Day in the Life: (Healthy-ish Eating)

I started to call this “Healthy-ish eating during the Quarantine” because while we’re out and about of our homes now more than we were last spring, I know for many of us eating and food took on a whole new role these last few months. Be it from boredom or as a way to pass time (baking bread anyone?) I felt like food played an even bigger role around here than it usually does, and with two teenage boys it is always a pretty big deal!

I thought today would be a good time to talk about healthy food. With summer ending, school starting and at just about 6 month mark of being more at ‘home’ I think many of us are ready for a bit of a reset. I see on social media people lamenting a bit of a quarantine weight gain and talking about how they are just feeling sluggish in general. I have been dealing with some extra (post-lyme) related inflammation which has left me feeling much more tired than usual, so I decided the time had come to change my eating up for awhile to (hopefully!) regain my energy. I am not going to go into all the why’s and how’s of that again {you can read this post here for more details about following the Autoimmune Protocol, which is a bit similar to a Whole 30 or Paleo diet.} I will include some resources at the end though for those of you who might be curious about this diet, have more questions or just not be feeling well.

Throughout this late spring and summer we enjoyed many nights on our deck while all of my kids were still home. We made quite a few fun meals together, many of them coming from the Half Baked Harvest– mostly her cookbook. The Chicken with Garlic Fries was a huge hit! We also had regular family “make your own pizza” nights and even made “board” dinners to break up the monotony. It was such a great way to spend time together and gave us something to look forward to at the end of many days that we were spending mostly at home.

Now that we’re into a new season I felt like it was time for me to return to a healthier eating pattern. While I am not sure how long I’ll continue to restrict my diet, I do plan to try to do this for more than a typical 30 day period. I have learned from eating this way previously that you truly can heal from making these dietary changes. It isn’t fun, but it is worth it to feel good. The science is simply that giving your body a break from foods that trigger raised inflammation brings overall health benefits like more energy, better sleep and lower anxiety especially for those of us with autoimmune conditions. Giving up sugar, alcohol and most carbs is NO FUN for sure, but feeling good is definitely worth it.

There are tons of blogs about the AIP diet and changing how you cook, I have really enjoyed finding new recipes that meet the paleo/AIP requirements and something that I actually want to eat. While a “WHOLE 30” plan will tell you not to bake with substitutions since you are trying to reprogram your brain, I am instead trying to find things that are delicious and satisfying so my diet rules are different.

Last weekend I made my first batch of Danielle Walker’s Banana Bread and it was delicious (she has the recipes in her cookbook and not online unfortunately but it is really good!). I find that baking with coconut flour (I use this brand, from here and it lasts forever), while it is different from regular flour or even the gluten-free flour I usually use, it makes very good baked goods and it tastes amazing. It has a natural sweetness to it, so I use it to make blueberry muffins for breakfast and banana bread for snacks.

I tend to have a smoothie at some point in the day, for whatever reason I am finding myself tired of salads so this way I can make sure I get plenty of greens. A typical smoothie for me is a big bunch of baby spinach (organic), frozen strawberries, frozen wild blueberries (antioxidants!), half a banana, a squeeze of lemon juice, ice and water. We invested in a Vitamix Blender about 5 years back and it is seriously worth every penny, especially if you frequently drink smoothies. Many days I make one in the morning and drink it while I drive my daughter to school, and I share it with her so she gets some nutrition at the beginning of her day.

For lunch right now I am eating either chicken salad (using paleo-friendly mayo (I use this brand or make my own), chopped almonds and chopped chicken breast) with Terra Sweet Potato Chips on the side, or last week I made some Chicken Meatballs (recipe below) and just had some frozen cauliflower rice and steamed spinach on the side, it was really good and very healthy too!

Dinner seems to always be the hardest, since my two kids still at home have the expectation that they will be fed something that actually has some carbs and that appeals to them! Mostly I modify what I am serving them, like we make Chicken Fajitas and I eat them with lettuce instead of tortillas or I make pasta with a bolognese sauce (meaning red sauce with meat) and I eat it with zucchini noodles instead of pasta. (before I get comments, tomatoes are questionable with AIP as are eggs, because I have been on this eating plan previously and reintroduced these inflammatory foods I know that I can tolerate them)

The biggest key I have found to healthy eating is that you have to plan ahead and it really helps to meal prep. I try to spend time every few days prepping things–baking chicken breasts, making breakfast muffins, prebaking butternut squash (a delicious vegetable anytime, I even eat it for breakfast with some coconut and cinnamon) or preparing meatballs or homemade sausages. I noticed a difference in my energy level and quality of sleep almost immediately upon changing my diet, I know there are some skeptics that don’t believe that food plays this big of a role but in my experience it really can make a huge difference in how you feel.

Here are some great resources for you if you want to jump on the healthier eating bandwagon right now~

RESOURCES

To lose weight or just be “healthier” (with no autoimmune concerns)~

Whole 30 — you can buy the book here or it is free with Kindle Unlimited (lots of good info in the introduction about how what you eat really impacts how you feel).

Clean Food Crush — tons of clean food eating ideas.

The post I wrote last spring about healthy eating is here.

For Health-Related/Autoimmune Issues~

Amy Myer’s The AutoImmune Connection (this is a must read if you have autoimmune–arthritis, lupus, lyme, thyroid issues, chronic fatigue etc. etc.)

Danielle Walker Against All Grain (Cookbook is here)

The Paleo Mom blog

My original post on eating AIP/Paleo and the follow up post with food and recipe ideas.

Feel free to email me (amy@11magnolialane.com) with questions or thoughts!

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