New Year, Whole 30?

Can I do it?

I'm bloaty.  Tired.  Rushed.  Overstimulated and overtired from December.  Something has to give.

I did 10 days of Paleo last summer when I was not working FT.    My major concern (besides no grains or gluten) is my realistic ability to shop frequently, plan and prepare real food each day while working FT and running a Cub Scout den, starting to perform in a folk duo, and perform my daily minivan route to and from kid activities. I won't be able to just open a box of Hamburger Helper if I get short on time.   My Paleo trial last summer yielded some benefits, the biggest of which is that I still to this day drink my coffee black.  But it was a lot of food prep work as well.

So today, the first day I've had all December to finally reflect, I've just about decided to try it.  I'll want to set myself up for success from the get-go, so I'll need to precook things on the weekend so I can just grab & whip up during the week.  Sounds so doable now that I'm off for a week, but I'm nervous about getting it done when life returns to normal next week.  

I'd like to give it a try starting January 2, I'm about 95% decided to do it...

Paleo! Day 9

A series of fortunate events...

A few months ago, saw a post on FB asking, "So who's in for the Whole 9 30 Day Challenge?"  I checked it out, and when I saw everything that you couldn't eat, I chalked it up to a crackpot diet.  Who wants to eat like a caveman, he's extinct, give me more pasta!

But it got me thinking...

So at the tender age of 40-something, I've decided that I'm tired of:

-being tired all the time

-aches and pains--I actually have a sore hip, I feel like I'm twice my age

-higher-than-usual bp (still normal, but not my usual low-end-of-normal normal)

-muffin top.  It just appeared!  I never knew quite what that was then I saw it in my mirror a few months ago and then I understood what muffin top was:(

-this nagging, stubborn extra 15 lbs

-etc., etc.

I've toyed with the idea of reducing/eliminating gluten from my kids' diets for years because they are, um, exceptionally energetic.  They are addicted, I'm sure.  Then I started developing all these little nagging problems and it hit me perhaps I should eliminate it from MY diet first (physician heal thyself)!

Read the book Wheat Belly (http://www.amazon.com/Wheat-Belly-Lose-Weight-Health/dp/1609611543/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373388149&sr=8-1&keywords=Wheat+belly) and things started to click.

Then came across the word "paleo" and was intrigued.  Stumbled upon http://www.marksdailyapple.com and paleo/primal seemed like a good idea but I didn't know how to start.

Fortuitously, I then received an email from http://www.savingdinner.com (a meal planning site) about their 30 Day Paleo Challenge, complete with 5 wks of menus, shopping lists.  In short I plunked down the US$15 to save myself some thinking--and so far so good!

I had a brief tummy ache and cold sweat experience on Day 4, but I chalked that up to eliminating all the processed stuff from my system.  

On Day 8 left for a quick getaway with the family and totally fell off the wagon few days.  But I'm back!

So I'm trying to make it all the way through one of my wacky challenges without bailing a week into it.  Since I paid US$15 for this one, I would really like to ride this out and see if eliminating ALL grains, soy, processed sugar and dairy makes a difference in how I feel.