Primal Pinspiration

This past week has been a very eye opening week for me.  You see, I use the My Fitness Pal app daily, but earlier this week I found out that you can look up all our school's cafeteria food on it.  And man, was I shocked.  I knew that the food was most likely high in fat and calories, but both of these were WAY higher than I expected.  I mean, we're talking over 600 calories for one little fish taco from the dining hall and over 900 calories for a panini from the cafe on campus.  Not only are the foods high in calories/fat, there aren't many primal options in our school cafeteria.  The majority of the foods served are starches such as pasta cooked in TONS of butter.  

Thankfully, I'm on the smallest meal plan I can be on and will be trying to do some primal cooking when I have time.  With the long weekend ahead, I figured I'd do lots of primal cooking, and so naturally I went to Pinterest for some inspiration (you can see my favorites below).  I"ll be trying these recipes, along with some others that I can freeze and eat on days when I don't have time to cook. In the next week, check back for posts on eating primal in a not-so-primal college dining hall.  

primal blueprint food pyramid (source)

1. Coconut Banana Pancakes (recipe/source)

2. Spaghetti Squash (directions/source)

3. Avocado Eggs (source)

4. Bacon Mushroom Chicken (source)

5. Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wrap up (source)

1. Vegetable Lasgana (here)

2. Carrot "french fries" (recipe/source)

3. I LOVE this idea of using cucumbers as "bread" to make mini sandwiches with meat and cheese! (source) 

Enjoy your holiday weekend and good luck in your holiday primal pursuits :)

30 Day Primal Challenge

This past year, my boyfriend has been living the primal or paleo lifestyle.  And I spent the past couple months waving all kinds of grains in front of his face.  

After seeing how much it changed his life and made him happier, I decided to find out more about primal living for myself. And decided to give it a 30 day shot.

Today marks my first official day living the primal lifestyle.

Wondering what this lifestyle entails?  You can read more about it here.  It's more than just changing the way you eat and the type of physical activity you do.  The ten primal principles cover everything from sleep to sun exposure to stress management.

Throughout the next 30 days, I'll be documenting my experiences going primal.  I thought today I'd start with sharing what my food intake was for the day. Part of the lifestyle entails cutting out all processed foods, grains, sugars  and legumes.  The diet emphasizes the importance of protein and natural fats in a diet.

Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled and raw blueberries

Lunch: salad with Salmon on top and balsamic vinaigrette dressing (without high fructose corn syrup!)

Dinner: Moroccan Chicken Casserole (recipe can be found here).  Instead of using rice, a head of cauliflower is to be put through a food processor and the texture actually turns out very similar to rice!

Snack: Almonds

At the end of the first day, I'm not hungry OR craving any grains...hopefully it stays this way!

Have any of you tried to go primal?  How did it work out for you?