Paleo or vegetarian? It’s a hard choice when trying to lose some weight, and wanting to maintain a healthy diet (we’re not going to be making any value judgments on meat versus vegetables here). We tried a strict vegetarian diet – and lost hardly any weight. Too many legumes and grains drove our carb load up. It’s not impossible, just hard. But we’re not knocking the veggie/vegan trend at all, but we just need to lose a few pounds. And many of us do like our meat.
Here’s our compromise: 3 days vegetarian, 3 days paleo. We leave one day for “cheating”, adding maybe a bit of carb. So far, so good. After a few weeks, we’re down a few pounds.
When we do our vegetarian thing, we absolutely need and want flavor. But without adding much in the way of calories. So here’s a few tricks:
• Use sauces. Lots of flavor packed into a small amount of calories. Our favorites are Serious Foodie Korean sauce and sriracha (the natural, organic stuff if you can find it).
• Flavored oils and vinegars. If you like mushroom, then drizzle a bit of truffle oil over anything. Not cheap stuff, but a little bit goes a long way. Or make your own.
• Spice blends and spice rubs. If you’ve followed us for a bit, you know how obsessed we are with using these. Use a good blend or rub on tofu or eggs – less salt, more action. How about over those boring rice and beans? Instance pizzazz. Tired of that roasted chicken, or dull steak? All you need is love, and a bit of spice rub. Check out the collection of Serious Foodie spice rubs HERE.
