The Beginning...

Every now and then I have a "great idea" about how to make improvements in my health and general well being.  As a point of reference, past ideas have included (1) no drinking, except that turned into limiting myself to no more than 2 drinks per week, which turned into "it's basketball season!"  (2) eating no processed white stuff, except I bake a lot and refined sugar is sort of a staple; (3) running a marathon, except that shit is hard and I am both asthmatic and miserably out of shape.  Needless to say, my grand schemes often last a week or so before I have a bad day and give up.  My newest great idea:  Paleo. 

For those who don't know, paleo is based on the premise that for most of history our ancestors were hunter/gatherers and only recently (relatively, of course) became farmers.  As a result, we are programmed to operate on a high protein, high fiber diet of meat, vegetables and some fruits.  This means no gluten (wheat and grain products), no dairy, and none of the processed junk that gets passed off as food in the grocery store.  So you may be thinking, "but Dani, you love cheese, firmly believe ranch makes everything better, spend most Saturdays from September through April drinking beer and watching college sports, and you bake all the time...how can this possibly work?"  Well, that's an excellent question, and that's what I'm going to try to capture here.

I will note, that I didn't really intend for this to be a public venture.  I decided to try paleo because I'm hovering at a weight much greater than I want to be at and I've had several friends try it with great success.  Today is Day 8 and I'm only starting a blog now because today has been my first real struggle day and I'm sure my wonderful husband is getting tired of hearing me complain about all the stuff I can't have so I'm turning to another outlet.  Plus, my meals on paleo have been colorful and wonderful and this will give me a place to share some of the pictures and the recipes I find. 

So as I said, today is Day 8.  For 8 days I have had no rice, pasta, cheese, milk, crackers, ice cream, cookies, or any of the generally delicious stuff one finds in the center aisles of the grocery store.  But it really hasn't been bad so far.  As luck would have it, we have a freezer full of cow and pig that was local butchered so it isn't full of preservatives; we get a big bag of seasonal vegetables every week from Pendleton's Farm through their CSA program and I've been able to fill in some gaps with goodies from the Lawrence Farmer's Market.  My meals have been colorful, incredibly filling and I get energy from my food instead of that heavy, sleepy feeling. 

Today was the first struggle.  Maybe it was just because it was Labor Day and I didn't have work to distract me.  Maybe it was because I'm all sunburned and miserable and just wanted to dive head first into a Dairy Queen Blizzard.  Maybe it was because I didn't go to the gym today (it's hard to run with painfully sunburned legs).  Whatever it was, today I found myself wanting to chug a gallon of diet coke, eat a block of cheese with a sleeve of crackers, then a bag of chips and french onion dip and then polish it all off with a chocolate cake and a tall glass of milk.  And then our neighbor brought over a 12 pack of beer as a thank you for an earlier favor.  Le sigh. 

But I didn't give in.  I ate my dinner of baked cod and sauteed okra.  I opened a bottle of local (Eudora) wine.  And I made a paleo brownie.  And you know what?  It was good!  And I feel good about it because I managed to indulge in a dessert without abandoning the parameters of this new lifestyle.  I know its going to be tough, especially once I hit The Hill for the KU football next weekend, but we'll see what happens.  And if anyone wants to try this strange trip with me, companions are welcome!