Day 1 on Pre-Paleo

Day one of Pre-Paleo week was June 24th. The first day of full-fledged Paleo will be July 1st. I am using this week to familiarize myself with the expectations of Paleo and to weed out all of my non-Paleo food products in my cupboards.  This weekend my in-laws are having a family picnic as Justin's brother's going away party, so I will see how well I do...  Day 1 was a good start, but there remain several items that need to be removed from my diet, which I describe below.  For breakfast, I made two eggs scrambled with 1/2 an avocado and red pepper seasoned with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. I had 2 cups of coffee with 2% milk, which I have to replace with either whole milk or whole cream. Why? I believe it is because of all the additives that are in less-fat dairy products.  This breakfast was a much welcome improvement from my typical scrambled eggs with ketchup, which I can no longer eat either, unless I make a Paleo-friendly version. I ate a handful of almonds and carrots with hummus for a mid-morning snack.  The hummus definitely needs to go since it is processed and not homemade.  Whether or not homemade hummus is okay with Paleo, I am not exactly sure yet, but I will know soon enough.  For lunch I ate 1 cup of Whatcom county strawberries and a salad. My salad consisted of lettuce, tuna, red bell pepper, cucumber and feta cheese with an apple cider vinegar and olive oil dressing.   Delicious! The one ingredient I need to remove is the feta cheese, since that is not allowed in Paleo. Later, I had some fruit for a mid-afternoon snack.  For dinner, I had the same salad I had for lunch and a bowl of steamed broccoli with olive oil.  I wasn't really prepared for starting Paleo, so I had nothing else to eat.  One great thing I noticed was that I did not experience any cravings throughout the day.  Unfortunately, I was super-duper tired around 2 pm, trying really hard not to fall asleep at my desk.  Other than that, it was a good day.

I did go shopping later on and got some "Paleo" approved items, some of which I have never purchased, eaten or cooked with before in my life.   I want to try "turnip browns" which replace hash browns, so I bought a few Turnips. I also picked up a Rutabaga, which I am excited about trying. I got a spaghetti squash which I will use to make a scrambled egg dish for breakfast as well as a replacement for regular spaghetti noodles.

I don't think this diet will be too difficult... The biggest challenge I see is forgoing the desserts and occasional beer, which I thoroughly enjoy.  Although, maybe I can weave it back into my diet after my month long trial on a Paleo diet.

See, I am already trained in hunting and gathering... for water! For everything else, I will be utilizing my local grocery. :)

Thanks for reading!