Our Pig

About a year ago, my friend Jean told me that her grandsons were raising a pig sustainably on their 5 acres with plans to show it in the Payette County fair.  Jean and her husband Terry were planning on buying it and asked us if we'd like to split it.  I really hesitated.  I typically don't buy or eat pork from a grocery store because I learned a few things in a holistic nutrition class a few years ago that turned me off pork - at least large scale commercially available pork. I know these boys and their parents though and I know how they raise their pigs without hormones and antibiotics, so we took a leap of faith that first time.  Oh my goodness, the meat is so lean and so delicious!  We just recently bought our 3rd pig portion. The picture below was taken at the fair this year, so this is our pig.  Thanks Oliver, for doing such a great job raising him.

From a nutritional standpoint, pork is similar to chicken in that 3 oz of meat is about 140 calories and has about 3g fat.  Just 1g of that is saturated.  That's a big boost of lean protein. 

So , getting back to my 5 day cleanse...get ready,  I admit to another cheat......dinner on the 5th day of our cleanse.  I'd exceeded my weight loss goal and I felt like we should reward ourselves by skipping our shakes and eating a healthy dinner. It's not technically a cheat though because this is how we successfully move forward from the cleanse.  We grilled up two pork chops (from our pig)  and served them with fresh tomatoes from our garden and steamed swiss chard.  It was so good and I could only eat about 2/3 of it.  Even so, I was down another .4 lbs on thursday morning.  

The pork chop is grilled with a light coating of good quality olive oil, with a little sea salt and pepper. The tomatoes have the same with a little fresh basil added. Eating a little good fat with tomatoes allows better absorption of lycopene in the tomatoes.

It's been two days now since we completed the cleanse and have found that it's easy to avoid, (even decline) snacks.  We're eating protein rich meals with lots of fruits and vegetables.  This afternoon I browned pork sausage from our pig and am making a sausage and lentil stew.  If it's good, I'll let you know and post the recipe! 

Looking forward to a lean, healthy holiday season!