What Does It Really Cost?

A lot of the skeptics that I see online and even a few friends seem to immediately dismiss Paleo eating because it "costs too much". People hear terms like organic veggies, grass fed beef, and wild salmon and think that they can't afford to move to the lifestyle. Out of curiosity to see if this is true, I'm going to try to break down my meals for a bit. It won't be perfect since most of the staples I use I've had for a while and I'm still eating some meat that was purchased pre-Paleo.

In a given month, I try to keep the cost of groceries, meals out, and alcohol under $600. It's a number that forces me to cook and eat at home more than not, but still allows me to go out on the weekends and enjoy myself. My theory is that I can eat Paleo for the same amount. I am eating out less, drinking less (though last weekend is Austin in NO reflection of that), and spending more time planning my meals. I'm going to track each day in March (at least that's my goal!) to see how it turns out.

Here is what I've committed to myself to eat, so I don't have to write it down each time:

Eggs - 100% vegetarian, cage-free, no hormones/antibiotics, Omega-3, from a local farm in Petaluma. I already buy these at my local market and they are $4.99 per dozen, or 42 cents per egg. Pasture raised can only be found at Farmers Markets and go for $7.50 per dozen here.
Beef - Grass fed, no hormones/antibiotics. I haven't started buying this yet, so I don't know what to expect other than Whole Foods sells 1 lb ground for $6.99 regular price.
Fish - Wild or sustainably farmed (after looking at the prices on wild, I'm going to make this concession from the typical Paleo stance). I haven't bought this yet so I don't know the actual prices.
Chicken - Organic, cage free, no hormones/antibiotics. I have a 4 lb whole chicken in the freezer from TJs that was $12.99.
Veggies & Fruit - I will follow the "Dirty Dozen" rules and make sure to only purchase organic the items on that list. Otherwise, I'll use my best judgement.

Other rules:
1. When I cook for boyfriend at home, I'll count it twice. When we go out to eat and he pays (mostly our system - I buy groceries and cook, he pays when we go out), I'll not consider part of the expense. If we go out and I pay, I'll count it.

Tonight's Dinner

2. I'm not going to count items like spices, olive oil, coconut oil, etc. I'll assume I spend less than $10 per month replenishing these and try to come in under $590 to save myself a lot of hassle.

Here's a start, just for fun, with today's food. The total comes out to $12.76. That is well below the $20 per day average needed to stay under $600. It's also super healthy and fresh. The other thing I've noticed is because I have to be so prepared and on top of things, I don't waste food. There are rarely veggies anymore in the fridge that go uneaten. So I think it will be an interesting experiment if I can keep up with it. I'm fairly certain Paleo either maintains or reduces my food expenses.

Breakfast - Hard boiled eggs with guacamole and salsa
3 eggs - $1.25
2/3 avocado - $.54
1/3 lime - $.10
1/3 organic onion - $.25 (guess, bought last week)
1/3 carton of salsa - $.83
spices for guacamole

Snack - 1 organic Pink Lady apple - $.69

Lunch - Taco Salad
1/2 organic romaine heart - $.38
1/4 ground turkey - $1.25 (guess, pre-Paleo not healthy but in freezer so not wasting)

2/3 avocado - $.54

1/3 lime - $.10

1/3 organic onion - $.25 (guess, bought last week)

1/3 carton of salsa - $.83

spices for guacamole and taco seasoning

Snack - 1/3 bag organic carrots and 1 red bell pepper (out of organic, realize this is on dirty dozen) - $1.52

Snack - Nuts from vending machine - $.75

Dinner - Turkey, Avocado and Butternut Squash

1/4 ground turkey - $1.25 (guess, pre-Paleo not healthy but in freezer so not wasting)
1/3 carton of salsa - $.83
1/2 avocado - $.411/2 bag of precut butternut squash - $.99olive oil and spices for taco seasoning

Paleo Reality

My only complaint about Paleo is the time I spend in the kitchen. I don't mind the time I spend learning, researching, and discovering new recipes. I don't even really mind the cooking. But I spend so much time doing dishes! I know it will be easier once I move and have a dishwasher, but right now it is so time consuming. These are just the dishes from the food I brought to work today!


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Eating Paleo in Austin

I am in Austin this weekend with some of my favorite people: my love, the BFF, and the BFF's hub. We (minus the love) were supposed to run the Austin Marathon on Sunday. Then we realized we'd run a combined ten miles in 2011 and wondered why we'd waste a rare weekend together on 26.3 miles of torture. So instead we relaxed and enjoyed a few days in 70 degree weather.

My flight just landed and I have about two hours before they all land. After just breakfast and an apple after a Crossfit session this morning, I'm starving! I wandered through each restaurant and (shockingly) decided my best bet was Tex Mex. The woman taking orders was not Paleo friendly and rolled her eyes when I asked for the taco salad with just lettuce, beef, salsa, and the green goodness. I ended up with cheese, without salsa, and in a tostada shell. The meat for sure had sugar in it, but I scooped out as much cheese as I could and skipped the shell and it was pretty decent for a quick airport meal.


I'm hoping I can eat as Paleo as possible all weekend. I know it won't be as healthy as simple veggies, protein, an fat at home, but it will be way better than my former ways!

Paleo Happy Place: Chipotle

Very few things make me happier than the combination of guacamole, salsa, and seasoned meat. Chipotle is a Paleo lover's best friend. Ask for the salad, skip the beans in favor of fajita veggies, pick a meat, go for the salsas (leaving the corn one alone, of course), and add a heap of the green goddess. Yes, I did just call it that. In the Bay Area you'll pay nearly $9 for this, but it is oh-so-delicious.

Unfortunately, after a review of their website, Chipotle doesn't get the 100% Paleo stamp. They use soy bean oil to cook all meats. On the flip side, the meat they serve is a huge step above most convenience food places. Check out their website to see the current percentages of grass fed, humanely raised, and antibiotic and hormone free meats. Then go get yourself a salad, pronto.

Last Minute Paleo

I forgot my lunch today (luckily in the fridge) and needed to find a quick Paleo option. The cafeteria here at the office had no good entree options and the salad bar is sub par for even workplace cafeteria standards. I thought about Thai (really, this does not feel like a "diet" when curry is allowed) but didn't want to get in my car. My only other option was Specialty's Cafe.

I had low expectations, but was very pleasantly surprised! Minus the "splash of cream" in the soup, my meal is completely Paleo friendly. I wouldn't want to spend $8.10 daily, and the soups do rotate, but it's great to know this is available.




Medium Butternut squash soup, side of roasted chicken, and an apple for afternoon snack.

(The cookies smelled amazing, that much doesn't change, but I actually just enjoyed the aroma and had no desire to eat one.)


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Location:Dubuque Ave,South San Francisco,United States

Weekend Update

Taking pictures of each meal got a little old, so I stopped yesterday. I didn't stop eating (mostly) Paleo though.

Saturday morning I made an egg scramble with onions, mushrooms, and the jalapeno habanero sausage. And finished off the OJ. :( I went to my first Crossfit session that morning and came home and had an orange and a handful of nuts. A little later I made myself a salad with the leftover taco meat and the gross guacamole, thinking it would be disguised in a salad. Not so much. Picked out the meat mostly. It was such an amazing day (70s in SF in February!), I ditched the cleaning and work I had planned for a day in GGP with my love. We split a bottle of wine my aunts sent me for my birthday and snacked on broccoli, celery, carrots and fresh guac. We had dinner at a pub where I had a burger with bacon (sans bun) and a side salad. And another glass of wine. We ended up an hour early for our movie, so we ducked into the Wine Jar where I had a taste flight of three chards. I then promptly fell asleep for half of The King's Speech. Nothing to do with the movie, everything to do with the 4.5 glasses of wine I drank, mostly in the sun. So while not 100% Paleo, still had no gluten and no dairy.

Today, after fitful sleep and vowing to never drink 4.5 glasses of wine again, we tried a small diner for breakfast. I had a meat lover's omelet, with eggs, bacon, sausage, ham and a little bit of cheddar. It was good and very filling, perfect for my second Crossfit session. I am so tired after that session, that I've barely been able to manage an orange and a hard boiled egg. My body is soooo tired. I get two days off before my next session on Wednesday morning. Then I graduate to the real classes! Tonight for dinner I'm making Thai red curry, using a variation of this recipe. I'll either go without rice or try to mix in an extra veggie and create cauliflower rice.

Not a perfect weekend (Paleo-wise, it's been an awesome, relaxing, wonderful weekend life-wise), but certainly better than any weekend in the past and, besides the wine and little bit of cheese this morning, 100% Paleo. I found I didn't even really want a taste of G's french fries last night at dinner or potatoes this morning at breakfast. I know they will tasted good but make my stomach grumble all day. Not worth it.

Back to napping I go... the closet clean out is being postponed one more weekend I guess.

Day Four

Friday! At the end of a long week, I got a little lazy with my food. I packed a lot of snacky type foods and ended up not having enough to get me through the day.

Breakfast: Raw broccoli, guac for dipping the broccoli and a jalapeno habanero sausage. The sausage was delicious - maybe not completely Paleo, but it was gluten and hormone free. The guac however. Biggest disappointment of the week. I didn't have time to make fresh, so I bought this at the store. It was nearly $7 (local market) and awful! I also had my usual coffee and really can't remember if I had OJ or not.

Lunch: One bunch carrots (from the CSA, SO good), 1/2 of an orange pepper, 2 eggs (there were some almonds that i ate as a snack earlier), and more of the disgusting guac for dipping my veggies.

I had a meeting right after lunch that had Indian catered. I had just read on Robb Wolf's site that he and his wife tend to go for Thai when they want to eat out. Curries are meat, veggies, coconut milk and spices - Paleo! (Just make sure to not get something with potatoes.) I saw chicken curry so I had a small portion. I realized later that since it was Indian curry it was probably made with yogurt versus coconut milk, but still, much healthier than anything I would have gotten out of the vending machine. 

Dinner: Two plates! The boyfriend is home and is such a good sport that he was willing to eat shell-less tacos with me. I found myself a good one. :)  We had tacos (with beef this time - not grass fed, but organic/hormone free), salsa, and home made guac. This guac is AMAZING. We had a side of butternut squash. Easiest thing ever. Precut package from TJs, tossed with olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Roast at 400 for 25 minutes. And yes, I had one glass of red wine. Oh, he didn't sniffle at all after eating, which is quite unusual. So now we just have to figure out if it's gluten or dairy he has some sort of allergy to. 

Day Three

Or also referred to as the day in which the excitement is gone. Don't get me wrong, I'm still love it and plan to continue. But today included a very not so yummy dinner that helped reality set in. Amazingly, my first thought wasn't to go out and grab something. I sliced up half of an orange pepper to replace my veggie and had an extra (small) handful of nuts to replace my healthy fat. Moving on...

Overall thoughts now that it's been 72 hours. Not that 72 hours is an indication of anything. I feel much lighter overall. I've actually lost 4.5 pounds since Monday. That's crazy. I know the days of losing 3 and 1.5 pounds overnight will end soon, but it's fun. I LOVE not counting calories. I love that I don't obsessively think about food all day and when I can eat next. My meals are already planned out in advance and I work them in around my meeting schedule. I am annoyed with the headache I am getting every afternoon. I think I might be letting myself get too hungry after lunch, so maybe an afternoon snack. On the neutral front, I thought it was funny when I read that this food lifestyle will reset your clocks. I am dead by 8:30, but wide awake and ready to start the day at 5am. It seems like my body really wants to sleep when the sun goes down.

Breakfast: Black coffee (it's decaf, by the way), OJ (I'm going to be very sad when this jug is done), 1/2 of a yellow pepper, almonds, 2 hard boiled eggs.

I woke up at 5 to catch up on emails and made myself breakfast around 5:20. I knew I'd never make it 7 hours until lunch, so I had an apple around 9am.

Lunch: Salad with a chicken breast, 1/4 avocado, two stalks celery, mushrooms, 1/2 yellow pepper, and salsa as the dressing.

Snack: Tried to get rid of the headache. The only Paleo option in the vending machine was to pick the almonds and walnuts out of the trail mix. Yeah. Waste of money and time.

Dinner (or, the meal that made me fall out of Paleo fantasy land and into Paleo reality land): 1 can tuna with a tiny bit of dijon mixed in (my first known cheat) and a bunch of chard stir fried with almonds. Umm, I hate cooked spinach. It tastes like dirt. So why I thought I'd enjoy chard in a non-disguised fashion is beyond me. This came in my CSA box last night. One of the reasons I started back  up is that I want to be forced to eat a variety of veggies (when I shop for myself I'll eat broccoli and red bell peppers every night). However, I think I would have been better off to make this in some sort of broth soup.

On a more happy note, I got an Amazon package in the mail today with my first order of coconut oil. Due to lots of science-schmiense, olive oil is not the best oil for high temp cooking. Now that I have coconut oil, I can jump back into my happy stir fry land. Just no more brown rice. And no more soy sauce. It's pretty neat, it's a solid at room temp but melts at 72 degrees. When you throw it on a hot wok it melts immediately. However, it is not awesome enough to transform chard into a delicious veggie for dinner.

That wraps up my first three days on Paleo! The weekend should be interesting and so should cooking for and eating with another human. I haven't been tempted since I've been eating at home alone all week. But my favorite person lands tonight (how this cave woman is going to stay awake late enough to pick him up at 11:35 remains to be seen), which means I won't be flying solo. But I can do it!

Day Two

I'm enjoying my seventh Paleo meal as I type this post. I woke up feeling great today, and 3 pounds lighter! I'm sure it's not actual fat loss, most likely it's just the drastic decrease in my sodium consumption. Today was not bad. No cheating (really want to go a full seven days), but I did snack a bit. 

Breakfast: OJ, black coffee, steak, 2 scrambled eggs with salsa, 1/4 avocado.

Lunch: Steak salad with avocado, tomatoes, and red peppers. Side of broccoli with no garlic!

Around 3:30 I was pretty hungry and realized I forgot the apple I thought I had brought. I went to Grab N' Go and had bought two hard boiled eggs. I feel like a total hippie idiot for saying this, but I could totally taste the difference between the pasture fed eggs I've been eating and these. 

I had to run errands after work, one being to TJs. I picked up some almonds and snacked on too many on the way home. 

Dinner: Chicken breast (cooked with salt, pepper, and lemon juice) with broiled zucchini and crock neck squash. 

I decided to try a new CSA (yes, my third) recently. This one delivers to your home. For only $1 more per week, I'm getting 3 extra items and home delivery. I have lost the option to select what I want, but I'm okay with that. 

There was a bit of a mix up on my part on when the first delivery would be. I thought it was next week, so off to TJs I went to stock up on produce. I got home to find my box waiting for me on the porch. I hope the boyfriend is ready for a product heavy weekend!

Day One

I made it through day one (provided I last the next few hours before bed time) without any cheating! It was much easier than I thought. Until about an hour before dinner I didn't even feel hungry most of the day, despite no snacking. I did have water and green tea throughout the day, but no food snacks. Overall I was happy and satisfied and as of 6:15pm my stomach has not made a single one of the weird noises it's been making lately! I might get some nuts for a late afternoon snack but otherwise, ready for day two!

I literally bit off more than I could chew for breakfast. I didn't make it through all three hard boiled eggs. I know I mentioned the OJ not being good, but about an hour before my mom mentioned that I had purchased a bottle of organic OJ for $8.99 so it's going to be consumed. I've read that I should limit fruit to one piece per day until I reach my weight goals, so I had an apple with my egg. And black coffee. I missed my creamer, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

My plan was to have leftover turkey tacos for lunch, but I figured they wouldn't transport to work well so I had a turkey salad instead. Romaine, guac, salsa, lemon juice and turkey. I also had a side of cooked broccoli, but I put way too much garlic on it and only ate a few bites. 

I broiled a bit of steak (seasoned with chili powder, cumin, and cayenne) and added it to a salad of romaine, peppers, tomatoes, avocado and a less than stellar dressing. I had to add some salsa after I took the picture. I've eaten about 2/3 of it so far and am full. 

Cavewoman!

Today is my first day trying out the Paleo diet lifestyle. Clearly diets and I don't work, I've only tried ten or so in the last year. I haven't read the book yet (ordered it today and broke my no spending money on books in 2011 rule - at least I bought the ebook version), but I've been reading tons of blogs and other internet sites and and I like what I've read so far. I don't know all the rules quite yet (thanks for all the text responses, Mom!), but I'm getting started. I had an bit of an incident today that finally pushed me to try something new and healthy. To keep me going I'm going to try and snap a picture of each meal over the next seven days. My goal is to not cheat (as best I know the rules) at all for the first seven days.

I kicked off with dinner tonight. I made Turkey Tacos, from my new favorite blog, including the homemade guacamole and taco mix from scratch. I bought all fresh ingredients and it tasted amazing. Not pictured is the rest of the romaine head that I chopped into a salad and ate with half a tomato and a salsa/lemon juice dressing. I also had a glass of OJ before my mom texted back saying I should stay away from it at the beginning due to the high sugar content. Better get back to reading my book...

Crappy pictures, but I'm too cheap to upgrade to the iPhone 4 for now. 

The first casualty of the Paleo diet was not my waistline or the constant thirst I've had the last few weeks. Instead it was my favorite (and not cheap!) knife. It has been a rough, rough Monday. 

January Update

I'm sure these monthly posts will be of no real interest to anyone but me, but I'm doing them anyway, mostly for my own accountability.

January Book Report

1. Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology by Eric Brende. Eric and his wife spend 18 months living within a "Minimite" community and he details their experiences. 

2. The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove by Cathy Erway. Written by a 20 something New Yorker who gives up take out and dining in for two years. Great timing as I continue to cut back on restaurant eating and learn to enjoy cooking more. Bonus point: My first eBook loaner from the library! Highly recommend checking if your library system provides this service.

3. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. Loved this super quick read (maybe four rides on the Genenbus?) that details Murakami's thoughts as he trains for the 2005 New York marathon. 

4. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A. J. Jacobs. A secular Jew attempts a literal interpretation of the Bible for one year. It's funny and interesting to see how his beliefs are shaped by his actions as the year goes on. 

5. The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach. The inventor of the "Latte factor", or how your regular $3 (or $5 or $10) expenditures are costing you your retirement. The book was very basic (and frankly made me feel great about where I am with saving), but since I'd like to apply something I learned from the book to my life, I'm stopping all work vending machine purchases for the rest of the year. All my other "lattes" I'm fine with and choose to spend that money in those ways.

On a side note: When I looked at my financial goals for 2011, one of the places I realized I can really save money is books. I am not spending any money in 2011 on books and borrowed each of these from the SF Public Library.

I'm at 17% of my 30 books in 2011 goal. Last year started out really heaving in January and I barely finished 30. Something about when the weather gets nice and the sun stays out later makes it a lot harder to sit down and open a book.

I did, however, totally fail at one of my book goals. I'm trying to do three Bible studies this year. My goal for January was to get through the first two weeks of the first one. I managed one week. I'm not finding it terribly interesting but don't really want to spend money on a new one.

January Financial Report

House Fund: I ended the month at 29% of my total goal (I started the year with 25% already tucked away) and at 107% of what I had hoped to save in January. It will be awesome if this trend continues. 

Travel Fund: I ended the month at 11% of my total goal, though in January I only saved 85% of what I'd planned. Back on track next month.

January Health Report

No races to report on for this month, but I've been training for the Austin Half Marathon in late February.

I ended the month with a loss of 2% of my body weight. Yeah! Unfortunately it's involved a lot of Smart Ones and I'm going to work on bringing that down next month. I don't think waking up thirsty every morning is a good thing. 

2011 Goals

Since I didn't document these earlier, here are my goals for the year. I find it much easier to meet them if I create smaller goals each month.

• Read 30 books (including one personal finance book every other month)
• Complete 3 Bible studies
• Save 100% of my house fund (includes downpayment plus enough to cover all fees)
• Save 100% of the costs of the two big trips I have planned this year
• Run 3 half marathons
• Lose 16% of my body weight

February Goals

• Read four books
• Complete weeks 2 and 3 of The Patriarchs
• Save another 4% of my house fund and bring the total to 33%
• Save another 5% of my travel fund and bring the total to 16%
• Run my first half of the year
• End the month with a 4% body weight loss