Paleo Banana Blender Bread

Though I’m not strictly paleo and vow to never even remotely follow any diet again, I still cook and eat a lot of things that would be considered paleo because I do like the idea of eating whole, real food.  Enter Paleo Banana Blender Bread!  I love things like this for the morning.  Because nothing’s changed since I was a kid.  On those mornings where I don’t get up and work out, I’m in bed as long as I possibly can be, snoozing my alarm at least three times.  I’m not usually starving when I wake up, so I don’t want to eat much in the morning.  At the same time I know the many, many benefits of having breakfast outweigh skipping it, so I always eat something.  Lord knows on those days I’m not cooking in the AM, so grabbing something like a slice of this banana bread and some coffee is perfect for me.

It’s funny.  When I suddenly took the restrictions off (i.e. letting go of trying to be paleo), I found that when I can have whatever I want, I keep going for the healthy foods because I like them.  And I like how they make me feel.  But when I thought I couldn’t have cereal or english muffins, that’s all I wanted for breakfast.  And I felt sad, trapped, and frustrated nearly every morning.

Plus, by freeing myself of “this ingredient is paleo and that ingredient is not” I really let go of the notion that “this food is good and that food is bad” and “this food will make me healthy and happy, and that food will make me depressed and unhealthy”.  Because guess, what, it won’t.  Food does not have the power.  Eating english muffins again didn’t make me gain weight.  Not an ounce.  And it didn’t stop-up my bowels.  And it didn’t make me depressed.

I learned that anything about my body (physically or mentally) I was trying to cure with the paleo diet I was able to cure by a few simple things.

1. Eliminating anxiety about food choices.  This is huge. When it’s meal time, eat what you want.  (I didn’t say “as much as you want,” but whatever type of foods you want.)  Move on.
2. Eating proper portion sizes made a bigger difference than what I was eating.  Along with this, I continue working on learning mindfulness and how to really tune into my own hunger and satiety cues.
3. Drinking 64 ounces of water a day.  Wow.  I have pretty much always only drank water.  So I thought I drank a ton of water.  Then, I actually measured it one day.  Woah, I was barely getting 4 cups a day let alone 8!  Now I chug water.  Apparently I don’t drink a lot.  So I have to actually chug occasionally to get 64 a day.  But MAN it makes a difference.  Especially in the morning before I eat anything.
4. Getting enough sleep made a major difference in my mood.  I was less irritable and more energized.
5. Making exercise fun again so that I could make it a regular part of my weekly routine.  Good habits are as hard to break as bad habits.  But if you don’t get a reward from exercising, what’s to entice you to keep going every day?  If it’s a punishment, or a “have to”, or you feel uncomfortable, you’re not going to repeat it in the long term.

Simple.  Why is it that we think the magic answer to health and wellness has to be complicated, hard, and difficult?  The answer has to be out there.  We should never give up until we find it!  Yet nothing I listed above is earth-shattering.  It’s our lack of feeling like we have the power to fix what we want to fix and our lack of wanting to deal with whatever our “stuff” is (because we all have our own “stuff” whatever that may be) is what leads us to seek an answer outside ourselves.  In doing this, we’re doomed to fail.  The answer isn’t outside of us.  If the answer to health and wellness was we’d all be “fixed” already.  Cause there’s countless diets, exercise programs, and products out there selling us that magic answer. But the answer isn’t outside of us.  It’s inside.  It’s tuning into yourself, your body, and learning how to really be in there.  Be ok with the good and the bad at the same time.  It’s true acceptance, taking responsibility, and finding peace in exactly where you are no matter where that may be.

To more easily line a pan with parchment, first fold/ mold it to the outside of the pan.

That’s why I share this.  I want to spread a different message about health and wellness.  One that I believe truly works based only on things that are 100% true, known, or proven.  Being that I’m becoming a registered dietitian this year I almost feel responsible.  Plus I’m with you, I’ve done plenty of negative self-talk and I hear it all the time.  We’re so hard on ourselves in many aspects of our lives and our bodies.  And that doesn’t get us any closer to any of the goals we may have for ourselves.  In fact it keeps us from them.  I don’t want to spend any time hating or being unappreciative for anything.  I challenge you to think twice next time before you say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to your sister, mom, or best friend.

This is also why I’m so excited to move forward from Paleo Paisan to a new name!  Hopefully this week will be the big reveal!! Stay tuned.

In the meantime, throw some ingredients in your blender, bake ’em, an enjoy some banana bread!