Chapter 3: Villains

Chapter 3:  Villains

You know what villians are.  They are everywhere.  

On the big screen......

Disney......

And the scariest villain of all....

Back in Chapter 1, we met a guy trying to reach new food and fitness goals.  In Chapter 2, he shared his new resource for tracking food.  Now, we learn about a few villains trying to wreak havoc on our main character's fitness goals.  


The first is a shifty villain who is sneaky.  When coming home from work, The After Work Craving Villain looks a lot like this...

Those cravings are hiding in there and sometimes they change form and hide in here....

They look so happy, friendly, and satisfying.  Warding this villain off usually requires one specific defense:  staying busy.  When coming home from work and keeping a routine (i.e. get kids off bus, fix snack, unpack backpacks, talk about the day, supervise homework, unpack lunch boxes, prepare for dinner, do dishes, go to the gym, etc.) this villain is usually defeated.  Get lazy, let your guard down, and the rest is history.

Another enemy of our main character is worse than The After Work Cravings.  Most afternoons of the week our protagonist works out.  This villain is aggressive yet predictable. 

This villain is hard to defend, but with focus it can be done and done well.  The  Post Workout Villain is a demon as hunger strikes about twenty minutes after working out and our character wants to eat, eat, and eat.  However, without fail, 100% of the time victory ensues with some food planning.  This villain goes away in a quick hurry when some protein, few carbs and healthy fat are consumed within 20 minutes after a workout.  

Paleo Kits are a great defense.  They have the perfect ratio of carbs, protein, and fat.  

A sweet potato is another good weapon.  Some quality lunchmeat and a small piece of fruit provide similar results against this vicious, evil enemy.  If any one of these food choices are consumed post-workout, it becomes much easier to not eat everything in the house when returning from the gym.  It just takes some conscious planning before heading to work out.  

These are just two villains that keep life challenging for our main character.  While he does a sound job fending them off on a weekly basis, no hero-status is warranted.  Rather, there is one mambo jambo, incredible, and eternal enemy no one can avoid.  This is one you will not want to miss because the bad news just got worse.  EVERYONE I repeat....EVERYONE in the WORLD sees this next villain all the time.  It's beyond aggressive.  It's comes in threes, and it can not die.  

Stay tuned for Chapter Four to find out what it is and if our story can live on.....

-ification and some B and G

I recently heard the word Paleoification, and it reminded me of......

I thought I could think of more words ending in -ication, but I'm stumped.  


Either way.....Last week when I attended the Whole 9 Foundations of Nutrition Workshop in Chicago, Dallas and Melissa, founders of the program, proclaimed that one of the mistakes folks make with the Paleo lifestyle is the "PALEOIFICATION" of it all.  Paraphrasing what they said here.....


On the information superhighway we call The Internet, you can find Paleo Brownies, Paleo Pancakes, Paleo Pizza, Paleo Waffles, Paleo Cookies, and All Things Paleo.  The assertion:  These things should be avoided.  They are to be used as substitutes for the real thing.  Reason being....it will only lead to you wanting the real thing;  they don't taste like the real thing; there are a lot more healthy things you could be eating in its place.  (AGAIN...PARAPHRASING THEIR WORDS.  NOT MINE.)


And so there I was.....shocked!  Stumped!  Stymied!  I've fought with this the past week and I've come up with the following because it works FOR ME.....


I agree with what they are saying....now.  If you are constantly substituting Paleoified foods, then you may as well eat a bit of the real thing and get back on the wagon.  It's a trap many can fall into....It's like the first time I did Weight Watchers.  I lost 75 lbs.!  But......I did it eating everything and anything that could fall within my points.  It worked.....but a few years later I almost gained it all back.  It was not sustainable......for me, but I'm a fan of WW if you eat well doing it.  


Eating a certain way as a lifestyle is an evolving process which contradicts our innate sense of wanting to lose weight now and make it easy.  It's just not immediate and it's never easy.  So now I agree with Melissa and Dallas......if you are a newbie to eating Paleo.....if you are emotionally connected to food (something I plan to write more about as there are plenty of good, healthy ways to eat....not just Paleo.)


For me.....I don't have deep cravings for too may foods, but today I needed variety.  I eat eggs a lot.  We buy great eggs from our local CSA and pick them up every Wednesday.  I'm a food creature of habit and it does not take much to please me with food.  Paleo often works for me because a nice piece of chicken and veggies spiced well often works.......for me.  So this morning, my wife was out with a girlfriend, and daddy was being land-blasted with, "Daddy....what's for breakfast??!?!  We're hungry!!!!"  I took out a pound of sausage the night before with the full intention of making eggs and sausage.....again.  


Enter..........Paleo Biscuits and Gravy!!!


Now....I must tell you....I would BATHE in biscuits and gravy....I love it that much.  


If that description is a 10, then I'd give this recipe a 7.5.  I took it from Robb Wolf's blog.  Check it out because he has great info. and recipes.

Looks like the real stuff huh?  The gravy was pretty close to the real thing.  Next time, I'll use less cayenne pepper.  I don't prefer it that hot and neither did the kids, but they ate it.  I added a bit more salt to offset the heat for them.

These worked out well.  I did't have almond flour so I used almond meal and Peanut meal, so they came out a bit dry, but when you drape the gravy over them who freakin' cares, right?!  

The finished product.  First words out both kids' mouths:  "Mmmm....This is good."  Sometimes they are the best food critics.  (At least when they like it, right?!)

So........This worked for me today.  It offered me variety and a break from what we always make for breakfast.  Sure, I could have had more healthy options for breakfast, but check out the past 29 days of what I've eaten.  Now, I agree with The Whole 9 folks in that this should not serve as a substitute for the real thing, but I'm not craving the real thing.  I'm not new and struggling to find things that satisfy my food cravings.  I was not having this food craving today.  I just wanted something different to eat that could keep me committed to my 30 Day Challenge.  I'm not emotionally missing biscuits and gravy.  Pizza on the other hand.....that's a bit of a different story, but I only get that way when I'm around pizza.  I don't miss pizza because I feel awful after I eat it (probably because pizza is crack....CRACK, I say, for me.)  I can't just eat one piece.  

So....the Paleoification of pizza for me is not the best idea, but in my opinion.... once in awhile I think it's better than the real thing from a strict ingredient standpoint.

-fication

suffix

Production; making: jollification.

Origin: Latin -ficātiō, -ficātiōn-, from -ficātus, past participle of -ficāre, to make, from -ficus, -fic.

from YourDictionary.com