Giving up the grains

A friend of mine has gone Paleo. As in - the Paleo diet. As in - eating like a caveman. This basically means - she can eat anything like meat, veggies and fruits. But - processed foods - no way. No bread. No sugar. No dairy.

What to the what?

I know. That's hard.

She has done it for medical reasons - and it has made her feel a lot better.
Meanwhile, her husband also has gone Paleo to support her . And not only did he drop some weight, but he says he feels amazing.

After Brian and I listened to both of them talk about it - we decided to give it a try. Now, we aren't going completely hard-core paleo. I still have dairy. And I can't go completely sugar-free. But -we are giving up all processed foods, and grains for 30 days. And then we will evaluate and see how we feel.

We started on Monday. Today is Thursday. Let me tell you that I am in serious carb-withdrawal. Right now, I am dreaming about crusty bread with butter. Or some chips. Or some cookies. Or some lovely pasta. Yup. This is hard. Seriously hard. And I have self-diagnosed myself with the carb flu. Don't laugh. It's a real thing. When you give up carbs, your body goes into withdrawal, and you feel like you have the flu. Headache. Fatigue. Run down. Yup. That's about how I feel.

Supposedly after 2 weeks, the carb flu will go away and then I will feel fantastic. I guess time will tell.

Meanwhile, we have had to change our eating habits in a big way.

Let's talk about breakfast. For my entire life, I have had cereal for breakfast. Well, now I can't eat cereal since that is a grain and it is processed. So - now we are having scrambled eggs with sausage mixed in, and then we have some melon, and banana on the side. That's okay. I have adjusted to that. I just need to factor in the time it takes to cook. It has been easy to do it this week, as school is out., Brian is off for the week, and our schedules aren't as nutty. But, I am not sure how it will work out when we actually have a crazy morning.

Lunch is where it gets a little bit more tricky. I am a PB&J girl. I love peanut butter. I love my whole grain bread. So now, I am not supposed to eat peanut butter. And I can't eat bread. So, what's a girl to do?

Let's just say that chicken salad and tuna fish have become my best friends. And that's fine. I love tuna. And I make a mean chicken salad. But, now I have to eat it on lettuce. Yeah. It's not the same. I miss my bread.

Dinner is not actually too bad. We can have any type of meat, and green beans or another type of veggie and some salad. And sweet potatoes. We can't have white potatoes. But sweet potatoes will do.

Today is Thursday. It has been four days. And I will admit that I am dragging. I went for a 3 mile run this morning and I felt like I was running a marathon. My legs felt heavy. My energy was way down. I was ready to give it up and go in and make a big batch of pancakes with a side of toast.

But, I didn't. I plugged on through. After my run, I came inside and had some melon. And then I was still hungry. So I made some sausage and a fried egg. And damn it. I liked it. I just wished I had a side of toast.