A Thanksgiving dish to try...

This year, I helped make several side dishes for our family Thanksgiving dinner and decided I would throw in a "Paleo-esque" dish to see if any noticed.  After searching online, I stumbled upon The Primal Palate Thanksgiving recipes and decided to give the carrot souffle a try.  It looked pretty tasty, and I figured it would at least be an experience.  Let me preface this by saying that I happily cook with some milk and butter -- I do eat dairy, but I wanted to see what happened when I stepped outside my comfort zone and cooked with coconut.
I always hated coconut as a kid.  There was nothing creepier to me than a cake covered in that horrible shredded coconut, and eating an Almond Joy was out of the question.  So, I've been wary of coconut, although I'm learning as an adult that I think I have greater issues with the texture of shredded coconut rather than the taste of coconut itself.  So, I went to Whole Foods and joined the rest of the holiday crowds to buy coconut flour and oil, and made the dish (along with butternut squash, mashed sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce) for our celebratory meal.
The squash was technically paleo, but the sweet potatoes were made with organic milk and butter and the cranberry sauce with organic cane sugar.  And out of all the dishes that were eaten, guess which one was gobbled up?  The carrot souffle!  I revealed my paleo secrets to my family, and I'm quite proud of my sneaky dish.  It was delicious, and I highly recommend it for the holidays!

Some food for thought

I think this is a busy, but awesome graphic organizer of the Paleo diet, and I just had to share!

Go to http://infographic.paleolithicdiet.com/ for more!

Paleo diet -- biologically makes sense, or another fad?

Confession

There would be no point in writing this blog if I didn't share in my successes and my moments of poor choices, so here goes...

On the up side, I had my morning plain Chobani yogurt with blueberries, sans honey.  To my surprise, it was tasty without the added sugar.  Excellent.  Another healthy choice made.

On the down side...

I had cake on Sunday and hot chocolate with marshmallows last night and tonight.

Gulp.  In every sense of the word.

The main culprit:

I have spent a long time trying to understand why I made the food choices I did.  Did I feel entitled?  Was I hungry?  Stressed?  Bored?  I have to admit, the 18 inches of snow which just fell in my neighborhood fueled part of the hot chocolate binge.  I also drink it with my husband, so perhaps I view it as a nice bonding experience, or ritual.  But did I make a bad choice this week?  Or am I being too hard on myself?

In Food Rules, Michael Pollan's Rule 60 tells us to "Treat Treats as Treats" and his final rule, #64, tells us to "Break the Rules Once in a While."  This is, in part, the advice I need to hear, considering the amount of sugar, corn syrup, flour, and butter I consumed.  I also had to remind myself that a year ago, I would have had no problem eating the sweets I did this week, and in fact, I probably would have eaten more.  But part of me feels icky (mentally and physically).

So, I took a step back.  In a way, I don't think there's anything wrong with occasionally eating a delicious piece of cake or drink a nice hot cup of hot cocoa, but three in a week is probably a bit much.  Instead of the hot cocoa as a ritual, I may grab a nice piece of dark chocolate instead.  And then, I reminded myself why I strive to eat what I eat -- so I can be a healthy 20-something who maintains my health as I age.  I refuse to accept diabetes or heart disease as a "normal" part of the aging process.  And with the GI issues I've had in the past, I will not go on medication to fuel poor eating habits.  And then I watched this to keep my health choices in perspective:

and then I watched this to make me laugh:

What kind of treats to you eat?  How do you get your eating back on track?