Part 1
After a long busy busy summer, I left for Paris at the end of August. I have, since the beginning of February been keeping a strict paleolithic diet ( with some ups and downs here and there). It started with my boyfriend throwing down the challenge and I figured: well 30 days on this crazy diet scheme won’t hurt, if anything I will go back to the way I eat!
This 30 day experiment has now been going on for 7 months plus. What began as ‘crazy diet scheme’ has now evolved into a way of life. I think that I have taken so strongly to this so called ‘diet‘ because I just feel better then I ever have. Recently, like many of my friends I had developed intolerance’s to dairy. I remember the day I cut out milk as the day I learned to drink coffee black. I thought that this simple action would solve the constant bloating and abdomen pains I had been feeling for over one year. I soon came to realize that there was more happening underneath the surface. Supplementing my dairy with almond milk only sightly alleviated my problems, I still felt, to put it plainly GROSS and I didn’t know why. Long story short once I eliminated all grains, unnecessary legumes and most importantly sugars, I started to feel better. I felt lighter less bloated and full of energy. More importantly I keep feeling better, the longer I keep to this routine the better my body feels.
Where was I, Paris right. This conversion to a primal way of life has benefited me in ways I had not and have not foreseen. However it’s important when committing to something so different to test your limits and to test your theories. The switch for me was not easy. I love sweets, I love baked good I love food. Going back to Paris was going to be hard. Having lived there once and have acquired the knowledge all the best bakeries and local restaurants, this was going to be a challenge.
Upon arriving I realized what I was dealing with was food that had more flavor then what I was use to back home. Things were fresh and local and had for the most part less preservatives. I allowed myself the freedom to eat what I wanted and disguised this with the phrase “I’m on vacation”. I ate what I wanted, how much I wanted without the need to feel guilty because I was on vacation. What I started to figure out was that my cravings were linked to a nostalgia for food. What I ate was linked to a nostalgic search for sweet and savory tastes and the consequential satisfaction, I once felt. In other I was eating all these sugary doughy gluten filled pastries for memories sake and the sad conclusion was that it wasn’t as good as I remember it being.
How could I have gone from wanting to overdose on this sort of food to now feeling ‘meh’ about it? I guess the consequences of how that food makes one feel can outweigh the nostalgia. The liberal attitude I adopted in Paris began to take its toll and this is something I felt just after the first week. How could I feel sleepy and grumpy when I had no work to do? I could sleep in and I was on vacation eating the best food in the world.
Tune in to part 2 next week!
haaf
Yummy Eats & Healthy Treats 