Wednesday 12 March 2014

Paleo - oleo - oleo - oooooo.......

Imagine me singing the above on top of my voice to the tune of your choice.  Off key.

Second thoughts, don't.

Still tired, still suffering from overwhelm, so DD and I did a sensible thing today and took time out to do our daily Croatian lesson only (that's the fun one, as there'll be no exams in that subject !) and watched an episode of Game of Thrones so we could send the disc back off to LoveFilm (sorry, I mean Amazon Prime now, I guess).  We shall knuckle down to the coursework tomorrow, we solemnly promised to each other.  Just over two weeks until the deadline, plenty of time, right ?

Yeah, right.

Still, the day has not been a dead loss - DD got a spring cleaning bug so a lot dusting, scrubbing, hovering and furniture re-arranging has been going on in her bedroom;  as a result, of course, our bedroom is a tip now with all the stuff that's been de-cluttered out of hers.  This keeps happening.  Our bedroom never seems to look the way I want it to.

But hey, it's all one step closer to where we want to be - a show house ready to be sold to the highest bidder in, oh, less than two and a half months now..... Aaaargh.  Panic !!!! 

Well, no, not yet.  Time aplenty for that.  Coursework and exams to panic about first.

Anyway, back to the subject - popped into Heron Foods (cheap frozen food type of shop locally) on the way back from work today and came away with two 50% reduced whole chickens (£3.95 for both);  4 frozen cod fillets for £3.50;  and two bags of prawns, £1.50 each.  They will all be stashed away in the freezer in an attempt to make the start of a new diet a little less financially overwhelming.  Joining them - not in the freezer though - is a small bottle of walnut oil, for salad dressings and an extra hit of Omega 3. 

 
Now, the rules of Paleo as I understand them on reading the book I mentioned yesterday.

Foods allowed:

 

Meat

 Lean beef, lean pork, lean poultry (especially chicken, and turkey breast)
Rabbit or goat meat (any cut)
Organ meats (or as we would say, offal) - beef, lamb or pork livers, tongues, marrow, "sweetbreads"; chicken livers

Fish

Shellfish

Game

(I especially like the recommendation for alligator, bear, emu, kagaroo, rattlesnake and turtle meat. Ha !)
 

Eggs

 (limit to six to twelve  a week) - preferably free range chicken, duck or goose
 

Fruit

All
 

Vegetables

 
All except "starchy tubers" - namely potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams;   peas and green beans which are all legumes; sweetcorn which counts as a grain.  Parsnips, swede and turnips are fine.
 

Nuts and Seeds

Almonds, brazil nuts, cashews, chestnuts, hazlenuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts.  Walnuts are top of the pops due to best ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 essential fatty acids.  Maximum daily 4oz when trying to lose weight. No peanuts - they are legumes.
 

Spices

 

Foods you can eat in moderation:

Oils

Olive, avocado, walnut or flaxseed. No more than 4tbsp a day if trying to lose weight. Only cook with olive - others are unstable at high temperatures
 

Drinks

Diet sodas (I assume this is allowed as a "lesser evil" and simply because so many people would find it very difficult to give them up cold turkey.  We do not buy or  drink them)
Coffee
Tea
Wine
Beer
Spirits
Paleo sweets (dried fruits, no more than 2oz a day; honey very occasionally)
 

Not allowed:

Dairy
Grains (barley, corn, millet, oats, rice, rye, wheat)
Grainlike seeds (amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa)
Legumes (including all soya)
Starchy vegetables (potatoes, cassava root, manioc, sweet potatoes, tapioca pudding, yams)
Bacon, frankfurters, ham, sausages, ketchup, olives, pickled foods, salami, salted nuts and spices; smoked, dried and salted fish and meat; tinned fish - unless unsalted
Salt (suggested substitutions: powdered garlic, powdered onion, lemon juice, lime juice, lemon crystals, cayenne pepper, in fact any spice you can think of)
Fatty meats (including chicken and turkey skin)
Sugar
All processed food
Vinegar (substitute lemon or lime juice)
 
 
There are three suggested levels of adherence:
 Level I allows three "open meals" a week - open meal being a meal where you can eat non-Paleo foods if you really miss them. Suggested meals are one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner, spread out over the week.  This level also allows transitional use of commercial condiments such as salad dressings, mustard and moderate use of the drinks on the list above, as long as you work towards cutting them down.
 
Level II  allows two "open meals" and restricts "transitional foods" just to those meals.
 
Level III allows just one "open meal", and transitional foods are restricted to just that meal. 
 
If there are any experienced Paleo users reading this, please feel free to add or correct as necessary :o)
 
 
 

3 comments:

  1. It sounds really interesting, I've read a little about it before. I'll be keen to know how you feel when you're following it. I really need more energy!

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  2. Nuts. Lidl is useful - I think £1.50/200g almonds or hazelnuts, and a very reasonable mixed nuts with raisins. The big supermarkets do bulk bags under world foods - MrS for example do cofresh unsalted cashews 700g/£6 - often on offer at £5. I tend to use my nectar points from boring adverts. £shop do nuts as well.

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  3. oh and now I have songs about hedgehogs stuck in my head. Splendid.

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