our paleo* adventure : epilogue

*** Edited 4/9/13 to add:  I have received several comments and emails about this post over the past month, so I wanted to direct you all to some more of my thoughts on our paleo* adventure (which we’re still on, 3 years later…).  You can go to www.crossfitcu.com and click on the “Nutrition” tab at the top for a lot of great recipes, other thoughts and approaches to Paleo, and different ways that we have challenged our family (and our CrossFit gym family) to experiment more with the paleo approach.  Hope this helps!! ***

Our paleo* month has ended… so what have we learned? And what’s next on the menu? Well… here are some (rambling) thoughts and a final(?) assessment of our paleo* adventure…

What we learned:

1.) If you keep track of what you eat everyday, and post it for the world to see, it is a LOT easier to stick to a diet than when you don’t have that type of public accountability. Also, it makes the month go by REALLY quickly!

2.) Grains and sugar are in a lot of things, but not EVERYTHING. This diet was actually a lot easier to follow than I had expected, and honestly – a lot of the recipes are better than our old standbys! It just took a little more time at the grocery store (not a lot) because I was reading all the labels on our food. However, some aspects of grocery shopping were changed for the better — I never had to go down the breakfast cereal aisle, so I never had to listen to “…but mommy, I WANT to get Fruit Loops and Count Chocula and fruit snacks and chocolate chip ‘granola’ bars…”

3.) Kids can eat healthy food and enjoy the fact that they’re eating healthy food. Luckily, I already knew part of this one going in because our girls have always been pretty good eaters.  And we didn’t cut all grains and sugars out of their diet either — just the majority of them.  What I learned is that my girls actually enjoy eating (and baking) food more when they know it’s healthy and good for them.  We really didn’t talk much about this paleo* adventure with them until the past week or so — and even then, I just asked them if they had noticed that we’ve been eating healthier food all month and not much bread and sugary stuff.  They had noticed – and I explained that we’re doing this because sugars are not very good for our bodies and although breads are okay, there are other things that are even more healthy for our bodies, so we’re choosing to eat more of those things instead of bread.  And they agreed that was a good idea!  Now when we go to the store, or they choose what they want for snack or lunch, they often follow up their choice with “…and that doesn’t have sugar in it!” or “…because that’s a healthy food!”  It’s exciting to see my girls learn early to make wise choices about what they eat.

4.) Liberals and hippies are not the only people who eat organic food. I know this sounds like a “duh” comment, but honestly — eating this diet and taking a closer look at our food choices has really challenged my thinking about a lot of things, and made me recognize some stereotypes that I’ve believed.  Let me see if I can explain what I mean… First of all, I’ve always been a very frugal person, sometimes to a fault. I was raised to value a hard-earned dollar, and taught that “more expensive does not necessarily mean better.”  Thus, the higher prices of organic foods have discouraged me from purchasing them… but now that I think more about what ingredients actually go into our food (or what chemicals are sprayed on them), I’m able to make a more informed decision about whether or not to spend the extra money on an organic item.  Secondly, before this month, it seemed like many people in the organic food movement were also anti-big-business and much more left-minded than I am (yes, these are sweeping generalizations. I know. I’m talking about recognizing stereotypes, remember?) Thus, because I’m a fairly conservative, pro-capitalism type of person, I had a hard time seeing myself as a supporter of the organic food movement (as I knew it)… however… we  watched an interesting documentary this week called Food, Inc., and, although it was not an unbiased look at the food industry, it did bring up a lot of points that resonated with me. Small businesses, whether they’re a photography business like mine or a farmer who raises a small herd of grass-fed beef, are vital parts of capitalism.  And when government (or businesses) get too big and get too much control, then they often start listening to (lobbyist’s) money instead of regular people.  And when that happens, then I have a problem with that. (Which is also why I DON’T have a problem with Walmart and will continue to shop there… because they seem to listen to what consumers want based on what consumers buy.)  So… I think I’m finding a happy medium by supporting small businesses (we’re hoping to buy a quarter of grass-fed beef soon!) and consumer-driven large businesses as well (and I will continue to “cast my vote” at Walmart each time I purchase healthy and sometimes organic foods, and continue to NOT buy junk food).

5.) We feel better when we eat this way.  Sky describes it as feeling “lighter”- because there’s not a lump of food sitting in your belly for hours like there is after you eat lasagna with garlic bread.  I’d describe it in more tangible terms… now I take flights of stairs two at a time, all the time, without feeling winded… now I can fit in my “skinny jeans” every day, all day, without that dreaded muffin top… now I feel full after I eat and hungry when it’s time to eat again, not before… I’m sure some of these changes are also due to the fact that we’ve been working out at CrossFitCU about three times a week, but the food we eat plays a big part in it as well!

So what’s next on the menu?

I think we’ll largely stick to our paleo* diet (with an asterisk), but I did buy ice cream at the store yesterday and plan to have some tonight! 🙂  I’m sure we’ll reintroduce some sugar and grains, but certainly not in the quantity that we used to eat them.  It has been great that this month-long adventure (now life-long?) has stirred up so many thoughts and questions from all of you who have been following it, and I welcome any more questions or thoughts you have!  So now it’s your turn… what do you think about all of this… and are you going to try paleo*?  I’d challenge you to give it a shot!!