raising godzillas

The thing about all these ways of eating.

     Like many of us, I grew up on the Standard American Diet. I was 14 when I made my first foray into rebelling against that, by going vegetarian. Of course, I was a crappy vegetarian too-potato chips and Pepsi are free of animal products! I flitted on and off with the meat free life for years, but still ate pretty crappy food. I was young, with a good metabolism, and could "get away with it."
     Fast forward to 20. Newly married, living in a  new state, I sought out a doctor so I could keep up with my allergy med prescriptions. I went to a little old Korean man named Doctor Kim, who told me "You don't need medicine, you need to stop eating crap." I decided to give it a try, and damn, it was right. I was disappointed but I felt so much better I had to stick with eating real food. It was, still, pretty standard fare, with no real food left unturned.
     Fast forward to three years ago. I was the largest I had ever been- even taking into consideration pregnancies. I was in constant abdominal pain and my asthma had reached a point where my HCP wanted to put me on steroids. I was already fat and did not want to have to fight off steroid weight! Talking with my husband and best friend, we decided before I went the steroids and invasive IBS testing route, I should give up dairy. This made sense and 2 of my 3 kids were lactose intolerant. Within a week, I knew. I was not sick, I had a food allergy. And I was starting to lose weight.
    I wanted to keep losing. I started exercising, cut back my portions, and had the joy of that quick early weight loss. After about 2 years I plateaued hard, so I started reading. Everything I read conflicted. Eat more whole grains. All grains are bad. Eat what you want, just less. I soon came to a conclusion: Nobody has all the answers for anyone.
   Right now, I am exploring the Paleo lifestyle. It seems a natural fit for me, bringing together two of my favourite subjects: human evolution, and my own health and longevity. I first started exploring it before the partypalooza that is life in February- March in our family, because I knew I would take a hit with all the goodies. Of course, trying to embark an a grain free, sugar avoiding lifestyle right before all that celebrating was doomed to failure. But by the time Matthew's birthday party rolled around on March 26, I was done. I had a raging yeast infection, thrush, and my osteoarthritis was so bad I couldn't use my left hand. It was time.
   After two weeks, I can tell you, I feel much better without grains, and mostly dark chocolate for my treats.

     But don't worry, I won't turn into an evangelist. And I won't be giving up the option of birthday cake. I wouldn't go this route if I thought I couldn't allow myself that (Though I think I may ask for a pave for my birthday cake.) But I would never say this is thew only way for everyone. I've spent years eating, reading about food, and eating some more, and I could distill all the wisdom that applies to everyone into one sentence: Eat real food, and stop when you're full. Everything else, every has to figure out on their own

posted by gojirama @ 2:07 PM