Day 7: Success!!

So before I started this diet, I woke up every morning feeling extremely bloated. This was likely because of devouring a whole bagel before bed. Or maybe because I would eat a personal sized pizza 3 nights a week for dinner. This was my normal routine! Grains, grains, grains! And dairy, dairy, dairy! I ate grains and dairy in the worst possible way you could eat them; refined and highly processed. You can imagine how terrible I felt every night when I went to bed and how bloated I would feel when my alarm went off in the morning. Despite blood work and a colonoscopy, I was told that I don't have celiac disease or a gluten intolerance at all. So for years, I continued to eat grains despite feeling crappy every time I did.

I woke up today, and despite the glass of wine I had last night, I I felt incredibly... well... NOT bloated. 

Since the whole point is to eat like a caveman, you can't have dairy. Imagine some poor caveman trying to milk a wild buffalo! It just wouldn't work. Of course, we now have wonderful inventions like almond milk (which I can drink VERY sparingly) and coconut milk (which is highly encouraged to drink, but also highly disgusting in my opinion, lol). It seems there are always ways around the norm and they are more healthy and almost as yummy!

I actually skipped breakfast this morning because I woke up late so I went straight for lunch. I had a salad with grilled chicken and bacon. I very sparingly used a "honey vinegarette" dressing. I wasn't sure what was in it, so I used about 1 teaspoon. 

For dinner I grilled up some butternut squash and had more grilled chicken. I'm getting pretty sick of chicken, but it's easy to cook and very lean. I need to look into how to cook other lean meats.

Afterwards I made kale chips. Kale chips are crazy easy to make and can definitely help satisfy a potato chip craving since they come out very crunchy. They have a slightly bitter kale-y aftertaste, but I love them! All you need is:

1 bunch of kale
Cooking oil spray (preferably olive oil, but anything will work)
Sea salt (or any other seasonings you like)

Preheat the oven to 350. On each leaf, cut the kale away from the stalk/stem. Proceed to cut the kale into squares to the best of your ability. Kale is crinkly, so it's hard to cut it into perfect squares. Place the kale squares on a baking sheet and spray them lightly with the cooking oil. Proceed to sprinkle with sea salt. You can also experiment with other seasonings you might like. I have extra spicy Mrs. Dash that I love on my chips. Then place in the oven for 11 minutes. I'm sure the time varies depending on your oven, but my chips cook in 11 minutes exactly. They're easy to burn, so the first run-through I would suggest that you definitely keep on eye on them. The chips should look dry and only slightly browned on the edges. And that's it!

Kale chips! Super easy!

Also, I'm pleased to say that in the 7 days since starting this diet I've lost almost 9 lbs! That's over one pound a day! Craziness! Never knew that eating like a caveman would produce such wonderful results!

Looking forward to some delicious meals tomorrow! Nighty-night!

~Sara