This weekend was full of fun and adventure! I started off with finally painting my apartment. It took forever to prep but post-friendship brunch, my bestie helped me paint my place. It was frustrating and tiresome but I am happy with the outcome. It’s still drying but I will post pics of it soon!
So a few days ago my bestie wanted to do a belated birthday brunch. She’s been super busy with nursing school so we don’t talk all that often, and when she asked what restaurant we were going to head to, I had a moment of pause. You see, I love food. LOVE LOVE LOVE food. I love trying new restaurants and eating out, but with this new 30 day paleo challenge I’ve limited my options. I told her about what I was doing and suggested that I cook that morning, not only to keep me in line but to keep us on budget. (We’re both students!) She did some research and came over.
She brought with her some orange juice (not paleo), half and half (not paleo) for oatmeal (not paleo), and some raw nuts from Trader Joe’s (score!). She left with another gallon of orange juice and about 20 travel cups of yogurt since I couldn’t keep it (not paleo). But, while she was at my apartment, I cooked up another one of my scrambles — egg whites, tomatoes, bella mushrooms, bell pepper, green onion, and shrimp. I sprinkled some paprika and cayenne on it and also prepared a bowl of oatmeal, soymilk, powdered sugar, and raisins for her.
Then, we set out to paint my apartment! I skipped that morning’s workout since I was so tired from the day before. Not sure how many calories we burned but we moved my furniture around and had quite an upper-body workout from all of the painting. We actually didn’t eat again until 8 hours later. (We kept snacking in between painting sessions.) For dinner we headed to one of my favorite restaurants in LA called Vegan Glory. It’s exactly what it sounds like!
Here I had some tom kha soup with veggies. No black pearl rice as usual. It was almost torturous watching her polish off her plate of rice!
She also shared with me some of her green curry with tofu and veggies. I tried it but skipped the tofu (not paleo).
Then, in the home stretch, I got frustrated while painting my ceiling and also ran out of paint. I got annoyed and irritated by everything and snapped on the phone. Later that night my boyfriend made his way over to help me finish the job and we celebrated a ceiling well painted by visiting another nice late night joint called Pho Cities in Hollywood.
It’s been difficult eating out since we have to essentially grill the waiters and be super picky with our orders. This time though, my boyfriend explained it well — he said that we were both on special restricted diets and then listed the things we couldn’t consume. The waiter was a bit puzzled but was able to help us assemble a meal that fit our ticket. Here, I had the veggie pho without the pho noodles. Just a big bowl of soup and veggies! Oddly enough I was very full and very happy, something that I previously thought was unachievable without the noodles. On the side I had steamed string beans and broccoli, which I ended up saving for later.
Then came Sunday – Songkran, otherwise known as Thai New Year! Every year in Hollywood they have a festival and this was my first year ever attending it. I generally attend Songkran at the temple but this was a nice change in atmosphere. And you know the Thais and their food. Shant and I did really well!
Our first stop was Pad Thai, obviously. Now, the rice noodles and the tofu were not paleo by any stretch of the imagination. However, we had planned on this cheat meal for almost a week so we enjoyed very single morsel. We split the bowl of Pad Thai (meaning we split the calories) and it was pretty tasty. The BBQ skewer belonged to him.
Then, we moved on to some refreshments. I had some water with me but instead, we opted for some young coconut water, right out of the coconut! It was super sweet and the meat resembled a very delicious jello like dessert. It was verrrrry yummy…so yummy, in fact, that Shant headed to the Thai market and picked up a case of 9 coconuts to take home!
Then, since I was still hungry, I opted for something paleo-friendly and got the Som Tham (aka Papaya Salad). Had it served mild but OH MY GOSH it was super delicious. Consisted of shredded papaya, cabbage, tomatoes, green beans, lemon juice, Thai chili, and some dried baby shrimp. It was a tangy mix of zang and kick. Loved every single bite of it.
Then, as dessert, we shared a cup of Thai iced tea. The tea itself is naturally brewed red but then has half and half added to it (not paleo). We indulged in the sweetness and polished it off.
We then headed to Chinatown to pick up a few things, and on the way back to his house I was feeling quite ravenous, so I consumed what I normally do — dates and almonds. Lots of them! (Shant apparently wasn’t hungry since he had so much BBQ.)
Then, at his place, we had dinner. I absolutely love his parents’ hummus. It’s made from scratch and one day I’d love to learn their recipe. I had their tossed salad and many many many forkfuls of hummus. (What’s pictured here is a small fraction of what I actually consumed.)
We then enjoyed just one more fresh coconut…water, flesh, and all.
So far I’m quite proud of the progress Shant and I have made. We were able to stick to a week of pretty good eating and cheated pretty reasonably. None of the gorging stuff that is typical with most cheat meals or cheat days. So far I feel more energetic, focused, and stronger. I feel that I am balancing my energies better in how I extend myself with my work and rest cycles.
Hopefully things continue going well this coming week. I stopped by the Thai supermarket after the festival and picked up a ton of curry supplies, so this should get interesting! I read the labels and they contain some sodium (bummer) and 1 gram of sugar per serving, so I’m planning on diluting it as far as I can. (Unfortunately they are canned since buying the raw materials would’ve made the process a bit more time consuming.) The masaman curry paste contain some soybean oil, which I am not sure is paleo since soybeans are off the paleo food list. However, the red curry, green curry, and panang curry all check out. Maybe I’ll have to save the masaman for a cheat meal!
So, this week, I’m definitely looking forward to some more flavorful food as well as a good workout schedule. I’m still noticing a lot of lingering aches and soreness in my legs and ankles. I sure hope those clear themselves soon. I need to get back into my triathlon training!
Amara in Training 