Not exactly food related, but important

With the holidays here, it's incredibly easy to be tempted by non-Paleo/Primal goodies.  Oh well, that's the nature of the beast.  Mac and Cheese yesterday, and Sausage balls/squares (w/bisquick) today.  On the other hand, great times to get inspired to create new recipes that will be plenty good and fit pretty well the Paleo/Primal community (many of which do not entirely cut out dairy).  Keep looking for a Paleo Primal Sausage ball recipe.  I'll be working on one.  With all this being said, I need to talk about a huge component to Health in general and it applies to maintaining a Paleo/Primal Lifestyle.  You can easily be tempted by stuff outside of your lifestyle FOOD choices, and like I said yesterday, the occasional deviation is fine.  These two days will be the only thing until Christmas, and after Christmas, the only deviations until my birthday in April.  If you make it a habit to think about Green veggies, or other Paleo/Primal goodies as substitutes (or even more than that = staples) the more easy it will be to transition or maintain.  While I was sick this week I had a huuuge moment of weakness that I was able to overcome.  I used to love me some Bojangles, and when I say love, I mean, I thoroughly enjoyed bojangles.  I instead opted to eat beef elsewhere and not go for deep fried carb-laden death tenders of chicken and deep fried white potatoes.  The guilt will get you.  The hardest part is that ONLY YOU can hold YOURSELF accountable for deviation.  You can make the transition and since I found a way to keep from deviating I've decided to reward myself with Paleo/Primal "Fried Chicken Tender" Wraps, that you'll see this week.  I've got a Smörgåsbord of upcoming recipes and meals that are both easy and tasty and should help those of you thinking about transitioning make the plunge.  Going back to the title, I used to be extremely picky and I'm still experimenting with new vegetables that I've never tried before.  For December, look forward to an "Advent calendar" of sorts.  A new recipe each day and a tip/word of encouragement.

About today:  Today I went with my family to Boone, NC to start a new family tradition where, the day after Thanksgiving, we rent a van and drive up and pick out our trees at a tree-farm in the mountains.  We spend the day together and enjoy each others company.  After we picked out our trees and got down the windy and, quite frankly, scary as hell mountain, we went to Canyons in Blowing Rock for lunch.  Of all the many choices I could have made for lunch, I decided on Smothered grilled chicken with pineapple and, not so primal, cheese.  Served with a baked potato and asparagus.  I've never eaten asparagus.  It might surprise you guys, kind of like peeing afterward surprised me, but I had never had it and honestly, I have to say it was pretty darn good.  Definitely going to experiment more with it later.  As for eating stuff, I opted out of extra BBQ (certainly carb laden) sauce (surprising my family immensely) and ate it as is.  I'm starting to enjoy meats natural flavors and given the quality of meat I'm buying these days, it's NOT HARD.  As for the potato, I ate half of it, and ate the skin with it to sneak out every last bit of dietary fiber I could in the meal.  I drank water, as is my custom these days, and overall had a pretty guilt free meal/day.

A picture from today reppin' my Palmetto Colors amidst a ton of other trees very different from the one on my jacket.

As always, to Good health, Good eats, family, and a quality life,

-PickyGonePrimal