I've got a recruit!!!! It's been almost a week since I learned that my Mom is taking the Paleo plunge for 30 days. I'm so excited. I call my Mom every day and ask her how she's feeling. I'm really pleased that she is giving it a whirl because I'm sure she will be satisfied with the results. It's hard to see people in poor health knowing what I know now. I just wish I could convince them all. More importantly, I wish our government and medical community would do something different about the status quo. Shouldn't it be obvious that the current approach isn't working? Even before I switched to Paleo I was aware that the way Americans were eating was wrong. I was having weight issues and got to the point that I wanted to change myself. I joined Watchers Watchers and for the first time in my life I had to think about what I was eating and I was also involved in preparing my meals. My Mom, ever the supporter, helped me out and encouraged me in only the way a mom could. It was about this time that I really thought about what I was eating. Mainly because it didn't make sense to me to retool the foods I always ate with low fat ingredients. I still wanted to overeat those foods plus I developed cravings for the real thing that caused me fall off the wagon. I also didn't like how pre-packaged ingredients were fine on Weight Watchers, just make sure you stay within your points. (I think WW has retooled their program numerous times since I was a member so I don't know how WW is today.) At any rate, I was thinking about what I was eating, what I had eaten in the past and what I wanted to eat and live like in the future. I wasn't satisfied with the information that the establishment was giving to overweight people in their efforts to eat healthy.
I thought that fresh ingredients would be best. I didn't like all the preservatives and in my opinion I felt like Americans were unhealthier since eating more packaged foods. I sort of marked time with my generation, born in the 70's, as the group where weight started to increase. It seemed to me that we were more active than the kids after our group and that we were still more likely to eat a traditional dinner at the table that Mom prepared but we were getting more packaged stuff. Somehow, I stumbled onto the Mediterranean Diet Cookbook (Nancy Harmon-Jenkins) and was really excited because this was all about fresh ingredients. I really learned how to cook with that book. I was happy that I was learning a healthier way to prepare foods but I still hadn't changed my lifestyle. While perusing the dietary cookbook section, I came across Paleo and I knew what I needed to do....implementing it proved to be a little bit tough for me. I continued on with Mediterranean dishes and discovered that I really loved to cook. Eventually, I branched away from Mediterranean foods and I began to make all kinds of stuff which progressed more towards comfort foods the longer I honed my culinary skills. I had began to dabble in baking, which I had always hated, in order to satisfy a burgeoning sweet tooth. All this time I kept Paleo in the back of mind until finally I found the key to success.
Now that I've got the first recruit in my non-pyramid scheme I'm dreaming of my own little tribe! It's certainly helps to have others to talk to about Paleo so I hope you'll join up too.
