so so i just started doing this paleo diet thing - feels like it should be bullshit. is it?

i'm nicer to people now since i started eating this way. even people i don't like or who are tedious. i'm more level. no sugar up and downs. i used to get crankier.

yaay :)

having even blood sugars is an amazing thing.

i did a proper food shop today, instead of my usual piecemeal food shopping. like, i bought two different kinds of meat and several different kinds of vegetables. going to make some fun meat & vegetable dishes of the south-east asian variety. i'm not fully paleo though, i mean, i still often eat a bit of brown rice with curries and things like that. and sushi rolls, so... but i don't eat much wheat at all.

tonight's slow cooker meal is sweet potatoes, black beans, and cut-up chicken thighs. (i'm still wrestling with whether or not beans are ok. right now they are.)

I'm happy with the fact that so much Thai food meets paleo guidelines. Tom ka gai for dinner last night with leftovers today for lunch, getting the ingredients together for holy basil w/pork for later in the week, subscribed to a monthly delivery of coconut milk yesterday.

Jaq, do you use any kind of rice substitute with Thai food?

Not yet, but have been thinking about making faux rice from grated cauliflower!

I've also got some of the weird asian style noodles made of - I don't know what they are made of actually. Some kind of clear stuff that doesn't have carbs. Glucomannan? I'm kind of afraid to try them.

Ooh, I've been looking for those!

sweet potato noodles would qualify if you didn't want to eat rice

Heh, I got them from Amazon of all places (http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Noodle-Shirataki-7-Ounce-Packages/dp/B004CLCEDE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354590273&sr=8-1&keywords=low+carb+noodles)

they sell them on this low-carb site too.

They sell them at the markets I go to and they look mad slimy but maybe they taste better? I'd rather just eat a modest amt of rice but w/e.

i have reduced grain consumption and not replaced it with anything and i feel ok. sweet potatoes and squash are important to me.

i haven't made as much curry as i used to though. when i make curry i want rice. except i made a lamb curry with white potatoes a few times, but white potatoes. i'm not actually on this diet i just felt i needed to eat less of some things.

those noodles might be konjaku, I think?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konjac

Fruit jelly
Konjac can also be made into a popular Asian fruit jelly snack, known variously in the United States as lychee cups (after a typical flavor and Nata de coco cube suspended in the gel) or konjac candy, usually served in bite-sized plastic cups.

ah ah ah I WANT ONE RIGHT NOW

Oh I love those things - I thought they were agar-agar (which I also have a stockpile of)

Ordered!

For right now, while we're doing this Whole30 thing, it's simpler to just not try for substitutes - easier to say no I'm not eating that today to all grain-like foodstuffs. So I'm just adding more vegetables to Thai food, or serving it over broccoli. Or treating pasta sauces (all'amatriciana, which my god I love it like no other, or tuna w/capers) as a thick soup or something to put on eggs. It's working.

I'm also fairly trapped at home right now, so we'll see how I fare in the real world when I get released to drive (on Wednesday I hope) and have to be back in the office.

see i think its a diet that travels well. i like trying to find stuff that is caveman-approved out in the world. its like a game. i look at ingredients and if i see rice flour i bail. i'm out of there. i walk away. and buy, like, an apple or something.

I'm a weakling when it comes to the kind of food that gets left in our common coffee areas at this time of year. Have to tell myself NO! The 30 days is over on xmas, so we've decided that will be a free day and we'll see how we want to proceed afterward. I'm for sticking with this (but it's only been 8 days...)

I have had to turn down so many dinner and lunch and drink invites. This must have been most of my issues with overeating/food/etc.

Scott, I feel like I am WAY NICER, too! And happier, generally.

I am ridiculously energetic - started noticing it yesterday and this morning was happily awake at 5 am. This is not normal.

Not yet, but have been thinking about making faux rice from grated cauliflower!

― Jaq, Monday, December 3, 2012 9:50 PM (Yesterday)

i make this all the time! just roast some cauliflower in the oven for a few. throw in food processor for a couple of pulses and then to the wok for a quick toss with some coconut oil and seasoning of your choice.

I've been keeping on Bulletproof while travelling. I break every other day for some alcohol but have been good otherwise. I have never before had this focus and consistency of "positive mood". It is very, very nice. I am leaving Ireland with four pounds of sweet butter in my suitcase.

yeah i don't do strictly paleo as such but i do avoid all refined carbs now and am eating greens and veg instead, plus a lot more healthy fats, loads of sardines and nuts. i've been steadily losing weight, about a stone and three quarters shed in the last 3 months.

I am hooked on the coffee. I do a tsp of butter, tsp of coconut oil, tbsp of heavy cream. Yum. It's delightful.

do you use the magic beans to make your coffee?

4 pounds away from my high school weight. Holy crap.

okay so I should really do this and not fake it, huh

(btw faking it has lost me about 10 pounds)

Yeah so to put some finite numbers on this, I am abt 6'0, started this at 209, am now at 189. The early mega sugar cravings (re: gallon of carrot juice reaction above) went away after the first few weeks or so. Super sugary stuff is totally gross at this point - not so much pastries or whatever, but stuff like cheap barbecue sauce and tomato sauce. I ended up having some of a friends oven pizza and I thought I was going to hurl.

Like I think for me it's mostly corn syrup? Been drinking natural apple cider and it is delicious despite obv having plenty of naturally occurring sugar in it, but stuff like crappy gravy (thx wedding catering food) is impossible for me to eat. It tastes like somebody dumped a bunch of powdered sugar in it. So weird.

yeah i am close to what i weighed at 18, people are really taken aback. that's with regular exercise too tho.

xpost i find i still get a sort of craving, vaguely, for unhealthy stuff now and again, but before i know what's what i've picked up a salad and a tin of sardines and i then enjoy that.

Wow, jjj - wonder if you're tasting cornstarch in the gravy or something?

i made this last weekend and it was awesome- substituted thighs for breasts and agave nectar for honey (you could actually skip either one and it would be good imo). not sure if chickpeas are paleo tho, if they aren't then i imagine a substitute wouldn't be hard to find. i added carrots.

http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-crock-pot-moroccan-chicken-chickpea-and-apricot-tagine-137530

really dig the combo of turmeric/cinnamon/cayenne/cilantro/cumin

I did paleo-ish a while back and starting losing my beer belly (sugar belly, really) just over a year ago, but then fell majorly off the wagon. Now I'm trying to do it again, but less strictly. Really disappointed that nothing much seems to be happening, - I've lost maybe 1lb or possibly 2 over 3 weeks. I only need to lose 10lbs or so...

By 'less strictly' I mean:

- occasional cheating (like, roughly one non-paleo meal every week), only on social occasions when I don't want to be That Person who can't eat anything that's there, refuses to sample people's lovely potluck offerings, etc.

- don't really know how many carbs a day I'm eating, but I'm guessing 50? (flaxseed meal, for instance) - whereas before it was maybe more like 20? Maybe I should count properly, but I hate counting anything food-related - I just rebel. Which is also why I'm not weighing myself - I just go on tightness of clothes, and they've relaxed a tiny teensy bit but not much.

this diet makes me wanna smoke pot. which is weird cuz i've had an aversion to pot for a long time. maybe just cuz i feel better/healthier? i have no idea. maybe because its a leaf.

i like the idea of being super-sober though. i am taking a mess of supplements. figure it can't hurt. basically i want to become superhuman. my new daily regimen includes: glucosamine, lecithin, astragalus, super b complex, rhodiola, gaba, 5-htp, men power vitamins (which include beta carotene, betaine, bioflavonoids, boron, choline, fatty acid, fiber, glutamic acid, hesperidin, inositol, paba, rutin, and silica)

don't care that cavemen probably didn't have access to boron. i'm a 21st century caveman.

http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-crock-pot-moroccan-chicken-chickpea-and-apricot-tagine-137530

i've made this exact recipe before! i heart tagines.

i have this book on hold at the library -- will pick it up soon and let you know how it is.

http://www.amazon.com/200-Low-Carb-Slow-Cooker-Recipes/dp/1592330762

I've really fallen out with protein, is there a way to go vegeo

animal protein, I mean

no dairy, no soy, no gluten. If you don't eat eggs, I think it would be really difficult.

Nuts though - you can have nuts

do you use the magic beans to make your coffee?

sorry, this probably sounded snarky. i'm just curious if the people loving bulletproof coffee are buying the dude's beans or if the results are entirely a result of (any) coffee + fats.

no soy! that's crazy

nuts don't do it for me insofar as protein's ability to curb yr appetite

I don't know if all paleo cuts out soy - the thing we're doing is no legumes at all.

So we've been eating the coconut manna in big chunks because it is so damn good. I got inspired today and after I softened and mixed up the second jar I had, I dropped it by the tsp onto parchment paper then stuck in the fridge for a few minutes. Perfect little coconut manna cookies, omg. It'll make it easier to melt it over the breakfast yams too.