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!

Coconut goodness

I would like to talk about coconut today. Mark's daily apple calls it "Smart fuel". Coconut research center says it's a "functional food" because of how many nutrients it offers us.  While the medical establishment warns us against the dangers of the saturated fat contained in it.

I would like to talk about my experience with various coconut products, the good and the bad, and share my acquired love for coconut.

My favorite coconut product family thus far are coconut milk and cream.  The most exciting part about these is the pure-energy component the provide for my diet.  When tired, I used to turn to coffee and red bull.  Now I make my "magic coconut drinks" as I call them, which provide a longer lasting non-jittery energy that enables me to get through tired afternoons and late nights.  Here they are:

1. Amazing double-coco, which I discovered in the Primal Cookbook.  Use two teaspoons of cocoa, three times as much cold coconut milk. Mix them up and you have consistency of yogurt.  Add boiling water - and you will have hot chocolate unlike any other you've ever tasted. Forget the cardboard taste of Hershey's powder products.  Coconut gives it the rich chocolate flavor you will not find anywhere else.  The best part is, it requires almost no sweetening due to its richness.  (Tip: use the dutch cocoa, which is richer and far less bitter.)
2. Coconut/avocado milkshake.  OK, I have to admit, it did not sound like it could possibly taste good.  I was so surprised, it became my daily afternoon drink, often replacing lunch!  Skip the low-fat yogurt in favor of greek, add some vanilla and stevia to taste.  (Tip: start by blending the avocado till smooth before any other ingredients; ripe avocado is key - or you'll have little avocado bits on your tongue!)

The problem with coconut cream is that it almost always comes sweetened, intended for pina colada.  I recently discovered a great product, coconut cream concentrate, far better on your budget, too! And the first user review confirms my experience with coconut as well:

This stuff is great! I eat it out of the jar with a spoon as a quick pick me up! It's amazing what coconut and coconut oil can do for you! 

Next comes shredded coconut. I use it as a topping for yogurt, in place of shredded cheese in salads and any time I feel my meal is a little too lean for the proper amount of energy I look for.

Another favorite discovery is coconut oil. It is amazing in cooking.  Because of its stability (the good old saturated fat!) it gets much hotter than any other oil you will use.  It sizzles like butter and produces similarly crispy, beautifully browned results, but unlike butter, it will not burn. When making fried chicken, it creates a meal so beautiful and tasty, I can bring it to a holiday table and feel good about myself!

Finally, a word about coconut flour. I do not like it!  It is grainy and refuses to integrate into the texture and flavor of the meal.  I use almond & cashew flour and avoid coconut till further notice.

Things I have not tried:  coconut water (which is supposed to be truly magic and has been used for centuries for a variety of medicinal purposes) and coconut butter that some swear by as a fast snack.

What I would like to do is create a coconut-based power bar. If anyone can think of how to go about it and what it would contain, please leave me a comment.  I am a huge fan of on-the-go no-cook no-mess no-thought convenience of such a thing!

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!

Russian pickled cabbage

Pickled cabbage is my childhood favorite. When my mom comes to visit me as she does annually, pickled cabbage is at the top of the most-requested list. This time, I asked her to make me enough to last me through the winter. It's a wonderful side dish for any meal, lightening the palate between bites - or a guilt-free snack for any diet. The primary difference between pickled cabbage and sauerkraut is in the length of the fermenting process, days instead of weeks. As a result, it has a fresh salad-like taste instead of the overpowering "sauer" in sauerkraut.  The best part - it keeps forever (well, nearly) and it's quite simple.

Ingredients:

• Cabbage
• Iodine-free fine salt
• Carrots
• A big pot

When buying cabbage, make sure it looks crisp, and does not feel soft.  It is best to use an enamel pot so the fermenting process does not ferment the seasoning off your cookware.

Preparation:

Shred the cabbage. Shake the salt three times while chanting "Abracadabra!".  (Though optional, the step really puts you in the right mood.)

Place about two inches of cabbage in the pot. Grate 1/4 cup or so carrots loosely on top. Sprinkle a tablespoon of salt.  Repeat layer by layer. When finished, squash the cabbage as much as possible, using fists works well, until it gives juice.

Fermenting

Place a plate or lid on top of the final layer. It should fit inside the pot, leaving an inch or less around the edges.  Put something heavy: a brick, a rock, a jar of water on top, to keep the pressure on the cabbage.

Keep the pot at room temperature during the fermenting process.

Each day, open the plate and poke deep holes in the cabbage to allow gas to escape. Press the plate and the weight back on.

Fermenting usually takes 4-5 days. Don't hesitate to taste it. Longer fermenting process will result in more sour cabbage.

Place in jars, squeezing out most of the juice and refrigerate. Fill the jars to the top, squashing the cabbage - they'll keep longer. Certainly for 3-4 months.

Serving

I like pouring a little oil over the cabbage and will occasionally chop up some onion to give it an extra kick. Use it in recipes in place of sauerkraut for a less overpowering flavor, but otherwise similar results. Cabbage is a wonderful replacement of potatoes and grains in beef and vegetable soups in general. Pickled cabbage makes it slightly sour for a classic russian soup щи (shi). (Here is a random recipe I found to give you the general idea.)

Enjoy!

Reference

I have found a youtube video describing the making of pickled cabbage. It looks very similar to what my mom does. One exception is, my family does not hesitate making a large pot while the lady recommends a small amount.  Just don't forget to press down on the cabbage each day, allowing it to give off more juice, and make holes!

Also, the Choose-Healthy-Food blog article, which includes this video has a variety of tips on making/troubleshooting the process.  I hope it helps!

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.