Sara's First Week on Paleo

In all honesty, I would say I spent about 70% of my first week eating Paleo.  Evening was usually my downfall. My husband works nights – after the kids were in bed and he was off to work, I’d find myself stress eating.  Nothing full on terrible, but not Paleo foods, typically.  Even so, I’ve noticed some changes.

My ankles have been MUCH less swollen over the past week!  And the times they’ve puffed up have been because I chose to eat something I shouldn’t have. I was PMSing last week, so it was a rough time to restrict myself.  I kept some bittersweet chocolate on hand for cravings. I actually forgot about it by the end of the week, oddly enough. I still have some in my desk drawer. 

Yesterday, I went about 85% of my day eating Paleo foods. Last night, I sent a picture of my ankles/feet to Rach because I was just so excited.  You could see the bones in my ankles and feet – I had ZERO inflammation in my legs by the end of the day.  It’s been a while since I’ve seen that.

I need to work on my night time snacking.  I’m not necessarily feeling the effects of these “bad” foods because I’m asleep when it hits, but I know it’s not helping my insides, plus I’d probably sleep better if I would cut that out. 

I’ve made small changes for my family as well.  Rick usually eats what I eat when he’s home – I do the cooking and he's a former vegetarian, so there's not much he won't try.  The kids have not fought too hard on the few changes I’ve made for them, which is nice.  I’ve switched us over to almond milk.  I bought one jug of cow milk this week, but only because our middle son is home now and he doesn’t seem to be a fan of the unsweetened vanilla almond milk I’ve been buying.  Maybe he’ll like my next batch of homemade – we’ll see. 

I’ve also been cutting out the starch from our dinner.  I usually served meat, veggie, starch – pasta or rice, etc.  No one seems to have noticed.  I did the same at lunch time over the weekend, too.  More fruits and veggies, less junk.  Thankfully, my kids love fruit!

I’m slowly converting our pantry/fridge/freezer over to more Paleo-friendly foods.  School is about to start up again, so I’m trying to focus my efforts on portable foods for lunches. I’m not cutting out sandwich bread (for the kids) at this point, but I’m sticking with the organic whole grain breads we get from Bountiful Baskets instead of buying store bread that’s full of preservatives. 



not my photo, but the same bread we buy!

Onward and upward!  All I know is eating this way makes me feel great. I’m also impressed that I’ve lost a few pounds over the past week.  I don’t think I’ve ever LOST weight while PMSing before!