Losing weight by eating fat

Boy, it has been a long time since I got to blog here. My life has taken me into a whirlwind of a tornado and, not surprisingly, the things that I do for myself are the first to go. Still, I have been having internal conversations with CaveKitchen, creating a monologue of posts inside my head. It has helped, kept me company, been my unspoken companion during a challenging time.

I am here now to pay it back. Thanks to those who made comments and started following me on NetworkedBlogs, giving me little nudges to quit being a stranger.

Throughout this time the topic that has been most on my mind is FAT. Fat, fat and more fat. A long time ago I wrote about the importance of adding fat to one's meals and shared some tips for doing so. Today I would like to share what focusing on fat has done for me.

One of the common complaints I see about Paleo is hunger. Switching to paleo leaves a lot of people constantly craving food. I gained 10 lbs in the first two weeks of trying it and sought advice about what to do. Reducing sugar, not surprisingly, turned out to be an important step. But I had not mastered paleo, nor reaped one of its biggest benefits till I focused on fat.

Today, I usually eat one meal per day, often supplementing it with a light breakfast, small snack or nothing at all. The most astounding result is - I don't think about food. I am not raiding the refrigerator to see what I can find, plainly forgetting my favorite habit - munching - in favor of focusing on values in my life.

Every now and then I get on a scale and I am not surprised to see the numbers going down as I see improvements in my body, the fit of my jeans and a general feeling of well-being.

So what's the deal? Basically, fat calories satiate you like nothing else. They do not cause an insulin spike, which leads to a crash later in the day. When hungry, I no longer feel light-headed, or craving food.  I just feel... well... hungry - no other side effects. Because I have to rely on Granny (my mother-in-law) to do most of the cooking, I have to make sure I add enough fat to the meal to retain the peace the freedom from cravings brings. Bacon, butter, avocados, coconut are staples that I add liberally to the dried out and often flavorless meals that lean meat creates. On those days that I get lazy and forget to do what is required, I become aware of the sudden need to stock up on fruit, unexpected contemplation of a quick fix a bagel would bring. I always keep several packages of uncured bacon Trader Joe's offers to put those cravings to rest. (If you haven't seen my post on perfect bacon - you should look; this easy method of preparing bacon has changed my life!)

When I have a good meal, I know it, as the satiation sets in, bringing a burst of energy that radiates like heat all over my body. On those days, I know, I won't be tempted to watch TV instead of working late at night, have bed time conflicts with kids or become depressed about having taken on too many things. On such nights, I just am - caught up in the joy of living, pursuing my productive endeavors and enjoying life.

An update: paleo pregnancy

I have not been able to post or do very much else in the last few weeks. Bad news on the pregnancy, see ParentingIs for the story. Bottom line, there is no heart beat, but I have not given up completely yet. Tomorrow is my appointment with my old and trusted obgyn. The weeks leading up to the bad news were extremely emotionally volatile (I tend to go insane in the first trimester) and I've been struggling.

I also have to admit, I have not done very well in Paleo in recent weeks.  Not badly, either. However, I've noticed time and again that it's not about what you avoid eating, but what you do have on the table.  Too many meals consisting primarily of dairy, or hot dogs, or even just vegetables, will drain you of energy, grains or no grains.  I am pretty sure that I am past the worst of it, though and am ready to face the world again.  Today, I enlisted granny in helping create a meal around a ham, one of my favorite lazy feast recipes.

A few observations on pregnancy and nausea are in order:

• I am pretty sure, that nausea is reduced with proper paleo. It is important not to overeat protein, though, as your body will quickly announce - no more! Stick with high fat meals with a reasonable portion of meat, but with lots of vegetable options. The more you have to choose from, the more likely, something will hit the spot.
• Weight gain is reduced when, unlike my first pregnancy in which I gained sixty lbs, half eating watermellon, what you are eating is directly involved in building the baby: healthy fat, protein, large variety of veggies.
• Variety is a must. You are foregoing a lot of fortification the government puts into wheat products: folic acid, magnesium and more. I have been trying to keep at least a dozen vegetable options in the fridge at any given time.  (See my Pantry page for a long list of vegetable option ideas.)
• Snacking is not a symptom of pregnancy. It is a symptom of your body demanding the right nutrients! Which, in turn, a symptom of pregnancy, of course.  Eat good healthy meals, and snacking is not so much of an issue.
• Prenatal vitamins can make you nauseous. Take them at bed time! But do take them. There is so little known about paleo pregnancy, be on the safe side and stick with your doctor's advice.

Obviously, take this with a grain of salt.  These are the things I have observed, thought about, deduced. I admit to complete ignorance with the possible exception of awareness of my own body. So, compare notes and figure out what feels right!

Crossfit is hard!

The crossfit culture is growing like mad. If you google crossfit near your home in any major city, you are likely to find a half a dozen gyms to choose from within a twenty minute drive. I have encountered so many wonderful articles and resources about Crossfit experiences: Crossift is fun for all personality types. You are never too old to do crossfit; crossfit pregnancy and more.

Hear, hear! I love it too.  But today I'd like tell a story.  It is a dedicated to a friend who told me why she liked my blog when I was feeling down.  She said, "I just like to hear about how real people are making their lifestyle work. Paleo is not simple. Cooking is tough and takes a lot of time. Crossfit is hard."  So it is. It is one of the greatest joys in my life and a singular challenge.

It is 6 am. I open my eyes and it hurts. My ears too. Oh! I recognize the trumpet sound behind enemy lines to be a custom ring tone on my iphone. I know, if I press snooze, it'll be the end of me. I snatch the phone, slide the bar and fall out of bed. Several minutes later, I am stumbling around the kitchen trying to make a cup of coffee.  I know, I should pay attention.  Yesterday, I had made hot water failing to put any coffee in the coffee maker.  A couple days before, I almost burnt the pot by doing the opposite - baking the grounds with no water... This time, I know I will prevail...  Two splenda... Enough cream to drown a tiny gerbil.  Mmmmm! I think I can face my day...


Then a familiar anxiety comes over me.  In a half an hour, I will have arrived at Crossfit 310, my new beloved crossfit gym. It'll be hard.  Really hard.  There are days when I collapse at the end of a WOD. (What's a WOD?  The thing crossfit trainers call a series of exercises intended to give you a near-death experience without doing any permanent damage.  It stands for Workout Of the Day. Doesn't sound nearly as scary as WOD though, does it?) I become slightly afraid. Excited too, but definitely scared. My old trainer Max used to say, "You should always be a little afraid of the workout." Thanks, Max! I am.


On the way I listen to Cultivating the Virtues, a parenting podcast that causes me to think about that, which I do best and I relax.  Walking into the gym, I feel confident.  I've done it before - and I can do it again! 


5 pullups
10 pushups
15 box jumps
20 squats


3 times... And that's just the wam-up.  I try the box jump to make sure I know what I am doing.  This is a new gym for me and the equipment is slightly different.  The big box looks...well... big!  I take a deep breath - and my feet stay on the ground.  I am terrified!  Nah, with all my might I take off and land - right on top of the box! Victory!!!


After the WOD we do strength training with bench presses.  At the end I run. I am not a big runner.  Cardio is actually my limiting factor.  As I start running, I realize I am too exhausted to think about it.  I just run.  I don't pout, don't even wonder whether I can make it.  After 300 meters, I realize that I am running neither slowly, conserving strength, nor fast, decreasing the time... I am just running.  And it's not hard any more.  It just is.  I experience some kind of an elation as I realize, I could run for a long time now: it's just a way of existence...


I am vaguely aware as Kris, the trainer, gives me a high five.  I walk back inside the gym and collapse on the floor.  Some people are talking. Some listening to music.  Everyone is recuperating from overcoming the challenge. I lay flat, face down, feeling my body and nothing else. After a while, I get up. With some surprise, I realize that my legs are taking me where I want to go. My hands pick up my belonging.  My brain and mouth are cooperating at the friendly good-byes.  Now I am in the car, with silence as my companion.  I did it! I made it! And I will do it again...

Getting pregnant again!

A while ago, I had announced, this blog was going to be about the paleo pregnancy.  Unfortunately, this idea was short-lived as I lost the pregnancy at twenty weeks of gestation due to a developmental problem: water in the brain, chest cavity and abdomen.  Apparently, the baby had a hole and leaked! I know, I can laugh about it now - but only because yesterday my husband and I have finally decided to try to conceive again!

From LadyZona.com
(I want to look like her!)

Boy, am I committed to doing everything right! There is no evidence, I did something wrong, but it's important to me to increase the odds that I conceive fast and carry the pregnancy if there is any hope. So bottom line, I am getting back to the topics of paleo pregnancy, conception, nutrition and exercise.

The next topic I need to get answers for is optimal prenatal vitamins. Hopefully, next time I post, there will be info!

Why I stuck with the paleo diet

Paleo has been tough for me.  I've been on it for about 9 months now.  The start was extremely rough: I was hungry all the time and couldn't figure out why. I found that my kids were not used to eating a lot of meat, and neither was I.  Mealtimes, never a problem before that, became a disaster.  My husband thought I was misguided and to top it all off, I had to learn how to cook!  Eventually, while still technically paleo, my diet deteriorated, and I was simply sick of it. I gave up and ate bagels till my heart was content for two weeks!  The result? I had to go back and do it right this time.

Here is why.  Here is a list of things that happened to me while on Paleo:

1. I quit getting sick.  My kids come down with colds monthly - but I seem nearly immune, getting minor symptoms from time to time.
2. I have a high level of energy, often feeling like I can move mountains after a good healthy meal.
3. My teeth are white!  This is the most surprising of all the results.  I am horrible to my teeth and they've always shown it.  Suddenly, I have a smile I am proud of!
4. I no longer get heart burn when eating onions.  Now, that's unexpected!  I've had a hard time with raw onions since I got pregnant the first time.  Now I can eat them with a spoon. Neat! (When I went off paleo for two weeks, the heart burn was back. How do you like that?)
5. My taste preferences seem to shift away from the unhealthy: sweet things seem too sweet to enjoy, potatoes too bland. I am beginning to trust my taste buds to lead me in the healthy direction for my body.

Losing all that overnight made me realize how much this diet has come to mean to my body and to my lifestyle.  I just couldn't stand the idea of walking away and back to where I had been a year ago: lethargic, constantly fighting off a cold, trying to get through the day, drinking a cup after cup of coffee with little to no effect.

There is another localized symptom that helps me guide myself in the right direction.  After a "right" meal, I feel like one of those super-heros in my son's cartoons after drinking a special power potion.  I can't describe it in terms even I can understand...  I feel happy to be alive.  But the feeling kicks in suddenly, like from a drug, minutes after I am done eating.  As far as I can tell, the following are the key ingredients for making it happen:

   * beef - no other meat has done it (I am hypothesizing, it's the amount of iron)
   * high fat content (not surprising, it's where the energy comes from)
   * low amount of carbohydrates: just a small side of veggies (high-carb meals always weigh me down)

I love the feeling and love the evenings that follow after the dinner that makes it happen.  I can work late into the night and feel like a million bucks.  Today is one of those. I can't wait to get to work and kick butt!

Simplifying: an almost Paleo diet

Mark Sisson's newsletter this week says:

It's nice to have goals, but you have to have a plan of attack to succeed. Full health is achievable, certainly within a year. But break it down, start with a few specifics. Make this "the year I stop drinking soda!" or "the year I go camping once a month!" Let total health blossom as a result of achievable goals.  

For me, this was the encouragement I needed to proceed with a plan that I had made for myself. A while ago, I blogged about the advice I gave my dad to start paleo gently. Recently, I have taken a page out of my own book and relaxed the requirements I had set for myself initially, focusing on the following principles:

1. Paleo is a high-fat high-protein diet. I tell my kids, "meat is what gives you energy to do the things you want." For me, what I want is to be a successful parent who is not too exhausted for the patience, creativity and physical activity the job requires. I can also use the extra kick a good Paleo meal gives me for my after-hours personal and professional activities.
2. Grain is not acceptable as a food group. However, I will use it as an herb, if you will: boy, does flour-based gravy taste good! And while Trader Joe's sweet potato fries are far better than anything I can create, they contain gluten to give them the shape and crispiness.
3. High sugar fruits should be avoided. But fruits, particularly the healthy variety, can be part of many quick and wonderful snacks. Better than bagels, eh?
4. A little healthier is better. I just don't sweat it so much any more. When we go to have sushi, I get some sashimi, but the sushi rolls are my favorites. I've quit torturing myself and eat the whole thing.
5. There is such a thing as healthy desert: dark chocolate, fruits/berries with whipped cream, cheesecake, even meringues. I want just plain unabashed decadence to be part of my lifestyle.

This is enabling me to cooperate with my non-paleo family in creating meals. As a result of making this change, I am working with my live-in mother-in-law and depending on her to create meals that are pretty good, instead of facing the lonely task of planning, shopping and cooking strict paleo.

One of the tricky parts she is actually helping me is: introducing more fat into the already-cooked meals. My husband is trying to lose weight in the mainstream way, by avoiding fat and counting calories. So how do we sit down at a single table?

Here are some ideas I have worked out:

1. Adding butter into sauces at the table.
2. Rendered (which I figured out means fried) salt pork fat, resulting in delicious bacon bits (only much better than bacon) sprinkled in with the food.
3. When we bake chicken, we use a mix of low-fat white meat and high-fat dark.
4. I sprinkle almond slices & shredded coconut on top of meat sauces
5. Avocado is frequently a good side.
6. My dad is going to buy me some Russian salt pork, called "salo". I remember it from my childhood. It is intended to be eaten raw, on top of a sandwich, or fried up like bacon bits. The difference is, whether raw or rendered, it melts in your mouth, losing the stringiness of bacon due to a different salting process. I have to write about it once i have some!
7. If all else fails, I round out the meal with a high-fat desert (see dessert listings above).

I feel good again. My kids are not aggravating me. Even my mother-in-law is pretty good company. Yesterday I was completely sleep-deprived, having stayed up half the night for no good reason.  I was falling off my feet - but I never lost my temper, went shopping, cooked dinner and passed out cuddling with the babies. I will put this get-back-to-paleo operation as an unqualified success thus far.

Paleo: a gentle start

My father is turning eighty this year. He has the gammit of the normal maladies that affect old age: heart desease, high blood pressure, weakness in his legs, general tiredness.  Yet, he has an unbeatable sense of life that makes you cherish his presence and want to fight to preserve that life as a value to yourself and all those around.

I watched him deteriorate over the last six months.  Always talking about being tired, giving up major values to avoid extra driving, even his sense of life began to dim. Now, I am a huge fan of Paleo.  Yet, I do not have sufficient knowledge to stand up to all the medical advice he is receiving and ask him to listen to my new theories in the face of serious problems and disease.  One day, though, I had had enough. Hearing my dad simply decline and disintegrate, I remembered a scene in Atlas Shrugged, when Dagny shoots the guard not for resisting her, but for failing to make a decision or pick a side.

"Dad, I said, I have something I'd like to share with you..." And so it began.

The difference in his demeanor was startling after two weeks.  Actually, it was quite funny: "Dad, how are you feeling? Can you tell a difference in your energy?"  "Me? Well, you know me.  I've been full of energy my whole life! I mean, certainly, I might take a nap on occasion, but I am not one to complain."  I laughed with relief... Paleo was working.  He sounded like he was himself again!

Today I would like to share some of the specific advice I gave my dad to help him ease into Paleo without going through some of the difficulties that I first faced. Perhaps, this will be useful to those who would like to win family members over to this side or are contemplating moving forward themselves but can't quite make the leap.  I also found this advice extremely useful during my pregnancy (12 weeks now and feeling like a million bucks!) when things got a bit tougher.


"Dad, Paleo is different. It isn't about what you don't eat as much as it is focused on what you should eat. And what we eat is the whole animal.  Make that the focus. Don't give up your carbs too fast. Your body needs to learn to extract the good long-lasting energy out of fat and protein and it'll take a few weeks. So don't go low-carb. Go high-animal.

"Be sure that each meal is centered about the animal.  Eat that part first - following up with vegetables and other carbs if you do not feel full. Your body might resist this change and will want some short-term energy from carbs to feel like things are going ok.  I still love finishing my meals with yogurt and berries, though it is no longer absolutely necessary.

"Avoid grains. Giving up grains cold turkey is hard. They are known to actually be addictive. So stick to small portions of your favorite bread - with a nice hunk of meat on top, of course! Immediately give up bowls of pasta, rice and other big grainy side dishes with little nutritional value.

"Drop the potatoes.  They are not substantially nutritionally different from candy due to their high glycemic index. I know you love squash and its relatives. Try out sweet potatoes - I grew to love them.  I know my step mom makes yummy califlower that's a nutritional wonder compared to its pale competitors. Continue exploring different vegetables each week. Forage far and wide. Your taste palates will change as you continue Paleo and you will crave nutritious options while things that are bad for you will strike you as yucky.

"Finally, give up sweets to the extent possible. Your body won't miss them. No side-effects there! And enjoy yourself. Paleo is about good yummy food, not sacrifice.  If you sin, no need for a confessional.  Just find a yummy animal to decorate your next meal - and let bygones be bygones."

I love you, dad, and I hope that you decorate this world we live in, putting a smile on the faces of those who meet you for a good long time!

Paleo pregnancy

Or How I almost fell off the wagon

Tired, lightly nauseated, out of breath as a result of movement, a near-constant bad taste in my mouth.  This has been me for the past month. Only I can't really blame the pregnancy too much. Sure at nine weeks I am feeling less than perfect, but I could do a lot better.

Anyway, this was what I decided upon waking up this morning. It's been a ridiculous rollercoaster: I make yummy beefy meatballs and I feel great. The next two meals I find myself simply too lazy to cook and by the end of the day, all I can do is park the kids in front of the TV and lie down. Stupid, right? OK, I won't beat myself up over it too much, but I would like to share my experience and some of the new resolutions.

No, I did not go back to eating pizza. I seriously considered it. About once a week I thought, it's simply too hard to cook meat three meals a day. Our culture is optimized toward quick high-carb grain-based snacks that get us through the day. And when beef jerky lost its appeal a few weeks ago, I am dead in the water.

One factor prevented me from giving up: I feel healthy! Everyone in my house has been deathly sick with a nasty cold the kids brought from school. It's been going for nearly a month. I felt the beginnings of a few symptoms - but I never got all the way to sick. Paleo is supposed to strengthen your immune system by preventing gut flora from penetrating the barriers and entering the blood stream (Mark's Daily Apple has nice light-weight readable article on the subject and googling for leaky gut syndrome will yield much more.) Bottom line, eating *proper* paleo has made me feel ten years younger by giving me energy. I lost that through sloth, but at least I don't go all the way from lazy to sick by going back to grains.

Here is an interesting observation: cravings.  I love fruit. I can live on fruit.  (Well, as it turns out, I can't - it simply does not contain calories and nutrients I need - but in the past I've tried!) And now, with bad taste in my mouth, I crave it. I eat it. It tasted wonderful. Then, it leaves me tasting the remaining bitterness in my mouth and begging for more.  It's a lot like an itch: you know it's there, you can't get away from it - and you know that once you start scratching, it'll get worse. But you do it anyway!

Today, we (you know, the rational me and the pregnant me) have reached a compromise: I can eat fruit as long as it is supplemented with something containing a good dose of fat, to satisfy hunger: cream, (oh boy, peaches and cream!), eggs, avocado. There is a carton full boiled eggs in the fridge and I am ready for the challenge!  It was amazing how much more satisfying a bowl of raspberries with cream was than just straight raspberries, even more so than having them with yogurt!

Second decision: I seriously need to stockpile food and have a wide variety available to choose from. That's how I got started, but then lost track.  Tonight, I am making the family all-time-favorite pork crockpot!  Pork is defrosting as we speak.

I need to figure out how to do better for breakfast.  I cannot start my day with a cup of yogurt. I simply can't last long enough to have the energy to prepare lunch. Some ideas involve looking up breakfast casseroles that can be prepared in advace and heated up with some fresh ingredients. Just thinking about it makes me hungry.  (OK, yes, I am pregnant!)

And finally, make fat an all-important meal ingredient.  Today's lunch: shrimp (kids' favorite), artichoke with melted butter and - bacon. I don't want to cook a big meal - but bacon will get me through to dinner!

Wish me luck.  I think I need some support in the days to come. :-)  One thing that keeps me going: I know that after 2-3 days of three good meals a day, I'll have so much energy, this will all become easy!

Depression and carbs

I want to cry today. My kids drive me crazy. My husband is all kinds of things bad. My mother-in-law's cooking sucks and my Crossfit coach is an ass. Right, none of this is real. I've learned to recognize the depression that invariably follows a high-carb diet.

You are not depressed despite your favorite pasta dishes? If you've never tried it, give Paleo a try for two weeks. I wonder if you look back like I did, and realize what joy and happiness feel like. Having been on Paleo for about four months, I have a reference point: the way I had felt in the year or two previously. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, sad, frustrated and anxious, the first question on my mind is: did I eat right this week? The answer, without exception, has been NO. (Yes, this means, there has not been a single instance when my depression was caused by any factors other than the carbs in my diet!) I've been too busy, too lazy, and eventually, too depressed to take care of eating properly. Today marks the lowest point in a couple of months.  Here is what I am going to do to fix it: I will spend the afternoon cooking!

1. This evening, I have invited my husband to have a cooking date-night, making a Paleo quiche. I hope he accepts.
2. I would like to make a Kitchen Sink Soup that I have loved previously, possibly using the incredibly rich soup stock I prepared and froze a while back. (The fat seriously helps when I am on a carb-depression)
3. Devilled eggs! Haven't made them in years.  Should be a wonderful snack/side for a meal.
4. I will probably run out to Costco to get a ham and bake my holiday ham creation. It's one of the easiest recipes I have and it lasts two weeks in various forms!

That's it for now. I hope to be in better spirits to blog about the results!

Junk food takes its toll

This weekend we went on a wonderful vacation rather modern caveman-style: RV camp & nude resort.  Sounds daring? Well, we decided, it was time to educate our cave babies about proper attitudes toward their bodies. This came on the heels of a neighbor threatening to call the police next time our kids (two and four!) ran out of the house naked. While they are comfortable in and out of their clothing at home, they know to get dressed before leaving the door - but accidents can happen.

After some consideration, I chose not to moon Steve, the neighbor, and made reservations for a long-promised trip to the "naked place" instead. The trip was wonderful with one caveat: food.

I am now six weeks pregnant and up until this point, have felt better than during either one of my other pregnancies: no nausea, not starving, no exhaustion or any of the other unpleasantries associated with being pregnant. This time, though, I failed to plan.  I was all out of beef jerky (never leave home without it!) and burnt the chicken that was intended for lunch.  We stopped at Wiener Schnitzel and I chose to make an exception, ordering my favorite craut dog on a bun.  In the final analysis it wasn't that great and by the time we got to our vacation spot, I felt horrible.  We went to the local restaurant where I was able to order a steak (4oz meat, a mountain of veggies). Not exactly what I needed at the end of a hungry day.  But it was decidedly better than nothing.

The next morning's breakfast was a delight but not a very good day overall.  And, of course, when we got back, I was too lazy to figure out what to defrost to have a real meal.  In the end, I averaged less than one good meal per day for three days running.  Boy, do I feel pregnant. Ready to throw up and all! (Yeah, I do remember feeling something like this with my other pregnancies!)


Today is a fix-it day. Super-yummy yogurt breakfast followed by a baked chicken with artichoke. I hope to get to take some pictures and blog about it. It's nice to be at my cave with Trader Joe's down the street, a nice electrical oven and great internet access! Grok would be so jealous...

Paleo muffins

I've been excited for months to make these good-looking paleo muffins that I found on Caveman Food blog.  Muffins used to be among our favorites: blueberry, orange, even cornbread muffins won a lot of cheers at breakfast.  Will my darling family like these? (I am planning on making the banana nut variation ,not the cranberry pumpkin pictured.  The latter might come at Halloween time!)

For whatever reason, I keep running into trouble: when I have almond flour, I am missing chopped walnuts. When those finally arrive, there are no bananas. Today I thought I was finally ready - no baking powder!

This is it! I am going to find a way to acquire baking powder by lunch time, before we eat the bananas!

UPDATE: I did, and here is the recipe: Nutty Banana Muffins.  This turned out to be the mother of all muffins: soft, flakey, and the best part - they do not go stale for days, unlike their flour-based counterparts.

Butter is not a grease

I experimented with the Primal Cookbook's egg muffins recipe.  Basically, you make an omelet (skip the water), pour it into muffin cups and call it breakfast.  Neat idea, yeah?

The Primal Cookbook advocates using butter as a grease. I was a little surprised, but went for it.  Sigh... The muffins stuck to the pan and we wound up eating muffin tops!  They were pretty good, but lesson almost learned.

I tried butter again when cooking chicken legs.  (Usually, I prefer coconut oil, but I am out!) So, I put a little olive oil in, remembering my earlier muffin experience, and added butter. The chicken was yummy, but it lost its skin to the pan, sticking to it mercilessly. The pan was a mess and the chicken, nearly skinless. Still, my kids and I both delight in chicken drumstick and lunch was a complete success.

Have you guys had any luck using butter as a grease? What am I doing wrong?

Food Network thumbs up!

I finally discovered  the Food Network site, which is a surprisingly valuable resource as many recipes have a heavy emphasis on Fast and High Fat. They are not afraid of publishing recipes that include bacon, cheese, cream, and don't seem to be nearly as fond of carbs as the general culture. And I failed to find a much by way of recipes that rely on grains as a signfiicant ingredient.

Today I am experimenting with Old-Time Beef Stew - compliments of Paula Deen . That one can be prepared as-is and be 98% paleo friendly.  It does use some cornstarch, but even Mark Sisson agrees (click & search for cornstarch) that a tiny bit of it won't mess you up. (Soon I'll be experimenting with Arrowroot Powder & Tapioca Flour, which are both thickeners & starches.  Can't wait till they get here.)

Generally, I like to choose recipes that don't rely on flour & other grain/legume-based ingredients, but use them sparingly to achieve a particular cooking transformation (e.g. making broth into thick gravy) and experiment with substitutions later. This allows for cleaner evaluation of the base recipe.

High Protein is key

After a stellar beginning with Paleo, I've had a dramatic slump over the last two weeks. Cooking Paleo requires a lot of thought and planning (simply because it requires real cooking - no bowl of pasta to rush to the rescue!)  I found myself eating less and less, using yogurt as a meal more and more often, until I slid all the way back into pre-Paleo lethargy.

For the last three days, things have been on the rise. I have made a wonderful observation/conjecture. It goes like this:

• Carbs provide immediate energy, enabling you to wake up and do far more than your base energy level allows for.  Perhaps, this is the reason atheletes love to carb up.
• Protein is the high-octane fuel. It builds up resources that can be used for long-lasting no-crash base energy. Yet, it's hard to get at and none of it is available immediately.
• If my base energy level drops, two things happen
•  I begin seriously slowing down
• One meal does not restore me to health - sometimes it takes more than a day of high protein meals to attain it!

So, bottom line, you gotta maintain the higher energy level or pay the price.

I've been eating well for three days now and I am back to my Paleo high!  This morning was fun. I made a salmon-cheese-tomato salad, which can be improved on by adding avocados, different kinds of cheese and, perhaps eggs and even other kinds of meat. But it was yummy and I felt good.

Lunch had chicken drumsticks and bell peppers.  Easy, low-key, and tastes great.

Blogging about a part of me

Back in 2000 when I created my first livejournal post, I thought of blogging as a sort of online diary. Over the years I watched people badmouth their husbands, whine about their employees, share publicly sexual exploits and realized that I did not wish my life to become a laundry list of routine and uninteresting status updates. I wanted to be someone interesting, engaged intellectually, respected and worth following.

Today I realize that I've gone to the other extreme. I think of my blogs as collection of thoroughly prepared articles and have a problem publishing as each individual post takes several copies, lots of thinking and most never see the light of day.

A friend recently wrote about checking her premises with respect to her health, and focused on the problem with being a perfectionist.I would never, in a million years, would have called myself a perfectionist prior to this writing. However, it gave me pause.  I realized that there is only one kind of perfection (really, one kind of engagement!) that I truly value: intellectual. Having a bad idea is far worse than wearing your underwear inside out.

I am now engaged in the second most difficult task of my life: focused nutrition, which falls just behind parenting. When I say hard, I mean hard for me. Sure, some people might find breastfeeding or differential calculus to be a challenge. Me - cooking and cleaning up after myself! I created this blog in the hopes of that it will help me clarify my thinking. And what did it have to be? A collection of expert-like essays from the start.

Now that I think about it, it sort of makes me laugh. I am writing about my vast successes and sharing "wisdom" with one hand, while crying for help at the OEvolution list with the other.


Perhaps today, I will try a different, more humble approach for blogging. Still no sexual exploits, husband bashing or job whining.  Well, OK.  Just this once.

• Sexual exploits: Trying to get pregnant. Primary difficulty: conception requires far more energy than it used to.
• Husband bashing: He is a god damn picky eater. Boy, is this making my Paleo adventure more difficult!
• Job whining: My boss leaves me alone until the project is completed. I work from home and it gives me an intellectual break from the daily routine. I've had it worse.

Now that this is out of my system - I would like to dedicate this blog to the story of making Paleo work for me, coping with cooking for the family, monitoring my health, energy and other symptoms and sharing the ups and downs. And to my readers (both of you!) thanks for stopping by. Leave me a comment. Comments make me tingle all over!