Straddling the Paleo and S.A.D. diets

Hello dear readers!  Oops, I unintentionally took a summer hiatus, so now I wanted to put a post out here on my eating habits of late...

How have I been eating this summer?  Paleo?  Or Standard American Diet (SAD)?  Or somewhere in between?  Yes.  Yes.  And Yes.  For right now, I am straddling my new Paleo intentions and my old SAD ways (haha!).

I have now come to realize that changing my eating habits (and health, and life) is tricky, time consuming, and often part of a longer journey.  Some people can come upon a new diet/"lifestyle choice" and just jump off the deep end and do it fully, from the moment they hear about it onward.  You know, dump all the "vile" foods from their freezer and cupboard and gallop off into their new, perfect sunset.  I wish I could charge off in the Paleo direction fully without a backward glance, easily giving up dairy, grains/gluten, legumes, and refined oils and sugars.  However, I am clearly not one of those people.

I definitely have a few hold-ups that are keeping me not-totally-Paleo.  In the spirit of my list making, here they are:

1. Dairy.
We still eat it, and in my heart-of-hearts, I wish we didn't.  But boy, we have reduced our dairy consumption, and my "gut" is calmer and happier about it.  When I really think about it, we have come a long way: we are not buying milk, sour cream, or yogurt.  Now you'll find coconut milk and (homemade) almond milk in the fridge instead.  And I used to have multiple cheeses in my fridge at any given time (cream cheese, cheddar, parmesan, havarti, mozzarella, ...).  Instead, I recently had a non-dairy cream cheese instead (made from cultured almond milk--I'd love to learn how to make it!).  But yes, I have an unopened package of parmesan cheese for making one last batch of garden-grown basil pesto (I still MUST have the parmesan cheese in it, it needs the umami, people!).  And yes, I did buy a 1/2# brick of a local 3-year cheddar for a camping treat (boy, it sure tasted salty--but good--after not having that for awhile).  And I even have organic heavy whipping cream and butter.  And we've been on a weird vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream kick lately.  Progress has been made, and yet, I would like to do another 30- or even 60-day non-dairy trial sometime soon...

2.  Grains/Gluten.
Again, we are still eating wheat/gluten, and I REALLY wish we didn't.  As I do more and more reading on the negative health affects of gluten, it really scares me.  (Feel free to read this and this and this.)  In good news, we are making strides away from eating it daily, and are definitely not having it at every meal anymore!  We haven't made homemade bread (either hand-mixed, like my Sourdough, or bread-machine-made) in months.  Months!  That's pretty amazing.  Another meal staple that we've almost eliminated is pasta: I haven't bought a package of pasta (ANY kind, gluten-y or otherwise) for months.  I've had a few bites here and there (at my in-laws, or a bite of a friend's dish out at a restaurant), but it's pretty cool that I have just said NO to it in our house, and we've survived just fine.  It helps that both me and JK enjoy eating spaghetti squash and spiralized veggies as a pasta alternative!

As far as other grains go, we have eaten some corn lately (hello, Sun Prairie's Corn Festival!), but way less than we would in years/summers past.  We made some garden-grown salsa and had to have some corn tortillas with them (for crunch!).  We are slowly working our way through a bag of white Jasmine rice that I had bought pre-Paleo, but we equally enjoy eating Cauliflower Rice as a substitute under a good stir fry or other dish we'd normally want rice with.

The biggest problem that we have with completely eliminating grains is when eating out and eating a quick meal on-the-go (or getting take out for eating in, when you're exhausted/busy/harried with other things in life!).  That's when the sandwiches on bread, pizza with a regular crust, and other grain/gluten no-no's still slip into our lives.  And for now, I'm learning to be OK with that as long as it's not super frequent.

3. Legumes.
I used up our last jar of peanut butter, and gave away my legumes and most of my other "non-Paleo" dry goods to a dear friend, for better or worse for her (haha, sorry, @BadgerReader!).  I do miss black beans in my ground beef chili, and making homemade chickpea hummus (or buying a container of hummus and a bag of pita chips for a quick and easy "cheater" appetizer when friends are coming over).  We have cheated and had peanut butter in purchased baked goodies and Thai dishes out, but at home we've converted to other non-legume nut butters (almond, cashew, and sunflower butters are very good!).  We are slowly going through a bottle of soy sauce, but will probably completely convert to coconut aminos when we finish that up.  We're eating plenty of poultry and meat, so we don't really miss the tofu we occasionally had.  So, overall, we've not eaten or missed legumes too much!

4. Refined Industrial Seed Oils.
I no longer purchase or have in the house any "refined industrial seed oils" that I formerly thought were healthy and good for us to consume ("vegetable oils" such as canola, corn, peanut, soybean, etc are NOT health foods, read this for more info).  Of course, we still eat them whenever we eat out (by default, since that's what restaurants use for their fats).  And we eat these oils whenever we buy a non-Paleo processed food at the grocery store (I have yet to find an organic corn tortilla chip that is fried in olive, avocado, or coconut oil, though I think avocado oil would be an awesome flavor combo!).  Instead, we go through LOTS of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), to the tune of 1 liter per month between the two of us!  I buy a pretty expensive brand (Lucini Premium Select, from our local grocery store), and I stick with it, because we have tried other brands, but we prefer this one's flavor.  I know there's a controversy regarding whether or not any of the olive oils in our country are actually "real" (read this) and whether they are even good for us per the Mediterranean diet (check this out), but I can't worry too much about that now.  Maybe I'll do more research in the future and/or buy my EVOO from a California producer (if I can find one I finally like).

When we were strict Paleo for that first month, we ate through a lot of EVOO, coconut oil, bacon fat, palm oil shortening, and ghee for our cooking (and baking) as well.  Now I've let that slide a bit, and we are cooking and baking with butter too.  I'd like to move away from this more in the future.  As far as other fats go, we are eating plenty of "healthy" fats in our grass-fed/organic meats and poultry, coconut products, avocados, and raw (then soaked/dehydrated) nuts.  I feel pretty good overall about our fat consumption.  I'm finally used to the idea that "eating healthy fats is healthy"!

5. Sugar, processed and otherwise.
Ok, sugar is my arch-nemesis.  I can give excuses all day long:
a. I am a "super taster", so I need the sweetness to help cover up the extra bitter notes that my sensitive tongue picks up (well, maybe!),
b. I grew up eating lots of sweets and it's in my genetics (thanks, Grandpa Buchholz!), and
c. I am now eating "healthy" sweeteners (honey/maple syrup/fruit), so it's ok (WRONG!).

The bad news: I am still addicted to sugar, both "natural" and processed.  The good news: I have dialed back my palate so that I can eat less-sugary items, and they seem much sweeter (such as fruit, and dark chocolate, and lightly sweetened goodies made at home).  I still fight a battle every day: I want something sweet with every meal--fruit with breakfast and dessert with lunch and dinner!  I am realizing this is my particular struggle, and I will have to continue to rein myself in.  At this point, I am not eating ridiculous amounts of fruit, so I am not going to cut back on that.  I need to just keep myself eating fruit as my only sweet for breakfast and lunch, and maybe a SMALL portion of a Paleo dessert for dinner.  And then maybe wean myself off to having dessert only for special occasions, holidays, or when we're with friends or family.  But I'm not there yet...  Right now I can celebrate the fact that I am not baking as much, and when I do, I am not baking with CUPS of white and brown sugars (and corn syrup, etc) like I used to.  Honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, and bananas, dates, and dried fruit are my current sweeteners, and I feel a little better about them, used in moderation, for a weekly baking escapade.  However, I'm not under any illusion that these are "healthy" sweeteners, or that they are lots better than white sugar.  They all affect blood sugar levels and insulin in a bad way.  But I'm still working on it, and moving in a better direction...

As I've said before, cooking and baking completely un-processed foods using Paleo recipes is pretty time-consuming (and expensive).  It's been a challenge to prepare for our camping trips when I can't just throw together peanut butter, a loaf of bread, and cheese and crackers.  I now have a salad spinner (!) packed in our camper.  Eating "healthier" is a journey, and every step in the right direction should be celebrated, I believe.

So, that's what we've been eating lately.  I'll do a separate post soon with fun food pics.  Thoughts, suggestions, comments?

Forward Flavor!