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Day 2 - What are you going to eat?

Today’s assignment is same as yesterday’s, get out and walk for a minimum of 15 minutes, preferably 30, get 7-8 hours sleep and eat real food.

I realized that as we’re jumping in to this, a little background might be helpful. I used to be the poster child for “heart healthy whole grains.”

Rice, beans, steel cut oatmeal, quinoa, couscous, whole wheat—I was a huge fan.

And I always had a box of Nature’s Path Pumpkin Seed and Flax Granola in the pantry.

I took all of that low fat, high carb stuff seriously.

Chicken breasts, lean cuts of meat, all of it.

So, when my doctor told me that I had heart disease, I was surprised. But I was also pissed off.

His recommendation was to get on statins, but I wanted to understand how I’d gotten heart disease in the first place, given I was doing all the low-fat heart-healthy stuff.

That’s not in most doctor’s wheelhouse.

Nothing against doctors, they’ll be the first ones to tell you that they have very little nutritional training.

They’re trained to diagnosis and to prescribe a solution (using a pharmaceutical) and the standard protocol, in this case, was to prescribe a statin.

I found a cardiologist who ran an EKG and a stress test on me. My heart didn’t blow up but he also wanted me to get on a statin.

I came really close to doing it until he told me that they work by blocking your body’s absorption of cholesterol. Something about that just didn’t feel right for me.

Instead, I read Robb Wolf’s The Paleo Solution and it was one of those lightbulb moments.

It explained why I’d been gaining weight over the years, why I was struggling with inflammation and gave me a pretty good idea why I had heart disease.

My wife agreed to go on the Paleo diet with me and so we grabbed a trash bag and started throwing stuff away.

All those grains that I mentioned? You guessed it! In the garbage.

Before I threw out the Nature’s Path Pumpkin and Flax Seed Granola I checked the ingredients. I realized that I had gotten conned. I was sure that this stuff was super healthy but when I read the ingredients with my new perspective I realized that there were 37 grams of carbs in ¾ of a cup of cereal. First of all, my servings were at least twice that, and sometimes more and by the time that you add in the yogurt and the fruit and the honey I might as well of been eating a Snickers and a coke for breakfast. So, the Nature’s Path found its way into the trash.

Throwing all of that out felt kind of strange, but I knew that if we were going to successfully change how we ate we couldn’t do it halfway.

We were either going to commit to it or we weren’t.

Maybe you’re not staring a health issue in the face. Maybe you’re just doing this because you want to get in better shape.

Here’s the deal.

I know this works if you do it. I’m not going to blow smoke up your shorts and tell you that you’re going to lose 20 pounds overnight because you aren’t.

But if you follow the suggestions you’ll get healthier and pretty soon you’ll notice that your clothes have stopped shrinking and before long you’re going to be buying new clothes because your old stuff is falling off.

So, should you grab a trash bag and start tossing out all the chips, the crackers, the cookies, the grains, the safflower oil, the vegetable oil, the corn oil, the canola oil, the grapeseed oil, the smart butters and everything that has a list of ingredients that you can’t pronounce or have any idea what it is?

You’ll have to answer that for yourself.

At the very least, grab a container and put all of the “junk” in it and put it somewhere that you won’t be tempted by it.

Now, what are you going to replace it with?

Real food.

Grass-fed and pastured meats, wild caught seafood, pastured or organic chicken, pastured or organic eggs, veggies, fruit, seeds, nuts.

Healthy fats like olives and olive oil, avocados and avocado oil, coconut and coconut oil, lard that’s not chemically processed, butter, ghee- those are good for starters.

Before moving on, let me share a quick word about organic vs. conventional.

The best possible choice would be to buy locally grown fruits and veggies that had not been sprayed with pesticides or fertilized with non-organic fertilizer and picked at the height of ripeness and purchased by you that day at the farmer’s market. But that option isn’t always available or practical.

As I mentioned earlier, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is an organization that measures pesticide residue on fruits and veggies and they publish two lists every year called the “Dirty Dozen” and the “Clean 15″The Dirty Dozen are the fruits and veggies with the highest levels of residual pesticide and the Clean 15 have the lowest levels.

When it comes to the Dirty Dozen I buy organic or I pass.

Regarding the Clean 15, I let price and appearance play a role.

If conventional cabbage looks horrible and the organic cabbage looks great, I’ll buy the organic. But I usually buy conventional cabbage, broccoli, pineapple, asparagus, and sometimes cauliflower.

Below are some suggestions for foods that can build your palette, but definitely adjust to your personal preferences. I try to make sure that I have the asterisked * items on hand.

 

Happy, healthy eating everyone!

You may want to print off this list to have on hand

Meats and Seafoods

Canned fish:

  • Tuna- wild caught*
  • Sardines-wild caught*
  • Smoked Wild Kippers*
  • Canned Wild Alaskan Pink Salmon*
  • Anchovies- I buy them in glass jars*

Frozen fish:

  • Wild salmon*
  • Pacific cod
  • Haddock
  • Tuna (should not be a regular staple, also not a good choice for pregnant women or small children because of mercury concerns.)

Meats:

  • Ground beef* 
  • Ground pork* 
  • Chicken thighs*, leg quarters*, drumsticks, whole chickens – save the bones/ carcass to make bone broth
  • Beef roast* 
  • Beef Steaks 
  • Beef bones* for bone broth
  • Pork roast* 
  • Pork Chops*
  • Pork Tenderloins*
  • Uncured bacon*
  • Lamb – ground*
  • Lamb – boneless leg of lamb

Eggs*- I buy Costco pastured eggs & always have 2 dozen on hand. I try to have 6-8 of those already hard boiled. (I pressure cook them in the Instant Pot for 5 minutes)

Lunch meat – many grocery stores make their own in-house uncured meats

Condiments and Fats/Oils

  • Olives – black and stuffed green olives*
  • Sun-dried tomatoes*
  • Fish Sauce-Red Boat*
  • Tamari sauce*
  • Coconut aminos*
  • Sriracha- organic*
  • Capers*
  • Spicy mustard*
  • Mustard*
  • Organic ketchup*
  • Primal kitchen mayo (I usually make my own)
  • Apple cider vinegar*
  • Balsamic vinegar*
  • White wine vinegar*
  • Olive oil EVOO*
  • Avocado oil*
  • Pastured lard*
  • Coconut oil*
  • Grass-fed Ghee*
  • Full fat coconut milk- organic- I buy Native Forest by the case from Amazon.

Dairy

  • If you can handle dairy, full-fat cheese and free of rBGH – that’s a synthetic growth hormone given to cows to increase their milk production.
  • Grass-fed butter*
  • Full-fat plain yogurt*
  • Kefir- but check the sugar levels- some kefirs are loaded with sugar.

Veggies

  • Artichokes
  • Asparagus*
  • Arugula
  • Avocado*- technically it’s a fruit
  • Beets
  • Bell Peppers* – organic, you can’t eat in abundance on keto
  • Bok Choi
  • Brussels Sprouts*
  • Cabbage
  • Carrots* – organic,
  • Collards* – organic
  • Cucumbers* – organic
  • Eggplant
  • Green beans* – they’re on the expanded EWG list so if organic is available. I’ll usually pay the extra.
  • Swiss Chard – organic
  • Mixed Greens*- organic, triple washed
  • Kale* – organic
  • Broccoli*
  • Cauliflower*
  • Celery – organic*
  • Celery Root – organic
  • Onions*
  • Parsnips
  • Potatoes*, russets, reds, fingerlings, purple
  • Radishes*
  • Spinach* – organic
  • Squash – all varieties – butternut, acorn, summer, zucchini, spaghetti, patty pan…
  • Sweet Potatoes *
  • Tomatoes* – organic
  • Turnip greens
  • Frozen organic veggies per your preference

Fruit

  • Frozen organic cherries*
  • Frozen organic or wild blueberries*
  • Frozen organic peaches**
  • Frozen mango**
  • Apples – organic**
  • Apricot**
  • Blueberries* – organic
  • Blackberries
  • Bananas
  • Cantaloupe
  • Figs
  • Grapes – organic
  • Kiwi
  • Lemons*
  • Limes*
  • Mangos
  • Nectarines
  • Oranges
  • Peaches – organic or local
  • Pears – organic
  • Pineapple
  • Plums-organic
  • Strawberries* – organic
  • Watermelon

Snacks that travel well

  • Bulletproof protein bars*
  • RX bars – too many carbs for keto but clean choice if not doing keto.
  • Beef jerky*- either make your own or People’s Choice Beef Jerky on Amazon is a viable option.
  • Nuts and seeds*-almonds, cashews**, pistachios, macadamia, brazil nuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds

Additional Items

  • Monk fruit- Be sure to go easy with this- it’s super sweet.
  • Fermented veggies*- I love Farm House Culture’s product line. I always have Kraut, Kimchi and Gut Shot in the fridge.

Today’s assignment is same as yesterday’s, get out and walk for a minimum of 15 minutes, preferably 30, get 7-8 hours sleep and eat real food. 

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