Well, the Paleo Challenge is officially over and I think I did pretty well considering my wedding dress stress.  Since I saw such great results with my skin, I’m continuing a good portion of this diet until my wedding day.  I’ll be strictly staying away from dairy and most sugars, pasta, and processed food.  I’ve started incorporating rice and beans back into my diet and just a tiny bit of whole grains.  Of course, my birthday weekend will be tough – tradition calls for chocolate swirl cheesecake.  I’ll have to limit myself to half a piece of cheesecake for the weekend to avoid any pre-wedding breakouts.  

So what helped me along the way?  It was a little tough coming up with good Paleo meals every week.  These cookbooks (which I checked out from the library) really helped with our weekly meal planning:

My favorite go-to Paleo meals would be spaghetti squash with meatballs and anything grilled: hamburgers, brats, ribs, salmon.  Add some veggies to the grill and you’ve got a great Paleo summer meal!  Also, having eggs on hand all the time helped.  Boiled eggs are a nice breakfast or snack to take to work when there are no other tasty options.  After the second week we were not missing bread or pasta.  Those two things will continue to be very rare in our diet moving forward.  

The past four weeks have not been easy, but it has been well worth the trouble.  I’m sure having to cook for children or a very picky adult would have made things much more complicated.  So, for those Paleo parents who are not cooking several different meals per day for your young ones; I applaud you and your kids.  This does take some getting used to, but it’s possible to do if you really put your mind to it.

Just joining and want to take a look back at my 4 Week Paleo Challenge?  Look below for the links to all my Paleo posts:

I am very much in favor of the Paleo Diet to get healthy and lose weight.  If it is possible for the diet to work too well, then that is exactly what happened in my situation.  My goal going into this challenge was to clear up my acne from the inside out – with a better diet.  This adult acne issue came up out of nowhere just two summers back.  I have been using two different creams for the past two years and I was still not seeing the results I wanted.  My dermatologist then prescribed a pill in addition to these creams.  The first time I took it, I became nauseous for over an hour.  There was not a second time.  I knew I had to think of another solution quickly because my wedding was approaching.  With a strapless gown, I knew anything other than smooth skin just wouldn’t work. Oh yes, I’m talking about the dreaded back-ne.  I tried decreasing my dairy and sugar intake, and I did start to see results.  I still wasn’t satisfied; I wanted more drastic results.  I could not have any new breakouts and my scarring had to be gone in just under two months.  The answer: Paleo!

Just joining and want to take a look back at my 4 Week Paleo Challenge?  Look below for the links to all my Paleo posts:

This week has not been as exciting as the last, but we’re still following the diet pretty well.  During Prep Week and Week 1, we were all pumped up to do a whole month of Paleo meals.  Although the meals have been really fun, they are sometimes a lot of work.  The good news, though, is that we did get our grocery bill down a little to just barely over $85 for this week’s groceries.  Here’s a run down of our dinner menu this week:

Monday – Curry burgers topped with a curry sauce, with green apple slices for buns
Tuesday – Korean BBQ Chicken, Fried “Rice” Cauliflower, Korean Spinach Side
Wednesday – Paleo pork sausage stuffing with Butternut squash cube bake
Thursday – Paella with a side salad
Friday – Open
Saturday – Leftovers
Sunday – Chopped salad

To make things a little easier for us, we grilled both the chicken and burgers on Monday and warmed up the chicken the next night for our Korean dinner.  I think the most complicated thing for us still is condiments and sauces.  I tried my hand at making mayonnaise and it just didn’t work out.  I found a healthy mayonnaise option at our Sprouts market so I’ll just use that if we ever need mayonnaise again.  Ketchup is a breeze to make, but I did get organic ketchup at the store as well, just in case we need it.

If you haven’t tried fried rice using cauliflower, I highly recommend it.  It tastes better than the real thing, and my fiancé actually agrees with me!  You can make it any way you want – just process fresh (uncooked) cauliflower florets in a food processor until it looks like rice.  Fry it up in a skillet or wok for 5-10 minutes and then add your favorite ingredients.  We used 1 tsp sesame oil and a couple teaspoons of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos for flavoring.  This is what it looked like part of the way through cooking before the Liquid Aminos were added:

This was tasty as a side, but you can beef it up by adding more veggies like peas, carrots, celery, and bell pepper.  You can also make it a chicken fried rice or add some shrimp into the mixture.  It is amazing!

Week 2 is almost complete, and no major complaints.  I did lose some inches from my hips, which is fine, as long as my wedding dress still fits!  Overall, we’re both feeling pretty healthy and happy. Just joining and want to take a look back at my 4 Week Paleo Challenge?  Look below for the links to all my Paleo posts: