Paleo is the way to go
I’ve mentioned many of the ‘diets’ I have tried both successfully and disastrously, inflicting varying degrees of damage on my body. I’ve tried diet pills that made my heart race.
Running…. a lot. Jogging til my knees hurt chasing that 'runner's high', desperate to burn off the box of donuts I demolished that morning.
Jenny Craig in the 7th grade. How embarrassing is that taking the labels off your pre-packaged chicken salad can so none of the others kids would know their taunting comments had actually penetrated my cool exterior and fed into my pre-teen insecurities?
Counting Points Weight Watcher’s style was great for me because I could strategically still work fast food and sweets into my menu on a fairly regular basis.
There was surgery, physically altering my body to reach a perceived place of happiness, not much emphasis on health.
There was the College just-don’t-eat-drink-a-lot-of-alcohol-requisite-shake-your-ass-on-the-bar-3-to-4-hours-a-night-diet that ended me back up in the hospital with out of whack potassium levels so severe I developed a heart murmur. Serious shit.
Up and down the scale, my clothes sizes and emotions went. When I was introduced to the idea of eating Paleo, essentially only food from a source you can kill, grow or gather, of course I was doubtful. I didn’t think I could ‘give up’ so many of the things I loved, even if they were causing my body harm. I didn’t even know if I wanted to change my diet that drastically, even if it meant extending my life and improving the quality of it.
A life without cheese? Bread? Brownies? Cereal? What was the point of living?
Well, the point of living is actually living. And how I was existing before didn’t quite fit into that category. I was restricted by what I could physically do, or the lack there of. By the time I was 28 with an abused body from back to back pregnancies and muscle atrophy from months of bed rest, my pain threshold had been reached. Finally though, with three babies of my own to motivate the quest for a better self, my desire to be better for them was enough to catapult me into action.
I had figured it out…. if I wasn’t happy with myself or any situation in my life, all I had to do was change it!
Another 6 months or so passed with slowing results exercise wise even with working my ass off at Boot Camp, I realized another eternal truth:
You can’t outwork a bad diet.
So I dove in and focusing on my nutrition and decades of bad eating habits with a 28-Day Challenge. Basically it was weekly therapy sessions with an awesome group of like-minded women, paired with a strict cleanse/elimination style diet that allowed me to get away from all the things my body was addicted to.
My craving for food, (sugar, wheat, flour, caffeine, fat) pretty much dictated my life and every move I was going to make. The list of problem foods went on and on…. I discovered through the elimination phase during my Challenges that I was also ‘addicted’ to the following:
- Cheese. I never realized I put it on EVERYTHING until I stopped eating it.
- Starbucks/McDonald’s/gas station coffee drinks full of sugar or artificial sweetener. I just drink my coffee now straight up with a splash of Almond milk.
- Milk. There are many other options for breakfast besides cereal, yogurt, oatmeal, waffle, pancakes, bagels, and cow’s milk!
- Grains. I loved bread. I’d eat literally the whole bowl my soup was served in at Panera Bread, with a baguette.
- Ibuprofen. Who the hell gets ‘addicted’ to an over the counter pain reliever? ME! I thought I needed it just to get through the day with all the pain in my back, hip, knees. I was under 30 years old, but felt over 50! Maybe the Ibuprofen it was more of a mental addiction because my body was in such physical pain everyday that I thought I needed it right off the bat to get my day started and again to re-up in the afternoon just to make it through the day.
But truthfully, the pain never altered no matter what kind of pills I took. The only real improvement began when I started eating better and decreasing the amount of inflammation in my body through my diet, as well as continuing to work on flexibility and mobility exercises.
Eating Paleo also brought the added benefit of liking how I looked. Just by eating clean for 1 month, I saw changes in my physical make-up that have never manifested in months and years of working out or ‘dieting’. Areas of my body that exercise never touched disappeared just by altering what I ate! Say bye-bye to those love handles, muffin tops, protruding pouches, back cleavage or the annoying chest/armpit fat that bunches up from your bra.
Don’t believe me? Give it a try. What have you got to lose besides unwanted weight, bad tummy aches, and a life shackled to strong mental and physical craving for food?
By eating Paleo the past 6 months and keeping a detailed record of what I eat, I have learned many things I never knew about my body before. For example, who knew if I ate ice cream my digestive system would very quickly become upset and I would be on the toilet the entire next day?
Not to sound gross or give TMI, but one of the benefits of a Paleo diet is it helps with many health issues such as autoimmune diseases or many stomach/digestive problems such as Irritable Bowl Syndrome. I never thought I had problems resulting from what I ate, unlike other people I knew who are afraid to eat without access to a bathroom because just the simple act of eating wreaked such havoc on their body! What kind of quality of life is that!? But considering my kids are lactose intolerant, maybe Mama is too and never knew it!
How could that be…. 30 years of not knowing my body or some important triggers revealed in a few months of clean eating and paying attention to how I feel after I eat certain foods!? I am amazed. It’s like an ongoing science experiment.
The main difference I notice is how GREAT I feel not eating crap. I’ve come to realize if a man made it in a factory somewhere or if food comes from a package, it’s probably not that good for you.
Plus I’m proud of my developing Paleo preferences. Not that long ago I would have snarled my nose at eating a salad or drowned it in ranch dressing before I scarfed it down to get onto the main entrée. Now many days salads are the main entrée! I enjoy eating salads (mostly spinach) without dressing, and LIKE it. Actually crave it.
When you eliminate all the things your body is tricked into thinking tastes good like fried foods, sugar, salt and preservatives in EVERYTHING, you realize that nature has so much more to offer your palette than you ever dreamed!
And the herbs and spices! Whoever knew all those leaves, sprouts and weird looking twigs in the produce section were so flavorful that the addition to a few select choices could drastically alter the taste of an entire meal? Cilantro, basil and ginger…. OH MY!
I have discovered a whole new world of foods I love that are actually nourishing and good for me, like avocados. I eat an average of ½ of one a day, straight up with a slice of turkey or few ounces of chicken. On my salad, in a lettuce wrap, fresh made guacamole. And I never even tried it before because I thought it resembled baby poop!
Running…. a lot. Jogging til my knees hurt chasing that 'runner's high', desperate to burn off the box of donuts I demolished that morning.
Jenny Craig in the 7th grade. How embarrassing is that taking the labels off your pre-packaged chicken salad can so none of the others kids would know their taunting comments had actually penetrated my cool exterior and fed into my pre-teen insecurities?
Counting Points Weight Watcher’s style was great for me because I could strategically still work fast food and sweets into my menu on a fairly regular basis.
There was surgery, physically altering my body to reach a perceived place of happiness, not much emphasis on health.
There was the College just-don’t-eat-drink-a-lot-of-alcohol-requisite-shake-your-ass-on-the-bar-3-to-4-hours-a-night-diet that ended me back up in the hospital with out of whack potassium levels so severe I developed a heart murmur. Serious shit.
Up and down the scale, my clothes sizes and emotions went. When I was introduced to the idea of eating Paleo, essentially only food from a source you can kill, grow or gather, of course I was doubtful. I didn’t think I could ‘give up’ so many of the things I loved, even if they were causing my body harm. I didn’t even know if I wanted to change my diet that drastically, even if it meant extending my life and improving the quality of it.
A life without cheese? Bread? Brownies? Cereal? What was the point of living?
Well, the point of living is actually living. And how I was existing before didn’t quite fit into that category. I was restricted by what I could physically do, or the lack there of. By the time I was 28 with an abused body from back to back pregnancies and muscle atrophy from months of bed rest, my pain threshold had been reached. Finally though, with three babies of my own to motivate the quest for a better self, my desire to be better for them was enough to catapult me into action.
I had figured it out…. if I wasn’t happy with myself or any situation in my life, all I had to do was change it!
Another 6 months or so passed with slowing results exercise wise even with working my ass off at Boot Camp, I realized another eternal truth:
You can’t outwork a bad diet.
So I dove in and focusing on my nutrition and decades of bad eating habits with a 28-Day Challenge. Basically it was weekly therapy sessions with an awesome group of like-minded women, paired with a strict cleanse/elimination style diet that allowed me to get away from all the things my body was addicted to.
My craving for food, (sugar, wheat, flour, caffeine, fat) pretty much dictated my life and every move I was going to make. The list of problem foods went on and on…. I discovered through the elimination phase during my Challenges that I was also ‘addicted’ to the following:
- Cheese. I never realized I put it on EVERYTHING until I stopped eating it.
- Starbucks/McDonald’s/gas station coffee drinks full of sugar or artificial sweetener. I just drink my coffee now straight up with a splash of Almond milk.
- Milk. There are many other options for breakfast besides cereal, yogurt, oatmeal, waffle, pancakes, bagels, and cow’s milk!
- Grains. I loved bread. I’d eat literally the whole bowl my soup was served in at Panera Bread, with a baguette.
- Ibuprofen. Who the hell gets ‘addicted’ to an over the counter pain reliever? ME! I thought I needed it just to get through the day with all the pain in my back, hip, knees. I was under 30 years old, but felt over 50! Maybe the Ibuprofen it was more of a mental addiction because my body was in such physical pain everyday that I thought I needed it right off the bat to get my day started and again to re-up in the afternoon just to make it through the day.
But truthfully, the pain never altered no matter what kind of pills I took. The only real improvement began when I started eating better and decreasing the amount of inflammation in my body through my diet, as well as continuing to work on flexibility and mobility exercises.
Eating Paleo also brought the added benefit of liking how I looked. Just by eating clean for 1 month, I saw changes in my physical make-up that have never manifested in months and years of working out or ‘dieting’. Areas of my body that exercise never touched disappeared just by altering what I ate! Say bye-bye to those love handles, muffin tops, protruding pouches, back cleavage or the annoying chest/armpit fat that bunches up from your bra.
Don’t believe me? Give it a try. What have you got to lose besides unwanted weight, bad tummy aches, and a life shackled to strong mental and physical craving for food?
By eating Paleo the past 6 months and keeping a detailed record of what I eat, I have learned many things I never knew about my body before. For example, who knew if I ate ice cream my digestive system would very quickly become upset and I would be on the toilet the entire next day?
Not to sound gross or give TMI, but one of the benefits of a Paleo diet is it helps with many health issues such as autoimmune diseases or many stomach/digestive problems such as Irritable Bowl Syndrome. I never thought I had problems resulting from what I ate, unlike other people I knew who are afraid to eat without access to a bathroom because just the simple act of eating wreaked such havoc on their body! What kind of quality of life is that!? But considering my kids are lactose intolerant, maybe Mama is too and never knew it!
How could that be…. 30 years of not knowing my body or some important triggers revealed in a few months of clean eating and paying attention to how I feel after I eat certain foods!? I am amazed. It’s like an ongoing science experiment.
The main difference I notice is how GREAT I feel not eating crap. I’ve come to realize if a man made it in a factory somewhere or if food comes from a package, it’s probably not that good for you.
Plus I’m proud of my developing Paleo preferences. Not that long ago I would have snarled my nose at eating a salad or drowned it in ranch dressing before I scarfed it down to get onto the main entrée. Now many days salads are the main entrée! I enjoy eating salads (mostly spinach) without dressing, and LIKE it. Actually crave it.
When you eliminate all the things your body is tricked into thinking tastes good like fried foods, sugar, salt and preservatives in EVERYTHING, you realize that nature has so much more to offer your palette than you ever dreamed!
And the herbs and spices! Whoever knew all those leaves, sprouts and weird looking twigs in the produce section were so flavorful that the addition to a few select choices could drastically alter the taste of an entire meal? Cilantro, basil and ginger…. OH MY!
I have discovered a whole new world of foods I love that are actually nourishing and good for me, like avocados. I eat an average of ½ of one a day, straight up with a slice of turkey or few ounces of chicken. On my salad, in a lettuce wrap, fresh made guacamole. And I never even tried it before because I thought it resembled baby poop!
I don’t even miss bread for my sandwiches now (I just roll up the turkey and stuff it with goodies like avocado, tomato, etc). Or potatoes! Baked potatoes were my all time favorite food, and chips! Not as many cravings because I know how I will feel if I eat them. Thirsty and greasy, with a nasty film in my mouth.
I’ve gotten to a really fun point where I have bought the entire cookbook selection available on Paleo cooking and eating. Now I get excited planning my meals for the week. My husband is a Chef by trade, so we spend awesome family time together in the kitchen developing our own fun, delicious recipes and have our own cookbook coming soon! What a feeling when I watch my entire family (all 5 of us, 3 toddlers included) happily polish off everything on their Paleo dinner plate.
Point is…. Paleo works. For me. And my family. I can see the longevity of living a lifestyle that leads to feeling better and fueling my body with what’s best for it. There’s a lot of fear behind ‘giving up’ so many kinds of food we all love, and a lot of emotional shit tied to eating too that can hinder and cloud the decision to jump in and give Paleo a try. And I am not saying I didn’t struggle BAD sometimes in the beginning, or still find it hard now not to fall into old habits.
But regardless how long it took me to get here, or the struggles that still rear their ugly head, the way I feel now overrides any previous fears I had about changing. I've discovered the benefits of fully living a healthier life can override any addiction though. So for me, Paleo is the way to go.
