Restart

On Saturday, I hit the restart button on the Paleo diet. I did quite well with eating and didn't drink any soda! Yeah!

It's Monday and I'm back at work. I had this message in my inbox when I arrived: "Caramel Cupcakes in the 2nd Floor Kitchen. Enjoy!". (It was sent to my entire team.) I'm writing this blog entry to solidify my resolve not to get up and go to the kitchen for a cupcake. These are the kinds of things that make eating Paleo in the modern world really hard.

Last Day of Soda

I go on and off with drinking soda. I used to be a huge diet mountain dew fan. I finally kicked that habit a few years ago when I made a new year's resolution to not drink soda. I actually went without soda for several years ~ through my pregnancy and first year of having twins. Then I discovered Coke Zero. That has been drink of choice for the last year or so.

I've tried to stop drinking it, but it's free and easily accessible at work. I know that it's not Paleo. I know that it's full of total crap. But I thought it would be the last thing I give up in this change in lifestyle.

Yesterday, I started reading "Why We Get Fat: And What to Do about It". So far, it's a really good book. In the first chapter, he talks about how awful soda is and its one of the top things to eliminate from your diet. Crap. It's the thing that a lot of people say they don't see a difference in their health until they give it up. Crap. I guess my idea of giving that up last is out the window.

So, today is my last day of soda. My last day of sweet Coke Zero. My last day of not taking ibuprofen all day to get over the caffeine withdrawal. Tomorrow, I start getting over my caffeine addiction (again). Tomorrow, I start to get healthy (again).

Why not today, you may ask? Well, I just figure it will be easier to start this on the weekend when i don't have access to Coke. I can prepare this weekend for the work week ahead. So, tomorrow, Saturday, May 21st it is.

Here's the book if you want to check it out:

Damn You Candy and Cookies!

It's been a tough couple of weeks and my acne is back. I understand the benefits of a Paleo diet, but it is really hard to switch. Sometimes, I can totally resist - they had food at work for a meeting which was all non-paleo and I didn't eat any. But peanut butter cups in the lab yesterday? No willpower on that one. Cookie dough? No willpower. I've gained a couple pounds, gotten some big pimples and feel lousy. Man, this is hard!

We have a trip in a couple of weeks to Boston for a wedding. My husband plans to go full paleo when we get back. Start a new hard core 30 days of food and exercise. I'm going to completely rid our house of all things non-paleo.

Since baked goods are my downfall and finding alternatives to sandwiches for my kids' lunches is hard, I purchased a new book and am experimenting: The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook. After reading parts of the book, she ways that Bob's Almond Flour (which is easy to find in grocery stores) doesn't work well in the recipes. I had already bought some of this, so I decided to use it anyway. I made the chocolate chip cookies (pg. 98), substituting butter for grapeseed oil and honey for agave nectar. They were super moist and taste like honey-chocolate chip cookies. The kids love them. My husband likes them. It's the first cookie that I feel ok eating and that tastes really great. Next, I need to try out her sandwich bread to see if that will make a good substitute.

How to Follow the Caveman Diet - Video

A simple way to switch to a caveman diet video. It was focused on Bing Videos today... Paleo going mainstream!

Video Link

Cookies are my downfall

I keep trying to eat Paleo. I keep trying to figure out how to switch my kids to Paleo. It's Hard. It's just plain hard. The worst thing for me is cookies. Now, this is nothing new... at Christmas time, I would eat tons of cookies. I didn't want anyone to make cookies because I knew I no self control. I also love cookie dough. I'll go to the store, buy pre-made cookie dough and eat. it. all. I simply will eat cookies or dough until I get sick. If my husband has cookies in the house, I make him hide them, so I don't eat them. Funny thing is I find cookies in really funny places now that he's forgotten about.

Giving up cookies to go paleo has been really hard. I thought that I would make some gluten free cookies to get my kids off traditional cookies. I bought 3 different mixes at the local PCC. The first one was not very good and my kids only ate half a cookie each. This was after eating their whole dinner just so they could get said cookie. So, I thought, "ok, I'll take these to work and they'll get eaten up there". Well, let's just say I packed them up for work and they never made it in. My drive isn't even that long. But, I. ate. them. all. I felt horrible (physically) for the rest of the day. You'd think I'd learn.

I tried batch number 2 last night. They were better than batch #1, although they're a bit dry and need milk to go with them. With milk, they're pretty good. But still, they aren't paleo and I shouldn't be eating them.

I think my plan of letting the kids have gluten free cookies is going to have to go out the window. I can't control myself, even if the cookies kinda suck.

I'm itching to go look for a paleo cookie recipe. But do I dare?

Switching Kids to Paleo

My twins are almost 3 years old. We did not start them on the Paleo diet when they started eating solids. Yes, we introduced bread and all sorts of grain based stuff. Then, when they were 2.5 years old, I learned about the Paleo diet for myself. Now that I'm trying to switch them over to a Paleo diet, it's pretty difficult... even at 3.

The good news is they generally like fruits and meat. They like some vegetables. The bad news is, they are at the stage where they won't even try foods or they spit it out as soon as it touches their tongue. I also have to pack their lunch every day for preschool and it's pretty easy to pack a sandwich for them when we're rushing around in the morning... they particularly like peanut butter and jelly. I'm hoping they like almond butter just as much, but I'm allowing them to eat the rest of the peanut butter in the jar.

So, what's a working mom to do? I keep looking for information and advice on switching kids over and not really finding anything helpful. I've decided for the short term to at least switch to gluten free foods for them. I also just ordered a dough-kneading food processor so I can experiment making my own paleo bread for them. Finding the time to make dinner every night and do extra food preparation is pretty tough. But, I want my kids to grow up healthy and I want them to have good, nutritious food along the way.

Please point me toward any resource that helps with this transition!