Candy in Primal Wonderland page

[Candy in Wonderland]

Hi I'm Candy and this is my journal into the wonderful world of primal/paleo.

I'm born and raised in Belgium, but have Italian nationality. So I grew up in the country of French fries and waffles in a spaghetti-loving family .
I've been chubby ever since I was a child (I have pictures to prove it) and went on my first diet together with my mom when I was 14 (not that I was that fat, I was just a little overweight). I feel that's when the trouble started. Yes, you guessed it, a low-fat, high-carb diet off course. When I was 16 I weighed about 141 lb (64 kg). I got married and moved to Italy when I was 20 and that's were I started gaining weight until I reached 172 lb (78 kg). I went on a "calory counting" diet and didn't have more than 1500 calories for a year. I lost 28.5 lb (13 kg) and got pregnant. I managed to maintain my weight to 143 lb (65 kg) after giving birth, but when I got divorced my weight went up again and I got over 175 lb.
My weight went up and down again the next few years (fell in love, lost weight, got pregnant, lost pregnancy weight easily but then gained again before getting pregnant a 3rd time). Ever since my last pregnancy I had a really hard time getting my weight down, every "diet" I lost around 15 to 20 lb, but no matter how hard I tried I wouldn't lose any more. But after every diet my weight just went higher and higher. And I have tried every diet out there: Weight watchers, calory counting, Atkins, South Beach, Dukan (the last 3 being low-carb diets), but none really did the trick for me.
And also since my last pregnancy (my youngest son is 9 now) I started having serious pain problems. I was never really diagnosed, but the rheumatologist suspected fibromyalgia. She told me to "learn to live with it" and we tried out several kinds of medication. Redomex just made me EAT EAT EAT and made me really dizzy; cymbalta just made me numb (and lose whatever I had left of sexual drive to the extend even of no longer being able to get an orgasm) but finally gabapentin seemed to give some relieve.
So there I was last year January, and I decided to give up on diets. I weighed 215 lb (97,5 kg) and thought "this is it, I'll just have to learn to love myself the way I look. And I avoided looking in the mirror. My cousin had died the year before and it had been a real shock to me and I had seen a dietitian for 6 months just to lose 15 lb and not getting any more off although I followed the low-fat high-full grain diet she told me to.
Then my heart really scared me a few times and although my doctor reassured me it was nothing to worry about, I saw it as a sign. I really want to grow old, see my children as adults, even see my grandchildren and be able to play with them! And right then my mom gave me a leaflet of this protein diet and I decided to go for a final attempt at losing weight. It was a low carb/low fat diet using protein shakes, eating fish, (low fat) meat, some eggs and veggies (no starchy veggies).
I started June 2011 and fat just seemed to melt off, I have lost 59.5 lb (29 kg) since then. But as my goal weight got in sight I started to think about: so what now, what after this? I knew I couldn't go back to my old eating habits if I want to keep the weight off.

A few weeks ago I found out about paleo and wow, this made so much sense! I just jumped from blog to information site, to another blog, to more information and just soaked it in. And I knew: this is the answer, this is what I have to do. I talked about it with my dietitian and she's convinced now too.
I'm no longer having protein shakes, but only 'real food'. I think I'm about 100% primal in my food now, I'm running 3 times a week and will start cross-fit soon. I sleep so much better since I lost weight, I try to go out as much as possible, I play with my kids and man, I FEEL GOOD!

I'm already noticing major changes: my skin is really soft (my hands used to be like sandpaper!) and I don't have more energy, no, I'm bursting with energy! Sometimes I just have to get away from my desk and jump or dance!
My kids are so excited to have an energetic mom instead of the pathetic, tired, sick person I used to be.

I will start my journal here now. My goals? Maybe lose another 5 kg (11 lb), but not necessarily. Mainly I want to be able to stop taking my pain medication (I've already cut down my daily dose with 1/3rd) and I want to be leaner (so get muscles!)

[Candy in Wonderland]

What I ate today:
skipped breakfast (wasn't hungry)
had a banana at around 10h30 (my first banana in 9 months! it's so sweet )
Lunch: coconut flour pancakes with guacamole (my kids had them too and they loved them!)
Dinner will be a stew from grass-fed beef (not easy to find around here in Belgium and sooo expensive ) and roasted roots.

The biggest challenge is to get my family to "go primal" but not pushing it. My oldest son (Diddyi, 16 years) just fully rejects it: give up sugar and junk food, are you crazy? He's a real sugar addict, sadly. Middle son Lex loves veggies, fruit and meat and although he still eats bread and cookies, he's most open to the change. Youngest son Lou is reluctant to change. And my wonderful husband is afraid his cholesterol will go through the roof and asks if I want him dead. So for now I just stick to it, and I will cook patatoes, rice and pasta for the rest of the family (but with good meat, good fat and lots of vegetables).

[Candy in Wonderland]

Breakfast today at 8 am: raspberry-coconut smoothie (shared with my 11 yo son Lex)
Wasn't hungry until 2pm and had leftover veggies from yesterday with smokes salmon
Dinner: typical Belgian soup (tomato-bell pepper soup with small meatballs), dry aged beef with Belgian chicory and mayo

LHT: grocery shopping and I lifted my youngest son (86 lb), does that count?

[Candy in Wonderland]

Yesterday was such a lovely day, spring is arriving in Belgium finally .
I went running with DH and one of our sons, we always run in a nearby forest. We were lucky to spot 3 deer!
Disappointment for breakfast though, I was looking forward to have a banana smoothie, but by the time we came home my oldest son had the last banana . Oh well, raspberry smoothie is fine too.
We had some leftover pumpkin-celeriac soup and bacon and eggs for lunch.
In the afternoon we went for a hike in the park with our boys, the weather was so nice I could even walk in my T-shirt (unless the sun went hiding behind a cloud).
My parents came home from a trip to Germany, where my cousin got married; we invited them over to dinner (vegetable soup, roasted chicken and oven-roasted fenil, onion and tomatoes with rice, but no rice for me) and they brought this big cake, but I was so full after dinner that I really didn't crave any of it!

I've been eating primal since one week now and do notice I can go way longer without food than I thought. I always needed a snack at around 10am and somewhere in the afternoon, but now I don't. I don't get hungry before 'lunchtime' and if I'm not hungry I'm not eating. Just simple as that. I don't really have any cravings either, only today I feel like I might have a little piece of chocolate (86% cocoa), but hey, I'm having my period . But I didn't have PMS in the past few days, at all!

I shocked DH a few weeks ago when I told him I wanted to do CrossFit, I have found a gym at just 17 km from here. I just didn't talk about it for the time being, as I first wanted to do an introductory lesson. So this week I wanted to see when and asked DH if maybe he wanted to join me and yes, he does! So we'll be taking the introductory workout on March 23rd. I'm really looking forward to it.

[Sabine]

Here you are! Good to get to know you, Candy. Glad you've had such a good start to primal and I look forward to following you.

[Candy in Wonderland]

Ah you found me . Thanks for your comment!

[demuralist]

Sounds as though you are doing very well! For my family, I don't really talk about being Primal, I just cook. For them I will cook potatoes, or rice, or even pasta, about once a week. For my 17 year old son, I have switched out as much as is reasonable of the junk, I figure he is going to eat it when he is out but that doesn't mean I have to have it here. So he eats beef jerky and nuts for snacks at home, and I keep small chocolate bars for him as an end of the day treat. I get him soda that is sweetened with Stevia, hoping that he will get to where the other stuff doesn't taste right, and he gets one of those a day for his lunch, the rest of the day he drinks tea or water. Eventually his tastes will change. My husband will eat anything I put in front of him. He does complain about the cholesterol, and every time he does I email him a copy of a study that shows that eating cholesterol does not raise your cholesterol. Whether or not he believes it, I don't know, but he did stop complaining.

[jenn26point2]

I'm glad to meet you and can't wait to learn more about you.

My mother in law has fibromyalgia and has resorted to using illegally obtained non-prescription methods to control her pain. She learned on a message board somewhere out here on the interwebz that marijuana is a good pain reliever... Very disappointed in her when there have been study after study done to show that diet is directly related to chronic pain syndromes. In the meantime, she continues to eat burgers and fries 3x a week for dinner, frozen pizza 1x per week, and whatever other garbage she and her husband can acquire the other nights. She went from making dinner every night to buying it... no wonder she hurts all the time. I'm glad you're seeing the logic and attempting to control your pain with the foods you eat.

I look forward to following your story and can't wait to see that you've eliminated your need for medication.

[Candy in Wonderland]

I'm going to print some of the cholesterol information for my husband, so he can read it (he's willing to read it, but not online as he already spends all day in front of the pc).
The only junk food I have left in the house is what my kids received from family (and my ex-mother-in-law...it's getting better already, she used to give grocery bags full of junk!!!) and I'm really considering just throwing it away. Why should I feel guilty about throwing away bad things, while I should feel more guilty (and I do!) for letting my kids eat the stuff?

[Candy in Wonderland]

I'm glad to meet you and can't wait to learn more about you.

My mother in law has fibromyalgia and has resorted to using illegally obtained non-prescription methods to control her pain. She learned on a message board somewhere out here on the interwebz that marijuana is a good pain reliever... Very disappointed in her when there have been study after study done to show that diet is directly related to chronic pain syndromes. In the meantime, she continues to eat burgers and fries 3x a week for dinner, frozen pizza 1x per week, and whatever other garbage she and her husband can acquire the other nights. She went from making dinner every night to buying it... no wonder she hurts all the time. I'm glad you're seeing the logic and attempting to control your pain with the foods you eat.

I look forward to following your story and can't wait to see that you've eliminated your need for medication.

Hi Jenn, I'm sorry for your mom . Fibro's a bitch and I had times that I really was too tired/in pain to cook, but luckily have a wonderful husband who takes care of us. And now I'm full of energy again, I haven't felt so good in years, really! I hope you can convince your mom that food eating real foods is way healthier option than marijuana. Marijuana may take away the pain for a short time, but it doesn't take away the real cause of the pain, so it's not a long-term solution.