I’m an Omnivore

I just threw this together one morning thinking it wouldn’t be very good. It turned out great! The typical American breakfast is cereal, toast, oatmeal, or bagels, so breakfast is going to be the hardest meal for most people to drop the grains and sugar. This recipe does both; it consists of two eggs, ground beef, pasta sauce, and pepperoni. It doesn’t really matter if the eggs are omelette-style or scrambled. It will taste the same. And the ground beef isn’t really necessary; I already had it leftover from another meal. Enjoy!

Imagine, for a moment, our ancient ancestors. Imagine them hunting, gathering, and traveling great distances. Imagine the constant threat of danger.

Now what happens if one of them gets sick?

It seems to me that our Paleolithic ancestors couldn’t have gotten sick as often or with the same severity that we do. It would have been a death sentence.

Yes, we live in heavily populated areas and germs are spread easily, but I don’t think that’s the only answer. Germs constantly invade our body. Your body has mechanisms to fight these invaders, that is if your immune system is functioning properly.

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This is a pomegranate, a slightly expensive fruit that is thought to have amazing antioxidant powers. Trying a new fruit can be an interesting experience and pomegranates are no different. But how shall you go about eating one?

Start by slicing it in half with a knife. You’ll see that the inside consists of rind and arils, seeds covered in a sweet, jello-like coating.

Some would suggest that you soak your pomegranate in water, which helps loosen the seeds. I tried this, but it didn’t really seem to do much and some of the juice was lost in the water. I suppose soaking the fruit in water is useful if you want to actually juice it instead of eating it. If that is the case, the seeds should break loose from the rind and you can then drain the seeds.

Ultimately, the most intuitive way to eat a pomegranate is taking a spoon or your hand and digging right in. The most productive approach will be to eat the seeds. I actually found the seeds to be quite yummy. One last tip. Be careful with the juice; pomegranate juice can stain fabrics.

I love ‘pasta sauce,’ but I’ll let you in on a secret. You don’t have to use it on pasta! So what I’ve done here is simply combine chicken and broccoli and then drenched them in tasty sauce. There are a wide range of sauces available. I’m particularly fond of one flavor, caramelized onion and garlic. Watch out for added ingredients though. Most sauces have cheese.

What I realize now is that most grain products really don’t have that much flavor. People love grain products because their dehydration and neutral flavor make them good delivery systems for other things that do have flavor. Think about it: toast with jelly, pasta with meat and sauce, bagels with cream cheese, ramen noodles with 70% of your daily required sodium, etc. If you make this realization, you can skip straight to the flavorful part, in this case the sauce.

This is the first dinner I made that was part of my month without grains. The great thing about not eating grains is you can eat A LOT of food without consuming too many calories. As you can see here, I have a whole extra plate for salad.

I have to recommend salmon. It is one of my favorite foods and ultra healthy. You always see it mentioned in lists of “super foods.” My fiancee claimed to hate seafood. She tried salmon and loved it. Oddly enough, the salmon I make always seems much better than what you can get at a restaurant. And it’s quite expensive at restaurants as well.

Most of the meal is self explanatory, but I’ll give some tips on cooking the salmon:

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Spray a baking pan with vegetable oil spray.
• Put salmon in pan, throw some dairy-free butter on it, and add lemon juice and lemon pepper seasoning.
• Bake for about 25 minutes.
• Leave the skin on while cooking the salmon. You may take it off afterwards if you like.

For the month of September, I have decided to study the benefits and feasibility of completely eliminating grains from my diet. What does this include? Bread, pasta, rice, cereal, oatmeal, and beer, among other things. I can already imagine my readers closing their browsers, grabbing their car keys, and heading straight to the closest bagel shop.

I know, going grain free sounds crazy. My fiancee thinks it’s crazy. My friends think it’s crazy. And I don’t deny it’s somewhat difficult either. Certainly, it is more difficult than just cutting out dairy as I have previously done.

However, giving up grains is an inevitable part of exploring a Paleolithic diet and that’s exactly what I am going to do.

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I strongly believe that diets and exercise programs can be accelerated when people start monitoring their own progress. But most people don’t know how or even why they should measure their progress. And the biggest problem is that weight is often held up as the yardstick of health.

It’s time to make a big decision. Do you want to lose fat or lose weight? If you just want to lose weight, then stop reading this article, go to your local hardware store, and purchase a handsaw.

Still reading I see. Let’s start with the why.

Why monitor progress at all?
When you go on a diet, you expect something to happen.

Something amazing. You watch the testimonials labeled “not typical” and see people losing hundreds of pounds. Seeing progress motivates you. It’s very difficult to stay on a diet or exercise program when you are expecting results and you don’t see them.

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It’s only through a healthy body that you can have a functional, rational mind. Aristotle made his philosophy students workout with the Olympic wresting team. One of the main reasons I train my body is so that my mind works effectively.
-Paul Chek

I found this interview on Testosterone Nation and it’s pretty damn interesting. I love people that go outside the conventional wisdom because in my experience, the conventional wisdom is always flawed. It has to be or everybody would be in shape! I have to say Paul Chek is definitely someone who thinks unconventionally. I found several things that he said were highly intriguing and they seem to fit with what I am trying:

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