The Paleo Expeiment

twenty three continued

Cooking away from home isn't too bad if you think ahead...and can find the right stuff.

Bacon, eggs, mushrooms for breakfast.

Salad, with chicken, olive, almonds, pimento and tomato for lunch

Awonderful thick rich cup of dipping chocolate ( that I did not finish) and 6 churros for treats

The same salad without meat for dinner, with chicken and vegetables.

We walked and walked for about three hours, and took the Metro back.

In spite of the nasty weather, I sure got my exercise.

Day 22  Thanksgiving!!!  and 23

Yesterday was one of those odd days that happen around here: a travel day.  I spent the morning packing: breakfast was the last of the leftover veggies and bacon, lunch was little gem lettuce with avocado, shrimp, leftover cooked chicken, dried tomato. The refrigerator is empty.

I had to stick close to the front door because of Sint deliveries, so I knitted and waited. I knew we would be walking and walking so I was glad to rest.  We left at 4.

Once through the hubbub of buses, trains, checking in, final host gifts, walking a mile to get to the gate, security, wheels up, Himself was hungry so we got olives, dry salami sticks, almonds, and water from the concession and had Thanksgiving Dinner (we thought it was funny.)  

Our taxi from the airport dropped us at 10:15 PM at the apartment. Madrid is the only EU place I have been where you can buy groceries at that time of day. Off we went to get enough to get through til breakfast Saturday. For the price of half a restaurant dinner.  I ate a Cesar salad and extra grilled chicken when we got back. In my jammies.  I love apartment hotels.

I realized this morning that our little pack of condiments is not in the backpack, so I have to go off to find some herbs and spices.  

It's grey and rainy today. Not tourist weather at all.

The Paleo Experiment

Day 20 and 21

It happens every time.  With all good intentions I start a project and get distracted by everything else. So day 20 and 21 flew by without a breath in between. And too tired to post before bed.  I am out scouting for Sinterklaas preparations every day; blessing the person who dreamt up online shopping...Yesterday I had a few moments of terror in a large and usually nice place to go parking lot. It was a zoo.  And this was a medium town, not even a big city. I fled back to the village. and went online :)

Paleo wise things are going well. Yesterday I scouted a new place to take my friend out lunching. They had carpaccio with greens , and a satisfactory amount too, plus a tiny brioche on the side. Which I ate.  so shoot me.  Other than that, I have made zucchini "pasta" with sauce, and chicken carrot "quiche"  which both made Himself very happy. He's liking this no starch thing.   I have been eating a combination of odd things to clean out the fridge because of travel this weekend.

Yep, I am taking Paleo on the road.  To Madrid and Segovia.  We'll see how this goes.  I will not ignore the churros and chocolate, but will limit how many, I hope.  Did I say I love churros? and the hot chocolate is not to miss.  Even if you don't care about chocolate. You have to dip your churros in SOMETHING, right?

We are in self catering so tonight and Friday will be manageable....but we are with friend Sat and Sun.  and they are not Paleo folk....

Weight this morning was 96.6;  total loss 3.3 kilos.  that's a kilo per 7 days.  Nice steady drop.

The Paleo Experiment

Day Nineteen

So this morning started very early with a visit to the blood drawing lady. I sure am glad I am not contagious because for some reason there was a little explosion when she started the tap....gees.

Came home and had sweet potato, coconut milk and bacon for breakfast.  Started the normal laundry routine, three loads today. Dusted and cleaned the downstairs. Did dishes. Studied. More planning for Birthday and Christmas. Sorted meds.   Forgot lunch again.  Did some ironing.

The gifts are starting to arrive by post. So much fun! Two postmen to carry them in this morning.   (one box was just too big.)

Dinner was fish with salsa, mixed hot vegetables, and lettuce rollups with sundried tomato, roasted bell peppers, pesto and cuke.

ok so for dessert, I had an ice cream sammich.  He had yogurt.   Pooh.

The Paleo Experiment

Day Eighteen

A sunny Sunday here in Cheeseland.  Dry enough that we finally got the seat covers fitted in the new  bought in August with very light interior car.  After yesterday's project to put up willow mats around the work tent, and getting Sinterklaas gifting underway, we call this weekend a success.

The Boy was in for dinner tonight, so we feasted on chicken, green beans, and sweet potatoes.  Lunch was leftover lamb on a bed of salad with avocado, and breakfast was ham and applesauce with nuts, which is fast becoming a go-to breakfast.  Boy went home with fresh salsa that I made this afternoon (and I made a batch of cucumber soup for tomorrow as well.) He was happy.

Sweetpea called tonight and we talked about nothing in particular for a half hour. lovely. 

I can't wait til everyone is home for Christmas. sigh.

Tomorrow at dark o clock I have to have blood drawn for the upcoming diabetes clinic....yay.

The Paleo Experiment

Day Seventeen

Because Himself needed to perform for prospective students and their parents today, and it was sunny, I grabbed a ride to Utrecht and went to the oldest fabric market in the country.  Since it was early and pretty cold, I figured I would beat the crowds, and I did. The last time I have been in that market was 20 years ago.   I don't really like pawing through bolts of fabric piled in  300 pound stacks so I have avoided going there, but I needed some notions....boy did I find some fabulous fabric to make dress suits for these formal affairs that crop up through Himself's  work.  There is a downside to losing weight.  Lots more sewing.

I sure got my walking in this morning. Scored artichokes at the open air market as well.  So we has lamb, artichokes, sprouts, and butternut for dinner.  For lunch I had pork and avocado, for breakfast, leftovers from last night. 

But I didn't meet my fluid goals.  Sigh.

But artichokes, people! I have a happy tummy.

The Paleo Experiment

Day Sixteen

Funny day today:  had an appointment this morning, and was looking forward to having lunch with a friend.  But my poor friend fell ill so I spent the afternoon differently than I thought.

It's going to be interesting putting together recipes for the holidays now that I am following a Paleo protocol. I started collecting recipes today because as I look at the calendar, starting next week we begin the run up to the end of the year and not one minute can be wasted.

Something is off with me. In the middle of the night last night, I was so hungry I made myself some slices of ham and applesauce.  For breakfast, I had more ham and eggs.  I had lean burgers for lunch with a salad, and pork loin with green beans and carrots for dinner. I was still hungry and had an ice cream sandwich too. Like I said, something is not right.  I got really tired in the end of the afternoon, and I turned down a movie date with Himself......I have never done that.

We ordered some gifts online and sat in front of the TV instead.

Tomorrow is extra busy Saturday, so early to bed tonight.

The Paleo Experiment

Day Fifteen, I think

It's just so busy these days, I fall asleep before I write the post at night, then quickly write it in the morning, and my senior brain gets confused.  So I think today is day 15, and the scale this morning showed 97.6 Kilos for a loss of 2.3 kilos: 5 pounds in 2 weeks! Now that is heartening. 

I  still feel like I spend lots of fussy time in the kitchen, but that would happen anyway, now that I really prepare 3 meals a day.  I notice right away if I don't eat enough protein:  my tummy starts thinking about the next meal too soon.  Once I sourced all the healthy subs for flour and sweetener ( I have decided that pure maple syrup is my choice because of the glycemic index, it seems recipes ask for less of it than honey, which would be my second choice if I HAD to use a sweetener.)  the grocery bill seems to have settled down again. Not buying cheese, bread, or dairy products in any quantity really makes a difference.

Eating away from home is tricky. Even ordering a salad that looks on the menu like a good choice means remembering to say, no croutons, or dressing on the side....and of course, this being a starch based national cuisine, only when you get close to the coastal big cities where the upwardly mobile live, do you get menu choices that might be Paleo easy.

Today my exercise was a jaunt to a medium city where a fabric store moved to bigger accommodation and added a notions department.  It was a notable disappointment.  Not a thing I needed, and today the fabrics were uninspiring as well (although they have some dainty print cottons that deserve a second look sometime.)

A trot through the oriental shop netted breadbaskets, and the kitchen store had some perfect napkins for liners, so there's one thing ticked off the birthday party list.  I couldn't park near the bio food store there so I went back to the more local one to get coconut flour to start auditioning recipes for the holidays.

Back at home, Sweetpea arrived for Thursday night cello lesson dinner. I was very glad I had put the spaghetti sauce i n the crockpot, so all we needed to do was grill the green beans for me and boil pasta for her.  The recipe was good, but I think I will make meatballs in the sauce next time, instead of mashed ground beef, because I think it's easier to portion the protein if it is in  chunks.

For breakfast, leftover chicken and broccoli. and I clean forgot about lunch.

The Paleo Experiment

Days Thirteen and Fourteen

The two week mark!  I just got back from a wonderful Day-as-a-student-in-Amsterdam with my darling SweetPea, the youngest and wisest of my children. Oh she can make me laugh, and she is such a healing, special young person.  She's been a cheerleader as I wobbled my way into the diabetes lifestyle and even though she is not convinced that Paleo isn't just another crash-and-burn diet, she does her best to give Mama her support.

I am sure that I was on track yesterday all day even though I did not follow the AP diet menus for the day since there was a leftover buildup again in the fridge, and some of the veggies were looking wonky.  I got a big order from the frozen food man because I think I will stop buying so many fresh veg, because they often get wilty or funny before I can eat them up...I am not ready to market every day, and sometimes things get wasted....big sin there. It's full autumn now so frozen is a better bet....except butternut.

So this morning I had leftover Salmon with nut crust ( which SweetPea requested for dinner, oh yum.)  for breakfast at Sweetpea's studio.  Then we were in the middle of Amsterdam for lunch at a juice and salad bar . We had chicken and Romaine salad.   The broccoli with walnuts and chicken for dinner.

Before that virtuous dinner we walked through the winter fair in Hoofddorp. Now what is at a winter fair in the Netherlands?  Oliebollen, of course.  So we each had one; mine plain, hers with currants and powdered sugar.  Eh.  The first ones I ever had were a treat but in the last few years I guess my taste has changed.  But one. To mark the season.

Guess what was in the booth across the plain?  Churros.  Dagnabbit.  You cannot expect me to walk  by a churros tent and just ignore it.  Thus we shared a bag of churros, with cinnamon sugar, no less.

This, combined with the fact that I did not pack my prescriptions in my overnight bag may mean I will die of carbs overdose in the night or I will weight 40 hundred kilos tomorrow. Because it's weigh day.....whether I like it or not.

The Paleo Experiment

Day Twelve

Not a day to be proud of.  I got the wash in the machine and folded one load.  That's the extent of the productivity.  Walked to the dentist's and back. Good news. No root involvement. But even that cheery new didn't start my engine. I think it's SAD mostly.  I need daylight.

Breakfast was leftover beet and apple salad, plus some leftover chicken,  lunch was two lean burger patties with ???? so memorable it was not, and dinner was chicken spinach and stir fried zucchini.  I didn't even make tea, but I did meet the water goal.

I am glad it wasn't weigh in day.

The Paleo Experiment

Day Twelve

All I can say about getting breakfast down before church on Sunday is yay for leftovers.  The drawback to church is having to flee to the loo before an audience.  Drinking enough during those three hours is also tricky.  I have a 500ml bottle I carry around...breakfast was last night' s leftovers with an egg on top.

Lunch was 2 poached eggs with a slice of ham, some spiced applesauce with a few toasted walnuts.

There was a family party Sunday evening, and as I suspected the party yummies did not include much variety of unprocessed meat, but for chicken wings, and other edibles, but for eggs wrapped in ham.  Of course, the cakes were totally off the list.  So I brought along a Paleo rceipe plum kuchen (almondmeal, plums, and honey) and made cucumber rollups with smoked salmon, grilled courgette rollups with pesto and tomato, lettuce rollups with avocado and egg "mayo" and chicken.  I had a hard boiled egg and some almond stuffed olives in my box as well.  They were delicious.

However, today as I write this ( monday morning) I feel that water retention. Something was too salted.  I did bring a can of V-8 to drink. I had one not very large glass and it tasted very salty to me.  Perhaps that did it, or the olives, or the combination.  humph.  The portions weren't that big.

Or maybe I didn't hit the three liter watermark.

At least the party was fun.

The Paleo Experiment

Day Eleven

Saturday around here is a very busy day most weeks.  On the list for today was:   finding willow or bamboo matting to fortify the work tent against the wind,  to purchase a lightweight bike carrier for the new car, to wash and Hoover out said car.  On our way we saw three Piet-ful ships readying to sail Sint into Amersfoort, and a merry Piet band weaving in and out of traffic in Doorn. (I need to find small children to borrow).... By the time we got all that done, Himself needed to take a jet lag break, so we didn't get much else done before dark (which was 4 PM today.)  I sure hope that matting gets up before the next wind storm.

I did manage to try out a Paleo pancake recipe for breakfast. Homemade nut butter, eggs, and homemade applesauce, vanilla. Instead of frying, I put them in my shallow depression sheet ( first time for everything: I really don't know what it's meant for) and baked them off. Besides on a busy morning, making pancakes is too time consuming.  We had bacon too. I liked them; they had a pancakey texture, nutty taste.  Himself is not a huge fan. Guess I need to find another recipe.

For lunch I did a coarse chop stir fry of veg and beef strips, with coconut milk and lots of garlic. Chewy Dutch beef disappointed me but Himself liked it.

Dinner for me was butternut squash under leftover pork rollade and broccoli stirfried with salsa.

The usual pot of tea ( mint today) and carafe of water to drink.

I crockpotted a couple kilos of apples in a one bag with spices , and put a bag of boneless thighs with herbs on top. So now I have yummy chicken for lunch tomorrow after church, and the applesauce rendered half a liter of spiced juice which we are sharing as we watch TV tonight.  I dribbled a spot of maple syrup in for a note of delish.

Nothing like spiced apple juice on a miserably rainy Saturday night.

The Paleo Experiment

Day Eleven

Another day, another dollar.  Woke up tired and never got my engine started.   Of course I got things done , but the weather, the hurt in my joints, general meh shadowed the entire day. The best part of the day was Himself coming home before 1800!   In celebration, we got some administration done, threw out old paper, and cooked dinner. How's that for a romantic start to the weekend?

The menu for me today was yummy. Not every day starts with leftover steak- and leftover Brussels sprouts, but that is much better for breakfast to me than say cornflakes, bleh.   Lunch was a really big bowl of leftover chicken with coarse chopped winter veg, stir fried with a little coconut milk and some curry sauce.  Dinner was pork rollade with beet and apple salad.  Poor Himself had to make do with totally mouthwatering sausage and pasta leftovers from yesterday. He was a happy man.

Drank my water, did not walk and move as much as I wanted- my hips just are so sore.

Tomorrow is another day. The rains finally came....

The Paleo Experiment

Day Ten

Rather tired last night, and busy with other things, so did not post before bed.

It was a good day. Got outside in the sun again,  Went to the outdoor market and got chicken thighs. These were boned and skinned.  I  prefer bone in for broth and flavor in long cooking, but boneless is nice for stirfry.  I also got a quarter of a soup chicken in preparation for Himself's Birthday Bash next month. Whomever thinks that the open market is a cheaper place to buy food is officially wrong. The courgettes in both stalls were 95 cents a piece.  At Jumbo they are 79 cents.  At the rate I am going through courgettes this month, that is a deal.   Picked up butternut and tomatoes at Lidl, my usual go to place for veg, chicken and frozen fish.

Breakfast was a very tasty combo of ham slices with homemade sugarless, spiced applesauce and toasted walnuts.  Leftover turkey strips with lettuce, tomato and avocado with pine nuts was lunch. For dinner, I  pan fried the last of the nice Irish beef cuts that I scored on sale. Pity; good beef is like hen's teeth here. I roasted cauliflower with garlic and thyme, and baked a sweet potato. There's roasted cauliflower left.  I was just too full.

I am starting to pay attention to portioning again, now that I am better at eating regularly.  Just being aware of balance and proportion on the plate.  I also am aware of how much fluid I need. I have been filling  a 1.5 liter flask with plain water every morning, and making a liter pot of tea. And I do drink it! I feel less dry mouthed.  The downside is the access to facilities; when you gotta go, you gotta go!

I crockpotted sausage in tomato sauce with veg and herbs for the visiting SweetPea and Himself. It was served over fresh filled tortellini.  They were happy. Himself gets to eat the leftovers for a couple of meals :).

Oh and the weigh-in today: 98 kilos   oh my!

The Paleo Experiment

Day Nine

While I waited at dark o'clock for Himself to arrive from his flight, a simple breakfast of chicken and apple with cinnamon helped pass the time.  Lunch was broccoli, turkey, and tomatoes stir fried, and flavored with mustard seed.  Word to the wise: use a splatter shield that really covers the pan when toasting mustard seeds. Little buggers totally whiz allover like teeny popcorns.

Dinner was the best beef  we have eaten  in the Netherlands; we even asked who the source was so we can find out if we can get it retail. It was delicious, every bite.  We asked for the ever present french fries to be replaced with vegetables and/or salad.  The I had a mound of haricots vert, and a yummy cabbage slaw topped with pine nuts.  Totally delectable.

Pitfalls:  the starter was dense dark warm fresh bread, thickly sliced with whipped garlic butter. I HAD to have two crusty corners.  It was irresistible. Also I feel in love with a cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream from across the room.  It was just the thing later in the evening to warm up from wandering around outside at the sauna.

Since Himself is home again, and there is a family fest this weekend, I am worrying about temptation even though I plan to pack my own safe foods for the fest.  The starch heavy Dutch party food won't have enough variety for a full meal for me.....but I plan to take a Paleo Plum dessert so I can have a sweet at cake time :)

The Paleo Experiment

Day Eight

Well, I am pretty sure my system is not holding water today. My wedding ring is loose, and I certainly have seen the inside of the toilet door enough throughout the day.  I hope that is a hopeful sign for next week's weigh-in.

 I woke up tired and with a headache but got started anyway because there is no such thing as a lie-in for the person who needs to take meds before breakfast and have breakfast at a reasonable hour.   Breakfast was ham and eggs with sun- dried tomato because the recipe for the breakfast meal felt overwhelming. I worked my way through the folding basket.  Tidied the kitchen.

The sun FINALLY came out, so I decided to go to the library,  walk through the Asian grocery, and visit the fancy bio-grocery to look for almond meal.  The Asian grocery yielded spices to make a mock Chai spice blend,  fried onions, artichoke hearts, and ketsup manis, a sweet soy sauce I was out of.  The Duncan Hines caramel cake mix screamed my name, but at 4.95 euros the box , and full of everything unhealthy, I gave it a pass.(but CARAMEL!!!!)  Sometimes the Asian store is way too much of a tempting place for this old girl. Those bottles full of sweet chunks of coconut gel have my name on them as well.  Good thing I ate a lunch of sweet potato with walnuts and a tiny knob of butter before I went out.

The bio-grocery is all whole food high end crazy prices, but a treasure trove for things you cannot get anywhere else. Thus I found almond meal and make your own tea bags (YAY!) to put crushed spices in the steeper in the teapot.  I tried it out soon as I got home. OH my gosh.  Yummy spice tea. Getting 2 liters of fluid down every day just got more exciting.

Something I forgot to note yesterday was the food prep Mr. Crockpot did for me.  During the next couple days, I need turkey and chicken, and applesauce.  I use oven bags in my crockpot because of a nasty hot spot and it makes cleaning a breeze.  So in one small cooking  bag I put three chicken breast halves, in another bag I put turkey breast, and in a third bag I put applesauce apples, peeled, cored, eighthed, with cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and cardamom seeds.  I put it all in one crock pot and left it do it's ting, and at the end of the day I had lovely moist meat with nice juices, and spiced applesauce that needs no sweetening. No muss, no fuss.

Dinner tonight was delicious.  Menu:  white fish fillets with a thin layer of mustard, and a crumb cost of chopped almonds; roasted asparagus with thyme, and a cup of mixed berries with balsamic vinegar.  

Tomorrow himself gets home from China. We will go to the sauna and have dinner there. This will be interesting in potato land, how to get enough vegetables.

The Paleo Experiment

And on the Seventh Day She Cheated

When I opened the fridge this morning, I was overwhelmed by little boxes of leftovers so  I went off the AP plan to use up leftovers.  Breakfast was those itty bitty shrimp, the rest of the butternut from last night and fresh spinach that needed to be eaten all sit fried together with a spill of coconut milk.  I had to run to the store for some bottles of water for the car and picked up some Angus beef patties, which I ate with sprouts for lunch.  Dinner I took along to a church meeting: lettuce with leftover stir fry beef and peppers, fresh tomato with a bit of balsamic vinegar for taste.  Shaved Brazil nut topping on the salad.   I eat one or two Brazil nuts a day for selenium; it's a low thyroid strategy.

I woke up this morning feeling like I was retaining water and at my foot care appointment the technician confirmed my feet indeed were puffy.   So that's why I was not very happy to see  the numbers this morning. Yes, the scale says 99 kilos, but pooh now I will have to wait a week to see the true number without edema. Meh.

So the cheating.  At the church meeting there is dinner. I ate my food and all was well til our darling Filipina sister brought out the tapioca.  I am a sucker for tapioca.  Pure heaven. Pure starch. and it was mixed with sweet potato, taro and banana.  I at about a thid cup and it probably set me back 10 days health wise, but my goodness. Tapioca.

 I am sitting here all alone and watching folks talk about the memorial service for the victims of MH17 today.  It is not lost on me that yesterday there was rejoicing over 25 years of the fall of the Wall.   

I wish I had a crusty baguette of white bread and salted butter.....

The Paleo Experiment

Day Six

What a lovely day!  Good planning meant I was able to eat breakfast, albeit hastily.  Taught a pretty good women's class at church; after church I fixed lunch and ate with my visiting  Boy.   We went outside in the sunny backyard to made some small emergency repairs; he packed leaf bags, cleaned gutters, wired up wisteria. I guess I got some exercise just blowing leaves and handing tools up.   After a break, we made dinner together,  and then he had to go off to catch his transportation home.

Breakfast was a ham omelette: lunch a shrimp mock ceviche recipe that I don't want to eat ever again, but that's because I used those itty bitty shrimp and I know I think they taste bad but thought I could mask the taste. NOT.   Dinner was drumsticks, baked squash that was incredibly delicious, and a big salad. Mint tea all day and water of course.  

I think I will weigh myself tomorrow.  My face looks thinner.

The Paleo Experiment

Day Five

I think it isn't breakfast that is the problem anymore, it is lunch.  Actually it is both, because I get all involved with other things and lunch becomes brunch.

Today, for instance.  I took advantage of the empty house and no particular place to go on a Saturday morning. After I washed my hair and took a shower, I wrapped up in the wonderful fluffy, comfy terry robe and crawled back in the wonderful fluffy, comfy bed to read.  I dozed off.

By the time the sun invited me out of bed and  I waited 30 minutes after morning medicine, the morning was well to ending when I finally ate.  Then I did some studying and administration.  The sun was absolutely too winning to not go out, so I went windowshopping in a village nearby.  I also needed to move around some.

By the time I got home, it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner.  Heh.  And I wasn't hungry anyway.  I am really enjoying the fresh mint I cored yesterday. I don't even miss the honey, yum!

I found a Chai spice mix recipe that look delicious. So on Monday, I plan a trip to the oriental grocers....they might have bulk almonds to make almond flour as well.

Today's meals included leftover pork , salad and avocado for brunch and grilled chicken, broccoli, and a bowl of salad.for dinner.

This experiment continues to be interesting.   I wish I didn't have to plan and prepare quite so much, but then I remind myself it's for a good cause. Saving a life.

The Paleo Experiment

Day Four

Talk about Freaky Friday! I had just finished breakfast when I suddenly found the morning's schedule very different than I expected , then the afternoon took off in entertaining but unplanned ways.

Thus I did not eat any lunch until 3 PM and drank nothing.  I need to put more drinking water in the car.

On the good side, I found a tiny piece of fresh ginger and some other things I needed for the store cupboard.  And fresh mint for 99 cents for a huge bunch!!!  One bunch is in the freezer, the other is in water in the kitchen, awaiting use in fresh mint tea.  I am so pleased.

I made unsweetened nut butter today.  The little taste I had was very cloying. I hope that on apples it is less mucky in the mouth.  The jury is still out on Stevia.  I am loath to use artificial sweeteners; Stevia seems a choice...but I don't want to buy a ton of it and find it tastes like crap.  I get aftertaste with all the others.

So not much to report.  Today was ham omelette, berries and nuts for breakfast and tonight I made beef stirfry.   And a liter of mint tea :)

Still not needing snacks, or feeling like I need to forage.  That's great.

I wonder when I will get up the juice to add exercise?

The Paleo Experiment

day two and three

Already I feel, better, less itchy, less urge to forage to fight.  I am finding myself fussing around in the kitchen a bit more. I forgot to eat lunch until 4 PM.  SweetPea walked by with dark seedy bread and I felt a pang.  If there was butter on that bread I would have swooned.  Himself is fine with a breadless house.  I wonder how hard his Dutch heart would break if I imposed a house sugar less rule, but so far no sugar product is calling my name.  I stayed off the scale so I don't drive myself nuts.  i did keep up with the water intake. Yay for me.

I like the Diabetic Athlete meal plan. One, it's free.  Two, it's food I eat. Three, it's food found in the Netherlands. Four, I am happy not to think about how to make a meal.  I found another free Paleo meal planner but it seems too complex...maybe it's just my poor computer skills.

I made marinara sauce and salsa today to have on hand.  The food for today included tuna with shredded cabbage and sesame oil.  I am not a huge fan of the oil, but the combination was surprisingly edible.  I did add lemon juice.  The pork in tomato sauce went in the slow cooker and the cauliflower turned into  a frozen mix from the freezer...with a sliced zucchini.  No one complained.

We had a good laugh about the planner not including a afters sweet.    I am not a dessert person, but the Dutch often end the evening meal with custard or yogurt and a topping.  Even if one has had a big meal one always has a "dessert-tummy" here in Cheeseland.  Because it's Paleo and caveman and we are quirky then anthropologically there should be afters, because that's how the tummy was developed.  *rolleyes*  It was funnier in the kitchen....you had to be there.

So ends day three, off to watch Castle and The Mentalist with Himself.....

The Paleo Experiment

How I Got Here

day one and two

The year 2013 was my gap year health wise.  I did not diet, I did not obsess.  I just lived my life. It was FINE.  I had been crazed for 10 years about my weight. My weight shifted very little no matter what exercise, diet, eating plan I tried.  It was depressing and debilitating.  Plus every health care person looked at me like I was a lazy, eat-all-day person and ordered me to lose weight.  No one bothered to figure out why I did not lose weight or my strategies that failed. Well, the word dietitian was tossed about but I had an aversion.

Early in 2014 that all came to screeching halt. I rolled over into diabetes from insulin resistance.  My BP scared folks. Cholesterol numbers were not good.  I had chest pains and ended up in the hospital having tests, on a Sunday!  So I gathered up my resolve, and went to the GP and thence to the diabetes clinic like a good girl.  The GP gave me medicine.  The Diabetes Clinician gave me comfort. (Amazing how one kind and caring person can shift your world view.)

Since she didn't just look at me like a fat bag of bones, I finally got over my hesitation and went to the Dietitian.  My first assignment before I went was to track my intake for a week or so.  With my lovely SweetPea for support, off we went to the first appointment.  It did not take long for the result. At 1000 to 1200 calories per day my metabolism was stalled.  I have a medically controlled low functioning thyroid anyway; not enough calories felt to my brain like the Eight Years of Famine.  I skip breakfast and sometimes lunch. I graze at night.  I probably don't drink enough water.  I was instructed to eat breakfast, eat more and come back.

The Dietitian gave me a normal person's food chart, which to me as a diabetic looked very heavy on starches, so with some advice from other diabetic friends, I started to eat. ( Those food group based diet plans felt like eating for an army every meal.)  And I lost 10 kilos with no effort at all. I am convinced that taking Metformine helped.  I was able to go without support hose for the first time in ages;  I even made it through hot, humid weather without swollen legs. I said goodbye and thank you to the Dietitian. I felt so great!   The worst part was : because I felt better, I moved around more, and it aggravated my Fibromyalgia.  Even so, I started dreaming about taking up Zumba.... BUT Then....

Suddenly my weight  loss stalled. The Diabetes Clinician was again a comfort. Since all my numbers were great and I had lost a good fair amount of weight, she said my body had to find balance. Not to worry.

Some months passed. No weight shift. My fear of eating returned. Bad eating habits returned.  The scale registered a small creep upwards. Then Mother died. 

When I saw my beloved family's reaction to death, I realized that I had better stay alive and healthy for at least a decade. There is diabetes in the family. It has killed us early. There is heart and vascular disease. My family has wonky thyroids. I have a cousin with Hashimoto's Disease. She has had success with the Paleo Diet.   Since this country's  health care system is not assertive about testing, I decided to act as if I had Hashimoto's since about 90 % of low functioning victims could be so diagnosed.  In my research I found a 30 day challenge using Paleo with meal plans designed by a diabetic.  It was immediately attractive since it is starchless, and low fruit. Two things which resonate with me. I determined to get serious about eating again. Not dieting, but eating.

 I went out and procured supplies.  I liked the grocery list because it has no name brand or produced food that I can't access from this country.  Careful shopping cost me just under 100 euros for a week.  This included staples which were expensive but will last for weeks.  I also have meat in the freezer.  I think the recipes are generous so the food is not just for one me.

So it began yesterday:  eggs, nuts and berries for breakfast,  Fahita salad for lunch, The salmon crusted with pecans, rosemary and sea salt for dinner was delicious, even cold for breakfast this morning.  I haven't felt like I was "needing to eat"at all.   I didn't realize how far I had fallen back into really poor habits. I have to remind myself to drink.

99 .9 kilos.