Nell Stephenson's Blog, page 31

Traveling Paleo

OK, so you’re traveling internationally, perhaps you don’t speak the language all that well and you can’t find organic kale or grass fed beef. Must you throw caution to the wind and opt for whatever you happen to encounter without even attempting to find something a bit healthier (and gluten, dairy & soy-free)?

Nope. Not for a second.

And while certainly, some countries’ cuisines are far more easy to adapt to Paleo standards (Mexico being one of them), it’s pretty rare for it to completely be a lost cause in most places.

The image above reflects one incredibly easy way to modify a local fave without too much hassle: simply order fajitas without the typical toppings and ask for some lettuce in lieu of a tortilla.  Done.

By following the tips below you’ll make the best possible situations become viable options and allow yourself to enjoy local food without paying for it later, in the worst sense of the word.

• Research ahead of time what the place you’re going to is known for, any key restaurants you’re going to be sure to visit and which options make the most sense. Here, for example, it’s incredibly easy to order local grilled fish and a range of fresh veggies. It’s easier on you and easier on the chef compared to ordering a burrito with no cheese, no sour cream, no tortilla and no beans.

• Learn some language. While you don’t need to become fluent overnight, being able to speak a few key phrases, such as ‘gluten-allergy’ will further heighten your chances of being able to order properly and partake without risk of being contaminated.

• Bring some healthy options along with you. While I’m not suggesting you try brining a frozen side of beef in your checked baggage, there are some healthier-than-the-usual, travel friendly options that truly do come in handy in this tricky situation (travel). Stay tuned for more tomorrow on a few of my favorite products that are perfect for this!

• Finally, plan accordingly if you are going to have a splurge and hopefully if you’re doing this, it’s something you’ve tested on its own after your 30 day 100% Paleo intro period. (Incidentally, I’d love it if everyone stayed here for the whole time, but client experience over the years has proved time and time again that there are different levels of Paleo-ness that suit different people and the bottom line is that even if you’re more Paleo than you used to be, you’re on the right path!)

For me, eating something with gluten is never an option…never, simply because I’d rather not eat anything that I know will make me really, really sick. I’d prefer a chewy viscous glass of Cab as my indulgence. When you’re having this special little extra, balance out your macros during the day as well as activity to reflect it. If you’re having wine, simply be sure to load up even more on veggies and add some good protein and fat, cutting down on fruit for that meal as you’ll get enough sugar from the wine. See where I’m going?

By staying on track during travel, you’ll actually be able to enjoy the whole trip more and maybe even come home a few pounds lighter, rather than getting ill and packing on a few.

Paleoista Mex

Greetings from Mexico!

Nope, I’m not coming to you poolside, sipping a margarita, whiling away the time reading a silly chick-lit book.

I’m actually here for work, but it hardly feels that way! Nearly six years ago, I began working with a gentleman who’s become one of my longest- term clients and best referral sources. Inaki de la Parra  is an elite ultra endurance athlete and coach. In fact, he’s not only a coach, he’s a coach who coaches along with my own coach! (How’s that for word repetition?)

Cutting right to the chase, Lifesport Mexico is a newer branch of my coach’s (oops, there’s that word again) business, Lifesport, based in Canada. Lance has coached me for seven years and he’s like family now.

So, when he and Inaki partnered a while back, it couldn’t have been a better fit.

And now, I’m thrilled to be a part of the 2015 January Lifesport Camp, held in Merida Mexico, where I’ll be presenting on Paleo eating for triathlon performance as well as how Paleo eating helps us all achieve optimal health and just feel better.

As a Paleo endurance athlete myself, it’s particularly enjoyable on a personal level to have the opportunity to speak to like-minded individuals to shoot the breeze about all things Paleo and enjoy some local, delicious Paleo-Friendly cuisine.

BTW, if you’re wondering how to eat Paleo Mex and thinking it’s all about burritos and nachos, you’ve got a lot of great surprises in store in blog posts and recipes in the upcoming days.

Meanwhile, if you’re still getting past ‘how can an endurance athlete keep Paleo’, be sure to check out Pocket Paleo: Workout.  With the foreward written by renowned triathlon coach (and Paleo eater himself), Joe Friel, it’s a must-have guide for your endurance fueling arsenal…and it’s only $2.99!

Balancing Your Treats

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ve probably noticed that I use the word ‘balance’ quite a bit.

There’s a reason for this.

A key component of successfully implementing the Paleo regime for the long haul is, in fact, incorporating balance with regard to many things:  food timing, macro nutrient ratio…and how often to have something sweet.

Here’s what not to do:

Swap out the splenda you put in your morning coffee with honey, switch the vanilla latte you rely on each afternoon for your 3pm crash with a sugar-free nonfat one and trade the brownies you bake each weekend with the kids for gluten-free “Paleo-ish” ones.

It’s easy to let ourselves get tricked into the mentality that by replacing some of the worse offenders- like gluten and dairy, not to mention those awful pretend sugars (as well as the real ones) , with derivatives of foods that were once more Paleo (like almond flour or dates)- we’re ‘following the Paleo diet’.

And you can do these things, but eat them once in a while, not every day.

So, how often, then?

There’s nothing set in stone, but if we look to mimic the food groups of our ancestors, as Dr. Cordain suggests, their ‘treat’, honey, would not likely have been partaken of too often at all.

If you feel you ‘need’ or ‘crave’ something sweet, check in and make sure you’ve eaten enough veggies, protein and fat earlier in the day as you’re likely having a blood sugar crash.

However, there is room for a treat now and then.

Keeping it for a special occasion actually makes it…special!

And that’s where this week’s prize comes in.

Barefoot Provisions and I are offering a Paleoista Approved Special Occasions Basket.

Real, unadulterated raw chocolate, rich, buttery (as in texture, not dairy!)

Click here for more!

 

Paleoista New Year Giveaway Week Three: Win A Special Occasions Sweets Basket!

Week three of my Healthy Paleoista New Year promotion is already among us!

For this week, you’ll have a chance at the Paleoista Special Occasions Sweets Basket…just in the nick of time for Valentine’s Day!

What’s in it?

The decadence you’ve been dreaming of, without compromising your Paleo values one iota.

Not to worry, I’m not bending my message and suggesting you load up on almond flour cookies or ghee-based fudge; what you’ll find in these baskets offers just a touch of that ‘treat’ feeling, meant for a special occasion.

I’ve partnered with Barefoot Provisions to create this special basket to fit this very need.

Here’s a little more sweet information:

Enjoying a little bit of decadence now and then is one of the most delicious parts of following a True Paleo regime. And if you’re having a treat, it really should involve chocolate. But not just any chocolate, because there are all kinds of nasty things in 99.99% of the chocolate out there—stuff like soy lecithin, stabilizers and emulsifiers. I take great care to avoid these things while still demanding a great tasting chocolate–not an easy feat! These are my favorite healthy and delicious Paleoista Special Occasion treats.

Aztec Crunch Handcrafted Raw Organic Chocolate by Lulu’s
Clusters of Cacao Brazil Nuts, Mulberries, Hemp Seed & Dates Gone Nuts! by Living Intentions
Xochipilli 100% Bar with Bits of Delicate Dates by Antidote Chocolate
Sour Cherry and Almond Raw Organic Chocolate Bark by Rawmio

Click here to learn more and then comment on which item you’d would like most from the kit, or what dish you’d make from the kit!

Your comment on facebook, twitter , instagram or my blog gets you entered.

At the end of each week a winner will randomly be selected and it starts again on Monday of the next week.

Click here to shop online and for your entry now; let the healthy eating begin!

Get Up and Move: Train Fasted!

“There is some evidence that working out on a completely empty stomach prompts the body to burn more fat and potentially stave off weight gain, compared to exercising at other times”, according to a piece in the NY Times yesterday.

Incorporating fasted training into your daily regime not only helps to expedite weight loss, it improves mental focus and steadier energy levels throughout the day compared to starting the day out with a dose of sugar…even if that sugar is coming from a natural source, like a ripe, spotty banana.

Often when I broach the topic with new clients, I get a response indicative of a bit of fear. But then, once clarified, it turns out most people train fasted without even knowing it.

All fasted training means is to work out on an empty stomach.

So, if you’ve ever gotten out of bed and headed straight out the door for a run, you’ve done it.

There’s a lot of talk about fasting and more specifically, intermittent fasting in the Paleosphere.

Intermittent fasting (IF) is an “term for various diets that cycle between a period of fasting and non-fasting and may be seen as a form of dietary restriction”, per Wikipedia.

You can absolutely do one without the other- train fasted without incorporating IF; it all depends on what your goals and health history are.

Neither are requisite behaviors in Paleo living; in my opinion this goes beyond Paleo to simple, common sense: we all want to be at a lean body weight and who doesn’t want better energy levels and heightened mental acuity?

The brief article in the Times described a recent study conducted in which three groups were given different protocol: one did no exercise, one exercised after eating breakfast and the third, before eating. Not surprisingly, the latter lost weight, retained healthy insulin levels and burned more calories all day long.

In very basic terms, if you get up and start moving without having supplied your body with a dose of sugar, it’s simply got to get its energy from somewhere else and that somewhere else happens to be stored fat.

If you continue to rely on using fat all day long, by following a True Paleo regime, rather than functioning on carbohydrate infusions, blood sugar spikes and subsequent insulin reactions, you’ll create the idyllic scenario whereby you’re burning fat, getting closer to your goal weight and having that sharpness of thought that’ll improve your productivity at work, too.

For more, be sure to check out Pocket Paleo Workout where I include some tips and ideas on what to eat after the fasted session.

Click here to read the full article in the Times.

One of the Easiest Swaps- Peanut Butter to Almond

I used to eat peanut butter.  A lot of it, actually.

You see, when I was a vegan I used it as a protein source.   Along with lentils.  And tofu.

Ugh- the mere thought of it now makes me feel sleepy and bloated!

At any rate, I get it.  Peanut butter tastes good.

But guess what, so nut butters. Peanut butter isn’t a nut butter.  Actually, it’s a bean butter.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

While some nuts and seeds can be part of a Paleo regime, don’t make the easy mistake of eating them too much and too often.

Eating them raw, and even better, sprouting or soaking them (more about that in Pocket Paleo Snacks) does help to decrease the phytic acid they contain, the bottom line is still that they’re all high in inflammatory Omega 6s and low in anti inflammatory Omega 3s.

So, on a day when you grab a handful of raw walnuts, or eat a scoop of raw almond butter, just make sure that sometime during that day you have a piece of wild salmon or black cod to balance out your overall Omega 3-6 ratio.

And back to this peanut butter/almond butter topic.

Often the sticking point is that people are used to not only peanut butter, but highly processed, sugar-added, hydrogenated, salty peanut butter.

Think Jif.  Or Skippy.

Given the added sugar, it’s a no brainer why the brain tells you that you need more.  And given the high sodium profile, no wonder raw almond butter may at first taste plain.

However, on the upside, almonds and all nuts are far less offensive to the body than low-bar peanuts (except if you’re dealing with an auto immune condition in which case, you’re better off skipping all of ‘em).

They do have fiber, minerals and a bit of protein and, let’s face it, they do make a good in a pinch snack paired with an easy to find apple, for example.

It may be National Peanut Butter day, but you do your guts a favor and scoop some raw almond butter into your smoothie, spread some raw walnut butter onto some bibb lettuce leaves before piling on some greens and leftover turkey or simply enjoy a bit of raw cashew butter right out of the jar without having to deviate a single step from your Paleo path!

Grass Fed Beef To Go

Grass-fed beef jerky, dried mango & cranberries along with macadamia nuts &  Marcona almonds.

 

How does that sound for a quick, portable snack to go?

While it’s not as ideal an option as a Nori wrapped wild tuna sashimi roll with avocado and baby kale (one of my favourite hand-held snacks to go), it’s just slightly more practical to carry along with you on a flight or to throw into your briefcase to have for the next in-a-pinch situation you might find yourself in, as we all do.

This Paleo-Friendly, Primal Pacs Snack is part of this week’s Paleoista Basket Giveaway; all you need to do is tweet, Facebook, instagram or post a comment on the blog and you’re entered to win!

No need to default to low quality pseudo food from the office break room or at the gas station any longer!

 

Feeling Snacky?

It’s kind of become a snack week theme here on my blog.

It’s suitable as it corresponds with the portable protein giveaway I’m hosting in conjunction with Barefoot Provisions but it’s also appropriate for another reason: it’s one key bullet point that is worth looking at if you feel you’re not quite as far along with your weight loss goals as you’d planned.

Case in point:  one of the most commonly made mistakes I’ve seen weight loss clients make is to confuse the expected adjustment when one is new to paleo with simply not eating enough.

In other words, it’s pretty common to have a few days in the first few weeks where you might feel a little ‘off’, or perhaps a bit lower in energy as your body pulls away from the reliance it may have had on refined carbohydrates including grains, beans and even white sugar.

Reading a list of what not to eat when following the Paleo diet is simple; often, the confusion lies with what to add in, in order to ensure you’re not going too low on calories.

If your former breakfast used to consist of a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter, an egg and a nonfat, sugar free vanilla latte, the new and improved Paleo version is not simply to skip everything but the egg and try to get by on a breakfast of 60 – 80 calories.

This may seem an extreme example, but hopefully you see the point.

A more appropriate replacement breakfast might be two runny eggs (poached or over easy), a copious serving of leafy greens topped with avocado and perhaps some berries on the side.

And as for snacks- all is fair game.  All snacks (in my opinion, snacks equal meals) should also contain some vegetables, some protein and some healthy fats.

Need more ideas?

Check out Pocket Paleo: Snacks, on both iTunes and Amazon… and don’t forget to enter to win your Portable Proteins Snack basket, too!

Eating regular, balanced, whole food meals rather than neatly packaged times with long ingredient labels is a key contributor to whether you lose weight, your ability to focus and maintain this healthy approach to eating long term.

National Granola Bar Day, Paleo Style

Today is National Granola Bar Day.   Unwrap one, pour a nice glass of skim milk and start your day off right.

Just kidding.

Can we do it Paleo style?

Let’s see…

According to Wikipedia, a granola bar is… um… made from granola, which is “a breakfast food and snack food, popular around the world, consisting of rolled oats, nuts, honey, and sometimes puffed rice, that is usually baked until crisp.”

So…oats?  Puffed rice? Honey?

Not so paleo.

And a bit on the sugary side, too.

Don’t get me wrong; I used to eat a ton of the stuff.

First of all, don’t forget I grew up with a Hippie Mom.  Not sure if it was possible to be a Hippie and not eat granola?

Secondly, I had my vegan stage…during which I certainly ate my fair share of sprouted grains to ‘get my protein’, or so I thought.

Finally, being an endurance athlete, pre-my Paleo days that began in 2005, I thought I needed lots of carbs to fuel my swimming, biking and running.

Oh, dear, wrong again.

However, there’s hope in the granola world.

Not as something to rely on as part of your daily diet; rather, as a once in a while, on the go type of deal, you can make a simple creation, more along the lines of a ‘granola’ versus and actual bar, based on your favorite sprouted nuts, naturally dried fruits and, why not throw in some homemade jerky, too?

While it may not really be granola any more in the truest sense of the word, it does make a viable option for those tough, in a pinch situations and it’s certainly got less consequences than a box of Quaker’s !00% Natural.

(You’ve got to love that they call it that, BTW.  Here are the ingredients: WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED OATS, WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED WHEAT, BROWN SUGAR, RAISINS, CANOLA OIL, WHEY, INULIN, ALMONDS, NONFAT DRY MILK, GLYCERIN, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, HONEY, NATURAL FLAVOR (CONTAINS COCONUT COMPONENTS), SUNFLOWER OIL, NATURAL MIXED TOCOPHEROLS (ADDED TO PRESERVE FRESHNESS).

CONTAINS WHEAT, MILK, ALMOND AND COCONUT INGREDIENTS.)

Ah, yes.  Sounds completely, 100% natural to me.  I can pick all of those items listed right off a tree and eat them!

Alternatively, you can try your hand at making a homemade bar, such as my recipe from Paleoista Book.  Click here to try it, and better yet, download your copy of Pocket Paleo, Snacks for more ideas on meals to go that supersede even the most Paleo of granola options!

 

What’s Up With All This Soy in Jerky?

I have seen it many times before and I saw it again yesterday.  And I’m sure you have, too.

Why on earth is there soy in nearly every brand of commercially prepared jerky?  The one I saw at REI stood out in particular as it was labeled ‘Primal’ something or other.

Argh!

Aside from the obvious, contributing that salty flavor that millions of Americans are hooked on, soy actually is high in glutamic acid which serves to chemically tenderize meat.

And certainly, eating jerky on a regular basis is not exactly the idea in a Paleo regime.

However, say you’re on a road trip and your other options include stopping for a low-bar cheeseburger or a hot dog off a conveyor belt at a gas mart.

Ah- in this instance, that jerky you brought along with you comes in quite handy.

And while making your own is quite simple, and doesn’t even require you purchase a dehydrator (check out Pocket Paleo Snacks, where I share recipes for salt-free salmon, beef and chicken jerky), there are options available that do not have that nasty soy.

This is precisely the focus of the Portable Proteins Basket that Barefoot Provisions and I are giving away this week.

Jerky every day?  Not so much.  But jerky now and then, for travel or in a pinch?  Yes, absolutely!