Written on May 28, 2012
"Will you just sit down and have cake with me alreadeeeeeee?" I said to Andy the other night. I was staring at my plate which had a totally Paleo cake topped with berries and my little cup of almond/coconut milk sitting next to it. Andy was running around portioning out strips of grilled chicken in little baggies for the week.
Cake is probably the last thing you'd think of when you hear "Paleo diet" (also known as the caveman diet eg, you don't eat anything a caveman wouldn't have). Our diet consists of tons of vegetables, hearty amounts of lean protein, generous portions of plant-based fats and some fruits. We were scheduled to start the diet on June 1st for a 30-day challenge but were lured and sucked into the diet early by research - the recipes were irresistible. Our birthdays happened to be right around the time we decided to start and you simply can't have a birthday without cake so we found a cake that fit all the requirements and gave it a go. It was better than any conventional cake I'd ever had in taste and the reactions my body would have to it were ones of health and longevity instead of sickness and disease. Wow. Yes please!
So far I feel like we have eaten like royalty. The food is delicious and I'm not missing out on anything; in fact I'm finding out that I was actually missing out before! We have eggs or omelets for breakfast in the morning with lots of veggies. Snacks are nuts and fruits. Lunch is tons of vegetables, meat of some sort and baked sweet potato with cinnamon, chopped pecans and a little coconut oil (this tastes like dessert). Dinner is meat and tons of veggies and berries. We've had bacon, lots of avocado, apples and pears galore, nuts nuts more nuts, vegetables out the wazoo, amazing broccoli turkey burgers that Andy created, some coconut water here and there and little dollops and sprinkles of dairy. I have eaten a rainbow a day in fruits and veggies. This diet is simply delicious.
We decided to try the diet after Andy saw a video about a woman who had debilitating Multiple Sclerosis and dramatically improved her situation by switching to a Paleo diet. She could not walk and could not even sit upright - she had to lie back in a reclined position. Nine months later, she went for an 18 mile bike ride. All from diet.
At the time of starting our Paleo lifestyle, Andy has lost 50 pounds and I have lost 30 pounds. We hope to lose the remainder of our unnecessary fat with this diet but that part is sort of an afterthought. Our main goal is health...and the ability to pass this on to our children. Is a Paleo lifestyle the key? Is it how we were intended to live (and eat)? Are industrialized grains and processed foods as taxing on the body as they say? Well I'm sure 30 days is long enough to find out and we'll definitely let you know. I am sure of 2 things: it sure does taste good. And it sure does make me feel good.
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