“What Can I Eat?”
Hi there, this is Lorraine. Thank you so much for your comments and encouragement. I am a first-time blogger and will do my best to share interesting items that have caught my attention from the mountain of information online.
Before I started my Paleo lifestyle, I was told by my doctor that I was pre-diabetic. Our mother had colon cancer, and thankfully, after surgery and a year of chemo, she was able to enjoy another 25 years of life. Oddly enough, that was not a motivator for me to change my lifestyle. At one point in 2005, I was 316 lbs. It wasn't until I heard the words "you are pre-diabetic "from my doctor that I knew I had to stop destroying my health.
In 2013, Paleo was the most googled "diet." In June of 2014, we began our journey into the Paleo lifestyle. Like every diet before, I went to several bookstores and bought many books and cookbooks to reference and read.
This is part of my Paleo cookbook collection. Our mom loved collecting cookbooks and recipes from magazines. She was a great cook and taught us that the secret ingredient in every recipe is love.
"What Can I Eat?"
The big question always being, "What can I eat?" Well, it turned out there was a lot of choice. Basically, just eat real whole foods, fruit, veggies, protein, healthy fats, nuts and seeds.
These are my favorite oranges. They are a real treat but are very expensive. They were on sale so I bought two bags.
The list of restricted foods were and are what we hear and read about on a daily basis. Don't eat ultra-processed foods, sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, soy, dairy, and vegetable oils. When I listen to podcasts and watch documentaries, the three restricted foods that are talked about the most are the highly addictive and unhealthy ultra-processed foods, sugar, and vegetable oils.
I won't say that it is always easy to avoid, I was also addicted to many of these items, I loved junk food. It was easy to eat in restaurants and buy processed foods, now what? Lucky for me, I come from a family of great cooks. I enjoy cooking and put my new paleo cookbooks to good use. Now, I also use the thousands of recipes found online.
Finding Paleo cookbooks in bookstores became harder because Keto came on the scene a few years later. Why didn't we switch from Paleo to Keto? It was and still is a very popular diet. For me, it goes back to the banana. I love "nature's candy". Keto restricted too many of the fruits and vegetables that I was enjoying. Also, Keto is based on fat and counting carbs. Paleo is based on protein and eating until you are full. I was done with any diet that had me counting calories or carbs, weighing or measuring foods. I just wanted to eat good food!
The zucchini bread is one of my favorites. The original recipe called for raw cashews. I didn't have any, so I used tahini. Well, this time, I didn't have tahini, so I used nut and seed butter. It turned out great. Don't be afraid to experiment!
I will say it again, we have to do what works for us individually. I knew Keto wasn't for me, but a lot of people have had great success with it. The thing we need to be aware of is food companies who create tempting ultra-processed, Paleo, or Vegan foods. Are they healthy?
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