Wednesday, June 22, 2011

All or Nothing - Kimberly

Justin and I have debated over the years about whether a lifestyle of eating should be "all or nothing" or "balanced". Meaning, he has always touted "all or nothing", and I have always disagreed, maintaining that life should be nothing if not balanced. But I might be changing my tune.

One of my favorite things about the Paleo diet is that it is (in my mind) all or nothing. All fruits, vegetables and meat! (okay so not really...but you know what I mean). No grains or sugars! Period. End of sentence. Don't bother even looking at the bakery, it is off limits...

This helps me greatly in the area of willpower. Having a food be forbidden somehow takes away my human ability to touch something and screw it all up. Because, really, am I going to eat just one cookie or one slice of bread? Erm, no. The proof is on my scale.

That said: yes, I cheat! But my choices as "cheats" work out to be just that: cheats, and nothing else. Two bites of bread, or half a cookie. But that's all. If I know I am allowed two pieces of bread to begin with, or two cookies, well, in actuality that equals a loaf of bread and two dozen snickerdoodles. And that's not a cheat, that's a loss-by-a-landslide. AND, while we are on the subject, I drank another Diet Pepsi tonight, and am stalking around my house looking for peanut m&ms (as though there might be some in the house that are uneaten, ha!)....settling instead for my little Paleo bowl of almonds & raisins and feeling quite satisfied.

On another note: I made the vampire stew last night for dinner and Justin and I LOVED it. I added extra broth to make it a soup, and only cooked the apples for about 15 mins, so that they still had a bit of crunch to them, and I doubled the recipe to feed the seven table-eaters in my family. I wish I had made more, I would have had it for lunch today. I sauteed some red cabbage in a little oil, sprinkled with salt & pepper and just a wee pinch of white sugar, added a splash of apple cider vinegar at the end, and put a nice little plunk of this on the top of each soup bowl....served with a side of roasted salt & pepper asparagus. Some of the boys liked the soup but not the cabbage, some didn't like it at all, and Justin and I couldn't get enough. That still counts as a "make again" in my book. AND it was super easy. AND I made them apple-honey challah from scratch. So they didn't go to bed hungry!

For lunch today they all had peanut butter & honey sandwiches, and I had the whole rest of the cooked cabbage with the four jalapeno/mango/chicken sausages sauteed and placed on top. YUM. Wasn't sure about the cabbage when I was making it last night, but I will definitely be cooking this combination again. Tonight I grilled chicken and planned to serve it with the peaches, but they weren't quite ripe yet. So we had a big salad and some boxed herbed Pasta-Roni for the boys. I thought I cooked enough chicken for tomorrow's dinner (fajitas) and for me to nosh on for lunch tomorrow, but now, looking at what's left, I don't think it's enough. I'm going to figure out something else for tomorrow's lunch and save the meat for tomorrow's dinner.

That's all that's new here. Might try the Paleo Egg Cupcakes for breakfast tomorrow. Have either of you made these?

Pounds lost: 2

6 comments:

  1. I have not tried the Paleo egg muffins, but I see them pop up frequently on all the blogs. They seem quite popular. The only muffin type thing I've made were the apple muffins - I put them in my freezer and have been taking one out as needed. Stupid living alone. Not so practical for the cooking of food.

    All or nothing is difficult to make a firm stance on, one way or the other. I feel like it *SHOULD* make it easier to just go ALL in, and like you said - have everything be off limits. You don't trigger that sweet tooth, you don't have a landslide - which often - OFTEN - happens/previously happened to me. One cookie at work would turn into four cookies, a bag of candy from the vending machine, and a slice of whatever cake our pastry chef has made at work. And that's only a moderate landslide in my book. (only happened once since paleo though :) yay!)

    What I think is this : I don't know that I believe in all or nothing - but if you find it works for YOU, and you don't feel deprived or miserable as a result - then I'm all for it. I know for myself I will go nuts and MEGA cheat, as that makes me feel deprived. As you can see from some of my posts, I've had a little bit of sugar most days (like your cabbage). 1 square dark chocolate. A flavoring in my coffee. This has kept me surprisingly happy. It's like I said in a previous comment - Now that my body is satisfied (due to insulin balance, no more crave and crash) - holy hell is my mind a whole lot easier to tell : SHUTUP! In turn, not only does my body feel better but my psyche does too, a wee lil bit :)

    I digress. If you know what works for you - use those tools. Your meal planning sounds great. Is there a link for this stew? Good luck on feeding all those men ;)

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  2. Oh I agree. I've had something every day that I'm "not supposed to" as well. I'm just liking having so many things be "off limits". Who woulda thunk it?!

    Here's the stew link:

    http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/2010/10/30/vampire-fighting-paleo-style/

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  3. oh and I made it with chicken thighs....we don't eat pork, other than bacon!

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  4. Can you explain to me why diet coke instigates a sugar craving so bad when its not even made with 'sugar'? I don't understand this but find it to be too true...

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  5. From what I understand (somebody correct me if I'm wrong)--it has to do precisely with the fact that it is NOT made with sugar. Your body sees a lot of "something" coming in and can't qualify what it is (no protein, no carbohydrate, no fat)...it gets CONFUSED. So it immediately craves something high calorie, high sugar to balance it out...thus the Costco size bag of peanut m&m's (ahem). I think that's why nearly all "diet" foods/fake foods have this following.

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  6. Just finally getting back here...who said ANYTHING about peanut m&m's????

    And, it does make sense. Ironic that my body can't 'qualify' diet coke - perhaps that should tell me DON'T DRINK IT!!!

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