To Paleo or not to Paleo, THAT is the question

When I moved out of Florida a little over 2 years ago, I had a hard time adjusting. It was a hard time adjusting on numerous fronts. I moved away from family, my father-in-law had recently passed away, my grandmother was dying, and it was cold. Like “my toes are turning blue, what is wrong with me” cold. There were some actual health issues, but looking back there was also a healthy dose of depression. The library has always been my solace, so I spent lots of time reading. I decided that I wanted to try going gluten-free. I spent 9 months of not eating gluten, mostly with a focus on cutting out wheat. Then, as sometimes happens, I started eating wheat again. I ate wheat for the next 10 months. I saw a jump in my triglycerides and vLDL and then decided getting rid of wheat was something I wanted to do as part of my healthy changes. I have been wheat free since October.

My husband has seen the changes that going wheat free has made in my life. He started researching some diets and decided that going Paleo would be the best for him. This creates a dilemma for me. I make the dinners in the house. I have to decide if I want to be Paleo. I’ve done some reading on it and can agree with the clean eating concept. The place that I struggle is no grains, beans, legumes, and dairy. I like these things, all except milk. I don’t do well with milk and hate the taste of it so that one is not a problem. I do, however, love cheese. Some of our go-to meals include beans. I like to eat peanut butter. Am I willing to give these up? I’m not sure.

The fact that my husband wants to focus on his health makes me want to accommodate. I checked out a ton of recipe books from the library. I like that some of them talk about the fact that they eat cheese, or drink wine, or eat chocolate. I never want to be on a “diet”. I don’t like measuring what I eat. I don’t want to put my own body image issues onto my children. They have enough of that in the constant barrage from the media. That is not to say that measuring, etc. doesn’t work for some people. It just isn’t my thing. I’ve tried it and I don’t like it.

Friday night, I made my first official Paleo meal. I made the recipe for super simple oven chicken fajitas, tortillas, and cauliflower rice. I served my kids on regular flour tortillas since I am slowly shifting them to healthier choices. It was a bigger hit than I expected. Everyone liked it. If you have more than one kid, then you might know that this is a next to impossible occurrence. Next up is trying the buffalo chicken casserole. So while I’m not completely sold on Paleo, I will be continuing to research it and try out new recipes.

Let your light shine!
Amy