My new best friend: Paleo Track!!

Hold onto your hats for a big flipping news flash:

I like looking at things.

Ew, that sounds a bit lecherous. How about this:

I'm a visual learner.

Better, yes? I absorb information by seeing it. Could be text, could be a graph or even a photo (oh, what a stretch you might be saying) but this is the way I learn. For the past few weeks on my Primal journey I've been struggling to figure out more precisely how much I should be eating of each of the major macronutrient groups (fat, protein and carbs). I was browsing through some Paleo/Primal blogs and saw a reference to something called PaleoTrack.

At first glance PaleoTrack seems deceptively simple: track your food intake. I had been doing that in my daily food/exercise journal but so far they had really just been words on a virtual page. On a lark I decided to put in my previous day's food intake and suddenly I could "see" how my food choices were adding up.

Breakfast and lunch entered into PaleoTrack

Now for a visual learner like me this was a big deal! I could enter in my breakfast and lunch meals and see how much further I needed to eat (or not eat) to get to my macronutrient goals. Individual foods can be picked from a search/results drop-down menu. If you can't find a particular food you can easily add it in yourself with the information on the label.

Individual recipes listed for easy selection

But wait, it gets better! What if you're making a meal from scratch and it isn't listed? You can make a custom recipe entry listing all the ingredients and the number of servings it makes and you will get a nutrition label for a single serving portion as well as a tab to add it to your daily journal. What a great time saver, and if you're super hungry and have TWO servings of meatballs you can easily click that into your journal.

Now it is soooooo easy for my to see (and thus, understand) where my food requirements are either lacking or in a state of overage.

And on the subject of food requirements I had recently posted one of my day's food logs and how I arrived at those numbers over on my Facebook page for The Reluctant Primalist which I'll post here as well.

How do I get "those numbers" as targets for macronutrients? Here's my breakdown:

255 pounds today (down from 272!)
37.1% body fat = 94 pounds of fat, subtract from total weight =
160 pounds lean body mass (bone, muscles, stuff not fat) times
0.7g protein/pound of lean body mass (moderately active) =
112g of protein per day, only about 450 cal.

less than 75g carbs/day to stay in the fat-burning zone = 300 cal.

My numbers from today:
147g protein
71g carbs
1692 calories total

My meals:

Breakfast
3 slices bacon (baked earlier but warmed in pan to get a little fat)
2 fried eggs
coffee w/ whole milk

Lunch
big-ass salad of spinach greens, green onion, carrot, peppers, sunflower seeds, Italian infused macadamia nut oil & Balsalmic vinegar dressing and topped with a garlic stuffed olive
7.5 ounce can of canned red salmon (Alaska wild caught)
green tea w/ lemon

Snack
handful of trail mix: almonds, cashews, walnuts, macadamia nuts, raisins, 65% dark chocolate chips

Supper
brisket (OMG it was awesome) with mushrooms
broccoli w/ lemon dill butter

Evening
8 oz. glass of Merlot

Never hungry. And THAT is an awesome feeling.

The word of the day....MEATZA!!

Shamelessly stolen from Justin Owings via Pinterest (WHAT?!?!?!? You don't have a Pinterest account???? Ask me for an invite if you need one). It is a crustless pizza perfect for the Primal lifestyle and the biggest bonus is that everyone on my house will eat it so on this night it is a one-meal prep event.

MEATZA crust in the pan

MEATZA CRUST

2 lbs of ground beef
2 eggs
3 tsp salt
1 tsp carroway seeds
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup Parmesean cheese

pizza toppings
tomato/spaghetti sauce
mozzarella cheese

Preheat your over to 450F. I used my KitchenAid mixer to get the hamburger mixing while I added my eggs and the dry spices. When mixed, spread it on a large baking sheet (12x17), I oiled mine with macadamia nut oil. Push it all the way to the edges and up forming a little lip which will later hold in your sauce. Bake for 10 minutes and drain the liquid when done. It will shrink a good deal but don't sweat it. Switch your over to broil.

Toppings for the MEATZA!

For my toppings I selected green and orange peppers, red onions, chopped garlic, black and green olives, pepperoni and mushrooms.

While the MEATZA crust is cooking I saute the peppers, onions and garlic. I spoon out the sauce on the cooked beef crust then layer on my toppings and finally finish it off with a nice thick layer of the mozzarella cheese. Place the completed MEATZA under the broiler and keep an eye on it, 5-10 minutes depending on your taste. I like mine on the crispy side so it was nearly 10 minutes. Makes 12 slices. ENJOY!

MEATZA going in under the broiler

Completed MEATZA yielding 12 pieces.

Thai Cabbage Rolls

I have the most amazing network of friends from my years of living around the world. I'm sitting here one day hungry for something but not sure what and then it hit me: LARP. It's actually pronounced laap kind of like the sound a sheep makes and it comes from Thailand. We have a bit of property in Wasilla, Alaska that we will build a log home on (if I can ever get my wife to stop getting promoted and retire) and our neighbors are super cool. Dave's an airline pilot and Helen just happens to have grown up as a missionary kid in Thailand where she learned how to cook. Put these situations together and you can guess where it's going. Helen makes the most amazing, flavorful Thai food in the universe and when she combines it with the food available in Alaska you often get unique creations like Thai larp made with moose meat instead of hamburger.

So when I realize that this is what I want I shoot an e-mail to Helen begging for the recipe and asking how much snow they have (because food and snow are both very important to me) and a few minutes later I have the secret in my sweaty little hands. Larp is usually eaten with Thai sticky rice using your hands but I didn't have any, nor do I have my Thai rice steamer thingy anymore but the meat alone was a great comfort. A few weeks later I decided to adapt it to my now-Primal lifestyle (I omitted the roasted rice flour) and my family loved it. So here, written from my computer outside of Tokyo is my adapted Thai larp recipe made possible by my good friends in Alaska.

Thai Cabbage Rolls with Cabbage Salad

THAI CABBAGE ROLLS and CABBAGE SALAD

2 pounds hamburger (for those days when you're all out of moose meat)
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tsp. chili powder
2 T. fish sauce
1 lime
4-6 green onions, sliced
1/2 C. fresh cilantro, chopped

2-3 slices fresh ginger

1 cabbage (Napa is my preference but work with what you have)
1 hot red pepper, dried, chopped
pinch each of kosher salt/ fresh cracked black pepper
sesame oil
rice vinegar
slivered almonds

Thai cabbage rolls starting point

Brown your hamburger with the garlic, drain. Add chili powder, fish sauce, cilantro and the white part of your green onions to the hamburger. Squeeze the juice/pulp from your lime over mixture while stirring. I chop and save the green part of the onion for use in other foods or as a garnish.

While your meat is browning pick the outer leaves from your cabbage and wash. I soften mine by putting them in the microwave for 3-5 minutes. Err on the firm side as they'll soften up when you steam them. Now's a good time to get your steaming setup going as well. Place your fresh ginger in the water of your steamer to infuse the cabbage leaves with a bit of flavor.

Cabbage cup before

Hold one cabbage leaf in your hand and place a scoop of the larp in the middle (2-3 spoonfuls is what I used with my leaves) fold the sides of the leaf back over the larp, then roll the tip back towards the stem making a nice little cabbage roll. Place on the steamer pan and when it's full put the rack over the ginger water and cover. Steam anywhere from 5-8 minutes depending on the size/number of rolls. I made 12 of them and had larp leftover to eat the next day at lunch.

 

Completed cabbage roll

For the salad, chop the remainder of your cabbage into very thin slices, the thinner the better, and into a mixing bowl. I buy these little red peppers at the local farmer's market about 1-1/2 inches long. No idea what they're called but they're mildly hot and I usually cut up one into tiny pieces to give a little kick to the otherwise bland cabbage. Add a pinch of salt/pepper to the mix. Sesame oil and rice vinegar to taste (I never measure) and mix. Top with slivered almonds and you're done!

Ready for the steamer

Serves 3-4 or maybe 2 really hungry folks.

This is only a test...

A month into my primal transformation I began to get curious. I remember how crappy I felt before changing most everything about my life and I can't explain it but I was curious... what would it be like if I "slipped". So I had a little test and boy was it ever an eye-opener.

One of my standard comfort food sammiches is an old fashioned grilled cheese. Using Conventional Wisdom I thought that I had somewhat "healthified" the Beast because I was using 12-grain bread (the BIG loaf sized slices) with 2% reduced-fat cheddar cheese (about 4 ounces) 2 slices of pepper jack cheese and using a very popular "buttery spread" made from various vegetable oils. CW says I'm doing ok since it isn't made of white bread, full-fat cheese and, dare I say its name aloud, butter. So all total the Beast is a whopping 920 calories with 76 grams of fat and what shocks me know 44 grams of carbs (half of what I try to eat now in an entire day). I couldn't bring myself to have a Coke that was also par for the course at that time, 39 grams of simple sugar there.

920 calories, 76 grams of fat and 44 grams of carbs. Shudder.

So I fired up the trusty George Foreman grill (which I could have sworn cursed at me) and constructed the sandwich. Lots of sizzling and dripping later it was done and when I lifted the lid it just looked... different. Not as appealing as it had in the recent past. But I dug in and shoveled it down and went back to writing.

Now on a lark I had taken my blood pressure and pulse before making the beast and after finishing it and after getting good and settled to keep things even noticed that my pulse was almost bounding and had jumped 10bpm. It might not be a true scientific indication but boy did I feel different. And then I got real tired. Sleepy wanna take a nap sleepy, so I did. I woke up 45 minutes later feeling like a big steamy pile of poo and was FAMISHED. And then it hit me, this is that way I had felt for years. I had never been out of the "fog" long enough to realize it.

I may have set myself back a bit by my little experiment but it sure did open my eyes to the effect my old eating habits had on my body. Now, if I need a little motivation, I can just look at this photo of the Beast and remember how crappy it will make me feel. A bacon-wrapped sirloin with a salad puts it to shame.

Quick meal strategies

"There's no way I can do this, I don't have any time to make those elaborate meals!"

First, let me congratulate you on at least giving this some thought. Changing the way you live is a BIG deal and contemplating changing in a direction that most of your friends and family don't understand is an even bigger deal. So here's a big shout-out to you just for thinking about it!

How can you make the meals you need to eat and still do all the other ten ga-zillion things in your life that aren't simply going to disappear because you want to change your lifestyle to one compatible with optimal health? Here's a few ideas that I use but I'd LOVE to hear about yours, so please post them for all of us to learn from.

Make a meal plan. Now I'll admit that I still struggle with this one from time to time but when I do it my meal prep time is cut considerable because I don't stare into the fridge thinking about what I'm going to make. When you have the makings for 4-5 great meals this can be tough if you're like me! Literally sit down with a piece of paper or computer program and write down what you'll have for each meal during the week. From this you can easily put together a grocery list (which I almost ALWAYS shop with) with what you'll need. Nothing more frustrating than having your mind set on Thai coconut chicken and being out of macadamia nuts. Ggggrrrrr!!!!

A side benefit of doing this is the ability to look back and see whet you ate on a certain day. If you ended up feeling real sleepy on a particular day you can look back and see if perhaps it was diet related. Oh yeah, I tried a new trail mix and it had a LOT of dried fruit in it (which I picked out and ate all at once). Maybe that was it.

Bulk-a-mania goin' wild near you!

Prep your raw ingredients. Shortly after I come home from the grocery store I get out all the items I'll need to use in the near future in some processed form. I de-seed the peppers and make them into long slices so when I need them chopped for a meal its a quick chop. Same for onions, mushrooms, green onions, scallions, etc. I keep mine in Zip-loc bags so a lunch wrap literally takes me 3 minutes to make. I'll buy multi-packs of steak fillets and freeze them individually, easy to thaw when you need just one. Its easy to have some celery and macadamia nuts for a snack if the celery is already washed and cut into smaller pieces just waiting for you to grab them.

Cook in bulk. I'm not talking like Marge at the cafeteria (shudder) but think "how can I make my week quicker and easier?" I boil eggs a dozen at a time; some I snack on and others I use to make my Deviled Guac Bombs or a simple chicken salad. I make a breakfast meal of butternut squash (the biggest I can find) and coconut milk with cinnamon on top that will last me well over a week (sprinkle walnut pieces on top for some crunch). And if you want to be the belle of the ball cook 3-4 packs of bacon at a single time! I use a big-ass cookie sheet with a cake cooling rack (don't tell my wife but a Wilton is perfect) and can cook a pack of thick-cut bacon in the oven (400F/15-20 min.) at a single time. My social butterfly daughters suddenly want to hang out with dear old day on Bacon Day! I then store them as slices or crumbled for easy use throughout the week. Also, the fat you drain off is much cleaner that from the frying pan and I use it from time to time as well.


I'll also make a double-batch of cauliflower mashed "potatoes" that will go with almost any meal. Think about making bigger batches that you can use multiple times throughout the week. This way you can bring your meal to work and have an excuse not to go to the chain restaurant where YOU KNOW the breadsticks alone can blow your whole carb allotment for the week.

For snacks I make my own trail mix. Into a gallon Zip-loc bag I'll put a 10 oz. package of cashews, a 10 oz. bag of almonds, a cup of walnuts, a container of macadamia nuts (if I can ever get them again at the commissary...are you listening DECA?????), half a handful of raisins and half a handful of Ghirardelli 60% cocoa baking chips.  That's a big bag of trail mix! For the nuts I try to get them roasted without additional oil and with sea salt. Definitely not the ones you think of in a can with a cartoon peanut on the front!

So if you're thinking of making the switch (which I hope you will) think long-term with meal planning and prep to make life easier. I know you folks have got some awesome ideas, so let's hear 'em!