Still primal

Soooo cavegirls didn't drink wine -dammit!  I'll tell you something else, they don't like Crown Prince Albert  squash despite what Hugh Weirdly Eatitall says about them. He was waxing lyrical about their sumptuous taste and their beautiful blue colour and all I can say is bleurgh!  I thought I was being so clever - had an impressive meal planned for a boy (yes... a male one, who had been enticed into my cave) which was going to be lamb chop, curried leek and kale in coconut milk, and mashed Crown Prince Albert squash.  

 The squash was not a success, bland, dull, insipid, tasteless.....you get the picture.  Bit embarrassing after I'd made such a fuss about this exotic blue squash that we were going to have for dinner *sigh*.
  And it's not me just being a fussy thing - squash hasn't fared well in the opinions of the paleo facebook group either - in fact the reactions have varied from "it's going in the compost" to "sod them, they can bugger off".  ( I did try again and made spicy roast acorn squash today and it is actually really yummy so I think I'm going to persist with the squash but only roasted with lots of crushed cumin, coriander seed and chilli - and that's all I shall say about that!)
Crossfit has persisted in leaving me in a semi- paralysed state - 60 pistol squats....on EACH leg - seriously - how the hell are you supposed to get home after that??  That was in addition to a warm up of 50 press ups and 50 squats - scaled muscle ups and pushpresses.  So couldn't use my arms either!  The painball certainly came out after THAT session.
I had intended to be strictly primal this week but I have a friend who thinks it's funny to hide Lindt chocolate bars around my flat - and as I have the breaking strain of a soggy kitkat I "may" have eaten a fair bit - hey I'm supposed to be hunter-gathering right??
Apart from the chocolate fail I have been pretty good.  Now that I'm half way through I can share some of the things I have learnt along the way.  You CAN eat too many roast parsnips, squash only tastes good if you roast it with lots of spices, it's amazing how many eggs you can get through in a week,  Becky may be built on bacon but I'm fueled by chorizo,  I haven't yet got bored of roast chicken, Nando's is my friend.  I have found the facebook support page invaluable for inspiration (thank you Cathie, Becky, Jules and Cherie in particular) - I LOVE huevos rancheros, and my slow cooker is a godsend.  The only thing I still crave is chocolate (and occasionally martinis).

I have noticed that while the weight hasn't dropped off as I had hoped - I am slowly getting less wide and my double chin is receding.  And while I'm not bouncing around like Tigger with energy I have stopped needing to take an afternoon nap when I'm "working from home".  I have managed 3 crossfit sessions this week (which is a first for quite a while) and while I'm aching I'm not crawling along the floor begging for mercy.  I managed PBs on back squats, shoulder presses and deadlifts today and have gone down to a green band for my pull ups.  After 3 weeks I think I can safely say that despite my initial scepticism I am enjoying being primal - I am eating more vegetables than I had ever though possible and am taking pleasure in finding new and interesting things to cook.  I quite like being a cavegirl (as long as she can occasionally get upside down drunk without being squashed by a woolly mammoth)

Going loco....

Yup - who'd have thought that I would wander into M&S and pass the chocolate and biscuits aisles without a sidelong glance and go straight to pick up lamb koftas and a little pack of fruit and nuts!   I have a Nando's loyalty card and a vegetable rack brimming with, well er... loads of vegetables.   I have to admit that squash week was a little bit of a disaster.  I had it all planned - I was going to buy lots of different and exotic squash, cook them in clever and innovative ways and then write it all up here to show what a clever little cavegirl I was.  It all started so well when my sister and I wandered past Reg theVeg in Clifton village and noticed a big basket of different and exotic squash(es?)  A lovely French lady then talked to us about the different types - I particularly wanted spaghetti squash as I wanted to try to make paleo spag bol.  Luckily they had one, they also had a Crown Prince Albert  squash about which the lady waxed lyrical so I bought that too - my sis bought 2 little acorn squash(es?) for the kids as we had been told you could eat them for dessert - roasted and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.  So far so good - I also had a butternut squash at home that I was going to spicy roast and make into frittata with some chorizo for my sailing weekend.

The spaghetti squash was easy - stab it a couple of times with a knife (or a fork) and bung it in the oven about 180degrees C and leave for 40mins to an hour - (but DON'T let it roll to the back of the oven and get jammed between the shelf and the oven wall so it burns and fills the flat with a putrid smell!).  Luckily I noticed before it was too late (I just cut the burnt bit off later).  I was supposed to be cooking a meal for a couple of mates that night so bought a roast chicken and had that with the spaghetti squash fried up in butter with bacon bits and kale. (Once the squash is cooked -cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and with a fork pull out the squash flesh from the skin - it goes into strings like spaghetti - hurrah!)  Next time I would use some stronger flavours such as garlic but I was cooking for a fussy boy who doesn't like it.
The frittata was awesome and a very welcome alternative to the sandwiches, pies, pasties and sausage rolls that tend to get eaten on the boat while we're sailing.  It was a hell of a weekend - top end  gale force 8 as we struggled towards Southampton for a party.  It took 2 hours for my hands to defrost and I was very grateful for my first glass of wine in about 2 weeks.  Unfortunately I didn't manage to stick to 1 glass and although I managed to eat as clean as I could during the crew chinese meal I did seem to inhale the best part of 2 bottles of wine!
Despite feeling quite special (and f*&^ing freezing) in the morning I avoided the bacon sarnie and ate some chorizo instead but couldn't resist yorkshire pudding with my Sunday roast.  By the time we had delivered the boats back, sorted out everyone's kit it was late and we were all knackered - I still managed to turn down the offer of a Burger King on the way home but had a small chocolate bear and M&S pad thai for dinner as I hadn't prepared for Sunday night (doh!).
I have to admit that  the scales have been a little cruel to me post  the weekend but I have knuckled down and got primal again.