Jamie Fellrath | Practical Mindfulness

Me, at another finish line (the 2010 Warrior Dash Ohio) It's over.  Well, in 3 hours, it'll be over.  It's 9:05 PM on Day 30 of my Whole30 challenge, and I did it. What did I accomplish?  Well, nothing particularly new since I went through this in 2008 with my first Primal Blueprint challenge, with one exception: I have solidified myself a lot - lots of body fat gone and replaced with lean muscle - again. I've improved my immune response - even when everyone else in the house got sick for a couple days with colds, etc., I had a slight case of the sniffles at worst. Stress levels have gone down a lot. I've created some great habits in cooking and, most important, preparation for cooking. I went dairy free for 30 days for the first time in my life.   The last one is the most interesting to me, honestly.  I'm interested to see what happens when I introduce dairy back into the swing of things.  I recall Amy Kubal talking about how it affected her on the Health and C

Just as I discovered when I first tried out the Primal Blueprint back in 2008, it is sort of amazing how quickly the body returns to processing the way it should be.  Only about three weeks into this Whole30 effort, I'm feeling fine and not feeling any real cravings that aren't habit-based (as opposed to nutrition-based).   I make that distinction because I do have cravings that are habit based. I used to have coffee with heavy whipping cream every morning before this Whole30, and I'd been craving that pretty heavily as I started my work day.  I no longer have that dairy craving - even though it was basically healthy, this is the first time I've ever actively cut dairy out of my diet and I'll be interested to see what happens on May 22 when I add it back in. I haven't given up coffee, I've been having bulletproof coffee with ghee or coconut oil at home and I've been taking it black at work when I've wanted it (and even that has gone down quite a bit

Well, I'm over halfway done with my Whole30 experiment and I'm feeling great!  I haven't posted as much the past few days because I honestly haven't had anything new to report - other than what I've been eating.  And it's been clean, I promise.  I did a big batch of pulled pork from Everyday Paleo that was delicious the other night, so I'll pass that on . But yesterday, as I was walking through my office and past the vending machines in our office, I started to get cravings for chocolate.  I'm a confirmed chocoholic, no doubts about that.  And for the most part, it's been a very manageable thing just by having a few squares (3-4) of some kind of 88% or higher dark chocolate when I get those cravings - the stronger chocolate seems to kick the cravings in the butt more easily.  And eating more than that (of the ultra-dark stuff) gives me a headache, so I know that there's something in there that is making me respond poorly. Before starting this Who

One of the reasons I went on this Whole 30 was that I felt the need to really tighten up my diet after a few months of being MOSTLY Paleo/Primal, but erring a little too close to the 80% as far as 80/20 goes.  Eating not-so-Paleo stuff wasn't affecting me as much as I'd thought it should, basically - my system was becoming deadened to a great extent and I felt I was heading back to the way I was feeling pre-Primal Blueprint. I LIKE feeling Paleo - knowing that I'm doing what I can to take in the best food and live in the healthiest way possible.  And I like knowing that my body is going to give me a gastric "Nuh-uh" when I eat something that shouldn't be in there. So over the weekend, I did my best to eat clean and within Whole 30 guidelines.  Friday was a typical day, sardines/salad for lunch and dinner was the Godlike Baked Chicken recipe from FastPaleo.  Plenty left for the rush of swim lessons night for Duncan this evening. Saturday our family was volunte

Last night was pretty simple, yet pretty great for food. Breakfast/lunch were similar to previous days - sardines, then roast beef with broccoli and multicolored cauliflower (serious question: does eating multiple colors of the same vegetable count as part of efforts to "eat five different colored veggies"). The kids and my wife wanted pizza for dinner last night, but obviously that was not going to work for me.  And we'd eaten all the defrosted ground beef with last night's burgers, so no chance of doing a Meatza (even though that would have been delicious and now I'm craving it). I'd originally planned to do some chicken thigh-based meal on hamburger night, but the ground beef had been out longer and we needed to do something with it before the chicken.  So last night, to use up that chicken, I cooked it up with julienned carrots with some bacon fat, pink Himalayan salt and pepper, in my favorite pan in the house: our cast-iron skillet. And it was delicious.

Yesterday was fairly standard in the world of my Whole30 challenge. Polar Kippers for breakfast, big ass salad for lunch, and then on to dinner.  It's almost getting rote and repetitive, and I'm surprised anyone is still reading this.  (I'm KIDDING). But dinner brought up a pretty good improvisation that was made possible by my mother.  I mean, technically without my mother this blog doesn't exist, nor do I.  But this is a bit more direct than that. About a month ago, my family was out visiting my parents in Arizona, where they retired from Michigan.  Can't blame 'em too much, really... we were swimming and running around in shorts at the end of March.  It was pretty awesome.  Great hiking, lots of activity, the whole nine yards. Well, Mom has this "salsa guy" she goes to for her salsa - he's the owner of the San Pedro River Valley Salsa .  And it's REALLY awesome stuff.  All natural ingredients and just the right amount of real spice - not jus

Our society has become very accustomed to the quick meal, which is obviously a big reason for much of the obesity epidemic that is plaguing us today.  Cheap, ready-to-go foods that require little cooking knowledge and no preparation have become standards in America and elsewhere - even to the point where various brand names are synonymous with good times, family occasions, etc.  I remember my mother waxing nostalgic about watching football with her parents and eating Stouffer's French Bread Pizzas, and of course sharing Oreos with milk is a tradition to pass down from parent to child.  Hey, the commercials tell us so, right?   My point here is that, because of that "I can always just pick something quick up" mindset, it's sometimes a challenge for us Paleoistas to get into a habit of preparing meals ahead of time - or worse, preparing food for preparation ahead of time.  Case in point: Tuesday night dinner.   I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, though.  Tuesday sta