My 5 Days of Paleo – WIAW Halloween Edition

Thanks for all of your comments on my Accent Vlog. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you must! It is so much fun that you’ll want to make one too.

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Now, onto my post’s title today: Five Days of Paleo. What?! Paleo? Is she crazy? Doesn’t she have enough restrictions without giving up grains too?

Hold your horses there my fellow bloggers. These five days of Paleo were not intentional. It just so happens that I ran out of both my quinoa flakes and my brown rice protein powder on Sunday… And I’m not going home til Friday night. Hence, a week of “forced” Paleo.

But don’t get me wrong, I’m actually quite excited. While I do love my protein breads and quinoa porridge, I don’t think my stomach always does. I’ve been noticing lately that after eating quinoa flakes my stomach gets particularly bubbly, and sometimes even bloated.

Of course, we don’t want that! So a few weeks ago I looked up some different reasons why I may now be reacting poorly to quinoa flakes. What I came up with was a description off of the Whole9 Approach’s website about what grains do to our bodies:

Many with gluten sensitivities report similar reactions when consuming non-gluten grains, leading us to believe that there are bigger problems with “grains” (including non-grains like quinoa) than gluten. These other grains are still calorie-dense and carbohydrate-dense, promoting an unhealthy hormonal response when consumed in a “normal” serving size.

But where will I get my carbohydrates from? There is nothing – not vitamins, minerals, fiber or phytonutrients – found in grains that you can’t find in copious amounts in fresh vegetables or fruits.

Taken from Gluten-Free Part 1 and Gluten-Free Part 2 on the Whole9Life website.

More on what I’ve been eating later on though… It’s time for WIAW!

Thank you Peas and Crayons for this awesome Halloween Extravaganza. It’s been a lot of fun!!

However, I haven’t exactly been following this month’s theme for the past few weeks– No spooky snacks or Halloween-themed treats. So today I wanted to make it up to you all and share with my top five “scary” Halloween movies:

*the quotation marks are my acknowledgement that these movies aren’t “scary” to most people… most likely just to me*

5. Get a Clue

This movie is based off of The Westing Game, a great children’s chapter book about a rich millionaire whose ghost is suspected of coming back to haunt his heirs. It’s just one big mystery, and is full of puzzles (which I love!).

4. Halloweentown High

One of the first Halloween movies that I ever remember watching. Sure, it’s a little kiddish, but really, does Disney ever get old? Plus, who hasn’t ever wanted to be a witch?

3. Hocus Pocus

Okay, I take back what I said about wanting to be a witch. I would never want to be these witches! I still to this day close my eyes when Bett Midler’s red-headed witch is revived. Creepy!

2. Casper Meets Wendy

Alright. I just can’t make up my mind today! If I had to be a witch, I’d definitely want to be like Hilary Duff in Casper Meets Wendy. She is just so cute, plus she gets to hang out with the coolest and friendliest ghost around! I’d love to have a friend who could walk through walls and turn invisible. Pshhh. I’d love to be able to turn invisible.

1. Scooby Doo on Zombie Island

This is probably one of the scariest Scooby Doo movies that I have seen to date, and trust me, I’ve seen a lot. I’m like a Scooby Doo fiend! What I like about this one is that it is so different than previous Scooby Doo shows, mainly because this time the monsters are actually real!

Alright, enough Halloween chit-chat. Time for some food.

Here is my last banana protein bread on Sunday before I emptied my protein powder jug:

Yes, just looking at this picture makes me want to shed a tear.

Now that I can’t eat my usual protein powder or quinoa flakes, you may ask yourself: What do I plan on eating for the next five days?

Well, since I can’t have eggs or any nuts/coconuts/avocados (which are all MAJOR Paleo sources of fat and protein) I’m going to have to increase my macronutrients elsewhere with meat, which will be fine, but nothing compared to my breads, pancakes and porridge…

Breakfast

On day one I had a banana and some chicken. It wasn’t awful by any means, but let’s just say that my stomach is not fit to handle meat in the morning. Instead, today I just had two bananas. Not ideal, but much better than yesterday!

Lunch

For lunch I did a little experimenting and whipped up a very simple recipe:

Squash, Chicken and Green Bean Soup

2 servings or 1 large serving

Inspired by KathEats

Ingredients:

• 2 servings (or 1 cup cooked) chicken
• 1 can unsalted green beans, drained
• 1/4 cooked butternut squash, cubed

Directions: Combine all ingredients, heat and enjoy!

Leftovers are also great because it lets all the flavors meld together. In Kath’s original recipe she includes chopped apples, which I think would make a wonderful addition. This time though I just wanted to keep it simple.

Snack

I ate these grapes while walking between classes. It was so cold and rainy today! My face was permanently red and frozen.

Dinner

For dinner I had the same thing both yesterday and today, although today I had substantially less chicken, which was way easier on my stomach. Yesterday I felt like I had swallowed a brick for the rest of the night!

A salad with a lettuce mix, shredded carrots, cucumber slices and grapes.

And grilled chicken. I also had more unpictured grapes later on.

Snack

And what do you know? More bananas. To even out the sugar I also had some cucumber slices. Got to get my vegetables in!

Here are how my first two days went so far:

Day One:

It wasn’t even remotely hard because I have zero temptation. Haha. Seriously, without the protein powder and quinoa flakes in my room to taunt me, eating paleo was a breeze. Basically every non-paleo food at my school I am allergic to!

Stomach wise, it was so-so. My body just can’t handles that much meat at once I think. Even though I have been taking some digestive enzymes that are supposed to be helping with all of that, I was definitely on overload by the end of the day. Weirdly enough though, I felt “heavy” but I was actually hungry constantly. Maybe it was all of the fruit and simple sugars?

Day Two:

Today my stomach felt much better and less weighed down. I also ate a lot less meat, which I think contributed to the improvement. Right now I feel kind of stuffed, even though I didn’t eat an outrageous amount of food for my snack tonight. Hopefully this feeling wears off soon.

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I’m hoping that my remaining three days of my mini-Paleo challenge continue to get better. Come Friday night when I get home (or Saturday morning) I will most likely indulge in some protein power and quinoa. However, if by Friday I feel like a million bucks, I won’t be one to deny what’s right for my body.

Proponents of the Paleo lifestyle, particularly those who follow the Whole30 approach, say that going Paleo was the best decision that they ever made. There are dozens of testimonials on the Whole9Life website that support this idea.

Some of the testimonials that were of particular interest to me were: Acid reflux, acne, allergies (food and seasonal), candida, circulation, cravings, eating disorders, GERD, IBS, reactive hypoglycemia, and weight loss, things that have all crossed my mind or have affected me in one way or another.

Oh, and Happy Halloween!

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Have you tried the Paleo diet before? How did you feel? Do any of these testimonials resonate with you?

Do you have a hard time digesting a lot of meat? If so, what do you do?

What is your favorite “scary” movie?

What are you dressing up as for Halloween?

*Edited to add a video of this man who goes OMG when trees start falling during Hurricane Sandy. Hilarious!