Friday, October 5, 2012

To Paleo or not to Paleo...that is the question.

In February, I embarked on a journey that was pretty amazing.

Because of some health issues, I was told by my doc to embrace the Paleolithic lifestyle. My working out, eating, sleeping schedule, EVERYTHING changed. I quit grains, dairy and sugar cold turkey and wasn't sick, lost a ton of that baby weight, and just plain felt awesome.

Then came July.....
We had a family reunion, a trip to a cabin with friends, a wedding coming up, my life felt stressful and to top it off, I was showing a lot of signs of a postpartum anxiety disorder that I couldn't shake. I started to downward spiral and used the excuse of it being too hard to start cheating. A little sugar here, a little bread here, never hurt anyone, right?  RIGHT?


It was hard. We went to the cabin for a race and everyone carb-loaded the night before. I tried to bring enough of what I needed to keep me full. I tried to find alternatives. It was harder than I thought it would be and after MONTHS of doing it right, I started to NOT do it right. The family reunion brought a pizza night that was unavoidable and really I should have eaten before, but I didn't. I just went and had a couple of slices.

After going completely cold turkey off of these things and not seeing much of a difference physically when starting them back up, it was really hard not to cheat more....and more.

I also started to feel hopeless with what to eat. I didn't want to put in the effort to cook different things and my family wasn't on the same meal plan as me. I can only have bacon and eggs for breakfast, a salad for lunch and stew or chicken for dinner so many times before I get a little sick of it and feel WAY overloaded with meat. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and when looking into some doctrine a bit more, I just started to question a lot about the 'lifestyle'. Aren't grains good for us? Is eating all of this meat really bad for me, even though I am feeling awesome and losing weight and not sick? Is there really *one way of eating for everyone? *To be clear, I am not questioning the Word of Wisdom as referred to before, just diet fads in general. I think I have just been trying to understand the guidelines from God a little better.

I have friends who are raw vegans, friends who strictly count calories with healthy food choices, and friends who eat whatever they want. In every single category, there are people who are very healthy and people who aren't.

For me, Paleo worked. I can't do it forever and that is the problem. I think that is the problem with most diets. If you are going to do something, it should be for forever. Not a quick fix. 

So, this amazing journey I embarked on? Now I'm just amazed I stuck with it for so long.

Food rant for the day....

5 comments:

Heidi said...

I don't do diet plans because I don't like the feeling of being restricted, and because I once came VERY close to having an eating disorder and don't want to even come near that ever again. If it works, awesome. What I hate is the attitude that I must somehow be wrong or bad for not following someone's special diet plan. I'm glad Paleo helped you jump start some healthy habits, though!

Unknown said...

No Grains, dairy, or sugar....and I would starve. (Holy cow I would die w/o pizza!!) I don't know how you did it. But good for you!

Gilbert Family said...

you seriously did SO GOOD with the diet and I totally noticed a difference in you, a good difference. Not just cause you were losing weight but because you were your old happy and spunky self :). I personally believe that "diets" do NOT work BUT I think healthy lifestyle changes are key. For me, I love counting calories. I eat whatever I want and just stop (or at least try to stop) when I've hit my total intake for the day. I love it because when I do it consistently, it works and when I fall off for a bit, it's not hard for me to get back to it. It's funny how that I LOVE entering my food on my sparkpeople account. I just really love being accountable for every bite I eat and it's amazing to see how the calories add up. Some people may think it's a pain in the booty but I really love it. The best thing is to find something that you can do that doesn't make you feel restricted or starved all the time! You look GREAT so I wouldn't worry about a thing but I know the incredible feeling when you are losing weight and getting healthier...it's AWESOME! You need to keep coming with me to the gym when you can cause THAT is the best thing ever. Exercise alone doesn't make you lose weight but it sure makes you feel good :)

Dan+Alli said...

Everything thing you write I feel like it seriosuly could be coming out of my own mouth.

I too am so amazed you stuck with it so long! Dr Egan put me on that diet because I'm pre-diabetic and I did it a whole two weeks and thought that was the shiz! It really did make me feel soooo good. So much energy. But like you said it wasn't something I could commit to long term.

And I started to question if it was really healthy in the long term. Sure it might make it so I'll never get diabetes, but would it cause some other problems later down the road? I understand I need to eat a low carb diet but the extremes scare me. I think it's great to do every now and again to give your body a break from all the processed stuff. Or to help you cut back on sugar. But I would never/could never do it long term. P.S. I love you!

Steffani Dastrup said...

I don't know what your on, and what you are doing now, when I saw you at school the other night you looked great and radiated your usual fun living self! Thanks again for the awesome dinner! I feel bad knowing now that you couldn't eat any of it! :)

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