...on all things paleo

Some of you saw my post from a little while ago on the Paleo Challenge that Adam and I did. You may have realized that I never followed up with the results of our challenge and here is why. We finished out the month...well wait. Before I get into that let me explain a little more about what the paleo diet or the "caveman" diet is. More or less it is a way of eating that includes lean meats and tons of veggies with no gluten, grains, legumes, and little to no dairy. Before you start to judge, and I know some of you are, let me just start by saying it really wasn't all that hard to cut these things out of our diet. I can not give you the science behind all of this without copying it out of a book but I have been doing a little bit of research on why this is a healthy way to eat. One great resource is Robb Wolf's The Paleo Solution. He goes into a lot of the science of it all and at the end has a practical plan for applying it to your lifestyle. Here is a little video blurb of Robb Wolf discussing his book.

Ok, so back to the challenge. The reason why I haven't followed up with the challenge is that we have pretty much decided to turn it from a challenge into a lifestyle. Are we crazy? No, far from it. We found after eating this way for a month that we both felt better and had both lost a bit of weight. Also, we were able to eat until satisfied and never felt guilty for eating. You know how when you have a huge bowl of spaghetti and then ten minutes later you think, "oh, I feel stuffed, I shouldn't have eaten that much?" Well, we never really felt that way but we still go to eat, you follow? Because our food was good for us it actually made eating a little more enjoyable. Another thing that it has done for us is take the comfort out of food. Adam and I are both comfort/stress eaters and this diet did not allow us to be that way. Sure, we will still eat pasta, bread, and milk, every now and then but over all I think we are going to try to stick with this way of eating. We really want to live a healthy lifestyle and food is the main thing that keeps us from doing that. As Jack gets older we want him to have a healthy view of food and we feel like it starts with us. So that brings me to a different topic which, to some, I know is pretty controversial. Do babies really need grains and rice? Hmm...I'd love to know what you think. I'm going to ask our pediatrician on Tuesday when we go for Jack's four month check up.

I have a lot more to say on this issue and will post more later with some recipes for you all to try. If you want more info you can check out Robb Wolf's website HERE.

Have a great Monday!