato fries, or if you want to stay even more strict, you can just ask for double the veggies (carrots and broccoli). And yes, I gave the ketchup and ranch away.
So how was it?
Taste: 10
Nutrition: 8 (10 with double vegetables)
Filling: 10
Price: $ (usually $$)
Overal Value: 9-10
Ingredients not confirmed to be 100% free of soy, grains, artificial ingredients, and added sugar
Every Sunday this location only has a screaming deal. Every single food item on the menu is 50% off. This entire entree as pictured was $8.75 after tax.
I know I am a little late in posting this but in case you haven’t heard, Starbucks recently eliminated all artificial ingredients from all of their products.
“Our new recipes contain:
No artificial flavors
No artificial trans fats
No artificial dyes
No high-fructose corn syrup”
It is great to see more and more places doing this on their own – with no need for government regulations demanding it.
Also just as a reminder, even with this improvement, a piece of coffee cake still isn’t going to be healthful, but at least it is real.
Source: http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition_freshfood.asp