(With apologies for the fact that the song is now going to be stuck in your head.)
We've gone paleo. I mean we've gone completely, head-over-heels, eat nothing but vegetables, some fruit, nuts, very limited amounts of dairy (my husband has quit even that for a while), no grains, no sugar, no flour paleo. You've heard of the Paleo diet haven't you? If you haven't, just google it. I have been, for about the past two weeks and learning quickly that I could really, truly eat like this for the rest of my life.
But why give up so much other good food? you ask.
Reason #1: I'm in week 31 of my third pregnancy and about two weeks ago, I had to deal with the sad fact that although my blood sugar was normal before I got pregnant (read: while I was eating meals heavy on protein, light on carbs), as soon as I added carbs to my diet, my blood sugar started to go haywire. At first, it was fine, but especially around week 24, the mood swings, the tiredness and especially the irritation with everyone around me began to get to me. We also had a string of celebrations - wedding anniversary, birthdays, you know, reasons to eat sugar. Ugh.
Reason #2: My husband has this shoulder. For months now, he's been taking glucosamine and chondroitin in hopes that it won't hurt. But it does. Constantly. And it gets stiff and unyielding. For someone who likes weight-lifting, it's debilitating but more than that, when your inflamed shoulder won't even let you get your hands on your hips to show how angry you are, you have to rethink something in your diet.
Enter Paleo. And it has been a Godsend. In just a week, I have seen changes in my blood sugar, blood pressure and I actually have energy to do more than swoon into the couch and say, "I'm tired." For so long, my tiredness went under the garb of pregnancy-related conditions (and, yes, the high blood sugar and blood pressure are pregnancy-related but through this way of eating, the effects are greatly reduced), I wish I had done something sooner. My husband has noticed changes, too. His shoulder "feels pretty good" according to him. (Hey, he's a guy - what you want him to do? Write a blog post about his shoulder?)
I'm also reminded of something I read on someone's blog that stuck with me. She said before she eats something, she asks if she honors God in eating it. At first, I thought the idea silly. After all, isn't man given dominion of everything on earth, I thought. But lately, I've come to think there was truth in what that blogger wrote. If what I eat leads directly to me being irritable and angry with the people around me constantly - my husband, my children - whom God has given to me, if what I eat causes me to disrespect my body and causes it to reflect a lack of control, then how am I glorifying God by eating it? Am I not dishonoring Him while paying Him lip service by thanking Him for providing my meal?
Paleo is here to stay, at least in our family. I might even have some recipes! My husband made one the other day I wanted to share, but this post has already gotten pretty long, so I'll write it next week. It was so good, I was sorry it was gone. And the best part, my blood sugar barely noticed it. So, yeah, I guess you could say another one bites the (Paleo) dust, and another one's down, and another one's down...
