1st Post Anxiety

Have you ever had the feeling that you are out in public, totally naked and everyone is staring at you? That pretty much describes the way I am feeling at the moment! Naked! My confidence in writing is about at a 0%! I am sharing our story, even though I am terrified of writing, in hopes that it changes at least one life. Ok who I am I lying to? I want it to be phenomenal and change tons of lives.

The journey begins on Sunday, April 28, 2013. I woke up and was feeling miserable. I decided that Monday the 29th was going to be the first day of a new life for my husband and myself. You see my husband and I are over weight. Period. End of story. I'm not going to sugar coat it, we were in trouble health wise and needed to make some changes. I have had so many operations that I can't even count them all. I have had so many tummy problems that it was beginning to make my life as a mom and a wife very difficult. Tummy problems kept me in the bathroom or searching for a bathroom almost all day. I had gotten to the point that I wasn't even leaving the house anymore because I was scared of having an "attack"! We are talking lying on the floor. Doubled over in pain. I couldn't sleep. Stayed nauseated. My hair was falling out. I was on a ton of medication.

I was ready to give up. I had recently had blood work done, the results from my doctor indicated that I was pre-diabetic, my cholesterol was off the chart, and all my other numbers were too bad to admit. One doctor said it was Irritable Bowl Syndrome (IBS), another said I had a gluten issues, while another said I was the F word. You know that dirty word....FAT!!! He said that I was FAT! CRAZY DOCTOR! Fortunately, I have never been back to see him!

I decided that on Monday, April 29th, my husband and I were changing our life. We were getting off of all the sugar, processed foods, dairy, grains, legumes and processed oils and were going to start eating real whole foods. We started this without really knowing what we were doing, other than changing our diet I started reading about it on that Monday afternoon and I was hooked!

What is Paleo? Well, Paleo is a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Paleo is going back to the days of the caveman and eating like a caveman. More than that, it's really a focus on organic, natural foods. Fresh, locally grown vegetables and fruits, grass fed / free range meat. Within the "Paleo" community there is a lot of diversity in which people pursue their journeys. Some people eat dairy, some don't. Some eat green beans, which are technically a legume, and some stay away from them. Some people "do" Paleo 80% of the time and eat a regular diet the other 20% of the time. Some people are extremely regimented when it comes to Paleo, these people we call the Paleo Police. They always have something negative about what you eat and are very harsh "judgers"! This blog really isn't about Paleo. It's about our new journey of our new way of life. It's about sharing some recipes, some recipe transformations, and probably a few laughs along the way. (I am sure at my expense.)

Like I shared before, our journey began April 29th. We have completed 13 full weeks of eating healthy, whole foods, in their most natural state. Eating lots of proteins, fat, yes I said fat. Don't freak out on me. Fat is good for you. You need fat in your diet. We eat a ton of vegetables. We actually have been trying to add a new protein or new vegetable to our diet every week. To me, Paleo reminds me of the days of June Cleaver. Remember her? She was the mom on the Leave it to Beaver television show. The first shows aired in 1957, no I'm not that old, I watched the reruns. These days I know that not very many people will even know the show I am talking about. For those who don't know her, June Cleaver was a well dressed, slim, stay at home mom who cooked three meals a day for adoring, loving family. Wow, don't I wish I was June! She dressed in heals and wore a dress everyday. I can't even imagine cooking in a dress, much less heels! But when you think about back in the "olden" days most families didn't go out to eat, there really weren’t any restaurants. They all ate a home-cooked meals around the dinner table together. I don't think June Cleaver or Carol Brady ever made boxed Macaroni and Cheese or heated up a hot dog in the microwave. They went to the market bought fresh produce and fresh cut meat. Remember Alice from the Brady Bunch? She dated Sam the butcher. Do we even have butchers anymore? Remember our great grandmother's? They cooked good, home cooked meals with lots of meat, veggies, fat, and they cooked things with love. They weren't afraid of a few carbs, they weren't afraid of all those calories; they just ate good natural whole foods. They were all fit and trim and they didn't count calories or live at the gym. The food they ate didn't have a lot of preservatives in them, they were not over processed. Did I mention I wanna be like that? Yea, skinny, cooking whole real foods for a loving, adoring family that all ate together every night!

Our Progress
I am proud to say I have lost 19 1/2 pounds and my last blood work came back amazing. My blood sugar was down 56 points, my triglycerides were down 87 points, and my total cholesterol was down over 50 points. The only thing I did was to change what I was eating. I didn't go to the gym, but I so need too, but that is a completely different story. I ate real, natural foods including lots of vegetables and good fat. I cut out out all processed sugar and reduced the amount of fruit I ate. I stopped eating dairy from cows, but added a small amount of goat cheese just recently. I also stopped eating all grains, rice, soy, and corn. Through this change in my diet I totally changed the way I ate and the way I cook for my husband, however there is one thing that didn't change. I still create a bunch of dirty dishes. Real cooking requires you to cook. Ha who would have ever thought! But I have found a way to even cut back on those. It's called batch cooking and one big prep day.

I bet you are thinking no, not more dirty dishes! No! I don't want to cook three meals a day! Well, you don't exactly have too. I can show you some quick easy tips to help cut back on that pile of dirty dishes and still make healthy, yummy, exciting meals that will help you not only drop some pounds but help you get more healthy. Now I know you want to hear about how to eat healthy and cook good food and not be a trained chef. I hope the recipes that I will be posting in the future will help you to see the variety and quality of food that can be created while eating Paleo and that they don't require a huge amount of fuss. But they will create those dirty dishes. But again, I will give you some fantastic tips on meal planning and guides to weakly meal prep. Now go get your husband, wife, significant other, or even the kids in the kitchen with you to help wash those dishes. Hmmm, maybe you can even have a conversation while you are all together in the kitchen. Now that is an idea, families together in the kitchen talking!

If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen!


Stefanie