Paleo Thoughts

Well, I was right. You can do anything for thirty days. And I did! Well, mostly. I can't say that my adherence to paleo was 100%, but close. (For the record;  I had half a pretzel at the neighbor's St Patty's party because my girls didn't want it and I felt bad wasting food, and I drank a tablespoon of heavy cream in my americano's, and I had popcorn on a couple occasions. Oh yeah, and I had some wine and tequila.) Looking back at the month, I'm sure I could've done better, eaten less dried fruit & nuts and cut out those other things completely, but I am still happy with how it all went down. What was the whole point of this exercise? To stop focusing on calories and the whole losing weight thing and instead pay attention to my body, what it was telling me and how I was feeling. I did that and it felt great to change my methods.

Do I feel better today compared to a month ago? Yes. As I've shared in my weekly posts, there have been some changes that I love. I am less hungry in between meals. (Goodbye afternoon starvation!) I am in tune with my taste buds. (Hello sweet dried fruit and yummy kale!) I haven't felt bloated or yucky after my meals and despite the fact that I'm eating a ton of veggies, which I thought would upset my tummy, it's quite the opposite. I just plain ol' feel good. And just so you know, cutting out the "fiber" in whole grains doesn't make you any less regular, if you know what I mean.

I've also seen some changes in my family as a result: The dinners I have prepared have been mostly paleo, except for the first week, and they are still doing their own thing for lunch and breakfast, although they have eaten eggs with me on quite a few mornings. My wonderful hubby has commented that he's dropped some weight, which is great. And the girls are developing more of a taste for veggies and meat--last night they gobbled up garbage soup, salad and tilapia. It was amazing. I think it's taken my youngest the whole month to get use to not having rice or bread of some sort at dinner. She hadn't eaten much at meal time until last night and then I wondered if she'd ever stop! Also the girls are getting to like the snacks I pack for them now: beef jerky, dried fruit, almonds, frozen grapes, etc instead of granola bars and crackers. It's exciting to watch them start to get excited for healthy food!

Do I have any complaints? Yeah, I do. Because of all the cooking I've been doing, I feel like I'm always doing dishes! So thankful I own a dishwasher! I guess that's my only complaint now that I think about it!

So, ready for the results? Me too! I jumped out of bed this morning because I couldn't wait to find out. Now, to be perfectly honest, I hadn't noticed a huge change in how my clothing fits, so my hopes weren't super high. I figured that it would take more than a month to change this body that's taken thirty some years to create. I also knew I hadn't been 100% so I wondered how much of a difference that would make.

In the past month I lost 3 pounds.
And 1.5 inches in my bust
.5 inch in my chest
1 inch in my waist
.5 inch in my arms

(According to my measurements I gained inches in my hips and legs, but I have been doing more running, so that's entirely possible.)

Three pounds isn't a ton, but for me it's great! That's almost 1 lb a week! Paired with how good I feel and I can say without a doubt that I'm not going back to how I use to eat. I'm sticking with this Paleo thing for at least another couple months. Actually, if I'm completely honest I have no desire to go back to eating the Standard American Diet (SAD).  In fact, I'm making plans in my mind to take the girls off grain and dairy this summer when I have control of their whole food intake. I haven't talked to Erik about that one yet, I'm trying to win him over first. I am excited to see how continuing this will change me--will my skin improve? How about my menstrual cycle? Or my health in general? And if all those things improve I can see it helping my family and their issues; Lindsay's exczema, Kera's tummy issues and Erik's lactose intolerance. It's very exciting to think about how changing what we eat could help all those things!

So, to make a long story short: I feel great, lost a little weight and am in it for the long haul.


I think I am going to make a few changes this next month, though. I'm going to cut back on my fruit intake and try to stick to one serving/day. And nuts, I need to eat less of them. I'm not going to eat any popcorn this month, either. And I'm going to be more aware of any tiny bit of gluten in my food products, like condiments. But besides those changes, I'll be doing things much the same as this past month. I'm excited to see what changes will happen in my body now that I'm past that first week of feeling dog tired and also in the thick of half-marathon training. It should be interesting!