Ode to Avocado and the Coronation of Paleo Queen

I'm in love with avocados and you should be too.  Why do I love them so much?  Because they feel like an indulgence when really they are good for me.  They contain oleic acid, a monosaturated fat - or the healthy-good-for-you-fat you always hear about.  I feel like avocados step up the game of just about any food you add them to.

I love to add them to my scrambled eggs, slice them and throw them on top of a burger patty, add them to a BLT wrap (bacon, tomato, avocado wrapped in crisp romaine lettuce - yum!), throw them in a salad, throw them in a food processor with some salsa (fresh - no sugar added) and lime and you have guacamole to dip veggies in or serve on meat, or just eat it plain with a spoon.  Seriously - the possibilities are endless.

If you haven't already, make friends with the avocado.  If it's been a while - reacquaint yourself.  

A couple avocado tricks from a self-proclaimed expert.

• Buy in varying degrees of ripeness.  You are bound to want to eat one right when you get it home from the grocery store- so get a nice soft one, but keep a couple on hand that aren't so ripe - once they turn ripe their shelf life isn't too long.  
• Err on the side of too ripe rather than not ripe enough.  An avocado that has not ripened fully is truly disappointing.
• If you just want to eat half of the avocado, but you know it's going to get all brown and gross if you leave the other half in the fridge, use my sister's trick - Cut the avocado in half and keep the pit in one side (this is the side you are going to save).  Carefully scrape out the avocado from the other side leaving the skin in tact - place the empty skin back over the half with the pit so it looks like a whole avocado again.  Throw in a tupperwear or baggie in the fridge and the next day it won't be brown!  For reals.  Try it.

Here's a simple recipe to try out your new found love of avocados!

4 whole leaves romaine lettuce, washed and dried
1 tomato, sliced
4 slices of bacon, cooked
1/2 of an avocado, sliced
1/2 lb sliced turkey

I usually make it without the sliced turkey and add more veggies like peppers or steamed asparagus - but experiment with it and try other stuff out - I feel like even a sliced up hard boiled egg would be good with it and would add more protein.

In other news... The paleo challenge is over!  Eight people took on the challenge* and four committed to recording their food intake for every day of the month.  Last night we went out to dinner to binge on some non-paleo food and talk about our experiences.

Sweet crepes at "Hogwarts"

Congratulations to Faye for winning the title of Paleo Queen.  Faye rocked my socks off.  She went into the challenge pledging to eat an 80% paleo diet.  She was coming from a very non-paleo type diet (one of her staple foods prior to the challenge she listed was ramen).  She started the challenge off strong and I don't feel like she let up once.  She sky-rocketed past 80% and pretty consistently ate 90% paleo throughout the whole month of February.  But even better than that - she saw and felt so many changes in the way she felt that she has decided to keep eating this way - FOR LIFE!  Rock on, Faye!

She's being commended for her paleo adherence, but I feel like it should also be mentioned that she has been consistently working out and hitting the WODs with gusto.  She recently got herself on the board for doing Fran, Karen and Annie rx'd and has been generally PRing all over the place.  And remember that one time....? When she did 60 pushups with a 10kg bumper on her back???  That was awesome.

Congrats Faye!  And thanks to everyone who participated!  It was fun and rewarding.

Who's up for the next challenge?  Got ideas?  Things you'd like to see happen?  Let us know.

*Editor's note: Ladies > Gents. Hahaha