Food Acclimatization

I was at a team dinner function the other night where the main draw was a discussion about nutrition and recovery.  Our host, the formulator of Acli-mate, had made us a delicious dinner of chicken curry over brown rice, organic salad from her garden and fruit salad and had talked about all the anti-inflamitory properties of the meal.  Somehow, the paleo-diet came up in my little corner of the room and as I extolled the virtues of it, I got the same response I always get: I could never give up bread.  I was hanging out with a bunch of bike racers after all.  

 

Earlier that day, I had sat next to a stream with half a dozen campers between age 6 and 10 and watched every single one of them pull out a sandwich.  Some had better accompanying snacks, ranging from Go-Gurt to a tupperware of tomatoes and carrots, but the center of every meal was bread.  Even my fellow camp counselor, who's dog was allergic to gluten, and therefor dined on carrots and tuna bits, had a sandwich for lunch.

 

It got me thinking, maybe the reason we love bread so much as a society is because it's all we eat as kids.  I can understand it, a sandwich of any variety is one of the quickest and simplest things that we can make for lunch.  It's a staple.

 

So I got to thinking about my paleo-staples.  My fall-back meals when I don't feel like cooking something elaborate, am sort on time, or am straight-up hungry.  I'd love to hear other ideas from any other Paleo-people out there because I think half the fun of taking the normal staples out of the diet is inventing new ones.

Breakfast is the meal that most people have the hardest time wrapping their heads around.  During the off-season, I'd make elaborate quiches, hand-chop a million veggies and scramble eggs with them, cook up some ground turkey with veggies...but these days, when I ride my bike in, I'm out of the house by 7:15 so time is of the essence.  My staple has become 'Whatever veggies I have in the fridge pancakes/mash'.  It's easy, I take whatever fruit and veggies I have (generally an apple, banana, zucchini, yellow squash, cauliflower, beets) and toss them in the food processor.  I'll add a yam if I know I'm going for a ride in the short term.  Add an egg or two, a couple of tablespoons of coconut flour, and blend.  My mom adds ground flax seeds and walnuts.

Then I fry them up like pancakes.  If they stick together, I have pancakes for breakfast, if they don't, then I have mashed veggies.  Either way, they taste good.  Then Chris makes us some eggs and I'm good to go for the day, generally with some leftovers.  

Lunch at home and lunch on the road have started to look remarkably similar.  I am the Tupper-ware Queen.  This past week, I had a bunch of hardboiled eggs left over from my Dixie excursion, so I'd have one of those with my breakfast leftovers.  Snacks were often big bowls of fruit salad or homemade Lara bars.  Or smoked oysters.  I love me some smoked oysters, don't tell anyone because I spent the past 7 years telling Chris how gross oysters were.

 

It's funny, I've been doing this for the better part of three months now and while I'll find myself craving certain non-paleo foods when I'm run down and tired, it's generally not bread.  Is it really possible to kick a life-time bread habit in three months?  It would be an interesting experiment. 

 

What if people realized you could make a paleo key-lime pie that tasted better than the original?

 

Comments

[Carey Lowery]

I was a"bread-head" until March of this year when I (not the docs) figured out that gluten was the cause of my 1 1/2 year GI illness. I kicked the bread habit cold turkey and have never looked back. I even made some biscuits this morning for my fam and did not miss 'em at all. Little does my family know, but as soon as I have cleaned out my pantry of the evil gluten, they will be going GF as well. I am mostly Paleo, but for now cannot give up dairy.

BTW, nice work at the Dixie Lite.

[mary]

Thanks for sharing Eszter! I am going to stock up on bananas and get some coconut flour and give this a go!

[Carey]

Not being able to eat gluten has kept me away from bread for many years and I don't miss it. Though I do have a grain free flat bread recipe I make that is just sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and some flax that is really good when I want a sandwich. Bread is something we didn't always have until we figured out how to cultivate grains at which point we discovered that we could feed way more people then we had been and our numbers on this planet began to increase with the advent of agriculture. In that respect bread represents way more than a sandwich. Enjoy your nutrition journey.

[Carey]

another thing I do when I want a wrap or sandwich type meal is I use collard greens and wrap turkey, sprouts, egg, tomato, whatev up in the greens, it can really hit the spot.

[Mom]

Can I get the key lime pie recipe, please?
Do you use the chopping blade to cut up your morning veggies? I shred them ... maybe that's why mine look different. Either way, this is the best & healthiest breakfast ever.

[Saveman -save the caveman! ask me how!]

I'm with Mom,
I want to know the key lime pie recipe, esp. the crust part!

Good for you switching to a primal diet. If you have not read "Paleo for Athletes" by Loren Cordain, I suggest you pick it up. Very good advice on when and where to add carbs (and which ones).

Also, periodic fasting stimulates efficiency and promotes gut health. I suggest only eating breakfast on a travel day and occasionally going without dinner on light days after you have taken care of your recovery needs.

Good luck in Ireland!