How NOT to be a Bloated Ball of Crap: How eating Paleo changed the way I think of food
The week before Christmas I felt like a bloated ball of crap and my face was breaking out, and I was noticing fine lines around my eyes (how you can simultaneously be developing acne AND getting wrinkly boggles my mind...I thought you gave up one for the other?). Anyway, so a bloated ball of crap thanks to all the feasting that started at Thanksgiving and continued through until Christmas: extra helpings, baked gifts from neighbors, parties, family gatherings, Christmas cookies, homemade fudge, more Christmas cookies.
Now, to be realistic, there is a ebb and flow to every year. And it applies as much to what we eat as to anything else. So why not indulge? Isn't that partly what the season is about? I'd be a fool to enter the Christmas season thinking I could deny myself every indulgence. For me, it is just not realistic. And so I enter the season with grace for myself, the OK to have a few cookies, especially if my two-year old helped me decorate them:-)
But when you eat "whatever" you will feel like "whatever" or a big ball of crap. So there I was feeling like a big ball of crap (and not for lack of exercise, through the Holidays I averaged 30 miles a week running). It purely had to do with my diet.
So In the days after Christmas, before the new year had even started I pulled out the book that my husband purchased a few years back:
by
and re-read some of its pages. The book explains the Paleo* food philosophy that helped me shed 41 pounds of pregnancy and a bit of pre-pregnancy weight. I say food philosophy, because it's not a diet, its a complete overhaul in the way you look at food. It was that for me.
I have, in the past, been concerned with my weight to the point of obsession and disorder (but that is a story for another day). Thankfully I can say today that I am completely free of that disorder and now view food in a completely different way. Reading this book contributed to part of this change. Specifically in the way that I viewed fats (oils, avocados, nuts, butter etc) and fatty meats (red meat, bacon, sausage etc). Chapter Seven is all about fat.
I had always thought that the key to weight loss was a low fat diet (this was what I was TAUGHT as a Nutritional Science classes in college). For so many years I ate low-fat diets, high in carbohydrates (because most carbohydrate sources are low in fat, think pretzels), included lots of dairy (non-fat of course) and avoided sources of fat (nuts and nut butters were a no-no, salad dressings had to be nonfat, avocados were not allowed) and all meats had to be lean: chicken. I stayed the same weight, maybe fluctuating a few pounds up or down depending on how much I exercised and saw NO change in my body composition no matter how much I worked out (I was doing crazy CrossFit workouts too!), how many weights I lifted, how many miles I ran. At the time I wasn't looking for drastic weight loss, I just wanted more muscle definition.
Fast forward a few years to 2009: Mark orders and reads The Paleo Solution, he shares snip-its of the book and tells me I should read it. My happily pregnant self says: I don't have time. But once I have Sophia, I set the goal to run the Big Lake Half Marathon and think that if I have an exercise goal I should probably start eating like an athlete too. So I read the book (I should take heed of my husbands suggestions more often, he is often right). And my eating changed. My cooking changed. My body REALLY changed. I was eating everything I hadn't eaten before: butter, nuts, nut butters, avocado by the half, red meat, bacon and I was shedding pounds and getting muscle tone back. I followed the Paleo guidelines and eliminated processed (and unprocessed carbohydrates) and replaced them with sweet potatoes and squash. I eliminated all dairy from my diet and suddenly didn't have the irritable gut that I used to have every time I ate yogurt and cheese.
For that first year we weaved in and out of following a Paleo diet strictly (Mark loves his Tacos, with queso!). But this past year from about this same time, January until Thanksgiving we ate mostly Paleo. With the exception of Friday nights when we gather with our friends and when we are guests in other people's homes (if you're over at someone's house and are served a plate of pasta, to reject it is incredibly rude and to berate them and try persuade them to the Paleo diet is even more rude).
My running benefited this summer. I PR'd in every distance (5K, half marathon and marathon) except the 10K. Part of that has to do with my training, but I wouldn't have trained so hard if I didn't feel felt great. One tweak I did make to my Paleo eating in the month leading up to the marathon was to eat a slice of Ezekiel Bread with peanut butter and an egg for breakfast, or slice with peanut butter before a race (I just couldn't stomach the thought of eating a sweet potato before a race, or a bananas. I can't eat bananas before a race.)
In case you're wondering, I don't follow it religiously. It certainly could be a religion and for some it boarders on that. But for me it is a philosophy that has radically changed the way I view, cook and eat food. If I
need
a slice of toast or a piece of chocolate I have it. If I'm served a meal that's not Paleo, I eat it. But I know that when I'm feeling like a bloated ball of crap, that I can return to a certain way of eating and know that I will (if I follow the guidelines) guaranteed feel and look better in a matter of weeks. Its been a week now and already my skin has cleared, my pants fit more loosely and I feel a heck of a lot better.
-Sarah
* Paleo Food Philosophy: To eat un-processed foods including meat, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruits and un-processed fats. And to eliminate all processed foods, all dairy, legumes, all forms of sugar and all grains.
My Dad's joke about eating Paleo: "If a caveman saw a piece of pizza in the road, you think he's not gonna eat it?"
True and funny. But if all a caveman ate was Pizza he'd be too slow or bloated to outrun his foes.
My fantastic sister gave me this fantastic cookbook for Christmas:
" by
So far I have made some great meals from it. Below you can find our meal plan from last week and this week, most recipes are from this book a few are from the
that I have or modified to be Paleo:
(Since I get groceries on Friday these weeks start on Friday. Recipes of
my own are in green
, recipes from
Everyday Paleo are in Blue
and Recipes from
Rachel Ray are in Red
)
Friday:
Almond Encrusted Chicken
and
Curried Veggie Hash
Saturday: At a friend's house.
Sunday: At family's house.
Monday:
Giant Stuffed Portabellos and Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon
Tuesday:
Slow Cooker Chicken
and Baked Sweet Potatoes
Wednesday:
Puerto Rican Beef
with Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Thursday:
Red Curry Beef Stew
with
Ginger Carrot Cabbage Salad
Friday:At a friends for dinner.
Saturday:
Taco Salad
Sunday:
Pesto Covered Chicken
with
Roasted Root Vegetables
Monday:
Garden Fresh Meatballs
with Spaghetti Squash
Tuesday:
Tacos
Wednesday:
Meatloaf and Mashed Turnip Pileup (this is modified with a mash turnip topping instead of potato)
Thursday:
Turkey Sausage Crustless Quiche
with Fruit Salad and
Almond Meal Pancakes
