week three of paleo.

it's been about 3 weeks since the badger and i converted over to this paleo way of eating. i've made mention a few different places that i'd post an update on how we've been feeling and on how it's going... so here it is.

let's start with this. i am markedly less, um, "swollen"? it's the only word i can think to describe how i feel. i have eaten wheat and dairy pretty much my whole life and thought that the way i felt after eating was just how everyone felt - bloated, sluggish, swollen, and still hungry. but it turns out that it's not normal to feel that way after you eat. we both noticed within 3 days of going paleo how much less bloated we were and how much better we felt, especially after eating.

i'm satiated after i eat, and i no longer spend my time in-between meals thinking about what i'm going to eat next... i guess because contrary to the snicker's advertising compaign, "bacon really satisfies".

i've been a migraine sufferer for most of my adult life. i've tried tracking them to see if any foods triggered them, or caffeine, stress or sleep patterns, but have never been able to pinpoint one glaringly obvious thing that caused them. i resigned myself to being a lifetime headache sufferer and got used to having 2-3 headaches a week, carrying advil liquigels with me everywhere i went. after two weeks of eating paleo, i realized that i hadn't had one headache. at all. in two weeks. that is amazing.

also, i love grocery shopping now. to be fair, i've always loved grocery shopping; it's pretty much my favorite thing to do other than drink excessively in public. my grocery store expeditions are usually 2-3 hours long and involve multiple stops because i know where to get the best prices on the best produce/meat/dairy. eating paleo, i still go to multiple grocery stores, but now i only shop the perimeter. and this saves me a metric fuck ton of time. fruits. veggies. meat, poultry and fish. and a quick stop to the dairy section for whole-milk yogurt or coconut milk. i only venture into the matrix of the inner aisles if i need olive oil, coconut oil, or nuts. do you know how much time this saves me? plus, i don't get into my OCD/hyper-ADD overload when it comes to the 314 different kinds of cereal that are likely going to poison my kids anyway, or the 25 different types of pasta that we thought we needed to have on hand.

being a family of four with only one of us bringing in an income right now, i was more than a little concerned that this way of eating would be more expensive and blow our grocery budget way out of the water. but it hasn't. we are coming in about the same. which makes me sad to think about how much money i was wasting buying things filled with white flour, white sugar and crap... and then feeding that crap to my kids. i will say that initially, we had an increased cost to stock up on things like coconut flour (holy balls, that shit is expensive) and other paleo pantry 'staples' like coconut, coconut oil, and almonds. but i'll tell you what else has helped us - having a vitamix. do you know that almond butter is, like $8 for a 12 oz jar? balls. i have a vitamix. so i just throw a bag of almonds in that bitch, whomp them up, and boom - almond butter. and buying bulk almonds that i can grind up into almond flour or whir into almond butter is way more cost effective than having to buy those things separately.
  
i've lost 3 pounds in 2 weeks. i'm still trying to come back from this blasted knee injury, and i'm hoping that once i can get into a regular cardio and strength training routine that i'll notice even more good changes with my weight. but for now, i think it's great that i've lost 3 pounds.

calling this way of eating "healthy" is contrary to what we've all been raised to believe - we are born and bred to think that eating things like steak, bacon and pork chops will make you fat and sick. but i've noticed a drastic shift in how much better i feel when the bulk of my calories are coming from whole, real foods like grass-fed local beef, organic eggs, nitrate-free bacon, vegetables and fruits... not wheat and sugar.

i've had a few attempted paleo recipes that have failed, but many more that have been successful. and i find cooking this way to be so much easier and time effective. find a protein. find 2-3 veggies. eat. the end.

i can't lie and say that i eat this way 100% of the time. because you know, valentine's day just happened and i could teach a class called "how to eat your feelings 101", so i had a lot of dark chocolate and a couple of beers on that dreaded v-day, which i'm pretty sure are not paleo-approved. but i've got to cut myself some slack and allow room for flexibility or it won't be sustainable. i've heard this whole 80-20 rule in the paleo community quite a bit - that even if you eat paleo 80% of the time, it's enough to drastically improve your health and allow you to 20% fall off the wagon.

so... we are drinking the kool-aid. or should i say we are drinking the bacon grease? we love eating this way and feel better than we've felt, um, ever.

until next time,
ashley "pass the almond butter" rebekah