Lead with your rice?

See this BBC article on USA rice. I know this is a couple months old, but still... in case you didn't have enough reason not to eat rice, apparently some of the rice you can find here in the United States contain 20 to 120 times the provisional total tolerable intake (PTTI). The high end of that range applies in particular to children among groups who eat a higher than average amount of rice, such as those of Asian or Latin background. For the average adult, the levels of lead in rice can be 20 to 40 times higher than the PTTI.

Who'da thunk?

And in other news... my candlelight yoga class tonight was intense. Seriously. Do you know how odd it is to have sweat dripping up your chin while your arms shake in downward dog, downward dog split, and dolphin poses? I definitely never thought that yoga was sweat-worthy. Sure, sports involving lots of cardio = sweating, but yoga? Really? And of course, I'm dripping sweat to the point that my hands and feet started slipping on the yoga mat. Fortunately my arms and legs didn't splay out so that I belly-flopped onto the mat. Ah, the little things in life...

I checked my mail after I got back from yoga. My mailman/woman/person was probably furious with me for letting my little mailbox get so full. But as a nice surprise for me, I got a package in the mail. And what was in this wonderful little package? A new pair of spandex yoga capris. Super soft ones. And I love my spandex so much that I actually started talking to it. Word-for-word, this was what I said to my spandex capris: "Oh! Look how soft you are! Helllllooooo, lover!" Yes, I'm weird. I love spandex. I think I truly realized this love when I started rowing back in college. And since then, I would willingly wear spandex whenever possible. Sadly, I don't think that work would be too cool with that, but man would I like to. Ah, the comfort that I could feel while sitting at work all day every day. But then my company doesn't give us standing desks, why would they let me wear spandex to work? I'll work on it...

Easy Roast Pork Loin

I know, I know... It's been a week. I have no excuse. Just my own laziness and tiredness. On Tuesday I got into bed at 7 p.m. and fell asleep by 7:30. Sadly my 9 o'clock "It's time to go to sleep alarm" woke me up. No, the irony of that has not been missed by me. Anyways, it was a wildly busy weekend, and I was worn out by the time my wildly busy week started. Staying at work until 8:30 p.m. on Monday didn't help. On the bright side, I made it to yoga last night and got to chill out a bit.

Anyways... Onward to the food!

Because I've been simultaneously busy and lazy, I wanted something easy to make. And what better than a simple pork roast?

Easy Roast Pork Loin

3 lb pork loin roast, tied

2 Tbls Dijon mustard

2 Tbls apple cider vinegar

1 Tbls olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Heat 1 Tbls olive oil on the stove over medium heat.

2. Season pork with salt and pepper.

3. Brown the pork on all sides (~2 minutes each). Remove the pork from the pan.

4. Whisk together the Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, and pork drippings. Brush over the pork, coating thoroughly.

5. If you weren't already using a oven-safe pan, transfer to a baking dish. Then put the whole thing into the oven. Cook for roughly 20 minutes per pound or until internal temperature is 145 F. I cooked mine for about an hour.

6. Remove from oven, transfer to plate, and cover with tinfoil. Let rest for 10 minutes. Go ahead, put your feet up to relax. Then enjoy your dinner.

For a side, you can toss a sweet potato in the oven 20 minutes into the cooking cycle, allowing 40 minutes to cook your sweet potato. Then slice up and serve with the pork. It makes a sweet and tangy combination.

Buffalo Chicken Egg Bites

Buffalo Chicken Egg Bites

4 eggs, whisked
1/2 orange bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup frozen cut spinach

Sauce
1/4 cup (4 Tbls) hot sauce
2 Tbls (2 oz) Tbls ghee, melted
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp sea salt
pinch of ground black pepper

Chicken
1 lb chicken, cubed and seasoned with
1 tsp olive oil
pinch of salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Pull out your 6-muffin tin and either insert paper liners or coat with oil.
2. In a bowl, stir together the chicken, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
3. Spread the seasoned chicken across a baking sheet, and cook for ~7 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven and pat dry.
4. Mix the sauce ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl (large enough to hold 2 cups).

5. Stir in the cooked chicken, making sure chicken is fully coated.

6. Evenly distribute the pepper, spinach, and chicken among the 6 muffins.
7. Add 3.5 Tbls of the whisked egg to each muffin.

8. Bake in oven for 15 minutes.

Alternatives: You can use a loaf pan, or 8"x8" pan instead of muffin tins if you like. I had leftover eggs and chicken, so I chopped up some more pepper and made a mini souffle dish of the buffalo chicken egg bites, as you can see at the top...

Is too much water a bad thing?

I forgot to share what my secret weapon was at work when I forgot Advil last Wednesday. Cold water. I realized that if I drank cold water, it momentarily relieved the discomfort and pain associated with this damn retainer. So I drank lots and lots of water. I managed to down NINE 32-oz Nalgenes of water during work alone. Add another Nalgene during yoga on Wednesday night, and probably a half more once I got home. That adds up to roughly 336 oz of water on Wednesday. The "recommended" amount of water per day is 8 cups or 64 oz. I definitely exceeded that level. When I mentioned this to one of my rowing friends last week, she brought up the fact that too much water is a bad thing. I remembered hearing about something years and years ago where some high school football player died from drinking too much water during a strenuous practice, so I decided to look it up.

Let's break it down into the mechanics behind this issue. We have to start at the cellular level. The membranes of your cells are made up of phospholipids, forming a lipid bilayer. The heads of the phosopholipids are hydrophilic, while the tails are hydrophobic, so the heads face the inner and outer edges of the cell membrane. These semi-permeable membranes allow certain things like water molecules to pass through the membrane. Hello, osmosis:

See here for the source image.

This permeability allows the cell to exist in balance with its surroundings. But when you flood your body with water, the concentration of electrolytes and sodium in the blood outside of the cells decreases, causing the cell and blood concentrations to be unbalanced. In order to correct this imbalance, water enters the cell via osmosis, thus causing the cell to swell. See the hypotonic image below.

This cell swelling happens throughout the body, and you'll notice the side effects of the intracranial pressure (swelling in the brain). Some of these signs of "water intoxication" are: headache, confusion and dulled perception, drowsiness, as well as personality changes and irritability. You may also experience difficulty breathing during exertion, nausea/vomiting, thirst, and muscle weakness, twitching, or cramping. One example of a situation to be wary of is marathons. Marathon runners tend to consume a fair amount of water while running to stay hydrated, but they aren't eating a ton of food during these strenuous runs. This influx of water while doing an endurance sport can lead to hyponatremia, which is when the sodium ion concentration is lower than normal. This state can lead to collapse or confusion of the runners. That's why you can find tons of mid-run gels or snacks to help prevent hyponatremia. Some runners even use just salt tablets. Watch out for overexertion and heat stress as other contributing factors.

I looked up the LD50 of water and it is 90 g/kg (at least for rats). When I factor in my weight and do a brief conversion (thanks to Dr. Koros my Intro to Chemical Engineering Professor for training me how to do pretty conversions):

... you can see that my water intake was technically higher than the LD50 of water. You can also probably determine that I'm not dead. Otherwise, my ghost is really dedicated to blogging. But there are some big qualifiers here for why I didn't bite the big one last Wednesday... timing and the conditions. Sure if I had chugged 10 Nalgenes of water in one go, I might not have done so well, but considering that my water consumption was spread over 12 hours and that I was eating and consuming electrolytes and salts via my meals, it wasn't an issue. That being said, I don't recommend chugging that much water on a daily basis. Yes, water is good for you, but like with everything else... moderation is key. Drink when you're thirsty, eat when you're hungry, and maintain your balanced, healthy Paleo meals. Good luck!

When I have no willpower

These past few days have tested my willpower and I have found myself lacking. What happened? Well, I'll tell you...

On Tuesday morning, I had a nice little trip to the orthodontist, where I received a partial retainer. This retainer spans the front six teeth on my bottom jaw and will readjust my teeth which are starting to crowd. Seriously, am I that vain that I want to correct a slight crowding that I promise nobody but me notices? Fortunately, no. Apparently small bottom jaws and jaw clenching runs in my family. And I've noticed my teeth have moved and gotten more crowded over the past 6 months. So I'm trying to be proactive and correct an issue that will only get worse with age by using a removable retainer, which is cheaper and faster than doing something like Invisalign, which would move ALL of my teeth instead of just the front ones. Clearly I am vain enough that I refused to get braces at age 25. Thanks, but no.

So, my orthodontist started by flossing my teeth with sandpaper. Yeah, it's about as exciting as it sounds. The sandpaper floss trimmed down the sides of my teeth to allow space for them to be realigned. Then he ninja-ed this small concoction of metal and plastic onto my teeth. OWWW! It felt like it was wedged into place and never coming out. Anyways, the whole thing took maybe 15 minutes and I managed to get to work (10 minutes away) by 8 when I had a 7:30 a.m. appointment. At least they're prompt, right?

I lasted at work for a few hours before I decided that I needed to eat something, since I hadn't eaten breakfast. (I had forgotten that I had the appointment until 20 minutes before I was supposed to be there. Oops.) I removed the retainer, breathed a sigh of relief, and carefully started eating my Guacamole To-Go. After flossing and brushing my teeth, it was time to reinsert the retainer. Luckily I was in the bathroom for this event, because I totally broke down crying. That would have been awkward at my desk. One of my co-workers was kind enough to give me some Advil, which held me over for a bit, but the pain was enough to drive me to distraction. After struggling to focus on work, I eventually gave up and went home 30 minutes earlier than I intended.

What did I do after leaving work? Went to Whole Foods to pick up some dinner. 

What did I end up getting in addition to dinner? Chocolate almond coconut ice cream, Miles of Chocolate (gluten-free brownie), and dark chocolate covered cocoa nibs. Yep. Within 48 hours of finished 21DSD, I went wild with chocolate. Because I apparently have NO self control when I don't feel well and am in pain. Must work on that. I've had candy since getting the retainer (letting the chocolate melt in my mouth).

And the toughest part? My standby vegetable snacks from 21DSD are too hard. Eating carrots is next to impossible with how sore my front teeth are. And while eating a carrot using the side of your mouth like Bugs Bunny is cool and all, it's just plain ridiculous to try. I've been chewing a lot of things with my molars the last few days. Like the rib-eye steak I ate half of for lunch today.

So what healthy Paleo snacky foods can I have that are light n the chewing front? I dunno. Avocado. Grapes? Pre-cut pear? Suggestions anyone?

Guacamole To-Go

What do you do when you have half of an avocado left-over from breakfast? And how do you keep it from going all brown and gross? Easy peasy. Let's make some guacamole.

Guacamole To-Go

1/2 avocado with pit

5 drops lime juice

sprinkle each of

 -garlic salt

 -pepper

 -cumin

 -cayenne pepper

 -chili powder

Cut your avocado in half, use the half without the pit for something else. Rub the lime juice over the other half of the avocado. Then, sprinkle the spices/salt over the flesh. (Keeping the pit will keep a bit more surface area from being exposed to oxygen and turning brown. Lime juice helps, too.) And that's it. Store in a Ziploc bag, trying to get as much air out of the bag as possible. Then eat later.

The photo above shows the avocado 6 hours after I prepped it. Still looks nice and green to me.

21DSD - Follow-up

Well folks, I finished! I will admit that I didn't do a FULL 21 days. I made it to day 20. So in one way you could say that I failed because I didn't last the full time, but it wasn't like I gave in to a craving. One of the women on my crew team invited me to a crepe-making party at her friend's house on Saturday night. I was super excited to be invited and potentially start cultivating a new friendship, so I didn't want to go into my little spiel of "I follow this thing called the Paleo diet" as we stood outside of the Panera Bread where our team socializes after our Saturday and Sunday morning practices. And it's weird to say, "Yes! I want to go to a crepe-making party. Oh, but just so you know, I'm not going to eat any crepes. Or the fruits or cheeses that you want to put inside the crepes... In fact, just give me a bowl of meat and I'll be good." So I made the conscious decision to just eat crepes. They tasted pretty good, but it wasn't some mind-blowingly awesome experience for my taste buds. And by the time I came home, my stomach was super bloated. Bummer.

I cut out sugar for 20 days. And I decree that it was good. Here's what I learned, or re-learned, about myself (in no particular order):

1. I am so very much better at cutting things out completely than trying to do this thing called moderation.

2. I don't really crave sweets during the day. I mainly just crave distractions. For instance, when something particularly stresses, upsets, frustrates, or bores me, I like to have a mini break to give myself a chance to regroup, which usually comes in the form of a snack. It gives me an opportunity to get up, walk away from my desk, and possibly talk/vent to someone else.

3. I can have fun without drinking (like Memorial Day weekend).

4. I need to cut down on my consumption of nuts. I found that I replaced my fruits/sweets snacking with almond butter, which means I probably consumed too many nuts and my stomach didn't appreciate it. I must remember that while our ancestors were hunter-gatherers, they didn't have easy access to pounds of conveniently shelled nuts.

5. There are a few things that truly excite me to think about or talk about. One of them is Paleo; another is crew. And I'm loving that I'm doing both right now. Even though waking up early on the weekends is difficult to do because that means I have to restrain my socializing and night life a bit, I ALWAYS feel happier after crew practice. And I often find myself thinking about blog posts as I go about my day. I'll be walking to my car and thinking about how I want to write about the benefits of apple cider vinegar, or working out and thinking about analyzing the benefits of combining a good workout routine with Paleo and how it's hard an intense workout routine will affect how many starchy foods you'd consume while doing Paleo (i.e., sweet potatoes).

6. I still need to find a suitable balance of work, cooking, blogging, working out, and hanging out with friends. Currently, the working out portion has been absent from most week days. Maybe I just need to learn to blog faster? Is that possible? I don't often proof-read what I write as it is now. I'm not sure if I can speed that up.

7. I have a nervous habit. I pick at my lips... like literally pick at the skin of my lips, and if my lips aren't completely smooth, I end up pulling off any imperfections. I really dislike imperfections.

8. I have a hard time planning out food for the week. As much as I would love to cook everything up in advance and plan easily based on the foodstuffs that I have available, I still haven't perfected that skill. That's something I intend to work on.

9. I need to take a two-prong approach to caring for my body: internally and externally. Eating healthy is a good call, but I think it should be supplemented by taking care of your skin, hair, and eyes, so that you don't get sunburned, don't strain your eyes too much by too much sun or improper eyewear, and don't fry your hair with hair dryers, curlers, straighteners, etc. I've invested in castor oil, grapeseed oil, jojoba oil, and additional coconut oil for a skin care regimen.

I'm sure I recognized/learned more things, but that's all I can think of right now.

Oh, and I apologize for not posting much last week. I tried to "catch-up", but I got distracted by prioritizing hanging out with friends instead of blogging. As much as I love talking about Paleo and how it pertains to my life, there are some times when I'd really like to talk (or write) to something or someone that will talk back. Sadly, or fortunately, my blog has not yet developed a mind of its own. So last Friday, I cooked this up for breakfast. Every once in a while, I like my breakfast to be all fancy-like: Lamb chops with fried egg, avocado, and bacon. Magic in your mouth!

I met up with my girl KAOS for Tex-Mex dinner. It took them two tries to get my order of carne asada right. The first try was some pork thing. Who knows. Anyways, she came over to chill with me while I started packing. We ended up watching a musical (singing and dancing) episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I first saw this episode three-and-a-half years ago at a Buffy Musical Sing-a-long, held at a nearby park. My college buddy MN was kind enough to let me drag him along so I didn't have to go by myself. (In case you haven't noticed, I really like going to random things like sing-a-longs, celtic festivals, and obscure sporting events.)

So that's some of things I ate this weekend. As well as a spinach and sausage crepe with a tomato paste-based sauce.

In case you're wondering what went into the crepes, we made neutral (neither sweet or savory) crepes. The recipe was:

1 kg flour

2 L whole milk

12 eggs

Pan fry with a little bit of vegetable oil. Easy, right? And TOTALLY non-Paleo.