Food Diary - Day 3

Pancake mix was in the fridge. I had made so much batter, yesterday, that I had plenty for pancakes again this morning. I drizzled a little maple syrup on mine and enjoyed it with a long black.

I sent child number one to school with pumpkin soup in their thermo jar, this morning. I hadn't made the pumpkin soup. In fact, I have been told that my version of it is no good (thanks eldest). My mum supplied a rather large glass dish of the orange stuff. It's child number one's favourite. I chopped up some peach and put it in a container. And, purely because I was out of fruit, put some dried fruit in a second container. The mother-in-love provided the treat. It was a

flourless, paleo brownie. It is beautiful. She is being very secretive about the recipe, but it is definitely paleo and, what's more, it's a hit with the kiddies. (I forgot to get a photo...tomorrow?)

As soon as I got to work I found myself reaching for my small

container of almonds and macadamias. Actually, I'm pretty spoilt on Wednesdays because my mother-in-love makes me lunch. I enjoyed ham, eggs and salad.

Ever since Mark Sisson made the claim that dark chocolate (85%) is good for you, about a fortnight ago, we have been munching down the stuff. Previously, we had treated it as a treat. Something that we could eat to

celebrate or to have on our no-so-often cheat

nights. But now, we are enjoying a little everyday. And, what's more, and I'm excited about this, child number one asked for a piece and then some more. See, child number two really doesn't know any other way of eating; so is very compliant with the paleo way. So much so, that this little one loves dark chocolate. We decided that we would ease child number one, who has had a taste of the "good" life, onto the dark stuff by starting with 70%. It didn't take long. That was only a week a

go. And now, we may have two little dark chocolate eaters on our hands. Win! I enjoyed a few (let's be honest, several) pieces of dark chocolate with a cup of rooibos tea.

Because mummy (that's me) gets sick of cooking sometimes, I do tend to do big cook ups that provides meals for a couple of days. Paleo is no easy way out. If you chose to do it, be prepared to give your kitchen a serious workout. Well, I don't mind too much. But, anyway, the children don't complain if we have the same meal for a couple of days. So, it was no surprise that even though child number one had pumpkin soup for lunch, pumpkin soup was also the request for dinner. This made things easy for me. I served up soup for child one and two. And, again, I gave them their dinner early. Now that child one is at school, there is a huge appetite just waiting to be met.

The adults enjoyed chick-veggie heaven with (have a guess) fried eggs. I have to admit, that while we haven't had it for a while, it is a favourite of mine.

That's it. There really is nothing fancy about paleo. There is no magic trick. A lot of cooking that's for sure. But, when the food is good, it's worth all of the fuss in the kitchen.

Recently, I read how fasting has proven to make chemotherapy more effective. I'm sort of glad that I only heard that now. I would have really wanted to have given it a good go. In hindsight I also feel as though it may have just been another thing that I would have to do; and perhaps it would have just all been too much. Anyway. Actually, when one really gets into the paleo way, it is something that should become regular, fasting that is. So, the cancer link and the fact that it's probably the next step for me, got me doing a fast twice a week. I've done this for the past three weeks. For some of those fasts I haven't felt too good. Insulin levels, sleep and nutrition have to be sweet before it can be achieved without the moody behaviour and cloudy (thinking is mostly cloudy these days after having had chemo...) thinking. I didn't do a fast this past Monday, as you would know from my food diary. I will do one tomorrow though. So, I have stopped eating now. I will not eat again until midday. And, just to shake things up (this will give my body the impression that it was a longer fast) I will do a light workout before I eat. I'm looking forward to doing the IF (intermittent fast) tomorrow and I'm keen to see how my body reacts this time.

Wish me luck.