My Paleo Journey: When life gets super busy

When life or work or both get super busy, the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is spend time preparing food.  I have one of those awesome jobs that I love.  The awesomeness comes along with bouts of extremely long hours and traveling.  How do I make this whole no grains, no dairy, no legumes, no salt, no refined sugar nonsense work when I have zero time?  Oh I'm glad you asked.

First of all I plan ahead.  Starting this weekend I have a very busy schedule until MAY.  So this week I have prepared a little, or a lot.

I ordered some things from the interwebs that I eat when I need a snack, or am just to exhausted.
I ordered food from Steve's Original.  Sometimes I eat these little packs as a snack, sometimes in place of a meal.  The granola is pretty good too.

I ordered some tanka bars, lots of them. I like the original and the spicy.  I keep some in my desk at work, some in my car, some at home.  I eat them for breakfast sometimes, I eat them when I forgot or didn't have time to bring lunch...  I ordered a family pack, it comes with both flavors, ends up being about $2 a bar for 50 bars, which will last me a long time.  The last time I ordered that many it lasted from early August until early November.

I tried to order some Pure wraps, but they are apparently very popular (I like them a lot) so they are on back order.

I also have that order of Beetnik food coming that I got discounted from livingsocial, so that will be some more grab and go food options.

I stocked up on Larabars, the store was having a 10 for $10 anyway so it was a double win.  These are also in my desk at work, in my truck, and at home, and I eat them when I'm hungry and need something.  I didn't buy as many Larabars as I did tanka bars and Steve's originals because Larabars are much easier to procure, I don't have to wait for them to come in the mail.

I bought a very large container of mixed, unsalted nuts without peanuts (here's a secret, look at target, read the labels of their GIANT nut things, figured this out on a road trip stuck in a little town in Missouri with nothing to eat...)  I add raw coconut to it and keep it in my office.

I went to TJ Maxx, yes you read that correctly, and bought some plain old dried fruit without chemicals added.  I forgot to mention this in the whole saving money post.  TJ Maxx, I also discovered this on that same road trip in Missouri.  They have a large selection of paleo friendly snack and they are not very expensive.  WHO KNEW?

The thing is, if I don't have food on hand and I'm hungry, I end up eating things I shouldn't.  There is a vending machine, my coworker brought in muffins...  If I have a handy alternative, it's really easy to not eat junk, no offense to my baking coworker, I'm sure her muffins are delightful.

People I work with know I have a food drawer, but I don't share.  They can eat whatever they want, I cannot.  I would rather give them a dollar for the vending machine than have them eat up all my paleo friendly snacks.  Sorry but I'm not sorry.

I use my crockpot.  I made a big batch of delish jambalaya .  Because I am only one person, a whole crockpot full will be a whole lot of meals for me.  When I finished cooking it, I dished it into individual serving containers, so this weekend all I have to do is grab a container on my way out the door.  About once a week, on a day when I have a little more time in the morning, I will throw stuff in the crockpot and then eat it a lot that week.  Does it get boring sometimes?  Yes, but it's quite amazing how many different things you can do with a whole chicken that you cooked in the crockpot.  AND this isn't probably the best, but, when you are strapped for time, there are these things at the store called crockpot liners, like those turkey cooking bags.  The worst part of using a crockpot is cleaning it, in my opinion.  When I'm super busy, I use the liners, and then I don't have to spend an hour soaking and scrubbing.

I make lots of those little egg cup things like this without the cheese and freeze them.  That will be happening tonight.  Then in the mornings I just pop one in the microwave for a quick breakfast.

I stocked up my freezer with meats.  One of the hardest things about cooking when I'm super busy is that it's not just the cooking, it's the cooking AND the shopping.  Because I can't just go to any store to find the grassfed beef, the wild caught salmon... I bought a bunch and it's all in my freezer.  When I do want to cook, I just have to get the veggies to go with it, makes the process a lot faster.  (yes my freezer is quite full right now)

Keep tuna fish in those pouches and avocados around.  When all else fails, at the end of a week, when I need to crockpot but haven't, I have been known to grab an avocado and the tuna fish on the way out the door and just mix the two together for lunch.  If I have a lemon to grab too, that's bonus.  This is not something you should do more than once a week.  If you have pure wraps on hand, grab one of those, then it doesn't look so weird to your coworkers, it's just a tuna fish sandwich.

Those are the things I've figured out so far.  Anyone else have tips?

My Paleo Journey: how to not break the bank

When I first started telling people about my dietary changes, I kept hearing the same thing over and over: "wow that must be expensive"

Yes grassfed beef is more expensive, and yes produce can be expensive, and yes almond flour is not cheap.

One of the problems with the current american diet, in my opinion, is that most Americans are so intent on saving money on food so they can spend it on other things, like fancy houses and more clothing, that they are willing to put LOW quality food into their bodies despite the known health consequences.

Europeans tend to be way more healthy than Americans   They generally spend 30% of their income on food, where as Americans spend just 10% on food.

So how do I make the paleo diet work financially?

First off all, just know that the start up cost is going to be a little bit pricey.  When I first started living this way, every time I went to make something, I had to buy every single ingredient.  Now that I have been at it for a while, when I decided to make something, I normally have the basics on hand (almond flour, almond or cashew butter, raw nuts, dates, chicken broth, arrowroot powder...) so I'm not spending so much money every time I make something.

Find a CSA.  CSA stands for community supported agriculture.  You will get fresh, locally grown, often organic produce.   You pay for it in a lump sum, but in the end it's way cheaper than buying produce at the grocery store.  I was already using a CSA, even in small, middle of nowhere Kentucky.  Look around, you might be surprised to find one.  Or maybe you can just start your own garden, it will help with the vitamin D synthesis too.

Don't be afraid of bulk food stores.  My local BJs sells Applegate farms meat.  I get large quantities of uncured bacon or sliced turkey breast (without gluten added or random other chemicals) at a discounted price.  I keep some in the fridge and throw the rest in the freezer.  I can also buy bags of produce I eat a lot, like avacados, at a substantially lower price than I do at the grocery store.  I can buy a 6 pack of organic, no salt added, diced fire roasted tomatoes for a fraction of the what it would cost to buy them individually at the grocery store.

Look for the Badia brand of spices in the Mexican food section of the grocery store.  I just figured this out recently when something I was looking for wasn't in the normal spice section.  I do not know why the hispanic food section has the same spices for so much cheaper, but they do.

Look for things in your normal grocery store before heading to the health food store.  I can find the same brand of almond butter I use in the local grocery store for much cheaper than it is at the natural food store.

Buy large quantities of things you eat a lot when they are on sale.  I use larabars a lot when I am travelling or working long hours and need to bring my own food.  Occasionally my local grocery store will have a 10 for $10 sale on them.  You best believe I buy a lot of them when those sales are going on.  I did this just last night.

Order things online.  I order massive quantities of tanka bars at a time.  They are cheaper that way, and I pay less in shipping when I do one big order.

This is semi new to me, but look for food deals on livingsocial and groupon.  Recently they had a really good deal on beetnik food.  It's prepared paleo meals (like lean cuisine but not).  I've never tried that company before, but the deal was so good I ordered some.  I'll let you know how it turns out.  I also find good deals on restaurants that are paleo friendly,  resulting in about 50% savings when I do eat out.

Don't avoid the frozen fruits and veggies.  Most frozen veggies are flash frozen when they are in season.  This means they are better quality food than the out of season veggies in the produce aisle.  Frozen fruits and veggies can also be much cheaper than their non frozen counterparts.  I'm not saying not to eat the fresh stuff, I'm just saying if you are making a dish that you could substitute frozen broccoli for fresh, do it, just make sure that the frozen produce you are buying doesn't have salt or sugar or other things added to it.

Use your grocery store's reward card.  I use mine for the gas discounts.  But as I started buying certain foods more, the computer system started noticing.  Now when the machine prints out those useless coupons, they are normally for things like coconut milk, or omega 3 eggs.  I buy those things all the time anyway, so I use the coupons.

If you use a certain product a lot, go to their website, you might find printable coupons there.  And you might ended up winning a bike.  It could happen, it happened to me.

Make friends with people who own their own chickens.  When I lived in Kentucky, one of my coworkers had his own chickens, which he fed appropriate things to have omega 3 eggs.  I asked if I could buy some eggs from him.  He said no, but I could have some for free.  I haven't found a friend like that here in New England yet, but I am looking.  I do have other friends who have chickens and sell eggs for 2-3 dollars a dozen.  Guess what, if you do the math, that's about what they cost at the grocery store.  So you get fresh eggs, and help a friend out at the same time.  It's win win for everyone.

Lastly, I made a choice to eat better quality food and save money in other areas, so I started looking for ways to cut the budget.  I went on a book buying fast.  I love reading, I like to buy books.  I decided that I would rather spend money on quality food and I started using my public library.

Guess what I found?   There are a lot of books that were on my list to read, but don't I don't need to buy them since I will only read them once.  It's also more environmentally friendly to checkout the library books.

There were a lot of other resources at the library that I wasn't fully utilizing.  Actually I wasn't utilizing them at all, cause I didn't know they existed   The library has an immense selection of movies, documentaries, and tv series that I can check out for free and opposed to renting them.  There are also a lot of museum passes and discounts that I can checkout from the library for free.  Want to visit a state park for the weekend?  Why pay $15 when you can go for free with the library pass.  I'd rather spend the $15 on a good meal and not eat junk.

My Paleo Journey: A year later

At Christmas 2011, my brother and his then girlfriend suggested I try this crazy diet they had been on since Thanksgiving.  They thought it might help with my severe allergies.
I thought they were crazy, but I had tried everything else, and I was willing to give it a shot.
I blogged once about it.

Shortly after blogging about it, I talked to my physician about it.  I also worked with him.  He looked at me and said "normally I would tell a patient they are crazy, but with you, we've tried everything, lets see what happens."
He ordered massive amounts of blood work based on what I had read about the diet.  He was well aware of my lifestyle and eating habits, and said "honestly I think this is over kill, it's all going to come back normal"  And guess what, for the most part he was right.  My white blood cell count, my cholesterol, all the normal stuff, was in the normal range.

Let me just say before I tell you the rest of the results of my blood work, I have very difficult veins to draw blood from, I have always had this problem.  When I was sitting in the chair at the lab, the young tech looked at my arm and said "I think you need someone more experienced."  About 45 minutes, 3 different phlebotomist, and 6 sticks later, they finally listened to me and tried my foot.  THANK THE LORD.  It was not fun, and I almost said "forget it, it's not worth it."
I'm so glad I didn't.

 My vitamin D was off the charts low.  Not surprising since at the time I was working ridiculous hours inside. I started supplementing with a vitamin D vitamin, and also making a conscious effort to spend more time outside during daylight hours.  (taking my lunch outside was the easiest method)

And then there was my C-reactive protein.  C-reactive protein is a marker in your blood for general inflammation, it is used to assess risk for cardiovascular disease.  It normally isn't done on highly active 30 year old women.  Normally a person's C-reactive protein should be at zero.  As the level goes up, the risk or cardiovascular disease goes up.  Over 3 is considered HIGH risk.
So what was mine? I'm glad you asked, it was greater than 3 (they apparently don't tell you how high it is after 3)  Basically what I'm saying is that the systemic inflammation in my body from allergies was so high that there is great potential that I would have been one of those people who dropped dead of a heart attack at 45 and everyone was like "other than her allergies she was so healthy"


When I first started the paleo diet I was suffering from severe eczema.  It was awful, I looked like a leper most of the year.  I always wore long sleeves to cover it up.  I didn't like wearing a swimsuit because it covered my whole back.  I took steroids, lots of steroids.
I had to time massive doses of steroid shots in order to wear the open back bridesmaid dress for my best friends wedding.  If you are unaware, steroids tend to have lovely side effects like massive bloating.  YAY!

By February 2012, after having been on the diet since late December, my eczema was gone. GONE. GONE GONE GONE.  My parents came to visit to help me move out of the house I'd just sold and they couldn't believe it.

There are a lot of things that are gone since starting the paleo diet.
Though I still have my nebulizer, and the drugs for it, I haven't used it in a year.
Though I still carry around my rescue inhaler, I also have not used it in a year.
Though I am still taking my maintenance asthma med (1 pill a day), I am working up the courage to go off it completely and see how it goes.  (I've been on this medication since high school)


A year later, I have learned a lot.
I have learned what I once thought were environmental allergies were actually most likely food allergies.

I have learned that you can be on a crazy diet and not ostracize everyone you know with your ridiculous eating habits.

I've learned that you can maintain the paleo diet AND have a really busy life AND travel a lot.

I've learned that contrary to popular opinion, you don't have to break the bank when eating this way (though you will spend more money when you eat out)

I've learned that you can find most of what you need in the normal grocery store (including, now that I live in New England, grass fed beef)

I've learned that foods I used to hate now don't taste so bad (I'm not completely sure why)

I've learned to use a lot more spices in my cooking.

I've learned that pinterest is my best recipe friend.

I've learned that if you don't label a food "paleo," people who don't eat that way will just think it's good food and eat and enjoy it.

I've learned that the people you would expect to be the most supportive, are sometimes the least.


Why am I telling you all of this?  Because if there is one person reading this who struggles with allergies like I did, and realizes that maybe a dietary change could eliminate their issues, then it will have been worth it.

There are a lot of blogs out there with lots of recipes,my now sister in law's included. (they got married this summer)

But not so many about how to make it work from a practical standpoint in the real world of everyday life.

I am not going to turn into a paleo blogger, but I was cooking food today and thought "I've learned a lot of practical things in the last year about how to make this work, maybe I should share them"

House 3, the last place in Murray

For the last 12 days of my time in Murray, I borrowed a room from the sister/roommate of one of the girls in my Bible study.  She had left for the summer and so I was able to use her space as a staging and repacking and sleeping area for my last days here.  It has been a time of hanging out with friends, quiet times with the Lord, and getting back on track with the paleo.  Maintaining the paleo diet was somewhat hard while living in limbo over the last several weeks.  It also put me back on the same road I lived on when I first moved here 7 years ago.
Again, I am grateful for the generosity of friends.

One thing I realized this last week is that there is no way I could have done this year the way it has been had I been married and with kids.  The moving from one place to another, living somewhat out of my truck, staying with friends in a spare room would not have been possible had I been responsible for other beings.

So today I am thankful for the many friends who have been there for me in one way of another over the last year, and for the gift of singleness which has allowed for this time.

Could you do it?

If you knew that the foods you eat regularly and love were major contributors to a chronic illness in your life, would you be willing and able to cut those foods out?

What if those foods were major parts of the normal diet in our society?

Recently I came to the realization that by eliminating certain foods from my diet, I might be able to have much better control of my allergies and asthma.

I had been reading about it for a while, this crazy diet, really lifestyle. I knew a couple friends who had switched. Over Christmas I decided it was time to test it out, this crazy thing called the paleo diet.

I was visiting my family, two of them had already switched, which made it much easier.

That's a grainless, dairyless, legumeless Christmas dinner right there.

Currently I'm on day 15 since I eliminated all grains, most dairy, and legumes, and I've already started to notice some decreases in my allergy symptoms.

I'm anxious to see if it continues to decrease me allergies and asthma.

I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

In the meantime, I'm actually really enjoying having to be creative and eat foods that weren't part of my regular on the go, grab something fast food. And for clarification, I don't mean fast food restaurants, I mean fast and easy to throw together food like sandwiches.