The Primal Challenge Day 22

Posted on July 22, 2013 by staceyfmason

Like any normal Sunday this one was spent preparing my food for the week. I say ‘normal’ but really it has only been three Sunday’s and apparently you have to do something between 21 and 28 times to make a difference. Regardless of that, my Sunday saw me making and eating food.

First off was my own chicken stock, (receipe thanks to Sarah Wilson) so I was sure it was sugar free. I used an organic chicken and simmered that baby for over six hours with some lovely aromatics like onion, salt, pepper, celery and carrot.

While the chook was on the go, I moved to the slow cooked rib recipe courtesy of Jake, although I did have to change a few ingredients thanks to my now almost empty vegetable supply.

When the stock was simmering and the ribs were slow cooking I headed over to Mum’s for a roast pork lunch. I took my own vegetables – parsnips and sweet potato roasted in coconut oil, and steamed green beans and tried to not ask if the pig had been roaming free in a grass paddock or was trapped in a cage being chased by needle holding farmers pumping my pork full of preservatives.

Either way, lunch was delicious. Although when the hot homemade apple crumble came out for dessert I declined, and had to waive away my mother’s protests.

There is nothing in here you can’t eat

What’s in it?

Oats, flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, apples, a bit of honey…

So the only thing in there I can eat is the cinnamon and some of the apple.

We’ll try the zucchini slice then.

You put flour in that too. That is gluten.

It’s only a little bit.

It doesn’t matter, just like when Grandma put a ‘little bit’ of bacon into the vegetarian quiche – then it’s not vegetarian anymore.

No word of a lie. My grandma did actually put bacon into her quiche she had made especially for my vegetarian sister, and then got angry when she wouldn’t eat it.

No, it won’t kill us, nor will cutting off one of my feet, but I don’t want to do that either.

After lunch I returned to the safety of my own kitchen and tried to forget about my mother’s sighs and my brother’s jeers at my blog. He is sure nobody would want to read it, and does not understand why I am doing it, posting useless dribble up on a site when I’m not that interesting to begin with.

A pillar of support and constructive criticism from someone who has not read one post… but he is right, I’m not that interesting.

So I won’t bore you with details of how I emptied the vegetables from my stock, added them to the ribs rather than discarding them, shredded the chicken to use it in salads and lunches and dinners during the week and froze Tupperware containers of my primal paleo sugar free stock before moving onto my own version of egg & bacon muffins, let’s call them 3.0.

They were quite tasty, recipe below –

9 eggs (from happy, free-range chickens)
12 long, skinny slices of bacon (Cannings)
1 tomato
1 red capsicum
1 zucchini
1/2 tin coconut cream
1 onion
2 spring onions
Salt and pepper to taste
Basil

Method via primal junction website.

I even made two with no bacon for my vegetarian sister in preparation for our road trip tomorrow.

My blog bagging brother gets nothing.

Book Review – I Quit Sugar, by Sarah Wilson (amyadelante.com)
Sarah Wilson’s blog (caitlinmaplestone.wordpress.com)

The Primal Challenge Day 21

Posted on July 21, 2013 by staceyfmason

Apparently I am no fun when I am off the sugar and off the drink. Or so I was told on Saturday night when I refused cocktail after cocktail, champagne, punch, chocolates, cheesecake, gingerbread men and many other loveable naughty’s my Christmas in July offered.

I think I was a bit offended.

Actually I was.

Especially given I had wasted 12 hours on a Christmas pudding that managed to get water into it during the transfer between houses and ruin. Yeah don’t get me started, epic fail. Its back hanging in my laundry hoping it can be saved but knowing it probably cant be, and who would eat it anyway…

But I digress – Christmas in July with the girls, Saturday night.

I still managed to last until 2am, completely sober and relatively sugar free – I ate some a bit too much fruit and as far as I could tell was still semi engaging in my conversation attempts and interactions. I still leapt to the challenge of Pictionary and Celebrity Heads and laughed over excitedly when those who were tipsy and those who were just blind drunk couldn’t hold the pen or draw a simple image.

No, I didn’t stand on a dining room chair and try to get everyone dancing. Nor did I spill red wine on the floor or dive into the chocolate cheesecake spoon in hand without waiting for it to be cut. Although I was the only one who broke a glass (of mineral water) all night.

But, as I was also told, I was no longer the life of the party. And who was going to play that role now? I admit neither Pictionary nor Celebrity Heads would have come out on my watch.

Oh the pressure! The guilt! But I had carried the load of over excited behavior for too long and had paid the price with pounding next day headaches, a cramping stomach and often a cheeky next morning (most likely afternoon) spew.

Not tonight!

I picked my way through the meal, skipping the prawns with the Cajun spice, knowing sugar is a hidden ingredient on the list, eating a spoonful of the bruschetta mix without the bread, swallowed a few oysters, ignored the grilled halloumi and the smoked salmon and cream cheese wraps, and waited patiently for the main.

Roast pork with no gravy or apple sauce, steamed greens with almonds, roast chicken without the stuffing and roast vegetables minus the dressing and potatoes. Of course I knew and had to accept the fact that the oil was probably rancid and not the ideal choice for the challenge, but I did have to give a little.

Overall however, it wasn’t even that hard.

Nor was sticking to the mineral water. Not as hard as I thought it would be probably as there were a few others in the sober boat with me thanks to a) Run Melbourne the following day, b) the sacrifices of breast feeding c) knowing with three kids at home it just isn’t worth it the following day and d) a ‘most often’ paleo diet.

The hardest part of the night (apart from trying to guess my celebrity head Nigella Lawson and drawing an image that represented the world ‘gargle’) was accepting the change in my social tag from ‘party starter’ to ‘party pooper’.

And while one friend commended me on my effort, another said a bit of her rice bran oil wouldn’t hurt me, nor would one drink, a few stayed silent and the host pointed at me and slurred how boring I was. Lucky my ‘generally’ paleo friend had my back the entire night. Although she did take a tiny sliver of the chocolate cheesecake when I desperately wanted to and most likely would have if I was not on this challenge, making it that little bit harder.

I did get some great advice however during the meal of many choices by my ‘almost always’ paleo friend. Once you make your own choice, deal with it, own it, and then move on. If you want to eat the vegetables cooked in rice bran oil because you are hungry and there is no other alternative, just do it. If you have been clean eating all week and trained all month and really like the look of the cheesecake, eat it. But don’t go on about it all night. And don’t beat yourself up about it or let others beat you up about it. Make your choice, and live with it.

I think I needed it on day 21.

Not because I am struggling, but because there is not long left and now I’m at the stage of working out what I would keep and what I was add and what I would change of this clean eating plan. And if I want to eat a slice of the chocolate cheesecake that looks amazing (I took a giant piece home for my husband just so I could look at it) once my challenge is up then I can.

But if I want my skin fold tests to be better than when I went in, I need to stop eating the nuts hidden in my draw by the bucket load, stop thinking about what I would add back in my diet, and start thinking about what I still need to cut out. At least for the next nine days.

Paleo vanilla cheesecake (ohmypaleo.wordpress.com)
Paleo vs. Primal (adventuresofacavemom.wordpress.com)

The Primal Challenge Day 19

Posted on July 19, 2013 by staceyfmason

Two new learning’s over the past few days. The first, even if your husband reads your sms wrong and when you asked to turn the lamb shanks off he turns them (literally) instead, and they remain in the slow cooker for almost 20 hours – they still taste amazing.

Honestly, amazing. I was a little angry when I found out they had been left on (ok maybe more than a little, my ‘flashes’ of anger may have had a mob like mentality in this case) and was pleasantly surprised when the meat still fell off the bone and was not the ‘old boot’ I thought it would taste like.

Amazing. We ate with pleasure and even incorrect sms reading husband loved the entire clean eating meal, with the cauliflower and carrot puree replacing the mash staple that normally comes with shanks. It was possibly my favorite clean dinner to date. And so easy!

Because I was feeling like I was on a roll, and I had almond butter, I whipped up the frosty fruit smash for dessert and put it in the freezer next to the low fat ‘light’ sugar filled ice-cream my husband would have for his dessert. It actually was pretty good frozen too and took me longer to eat which I think might come in handy at times when I’m craving something sweet and need my hungry mind and full body to synchronize.

I’m still excited over the lamb shanks because I kept two for tonight to eat before racing to the football. As a last minute request I got offered a few tickets in a corporate box for North V Blues and given I won’t be making use of the free food and drink almost declined. But by then I had forgiven said husband, and he is a Carlton supporter, and it means ill get to eat both leftover lamb shanks while he eats the gourmet finger food….

My second learning was that left over lamb shank sauce also assists to make amazing baked eggs. The pleasure of a new breakfast treat when you work from home and have the benefit of an oven! I took inspiration from the Primal Junction recipe but replaced the chorizo for Cannings new primal paleo bacon, added half a green capsicum, and along with the tinned tomatoes added in a decent amount of the lamb shank stew – tomato, carrots, garlic, zucchini, basil and oregano. Topped with two eggs it went into the oven and I was ever so excited.

The bowl was pretty big.

Actually it was enormous.

And I ate it all.

And loved it.

I could have had the bacon a little more crispy, and if I was on the dairy a bit of feta on top would have been a nice extra, but I loved it all the same. I’m not sure if it was the oversized bowl meant for two consumed by one, or because my trail mix was safety in the office filing cabinet but I did not need to snack once until lunch. I was full the brim (just like the baked eggs bowl).

I didn’t even think of nuts or sugar or fruit once. I drank water and my belly was full and I had another realization – maybe I just need to eat more for breakfast! Maybe my hands can hold more eggs and I just need to fill up a bit more in the morning!

To prove my point I made a baby spinach salad for lunch with tuna, avocado, capsicum and two boiled eggs bringing my daily total to four. I even boiled another one, he was the last in the carton and I felt sorry for him with no friends even though he was still smiling, so I prepped him for a snack later on.

My food wins today mixed with my recent massage at Revive Holistic Health, returning to CFHE and my physio treatment at Evolutio have helped me to lift my form and look at the second half of this challenge with a renewed focus and determination.

I know that sounds all Brady Bunch like and full of false bravado, but it has!

AND my constant sugar and primal eating talk continues to have a positive effect on others.

My previously mentioned sister in law sent me an inspiring message of her day 2 clean tasty monkfish red curry promising me there was no hidden sugar inside and that she even bought the coconut oil – I’m still waiting on the recipe and won’t mention the day 3.5 text you sent SOS style.

A college from work thanked me for breaking the “it’s inappropriate to eat eggs at desk rule” so she could follow suit and while wine was still a challenge as was the chocolate box she had to walk past every trip to the bathroom, her clean sugar free breakfast and lunches are going well.

Everyone is winning!

However, I do have to make a slight apology to my non-clean eating friends who will be attending Christmas in July tomorrow night.

Why you give someone on a no sugar and no gluten challenge a traditional Christmas pudding to make (apart from my fantastic recipe and baking skills) is beyond me. The care I provided to this ball of calico now hanging in my laundry before being boiled for six hours tomorrow was not what it should have been.

I ran short of currents, so just added more sultanas. I ran out golden syrup so opted for the honey. I ran out of brandy so used brandy essence. I ran out of mixed peel so just dealt with it.

Clearly I was not prepared or pumped for this wonder which is very uncharacteristically like me.

Apart from the fact I could not face another supermarket visit (almost every day this week is enough), I of course cannot eat nor taste the Christmas pudding. And while I would love everyone to love it, I figured by the time it is served tomorrow night a)everyone will be too full of food b)everyone will be too drunk to taste c)only half of the people going can eat it anyway and d)it will be drowned in brandy cream or ice-cream anyway.

Which (latest light bulb moment) means more than half of this big pudding will come back with me….

And I put nuts in it which means husband, nor brother in law nor sister in law can eat it when I see them on Sunday…

There is only 11 days to go, and pudding lasts for a long time…..

Shit.

Sausage, Egg & Cheese Muffins (primal, almost paleo, wheat belly) (moxiegirlproductions.com)
Get Primal Inspiration on Pinterest (itsprimalyall.wordpress.com)

The Primal Challenge Day 18

Posted on July 18, 2013 by staceyfmason

My enthusiasm for cooking all that I promised last night dried up when my stock search in the supermarket left me empty handed. How can there not be one – just one – stock in your local Woolies that has no sugar added??!! Not one!

Not Campbells, not Campbells Premium range, not Massel, not the cubes not the liquid nothing. Marcel’s smiling MasterChef face in the package trying to ensure me he hasn’t sold out did nothing. He has sold out. To sugar.

This no sugar no stock situation really threw me into a tail spin, and my dinner plans had to be rediscovered in the herbs aisle.

I moved the ribs to later in the week and instead put on a pile of lamb shanks in the slow cooker, ready for when I get home from work today and could devour them.

Today I turned to my trusted knowledge advisor Google and did a quick search to see where I could find such a treasure of sugar free stock. But I have a rule not to scan past page one and when nothing concrete was returned I have instead resolved to make my own stock using one of the free range organic chickens our friends at Canning’s delivered yesterday.

But back to last night.

I left the stock aisle in disgust and moved to the health aisle to find some almond butter and was pleasantly surprised. Woolworths defiantly had this over Coles. There were options and even specials on the jars of goodness. And while Google had previously advised making your own was probably cheaper, the $2.31 discount meant it wasn’t. So I loaded up with two jars some more nuts (my habit in this area is increasing) a few bananas for my weekend smoothies (and pancakes) and then went off to get my Ghee and Passata for my lamb shanks.

Now a slight off track remark and somewhat embarrassing revelation: when I first saw this word Passata, on the Primal Junction website, I actually thought it was a spelling mistake. That simply the recipe called for normal sugar free pasta sauce….

Just shows how naïve I really was before coming into this challenge. But moving on…

By the time I got home and actually cooked my dinner for that night (steak and veggies with krispy kale) and prepped for the lamb shanks, I was over making anything else. The pancakes and frosty fruit idea went out the window, as did the homemade almond butter. But hey dinner tonight is slow cooked clean lean lamb shanks –so even I forgive myself.

Today bought a few interventions. Well actually, two and the first was via facebook last night. Someone accused me of not doing a great job of selling this eating plan.

And based on the last few winging and whining posts, he is right.

So I apologise, but selling this in was not really my intent, and it’s no surprise it doesn’t sound all that great at the moment. If you told a junkie when they put down the needle for the first time they would shake uncontrollably, vomit for hours have delusions, uncontrolled anger and shit themselves constantly with violent diarrhea, do you think they would be so keen to go cold turkey? Would they even be so keen to give it up at all?

Well friends, I’m going through my own withdrawal symptoms with no gluten and dairy (I miss my cheese more than I thought I would) and legumes and soy and of course SUGAR.

And while I’m not bound to the loo and there is no bucket by my desk, flashes of anger have been witnessed and I’ve always been told I am somewhat delusional.

But ill shake this monkey off my back and come out clean if the nuts don’t kill me first.

Which brings me to the second intervention.

My ever increasing nut eating habit.

How much good fat is too much? How many handfuls/packets/piles of nuts are too much?

A colleague next door thought my third packet was in fact too much and came over to tell me. Reading my last post she thought an intervention was the only way to make me see the light, and she too was right.

I promptly shut the Tupperware lid (container was now half full and I had filled it up three times today – only when it gets half full just to try and kid myself) and locked the container away in my filing/food cabinet.

But now I know they are there. And I had to eat a green apple to try and get rid of the taste of the almonds and the coconut and the seeds and cashews and even as I am writing this I want to find that Tupperware container and open it and stuff another handful of the food into my salivating mouth.

I’m not hungry, just addicted.

To compensate, I bought some organic green and peppermint tea. I checked it has no nasty’s, not that I thought it would – its tea, but I check everything now. I’m going to make some tonight and put it in the fridge for a flavor option. I originally got it for my coffee addiction, but that has since subsided slightly – the nuts have taken over.

I’m tempted to do the frosty fruit delight tonight, but worried my sugar max is already at overloaded due to my green apple and the amount of nuts I have eaten must have some affect somewhere…

Plus I have the impending Christmas pudding I need to cook and hang tonight – using Gma’s old fashioned recipe that seems to have skipped a generation and sole responsibility land directly on my shoulders – the weight of which is worse than any WOD.

The process could take hours, and the fruit and nuts and flour and of course lots and lots of sugar will fill my house and my nose and drive me to want to eat something…

But I won’t, because underneath the nut eating, the complaining, the sugar free searching, the meticulous label reading – I am feeling better.

My hair feels much better after a wash; my skin is cleaning up, my blackheads slowly dissolving as the toxins get out of my body every way they know how.

My ‘food belly’ is not appearing as frequently although it did make an appearance when I tried to eat kale stems before finding out they were hard to digest and not recommended – this could explain a few things…. and the pro-biotic I was taking before all of this has not come out of the fridge once.

And while I have constantly complained and made reference to me missing the drink… I actually don’t… I feel better on Saturday mornings, stronger on Sunday’s. I get more out of my day and weekend, and like being able to quite simply say no.

Dry July and a few friends on the wagon does make it easier…

So to answer first intervention – let me get to day 30 and share my skin folds show my strength and talk about my improved digestive habits – it will sell itself.

And to answer second intervention – please continue to intervene, I have already taken out the Tupperware container and have it resting on my knee so you can’t see me snacking…

Nuts! (knitreadclick.wordpress.com)
That look that people give me when I mention that I don’t eat grains… priceless. #primal #paleo (regularguypaleo.wordpress.com)

The Primal Challenge Day 16

Posted on July 16, 2013 by staceyfmason

I had another strange dream last night. Not about food this time, but I still feel the reference was there. I was on a tram but on the outside of it, standing on the railings like it was an old fashioned carriage you would still see on the streets of San Francisco. The tram was on a hill, had just come to a stop at the very top.

The stranger next to me had stopped the tram by pulling up the old fashioned handle; it swayed and tilted a little, tiptoeing over the edge of the hill facing the steep decline below, rocking on the old hinges and tracks.

There were people in front of me, people I knew, standing in front of the tram, with their back towards me and they wouldn’t turn around or move, even after the tram began to rock more frantically, and the stranger kept pulling at the handle of the tram, and it kept moving, kept rolling forward. I knew at any moment it would capture momentum and roll down the hill, squashing those in the way who were not fast enough to move, and causing me to hold onto the tram for dear life.

The people moved just as the tram took flight. I managed to hold on, just.

And then I woke up.

Now maybe I just had one too many strawberries (4 in total) for dessert last night and the fructose sugar I have been craving more heavily the last few days took control of my subconscious, or maybe it was one too many ‘I still can’t stop’ long blacks or maybe it really was my subconscious trying to tell me something. I’m not sure yet.

But if I was a dream expert, I would expect to be told it meant something about feeling like I am loosing control, and that the loss of control not only affects me but others around me.

Yikes.

Maybe I am loosing control with my mental stability and running over others with my new clean eating preaching and cant stop!

Maybe I am loosing control with my Primal Plan and have eaten too much fructose and feel like I am loosing control with my challenge!

Maybe because I haven’t done a WOD since Friday I feel like I am loosing control of my fitness – that it’s running away from me and my pent up energy and excitement is ready to literally send me over the edge and off the rails!

To be sure, I did what everyone with a strange tram dream would do. I googled.

The meaning of tram dreams – you would be surprised what you can find out.

This is what I did –

Option 1 –

To want to get off the tram in a dream when it cannot stop means that in real life you have got involved in a case, which now seems to you rather doubtful.

Hmmm no don’t think it is that. Happy with the Primal Plan, next…

Option 2 –

Public or shared transport tends to indicate that the “trip” you are on may be some change or transition which many people go through.

Well that makes a bit more sense. Cutting out most of what has been my daily diet, what I thought was a healthy eating plan for the last few years is a bit of a change and transition.

Option 3 –

To see a tram in your dream suggests that you need to be more disciplined in certain aspects of your life.

Ouch.

Maybe I have overlooked a label, eaten one too many strawberries, or just maybe need to pick up the exercise.

I stopped googling after that.

Maybe I need to be disciplined in my eating ‘sharing’… Stop preaching to others about what I am now practicing, and share the love instead.

Nobody appreciates a Jehovah’s Witness or Born Again Christian knocking on their door with a message from the lord when they are an atheist (sorry to the above two religious groups, but its true).

An ex-smoker who can’t stand the smell but instead of moving to the non-smoking side of the bar provides a lecture on how smokers are not just killing themselves but everyone around them, is a little annoying (even if true).

A vegetarian who lectures you about how an animal is killed while you are tucking into your steak deserves a slap and a vegan who wears leather shoes is just confused.

So a day 16 clean eating – challenge still not finished – newbie i.e. me, is premature and annoying in promoting their greatness to others when they have never bothered to notice the greatness before.

Just like my sister-in-law who is trying (and almost there) to get back to her pre-baby weight and has taken a liking to some of my newly tried recipes…

Two kilos to go (Sister-in-law) –

When you made your Bolognese sauce with coconut oil, could you taste the oil?? I might have to jump on this oil bandwagon….Just did a bit of reading on olive oil and its cooking temperature!

Newbie (me) –

Nope, I cant but I try not to use too much of it.

Because I am trying to ensure the other stuff does not have sugar, it actually would taste the same if you used stuff with sugar e.g. sauce etc. but without the nasty’s….

Yes olive oil no good at high temperatures and all other canola etc. are BAD

Throw out your marg and get some butter too.

(See how eager I am to show off my ‘new’ knowledge, I automatically think everyone else knows nothing).

Annoyed at my naivety (Sister-in-law) –

Stacey. You don’t know me at all. I absolutely DETEST marg and everyone who uses it!!!! And I have never been a fan of low fat diary products. Full fat all the way for me!!

Maybe she was a bit over the top with the detest comment, but ill forgive her because a) she tried the zucchini bolognaise recipe (even if she did use her own sauce mix which probably – most likely – almost certainly – contained sugar) and b) she is thinking of coming to the next Primal Junction clean eating seminar.

She also later in the day sent me a photo of her bacon, zucchini and egg muffin, and judging by the looks of it, could do with a few of the Primal recipes and helpful hints…

There I go again, judging….

I hope in tonight’s dream she is not driving the tram or that I am eating margarine.

Whole30 – Day 23: weekend round up (hollygopaleo.com)
My Primal Cookbook (primalplates.wordpress.com)
I listen to my body because it’s smarter than me. #primal #paleo (regularguypaleo.wordpress.com)
Let’s chew the fat about the evils of margarine. (peicancer.com)
Butter vs. Margarine (familyfoodroots.wordpress.com)

The Primal Challenge Day 15 – Half Way!

Posted on July 15, 2013 by staceyfmason

I arrived at work later than normal this morning (8am) because I am still off the exercise which means I leave home about the same time as every mother in their oversized four-wheel drive and need to battle the traffic of Camberwell to reach my daily grind.

I was not feeling the best for a few reasons –

Still no exercise
Still painful back
Work moving day. I was losing the desk I loved (natural light, space, close to kitchen and thus food supply) and moving to sit with my new team. I couldn’t decide if it was just the desk I was upset about losing, or saying goodbye to the old role and starting the new. Sappy I know, especially when I was only moving twenty meters to the other side of the room and I’m excited by my new role, and given my old role has not been replaced yet, will no doubt be doing that too, but change always brings a sense of melancholies.
Traffic.

Maybe I am pre-menstrual. Too much information? Sorry I apologize.

So when I finally got to my desk carting my laptop, ipad, handbag and two bags of my weekly food, I was pleasantly surprised by the brown paper wrapped cookbook I found waiting for me.

Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar.

I forgot I had asked a friend to get it for me, and it was a great Monday morning surprise!

My cooking and my baking will be taken to an entire new level with this easy to read, follow and fall in love with cookbook. And as one person said ‘if I could get legs like that I would quit sugar too!”

Along with my new cookbook, another clean eating friend sent me an image of this little treasure which I never knew existing (and haven’t decided if it’s a good thing I found out about it). Paleo chocolate!!!

At first I thought it was a little controversial and somewhat contradictory – I mean isn’t clean eating all about stripping back the processed, the man made, the human touch? And looking at this elegant wrapper and patterned dark chocolate goodness, I’m not sure it’s all that well aligned. But it is handmade, gluten free, dairy free, soy free and has no refined sugar. So I guess when I get to the local health food store post this 30 day challenge it is worth a taste test.

Speaking of controversial and contradicting, that’s exactly what my sister Megan pointed out via email I was like after yesterday’s blog post….

Subject line – It’s too late for you!

This comment contradicts everything you listed….

You are one of those people!!

Ouch.

But she was right, I was!

Somehow I had started a war on sugar with my nearest and dearest and at the same time started a war on morals… and judgment and contradiction….

The email banter continued when my other vegetarian clean eating sister joined in….

Heidi (Vegetarian clean eater who has been ranting about organic and free range for many years)–

I distinctly remember a time not too dissimilar to this at a family do when everyone was chowing down on junk and someone offered me a soft drink and when I said I don’t drink soft drink S Mase rolled her eyeballs at me!

MY HOW THE TIMES HAVE CHANGED!

Megan (Often gluten free due to boyfriend, but otherwise open to all food groups. Favourite meal used to be cheese and tomato sauce on Strasberg) –

YEAH STACEY, YEAH!!!

I’m going to poison you with sugar as punishment

Me (clearly new to this eating plan, but now I have found it look down at those who don’t know it’s there) –

That must have been a while ago, I have not drunk soft drink for a while…. Thanks for your support friends. I know I am eating humble pie but you don’t have to make it taste so bad

Megan –

Poiiiissssssooooonnnnnnnn

PS I assume this humble pie has no sugar?

You see what being the oldest of six siblings four of whom are girls gets me right? No wonder I was driven to sugar.

But I did deserve it.

I have been parading my relatively new (day 15) clean eating practice in front of others who didn’t deserve it. And as I am finding out, many others who have silently and with far more humbled modesty quit sugar or gluten or something previously but unlike me did not feel the need to wave it around in front of others faces’.

But it’s now HALF WAY…. Surely I get some grace of goodness for being so good?

No wagon fall off, no slight hiccup (let’s just forget the red wine jus shall we?) nothing! I have a new eating plan I have stuck to with determination and grit and actually (for the most part) liked it.

I am amazed by the support (excluding the above) I have received from friends and family who make a conscious effort to ensure what they have prepared can be adapted to suit my needs.

I am also startled by what I can only call the ‘paleo revolution’ with many different forms of primal clean eating coming out of the woodwork – or caves if we need a bad pun – and offering up menu plans and advice, and as we have seen with the chocolate, food lines.

So 15 down and 15 to go, a new cookbook in hand, some more MODs coming fast and strong and only one major event looming on the horizon that brings me trickle of nerve Next Saturday’s girls Christmas in July dinner…

But never fear, paleo friends are near, and tomorrow is day 16…

Paleo Diet Recipes | “Paleo Cookbooks” Teaches People How to Cook… (prweb.com)
Sweet like sugar…or not – The Paleo Diet (lovelifeandhappyeverafter.com)

The Primal Challenge Day 12

Posted on July 12, 2013 by staceyfmason

I remembered to bring in the rest of my chocolate cake to work today. Double dark chocolate mud cake. I bought it in, took the lid off the Tupperware, cut up the cake and called everyone over for a slice. People have come and gone all day to take a piece or two (it’s a big cake) and I have sat here, and smelt the chocolate goodness. I’m in a dizzy haze of second hand sugar euphoria.

It’s almost enough. Not quite, but almost. This actually is the one cake I would eat and today my headache had returned and my back is not the best and I couldn’t finish the WOD so I’m slightly depressed, so a piece of moist, dense, sickly sweet chocolate cake would be just what I needed right?

Wrong.

I am eating a banana (still can’t cut out fruit completely, it’s my only piece today) and pretending it is in fact the chocolate cake. The smell that still lingers in the air is actually making it easier, if I close my eyes and block my nose it’s almost reality.

Thank god the last piece was taken and I didn’t have to pack him away and take him home again. That would have been too much.

I love baking. I love the precision and actually finding it soothing in a crazy dough kneading sort of way. But most of all I love making people happy. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done a bit of charity work but I’m no Australian of the year – I’ve left that title to the amazing Shane Crawford after his Melbourne to Perth ride for Breast Cancer. I’m just talking about making people happy with instant gratification, and I can do that through food.

So I bake and I cook and I share it all with a smile and a warm bubble of pleasure runs through my body every time someone takes another cookie or slice of cake.

But today, I did feel a little differently. I felt a little guilty.

There were a few remarks about how I was ‘making them fat’ or ‘poisoning’ them with sugar when I was not eating it – of course their comments didn’t stop them from taking cake – but they did make me a little more self aware.

Was I making them fat and poisoning them? Would they be just as happy if I bought in a sugarless, flourless, almond meal cake or some protein powder balls?

I think the answer is no.

Unless…. I never told them it was sugarless/flourless and completely clean…..

Regardless, now that I know about the dangers of sugar, should I stop playing with it in the kitchen? This would involve an entire new hobby – an entire new library of cookbooks, an entire new set of carefully labeled Tupperware containers, (yes slight obsessive compulsive disorder) with an entire new set of ingredients.

And – shock horror – what if this type of food doesn’t make people happy??!! I’m like Jerry Seinfeld – I want to be everyone’s friend – I don’t want enemies due to my poorly baked and horrible tasting kitchen catastrophe.

Plus ill have a new team from 1^st August; they don’t need a boss who tries to poison them by eliminating poison!

Oh chocolate, oh sugar, look what you have done to me – and I haven’t even eaten a piece of you – not even a crumb – or licked the knife.

Please sugar; please don’t take away my social status. If I’m not the positive team player with a mean competitive edge especially when she is hungry – then I could be nobody. Well not quite, but its Friday afternoon, time for a bit of dramatics.

Can I bake a cake or two, a tray of cookies, a pie, a tart, and some scones just for special occasions? Can I throw in a cup or two of sugar (or three as this recipe called for) and not have my conscience eat away at my inner angel?

Surely we all have a sugar choice – and if I can bake it and not eat it – then others can also choose what to put in their mouth.

As long as they know, and as long as there is a choice.

So –

Post Challenge Firm Commitment Number 1

Experiment in sugar free baking and hope that like a packet of sugar free extra I can still make people smile.

If Shane Crawford Can Ride Melbourne-Perth in 22 Days… (awesomeashild.com)
Flourless chocolate cake (vskitchen.wordpress.com)
World’s Best Chocolate Mud Cake Recipe (kiararoseramblings.com)

The Primal Challenge Day 10

Posted on July 10, 2013 by staceyfmason

Last night I had a slip up. It wasn’t major and it was purely by accident, but it happened.

I was having people over to dinner. A UK colleague, my sister and her boyfriend – who not by choice but by necessity doesn’t eat gluten, fructose and dairy.

No worries! I told him

I’m all over it.

By now I was in day 10, so of course thought I was a professional at this clean eating gig. Dinners were a breeze. The chocolate cake I would not eat was done, the ganache icing not even tempting. Too easy.

Plus I was cooking lamb. And I’m good at lamb. A beautiful lamb shoulder I was going to slow cook with lemon, garlic and oregano. I had done it before to rave reviews so was strutting around the kitchen with an air of confidence I didn’t deserve.

Especially as I forgot to turn the oven down after its preheating cycle and ended up roasting my slow cooked lamb for an hour before realising. Fail. So my slow cooked meal morphed its way to a roast.

First fail of the night – lets move on.

Vegetables. Lots of them. I did corn for the grain eaters, steamed broccoli and beans, tried kale chips for the first time – delicious! (although my no fructose friend confirmed via google they were on his banned substance list). Potatoes and sweet potatoes, all cooked in coconut oil, which I had finally managed to track down (and to ‘borrow’ a back up jar from my sister-in-law) and covered only with salt and pepper.

But the lamb.

It was always going to be my achilles heel of the night and now it was roasted (not very well) deserved, and needed, a sauce to join him on the plate. At least for the guests that could eat it.

So I quickly made a gravy for those that love it before finding a new, easy to do red wine jus.

Butter, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, beef stock and of course half a cup of dry red wine.

I’d like to carry on about how the smell of it made me want to drink the sauce straight from the fry pan as it lay simmering, but it didn’t. Nothing about the way the butter sizzled in the pan or how the garlic and onion began to caramelize made me want to try it.

I poured it in a gravy jug without a second thought, but happy I had tried something new and piled it and everything else on the dining room table, dinner was served!

Plates were pilled high, wine was poured, bread was buttered.

I left off the corn (oh how I really do miss you) ignored the bread and loaded up on my meat, greens, sweet potato – no standard spud you can not join in, I’m sorry – and those delightfully crispy and salty kale chips.

I was halfway through telling a story and cutting my second bite of lamb when I realised what else I had done.

My face paled, hands flew to my head, knife and fork clattering on the white porcelain plate as they dropped from my fingers, and as my sister put it I ‘did something really girlie I have never seen before’.

Oh shit.

Whether it was the excitement of my own story telling, the comfort and confidence I had taken too far and paraded around the kitchen earlier or my pitchfork holding red devil appearing again and taking over control, I don’t know.

But whatever it was, however I had done it, there on my plate, covering the piece of my already bitten lamb, was a drizzle of that red wine jus.

I continued my girly, incoherent babble for a few moments longer, my colleague looking at me with a wide eyed expression and no doubt wondering if he could silently slip out of this madhouse now and make a run for it (we had only known each other a month), my sister reassuring me it was only a mouthful, her boyfriend staying silent, and my husband declaring I should just ‘scrape it off’.

Instead, horrified and humiliated, I got a clean plate, rescued what vegetables I could and served a few new clean slices of meat, pushing the red wine and butter infested ones with their jus over to my husband.

Then I checked and tripled checked everything on my plate again – just in case.

No sauce, no gravy, no jus, no bread, no butter, no corn, no potato. Mineral water, no wine.

I really didn’t enjoy (apart from the kale chips) the rest of the food. I felt slightly sick over my previous potentially potent forkful.

I will NOT call this a failure.

I refuse to.

Even if it was – which it wasn’t – I’m using that cheesy old saying of ‘I’m still a winner’.

It as one mouthful – small mouthful – and something totally unintentional, purely by mistake.

An accident, not a failure.

And it shook me to the core.

How careful I must still be, how diligent! This clean eating gig of mine was still in rehearsals and it would be days before I made it to the live show and it became a habit not a hindrance. If this was The Voice I would have just lost the battle round.

Bloody jus. New recipe, first time I had ever made it. I blame the lamb, and the oven, and myself for needing a jus to begin with.

Even hours later, when everyone had left, and I was loading plates with gravy stains and bowls with brownie crumbs and ice-cream drops – none of which were mine – into the dishwasher I was still highly annoyed with myself.

My competitive spirit – the same one that once threatened a team mate to ran faster or I would poke his eye out with a spoon – was annoyed that I had, on some level, failed.

The feeling of failure followed me to bed and left a bitter taste on my not so clean eating tongue.

I’m sure the men at airport security this morning would have been rolling their eyes with laughter as I x-rayed my two bacon and egg muffins, container of macadamias and almonds, my banana and water.

And I’m sure the other lunch goers were rolling their eyes with impatience when I checked if any of the salads had gluten or dairy, and made the poor order taker recite dressing ingredients to me.

And I’m sure she was rolling her eyes in annoyance when in the end I asked if she could make me up a salad with only the vegetables I wanted don’t put on any dressing, was the chicken free range, and can she make it up in front of me so I could see what she put in it.

Today I wasn’t taking any chances.

Because yesterday I had a slight failure accident.

Lessons learned –

Confidence is ok, being cocky is not
I make a good red wine jus
It takes longer than 10 days to break a lifelong habit
Muffins in Tupperware don’t beep through the airport security, but they do capture strange looks and ensure you get called over for an explosives and drug screening

Ingredient of the week: kale (o.canada.com)
Let’s Eat… Kale! (sweetreceipt.wordpress.com)

The Primal Challenge Day 9

Posted on July 9, 2013 by staceyfmason

I have a confession to make. Some 10 odd years ago when I still fell into the early 20’s bracket, I ate McDonalds two to three times a day. I know, disgusting right. I can hear you gagging, or trying to swallow that little bit of vomit that has crept up your throat. The rest of you have foreheads creased in disgust and horror. But it’s true.

I got into a bad habit. Working 10 hour days at McDonalds while studying full time with a naïve focus of trying to fit the most in my day rather than get the most out of it. Yes there is a difference. Food was a necessity. I ate when I was hungry and never really worried too much about what it was.

If I had the early shift I would start at 5:00am and work until early afternoon which meant breakfast was a bacon and egg muffin and a few hash browns, and lunch was fries and a burger. Sometimes when it was really cold I would make a hot chocolate using the chocolate topping from a sundae and the soft serve, throwing in a dash or two of boiling water just so I could call it a drink. Often the favorite was ‘home made’ jam donuts. Empty the middle out of a cheeseburger bun, fill it with jam then deep fry it in the vat we cooked the apple pies in. More vomit?

I could go on, about all the things I saw and we made in the greasy fast food kitchen. Burgers that held two or three chicken patties, thickshakes with added oreo flakes and soft-serve, muffins in the warmer heaped with topping and ice-cream. Closing time and the crew got to eat whatever was left so would stuff Cheeseburgers with nuggets and chips and Big Macs with chicken patties.

If I had late shift it was no different. If I had the middle shift it was no different. Work uni, uni work and my only fuel in between was a burger, fries and a litre or two of coke. It got to a point where my crew would ask me if I wanted a ‘McStace’ today – my custom built favorite burger. That should have been a trigger point. I worked at three different stores and most of the crew at each knew of the McStace. Of course Ronald didn’t make it any easier by giving all the Managers access to free food. My inner tight ass (no way was it tight on the outside with that diet) thought it crazy to buy lunch when I had piles of it sitting around me I could eat for nothing and I was a poor uni student who otherwise ate two minute noodles. The problem was, I was a ‘poor’ uni student for seven years. Yep swallow that bile now.

And I thought I had no addiction to sugar.

The truth was, it started even before then. High school lunch was a carton of milk, plain or sometimes flavored (ice-coffee was my favorite) a small bucket of hot chips and a mars bar. I never ate breakfast and could often go to early afternoon before eating at all, and then of course it was sugar.

Dinner was better, but not always great. It was quick and easy, and whatever Mum could do after work on a single income that would feed six kids. Chips in the oven with a chicken and some veggies, pasta, stir fries. Things that were easy for the first child who got home to pull out of a packet and pop in the oven.

By now you are probably picturing me as a morbidly obese 20 something and you would be right to paint that picture. The truth was however I was not much bigger than I am today, maybe only five or six kilos. My body simply rejected almost all of the food and fueled itself on the sugar.

When I got my first corporate job some eight years ago my staple breakfast item was an extra tall latte with three sugars. Over the years I changed the milk to skinny, dropped a size and eventually took out the sugar, but the coffee and milk was always there.

As early as three years ago I would rush home from work and pop open a can of full strength coke. I joked with everyone that it was like my after work beer, but in reality I was no less addicted.

Even before I started this challenge I had the same naïve outlook on my diet. I thought I had limited sugar as much as possible. I hardly ate sauces (tomato, sweet chili etc), had cut out my can of coke – now that was a painful breakup – and barely ate any of the cakes that I made for others.

But I was eating muesli laced with sugar every morning, and at least two muesli bars during the day that also contained at least 11grams of sugar each. Pop a few pieces of fruit in the mix, a dressing of my salad, even in my soup, and I was already overloaded before even dinner.

You get this is my ‘ah ha’ moment right?

Ah ha I hear you all chorusing in the distance. And why shouldn’t you join in the chorus, I am sure you have had your own – really I ate that much?! moments.

I had long been saying fat doesn’t make you fat; sugar does, but had not once looked deeper into where the sugar was hiding in order to try and fight its fat conquest. And it does hide – everywhere.

There are almost three cups of it in my dark chocolate mud cake I made last night, and that is before the icing and not including the sugar content in the chocolate. Ohh the sweet poison. I made the cake and watched as the mixture ran off the mixers blades with little more than a slight drool. I blocked my nose to the smell that began to radiate through my kitchen and not once did I lick the spoon. I was not even half tempted to.

Well maybe a little.

I’m sure somewhere underneath my ‘second week in, clean eating’ skin it’s still lurking. I am eating one piece of fruit a day, so it’s not gone completely. I’m even thinking of raining that back in next week just to see if I have fully broken the sugar shackles.

And to think just a decade ago Ronald was my best friend and McStace was my middle name.

PS – I had my own version of clean cauliflower tabouleh (turmeric, lemon juice, green capsicum and tomato) and lemon pepper chicken skewers last night and really need to use my camera and not my ipad to take photos!

Sugar Alcohol 101 (bellafalconi.wordpress.com)
Three Tips to Make Living Sugar-Free Easier (berries.com)
Going Primal Was Like the Magic Pill I Have Been Looking For (marksdailyapple.com)
One week Sugar Free (shadowdancer.typepad.com)

The Primal Challenge Day 8

Posted on July 8, 2013 by staceyfmason

Week two was looming and I needed to shrug off the painful monkey that seemed to be both clinging to my shoulders and clutching my leg with his painful claws simultaneously, and send him scurrying back into the forest in search of a banana.

So after my roast pork dinner and a self indulgent winging blog post, I regrouped, and inspired by a colleague and fellow crossfit/clean eater’s photos of protein balls, zucchini cheesecake and coco-nutty granola, started cooking up a storm.

First – my ‘don’t hide the greens’ smoothie. Don’t get me wrong, I really wanted to hide the greens. The strange colour actually puts me off and reminds me I am drinking a leafy vegetable, but I had no beetroot to help change colour – and I don’t like beetroot anyway – and needed to (in more ways than one) suck it up. So I added in extra kale and a few extra berries and some chia seeds and imagined it was a lovely pastel colour rather than something that resembled grass when I took the first sip.

And despite its strange spinach like colour, the taste test proved it was a winner.

Which at 11pm on Sunday night when I had to be up at 5:20am was a life savor.

Time then for some breakfast muffins.

These were easy and really are like a mini quiche. You can basically put whatever you want in the mixture. I used 1 x onion, 1 x green capsicum, 1 x tomato, around eight pieces of cooked free range bacon, some basil, salt, pepper, a little water and nine x free range eggs from our friends the happy chickens. I can almost hear them clucking with joy as they wander carelessly around.

Make sure you give your muffin pans a good spray of coconut oil, and when taking out the muffins let them cool but don’t go cold or they could get stuck in the bottom. Not that it matters – then you just have an omelet.

I actually ended up with two omelet’s as my impatience to get them out of the pan broke their little bottoms off (hey it was 11:45pm by then). But never fear my husband who has finally cottoned on to my new way of eating was up for a few. So into the Tupperware went the broken bums of bacon along with two sizeable full muffins.

I took the other eight. Don’t judge me, he has cereal as a backup and not afraid to eat it.

So yes, my husband finally knows that pasta is no longer on the menu. Or maybe he hasn’t realised that yet, because he has been very supportive. When I dragged him to the health food isle in Coles and stood staring blankly at the items trying in vain to find coconut oil – turns out it was in a jar and looked like a paste, not in a bottle that looked like oil, thanks for the heads up guys – he waited a full 30 seconds before leaving and wondering down to the freezer section to sneak an ice-cream tub into the trolley while I was not there to refuse.

He has eaten everything I have put in front of him, which is generally the same dinner as mine with a few slight modifications like adding a potato to his vegetable selection, without complaint. Although he did look at me quizzically with raised eyebrows when I told him it also meant I was off the grog.

The expression was short lived however before his eyes lit up with excitement. I realized then his light bulb moment was in fact the discovery of having a designated driver for the next few weeks.

The biggest realisation however comes when he offers me something, or goes to add something to his meal and I explain why I can’t have it.

Like tomato sauce having sugar.
Like the tinned mangoes having sugar added as a preservative.
Like the roasted vegetables Masterfoods herb shaker having sugar.

Although I couldn’t explain to him why potatoes are a no go. I love potatoes and am convinced I was Irish in a past life because I could eat them with every meal. So if someone can please explain to me why potatoes are not allowed I would be grateful. They come from the ground, and while I know our primitive paleo ancestors didn’t have spades as such, surely they could have given the women a rest by putting the club to a better use.

I can only imagine it is the starch or carbohydrates – everything I like about them.

However back to my breakfast muffins.

Very tasty! I had two with a cup of smoothie this morning and am sure both would give Jamie Oliver a run for his healthy eating money.

They also filled me up delightfully and have kept me going with the aid of some trail mix going until lunch time.

I also think the monkey has gone, or at least run up a tree for the day. My shoulders are not as sore as they were this morning, despite the WOD – although I am glad I still used a lighter weight. Seems my muscles might need a bit longer recovery time than they did previously, but we will see during the week.

Again, I’m feeling pretty good. Not fantastically better than I was before the challenge, and I’m sure there are still a few downs throughout the ups, but overall I’m enjoying the challenge of taking part in the challenge.

I’m also looking forward to making the latest Primal Junction MOD – slow cooked beef ribs – and pretending I’ve just been clubbed by a stranger and dragged by the foot to a campfire to take part in a last night’s leftovers. If only there was potato.