New and gotta go MORE at this! page

[crazycanuck]

I posted in the obligatory intro thread, and figured I would post here too. I discovered this site and read the Primal Blueprint a year ago. I am 41 years old with a husband and a 12yr old girl and a 9 year old boy. I live here in Canada, in farming country so am fortunate to acess some local foods like grass fed beef and pork and some berry/honey farms. We eat little processed food in our family generally.

I have been into fitness and healthy eating for a while, and 3 years ago lost 20lb and for the most part have kept it off give or take 5-8lb (I am 5'7 and usually 130-135ish). We eat very little processed foods as a family compared to most people, but whole grains and dairy are in our diets....mostly in the forms of oats, home made whole wheat bread, quinoa, brown rice...the least amount processed forms possible. Raw milk is illegal here in Canada, (waaah!) and most of my dairy is in the form of my own homemade yoghurt. Exericise wise, I have run the gammut from Turbulence Training...which I finally realized over three years makes me more tired and hungry exercising this way month after month of high-intensity-every-freaking-workout....to bodyweight and kettelbells, which I prefer.

This year, I have been under some stress, not sleeping well (I am a shiftworker so that does not help!) and certainly have allowed more into my diet in the last 4-5months than I should have.

I would say instead of being at times 80:20 primal, I have been more like 50:50...and NOT feeling good about it at all, mentally or physically. In the last few days I have been surfing back around this site, and this past week took the Primal Blueprint from the library. Today was the final straw for me. I came home from a (definitely not primal) meal at my in laws house today, feeling bloated, tired, and just awful inside....and I have been eating MUCH less optimally than usual for a while now. I know how to eat healthy, I just need to DO IT. And I need to quiet my fears (like working around challenges like my husband not being board on this at all...I really don't think he cares about how I feed the kids, but there is stuff still in the house he likes to eat that sabotauges my efforts and alas he won't budge with keeping it out of the house. And it will be a challenge with a kid who doesn't like vegetables (texture issues with eating/chewing which also makes meats a challenge for him, although he eats plenty of fruit at least.). I need to take baby steps and work around these issues one day at a time.

I am tired of feeling the way I do and being it is a new year, I am ready to make a change. I am looking forward to being part of this community and am impressed by the support you all offer each other.

[jammies]

Welcome Your diet sounds pretty darn good - you could try just getting rid of wheat to start with and soaking the other grains in your diet if you need to in order to reduce toxins. It might be an easier way to transition the kids. I think eliminating crappy oils, wheat, HFCS, and excess sugar is a huge step toward great health!

[Knifegill]

Once informed about the food you eat and its effect on your body, your food quality will become more and more proportionate to how much you feel like feeling good. Remember, your life starts at your thoughts. Wrangle those up and direct them, and the rest of your life belongs to you as well. Will power is nothing compared to solid goals, strong hope and gratitude.

[Littlesigh]

For me the key was the grains.... Completly get off the grains! There is some arguement over this out in the web but I go with what works for me. You may want to read "Wheat Belly" or visit Wheat Belly | Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight to get some insight from personal stories.
Also try to drop sugar... dropping grains will help with this!

Good Luck!

[crazycanuck]

For me the key was the grains.... Completly get off the grains! There is some arguement over this out in the web but I go with what works for me. You may want to read "Wheat Belly" or visit Wheat Belly | Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight to get some insight from personal stories.
Also try to drop sugar... dropping grains will help with this!

Good Luck!

Thanks, I have read excerpts online from Wheat Belly, have not read the actual book. I do suspect it may be grains overall that are giving me problems. I am sooo unsure about the dairy though. I am worried a bit about my ds, who I finally over the years have convinced to eat carrots and peas (that's the extent of his veg intake...as far as leafy green stuff/broccoli FORGET IT...but he does eat a fair variety of fruit)....I feel if I take grain AND dairy out of his diet he will really be lacking variety...he has some muscle tone/motor issues that make him tire easily with chewing and have an aversion to certain textures too, so meat is even a challenge for him at times. I just keep putting a tsp or two of something new on his plate and encourageing him to try it, sigh. For dairy, I can understand the raw vs conventional dairy viewpoint, but it is so difficult to get raw dairy here as it is illegal in Canada (stupid Dairy Board laws), and I do know someone who gets raw cream, but she refuses to tell me from who...farmers here are that scared of getting found out. I have some grass fed beef coming, and this week discovered another farm that makes monthy deliveries to this area with pork, chickens/eggs, and beef! So, that is great.

And as I said, dh is not on board with this grocery budget will be a challenge, I feel I am buying for 2 different diets here so that makes it a bit more expensive compared to eating just paleo only. AND, I am going to have to deal with the temptation of having that crap accessable in the house.

For myself, I downloaded Robb Wolf's 30 day challenge. Scott Kuste's Food University101 cookbooks, and Sebastian Noel's cookbook, and have Everyday Paleo bookmarked, and am all set to start. I do have a trip to my parent's later this month, and they are DEFINITELY not paleo, so that is going to be interesting. Don't know how strict I can be for a whole 30 days.

I have a history of going gung-ho on a change like this and then burning out, and I think I am going to have to take baby steps. I am planning to take grain totally out of my diet and I think I will manage this even with my trip, and do dairy the best I can for this month especially when outside the home. I have to go get a rotation of 5 breakfasts, dinners, and suppers going (ones that can have a little modification for the kids etc) so that I am not sitting here like I am right now going "OMG what am I going to EAT!" Wish me luck!