15 days.
360 hours.
21600 minutes.
We wanted to take minute #21601 and share with you what we have learned from our first 15 days of this Paleo Challenge. (No, we didn’t write this at midnight, but I’m taking a little dramatic license here, cut me a break) So here’s what we’ve found so far.
We’ll start with our fearless leader… Dr. Stephanie:
I can still eat at my favorite restaurants, but I absolutely need to avoid salad dressings, sauces, condiments and BBQ sauces. These are the things loaded with hidden sugar, high fructose corn syrup, chemical additives and soy. I may also need to ask for “grilled,” no bread crumbs, salad instead of potato and yes, hold the bread basket. That being said, I’ve been a happy diner. Special thanks to “Live Juice” Salad and Smoothies in Concord for keeping me fed! And then there was one delicious trip to Goody Coles BBQ too… Hold the sauce please!
Dr. Graham shared a slightly less questionable picture and had this to say:
This was a recent haul from the grill: peppers, squash, onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms. They were grilled on skewers. It’s important to remember that Paleo isn’t necessarily a meat eating/high protein/low carb lifestyle! Veggies and fruit fuel your carb needs and make a great side dish, dessert, or even meal occasionally.
Leah has made the Paleo challenge a family affair:
My son Andrew loves to help me in the kitchen, so what better way then to teach him to make healthy meals. While our dinner was cooking in the crockpot we decided to do a little baking. We made paleo banana bread this week, it wasn’t even in the oven for 5 minutes when Andrew asked me if it was done yet. Some of the best banana bread I’ve ever had!
And me? I’m still here, chugging along. I definitely feel better. I’m sleeping better and don’t have the terrible sugar crashes that I would previously experience several times a day. I’ve actually been feeling good enough that I could politely refuse a piece of ice cream cake and not feel like I had missed out.
I saved Dr. Jen for last on purpose. Dr. Jen’s challenge hasn’t been all rainbows and butterflies, but she’s stuck with it and has some words of wisdom that are the perfect closing to this post:
Halfway through the 30 Day Paleo Challenge! WooHoo!! If you had asked me around day 10ish how it was going I may have been apt to grumble at you in a cranky manner. Remember the “farewell tour to food” I went on previous to the challenge starting? Yeah, turns out my body was de-toxing from sugar pretty hard even 10 days into this. I guess being a long-term (life-long maybe?) sugar addict will take it’s toll! Anyway, I want to share some moments I thought may bring this Challenge to an end yet didn’t. The first weekend we embarked on this challenge I had a family event to go to and also a Red Sox game the next day. The family event turned out way easier than I had imagined. Let’s face it, this Paleo thing isn’t super restrictive like a cleanse, so I ate the meat out of the wonderful looking sandwiches, salad and loads of fruit. Yes, the cake was absolutely gorgeous looking, but I was actually able to walk away from it. Red Sox game…boy did all those Fenway Franks and sausages smell scrumptious! And Cotton Candy flying around everywhere! It was a bit harder than the family function but I stuck to Paleo and ate my almond butter wraps (paleo wraps-they are wonderful, look them up!) that I smuggled in to the park and drank my water. Turns out the game was just as fun without a Fenway frank and cotton candy!
The picture of me here is from last weekend when we decided to go hiking. That brought another challenge…what to pack for food?? Typically I like to have chocolate, some type of chip or crackers and usually a wrap or bagel with cheese. Yes, I eat junk while I hike…I think it’s ingrained in me since my days of thru-hiking. Not this time though! I packed strawberries, cucumbers that were marinated in balsamic vinegar, lettuce wrapped turkey, and an Epic bar! This healthier food gave me the proper fuel for our first hike this season. I thought those days would be the super challenging ones, but they turned out easier than I expected. My biggest challenge is actually after dinner when I’m at home, I just want. some. CHOCOLATE!!!! To help with this (and everyone’s sanity around me, especially my husband) I have made up what I call my “dessert shake”. I hope everyone is doing well on this challenge and also having fun with finding new foods to eat, experimenting more with cooking (I know I am!), and seeing/feeling some positive results in their bodies and health. We are halfway through! We got the rest of this!
She’s right – we’ve got this.
In Health,
The Crossroads Team