Big Tim's Primal Journey

Hello Journey Fans,

I grew up like many of you eating oodles and oodles of noodles in the form of Spaghetti & Meatballs.  Well living a Paleo lifestyle makes pasta noodles a thing of the past.  No more Gluten or Wheat, no more carb crashes or bloating after eating way too much pasta over the years.  Ultimately it comes down to the real good parts.  The Sauce and the MEATballs!!  So here is my soon to be famous with all of you trying it and loving it as much as I do Sauce from scratch, and Meatballs.

Sauce (makes 5-6 quarts)

1 Medium White Onion
3 Heaping Tbsp Minced Garlic
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
24 Organic Roma Tomatoes
3 6oz cans Organic Tomato Paste
4 Tbsp Sea Salt
3 Tbsp Black Pepper
4 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
3 Tbsp Basil
3 Tbsp Oregano
2 Tbsp Granulated Garlic
1/2 cup Red Wine (I used Merlot) Cab will work too.
2 Tbsp Pure Cane Brown Sugar (optional)

In a large stock pot, add 1/4 cup of the olive oil and turn on heat.  Chop up onion very fine using food processor or your mad chef skills like they do on TV if you are so inclined Food processor is faster! Throw the chopped onion, and the garlic into the pot and it should sizzle in the oil.  Sweat the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes stirring till onion and garlic browned.  Turn off heat.

Cut off the stem end of the Roma tomatoes and toss all into food processor and process to your desired consistency.  I like a puree thinner sauce so no big tomato chunks for me.  Add tomato puree to the pot.  Next add the 3 cans of organic tomato paste to pot.  Add all seasonings, red wine & remaining 1/4 cup of EVOO to the pot.  Stir until the paste is mixed and you have a thicker sauce now.  Turn heat back on, and bring to slow boil.  As soon as you see first boil bubbles, turn heat down to low, stir and cover, and let simmer slowly for 60 minutes, checking and stirring every 20 min.

After 60 minutes, start your taste testing.  Add whatever you think it may need.  This is the time where I added the optional Brown sugar.  I always remember my grandmother adding lots of sugar to her sauce and it was always very sweet, but oh so good when I was a kid, so just adding 2 Tbsp is not much, but I can definitely tell it’s there since my sweet taste buds know how amazingly little sweetness is needed.  If you don’t want to use any sugar don’t, this is my touch to remind me of my grandmother’s great sauce Most likely not much, but maybe some salt will need to be added, and it never hurts to add more garlic either haha!! Keep on low and let all the flavors meld, it can be cooked up to 6 hours.

Meatballs (Yields 40+ 1.3 oz meatballs)
I got 47 in this batch 

4 lbs Grass Fed Ground Beef
4 Eggs
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Granulated Garlic
Onion Powder
Italian Seasoning

In a large bowl, take the meat, each one was a 1 lb package so combine all meat together into a big ball in the bowl.  Flatten the meat into a giant hamburger patty, think big 4 lb burger! Flatten it to about 1/2 inch thick.  I have no measurements for the seasoning as I seasoned the meat just like I would a burger.  Sprinkle the Salt over the whole burger patty, then pepper, garlic, onion powder and italian seasoning.  Flip the burger patty over, and season same way on other clean side

Take your 4 eggs and beat them like you were gonna make scrambled eggs, just combine yolks and whites together.  Pour the eggs onto the meat patty in the bowl.  Get your hands in there, and mix the egg in well until all the meat is combined and the seasonings are all mixed through with the egg and meat.  It should be a little wet, but mostly not.  Now to test the mixture, take a small piece of the meat mixture, toss it in a pan flatten it and cook it for a minute on each side and taste it.  Adjust your seasoning to desired taste with your big meat mixture at this point.  Tasted awesome to me, so no extra seasoning was needed.

Now depending on how big you want your meatballs, these were small/medium sized.  To get an idea how big, take your hand and make an “OK” sign.  Pull enough meat to make a ball that size I got 47 meatballs out of the 4 lbs of meat used.  Averages about 1.3 oz per meatball if you weighed them.  Now line 2 baking pans with foil, and drop the meatballs in the pans.  Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees, and bake the meatballs for 20-25 minutes.  These were done at 22 minutes.  You can also fry them up in a pan with some coconut oil or avocado oil, however for less mess, baking them is ideal

Finished Dish

I put 10 meatballs in a bowl, and topped with plenty of sauce, and crushed up all the meatballs and ate it like a chunky meaty italian tomato soup.  I added more sauce because it was that good, and was extremely satisfied and had no bloating or heavy feeling after being done because as we all know that doesn’t happen to us anymore not eating grains!!

The flavors of the meat and sauce together work well all by themselves, but if you wish you can top this over spaghetti squash, or any other vegetable you wish, and the sauce can be used for just about any tomato dish you like.  I have several jars left over which should keep in the refrigerator for a month or so.  It won’t last that long

Thank you for viewing, and I hope you give this a try with all of your favorite meats like beef, bison, elk, boar, venison etc.  Meatballs are quick and easy snacks if you have them leftover!

Have a great day!

Tim

Wow!!  Tomorrow, Saturday January 28th 2012, I will have been living this lifestyle for 9 months!!  What happens in 9 months usually?  It takes that long for a human life to be born. (Yea yea technically I know it can be shorter, and was for my twin boys!!) but I digress, usually this is the normal term.

9 months, that’s a lot of processing that has to go on to become a human.  In 9 months we go from a single organism to the complex bunch of cells, nerves, tissue, bone, muscle and fat to become what we call human!!  Pretty amazing if you ask me.  The human body is the most complex and forgiving machine on the planet.  We spend years torturing it with bad food, over bearing exercise, and crazy activities that push it to the brink of breaking!!  Some are better at breaking it than others, and some while they may look fabulous on the outside, they really are not so fabulous on the inside.

It takes some longer than others to finally reach that breaking point to where they finally say “I am broken” and then make the harder decision to actually want to “heal” from the inside out.  I got to that point on 4/27/11.  So today 9 months ago, I told myself, deep down, honestly and truly, “I am BROKEN and I am sick of it, and I will do whatever I can to become a better human!”  Thankfully I found the answer and spent 8 hours that day reading and researching, and came to the conclusion that Primal/Paleo living WOULD BE THE ANSWER!! I started the way of eating the next day 4/28/11

To all of you who have yet to give this lifestyle a try and think it’s just a fad, or a gimmick, or a bunch of crazy people who think we should all live in caves if this is what we call our “diet” I say to you “WHAT ARE YOU REALLY AFRAID OF?” Are you afraid we are right? How can you argue with the many results, issues, diseases, afflictions, conditions, aches, pains, and problems that we have all lessened and even healed? That your doctor, nutritionist, or government couldn’t possibly be wrong? Could they?!!! They are the “Experts” and the “Experts” are NEVER WRONG!! The medical community has made unbelievable strides in procedures that can fix many things, and they have a place for the major things that simple diet cannot fix.  However relying on drugs to fix common issues without even exploring the possibility of maybe something you ate is causing your problem, and prescribing food first instead of the latest drug, that is where I take issue. Don’t you want your doctors to be up on ALL THE LATEST RESEARCH instead of just what they are told to tell you?  This is what always baffles me about conventional wisdom and reminds me of a famous quote from an evil man.

Joseph Goebbels wrote the following paragraph in an article dated 12 January 1941

The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.

 It has been used many times as…If you tell a lie big enough and often enough, everyone will believe it.

Well guess what!! I’m here to tell you that we have been fed the lies by the by the book, Conventional doctor/nutritionist/government in today’s definition of “healthy living.”  They are unwilling to admit their MISTAKES and the LIES that we have been told for fear of losing YOUR BUSINESS!!  That’s right, THE BUSINESS OF SICKNESS, ILLNESS AND CHRONIC PAIN!!  ”They” don’t get paid if you are well!! It’s eat this low fat, low cholesterol, high carbohydrate diet to lose weight, and take this statin for your high cholesterol, this pill for your high blood pressure, or take this drug because you “can’t get it up.”  Well guess what…most everyone I speak to, have none of these problems because of living this way.  Pretty freaking amazing actually.  Check out these statistics from the start of the “low fat craze” in 1977.

http://www.gnolls.org/1086/the-lipid-hypothesis-has-officially-failed-part-1-of-many/ 

The only person who can be the Expert of you, IS YOU!!  All the advice that anyone gives you must be questioned and tried out on you, by you, in order to make an informed decision to decide if that was RIGHT or WRONG for YOU!!  No special schooling is necessary, you don’t need a college degree or a medical degree, or a nutritional degree to eat real food and see if it works or not.  Self experimentation is the only way to truly know what works FOR YOU!!

If someone tells me they CAN’T ever give up Bread or Pasta or their beloved Oatmeal, they never give a reason other than “Oh I could never do that, or eating meat will give you cancer, or all that fat will make me fatter, or you’ll get high cholesterol eating all those eggs.”  That is where the world has been fed a great big lie!!  All those who still believe it (because they haven’t been convinced otherwise by trying something new) They are the ones that truly need the most help.  They are in such a brainwashed state of denial that they are UNWILLING TO EVEN TRY to get past the thinking, past that “you are afraid of me being right” stage.  As my good friend Joanne Ellett of Bellatrix Nutrition posted one day “I can’t means…I Certainly Am Not Trying”  Those words ring in my head every time I hear someone say I can’t do something.

Get past the DOGMA people.  If you never attempt to live this way, you will never know if it’s right or wrong FOR YOU.  Don’t just say it doesn’t work, or you could never do that, because that just means you are afraid of being wrong.

One thing I have learned on this 9 month journey so far.  If you never fail, then you can never truly heal!!  IF YOU DON’T TRY IT, YOU CAN NEVER CLAIM IT DOESN’T WORK!!!  If you don’t get up after falling down, only then will you fail!!

What have you got to lose in trying something for 30 days??  Your pride?  Your stubbornness?  Stop making excuses for what you are afraid of!!  Get out of the comfort zone of your sugar processed life and learn to EAT REAL FOOD!

I heal myself on the INSIDE AND OUTSIDE with each meal, each workout, and each night’s sleep.   What are you going to do to truly “HEAL” YOU??!!

I posted a couple months back my version of “The Primal/Paleo Template in my own words”.  Check it out and begin your NEW Journey TODAY!!  Think of what you will reflect on in 9 months as a “NEW” human!!

Thanks for reading and much love to you all!!

Tim

Hey Journey Fans,

Another month, 7 now in the books, and the ride isn’t stopping anytime soon!! Another positive month, and a couple of huge milestones hit.  1st, that 50 lbs down mark!! I have not dropped that much in a consistent time frame ever in my life of dieting, and as you know I’ve done them all!! 2nd, I put on a pair of size 36 shorts!!! Size 36, are you freaking kidding me??!! LOL!! I have not been a 36 since I was a teenager.  I am pretty darn stoked about this!!!

Here are the latest numbers.
7 Month Progress

I will not post pics again till I hit the one year mark. I am only 42 lbs from my goal weight, however since everywhere from here on down will be new territory for me, I am well within that reach in the next 5 months!! The food is the easy part now!! With the support of my wife and kids, the Paleo community and my CrossFit family I have no doubts that I will reach and most likely surpass what I thought was previously impossible!!

Thank you all for your love and support between my blog here and my facebook page!! Keep the comments and posts coming!! You motivate me more than you can possibly know!!

Have a great holiday season!! Christmas is only 27 days away!!

Tim

Hey there Journey fans!!

It’s cold and raining here in Sunny Southern California today, so what’s a Primal/Paleo guy to do…soup? chili? Nah!!! Ice Cream!

I have on several occasions made homemade ice cream trying different things and flavors, and this one so far has turned out the best.  Creamy and refreshing without being overly sweet.  I was quite pleased at the results.

Primal Strawberry-Banana Ice Cream.

Having all ingredients as cold as possible makes this much easier.

2 Cans (14 0z) Trader Joe’s Light Coconut Milk  (you can use what ever coconut milk you like, this just happens to have no extra junk in it)

2 egg yolks

1 TBSP Coconut Oil (it’s cold out so just put in a small bowl and melt 15 sec in microwave so it liquifies) This adds the fat back in from the “light” milk.

4 tbsp Pure Vanilla

1/8 cup Raw Honey

1/8 cup Pure Maple Syrup

3/4 cup frozen strawberries

2 ripe bananas

Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender till it’s like a smoothie consistency

Pour into your ice cream maker and let go for 30 min.

It will be soft serve consistency when done, transfer it to a glass or stainless steel bowl and serve if you like it that way, or put in freezer for an additional 30 minutes or longer for desired consistency.

Enjoy!

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to help clear up the confusion some may have in living this lifestyle.  I get many questions and comments from people who are just confused by all of the varying opinions that people have to “being Primal or Paleo”.

There are no different schools of thought, there are only varying opinions. There is a template for following the Primal/Paleo lifestyle. People choose to eat things as part of the template based on their goals/needs/feelings/reactions to foods. Nothing has changed in that everyone agrees on the basics.

If one chooses to be low carb and not eat veggies, there is not a different template for that. It’s just an elimination of another acceptable food based on that persons needs.

Meats (Beef, Chicken, Pork, Fish, Game meats like Bison, Elk, Deer, etc), Eggs, Fats (coconut products, Extra virgin olive oil, avocados), Non starchy Veggies, Fruits, Nuts.

The Standard American Diet or SAD as it’s known is a diet of inflammation.  High levels of Omega 6 fatty acids in the diet due to the inflammatory foods such as all Grains (Wheat, Corn -yes corn is a grain not a vegetable and is Genetically Modified, Rice, Barley, Oats), Legumes (Beans, Peanuts -yes a Peanut is a bean not a nut), SOY (also evil Genetically Modified substance),  ALL Packaged Processed foods (if it has anything on the label you can’t pronounce, DON’T EAT IT), avoid it.  And finally Processed and artificial Sugars (all artificial sugars are bad. if it has “ose”, “dexterin” ,” itol” in it, it’s sugar), Fruit sugar (fructose) while natural, should be treated the same (sparingly see below)

Those are the basics. Almost Everyone in the Paleosphere agrees on this (see opinion).

Everything after that list above is Opinion, and what works best for you. Your level of what you tolerate and react to, should be in what you figure out works best for you.  Some choose white potatoes, or white rice, Healthy people can eat these things…Metabolically deranged people (those who have T2 diabetes, autoimmune diseases such as celiacs/coeliacs) cannot.

Fruits and Nuts on occasion (insulin resistance-high sugar content/high omega 6 content) varies this consumption of these foods.

Sugar in the form of Fruits, Raw Honey, Pure Maple Syrup or Raw Stevia -not the processed Stevia in the Raw you find in the store (that has Maltodexterin or Dextrose- corn sugars mixed with it) you want the pure leaf Stevia or ground Stevia…read your label!! It should say Ingredients, Stevia or Raw Stevia ONLY!!  These are natural sugars!!

These natural sugars can be incorporated when you need something a little sweet to flavor some recipes.  You can also use various blended fruits to sweeten up things too, however based on your tolerances, and goals, sugar is sugar in any form.  It still breaks down in the body the same way and will store as fat if consumed in excess.

If you are living a more Primal lifestyle (according to the experts), consuming Raw Dairy, butter, ghee, cheese, milk (if tolerable) is acceptable.

Red Wine can be incorporated into a healthy Primal/Paleo lifestyle as well.

The quality of the meat matters!! What your animals eat is just as important as what you eat!! You may not think it matters, but to those with gluten intolerances, cannot even consume food that has been fed grains or soy!!  I have a friend who thought she was allergic to ALL MEAT…turns out she was an undiagnosed Celiac who became so intolerant to Grains that what her meat ate caused her reaction!  She now thoroughly enjoys Beef, Pork, Wild Boar and other meats and eats them EVEN RAW now too because she buys all grass fed/finished/pastured/wild meat!! NO GRAIN Fed at all!!

Grass Fed/Finished, Pastured, Free Range, Wild Caught, all are optimal for the human system.  They are high in Omega 3 fatty acids and the animal fat is optimal for consumption.  If you cannot get your meat from a local farm source or catch/shoot/spear it yourself, then buy the best quality you can for your budget…remember being Primal/Paleo is not a weight loss plan, it’s an anti-inflammation reset of your system! Weight loss just happens to be an Awesome side effect!!

Support your local farmer/co-op/farmers market/organic producer whenever possible.

If you have no choice but to eat meats you buy in the grocery stores, buy the leanest cuts you can.  (fat is not your friend in regular meat due to the high Omega 6 ratio in grain fed animals)  You may possibly consider taking a high quality Omega 3 fish oil/krill oil/cod oil supplement if you consume lots of store bought meat.  This will help balancing out the ratios.  Omega 3 good..Omega 6 not good. Try and limit the amount of Omega 6 foods you consume as much as possible.  There is much dispute about amounts or toxicity of even good Omega 3 levels, taking a supplement at the recommended dosages may or may not offer any benefit, but of course this choice is up to you the individual to understand and research.  I take a high quality cod liver oil supplement, and have found it useful for me.

Make sure you get your play in, (exercise/sports/fun), get some daily sun 15 minutes a day no sunglasses (if possible, your geographic location will determine this) SLEEP 7-8 hours every night, Lower your stress, and you should be on your way to being the healthiest you that you can be!

I seriously recommend that each person get a blood panel done from their qualified technician/doctor for cholesterol, blood glucose, vitamin D levels, have your thyroid checked, and get every internal test you can get when starting out living this way.   Take photos of yourself, and measurements, and don’t worry about a scale number!! Stress causes stalling or gain!! No need for excess stress.  The scale is just one tool in how you feel!! Don’t make it your crutch!!

Like I said, everything is Opinion after the basics!! You need to find what works for you and live that way!! Life is about living, enjoy it, don’t make your food so strict that you can’t enjoy life once in a while.  You know what you can tolerate and what you cannot, I cannot indulge in the things I used to eat, and find pleasure in a good steak, or some pastured BACON LIFE IS WAY MORE THAN BREAD AND SUGAR!!! Steak and Bacon sounds better anyway (to me at least)!!

I am not here to argue with anyone, everyone must find their own path and choose the best foods they can for themselves and their families.  Many don’t agree with my opinion or lifestyle, particularly in the Non Meat eater category, that’s fine.  Live and Let Live!! You thrive your way, I’ll thrive mine.  It’s not a contest, it’s a difference of opinion.  WE are not that different.  I like many vegetables…I happen to like Real Meat more.

Fat does not make you fat.  Consuming cholesterol does not give you high cholesterol! Grains/Sugar/Legumes/Soy all are inflammatory foods…Inflammation causes heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer! Sugar feeds cancer cells.  The research is out there.  Now I’m not gonna fill this blog post with hundreds of linked articles, as you can easily search on Google for anything with Inflammation in it, and find plenty of information to back up what I say.  I spend my day researching a lot, and others should too because I care about my health now after neglecting it for way too long!!  Once I found the answer for my diabetes and am reversing it living this way, it doesn’t take any more convincing than real world experience!! DO YOUR RESEARCH!! There are “cures” for diseases that no one wants you to know about!! The system is corrupt, don’t believe them!!! Take your health in your own hands, and realize that the system doesn’t want you healthy, they don’t make money on healthy people!!

“Let your food be thy medicine and your medicine be thy food.” – Hippocrates

My theory is this…If it comes from an animal, and you tolerate eating it, eat it.  If something makes you sick, bloated, makes you break out with acne, gives you headaches, or sweats, causes you to have brain fog, or generally not feel yourself…it’s probably something you shouldn’t be eating!! Pretty simple way to live really.

I am Paleo for Life!! or PAF for Life!! as my tribe in the IPMG (International Paleo Movement Group) know!!!!

If anyone has just started living Primal/Paleo and is confused about anything after reading all this, then please click on the IPMG link above and join our group on facebook!! Greatest bunch of knowledgable real world experience, been there done that with every diet on earth type people you will find!!

You can also find me at my page Big Tim’s Primal Journey on facebook as well!! Thanks for reading my quick post that turned out not so quick.  I love you all!

Tim

Hey Everyone!!! Time flies when you’re having fun!! I have hit my 6 month mark living Primal/Paleo!! What a ride it’s been so far and it’s gonna get even better as this is the way I will be for the rest of my life!!

I posted a huge note in facebook, so please click on the link and check it out…complete with pics too!!

Big Tim’s 6 Month results!!

Inside is the spreadsheet link to Google…so after you check out the pics, check out the numbers!! or if you don’t want to see me in all my glory…just click the link here

6 month spreadsheet

So many people inspire me every day!! Many of them I follow on their journey’s too!! Check out their blogs in my blog roll!! So many people posting great info!!

I love you all!!

Tim

Hey Everyone, sorry for the lack of posting on the blog!! The Facebook page is taking up so much time and I forget sometimes that I have a blog!!

Anyway, it’s almost that magic time where new numbers are due out this coming week, so will definitely be posting the 6 month progress!!

For now, here’s a super collaborative effort on an awesome Short Ribs Recipe that I did with The Civilized Caveman!! Please go check out this one!! I am so very grateful to have this guy as a friend and in my corner, and his generosity and kind words in the post prove what a great dude he really is!! I thank you so very much George for all you do, and your service to our country as an active duty U.S. Marine, is truly respected by me!!
Thank you!!

Here’s the recipe!! Try it!!! You will not be disappointed!!

Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations : Crockpot Simple Short Ribs 

Hope you all had a super awesome weekend!! Eat well!!

Tim