Dodging Bullets

I am 29.  I am 5'7".  I am over weight.  Starting at almost 215 lbs., I needed a change.  I felt tired all the time.  I had high cholesterol:  late last year when I gave blood, my cholesterol was 243 (total cholesterol).  I had pretty consistent moderate acne from the time I was about 12 years old.  I had exercise induced asthma, so I didn't like to work out hard, in fear that it might flare up.  I wasn't fitting into my clothes.  

Makin' my flexitarian Beet Chips.  March 26, 2011

But I love food.  So of course I'm fat, right?!  Everyone knows that if you eat too much good, tasty food, you're gonna gain weight.  And if you're lazy or you don't like to sweat it out at the gym, well, those pounds aren't going to lose themselves! 

I was very frustrated.  It came to a point where I felt like I was addicted to food.  I couldn't control my weight and I felt guilty and was extremely hard on myself.  I knew I couldn't fix it with a diet.  I've been on and off and on and off of low-fat diets for pretty much as long as I can remember.  Calorie restriction really worked, but here's the rub: the second you go back to your normal life, you gain it back (sometimes you gain more).  It was a terrible feeling.  I couldn't think of what to do.  

Another angle of the old me.  Not a pretty picture.    April 10, 2011

I researched food addiction on google and complained to my mom on the phone.  Being the child of 2 weight-watchers "lifers" I knew what was expected of me if I wanted to lose weight, but it wasn't working.  I had read Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" and was so ready to get healthy and as he says, "Eat Food.  Not too much.  Mostly Vegetables."  So I dug in a little deeper.  I got into the "Meatless Mondays" and crawled through "The Omnivore's Dilemma" (great book, just a bit of a long read for me).  I ate healthy whole wheat bread and focused on adding whole grains and beans to my meals.  I ate a ton of veggies.  I cut way back on my meat consumption.

And nothing happened.  Sure, I felt like I was eating more cleanly - focusing on "from scratch" meals and avoiding some of the aisles of the grocery store.  Then I looked into becoming a "Flexitarian."  It made so much sense.  I could eat mostly veggies and pasta and beans and grains and cheese and I could eat meat when I was in the mood.  I bought cook books and tried out some delicious recipes, but I still wasn't really having much of an improvement on my health.  

The old me: March 2nd, 2011

Then one day, while randomly listening to a new podcast I stumbled across on Stitcher Radio, Underground Wellness, I heard Chris Kresser talk about how grains and legumes and processed food wasn't very good for you.  I was in disbelief.  I'd heard that people with Celiac disease couldn't eat wheat, but normal people are fine, right?!  Wrong.  Many people with a more mild sensitivity to gluten don't even know they are gluten sensitive!  

It was the first time I had ever heard of paleo, and I was curious to hear more.  I started to listen to "Everyday Paleo" and "Latest in Paleo."  I couldn't get enough of this idea that was blowing my mind. ITS NOT FAT, MAKING US FAT!  ITS JUNK CARBOHYDRATES, SUGAR, AND SEED OILS!  We are not broken by default.  Medicine should be our last option, not our first!  Nutrition is so important!

It has now been 2 months since I began my primal lifestyle.  While reading "The Primal Blueprint," I eased into my new eating during my vacation to San Francisco and Yosemite.  At first it was weird; almost too easy.  Sure I wasn't perfect, but it was totally do-able.  I basically just focused on only eating meat, veggies, fruit, nuts, and some dairy.  

I can't even explain how great I feel.  The first month I dropped 10 lbs!  After that the weight isn't falling off nearly as quickly (I'm sure it is because I probably consume a bit too much dairy and fruit - both will raise your blood sugar much more than you realize), but I feel amazing.  There are times when I will go out for a walk and decide to do a quick sprint.  Just for fun.  And sure, when I slow down after my sprint, I have to catch my breath, but I don't have my asthma any more.  My face is clearer than it was when I was 12.  I'm not starving all the time, thinking about food every minute of the day, like I used to do.  I'm ok if I have to go a few extra hours without a meal.  I sleep more soundly and wake up to no alarm clock.  

I know I still have a way to go in my efforts to lose weight.  But I'll tell you one thing, I really don't think I'll be going back to the Standard American Diet anytime soon.  I feel healthy.  And I LOVE eating grass-fed steaks, pastured eggs, whole organic milk, fresh organic fruits and veggies and so much more.  

A delicious Primal Meal: Romain Lettuce with Chimay Cheese, Rotisserie Chicken, Crispy Bacon, and Beef Liver Pate.

My father is a non-insulin dependent diabetic.  Both of his parents had diabetes.  I knew, without going to a fortune teller, what my future would hold if I couldn't turn my health around.  

I feel like I've actually dodged a bullet.  After 1 more month living the primal lifestyle, I'll probably go in for a doctor's appointment and have my blood drawn and see where my numbers are at and hopefully confirm my suspicion:  I am getting healthier, I am dodging the bullet of diabetes, and I am adding years to my life.  

Me and my cubby hubby pre-primal: June 26, 2011

P.S.  My hubby has been eating primal for only about a month and a half and has lost 25 lbs.!  This is such a gift we are giving ourselves and each other.  It is a gift of health, and a longer life together.  :)

Hopefully I'll have some great "in-progress" pictures soon.  

Chipped Roasted Beets & Being a Flexitarian

A few weeks ago, I was with some friends and one asked, "How would you categorize your eating habits?"  I hadn't thought of it too much before that time.  I think I eat a pretty healthy diet.  I shop at whole foods.  I go to restaurants with my hubby.  I bring my lunch to work a couple days a week.  I eat a lot of vegetables, fruit, meat, cheese; you know, all the food groups.  I try to purchase mostly organic, low processed, or grass fed/pastured.  I love good food.

My other friend said she thinks of herself as a Flexitarian.  Huh?  What the heck is Flexitarian - you may be asking (I sure did).  Flexitarians have also been referred to as "less-meat-aterians," "part-time vegetarians," "semi-vegetarians," or even "meat-eating vegetarians."  I know this seems a bit crazy.  Perhaps some believe you either ARE or ARE NOT a vegetarian.  I mean, you can't be kind-of pregnant, right?

Wikipedia uses this definition for Semi-Vegetarian: "diets that are not vegetarian but include less meat than typical diets. The term has no precise or widely accepted definition, but it usually denotes the following of a mainly vegetarian diet whilst eating meat occasionally."  


I thought that could be something fun and healthy to try.  I then read "The Flexitarian Diet."  You don't have to give up your favorite meat cravings.  You don't have to drastically change what you currently eat (at least for my eating habits).  The author, Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietician, says all you have to do is change a little at a time.  Instead of having meat as a main ingredient in your dinner, make it a condiment.  Add more grains, beans and soy (organic only - non-organic soy is said to have one of the highest concentrations of pesticides) products in to your meals.  Eat a wider variety of fruits and vegetables.


I've been a Flexitarian for about 2 weeks now.  It really only takes a little more work than before.  My hubby LOVEs his meat meals, but when I cook a vegetarian meal for dinner he tries it, then if he's into it, he'll eat it and get seconds.  He's even been seen heating up the leftovers in the convection-toaster oven in the morning for breakfast!  Can you believe it?!


In these 2 weeks I've lost weight.  I feel healthier.  Sure I've still gone out to dinner with my hubby a few times, and I even had meat during some of those meals!  But the majority of the time, I'm thinkin' like a vegetarian.  I'm even searching out vegetarian options when I first look at a menu when we are out to eat.  I've been cooking quick meals for dinner.  I've made a big vegetarian feast.  Sure I've made a terribly bland mushroom barley soup along the way, but the next day I was able to reclaim the dish into a deliciously creamy gruyere-parm mushroom risotto!  I also splurged and bought a few new cookbooks so that it would be easier to plan, shop, prep and cook for my new eating habits.  I got The Flexitarian Table, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen.


Although I'm not specifically changing my "diet" to lose weight, it is having that affect.  I feel better. I look better.  It's all good.  I've never been able to find a "diet" that was easy to do, but not only is this easy, but it makes me feel great.  I'm not hungry.  I eat less food.  I don't crave sweets as much.  Seriously, you could try it for two weeks and see results.  


This morning I went to Whole Paychecks and bought a whole cart full of groceries.  When I got home I started in on a recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.  Super easy, super yummy and totally satisfying.  They call them Beet Chips - page 267, but I call them Chipped Roasted Beets.  Their version has the beets more browned and crispy while my version had more of a wholesome roasted beet flavor.  If you like beets, you can't go wrong with this simple recipe.  

I used 3 medium red beets.  I set the oven to 400 degrees to preheat, then washed and peeled (I used vinyl gloves so I didn't get the red dye on my hands) the beets and used a Mandoline to slice the beets into thin rounds.  I threw the rounds in a bowl, tossed 'em with some kosher salt and olive oil, then spread them out on a cookie sheet in a single layer on top of parchment paper.  

 I stuck them in the oven for 10 minutes,  took them out, fliped them over, another 10 minutes and they are done!  Enjoy!