So during the caterpillar eat-fest stage of my life, I was content to put just about anything into my mouth as long as it had flavor. But during this past summer, I became morbidly aware of my health and future life as a nearly 300lb woman. Sudden death was most certainly looming around just waiting for me to devour that last ‘Twinkie’ or ‘Ding Dong’. The fear of being ‘this way’ for the remainder of my existence was enough to catapult me into a search for the kind of change I was literally dying to make. In my quest for knowledge, I came across a plan that I believed I could convert to and have ultimate success with. I did my due diligence and the journey to becoming a butterfly began.
Paleo. Short for Paleolithic, was the food plan I had chosen. This diet mimics the types of foods our caveman ancestors ate prior to the Agricultural Revolution. A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, meats and seafood, I could ultimately eat as much as I wanted and have success losing weight. Brilliant! A food plan that was meant for me. Thankfully, in today’s world, I will not have to go spear fishing, braless in a loin cloth but rather visit my local market for some fresh, pre-cut organic produce and a slice of meat.
So week one started and as one would expect, I was ravenous. It didn’t seem to matter how much I ate, I was still hungry. Coming off sugar, soda, caffeine, carbs of all kinds was enough on it’s own but to be starving too? Come on! On around the 4th day, it seemed as though I would never stop eating. My meals included: 4 eggs and 4 sausage links with 2 apples for breakfast, a hand full of strawberries and some walnuts for a snack, some fresh asparagus for a 2nd mid morning snack, a mini wild-animal moment with a rotisserie chicken and some lettuce at lunchtime, 3 lettuce wrapped hamburgers as my pre-dinner appetizer and some pineapple and ham for dinner. Despite all that eating, I begged my husband later that evening to ‘just take me out for a steak’ . In an effort to avoid having his thigh become a rotisserie item, he complied and I was satisfied for a few hours by a juicy steak and a double side of steamed broccoli. I was in heaven.
Something changed though on that day because the next morning when I woke up, I was no longer on the hunt for my prey but content with a reasonable amount of food for the average person. For the remainder of the week, I had what I consider to be a normal appetite. No desire for candy or coke or junk of any kind. It was a powerful lesson to me about the the reality of my addiction to sugar in any form.
During the ‘normal eating phase’ of this week, I had to make a trip to Wal-Mart for something and I didn’t plan the trip well and got hungry. In the old days, I would have strolled over to the bakery or chip aisle but instead I went looking for a Paleo-friendly snack. As I pushed the cart, a clarity came over me that had never been there before. ”There is ‘nothing’ in this store that is real food!” I realized that the majority of the store is filled with boxes and bags and pre-wrapped, non food items that America is calling food. I wandered back to the produce and grabbed a bag of carrots and some celery and checked out. But I was changed. No wonder Hostess used the tagline ‘Because tasting is believing’ in the 70′s. For so long I believed that if it tasted like food, it must _be_ food. Thank goodness I now know the best way to optimum health is by eating whole foods and saying ‘no’ to the boxes claiming to be real!
Thank goodness there are raw carrots in a bag for this very hungry housewife.
“Because Tasting is Believing”-Hostess Commercial circa 1970
