Lisa's Paleo Life Begins!

[Lisa W.]

A couple of days ago I told myself I was going to go ahead and begin the Paleo lifestyle. A friend has been doing her second Whole30 and has been posting amazing photos. Pair that with the general feeling that I NEED to make serious lifestyle changes and well, I bought the ISWF book. LOL And got advice from my friend.

Today, July 31, 2012 I committed to doing this both on my FaceBook and here in these forums. I went grocery shopping and replaced just about everything in my fridge! I have a lot of ground beef, ground chicken, chicken breasts and frozen tilapia filets and frozen shrimp and even more veggies!! For fruit I just got strawberries and green grapes. I don't really like fruit.

I work as a manager in a retail store, so I work a lot and I work long shifts where I cannot cook or even sit down to eat. LOL! And of course, tomorrow, my first Whole30 day, I'm working 9 hours, beginning early in the morning. Soooooooo, I'm starting to cook now. I know preparation is the MAJOR hurdle I will face doing this. I already LIKE the foods, and I already know what it takes to be extremely strict and disciplined with food. The part that's new for me is no grains AND having a full time job at the same time.

So right now I am slow-cooking several chicken breasts. And I have the items set out to make the paleo mayonaise so that I can THEN make the paleo ranch dressing! I plan to make a frittata tonight for breakfast tomorrow and I think I'm going to boil some sweet potatoes and mash them to have with the chicken for lunch. Probably saute up some of the veggies I got and put them on top of the chicken in the tupperware. And take the strawberries and grapes as my nibble snacks at work.

The worst addiction/habit that I have and that I dread dealing with is the energy drink Monster. The green one. The fully sugared up one. I drink 3 a day, pretty much every day. I'm drinking one right now. Going cold turkey tomorrow and best wishes to the customers at work that get on my nerves!!! LOL!!!! Oy. Well... It's going to happen. I have my big water bottles out and ready.

Tomorrow I will have NO EXCUSE not to succeed on my Paleo Day 1.

Oh... what I hope to gain. About 2 years ago I came down with a mysterious illness that incapacitated me for about 4 weeks. 2 hospital stays, 25 blood tests, 6 x-rays and 2 urine tests. Doctors couldn't figure it out. I couldn't walk because my left leg was grossly swollen and dark purple and went thru a variety of spots and rashes. It was LIKE lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis and MRSA...but blood tests showed negative results to each. All I know is that it was a painful nightmare that actually changed me as a person. Really, really strange. Worst of all, my husband is active duty military and he was deployed to Afghanistan at the time so I was alone with our kids. And my AWESOME friends, who did help me out in dozens of ways.

Anyway, fast forward to now, 2 years later. I'm pretty much normal again but I have 2 residual problems that I really hate. My left hip is still quite painful. I've been re-xrayed and re-blood-tested but technically nothing is wrong with it!! Pfffft. The hell they say! LOL And I am tired all of the time. Before I get out of bed every day, I'm already thinking about my day and planning a nap and thinking about going back to bed that night. I've also spoken about this crazy fatigue to my doctor and there just doesn't seem to be an answer. Well besides prescription meds, which I don't want.

SO............ reading ISWF, and they keep saying how eating the paleo way miraculously heals internal body woes that doctors can't seem to do. The more I read, the more I WANTED IN!!! I want no mysterious hip pain and no insane fatigue. If I can have that by not eating grains and drinking gallons of Monster then so be it.

I'm in.

[Carie Skeahan]

So glad you are here!!!!!!! You may or may not realize this, but IMHO, you have already concurred the hardest part………PREPARATION! Nice job. Being prepared really IS the key and you are all over that. SO excited for you. I can't wait to follow your log.

I had a huge Diet Pepsi addiction, yes, addiction. My body literally had a physical reaction every time I drank one (about 6 or so a day). I am proud to say I have not had a single one in 2012. You can ditch the Monster habit, I promise. It is not going to be easy, but it will be worth it!

Try kombucha, sparkling water with lemon, lime, orange (my fav), various berries or even cucumber.

You got this!!!!!!!

[Lisa W.]

Hey Carie!! Thanks! I'm pretty excited because I just finished my first batch of the Well Fed paleo mayo!! When it was first starting in the processor it was yellow and watery and I was thinking.... THIS is going to be.... mayo?? But it IS!

I'm easily excitable! hehe

So I'm still slow cooking the chicken, and I hard boiled a pot of eggs, and I boiled and mashed sweet potatoes. I haven't done a frittata yet, tho I know I need to. Left to my own normal devices, I don't cook much. So I've already cooked more than usual. LOL I will wash and cut the strawberries and grapes tonight at least.

I really appreciate you reading and posting in here!! If you can kick the diet coke habit, I can ditch the Monster! I have a feeling I'll be posting a ton here for a while, when it's all new and exciting. hehe

[Adagio]

I am sure that getting off grains and sugar will make you feel better. I have yet to meet a person who didn't feel better after giving them up. Good luck with it!

[Lisa W.]

Thank you Adagio!

Ok, I am DONE cooking! Geez! But I cannot say I'm not prepared for tomorrow, and probably the next day, too. LOL!!

I made:

paleo mayo

hard boiled eggs

slow cooked chicken shredded with a fork

mashed sweet potato

ground beef egg frittata with asparagus, onion, garlic, carrot, portabella mushrooms

Washed and cut grapes and strawberries.

My first frittata! I kind of made my own way because I don't have a skillet that can go from stove top to oven, but it seems to have come out just fine!

I made two of these tupperwares with the beef mixture I put into the fritatta, some of the shredded chicken and mashed sweet potato.

Two big nalgene bottles ready for water and I think I'm ready to start tomorrow!!

[CaseyD]

All I can say is prepare for a headache over quitting the monster. Drink as much water as you can the next few days to help on that. That's the only way I've ever made it through the headaches of quitting caffeine/sugar (or in my case, aspartame) beverages! Actually, I have a huge picture of unsweetened decaf tea in my fridge at all times. I probably drink that thing down every two days, but it is far better than Diet Coke! In like every single way.

You can do this!!!

[Lisa W.]

Ok, thanks for the heads up on the headaches, Casey... Hopefully they don't last long. I'm ready with the water, the part of THAT I'll have problems with sometimes is not being able to leave my store to go to the bathroom! The managers are often alone for 3-5 hours before a second person come in, due to low payroll hours. We do have a little sign to hang on the gate, but I've never closed the store during open hours before. LOL I would feel so guilty!

[Lisa W.]

Day 1

Alright!! I have about 1 minute to post this morning because I'm not a morning person and I get up JUST in time to shower and dress for work with no extra. I'm kind of hoping that changes a little too, over the next month, but that would be getting a little crazy!

I weighed 123.4 lbs as I woke up at 6:45am.

Going to throw all my Tupperwares into a bag, fill the water bottles and speed to work. Updates after dinner tonight!!

<3

[joolie]

Have a great day, Lisa!

[Meg Hamilton]

I hope you're having a great first day!! Maybe think about increasing your fats while you're getting over the sugar-dragon. Your mayo looks great!! I made a double batch the other day And that frittata looks so delicious!!!!!

[Derval]

You are cooking up a storm Lisa, well done!

[Lisa W.]

Home from work... what a LONG, tiring day. I ate two squares of the fritatta for breakfast, had some strawberries/grapes later on and then a 1pm-ish lunch of a pre-packed tupperware from last night.

Food-wise I'm doing fine on Day 1. But at 2pm today, I would have maimed someone to have a Monster. Geez. 2:00-3:00pm was HARD... and my second go-to item would have been minty gum and I couldn't have that either! So I ate more strawberries and grapes. And drank water.

I ended up drinking a 32oz nalgene bottle of water. I'm sure that will get better as time goes on, but it's 32oz more than normal! LOL!! Well, since the last time I cared about the way I ate, anyway.

I'm going to make a big shredded chicken salad later tonight. I have cherry tomatoes, avacado and hard boiled eggs just BEGGING me to use them. What else... carrot, onion.... wish I had slivered almonds. Put those on the shopping list.

[Lisa W.]

Dinner was easy... I kind of made a mess while making it, but hey. I'm not so good at dissecting an avocado yet. But I sliced up the chicken breast from last night and got a big bowl of Romaine lettuce. Sliced up baby bella mushrooms, hard boiled egg, cherry tomato, carrot and avocado. I made a "ranch dressing" from the paleo mayo I made last night.

Oh that came out big. I was trying to do this from webstagram............. Hmm.