Snacky snack?

Wes eats muscleups for breakfast.

Paleo Challengers are in Week 3 and some of you are seriously kicking some ass, losing inches, crushing PR’s, and eating some seriously awesome food. Every Paleo Challenge group and every new ancestral-eater struggles with many of the same things.  I’ve heard some great stories from Challengers so far about their adventures with Tupperware, managing friends’ and coworkers’ peer snack- and drink-pressure.

Then there’s the sometimes unpleasant learning process of how their old comfort foods are a slow death sentence and reinforcement when it pays them some wicked revenge after a cheat meal with them. How about dealing with fat-phobia generated from years of media and food pyramid messaging and finally eating the *whole* avocado/egg, cooking generously with coconut oil/milk, and eating more than two strips of saturated-fat-filled bacon?

Then, of course, there’s the growing realization of how creepy a grocery stores is as you more rarely take your old route through the aisles; it’s like peering through a display in museum of illness-inducing snacks and sick people, seemingly carefree, picking wheat thins, soydogs, low-fat dairyesque products, and frozen meat concoctions off of shelves.

So when the Challengers responded with topic requests for this week’s post to be on ‘snacks’, I sensed yet another test of whether they could find a shortcut in the whole “meat, vegetables, quality fats, moderate nuts and fruit” gig.

Dang. Somebody's gonna need a snack in a second...

Understandably: eating this way requires a little thought, minimal preparation, and at least a little planning — a.k.a. time — of which we all find ourselves never having enough of. This leaves many people feeling rushed, burdened by an extra requirement in the day. Whether you eat regular meals, graze, or fast and feast, eating an ancestral diet means eating whole, real foods… period.

So, my smart-allec answer is that snackified paleo foods are going to look a lot like unsnackified paleo foods. My non-smart-allec answer is the foods considered ‘paleo’ as part of this challenge are those that achieve for us improved vitamin/mineral status, improved insulin sensitivity, reduced states of inflammation, fat metabolism. If sustained, this gets us long-term benefits like resolution of disease states, reduced risk for diet-related disease, a longer life, reduced body fat, performance gains, etc.

Foods that tend to qualify as snacks by the grocery store definition tend to work in the opposite direction, even in snacky quantities. Even snacks that seem quite paleo such as nut butters and dried fruit, tend to be 1) processed and 2) concentrated. Processing takes raw nutrient-dense ingredients from a whole state containing vitamin/mineral levels several times greater than their snacky version, to a concentrated low-nutrient and high-glycemic load (dried fruit) or high-omega-6 load (nut butters / easy-to-eat-by-the pound trail mix) version of their not-so-abundant-yet-nutrient-dense-found-in-nature counterparts.

The answer I know some were looking for to “snack ideas?” is a Remy-approved bar, or a trail mix that you could free-for-all on. There are some products and snack-like paleo items that are less concerning than others, but I don’t want to waste your time or mine on fooling yourself into thinking such things are sustainable snacking solutions. The truth is, the best paleo snacks are snack-sized paleo foods.

Snackin' on... nope not gonna say it.

I challenge you, as part of the Challenge, to try to shift your perspective. Food makes up a great deal of what determines your health and quality of life for the rest of your days, so it should take up some of your time each day. From an evolutionary perspective, even the minimal time spent is far less time than paleolithic man would have spent on hunting/gathering. Present-day caveman spends most of his hours hunting/gathering a paycheck to be spent on more things and activities outside basic needs that don’t contribute to your fitness. So look at the few hours you spend on food, exercise, and related tasks as necessary — we evolved to survive moving about (not sitting down all day), eating foods found in nature (not pasta and cookies), playing and moving, and sleeping a lot more than we do now.

• Make your egg/DLG/meat quiches in cupcake tins and take a few to go for breakfast or as snacks
• When you cook meat/veggies in batches (which should be often to save time!), store them in small tupperwares to grab and keep in your bag and snack on
• When you make DIY condiments, store them in small tupperwares to take with you as dips/dressings for snacking on veg’s/fruits
• Truly paleo portable snackies: Avocados, shredded coconut, jerky, hard-boiled eggs
• Sardines in olive oil + bag-o-spinach M-M-m-m-m
• Nuts – very high concentration of omega-6 in most nuts (here’s a good overview from MDA); best choice: macnuts (cheapest at Sprouts/TJ’s) / macnut butter (at Whole Foods).
• Dried fruit – very high-glycemic load; most have added sugar nowadays and many have low-quality oils added (canola, vegetable). Plus, this will make you hungry after the insulin/sugar spike, so use at your own risk.

If you’re looking for more quick recipes or something cheap and on the go, check out these past posts which contain great ideas:

• Links in Remy’s Paleo Shopping List
• CFSB Nutrition posts
• “Paleo & Poor? Score.”
• “Fat!”, “Pro!”, “CHO!”
• Convenience

Here are some paleo-esque snacks/companies:

• Paleo Kits
• Paleo Treats – high-GL, pretty much paleo, delish
• Larabars – somewhat high glycemic load (dried fruit + nut bars) but good in a pinch
• Kind bars – has added sugar in some bars, and low-quality oils in some

Here’s a seriously delicious recent portable pretty-much-paleo recipe I adapted to make even more whole-food based from CFSCC’s “Eat This” post:

Paleoesque Blueberry Muffins

1-2 muffin tins*
1 C coconut flour (Whole Foods) or 1/2 C coconut, 1/2 C almond flour (Sprouts)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 C coconut oil
6-8 eggs*
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. sea salt (optional)
1-2 C fresh or frozen blueberries*

Blend together liquids, stir in dry stuff. *Fold in blueberries (amount is up to you — if you go up to 2 C, add a couple eggs). Grease w/coconut oil (no muffin cups necessary unless you want them), fill muffins tins about 3/4 full. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 17-19 minutes. Makes 12-16 muffins. Enjoy alone or with mashed strawberries or raspberries.

Workout of the Day 9/1/2010

A. Romanian Deadlift 5-5-5

B.

“Tabata Something Else”

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

Post total reps from all 32 intervals to whiteboard.