Starting Strength: Day One

So, in an effort to improve general fitness, I'm picking up the Starting Strength program. 3 main workouts a week, 5 basic moves. The goal is to increase strength and is geared towards beginners, as the title so subtly alludes.

Step one to any good exercise program is nutrition. I'm not going to get into the details of that here, but I would like to share my meals. I enjoy cooking, as you've probably gathered, and trying to cook with particular macronutrient ratios in mind is something I've never really tried

before. I'll be doing that loosely while I'm on SS, but its not set in stone by any means.

Breakfast was huge. I had 8 oz chicken breaast, handful of roasted parsnips with honey, one egg-mushroom omelette that I tried and failed to wrap with a spring roll skin, half an avocado, and a big bowl of roasted kale and broccoli. It was a lot of food, but great fuel for my first day of squats, bench press, and deadlift.

My post-workout was another 8 oz of chicken breast (half wrapped in a spring roll wrap for quick carbs) ,the rest of the parsnips with some drizzled honey, and roasted kale.

I snacked on a small sweet potato, some cottage cheese, and a small salad for lunch. Dinner was a turkey meatza: a crust made of ground turkey with basil, garlic, and roasted red pepper flakes, topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella and cheddar cheese, mushrooms, and kale. Freaking delicious end to a great first day of Starting Strength.

Georgia Recap

I ended up taking an accidental nap right around dinner time on Friday , so I missed out on the cooking festivities. But my loving fam saved me some bison burgers. I did a quick zap job, with a little swiss cheese, and they turned out great. Bison has a noticeably different taste from beef, but its close enough that I think most people will like it. If you haven't had it before, its fairly easy to find in stores. Give it a shot. I served with a side of broccoli.

Later that night I harnessed the antioxidant powers of blueberries and strawberries (and a little rum) to unwind from a long day of hiking.

I forgot to take photos of my best meal of the weekend, pan-seared chicken with balsamic cream, mushroom, and onion. It was a big hit nonetheless.

Another treat that I made for my family was bacon-wrapped sweet potato bites. They're as easy as they sound, and delicious as all hell with a little maple syrup.

Kermit Skewers

Before 8am, I already had my first idea for my "weird meal" down here in Georgia. I was chilling by my aunt's pool when what do I spy but two frogs. "Yum, frog legs," says my aunt jokingly.

"Yum, frog legs," Cameron says without a hint of sarcasm. So I caught, killed, skinned, and grilled those sumbitches.

I have no idea how safe, or legal, it is to just kill and eat whatever animals I see. But I did it, so sue me. I found a tutorial online on how to prepare the legs, which was actually pretty easy and less messy that some of my other hack jobs (lamb head and beef tongue, for example, are a lot harder to dismantle). Anyway, I dredged them in egg and some cajun spices, threw them on a skewer with some onion and cherry tomatoes, and grilled for a few minutes. They're very thin and don't hold up well to direct flame; I wish I would have tried some of the lower-heat garlic butter saute recipes I saw. Oh well.

There wasn't much meat on the bone, so I supplemented with a big ass salad of kale and swiss chard (pulled fresh from my uncle's garden), corned beef, carrots, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and a roasted red pepper.

Spring Break Georgia-Style: Breakfast #1

I should be ashamed of myself: one month without a blog post. I blame a combination of not being home to cook a real meal, plus being super busy with school. I'm sure ya'll will forgive me.

To make up for it, I'm going to unleash a relentless torrent of meal upon your hungry souls. Spring Break meals home-cooked meals every single day (that's how I do, son), and going out of town is no exception. This weekend, I'm in Georgia visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Their kitchen was not immune to my [insert cooking equivalent of "green-thumb"] and it wasn't even past noon before I brought in some nasty stuff to cook (as you'll see later).

For breakfast, I made a simple sweet potato hash with onion. I tried to make onion-ring-eggs, but I cut the onion wrong. I ended with what you see below. I don't know what they're called, but they were delicious. A little garlic salt and shredded cheese, and they ended up tasting, or at least looking, kind of like potato skins.

Sprouted Quinoa Mushroom Porridge

I had some liquid left over from my cream of mushroom pork chops last night. As a reminder, it was made with coconut milk, mushrooms, olive oil, thyme, rosemary, and garlic. I cooked 1/4 cup quinoa in the microwave, and then threw in some carrots and two Omega-3 eggs to make a weird egg drop porridge soup. Throw in a kale salad with sriracha, and it made for an interesting breakfast.

Sunday: Liver & Onions, BAS, Cream of Mushroom Pork Chops

I'm still feeling a little sick (sinus issues) today, so I didn't feel like putting a ton of effort into

cooking. For breakfast, I went with liver & onions cooked with butter and garlic, with some mozzarella sprinkled on top (and a little hot sauce). I definitely prefer beef liver to chicken livers...the taste doesn't "hit" as hard, and it pairs really well with onions and cheese.

For lunch, I had a big bowl of cauliflower (with hot sauce) and a "salad" of cauliflower "greens", the rest of my cabbage, tomato, carrots, and two Omega-3 eggs.

Dinner was a cream of mushroom pork chops. Probably one of the most delicious, albeit "conventional" things I've made. I browned the pork chops, sauteed mushrooms and garlic in olive oil, and then added coconut milk, thyme, and rosemary to make a nice sauce. I let all that

simmer for an hour, and roasted some baby carrots with salt, pepper, EVOO, and garlic salt. Abso-freakin-lutely heaven.

And the cherry on top was a two fudgy coconut flour brownies. My grandma made these for me, and we hid half the pan in the other freezer before we sat down to eat. Good thing too, because I could have eaten the whole damn thing. (That's my cousin's Dora bowl, by the way. Its was the closest thing near me, and I almost didn't get to take a photo before I scarfed it down.)

I'm back on campus now, but I should have a few microwave creations to share this week. Stay tuned.

Big Ass Salad & Orange Turkey

No real commentary on this. It was all quick and delicious.

Big ass salad = kale, avocado, bell pepper, tomato, red cabbage, mushrooms, parmesan cheese, EVOO, and hot sauce. Also had broccoli, brussels sprouts, and kale chips with a tall glass of almond milk.

Dinner was a turkey drumstick with an orange/juice, and some zucchini. With the rest of the broccoli and sprouts.

Sweet Potato Pancakes (Sorta)

I had to wake up bright and early to get to my brother's basketball game, so I packed a zip-loc bag of random vegetables and fruits. Red cabbage, asparagus, mushroom, avocado, tomato, and a bell pepper. Nice road treat.

For a proper breakfast, I tried this recipe for sweet potato pancakes sans the butter. I failed miserably. I didn't have baking powder, I used dairy milk instead of coconut, didn't even measure the milk, didn't use almond butter, and my skillet was too big to cook properly. There was so much liquid that the cake never "set", so I ended up with a mush. It had the consistency of mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs.....and the

TASTE OF HEAVEN. I topped it off with some honey...boy oh boy.

I made half regular with cinnamon and nutmeg and another batch with some chocolate powder. So good, and fairly easy. This may become a staple in my primal breakfast arsenal. I'll keep playing with the ingredients and heat to perfect the pancake shape.

Turkey Drumsticks, Roasted Squash, and Veggies

I had to come home again this weekend. So as usual, here's my Friday night meal.

I baked a turkey drumstick in Frank's Xtra Hot sauce, along with some hot peppers and pearl onions. I baked the other drumstick with olive oil, pearl onions, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, and thyme. Both were absolutely delicious. Who doesn't love turkey?

For my carbs, I nuked an acorn squash and then cut it up, tossed in olive oil, and did half with cinnamon and the other half with garlic salt. Roasted them in the oven until they were almost crispy. So good. I also threw in a tomato and asparagus on the side, served with a tall glass of almond milk. Quite a meal.

I'm going to try some new stuff tomorrow and Sunday, so be sure to keep an eye open for those posts.

I will slay thee, sinus infection!

Short update: I had an MRI done on Monday, and the results came back normal. So, no pituitary tumor. That means I have to get more blood work done this weekend to try to figure out what the hell is going on with my body. I don't really mind because it gives me more opportunities to cook, plus I'm usually pretty bored here in Columbus on weekends anyway.

Anyways, I started coming down with a cold on Sunday and by Tuesday it was obvious that I had a sinus infection. Without a doctor nearby, and a total ignorance of the health services that OSU has to offer, I've decided to tough it out. I've been using a saline sinus rinse AND alkalol, which is an herbal nasal wash with menthol and mint. It really clears me out. I've also been taking cayenne pepper capsules and adding more sriracha to my food (as if I needed an excuse.) I guess my reasoning is to keep the sinus cavity clear, and hot foods tend to help with that. I've also upped my vitamin C, even though I know that doesn't help; its a subjective remedy.

Another thing I'm doing to find the cold, and my excuse for this post, is I cracked open my stash of homemade bone broth. I made this a few weeks ago with some soup bones, short rib bones, and leftover steak bones. As this random article I just found explains, bone broth is full of minerals, helps with digestion, and has a creamy, fatty taste. I had this for "breakfast", along with a small steak and bag of green peas. It really hit the spot. If you can get your hands on some soup bones (they're dirt cheap at most grocery stores), I highly recommend making a batch of broth for yourself.

I also had one of my pickles today; WAY too much salt. I choked one down, and I'm not sure I want to finish the jar. I'm looking for other recipes for next time.

Peace.

I've really got myself into a pickle...

Stupid title.

Last week, I read Mark Sisson's post about naturally fermented pickles. In a nutshell, the stuff in the stores is heavily sweetened, and even if you buy the variety that

isn't full of HFCS, the rest is soaked in vinegar. This preserves the pickles longer and imparts that classic, or should I say "vlassic" (derp), sour taste.

The "problem" with pickling with vinegar is that it stops fermentation. Instead, he recommends fermenting in a simple salt water (plus spices) brine. Mark has written about the benefits of fermentation many times before, mainly that it helps promote digestive health via probiotics (lots of gut bacteria), and it makes certain nutrients more available for our bodies to use. Yogurt, sourkraut, kimchi, chocolate, and alcohol are all fermented to varying degrees.

All that is fine and dandy, but I was mostly attracted to the idea of DIY. I own a jar, I can buy salt and cucumbers, and water is free. I went with a little garlic and a splash of apple cider vinegar for flavor. Here you go:

I let this batch sit for 9 days on my desk, and now they are sitting in the fridge. I cut out a small piece to test: very salty, not quite as crunchy as I would like, but not a terrible taste. I've been having some stomach problems the past few days, so I'm going to wait for that to clear up before I really jump into the world of probiotics. I'll have a full taste review in a few days.

Thanks for reading!

Homemade Tacos (kinda)

Every once in a while, I get an out-of-nowhere craving for foods that I remember from my food dark ages. Not so much the bad stuff that got me to 300 lbs like entire sleeves of Saltine crackers, barrels of sourdough pretzels, the New Yorker from Pizza Hut, BLT chicken bread bowls covered in 1000 Island dressing from Perkin's, Cool Ranch Doritos, or Crunchwrap Supremes.

No, I'm talking about the meals. Like chicken alfredo. And grilled cheese & tomato soup. And tacos.

Fortunately, the only thing that makes tacos non-primal is the shell, which is very easily remedied. Throw all the ingredients in a bowl with more veggies, and voila! I tried to make a shell out of quinoa, first making flour with roasted quinoa in a food processor. That failed. I couldn't get the individual grains to break up with my relatively cheap processor. So I gave up on that, and went full veggie.

I used this recipe for the meat seasoning. Then I stuffed a jalapeno with meat, cheddar cheese, and spices. Then I made tiny bowls out of endive and bok choy, with sour cream and avocado to paste the meat and cheese. It was freaking delicious and fun to eat. I ate a bit too much, as I'm prone to do when I'm at home, but I just couldn't pass up a home cooked meal. 1000x better than eating cold salad in my dorm room.

My grandpa's camera was acting up today, so I wasn't able to get a picture of tonight's dinner. I really wish I had brought mine home from school, but it was a beautiful display. I made a cream cheese pizza crust and pork rind pizza crust. Basically, you mix the "secret ingredient" with eggs and mozzarella cheese, bake for 15-20 minutes, flip it over, then top with sauce, cheese, and toppings (pepperoni and mushroom this time).

I also made sweet potato chips (coat in olive oil and salt, bake in the oven). Those were amazing as well. Again, sorry for the lack of documentation.

"I'm dreaming of a white [breakfast]"

Good morning, my friends! I'm home again for the weekend and I will be cooking, shopping, and blogging extensively. Here's the first meal of my weekend (excluding the 7oz sirloin, 3 helpings of broccoli, bag of brussel sprouts, large sweet potato, and whole 90% chocolate bar I had when I got home last night).

I love using the stovetop and the oven whenever I get the chance, because they are able to achieve a degree of crispiness that I just can't get with a dorm room microwave. So this morning I went balls-to-the-wall.

First up was cinnamon jicama hash browns. Jicama is a white root vegetable, mostly water and fiber, fairly low-carb/low-calorie. I'd read a bit about it over at Mark's Daily Apple, so I figured I would give it a try. I skinned and shredded one, squeezed out a lot of the water, mixed in an egg, salt, and cinnamon, and then fried three patties in EVOO. It was surprising awesome; the contrast of crispy skin and moist center, coupled with the mild root taste made an excellent vehicle for the cinnamon. I would probably use regular butter next time, instead of EVOO.

Overall a good experience.

The rest of my plate was familiar territory. I roasted some mushrooms, pearl onions, garlic, and jicama skins in EVOO, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Two eggs mixed with the leftover "jicama juice", and a sprinkle of parmesean cheese, made for a sexy omelette. I didn't realize it until I had plated everything, but my breakfast was a veritable palette of white, grey, and light brown. Not very attractive, and it wreaked havoc with my camera's flash. It actually looks like a starch bomb, but it isn't. Whatever it looks like, it was a hearty way to start the weekend.

[Note: Lots of you have told me on "the facebook" or IRL that you like the blog. Gods below [Dune reference], comment please! I want to hear what you think. Especially if you've tried one of these dishes/ingredients before or if you have suggestions for new recipes.]

Now I'm off to the gym to kick my little brother's butt up and down the court.

Tuesday & Wednesday Breakfasts

Sorry again for the inconsistent posting. Lots of stuff going on with school, plus I was without my computer for two days. Anyway, here's a quick update on some of the creative stuff I've been working for my dorm breakfasts.

Well, the first one isn't creative at all. Just a cheap steak cooked in the microwave, with some kale, dandelion greens, and zapped eggplant. I made a little dipping sauce of mustard, sriracha, and EVOO. It was pretty quick, very delicious.

Today's breakfast was a bit more inventive. I made an omelet with one egg and a pouch o

f salmon. It would have been better with some onion, bell peppers, or mushrooms, but those aren't easily available. For the other half of the meal, I scooped out the center of a piece of eggplant, cracked an egg in the whole, covered, and cooked. It was pretty good. Again, more spices and veggies would have made it better, and I think broiling to make the egg plant crispy would have been better.

I have to go home again this weekend for a medical test, so I'll be cooking a few goodies. Probably some jalapeno/chicken/bacon poppers and primal tacos. Can't wait. :)

Life is Good: Red Wine, Dark Chocolate, and Black Metal

Sorry for the slow blogging lately. I've been busy with school, extra curriculars, and my new internship. I do have a few updates for you, some good and some less-than-good.

On the diet front, I've been doing my usual lunch/dinner combo (big ass salads, with a sweet potato or two). I bought a bottle of sriracha and my mouth has been burning for 5 days straight. That stuff is simultaneous addicting and brutally painful. My mouth isn't sending the proper signals to my brain, because every goddamn day I hurt myself on that stuff haha.

My breakfasts were pretty boring this week. I was really kicking ass with my intense veggie intake (per the Wahls diet) for about two weeks there, and I kept it up while I was at home. But I had a bit of a SNAFU getting back to campus Sunday night, so I didn't have time to stock up hardcore. After tackling kale, mustard greens, swiss chard, and red cabbage, plus the 3-4 cups of mixed greens I get already, I needed to switch up my greenage in order to avoid kidney stones. (Supposedly Science: different leafy greens have varying amounts of oxalate acid, which can cause kidney stones. With the increased intake of these veggies, Dr. Wahls suggests rotating.) So I bought a bunch of organic spinach and a small head of radicchio lettuce. I love spinach, but no one told me that the latter was bitter as all hell when eaten raw. So I basically had to eat microwave cooked (ie: warm) lettuce for breakfast.

For protein, I got some cheap steaks and Omega-3 eggs. My endochronologist made a fuss last month about me not eating dairy, the reasons being partially paleo, partially me liking the taste of water. So I snagged a small carton of Swiss Goat Milk to get some extra protein and calcium. Its not that I don't like regular milk, but sometimes it gives me gas, and I'm not too fond of perpetuating both the neolithic cattle culture and the government-business promotion of dairy as an essential food group. [steps off soap box]

On the exercise side of things, my aunt's recently set goal of running a 5k in April inspired me to get my act together. I've never liked "cardio", even though I owe about 50% of my weight loss to the Insanity program back in summer 2010. Nowadays, when I have the time and energy, I prefer to lift some weights or do some yoga in my room. I have flirted with the idea of running a 5k in the past, but I never really committed to training.

That's about to change.

I've decided to add two days of running and racquetball to my regimen leading up to the Relay for Life in late April. I have/had no idea how hard it was going to be, what a good time would be, or how to train. My good friend Jake is a running machine (in Army ROTC), and he has agreed to take me under his wing to whip me into peak running shape.

I ran my first timed mile in seven years on Thursday. Throughout elementary school and junior high gym class, I never ran a sub-12 minute mile. Yesterday, on my first attempt, with no formal conditioning whatsoever besides moderate daily exercise and 100+ lbs off my bones, I ran a mile in 7:55. I could barely believe it, and I almost died in the process. 8 minutes was always my standard for "I could never run a mile that fast." And I did it on my first shot. I still don't know what my goals are, and there's no way I could run 3.1 miles straight at that pace. But at least the bar has been set.

In health news (the kinda-not-good part), I got my long-awaited blood work back today. [Science ahead] Back in August, I was tested for thyroid: my TSH and free T4 were normal, but my free T3 was low (hypothroid). Last week's results show that now both free T4 and free T3 are low, so my doctor suspects pituitary issues. This was reinforced by low testosterone (was below range, not at the very bottom of the range), low free T, and low luteinizing hormone (helps produce testosterone). These results ALSO point to hypopituitary problems. As I said before, I think a 7 year old head injury is to blame.

So, I'm going to get a TRH test, the definitive test to see if my pituitary/thyroid system is working improperly. Also getting an MRI to check for "growths" (read as: TUMORS!!!) Just messing, I'm not too worried.

So after getting this seemingly bad news, I've been extremely chipper today. I'm having a nice quiet (read as: lame) night, reading Frank Herbert, drinking cheap red wine, eating dark Baker's chocolate, and listening to Ihsahn. Love that sax.

Life is good.

Sunday Brunch

Whenever I'm home, my grandma likes to cook a meal with me. I knew she liked salmon, so I proposed oven-baked salmon with veggies, and two side recipes from some of my favorite paleo/primal sites: avocado deviled eggs and vegetable latkes.

As usual, I freestyled a bit on each recipe. I skipped the crab meat on the eggs, and just threw together yolks, avocado, nutmeg, paprika, mustard, and pickle juice. The avocado wasn't as

soft as I would have liked, but what can you do? (It turns out, putting it in a bag with an apple over night will ripen it. I had a bag and an apple literally 2 feet away from the avocado all night long. Damn) For the latkes, we shredded some zucchini and yellow squash, mixed in a few eggs, and fried in olive oil. After the first 4, I found it too hard so I turned the rest into a hash. It was still delicious.

The salmon was wrapped up in foil with olive oil, tomato, and squash/zucchini. I would have preferred wild caught, but Kroger doesn't have that fresh. The farm raised definitely tastes different, and the skin especially is not very good. But it didn't ruin the meal.

I love being home.

Saturday at Home

A quick post: I came home for the weekend and that means I had a KITCHEN! I started off with a green smoothie of coconut milk, kale, avocado, and 2% Greek yogurt. I sprinkled some cocoa and cinnamon on top. Very delicious, and a great way to get my greens out of the way.

For lunch, I warmed up some of my lamb head stew that I had in the freezer, and poured it over the remaining kale stems.

Earlier in the morning, I threw together some tomatoes, short ribs, and italian spices in a crock pot to recreate a recipe from Primal Palate. By dinner, the meat was falling off the bone. The broth was so oily (in a very good way!), and the tomatoes were so soft, the meat so tender.....

.I had 3 or 4 bowls, it was so good. Definitely one of my best creations. Thanks to Bill & Hayley for the recipe! I had a huge amount of asparagus on the side.

I also spent the day making various broths, which I'll post about tomorrow. Tonight, I'll be hitting the club soda, lime juice, and GIN. As close to primal as you can get with alcohol.

Microwave Liver Frittata & Veggies

I've been trying to replace my usual whey protein shake breakfast with real, whole food. I've been moving away from whey on the whole just to cut down on dairy and because I don't know what other kinds of chemicals, additives, etc they're throwing in there. Whey is a great supplement when you're short on time or can't access real food, but I'd rather keep the unknown nasty stuff out of my body.

So I decided to pick up what some people would consider "nasty": chicken livers. A pound for $1.50 at Kroger. It fulfills my protein needs and meets the weekly offal suggestion under the Wahls Diet. Yesterday, I just microwaved a few...and suddenly remembered that I don't like chicken livers unless they're covered in other flavors. So this morning I covered them in cajun spices, chopped up a little thyme, and "Cameron DeHarted" them. That is, I cracked two eggs (omega-3s) on top. (That phrase is a remnant of my less-than-talented cooking days, in which my primary method of adding pizzazz to a meal was to just crack an egg over it.) It was surprisingly tolerable.

I finished off most of my remaining veggies: broccoli stalk, cauliflower, asparagus, collard greens, mushrooms, cabbage. I've had the same thing each morning since Saturday, so I'm looking forward to next weeks rotation of veggies. Not sure what I'm going to pick up yet, so if you have any suggestions, leave them in the comment section or on facebook!

I'm going home this weekend, so I'll be doing lots of cooking. Look out for a few rapid posts on Saturday and Sunday.

Cheers!

Lazy Saturday

I knew today was going to be a good day. I just had this gut feeling. I got about 8 hours of sleep before being woken up by a text message. I was refreshed and ready to start the day. Friday was pretty damn good (got an internship!), and for some reason, I've been in a really good mood the past few days. I had my first of many Wahls breakfasts. For a drink, I ground up a little flax seed (ALA omega 3 fatty acids, phytoestrogens, and fiber) and bee pollen (flavonoids, B vitamins, and anti-allergenic stuff), plus some cinnamon (tastes good, controls blood sugar.)

I found out you can cook steak in the microwave, which is going to be valuable knowledge throughout the next 5 months of dorm life. I cut off the visible fat of my little steak and nuked it for 2 minutes. I then poured off the melted fat and nuked it for a few more minutes (it was pretty thin, so it didn't take long to cook through.) I also nuked two Omega 3-enhanced eggs, and plated that with cooked broccoli, cauliflower, and asparagus, and raw radishes, zucchini, red cabbage, and a giant leaf of collard greens. I drizzled a little olive oil and N'Orleans Cajun seasoning (just dehydrated garlic, salt, paprika, onion, and red pepper) on top of everything, some lemon juice on the cruciferous and leafy greens. It was all very delicious, and I was absolutely stuffed. My jaw was actually a little sore from all the chewing, but I felt satisfied and energetic for my 1pm racquetball session with my good friend, Mr. Jake Young. The drink I mentioned earlier was pretty bland, but considering my go-to beverage is water, I didn't mind. Anything for health, right?

Since I had a late breakfast and exercise at lunch time, I didn't get to eat much before dinner. I had a post-workout snack of 1/2 of an 87% dark chocolate bar (my vice) and a cup of lactose-reduced Greek Yogurt with a little flax seed and cinnamon, along with a hot cup of white tea.

Dinner was my Ohio Union staple; what Mark Sisson has so eloquently labeled "Big Ass Salad". ~2 cups of mixed greens, green pepper, red and green onion, carrots, chicken, eggs, tuna, radish sprouts, avocado (MUFAs), mushrooms, cucumber, pepperoncini, and walnuts (omega-3s). I topped it off with EVOO (more MUFAs) and cajun seasoning. And after dinner, I sat down with a nice chilled glass of Willy's Brew: Seville Orange Sangria.

A very nice day, lazy on all accounts except the spirited round of racquetball. I finished a comic book, watched a little Arrested Development, did my laundry, and put off homework. It feels good, man. No complaints.

Grocery Haul: a veritable smorgas-dorm

That title has to be the worst pun I've ever attempted. Shame on me.

After that long ass post, I figured I'd post a few pictures of my latest trip to the grocery store. I've posted enough weird meats, now its time for med-res shots of vegetables and other goodies. This is my breakfast, snacks, and supplements for dinner. I don't think I'm quite hitting 9 cups, as suggested by Dr. Wahls, but I'm getting as close as I can given my budget and micro-refrigerator constraints.

Haul #1: organic celery, brussel sprouts, green peas, red cabbage, artichoke, plantain, golden beets, chopped spinach, flax seeds (ALA omega 3), bok choy, acorn squash, organic carrots, organic quinoa, and bee pollen.

Haul #2: organic red cabbage, organic zucchini, purple and green asparagus, organic mushrooms, organic broccoli, red radishes, organic cauliflower, organic collard greens, organic swiss chard.

Haul #3 (THE PROTEIN!): quick sale steak (not grassfed, but I'll cut off the fat because that's where the toxins accumulate in conventionally-raised meat), omega 3 eggs, greek yogurt. I don't know if you can cook steak in a microwave, but I'm going to find out. Again, in an ideal world, I would be cooking CLA-rich, grass-fed steak from a trusted butcher, on safe ironware. In due time, my friends.

#4 (All the "other" stuff): Green and white pomegranate tea, chocolate yerba mate, coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, raw honey (with comb!), red wine, kelp flakes, SRIRACHA, pomegranate/blueberry juice, Louisiana hot sauce, lemon juice, unsweetened chocolate, and Stevia. (Not pictured: my omega 3 supplement, which is a mix of fish, flax, coconut, and borage oils.)

And here's what I had for a little snack. bowl of steamed, chopped spinach, cooked acorn squash seeds, and Justin's maple almond butter. Not pictured: a few pieces of 87% dark chocolate.