Decluttering I am! I have decluttered my diet from nasty processed foods. I have cleaned cupboards out, throwing away all that candy we had saved from Valentine's Day. I have gone through my cookbooks, getting rid (read- donating to the thrift store) of my Weight Watcher's books and Dr. Oz's "You on a Diet". I am sure there are good recipes in there, but most of everything has grains. And I have flipped through my 3-ring binders where I keep all the recipes I get from friends and/or print off the internet. Oh yeah- and the menu mailers I subscribed to. Even if I hadn't decided to make a change to Paleo- I probably still wouldn't use even 3% of all those recipes! What a waste of space!
So now I have my ONE binder of Paleo friendly recipes that are either good as is, or just need a few tweaks. And I still have one binder with the recipes handed down from my mom and grandma- not too many. Those are for special occasions. I am not delusional, I know I will never be 100% Paleo. But let me say this, I feel so much better than I have in a very long time. And that 1.5 inch off my waist and 2 inches off my hips say I am going in the right direction! Even if I am not 100% Paleo all of the time, I will do my best to try!
I feel lighter, and in more than one way!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Why I am "Going Paleo"
I have to admit, I completely balked at the idea of "going paleo" when my friends talked about it earlier this year. I think the big kicker for me was the lack of dairy. I could do South Beach all day long- it was easy for me to skip the bread and pasta (sugar is another story). But good grief!- don't take my CHEESE! And my sour cream- how can I enjoy my taco salad without sour cream? But I was intrigued.
Last March of this year, I started CrossFit. It is something I had been contemplating ever since the summer before when two friends of mine invited me to join them. Now everyone I knew that was in this CrossFit cult was in GOOD shape. I really thought that one must get into shape before even attempting CRossFit. And there I was, in BAD shape. By skipping dinner, I could shave a few pounds off- but as far as my physical fitness- I was a weakling.
Well by the time 2011 rolled around, I was even in worse shape. AND I was at my highest non-pregnancy weight. Emotional eating and the holidays had taken their toll and I felt like CRAP. I knew I had to do something, I didn't feel good in my own skin.
Hence the decision to take the leap and take control of my fitness. After only two WODs I felt 100% stronger than before- even though I still had so far to go (and still do.) I was doing South Beach as well, and lost about 5 pounds right off the bat. All of my CrossFit buds were going Paleo, but I wasn't convinced yet.
Then the earthquake happened here in Japan. Nutrition and exercise fell by the wayside. The only reason I didn't gain the weight back was because I was too busy and stressed to eat. We voluntarily evacuated to Colorado. Two weeks later I joined the CrossFit box there. My new coach encouraged me to try Paleo. When I balked because there was just "too much" going on in my life- he suggested a 10 day fast at the very least. He told me to eat lots of veggies, fruit (especially berries). And he said to avoid dairy and grains.
So I did what he said. I dropped another 5 pounds. So I downloaded The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolfe and I started reading. Returning to Japan, I picked up working out once again with the old crew. I continued to stumble along with my semi-Paleo diet. I say semi-Paleo because I had a few stumbles with cupcakes and my daughter's birthday party. But after eating the cupcake, I felt terrible. This is not something new, in the past few years my tolerance for cake has become very low. My body just does not appreciate the refined flour and sugars.
I finished reading The Paleo Solution. Add that to my online research I have done about Paleo, I am totally sold. It makes a lot of sense to me, and confirmed how I had already started to think about food. Mainly it confirmed my belief that boxed, processed food is BAD. And my suspicions about the Nutritional Pyramid laid out by our government has it all wrong. Who has ever lost weight following the pyramid? It says to limit fats and oils but load up on grains. So many people have wheat and gluten allergies, why is that? How many people are allergic to MEAT? And if they ARE allergic, how was that source of meat fed? Grains?
I am not going to go all hard core Paleo, I think that would be too hard. I have to get my sushi fix from time to time (I do live in Japan after all). So a little rice will be thrown in from time to time. I also need to break the creamer habit. I know that stuff is just loaded with crap, and obviously it is addicting because I can't give it up! But I am changing the way my family and I eat. We are eating more fresh veggies, more fruit. I no longer serve bread or pasta or rice with dinner. Instead I add an extra veggie or two.
I am not going to lie. It is so much easier to open a box of mac n cheese as opposed to grilling some chicken and cutting up veggies. But I know that I get through work outs easier when I eat right. It makes such a big difference! I haven't announced to the fam that we are going Paleo. In truth I am slowly transitioning them. I figure if I make yummy meals, they won't notice. Right?
Last March of this year, I started CrossFit. It is something I had been contemplating ever since the summer before when two friends of mine invited me to join them. Now everyone I knew that was in this CrossFit cult was in GOOD shape. I really thought that one must get into shape before even attempting CRossFit. And there I was, in BAD shape. By skipping dinner, I could shave a few pounds off- but as far as my physical fitness- I was a weakling.
Well by the time 2011 rolled around, I was even in worse shape. AND I was at my highest non-pregnancy weight. Emotional eating and the holidays had taken their toll and I felt like CRAP. I knew I had to do something, I didn't feel good in my own skin.
Hence the decision to take the leap and take control of my fitness. After only two WODs I felt 100% stronger than before- even though I still had so far to go (and still do.) I was doing South Beach as well, and lost about 5 pounds right off the bat. All of my CrossFit buds were going Paleo, but I wasn't convinced yet.
Then the earthquake happened here in Japan. Nutrition and exercise fell by the wayside. The only reason I didn't gain the weight back was because I was too busy and stressed to eat. We voluntarily evacuated to Colorado. Two weeks later I joined the CrossFit box there. My new coach encouraged me to try Paleo. When I balked because there was just "too much" going on in my life- he suggested a 10 day fast at the very least. He told me to eat lots of veggies, fruit (especially berries). And he said to avoid dairy and grains.
So I did what he said. I dropped another 5 pounds. So I downloaded The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolfe and I started reading. Returning to Japan, I picked up working out once again with the old crew. I continued to stumble along with my semi-Paleo diet. I say semi-Paleo because I had a few stumbles with cupcakes and my daughter's birthday party. But after eating the cupcake, I felt terrible. This is not something new, in the past few years my tolerance for cake has become very low. My body just does not appreciate the refined flour and sugars.
I finished reading The Paleo Solution. Add that to my online research I have done about Paleo, I am totally sold. It makes a lot of sense to me, and confirmed how I had already started to think about food. Mainly it confirmed my belief that boxed, processed food is BAD. And my suspicions about the Nutritional Pyramid laid out by our government has it all wrong. Who has ever lost weight following the pyramid? It says to limit fats and oils but load up on grains. So many people have wheat and gluten allergies, why is that? How many people are allergic to MEAT? And if they ARE allergic, how was that source of meat fed? Grains?
I am not going to go all hard core Paleo, I think that would be too hard. I have to get my sushi fix from time to time (I do live in Japan after all). So a little rice will be thrown in from time to time. I also need to break the creamer habit. I know that stuff is just loaded with crap, and obviously it is addicting because I can't give it up! But I am changing the way my family and I eat. We are eating more fresh veggies, more fruit. I no longer serve bread or pasta or rice with dinner. Instead I add an extra veggie or two.
I am not going to lie. It is so much easier to open a box of mac n cheese as opposed to grilling some chicken and cutting up veggies. But I know that I get through work outs easier when I eat right. It makes such a big difference! I haven't announced to the fam that we are going Paleo. In truth I am slowly transitioning them. I figure if I make yummy meals, they won't notice. Right?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)