Month: April 2017

A day in the Life with Our Paleo Family – Spring 2017

Chris and Elizabeth, 
married 15 years, 
both in mid-40s
Luke is 12
Kate is 10
no pets


Just to keep things fresh and interesting, I’ll be doing a quarterly “day in the life” post. If nothing else, this will serve as a good scrapbook for me. Here we go…

Monday, April 10th, 2017

6:30 AM Wake up. Even if my alarm were not set, I would wake up at 6:30 or a few minutes before. So then why is is so hard to get out of bed?

Downstairs I go, start my coffee. Write up the schedule for the day for the kids while the coffee brews. Coffee in hand, I head to “my chair” for my quiet time. I sit in this chair, bundled up in my super soft blanket, and don’t move for about 45 minutes.

  • I work on my Bible study, which currently is the Crown Financial Study. I thought we were in good shape with our finances, but turns out I had a lot to learn. I’m about half way through the study and I’m very glad I chose to participate.
  • I have been keeping a food journal every day since January (for more details on why that is, see these posts on Insulin Resistance here, here and here.) While I’m in my chair, I record any thoughts from the day before, like how I felt physically, did I have lots of energy, was I dragging, etc. I also write down my planned meals and snacks for that day. If I don’t plan what I’m going to eat, it will be the junkiest things I can find in the house when hunger strikes. Yes, I need a boss telling me what to do, even if that boss is me.
  • Also in the chair, I’ll pray, maybe chat with my husband or one of the kids if they dare to step into my realm during this time.
    • My son comes in about 7:30 asking for help with his leg. He fell in the woods playing about three weeks ago. We are slowly piecing together what happened and it seems that a stick must have punctured his leg right around the knee and actually went into his leg a few inches before coming out. What was left is a puncture wound and a lot of swelling. But the wound has not healed, there is an infection in his leg and remnants of that stick keep coming out. So we change the bandage about 5 times per day and check the pus situation.

All done doctoring, I begrudgingly move from my chair. The coffee is gone and it’s time to face the day. In an effort to slightly reduce our utility costs, we run the dishwasher and washing machine overnight when the rates are slightly lower. I started laundry before bed so now I have to get it in the dryer so at least one load gets done before the rates go up at 9:00.

Brush teeth, put in contacts, take allergy medicine. Today, putting in the contacts is a challenge because I apparently lifted a few too many bags of mulch over the weekend and ended up causing one of those hemorrhages in my eye. It hurt a lot over the weekend, but has faded now. Still looks really awful and it hurts to put my contact in that eye, but I’m about to go workout and I don’t like to exercise in my glasses.

8:10 leave for the Y. This is my favorite day of the week at the Y because it’s my favorite class: cycle beat. We cycle to the beat of the music, doing lots of upper body moves. It’s a major calorie burner and really fun. At the end, we do some weightlifting, again to the beat of the music. It’s a fast hour.

9:45 Home. Kids get a quick snack and settle in to watch their history lesson on the computer. We have homeschooled since the beginning, but this year decided to add a history class via one of the online companies. Our social studies for the year is geography and we all wanted some history too. This has been a good option because it gives me time to get myself together after the Y.

So as not to be accused of posting only flattering pictures.

While they watch their lesson, I shower, attempt to dress in something other than pajamas then make breakfast. Today, because I’ve just had a major workout and it’s late, I’ll have a more carb-heavy breakfast so I’ll be ready for lunch around noon. Today it’s plain fat free Greek yogurt with strawberries and some granola. Honestly, I don’t love yogurt and I know it’s dairy, which is a no-no on the Paleo diet, but I feel good when I eat a little yogurt. Plus it’s filling and high in protein. This will keep me going until lunch around noon.

There is so much to do today, the house is a mess, which it always is after the weekend, so I am feeling a little stressed.

10:30 I’m finally dressed, the laundry is switched out, some is even folded. History lesson still going on so I unload the dishwasher and tidy up a few things while waiting for kids to finish history and get ready for working with me.

Putting the laundry on my bed to fold ensures it gets done before bedtime. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

10:45-12:45 School time with the kiddos. Kate, my daughter, who is in the 4th grade, works with me for most everything, whereas my son, Luke, who is in the 7th grade, is mostly independent. I do one spelling lesson with him a week because I just want that one-on-one time with him. It’s going too fast. We do geography, Bible, science and writing together as a group. Sometimes, their “kids” join us in class.

12:45-1:15 lunch time. They eat some version of this everyday:

During my lunch break, I was cleaning up from breakfast and baking cookies so ended up with a few slices of deli turkey, a few of these new baked olive oil potato chips and a big handful of lettuce for my lunch. Didn’t have time to mess with salad dressing and a fork today.

Homemade slice and bakes!

I was in a super big hurry, but had promised to bring a gluten free/dairy free treat to Classical Conversations tomorrow for our last day. I made my sugar cookies, but just rolled up the dough in a log, refrigerated for an hour, then sliced and baked. They’re sort of circles. With an admittedly very sloppy icing job.

1:15-2:00 Clean, clean, clean! Normally we do “fun cleaning” which means we play music for two or three songs, cleaning really fast while the music plays. Then we take a break and I read to them for a couple minutes. Repeat this cycle until the cleaning is done. We just didn’t have time for that today so we cleaned only – without the fun part. No, it wasn’t fun, but it was efficient.

Ran out to the garden to pick some lettuce for dinner.

2:00 We’re out the door for doctor’s appointment for Luke’s leg. Today we will find out if he needs surgery or not. He is rightfully pretty terrified of that prospect. But it’s been three weeks since his accident and this wound should be healing by now. My mother’s intuition tells me something is not right even though he walks normally most of the time and says it doesn’t hurt. He can’t run properly though. And the pus. Constant pus and other “stuff” coming out of that wound.

On the way to the doctor, Luke asks if we can turn off the CD and pray that he won’t need surgery. So sweet. Of course, I did pray what he requested, but also that the doctor would make the right decision.

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Waiting patiently for the doc. Sometimes I cave and let them play games on my phone in situations like this, but I try not to. This was a particularly long wait today, but I managed to keep them reading the whole time. Score!

Result from doctor’s appointment: he has to have the surgery. I’m relieved. I think if the doctor had said to wait, I would have been worried and clearly, his leg is not healing.

4:00 We stop by and visit grandparents as they are about to head out on a trip. I knew they would want to hug their grandchildren before they left and I want to explain the surgery to them in person so they won’t worry – too much.

4:30 Quick trip to the Dollar Tree to pick up some items for our homeschool Easter party. Of course, I would be in charge of this and it’s the day of Luke’s surgery. Oh well. Other mamas will take care of it. But I did need to get a few supplies and also thank you cards for their tutors at Classical Conversations.

4:45 Home and have a whopping 20 minutes before we need to leave to take Luke to tennis practice. Even with this injury to his leg, he’s been able to play, so we’re all thankful for that. His season will be cut short after the surgery though.

I sit down and work on writing up this post while the kids work on their chores and fuel up since dinner will be late.




Also during this time, I make arrangements for getting the Easter party covered, find childcare for Kate during Luke’s surgery and also try to make a couple appointments and reservations for my date weekend away which is coming up in July. I packed a lot into just a few minutes. I told the kids I had a short window of time to get a lot of things done so to just do what they’ve been told and don’t talk to me. I said it nicely.

5:05 We head out the door for tennis. His practice is 1 1/2 hours long. Even though it means driving back and forth twice, I drop him off rather than waiting. This way I can still make dinner. I hate crock pot food so that is just not something I’m going to do. I’d rather drive back and forth and have a fresh dinner. I have nothing against crock pots or those who love them, I just don’t like the taste of the food they produce. I’m probably the only one.

5:45 Kate and I get home from dropping off Luke. I start dinner. It’s turkey meatballs, rice, salad and sautéed veggies. I get that all ready at 6:30. Kate showers while I cook. I have to run up and wash her hair. That child can stand in the shower for 20 minutes and come out with half her head dry and swear to me she washed her hair. My husband arrives home and has to eat and dash out to a Scoutmaster meeting. So Kate and I head back to the tennis courts to pick up Luke. Practice ends at 7:00.

7:15 The kids and I arrive at home. Dinner is ready and mostly still hot. We eat while watching part of an episode of the Great British Baking Show. Have you seen this? It’s on PBS during the summer. Now it’s on Netflix. Good clean, family friendly fun. We are a cooking family (obviously) so we love a good cooking competition. The only bad thing about this show is that the kids are constantly saying, “You have to figure out how to make that paleo.” My to do list in this regard is exceedingly long. Perhaps I’ll get those goodies made for my grandchildren!

I finish eating fast and clean up the kitchen. I give them until 7:50 to eat leisurely and watch their show.

7:50 Kate heads upstairs to get ready for bed, I make my bed (changed the sheets today, but just now having a chance to finish the job). One of Luke’s chores today was cleaning the downstairs shower. That’s his job because he’s the one who uses it the most. We added this bathroom a few years ago and I think it feels like a palace to him. It is not, I can assure you. I let him in on my multi-tasking secret: I clean the shower while I’m taking my shower. He started the job earlier today, but didn’t have time to finish. So he finishes his cleaning job, gets himself clean (at least I hope so), while I read to Kate.

If you’re a fan of the Anne of Green Gables books by Lucy Maud Montgomery, you might enjoy what we’re reading right now. It’s called Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson. It tells the story of Anne’s life prior to her arrival at Green Gables. I picked this up at the Homeschool conference last year and I read it to Kate on nights that my husband is out. This is either Boy Scout night or over the weekend of a scout camping trip. Usually my husband does bed time, which is a tremendous gift to me, but I really enjoy it when I get to do bedtime duty in his absence.

We read for a bit, then prayers, then lights out for my little girl.

8:25 Luke is ready for bed so I say prayers with him. The upcoming surgery is the topic of interest tonight. He is really curious about the anesthesia part of the process. Thankfully, we have an anesthesiologist for a friend so he can get all his questions answered! I’ve had quite a few different surgeries so I can speak fairly confidently about the process and I think this puts his mind at ease a tiny, little bit. I try to play up the cool parts: all the lights and equipment, how nice all the people will be. I can tell he is thinking about this, but is still very apprehensive and is afraid of too much pain.

Lights out for the Lukester and I head back downstairs to write up the rest of my day. I know that if I wait until tomorrow to do it, I will have forgotten most of the details!

8:40 Hubby gets home from his meeting. Quick greeting, then I get a little more work done before we have a chance to chat.

Tomorrow is our last class at Classical Conversations for the year and I have to gather all the things I need to take right now so the morning won’t be so rushed.

All that done, it’s time to quickly hash out the day with my wonderful husband. And as it’s after 9:00, I have officially turned into a pumpkin. Time to enjoy my tea and start winding down.

I watch an episode of Parenthood on Netflix. Most of these episodes end on a sad note, which is really irritating, but I love the show. That Ron Howard puts together some good stuff!

It has been an unusually busy day in the life of the Heinze family, but the rest of the week will likely be just as busy, if not more so as we prepare for Luke’s surgery, then recuperation, and then Easter prep.

10:00 Head upstairs to get myself ready for bed. Peak in on the kids because, of course I do. Chris laughs at this, but I just can’t help myself. Occasionally, I’ll think about it, decide it’s silly, of course, they’re fine, climb into bed, then climb back out five seconds later and check on them. I will do this until they leave home. And any time they come back to visit.

Writing this up has been a good reminder that I need to take lots of pictures of my kids! They’ve gone from itty bitty to pre-teen in the blink of an eye.

Quick follow-up: I just have to brag on my son for a moment. This kid fell during lunch break while engaged in an epic lightsaber battle with his best buddies. He had blood gushing out of his leg. We thought his leg was broken based on how it looked, but turned out there was no fracture. He never cried. He didn’t even complain about the pain.

He went through his surgery with flying colors and it turns out that stick we think he fell on, was actually still in his leg! Take a look at your pinkie finger. A piece of stick that size was lodged in the muscle of his leg. I’m so, so thankful I took him to the doctor and that we got a good one who wasn’t afraid to take some extreme measures to get to the bottom of the problem. And now he is on the mend and will be just fine.




And just because I can’t have a grubby post-gym picture as the only one in the post, here’s an Easter snap. We’re all sort of smiling and our eyes are open, so it’s a winner!

Knife Sharpening 101

Thanks to all of my You Tube viewers for commenting and asking great questions. The latest was just a quickie: how do I sharpen my knives?

I made a little video to show you the process, but I wanted to link to the various products I show in the video.



First of all, if you don’t have good knives, investing in a set that feels good to you is a smart move. I say “good to you” because you need to feel comfortable handling the knives. You can certainly buy some expensive ones, but I have a set similar to this one from Farberware which costs around $40.

I received my set as a wedding gift 15 years ago and the knives are all still in great shape. I did replace the scissors a couple years ago with a better pair. Whenever we travel, we almost always stay someplace with a kitchen and there are never good knives. It’s amazing how it affects my cooking to not have a knife with which I’m comfortable.

So that’s recommendation #1: get a set of knives you like. They don’t have to be expensive.

Recommendation #2 is to keep your knives sharp. Here are some ways to do that:

If you buy a set, it will most likely come with a sharpening steel. But if not, you can buy one separately for about $10.

If you want something a little more fool-proof, you can go for one of these little round sharpeners. They’re cheap and you can find them at most grocery stores, but I think they’re a pain to use. At least these are cute and pink. Mine is boring old white.

My favorite way to sharpen my knifes that is easy and works really well, is with this one from Accusharp. It takes a minute to figure out how to use it, but the instructions on the package are clear and even better, I show you how to do it in the video below.

Just remember, a sharp knife is safer to work with than a dull one. I know from experience. The Bandaid company is sorry I finally figured out how to sharpen my knives!

Check out the video below for details on how to use each of the tools I discuss above.

Happy chopping!



Our Paleo Family’s Easter Menu

I realize the menu I’m about to give you is a little less than traditional, but we actually go to my Aunt and Uncle’s house for Easter dinner so I’m just responsible for a light lunch for my little family of four plus my parents. The Easter Bunny will most certainly deliver lots of chocolate goodies to our house, which we we will naturally be munching on all morning, so we don’t need a great big meal.

This is what’s on tap this year:

A big green salad with lots of fresh veggies and a light lemon vinaigrette. You have to make this dressing according to your taste, but here’s what I make for a great big bowl of greens:

  • 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
  • 3 Tbsp. good quality olive oil
  • 1 tsp. dijon mustard
  • 1/8 tsp. sea salt
  • dash of black pepper
  • a little drizzle of honey or a few drops of liquid stevia

If I can find good, local, organic strawberries, I’ll make this salad instead. It’s one of my favorites. I could eat it every day during strawberry season.

In addition to the veggie salad, my parents will bring a big fresh fruit salad which the kids will devour because Nana and Granddaddy buy the expensive fruits (berries, pineapples, etc.) that cheap-o mom will only buy on occasion.

Easter wouldn’t be Easter without these heavenly eggs. Any favorite deviled egg recipe will do, but do yourself a favor and make some homemade mayonnaise. It makes all the difference! I have two recipes for you: this regular one and this version made with bacon fat. If you make your heavenly eggs with the bacon mayonnaise, you better eat one while you’re cooking because they will literally fly off the table. Well, I guess not literally because I suppose deviled eggs don’t fly, but you get my point.

We’re also having pigs in blankets because I found mini hotdogs at Whole Foods a couple weeks ago and couldn’t pass up buying some. They’re sitting in the freezer just waiting to be enjoyed. So enjoy them we will!

Here’s a tip: ask for fresh lard from your butcher counter. I’ve said before that my favorite lard comes from US Wellness Meats, but you have to place a pretty big order from them and the lard was all I needed at the time. So while at the meat counter at Whole Foods one day I noticed they were selling the Epic fats in 11 oz. jars for $9. They were sitting right on the meat counter. Honestly, they looked terrible. The fat had separated and there was this orange layer on top. So I asked if they had any fresh lard. And sure enough, they did! The butcher said they always have it and it costs $1.99/pound! Lesson learned. It never hurts to ask for what you’re looking for if you can’t find it in the case.




And last, but certainly not least, I will be making my new favorite dessert, this key lime cheesecake. This is an amazing treat if you can go primal occasionally and enjoy some dairy.

We may not need the pie with all the other goodies, but I’d rather have extra food than not enough. And if we don’t eat it Sunday, then I guess we’ll just have to eat it the rest of the week. Such sacrifice! To those of you following along with my Insulin Resistance saga: I’ve not fallen off the no-sugar wagon. This cheesecake is made with stevia for the sweetener and has a special low carb crust so it’s extremely low in carbohydrates/sugar.

On Saturday, we will continue our tradition of dying Easter eggs and decorating sugar cookies. I may get kicked out of the paleo club for this, but I buy the regular egg dying kit and just use that. You know the one I mean. We simply must draw the line somewhere and preserve our budget. We peel the eggs anyway so I figure there’s little to no harm done.

As for the sugar cookies, these are the best paleo sugar cookies out there. They’re super simple to mix up, roll out, cut and bake. Then you can decorate any way you like. See these two sugar cookie posts here (New and Improved Sugar Cookie Recipe) and here (Tackling Cut Out Sugar Cookies Paleo Style) for recipes and details on decorating options. In my opinion, there is no good paleo icing option. The simplest version would be the egg dye with some sugar sprinkles. Or you can go all out with powdered sugar icing. All the creamy type icings just make a mess. 

If you’re hosting a brunch, I’d recommend these treats:

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However you choose to celebrate this Easter, and no matter what you munch on, I hope you have a wonderful time with family and friends.

In our house, we love Easter for the fun of goodie baskets left by a sneaky bunny rabbit, hunting plastic eggs filled with goodies hidden around the yard, getting dressed up and taking lots of pictures (well, the adults like this part), and eating lots of delicious, spring-time treats. But what we love the most is being reminded of just how much we are loved by our Amazing Creator. He sent His very own Son to die for us and then rose again, just as He said He would, so that we can one day spend eternity with Him. Now that’s a reason to celebrate! Bring on the cheesecake!

Happy Easter!

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What I’m doing about my *Almost* Insulin Resistance, Part 3 in the Series

If you’re just tuning in to this series on insulin resistance, here’s a little recap: In Part 1 of the series, I introduced you to my current diagnosis of *almost* insulin resistance. This was a big shock to me and not at all what I expected to hear at my last check up. In Part 2 of the series, I explained just what exactly insulin resistance is and how it relates to pre-diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes. That post got a little heavy on the science, but if you like that sort of thing, it’s a must read.

Today we get into my action plan. Disclaimer: This is my action plan, based on recommendations from my functional medicine doctor, based on all that he knows about me from lots of blood work, genetic testing and face-to-face appointments. I am not in anyway suggesting that you follow this same plan.

All that being said, aside from the supplements, what I’m doing to get a handle on this condition of being almost insulin resistant is just good, common sense. Nothing extreme or bizarre here and it is my opinion that most people would benefit from implementing some of these changes in their own lives.

I will tell you which supplements I’m taking, but I don’t recommend you rush right out and buy any of them. What I do suggest you do is see your doctor if you have concerns about whether or not you are on this pathway to Diabetes.

I currently take one mild prescription medicine which is aimed at keeping my Crohn’s disease in remission. This is an off-label use, but one my doctor feels is a good choice. You can read more about it here in this article from Chris Kresser. In addition to this one prescription, I take a lot of supplements. So many in fact, that it’s a burden, to be quite honest. Each one is specifically targeted at some aspect of my current condition(s) and many of them work in synergy, which is why I am taking so many. My hope, which I have expressed to my physician, is that I can drop many of these in the near future.

What follows is a journal of sorts beginning with my thoughts immediately following this diagnosis and proceeding to the present.

What exactly am I doing about my *Almost* Insulin Resistance?

January 27th: I’ve just met with my functional medicine doctor, where I learned that my latest blood tests indicate that I am almost insulin resistant. (There is a scale of sorts that is made up of several different lab tests and my score puts me one point shy of what the experts consider insulin resistant.) I’m shocked, but I’m determined to reverse these results. I have ordered the new supplements my doctor prescribed and I bought lots and lots of vegetables. I also checked out the following book from the library because it fits very well with this plan I should be following:

Dr. Hyman’s Blood Sugar Solution and

The corresponding cookbook

According to my doctor (my functional medicine doctor, whom I will call Dr. C), the basic plan for getting out of this condition is eating lots of vegetables and very little to no sugar. Protein and fats are a-okay. And then, hopefully, everything will go back to normal. If not, we’ll look at changing some of my supplementation again.

Dr. C recommended that I keep my carbohydrate intake to 100 grams per day or less or up to 150 grams on heavy exercise days. And I can’t just eat any carbs. I need almost exclusively cellular carbs. There are two types of carbohydrates: cellular and acellular, defined as follows:

Cellular carbohydrates are those carbs where the cell walls/membranes are intact. Think whole fruits and vegetables.

Acellular carbohydrates are those where the cell walls/membranes are no longer intact. This includes anything processed, even a fruit and veggie smoothie would fall into this category because by blending all those healthy veggies into a smoothie, you have broken down the cell walls and that is not ideal. You want your body to do that work, not the blender.

On top of focusing on cellular vs. acellular carbs, I need to aim to eat 25 different types of cellular carbs every few days. Do you regularly eat 25 different types of vegetables every couple of days? I don’t and I eat a lot of vegetables. I probably eat 10-12 types of veggies a week. Twenty five will be a challenge. But I’m up to it. I explained all this to my kids and my son in particular, loves to count the types of carbs in our dinner. Very helpful. Expect when it’s not. Then it’s irritating.

Note from April 9th: I just heard a podcast interview with Dr. Terry Wahls and she recommends you aim to eat 200 plant species in a year. Every herb, leaf, fruit, tea, etc. counts. When you consider all the different types of plants you consume, this seems really manageable.

In summary, these were all the instructions I received at the end of my doctor’s visit in January:

  • limit carbohydrates to 150 grams/day max (or just 100 if no exercise)
  • carbohydrate intake needs to come from cellular carbs almost exclusively
  • little to no sugar
  • take prescribed supplements*
  • try to get 25 different types of cellular carbs every few days

The unfortunate thing about being an adult is that following these instructions is entirely my responsibility. Even my husband, who is very supportive, cannot make me follow these instructions. In fact, he does make my job a little harder with his own sweets habit. Dear husband: when you eat ice cream and chocolate in front of me, it is difficult. It’s not like this diagnosis makes me dislike sweets.

*The supplements I’m taking are listed below according to the reason for taking them:

  • Gut/Crohns
    • Ferrochel – Iron
    • LDN – Low Dose Naltrexone (this is essentially a very, very low dose of Narcan, what they give in the ER if someone come in with an overdose). It is being studied for interesting new uses in autoimmune disease management.
    • Floramyces and ProbioMax Daily – re-balance gut flora
    • Calcium D-Glucarate -for high Beta Glucuronidase
    • GI Revive, Digestzymes as needed, usually taken with a high fat meal (I do not have a gall bladder so sometimes need some digestive help. Generally, a little water with apple cider vinegar works fine.)
  • Dyslipidemia – lipids not in ideal size/numbers – See this article for more information on this topic.
    • Red Yeast Rice
    • Berberine
    • Niacin CRT
  • Dysglycemia – fasting blood glucose and insulin too high
    • Continue Paleo Diet, no acellular carbs. Keep carbs to 100g on resting days, up to 200g on heavy workout days. – This is what was in my follow-up note. In person, he said 150 g on heavy workout days.
    • Metabolic Synergy multivitamin
    • Berberine
  • Inflammation – of the inflammatory markers tested, they were all high. When all else is well, if these markers are high, we assume it’s because of the arthritis in my feet. But now, with lipids and sugars out of whack, these inflammatory markers could mean lots of things, including cardiovascular disease.
    • Continue Berberine, Red Yeast Rice
    • Continue twice daily CurcuPlex-95 – curcumin supplement
    • Continue LDN
    • TriFolamin – B vitamins
  • Miscellaneous
    • Nordic Naturals Fish Oil Take 2 Teaspoons daily on days I don’t eat fish.
    • HistDAO Capsules: Take 1 or 2 capsules 15min before histamine rich meal IF NEEDED. Breaks down histamine in gut only.

February 1st: I’m using the My Fitness Pal free app to track my food intake for a few days to make sure I am on track with my carb count goal. Keeping a log of every single thing I eat every single day doesn’t work well for me. It makes me think about food all the time. Well, more than normal and that isn’t healthy – for me.

If you have never tracked your food intake or kept any sort of food diary, I recommend you do it for at least three days, one weekend day and two weekdays, to get a feel for your macro breakdown. My Fitness Pal is easy to use and will tell you exactly how many grams of carbohydrate, fat and protein you are consuming (those are the macros or macronutrients).

The vast majority of Americans eat way too many carbohydrates and way too little fiber and protein. If you love fruit and feel like that’s always a good choice, be aware that fruit is all carbohydrate with a little fiber and vitamins thrown in. Yes, fruit can be good for you, but you need more vegetables and more protein than fruitsDon’t even get me started on fruit juice. Just look at these carb counts of common healthy foods. Think about these numbers in the context of trying to keep to 100 grams/day of carbohydrate or less.

1 medium apple has 22 grams of carbs

1 medium ripe banana has 31 grams of carbs

1 cup of grapes has 16 grams of carbs

even a cup of baby carrots, the vegetable too many of us choose, has 12 grams of carbs

your average protein/energy/meal replacement bar has 35-55 grams of carbs

I always keep this in mind when I’m planning my meals. Frankly, I’d rather have an occasional piece of chocolate and skip the fruit. Does that sound scandalous? If you don’t eat much sugar, fruit will start to taste exceedingly sweet. I think that’s why I don’t care for it much. I’m more of a savory person anyway, but when I do want something sweet, I want just a little sweet. A good piece of quality dark chocolate will have less than 5 grams of sugar. And ALL the health experts now agree that dark chocolate is good for you, so this is still a healthy choice. 🙂 I’m serious. The catch is that you can’t just take out the fruit and add in chocolate if you’re not also eating a lot of other plant matter. I do eat a lot of vegetables, so this works for me.

After tracking my food intake for a few days, I’m doing well with keeping my carb intake to less than 100 grams per day – and that is with exercise. I find it pretty easy to add fat to my meals and fat is more satiating than carbs. I think if I loved fruit, this would be harder. Either way, I’d have to eliminate the added sugar and the sweet treats. When I tracked my food intake, I averaged 43 grams of carbs per day and felt fine. My total calorie intake was between 1500 and 1700 per day. I exercised every day I tracked my food so this is about right for me. I should note that I don’t drink anything sweet so I don’t track my beverages, just water, coffee and tea- unsweetened.

February 19, 2017: Just about one month after my initial diagnosis of almost insulin resistance, I feel exactly the same. Of course, I wasn’t feeling at all unwell when I received the diagnosis. I’m very aware of what I’m eating and I am not treating myself much at all. It’s protein, fat and vegetables for me, almost exclusively.

The one change I noticed is that I was not sleeping well. I am typically a very sound sleeper. When I go to bed, I read for 10-15 minutes, turn my light out and I’m asleep. My alarm goes off at 6:30 and I can get up without much trouble.

I did a little research and some schools of thought suggest that the dopamine affect of carbohydrate intake can aid in sleep, so I decided to aim to eat 10-20 grams of carbs closer to bedtime, around 8:00 PM. This seemed to work. Unfortunately, this is just one more thing to think about. I need to assess my dinner and if it was very low in carbohydrates, which it usually is, I need a little carb hit later in the evening. I hope this is not affecting my insulin levels significantly.

There is a companion article I’m working on that will give more details on my eating plan so I won’t go into great detail about that here. I continue to exercise most days of the week. My doctor recommended that I reduce the frequency and intensity of my exercise, which has been the hardest thing for me. I love my interval workouts at the YMCA. Exercise time is me time. I usually workout with a friend, which brightens my day. I get distracted from my day to day life. I get sweaty and all those things make for a happy mama. I knew I would not be able to tone down the exercise dramatically, so for now, I have removed one intense workout and replaced that with a walk, when weather permits. That leaves 4 intense cardio/weight workouts per week and one  weight lifting workout. Weekends are for playing with the kids, bike rides, hikes, just generally enjoying the great outdoors.

So have I toned down my workout routine? Not extensively, but considering the benefits of exercise to insulin resistance, and what it does for me over all, mentally and physically, I’m not willing to budge on this a lot.

I thought I’d give you a couple sample menus just to give you an idea of what I’m eating.

Breakfast: either bulletproof coffee (coffee + collagen powder + grass-fed butter + MCT oil) or high protein/low carb pancakes with chicken sausage or eggs

Lunch: lettuce wraps with turkey, a couple apple slices or a big salad with lots of veggies, turkey, avocado, nuts and creamy dressing with homemade mayo (I know stevia is controversial, but I do use it a little. I love “honey mustard” dressing made with this homemade mayo + yellow mustard + a couple drops of liquid stevia.) Right now while I’m focusing on really limiting my sugar, I’m using stevia more than I would normally. I do use a pure version, not one mixed with sugar alcohols.

Dinner: soup with lots of gelatinous bone broth, meat and veggies or slow roasted meat with veggies on the side and white rice cooked in broth. Really, our dinners vary a lot, but it’s always pastured meat, at least two vegetables and sometimes a starch like sweet potato or rice. I only have the starch if I’ve had a hard workout that day and have not already eaten all my carbs for the day.

A couple meals I’m loving right now:

Pork and Veggie Un-Rolls (this is link to the YouTube video of me preparing this dish). Here’s the recipe.

Carnitas with all the trimmings

Cheeseburger pie – To give credit where credit is due, this is a Trim Healthy Mama recipe. Of course I made changes. My version has a little less dairy and I added a bunch of veggies to the ground beef part – really, really good stuff. In my recipe, I also give modifications to keep it Paleo.

creamy chicken and rice soup – I have a recipe for this in the works, but basically just chicken breast, broth, veggies and rice, simple and nourishing. The creamy part comes from a full head of cauliflower boiled in the the broth and then blended. It’s pretty amazing.

One month in and my weight remains unchanged. I was hopeful that the real concerted control of carbohydrate consumption would get the scale to start budging, but it has not. When your body is in a state of high circulating insulin, it can make it hard for the pounds to drop off. I don’t know how long the weight loss switch stays suppressed when your circulating glucose and insulin levels have been high. Just like everything else in life, we expect immediate results. I’m having to look at this as a lifestyle and not a quick fix or a diet because it certainly won’t be quick.

March 20, 2017:  A friend recently told me about a book called the Trim Healthy Mama Plan (THM), which is a weight loss plan with the intention that it will become a lifestyle and not just a diet. The premise of this plan is that all meals are anchored by protein and in addition, you eat either carbohydrate or fat, but not both in the same meal. If you eat carbs and fat together, your body will burn the carbs and store the fat. If you eat those two macronutrients separately, your body will burn the fuel, rather than store it, assuming you don’t eat too much at any one time.

Both Trim Healthy Mama (THM) and Paleo are in essence whole foods diets and do not encourage calorie counting. However, paleo doesn’t separate fuels in the way THM does. THM calls meals with fat and carbohydrates crossovers. If you eat a lot of crossovers, you will have a much harder time losing weight. A lot of paleo meals are crossovers. So I’ve been trying to work through my family’s favorite recipes and see how I can adjust them to fit the THM guidelines and eliminate crossovers.

Another way THM is similar to Paleo, at least as I am following it now, is that you do not eat sugar. Really anything is on the table except sugar. THM recommends their own sugar substitutes that are combinations of sugar alcohols and stevia. I prefer to use pure stevia only.

This THM plan has been a God-send for me because it has allowed me to enjoy some desserts again. I just read an article recently that explained that 80% of the population tastes stevia as bitter either entirely or as an aftertaste, meaning that only 20% of folks don’t taste any bitterness. Thankfully, I fall in that 20%. So do my husband and children. Consequently, I’ve been doing some experimental baking with stevia and so far the results have been pretty good. One of these treats was actually amazing: a key lime cheesecake.This would make a great addition to your Easter feast. Here’s a picture to get your mouth watering.

I don’t know if following the THM plan has helped my body physically, but it has sure helped mentally. I don’t feel deprived anymore. When I want something sweet, I can make something with a little stevia and it’s very satisfying. One thing I love about the THM cookbook is that there are a lot of single serving recipes. They even have one for white cake with buttercream frosting. Shameful confession: the white birthday cake with white icing from grocery stores is probably my favorite cake. I haven’t had it in many years, but I can still taste it! So to have an acceptable version that I can make in a short amount of time and eat guilt free, well, that’s worth the price of the book alone.

What’s next? I meet with my doctor again in May. My hope is that all my lab results are back to being well within the normal range by then. I’m also hoping that my extra pounds will have fallen off and left the building.

What I am not doing right now is a sugar detox. Well, I am I guess, as I will be keeping to 100 grams of carbohydrates a day, max, and they will be coming from almost exclusively cellular sources. As you can see from the carb content of common foods listed above, it’s really easy to get to 100 grams of carbohydrate each day.

BUT, I will have a treat on occasion. I will not go off the deep end, but if I have a date with my husband, I might order dessert. If we go on vacation, I will likely eat ice cream. I will occasionally have a good piece of dark chocolate. What this is for me is a lifestyle adjustment. I won’t say change, because switching from the standard American diet to Paleo was a change. This is just an adjustment to what I have already been doing. A getting back on track. Thankfully, it’s spring now and I don’t have to deal with Thanksgiving and Christmas just yet. That will be tough.

April 2, 2017: My husband is a Type I Diabetic. That’s the kind of diabetes that is the result of the body attacking itself (an autoimmune response), where the end result is that the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas no longer produce insulin. Because of his condition, we have glucose monitoring equipment handy at all times. Somewhat hesitantly, I asked him to check my fasting blood glucose one morning as soon as I woke up. A normal reading for someone without diabetes is anything below 100. If you read enough articles, you can find conflicting information on this, but this is the most widely accepted guideline. My fasting blood glucose was 75. That’s great news! It makes me feel like I’m on track. I realize that my LipoProfile results will be as telling, if not more so, than the fasting glucose, but this is something I can track now and it gives me some assurance that things are headed in the right direction.

I see my functional medicine doctor again in early May and I look forward to writing an update to this post in a month or so with good news to share.

If you have  questions, ask away in the comments and I’ll get back to you.

Part 4 of this series will be a food diary only, for those of you who really want lots and lots of details about how I’m eating. Except for the recipes I’m still working on writing up, what we eat can all be found here on the blog. I don’t just post recipes to get attention and fame (ha ha!). These really are the foods we eat. I’m slowly working my way through our favorites to determine if I can figure out how to make them work with the Trim Healthy Mama Plan. I’ve added THM categories so you can search by that term now as well.

Part 5 of the series will be the big reveal, posted after my follow-up appointment in May. It will be full of great news, I’m sure! The power of positive thinking and all that.