New Eating Challenge- the Healthy Comedian May 2013

No nuts for my squirrel brain

For May 2013, I decided to take the  Health and Comedy- Low Carb challenge. Dan French, along with Amy Kubal and Corben Thomas , have a  the podcast of the same name. I've been listening and have picked up on the inside jokes over the last few months. I love that Dan, Amy, and Corben are talking about what they do, eat, and are sharing it with others. Humor is a great way to get people talking.

The rules for the challenge are on Corben's website -Paleo Life 365.

Why I did the challenge: I eat pretty clean Paleo to start with, but eating cleaner/low carb for 30 days is a good way to get a few pounds that I gained above my maintain weight range over the last few months. Plus, I was snacking on nuts, too much. Once I saw coffee was involved, I was sold!

What foods I cut out for the challenge:
Nuts! Almonds and macadamias are back in the shoebox with the note card on it.
Fruit Bars. I gave up most of my bar "habit" during the Whole30 in Jan 2013. You can still see a Lara bar lurking in the shoebox.
Salmon burgers from Costco: these processed salmon burgers have a bit of canola oil and other stuff in them. They are out for May.
85% Chocolate. Wahhhhhh, booooo hoooo.  There, 5 second whine. I'm OVER it.
Jerky with added sugar: an occasional snack, not hard to drop this for a month.
Two fruit servings: I can get by with one or none most days.

Foods not in the challenge

What foods I've added or eat more:
Vegetables: Yeah! I'm eating between 35-50 carbs a day or so all from vegetables and one berry serving a day. I still eat onions and a few carrots, and Brussels sprouts. Bell peppers, shredded cabbage, celery, broccoli slaw, big a$$ salads, cherry tomatoes, guacamole, fresh salsa. Bring it on.

More protein: I've probably upped my protein a bit for this challenge. I've been keen for the ground Bison from Trader Joe's and I picked up some grass fed beef at a Farmer's Market while on vacation. Yummy stuff and the relatives packed it back.  I'll do a separate post on this soon.

How's it going:
 Great. I've dropped down from 3 meals with 2 snacks a day to just 3 meals, no snacking.  That's been working well, so far. I'm fat adapted , so eating low carb helps with hunger between meals. I've been sleeping better, too. I stayed on challenge except for the one item below while I was on a weekend vacation. 

Not so great: I ordered breakfast from a farm food truck over the weekend. The eggs had some cheese in them! I figured it all out after I was back at the hotel. Dairy is not on the plan, so I picked out the cheese and ate the egg and spinach omelet anyway. It didn't effect me GI wise, and compared to a cinnamon roll, fig newtons, or any other off plan item, I'm doing okay. ;) Progress!

Onward

weekend walk photo