Paleo Week Test Day 4

Crossing the half way point the whole Paleo thing is certainly getting easier, but there are definitely tons of landmines to navigate still.

The day started out much like the past few, eggs and spinach with a side of bacon and a bowl of berries.  The whole wolfing down tons of sweet potato cakes may have made me excessively full after breakfast, but I don’t think I was any more hungry today with about half the calories at breakfast.  I again had that big stiff cup of tea, which seems to have gotten me over my hangover feeling from the first day.  It’s pretty surprising to me that I’m not even getting additional caffeine bumps throughout the day.  To think I used to drink Coke Zero right before going to bed, to go along with the continuous stream of the soda throughout the day.

I nibbled a little on some carrots and celery late morning since I wasn’t sure what time lunch was going to be, but it turned out to be noon on the nose and I finally got to try my “Paleo Chipotle Salad.”  This actually makes for a pretty feeling and tasty Chipotle experience.  I start with one of their salads, which is basically a pile of lettuce.  On top of that I add the fajita vegetables (sauteed peppers and onions) along with the chicken (or whichever meat you choose).  To that I add the tomatoes, the hot tomatillo sauce and the guacamole.  It tasted as good as the burrito bowl, but I won’t lie, I did miss the rice and beans that I would normal get that (sans the guacamole).  The biggest problem I have was my Pavlovian association of eating that food with Coke Zero.  As I was finishing up the meal and having last minute conversations all I could think about was tearing into a Coke Zero, or two, when I got back to the office.  By the time I got back I was still craving it.  It’s funny how the brain hardwires cravings after awhile.

I finished the carrots, celery and homemade health bar snack late afternoon as prep for my “hills” workout.  That’s basically me running up and down a hill for 3+ miles.  It was supposed to be five miles, but I’ve never done more than 2.5 so I was pleased to cross the three mile line.  That said as soon as I was home I was famished so wolfed down some watermelon and hopped into the shower to head out to dinner with a friend.

My original plan was to make the stir fry tonight.  The fear of what coconut aminos, the paleo susbtitute for soy sauce, tastes like plus my overall lack of motivation made cooking tonight impractical.  Our first choice was to go to Houlihan’s.  I originally figured I’d get a salad but then figured out there were probably non-Paleo stuff in the dressing, and there was definitely cheese on many of them.  I haven’t decided whether to eliminate cheese and dairy for three months, but I definitely did say I was going to do it for the one week.  They were booked anyway so we actually ended up going to Famous Dave’s.  Much of their menu suffered the same problem, but I was able to get them to make their salmon without the “glaze”, which is probably mostly corn syrup anyway.

My dining companions all had beers, didn’t mind the sauces and chowed down on the corn muffins.  I have to say that I could smell the beers throughout dinner and they looked increasingly thirst quenching, so I was really tempted by them.   I think it’s just a similar Pavlovian thing to the Chipotle food.  Getting rid of the hard wiring will take time.  The question is if I’ll want to change back once i’m done the conversion.

The cravings today were the biggest problem, and they were for a whole gamut of things.  It wasn’t that I was hungry or needing them, it just felt like I was really missing out.  I did power through them however so I was able to complete yet another day completely paleo and yet another day without having a single artificially sweetened beverage.  Cool!