So take a food log of your previous week, or a week when you were not eating low-carb, and count how many different meals (really different, pasta with sauce and pasta with black olive sauce is not really different) and write down as many paleo and low-carb meals to cycle. I bet you'll find you were eating often the same meals anyway, but I might be wrong.

That's kind of an interesting exercise. I haven't been logging recently, but I have logs from the past. I'll count up the number of different meals I eat naturally, and then see if I can come up with that many paleo meals.

This is a good idea, thanks.

Just wanted to lend my support for something some of us are calling "Paleo Enough".

Nancy's right - get the big things under control first, before worrying too much about some of the finer points.

I drink coffee. No plans of giving it up either. I put Native Forest brand organic light coconut milk into it, since I gave up dairy awhile ago. Pretty tasty, and if I'm out, I just order my coffee black, since no coffee shop is going to have coconut milk. My trick for this scenario is to order a milder blend of coffee, not my usual industrial-strength French Roast. Oh, and I never go to a coffee shop when hungry either.

For a buttery taste, I will sometimes use a store bought 'certified casein free' ghee. It's pricey, but gives a nice buttery flavour if you're wanting it for a special recipe or something. I rarely use it though.

Never thought I'd say this!

And for vegetables - I'll cook 'extra' at dinner time and actually save the leftovers. This is new for me - I never used to save leftover vegetables. In any case - having some leftover roasted vegetables in a lunchtime salad is *excellent* - elevates a plain-Jane salad into something extra-yummy. Not kidding about this - I've cooked extra roasted asparagus spears with the express purpose of having some leftover for next day's breakfast or lunch. A roasted asparagus omelet is pretty tasty. Cold roasted leftover vegetables are excellent in a lunch salad.

Geeze - just a few weeks ago, I made a bunch of roasted cauliflower with garlic, onion and olive oil. Roasted it forever in the oven, then drizzled some chicken broth in just to moisten, and mashed it up roughly with an old-fashioned potato masher. Texture comes up a bit like 'hash browns'. Some for dinner, and the rest went into the fridge. Guess what we made with the leftovers? Roasted garlic and caramelized onion cauliflower latkes.

Yep - just took the cold leftover roasted cauliflower mash stuff, added one egg and plopped the mixture into a frying pan, mini-pancake-style. Very, very good! Way better than any restaurant food.

Meanwhile, it really sounds like you need to get on with cooking more stuff at home, and a really good way around this is to cook a lot at one time. Make it worth the hassle, so to speak.

Do you have a good crockpot? This could really come in handy, and prevent those 'eating out' deals. Awhile back, I came across a great post from one of my forum friends (Bat Spit), replying to a college student who had no kitchen and wanted quick low-carb meal ideas. Well - it turns out that you can put a bunch of chicken in the crockpot with a jar of your favourite salsa. I tried this, used Santa Barbara brand roasted tomatillo salsa. It was *amazing* and after cooking for just four hours, the chicken was fork-tender, and shredded up all by itself. Looked and tasted like something from a restaurant. We're talking a bunch of chicken and some salsa - throw into the crockpot. Turn on...walk way. Dinner's ready when you get home, and the best part is having the leftovers. The flavours meld a bit and the whole mess tastes even better the next day.

Now, it would be easy to get all picky about this. Maybe there's nightshades in that salsa I used, or perhaps the salsa I picked didn't have the 'right' peppers or whatever....

This is why I like the silliness of saying "Paleo Enough" (thanks Lisa for coming up with that one!).

I can't help but wonder if part of the 'problem' of getting going on this better diet for you, is that there's a bit too much pressure to get everything just perfect.

I know it's partly because of not having the food on-hand, cooked and all ready and so on - but I have a funny feeling that maybe you're almost trying too hard. What do you think?

Is Paleo Enough good enough?

Sara, have you seen PaNu's list of paleo-ness? I think it's a great idea. He doesn't have you hunting on the savannah with a sharp stick or carbon dating tomatoes right off the bat. He goes from the things that'll make the biggest impact to the smaller things.

http://www.paleonu.com/get-started/

Yes, I've seen that Nancy - and I do like it. A much better approach to the Paleo diet than trying to get everything 'just so' right off the bat.

I completely agree that just getting off sugar and grains is an extremely beneficial start to the whole thing. The rest is almost just gravy. I mean, you do what you can - in stages. If you just eliminate the sugar and grains, you'd be laughing.

In order of priority?

1. Sugar
2. Grains
3. Dairy

Just my opinion, but that's kind of how I see it.

I have to admit - this made me laugh...

Does this mean I can still eat canned tomatoes once in awhile? Or drink coffee? (which I do)

*yay*

I went on a blind carbon date once...

There's a lot of good advice and ideas in this thread, but I'm not sure how much of it relates to someone with ulcerative colitis. My son suffered from that for several years and one thing he HAD to do was sacrifice variety in his diet! He was put on an elimination diet that left him eating nothing but lamb and rice. His wife became quite inventive with lamb dishes and he was able to add a few other veggies (I forget which ones right now) but the condition progressed until he finally needed surgery - a complete ileostomy -- not fun, and not recommended, but as he says, if someone in the room lets go a stinky fart everyone knows it wasn't him -- he's no longer capable!

Anyway, my point is that anyone with ulcerative colitis really has to avoid MANY food groups - think Celiac with additional allergies! It's really tough to come up with variety, but PLEASE avoid falling back on eating out ... you're asking for future trouble!

Great suggestions, Citruskiss - thanks!

What is ghee? I thought it was made from butter. I must be wrong about that.

I do save leftover vegetables and I've used them in omelets, but not recently. I need to do that again!

I've made mashed cauliflower and it was delish, but I forgot about it and wouldn't have thought to make it. I love your idea of roasting it, and the latkes sound wonderful. I'm gonna go get a cauliflower!

I don't have a crockpot and I hesitate to get one because I literally have no where to put it. My juicer is currently on the floor of the closet. I'm going to try to make do with the kitchen equipment I currently have. Like the college kid you mentioned, I don't actually have a real kitchen (sadly). I use a hot plate and a combination microwave/convection oven. My "kitchen extras" are a VitaMix (which I use a lot) and my dehydrator (which I also use a lot - homemade beef jerky is the best!).

You're right that I can get too perfectionistic about the whole thing, and that sends me the other way. I need to stay with "good enough". It's the fear of colon cancer that making me a little crazy. I talked to my doctor yesterday and he reminded me that indeterminate dysplasia is just a warning, not cancer itself, and I shouldn't start researching hospices.

Nancy - someone else introduced me to PaNu's site. I like a lot of his ideas. Something about his equating fruit with candy annoys me, though. Fruit may be carby, but it's not a highly processed food filled with chemicals. I've also read that watermelon has some nutrients that almost no other food has (can't remember what it is anymore). I don't think watermelon is poison just because it contains fructose. I also have slightly different priorities because of my cancer risk - the omega-3 / omega-6 issue is #1. But I do like his basic perspective, and agree that improving your diet incrementally can be a better approach than trying to do it all at once.



I don't think this is true. My doctor doesn't tell me I have to go on an elimination diet or drastically limit what I eat. In fact, while he's generally supportive of my food experiments ("Why not try it? Can't hurt.") he doesn't really think it will help much. He doesn't think it matters what I eat, and that is the opinion of every gastroenterologist I've ever been to.

Ulcerative colitis is an autoimmune disease, not a food allergy or sensitivity. I don't have Celiac Disease - I've been tested for it. I digest gluten normally. Nor am I lactose intolerant. My reason for going on a paleo diet has to do with general inflammation and the dangers to the bowel of excessive carb, and no other reason.

I'm sorry your son had to have a colonectomy. I'm hoping (with all my heart) to avoid that.

Today is Day 3 of being good - I mean, eating paleo. However, I also have not been providing myself with much that's good to eat. I've sort of been semi-fasting out of laziness.

I bought some eye-round roasts at the Farmer's Market a few weeks ago that have been in the freezer (100% grassfed). I took one out the other day and roasted it. It was so gristly that it was almost inedible, but I ate it anyway. Just scraped the meat off the gristle with my teeth. It wasn't a pleasant eating experience (and that was dinner yesterday). If there are any more eye round roasts in the freezer, I think I'll use them for jerky.

So now is breakfast time. I have some leftover "pancakes" from yesterday (made with winter squash, eggs, and almond flour). I also have some yogurt and they are pretty good with yogurt (which I realize is not paleo, but I'm not going the "no dairy" route yet).

I need to go to the grocery store later.

Don't attempt to be 100% strict and perfect.
I think it's more important to make your food palatable so to stick with it, than wandering around the room thinking what you should eat and ruling out most of what comes to your mind.

What I mean is that if adding a dallop of ketchup makes the difference between enjoying what you put it on and sticking to it or not, I would got for it and forget about the 1/16 tsp of sugar it might contain.

Check this for visual ideas of what to eat:
Paleo Lunches

Nice pics - thanks for the link!

I started getting hungry a couple hours ago - I ate almost nothing for lunch. But did I get up and start making dinner? Noooo... Now it's nearly 7pm and I have to start cooking. My usual pattern would be to order in, but I will not do that. I am cooking!

I stopped at an organic grocery store on the way back from voting. Turns out they DO have milk from grassfed cows - unhomogenized, too. It's pricey, but getting sick is even more pricey. If I decide I don't want to pay, I can quit drinking milk!

I bought some peanut butter, which is not paleo, but I love peanut butter on apples and I have taken to heart the idea that I need to not be too perfectionistic about this or I won't stick to it.

Meanwhile, now it's 8pm and I still haven't eaten. Do I really want to start cooking now? Maybe I'll have some cottage cheese with apples and walnuts. I'll cook tomorrow.

Yeah, that is really good! I like peanut butter on apples too.

Oh, a suggestion for your roast, cut it up finely and make hash out of it. Allison turned me onto hash recently and it was a great thing for a brisket I wasn't loving. I sauteed garlic and onions in some fat then added in some shredded veg (many types work but I used chayote) then added my meat. I've been having it for breakfast and topping it with an over-easy egg. Really tasty.

I don't know how you cooked your roast but they generally need to be cooked very slowly over many hours. That dissolves the connective tissue and makes them tender.

Hash sounds good - I want to try that.

I think perhaps this particular meat is even too tough for that, though. It's actually hard to cut with a knife (pitiful). On reflection, perhaps I should stew it - cook it for a long time with liquid to dissolve the connective tissue (aka gristle) - that is, if I have another roast. I'm not sure I do. I've eaten two, and I can't remember if I bought 2 or 3.

I finally had something to eat after pretty much fasting most of the day - cottage cheese, apple, and walnuts. Very satisfying. And now suddenly I'm very tired and want to go to bed.

My eating today was grain-free and sugar-free, but perhaps not quite low enough in carbs or omega-6s. But it was good enough for now. It's progress.