so, i survived the first week of this new paleo lifestyle. i have noticed a few things this past week...
so, i had a baby 3 months ago and put on a bit (plus a little bit more) of weight. anyone who has had a baby or has closely examined the body of a woman who has had a baby knows that once the baby comes out it takes a loooooooooooooong time to get your waist back. this happened when i had wyatt and it has happened again. a lot of women i know can slip back into their pre-pregnancy jeans by around 6 weeks to 2 months. i don't know if i just know some incredibly lucky women or that is the norm, but i am NOT one of them. i had 2 c-sections and am probably overly cautious about irritating my incision site, so i am totally in favor of pants that lack a permanently-set waistband. a few weeks ago i was ready to get some new transitional pants but didn't want to spend a lot of money. enter old navy. they were having their jeans on sale for $19. that is a pretty sweet deal on pants. but since i don't have a lot of time to go shop and try on thousands of pairs of pants to see what size i am, i was in favor for online shopping. so, i knew what size i was pre-baby. and i know i am a lot bigger now, so i just took a fancy guess. i bought a bunch of pants in two different sizes hoping that one size would fit. well, they arrived last weekend and i was eager to pack away my maternity jeans and wear "normal people" clothes. i was soooooooooooo disappointed when NEITHER of the sizes fit. it's great when you can get the pants over your (now larger) thighs, but when your waist is probably 1.5 times the size of the waist of the pants, one tends to get a little deflated, ya know? so, that left me still clinging to my maternity jeans...womp womp. i tried those jeans on the day i started this blog - october 1.
as i went through the week i noticed that, while it was tempting to eat sugar (really tempting!), i was able to press on and fight the urge. i contined to do my own research on this lifestyle on learned that i had made a few mistakes and eaten things that aren't "truly paleo." for example, bananas. while they are fine, they are to be enjoyed in moderation and not as a staple. i ate these the first couple days and probably should have eaten less. also, i enjoyed hummus the first couple days a few times too many. hummus is made from chickpeas and is a no-no. i am not sure if i am going to cut hummus out or not. it will probably depend on how i feel in the next week or so. i also had a hard time coming up with a coffee creamer that was paleo friendly. i made one on the first day of this adventure. while it tasted really good on its own, it was pretty "meh" in the coffee and i liked it less and less as the week went on. i cheated one day and used my old coffee creamer - the "natural bliss" stuff.
i also noticed that my head seemed clearer. this is really difficult to explain, but i noticed that after i was hungry and i ate something (particularly something with fat in it) that i was able to process everything in a clearer manner. my husband and i used to refer to something as a protein headache. when we didn't eat enough meat back in the day, we would get headaches. once we ate meat and gave it a little time to settle, our headaches were gone and things became less "fuzzy." what i am describing was similar to our post-protein headache feeling, but times 100.
on the end of day 2 i started noticing my body looking different. my stomach seemed less puffy. my best guess is that any bloating i had was drastically decreased. my husband noticed the difference too.
i did terrible this week with my exercising goals. i think i worked out twice? maybe? my daughter continues to go to sleep around 2 am and my son gets up between 6 and 7. it was a choice i had to make between sleep and exercising. i didn't want to deplete my body too much, so sleep won this week. i don't like that i had to do that, but something has gotta give. this is really hard for me because i love exercise - especially running. it's supposed to be cooler this week, so hopefully i can take the kidlets out for a job everyday.
ok...enough of that...remember when i said that the pants i ordered from old navy didn't fit when i tried them on october 1st? well, just to see what was up with my body changing, i tried the larger size on friday morning before i headed to work. and GUESS WHAT???? i could button those dang things up! what the?!?!?! it wasn't pretty and i had a little muffin top going on, BUT i totally didn't force them buttoned. i haven't gotten on a scale so i will be interested to see if i weigh about the same or if things are just shifting around! ah-mazing!
also, thanks to the few people who have read this thing and offered words of encouragement! my hubs is so intrigued by the small changes he's seen and the food i've been eating that we have all decided to go paleo for at least a month!
so, i can honestly say that i am in deeper and more excited about this than i was last week. i have joined the paleo cult and am on my way to converting my family!
until next time...