So Easy, A Caveman Did It

Coach Renee here with a new week full of new challenges and rewards.

For those of who didn’t know I am actually a celiac, which means that my body physically can not digest gluten. I had been a very sickly kiddo, always in and out of the hospital with some sort of stomach issue. I wasn’t diagnosed until college when I was eating insane amounts of pasta and bread to carbo load before swim meets and I didn’t have my amazing mother to make me home cooked, preservative free meals. So when I got to college my health went downhill quickly and couldn’t finish swim races the trainers made it a point of figuring me out. I remember sitting there with the doctor after my test results came back. “I am allergic to what?! And I CAN’T EAT PIZZA?” I had to go cold turkey and give up ALL my favorite foods. It was devastated. I would dream about spagetti and meatballs ball room dancing with slices of pizza. Why do I share this? Because I was forced to go Cavewoman- and if I can do this, you can do this. I had a passionate love affair with all things gluten, from pizza to molten chocolate cake, I went into a solid two weeks of grieving after my diagnosis- thinking that I would be stuck with brussels sprouts and grilled chicken for the rest of my life. The breakdown: I have become a master of tricking myself by making foods that taste the same as all the gluten filled meals that had been my staples. If you can find Caveman foods that have the same texture and taste as your non-Paleo favorites then this challenge will be a bit easier.

Cavewoman trick #1:

Fan of the fried goodness that is usually crawling with gluten? One of the tricks I want to share with you is coconut flour, and almond flour. You can find either one in the flour aisle at your local HEB, and Central Market and Whole Foods even carry both flours in the bulk section. When I am craving something fried, I take anything from talapia to sweet potatoes, powder on some coconut of almond flour and sautee/bake it. Tonight I made sweet potato fries. I preheated the oven to 450. Threw some foil on a cookie sheet, and spayed the foil with Pam. I took regular yams, peeled them, and cut them into half inch chunks, rolled them in olive oil, then threw them in a plastic bag full of almond flour and pepper- shook them like a Polaroid picture and set them on the foil. I let them cook until golden brown. The more you roll them in olive oil, the more flour they will catch, and the more crunch you will get.

Tonight (Sunday) is also the night that I cook for me and my Caveman for the whole week. I buy a large carton of eggs, lot of produce from kale to blueberries, yams, lunch meat from the deli at HEB, ground pork, beef, chicken and pork…. and lot of other goods as seen below. We grill all the meat and make egg bake for breakfast which involves a dozen eggs and ground sausage. I make hard boiled eggs out of all the leftover eggs to pair with berries and lunch meat for snacks.

Living the Paleo lifestyle isn’t easy, but if you plan and learn to make Paleo taste good- then it is for sure a wonderful lifestyle change. Look out for a dinner time dinner recipe coming at you from Coach Travis on Tuesday.

**REMINDER: Make sure that if you completed Coach Nick’s challenge of Being strict for the entire weekend. And stuck 100% STRICT to the rules then you have to log your extra point!– Look for mine and Coach Travis’ challenge coming up on Tuesday!**

Remember- you can do this. Like Master Yoda says: Do or do not- there is no try.