Paleo 30 day challenge: Day 2 - 24/03/15

Soz, Moz

I'm only on the second day of doing the paleo diet, but so far I feel pretty good.  A nice level of energy though-out the day.  Also, one claim by enthusiasts of the diet is that it helps you sleep.  Well, last night I had one of the best nights sleep I have had in a while.

But hold on, lets not praise the diet too much yet.  Last night I used a different pillow in bed, so perhaps that helped me rest easier.  And also, with feeling positive - maybe I just feel that way because in my mind I am taking affirmative action with my health by doing the diet in the first place.

Perhaps I am experiencing a placebo effect.  I feel like I am doing a good thing so it's that which is making me feel positive, rather than anything to do with my food consumption.

You get people all the time who put positive changes in their physical health down to one magic thing, such as giving up dairy, or only eating every third m&m.  At the same time though they have potentially also made other changes in their life, like not eating take away pizzas three times a week, avoiding Krispy Kreme's, or self immoliating.

My point is that whatever I'm feeling at this point, it's far too early to draw any conclusions yet.  But what I can say which is positive is that I certainly don't feel physically bad for doing this diet for two days.  I've cut out carbs and yet my energy levels have been fine.

I have been conscious more than usual in preparing large batches of food.  As I said in the last post, between me and my girlfriend we have prepared a large fruit salad and a large salad to last the week, from which I take some to work in tupperware each day.

Last night I chopped up 4 chicken breasts and fried them off in olive oil, mixed with paprika and a little cumin.  I had some for dinner with steamed brocolli, cauliflower and parsnip.  The rest was cooled and put in the fridge for dinners over the next week.

Today I had my salad with that chicken, along with the fruit salad and a tub of mixed seeds and berries.  That last tub acts as a mix of both my breakfast and for snacks during the day.  I'm really enjoying it, I must say, but part of me is conscious that I shouldn't eat the same food every day.  I'm hoping that the prepared stuff has such a mix within it of different stuff that that shouldn't matter.

At home this evening and I cooked the following for the two of us:

Tuna steaks with (brace yourself) carrot, swede and celeriac mash, asparagus, brocolli, wilted spinach, cauliflower rice and honey roasted parsnips.  I think 8 different veggies in a meal is pretty good going, even if I do say so myself

Never cooked tuna steaks before but, thanks to the miracle of Google, I now know how.  As I had cooked Sally did the washing up, and thank God for that, because I'm pretty sure I used every pan available in Salford and it's surrounding environs.

So, I'm doing generally fine with the food prep side of things.  But there are always questions to ask about the standards of food.  The chicken I got was a fairly basically priced supermarket pack, so isn't going to be reaching the heights of organic super fantastic quality.

I had the same dilemma making a drink at work today.  I had a decaf coffee with coconut milk.  Caffeine is generally a no-no on the paleo diet, but is decaf really ok, because it does still contain trace elements?  Also, there are question marks over the processes that strip it of the caffeine in the first place.

Then there's the coconut milk.  Carton bought from the supermarket.  Is that ok, or are there additives in it which I should really be avoiding?

At this point I don't know, but I'm happy enough with my efforts so far.

As always, if you have comments or suggestions you'd like to make, let me know.