I’ve been paleo/primal for 3 years now. I initially lost 18 lbs when I started the paleo diet, and I’ve kept it off for the past 3 years. I’ll gain a pound or two when I start to loosen up the diet too much, but as soon as I tighten it up, my weight goes back down to my “equilibrium” weight, which is right around 131 pounds.
What are the culprits of the subtle pound creepage? For me, it’s beer (1 beer = 1 lb), cheese, paleo snacks (Nut Thin crackers and sweet potato chips) and too many paleo baked goods. The beer and cheese obviously will cause issues, but I think the paleo snacks and baked goods are more insidious. It’s easy to fall into the mindset that since they are “paleo-ish” they are OK to eat. Well, and I honestly think they are OK in moderation. It’s just that for me, I have problems with self control. If I buy a bag of Terra sweet potato chips. I will eat them all over a couple of days – not happy until they are gone. Same thing with paleo baked goods – when you make a batch of them, you have at least 12 treats hanging around. 12/2 = 6 treats for Tim and 6 treats for me that just HAVE to be eaten over the course of 2-3 days. DANGEROUS.
But we had company yesterday, so I used that as an excuse to make these Paleo Pumpkin and Carrot Muffins. They are kind of a lot of work – the recipe prints out on 3 pages! However, they are definitely worth it. They taste like delicious pumpkin pie. Two notes, however – I had to cook mine 10 minutes longer than the recipe said. I had so much batter that I had to fill the muffin cups 100% instead of 3/4, so I’m sure that’s why they took longer to cook. Also, I could not find Five Spice Powder anywhere here in Davenport. So I used a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice and added some turmeric and cayenne pepper. I didn’t even taste the turmeric (but we got all those anitoxidants), but you can taste the cayenne at the back of your throat as the bite goes down the gullet. It adds some interesting dimension to the muffins.
I made another Nomnompaleo recipe yesterday: Oven-Braised Beef Stew with Carrot, Parsnip, and Lacinato Kale. This recipe is a tremendous amount of work – you have to cut tons of veggies and then you have to sauté everything separately before adding it to the dutch oven for roasting. The stew turned out super delicious, however, so it’s totally worth it.
And lastly, to the detriment of my waistline, I tried out this Paleo Pancakes recipe this morning. I’ve never had great success with paleo pancakes. They are always too thick to cook properly. Making them is an exercise is frustration. But sometimes you just want a pancake with lots of butter and maple syrup. So you keep trying and hoping. Well, Chris Kresser linked to this recipe a few weeks ago, and I’m so glad he did. These are by far the best paleo pancakes I’ve ever had. Tim even said you can’t tell they are paleo! They are just good pancakes – not just good “paleo” pancakes. This was my first attempt at using plantains, and based on these pancakes, I look forward to adding more of this safe starch to my diet.
I’m excited to have found some new recipes to add to my repertoire, but now I have a fridge full of honey-sweetened muffins and delicious pancakes. It’s dangerous. I better do some heavy aerobic exercise to burn off all these carbs today.
Hope you are having a great weekend!