A bit behind!

I'm a bit behind days, however, have been eating sort of the same stuff and forgetting to take pictures so haven't bothered blogging about it.  So now I'm up to Day 12 of the Whole 30 Challenge, and still going well.  Haven't touched the dried apricots (although the dried craisins and sultanas we won't mention!)

Today I've had a green smoothie for breakfast, then I skipped morning tea (wasn't hungry) and then I had some fried ham (dry fried in the pan, no oil) and some scrambled eggs for lunch.  The girls had scrambled eggs too.

A handful of almonds for afternoon tea, and for dinner we are having fish and chips (nile perch and sweet potato chips, probably a bit of pumpkin and carrot too).

We have been talking about where we go diet wise once we finish the whole 30.  We both feel better without grains and dairy, but we have some issues with the theory behind Paleo (the whole caveman didn't eat rice for one, cos you can't prove it really, there's no evidence either way!) and we also have issues with the Primal Blueprint - mainly the animal fat and bad cholesterol content.  And yes, I know Mark Sisson says not to fear the fat and its good fat - well, its true, some of it is good fat (nuts, seeds, avocado, coconut) - however there's still saturated fat, and with heart disease still being the biggest killer in our generation - I'm not going to risk my heart health because some dude on the net assures me on his blog that its ok.  Yes we need some saturated fat and 'bad'cholesterol (to transport fat to the certain organs that need its protection ie the heart and kidneys). But we need a higher unsaturated/saturated fat ratio in our diets.  And since he puts animal fats (or saturated) so high up on his foods to eat, it IS scary to me.

Plus - all the treats that are on the Paleo blogs now - they are nice to look at and drool over, but are extremely high in calories, so its hard to figure out if people are doing it for their health or because its a new "fad" in the diet industry?

SO - where does that leave us.  Somewhere in the middle. We like the idea of eating clean and putting good stuff into our body, but without heaps of animal fats and calories.  I still like the idea of having chick peas in our diet, I think they offer a great deal nutritionally (and even Mark puts them in his sometimes foods, along with chocolate and wine) so I think we will have our own version of Paleo/Primal, however, it will be our Melcra lifestyle.

So far we haven't discussed too much (Elf Man has been busy with assignments and stuff) but we agreed on the sweeteners we would allow - pure maple syrup (not maple syrup flavouring!), honey and coconut palm sugar.  Coconut palm sugar is a super food that is low gi, so we think its a wise choice above all other sweeteners.

Basically, we will make as much of our own stuff as possible, I'll make paleo treats for the kids instead of the rubbish I usually buy them at the shops (goodbye tiny teddies, fruit bars, fruit rolls, muesli bars) and I'll also continue to make my own butter and yoghurt - at least cutting down on some of the preservatives in their diet.

And I thought I would make things out of spelt grain instead of wheat, and see if that helps Coo's bloating issues that she has.  This may be a Whole30 challenge, but I think its also challenging the way that we look and feel about food.

Anyway, thats the latest crap that has been flying around my head!