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What the heck is paleo?
Hey hey Diva friends!
If you follow me on Facebook, know me in real life, or read this blog, then you have probably seen or heard me talk about PALEO recipes!!! You might know what that means or you might be thinking "I know she eats 'healthy' but what the heck is paleo?"
Never fear! I'm here to share :) It's a complicated question actually because there are a bunch of definitions! I'll give you the basics and then share why I eat the way I do, how's that?
Paleo actually stands for paleolithic nutrition....so....the way cavemen ate. Honestly my first thought was "uhhhh who cares?". I was just looking to be healthy. Turns out, paleo tends to be the most nutrient dense, whole foods, anti-inflammatory approach out there. So once I started reading about it, learning about WHY certain foods are eliminated and certain foods are included it made sense.
Super simple overview: Paleo = zero grains, legumes or dairy*, but includes grass-fed meats, wild caught seafood, pasture raised poultry, any and all veggies, tubers, squash, and fresh fruit, seeds, nuts.
*Dairy is a debated topic in the paleo world and that's mostly because lots of people can't tolerate it at all but some can. When it comes down to it it's all about your individual gut and response. When dairy IS "ok'd" it's organic, raw, and from grass-fed cows.
MY overview: There are about 50 shades of paleo. and that's OK! I'll give you an example. For a long time I included beans, rice, and eliminated dairy. Recently I was bummed to find several other food sensitivities so my diet has shifted again.
Not only is every BODY different, but you can change throughout your life as you get sick, heal, travel, are under stress etc.
Thats nice, but WHY should you give it a go? Why eliminate grains (or at minimum wheat flour and gluten-grains)? Super long scientific story short - because they cause inflammation.
If you look at the disease cycle it goes something like this:
Gut disruption--> inflammation-->symptoms-->disease
What causes gut disruption? Certain foods like wheat flour, dairy, some legumes, etc... For more information gut health check out my previous blog post HERE.
Look - you might not care about the science stuff - you might not care about what your ancestors ate.
You might not care about a "diet".
Good cuz neither do I.
What I care about is fueling my body with the best nutrition out there -giving my brain, my cells, and my organs the building blocks necessary for a long, healthy, and energetic life. What that boils down to is good nutrition which is comprised of whole, real, non genetically modified non-processed ingredients. The easiest way I have found to do that is by using paleo guidelines and recipes :)
Bottom line: It's not a diet - it's not a religion - it's a healthy way of living. I'm for that- I bet you are too!
Hope that helps! Have you tried paleo? What's your experience been like? What are your favorite recipes? I'd love to hear from you!
Bye for now :)
Easy Protein Pancakes
Hey Hey there Diva friends!
I woke up this morning and wanted some pancakes....so I looked up some recipes and decided to make up my own with what I have in the house. They turned out really well so I wanted to share :) You've probably seen the 3 ingredient pancake recipe floating around for banana + egg + cinnamon before....well, this isn't much more complicated.
Ingredients:
- 1 large plantain (mine was yellow with some black spots)*
- 1 Scoop of Ancient Nutritions Cinnamon Apple Bone Broth
- 2 eggs
*When cooking with plantains the greener the plantain the less flavor it has the more ripe it is the sweeter it is.
Directions:
- Blend all the ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth
- Heat up a non-stick skillet and spray with coconut oil or melt some grass-fed butter
- Cook about 1/4 cup of the batter at a time about a minute on each side, but times will vary based on cookware and temperature
- Top with some pure maple syrup and pair with some eggs or Applegate breakfast sausages. Don't forget your Foursigmatic chaga coffee. Enjoy!
Get creative in the kitchen! Mix some blueberries in the batter, or if you really want to splurge, add some Enjoy Life chocolate minis.
Have a good breakfast! Bye for now :)
Taking the stress out of 21 day fix meal prep...
Hi there Diva friends! I get it....BELIEVE me do I get it. When I decided to hop on board the 21 day fix meal prep train about a year ago, I sat down, looked at the requirements and immediately felt super overwhelmed. I wanted to quit before I got started! I mean, I had a great thing going, I already ate paleo, I was at a healthy weight my workouts were good....
Honestly, if I hadn't had the pressure of the upcoming Beachbody Classic physique competition I probably never would have tried! But I'm glad I did because I've taken bits and pieces of what I learned to use more regularly (aka making tons of veggies over the weekend!), it helped me understand my challengers who go through the 21 day fix program, and it's always good to challenge myself with new things.
All that being said, I'm someone who likes to be efficient, get things done quickly, and enjoy my food. I mean - I LOVE FOOD. So I wanted to share this article on how to make meal prep more enjoyable, so that hopefully you can learn to love it too!
1) Take a Deep Breath
That might sound silly, but like I said - when I started I was super overwhelmed! If you're following a plan like the 21 day fix container system, then take a deep breath and break it down into easy steps. For example, step 1 is to write down at the top of my page how many containers I can have each day. For me that is Plan C which is 1800-1999 calories (by the way I don't encourage anyone to go below that plan!) so it's 5 Green containers, 5 Red (protein), 4 yellow (carb), 3 purple (fruit) 1 orange (seeds) 1 blue (healthy fat) and 5 tsp of oil. Make a tally at the top of your page.
Then I write my meals down like this:
B:
S:
L:
S:
D:
Once I have that outline I can choose my meals and fill in the blanks. I often find it's easier to start with a recipe for dinner and then fill in the gaps afterwards. If pineapple kabobs are for dinner that is 1 red, 1/2 purple and 1/2 green, so I write that down and can fill in the rest of my day accordingly! There are TONS of recipes out there that are "fix approved" and have the container equivalents all figured out for you. But don't be shy about using your favorite recipes and doing your best to guesstimate how it would fit in!
2) Keep it simple but don't get bored
In the beginning you are so overwhelmed that it's easy to just be basic and make one protein, one carb, one veggie all in bulk for the week. I would encourage you not to do that for a few reasons, one being that your body needs more nutritional variety that that would provide, and two if your food doesn't taste good you won't stick with the plan!
*NOTE* Shakeology counts as 1 red, and provides lots of extra nutrients to your day so it's a valuable addition to any meal plan!!!! Plus it taste like a treat, boost your energy, curbs your cravings and provides probiotics (all from whole food, natural sources!)
I would encourage you to make a variety of options for each container and then mix and match within your day! You will end up finding that combinations are really good like sweet potato with chicken and broccoli, or rice with beef and asparagus!
Even within a single container think of fun combos you can make like peppers+onions+mushrooms+spices sautéed in water. That = a green container!
Use lots of spices, seasonings and flavorful ingredients to keep it interesting. Last night my husband and I made a whole chicken, shredded it, added some spices to the bowl so it wouldn't be plain chicken, and then used the chicken carcass to make our favorite homemade bone broth! The bone broth can be used later to cook rice and quinoa more flavorfully, and of COURSE we will drink it too!
3) Be flexible
Anytime you try something new it's really easy to get super dogmatic about it like if you go "off plan" something terrible is going to happen. I'm all about a healthy lifestyle NOT dieting, so PLEASE if you ever meal prep with something as specific as 21 day fix, give yourself some grace! You will go out to eat - make the best choices you can and eyeball it! You will make casseroles for your family that don't allow you to portion everything exactly - do your best and don't stress!!!
21 day fix meal prep and other meal planning structures, are simply here to give you a guideline. It's not a religion, and I promise nothing bad will happen to you if you estimate that cup of blueberries instead of pulling out your purple container!!!! :)
These guidelines are here to get you on track, teach you some basics about nutrition (hello 5 servings of veggies every day!!) and introduce you to tips and tricks that allow you to prep a lot of food over the weekend and save time during the work week!
My lunch from today! 1 Red + 1 Green+ 2 yellow + 1.5tsp
4) Try it and then live your life
This system is NOT forever. If you've never tried it before I would encourage you to use it for about a month! Then I want you to live your life without portion control and calorie counting and simply listen to your body! As long as you are still eating the nutritionally dense, whole, healthy, real foods, you should be fine! This isn't a diet tool that you go off of and gain 10 pounds. There should be no fear associated with dropping the program....it's simple a step to get you started.
Once you've figured it out an gotten used to how it works, the stress is gone and you can bang out a meal plan in no time! Pull it out every once in awhile as needed to get you back on track, and then let it go. Remember, it's a TOOL. Just one of many that you have in your arsenal!
p.s. Play some music and get your hubby or friend to cook with you! An enjoyable atmosphere can make the process way more fun and doing it with someone makes the time go faster! :)
