This Week with Our Paleo Family

I hope Easter was a joyful time for all of you. The rain in these parts put a damper on some of our plans, but we had a relaxing, family day nonetheless. My children are especially looking forward to putting their Easter best back on so we can take pictures, which we couldn’t do last week. Can you hear the sarcasm? And we are busy eating lots of hard-boiled eggs.

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I have one great new recipe for you this week: cranberry orange protein bars.

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You and your family will absolutely love these. They taste great and are full of good quality protein with nuts and collagen powder.

And in other big news this week, drum roll please…..I have finally finished the resources page I’ve been telling you about  forever!

In this document, you will find the ingredients I find essential for a paleo kitchen (I’m sure I’ve forgotten something) and kitchen tools I use most often.

For quick and easy access, you will find the link to this document in the header, if using a desktop computer or tablet, or in the drop down box if using a smart phone.

Other happenings this week revolve mostly around Whole 30. Yes, I have started my Whole 30 again. With all the Easter candy in the house, I just gave in to my sugar tooth and ate away. As a result, my feet were much more achy and I just didn’t feel great. It doesn’t feel good to crave so much sugar.

Perhaps I’m the only one who does this, but when I start something new: a diet, a craft project, cleaning out my closet, etc., I often turn to other bloggers and their experiences. I want to know what other people went through. I want to know how they survived. I want to know that I’m not alone in my struggles.

That is why I’m throwing my own experience into the ring here. If you’re not interested in completing a Whole 30 and don’t even really care what it is, then delete away.

Again, I’m trying to give you what I was looking for myself when embarking on this journey. I’m journaling a short thought and/or progress update for each of the 30 days. And I’ll share just what I ate and how I was feeling.

Why am I even doing this Whole30 thing, you may ask? Back in January when I tried this before, I noticed a dramatic reduction in the pain in my feet, even after just two weeks of following the program pretty much to the letter. No diet or drug is going to change the physical problem with my feet, but diet can reduce the inflammation in my entire body, including my feet, and I noticed a profound difference when I was not eating sugar.

My Crohn’s disease is in remission, but my arthritis is not, which is why I talk more about the foot pain than I do digestive symptoms. But I know that if I veer too far off the paleo bandwagon, my gut will once again be leaky and my Crohn’s symptoms will return. So of course, getting my body off sugar, will be beneficial for my gut as well.

To be clear, I follow a strict paleo diet almost all of the time. Yet, there is sugar in my diet. It it not refined (that’s not allowed on the paleo diet – except during candy season), but there is honey, maple syrup, stevia, some dried fruit almost daily. Whole 30 is a tough love program. Absolutely no sugar is allowed. I like sausage for breakfast, but almost all commercially prepared products contain sugar. It doesn’t matter if sugar is ingredient number 10 out of 10. If it’s on the ingredient list, you can’t have it on Whole 30.

If you’re interested in doing your own Whole 30, I recommend you visit their website and read all the details. The website is very thorough and you can find all the information you need there to be successful.

The Whole 30 is in essence a paleo diet — and then some. So yes, that makes it easier for me to follow than someone who is currently eating the Standard American Diet. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. When you strive to remove a food group completely (yes, I think sugar is a food group until itself 🙂 ) then you quickly notice all the many ways you are eating that food.

Want to join me? I’d love some company.

Here’s my daily journal, read and feel encouraged and inspired, or skip over. Whatever floats your boat.

If you choose to follow along through my Whole30 journey, I want you to know that you are going to get complete honesty. Case in point: I made it through days one and two really well. Then day three hit, afternoon came, and the jelly beans were still on the dining room table. I know, I should have gotten rid of the leftovers, but I didn’t. So I caved. So I started over. Here’s what’s happened since then:

Day 1 Breakfast: one hard-boiled egg in the car (I was in a hurry to an appointment) and black coffee

Lunch: one Applegate Chicken Apple Sausage, big pile of kale, one gala apple

Mid-Afternoon Snack: almonds

Dinner: spanakopita stuffed chicken – this recipe will be in the ebook and this recipe alone will be worth the price! Yes, it is ridiculously good. Also, grilled asparagus, Tazo baked apple and cinnamon tea for “dessert”

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Final Day 1 Assessment: I wanted some of that candy, but I made it through. This is harder than I thought it would be.

Day 2 Breakfast: one Applegate Chicken Apple Sausage, black coffee (this is a smaller breakfast than normal, but I was working out shortly afterward and didn’t want a huge meal on my stomach)

Lunch: one scrambled egg, sage breakfast sausage, apple

Mid-afternoon snack: energy bar

Dinner: Applegate Grassfed Beef Hotdogs, sweet potato “fries,” salad with homemade, dairy-free ranch dressing

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Final Day 2 Assessment: I want some M&Ms. I’m not hungry, but I want them anyway. I know that I stress eat and I boredom eat. Whole 30 makes these habits glaringly obvious. Also, I visited my orthopedist for my feet this week and the only solution to my foot pain is fusing the joints, which I do not want to do at this point in my life. It would take away the side to side motion, making walking on any uneven ground very difficult. I am praying that getting myself off sugar for good will make a tremendous difference in the inflammation in my feet and help me put off this fusion surgery for at least five years. I am going to finish this Whole30!

Day 3 Breakfast: bacon and a protein bar (I had to test them some more 🙂 )

Lunch: big salad, roasted turkey, half an avocado, carrots, balsamic and olive oil

Date night! Bike ride followed by fancy Dinner at Five Guys Burgers: double burger with bacon, mushrooms, onions, lettuce, tomato, and mayo.

Day 3 Assessment: Hmmm…how do I feel? Well, sort of blah. In just three days my feet feel a lot better so I should feel super energized and motivated. I guess I’m just hitting that day three energy slump where my body is learning to use more protein and fat for fuel and less sugar. It’s a good thing, but a bit of a challenge right now.

That’s it from around these parts. I wish you a happy weekend out in God’s glorious world. Everything is so green and colorful right now. Enjoy it.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 “There is a time for everything, and a season for every purpose under heaven.”