Whole 30 - Day 5

So there's a concept to be avoided in the Whole 30 called "Sex With Your Pants On" (SWYPO). This term refers to paleo-ifying junk food, such as pizza, pancakes, etc. So even though I can make a paleo pizza with all paleo-friendly and even Whole 30-friendly ingredients, I shouldn't. By substituting ingredients, I'm just giving myself a way of continuing my cravings for non-paleo foods, because just like SWYPO, it's just not as good; you always end up wanting the real thing. Am I right? I'm right.

Anyways, I find this concept somewhat difficult to understand. I mean, what is really considered SWYPO? Is my zucchini pasta with meatballs considered SWYPO? I mean, it's veggies and meat with some almond meal mixed in. Where does that line get drawn? Because technically, I'm taking a traditional non-Paleo meal of spaghetti and meatballs and making zucchini and meatballs. Does that count as SWYPO? I vote no. I'm choosing to believe that SWYPO refers to junk foods that contain significantly more grains, such as cakes and brownies, and Paleo-ified versions of things like ice cream or pizza.

Buffalo Meatballs

1 lb ground buffalo
3 Tbls almond meal
1 1/2 tsp parsley
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1. Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl. Use your hands; they work best.

2. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in the fridge for an hour or so.
3. Preheat oven to 350 F.
4. Separate into heaping tablespoon-sized pieces. Shape into spheres.

5. Spread on an oiled baking pan.
6. Bake for roughly 20 minutes, until there's no pink in the middle.

Serve with ribbons of zucchini and pasta sauce. YUMMMM!

I ate mine with a side of heirloom tomato salad... And boy was it good.

I was starving by the time I finished crew practice last night (and my stomach was grumbling while I was rowing), but this is so filling that I had to make myself keep eating. I've been using PaleoTrack to check my protein, fat, carbs, omega 6:omega 3, and potassium:sodium intake, and yesterday's grand total of food came out to be 1053 calories, including this dinner. Factor in a moderately intense crew practice for an hour and half, where I burned around 600 calories, and that would mean my calorie balance for the day is 500-600. You may think that's awesome if you're trying to lose weight, but it could also trigger your body into thinking it's in starvation mode. So I sat and at all of my zucchini and meatballs, and 3 tomato slices, because I just couldn't force myself to eat more at 10 at night. Oh well. It was yummy, so I suffered through.

In exciting news, I got the "Optimal Primal" designation yesterday.

My fish oil supplements and flax seeds (0.3:1 omega-6:omega-3) on my lunch salad helped significantly in bumping up the omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids ratio. It's believed that our paleo ancestors had a 1:1 ratio of omega 6:omega 3, though the PaleoTrack website says to aim for a 2.3:1 ratio, whereas most people today have a 10:1 or 20:1 ratio. Also, the potassium to sodium ratio should be at least 5:1, while most of today's society gets about a 1:1. The zucchini, tomato sauce, and freshly sliced heirloom tomatoes helped with the potassium to sodium ratio. I've basically decided that you can't add salt to your food at all to try to meet this last ratio. It's rather difficult to achieve, but fruits are a good source of this. Kind of makes me wonder how to get my potassium when doing a 21DSD.

Also, I've noticed that foods that have a good fatty acids ratio, tend to do poorly on the potassium:sodium front, or vice versa. For example, an avocado has a 69.3:1 potassium to sodium ratio, but also has 15.2:1 omega-6 to omega-3. Sad. At least flaxseeds have a decent ratio for both, even though the 27.1:1 potassium:sodium isn't a lot of potassium when compared to the sodium intake.