Whole 30 - Traveling

Today was an exceptionally early start for me, with not a lot of sleep on top of that. This morning, my alarm went off at 4:15 a.m. Even for me that's an early wake-up call. But I needed that time in order to get showered, dressed, and well-fed before heading off to the airport. In the past, when I traveled early in the morning, I would skip breakfast at home and just grab something at the airport. However, with Paleo, airport food isn't always an option. Travel can be a daunting task for Paleo-ites. As I sit at my gate waiting for my flight, I see a wall of sugary processed foods at the nearby news stand, a Starbucks full of sugary drinks and grain-based snacks, and a Proof-of-the-Pudding full of to-go wraps, yogurts, bags of chips, and salads with lots of cheesy toppings. But what are most prevalent at airports? Fast-food restaurants - a Paleo nightmare.

The Atlanta airport is a rockin' airport. It's massive and if you have the time, you can check out the different terminals for their food options. I had an almost 4-hour layover today, so I came into Terminal B, walked the entire terminal, then walked to C and walked up and down that terminal before proceeding to Terminal F (the airport's new international terminal) and walking both levels of that as well. I then walked back to D, walked around D, and came back to B for lunch.

Here's a couple shots of Terminal F: 

Here's some of the places to eat at the various terminals: Terminal has a TGIF and Cafe Intermezzo. Terminal D is undergoing some construction. Terminal E has fast-foot restaurants as well as a fancier-looking restaurant with a sushi bar. Terminal F has a Pei Wei, El Taco, The Varsity, and Pecan Grille. (For the life of me I can't remember what was at Terminal C.) Of these, I recommend Cafe Intermezzo. I got an Almond Avocado Salad ("avocados, mandarin oranges, diced cucumbers, red peppers and toasted almonds on mixed greens with orange vinaigrette dressing").

The key to Paleo traveling is being prepared. Most airports have the available dining options posted online so you can check out what will work for you. The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Int'l Airport has this site which lets you search by terminal. And if you know you won't have time while you're at the airport to grab something, prep some snacks or a meal the day before. For instance, last night I mixed up a Ziploc bag of raw almonds, walnuts, cashews, pumpkin seeds, and hazelnuts as a snack if I needed it. I also brought along two apples, a banana, and Lärabars. I ended up not needing it while traveling, but at least I came with food so that I didn't have to resort to going hungry or succumbing to unhealthy airport fares. And the nuts came in handy for adding some more variety to my salad during dinner with the family.

Stuffed Pumpkin

Stuffed Pumpkin

1 pie/sugar pumpkin

3 links mild/sweet Italian sausage

2 Granny Smith apples, cut into chunks

1 cup walnuts, crushed/chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 Tbls coconut oil

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Adjust your oven racks so that you have enough room to fit the pumpkin you bought into the oven. Preheat oven to 350F.

Prep your pumpkin like you would if you were carving it. Start by thoroughly washing the outside of the pumpkin. Next, cut the top to make a lid. Then scrape the insides of the pumpkin to remove the seeds and the stringy bits. Save the seeds... I'll explain why. Once the inside is sufficiently clean, set the pumpkin aside.

Pumpkin Seeds: Switch over to your seeds. Rinse them to remove the pumpkiny bits, and spread over a paper towel to dry them a little bit. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper, or any other combination of spices, i.e. cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Stir up the seeds and spices and then spread over a tin foil-lined baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes at 350F. At this point the seeds will be nice and crunchy.

Chop up your onion. Heat coconut oil over medium heat in a pan on the stove. Once hot, add your onion and cook until translucent. While the onion is cooking, chop up your apple and walnuts. Alternatively, you can just put the walnuts in a sealed Ziploc bag and crush the nuts by pounding with your fist - this is what I did. After the onion has cooked down, add the apple and walnuts. Take your Italian sausage and remove from the casing (you can also buy bulk sausage from most grocers and save this step and some change). Break down the sausage so you don't have giant chunks.  Transfer to the pan with the onions, apples, and walnuts. Add 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Brown the meat.

While this is cooking, grab your pumpkin and place onto the foil-lined pan you used for baking the pumpkin seeds. When the sausage is done cooking, transfer your sausage mixture to your pumpkin. Pour in 1 cup of chicken broth (you can use water if you'd like, just add a bit more salt to the mixture).

Replace the lid of the pumpkin and slide into the oven.

Bake the pumpkin for 1 to 1.5 hours. Check after 1 hour. Your pumpkin is ready when you can easily pull the flesh off of the underside of the lid by scraping with a fork.
And here's your final product. When you serve, just scoop out some of the pumpkin flesh with your spoon/serving utensil.

Bad Eating Habits

This past week has been very busy and stressful for me. I haven't had a lot of free time in the evenings to cook food for lunch during work, so I've been snacking at work and eating unhealthily. A couple Mondays ago, I posted about dark chocolate, how eating it made me feel sick, and how I was going to restrict myself... Yeah, that didn't happen. My breakfast for the past couple days has been nonexistent and my lunches have consisted of a dark chocolate covered nuts and single serving packets of nut butter (I tried walnut and cashew this week). If I had a health-o-meter, it would be pointing at the red zone of "Worst idea ever."

Couple my diet this week with the stress levels I have from work and preparing for moving next week (I just arranged for movers today - which is about 2 months behind schedule for me. One week is my version of waiting till the last minute), and it's no surprise that I haven't been feeling great lately. Today I had a headache that was bad enough to have me curled up in bed at 2 p.m., where I stayed until roughly 30 minutes ago. I also had accompanying nausea that would kick in every time I attempted to stand up. Even sitting on my couch right now is leaving the left side of my head throbbing. However after napping sporadically this afternoon, I decided food was probably a good idea. So I made myself some Roasted Brussels Sprouts, though this time I took a slice of bacon and sliced it into small pieces to cook with the Brussels sprouts. Delicious! If my stomach had emotions, eating the Brussels sprouts would make it smile and shout with joy! Even eating some of the raw leaves while I was prepping the Brussels sprouts made my body feel better.

This is why I think that my food habits this week have had a big influence on my health today. I basically set up my own personal perfect storm for migraines:

1. Lack of sleep/changes in sleep patterns
2. High stress levels
3. Unhealthy eating
4. Chocolate (this kind of falls under number 3, but it deserves its own section because chocolate is a common migraine trigger independent of other eating habits)
5. Weather changes

I think I've had a lot of small failures the past couple weeks. I'm hoping to get myself back into line over the next couple weeks.

P.S. I've heard of some people wanting to cut out the core of the Brussels sprout before cooking to promote fast and even cooking. Personally the core is my favorite part, so I suggest trying this cabbage-like veggie with the core.

P.P.S. I saw the trailer for Thundercats today. I find Vin Diesel with face paint very amusing, but give me Brad Pitt, Vin Diesel, and Hugh Jackman any day!