I went to Twitter yesterday for some help deciding which of the Paleo recipes I have up my sleeve should be the first on this here blog. I was sort of looking forward to sharing an awesome muffin recipe with you or talking about my latest adventures with bacon, but Jackie insisted that she needed some chocolate. (Consider this an engagement gift, Jack).

This is how you make the most wonderful dessert/snack in the world. 

In the world? 

That's what I said.

Here's what you need:

9 ounces of good quality dark chocolate. 

(It needs to have 85% or more cacao content if you're concerned about making it Paleo).

About half a cup of macadamia nuts.

(You could use any nuts you want, but peanuts aren't Paleo! Next time, I'm trying hazelnuts).

Half a teaspoon of salt.

Here's what you do:

In a double-boiler (that's a bowl on top of a pot of hot water), melt the chocolate.

Chop the nuts and stir them into the melted chocolate.

Add salt.

Pour the mixture onto a parchment-paper lined baking sheet. Make sure the paper covers the sides, too.

(If the baking sheet is small, you'll get thick bark. 

If it's larger, the chocolate will end up thinner. That's up to you).

Stick the thing in the refrigerator and let it harden. This could take more than an hour. No biggie.

When it's hard, take it out and break it up! Try not to eat it all in one sitting.

We're such good friends, that chocolate bark and I.

On Saturday afternoon I found myself back at the lake.

Rob has been visiting some friends in Oregon for a few days, so I thought I'd take some time that would have otherwise been spent alone in Charlottesville and hang out with my family. Sometimes, a quiet road trip on your own can be nice.

I stopped in Roanoke first and saw my friend Andy, then met up with my mom, dad, and brother for dinner. We went home after dinner and watched a movie before I went to bed and passed out. I'm really not good at staying up past 10:30.

I got up on Sunday and hung out with my mom on the couch. She's been kind of sick with a little cold lately, so we made some tea and just talked for a while. Then we went to mass downtown and got breakfast at Mill Mountain, which has always been my favorite place.  For as long as I can remember, that coffee shop has been part of my life. When I was little, my parents brought me there so they could get coffee. When I was in high school, my friends and I would go really early before school or we'd meet up there on the weekends. And I worked there as a barista during summer and winter break when I was in college. As dramatic as it may sound, no other physical space has ever meant so much to me.

Mill Mountain Blend

Salad with my eggs and sausage. So paleo.

Some more snapshots from my weekend at home:

Family photos.

Tea

I really liked my stuffed animals as a child.

Mom

Brother

Waiting for breakfast at MMC&T.

This is our church. It's sort of awesome.

Sean really loves his apple cider.

Bite-sized desserts that I frosted for a work party.

Choppin' dem herbs.

The more I visit, the more I miss it.

Emma, one of my lovely best friends, came to Charlottesville yesterday to stay with me for a few days. We've been relaxing together, sitting on my couch with our laptops, catching up, drinking coffee, napping, window-shopping in fancy stores, and going out to eat. And Shawna came over last night, so the three of us spent a couple hours cuddled up together telling stories. Our group of girlfriends rarely gets to spend time all together in one place, so it's always extra-special when more than two of us have a few moments together.

I really thought these few days were going to be lonely with Rob on the other side of the country, but the past seventy-two hours or so have reminded me how lucky I am to have been blessed with these friends and family. 

Well guys, it's been thirty days. I definitely haven't been perfect--I strayed on purpose a few times and sometimes I even messed up by accident. But it's time for me to come out. I've now been Paleo for a month and these are the facts:

1. I've almost completely lost the ten pounds I gained when I moved to Charlottesville and I've barely lifted a finger yet.

2. My temperamental skin barely ever breaks out anymore. If it does, it's because I found myself in some dairy or gluten.

3. The bald spot that's found a home on the back of my head (I have Alopecia Areata) has already begun growing in.

If you aren't familiar with the premise of the Paleo diet, this is sort of it in a nutshell: No grains. No dairy. No sugar. No beans. No peanuts? There are a couple things that confuse me and I'm still trying to figure out what works. For some reason, it's easy for me to think of it like this: You're like a vegan, but you're gluten intolerant, eat meat instead of soy and you don't like rice. What I know for sure is that you must eat fruit, lots of vegetables, and meat. Seriously, I eat bacon several times a week. That's probably way more bacon than anyone really needs, but you get my point.

Lately I've been thinking about that cereal commercial where the two women are talking and Woman 1 says "Wow, have you lost weight? You look amazing!" And Woman 2 is like, "You bet I did!" And Woman 1 is all, "What's your secret, girl?" and then Woman 2 is like "Whole grains!" Well, I want to make a Paleo version where Woman 2 just says "MEAT!" instead.

Going Paleo isn't just about losing weight. I have lost weight with this diet, but the word "diet" is not used in a way that's supposed to suggest some kind of weight loss program. Yes, if you go Paleo, you're probably going to lose weight. But you're also going to feel better. I've been feeling ambiguously ill for more than three years now, and my symptoms have almost completely subsided already. I no longer feel sick when I eat. I no longer get dizzy. I no longer wake up in a fog and count down the hours until I can get back in bed. I no longer vomit randomly and violently. Then there are the awesome hair and skin improvements. Life is pretty awesome this way. 


So, while I'm ecstatic about returning to my normal weight, I'm also feeling better and stronger than I can ever remember feeling, I'm excited to get back into my running and start adding some weights to my exercise plan, and I generally feel like I can wake up every morning and take on the day.

You can also have dark chocolate, red wine, and tequila. I mean, what else do you need?

If you're still with me, I've included some bits of advice that I wish I had on Day 1 of this adventure. 

• Don't freak out about the rules--just do your best. Some Paleos drink milk. Some eat yogurt. Some say bacon is bad. You're going to lose it if you try to do it perfectly. Figure out what's most important to you, what your goals are, what makes you feel sick, and always listen to your body.
• There's always some food item that you think you just can't live without. I thought I would never be able to know happiness without sourdough toast or brie cheese in my life. My advice to you is to just try anyway. Because guess what? You aren't going to die if you can't have it anymore. I haven't had a piece of bread in a whole damn month, and I feel incredibly satisfied with my life. Here's something to think about: If I can wake up every morning and go to work and set up an entire pastry case of freshly baked scones and croissants, then I think that you can get up every morning and not buy one.
• If you actually do feel like you might die if you can't have what you're craving, get yourself a small serving of it. If you've been doing Paleo right, chances are that you're going to end up feeling really sick if you have a bit of cheese or a donut or whatever it is that you want, and I think that negative reinforcement sometimes works when you're trying to figure out what's important to you and your future diet. So get all bloated and feel sick and don't beat yourself up about it, and promise yourself that next time you'll try harder not to feed yourself so much crap.
• Figure out some new food habits and stick with them. I've always been a latte drinker, and it was really hard to transition to black coffee. I loved my lattes! I realized that it was the taste of espresso I was missing more than the milk, and so I make myself a double shot almost every day. I put just a splash of hot water in to dilute it. A month ago that would have sounded so boring to me, but now it's actually a part of my morning that I look forward to every day.
• Find a friend to do this with. My mom is awesome and I'd be really lost without her sometimes. Rob is also amazing because he isn't completely into it, but he eats what I make without complaint, and he is constantly reading articles about Paleo and doing all this research to help me learn new things about my diet. That's another thing--read as much as you can. It's easier to adopt this lifestyle if you understand why exactly it makes sense.
• Plan ahead--don't let yourself get hungry. If you're out and about or you're at work, you need to make sure you're bringing yourself a snack or you'll be able to get something to eat that's not going to ruin your whole day. If you get hungry while you're out, it's usually really hard to find something to eat. You basically can't eat anything that comes from a package, so it's not like you can just stop at a gas station and grab some crackers. I like bringing a bag of carrots or grapes, or a couple slices of turkey with me when I go to work in the morning. Hard boiled eggs are sort of awesome because they're easy to make and you can easily bring them with you for breakfast or a snack. Just make sure you're planning ahead so you don't end up torturing yourself when the only thing around you is a McDonald's or a Dunkin Donuts.
• If you don't like to cook, you have to learn to do it anyway. This diet is impossible if you only eat out.

Got it? Good! Because I have some recipes that I've been waiting to share!

Let me know if you have any questions or are confused by something I said. 

For this post I'll respond to all comments/questions below, in the comment section instead of through email.