Can it be the right choice?

I am of an age where what I eat seems to stay with me, forever! It seems to be harder to get rid of the weight and it also seems to bunch up in strange places. Trying items like the Fitbit, logging everything I ate and recording all my steps helped but not to the extent I wanted. Next I started counting calories, way too much work. Thinking next I might try eating frozen Weight Watchers or Lean Cuisines, but really the content in frozen meals worry me.
So I set out to eat only whole foods, nothing with additives, just clean foods with very little ingredients just food. Easy enough, right? It is if your cooking, but with my job I eat out with clients so often that I started to wonder, so what’s in the food they cook for me? Eating really is tough, losing weight tougher.
My weight goes up and down but only by a few pounds, I am bloated nothing is fitting but I still weigh the same. Of course, in my mind I have a beast growing inside of me, extending my stomach causing me to swell up but not gain weight….is it water gain, is it a tumor? All I know at this point is I am sick of carrying this around with me. My jogging isn’t helping, I find myself not eating anything and then eating whatever is in front of me, candy, bagels, doughnuts, cookies… the list is endless.
One day while at Sprouts Market, I see a magazine with the beautiful picture of grilled salmon on the cover, with husband coming to visit that weekend I purchase the magazine to make him a great new meal. You see all our vacations, weekends and visits all seem to base themselves around food. I even have the TV Foods Map App on my phone to make sure we try all the restaurants in the area wherever we are. We are Foodies! The magazine is entitled Paleo, I give it no attention really just so excited about cooking the salmon or the chicken recipe for the grill.
The magazine turns out to be for individuals that have discovered eating as our ancestors did in primal times. It seems this lifestyle is about nourishing our bodies with real food, grown and raised as intended by nature, not manufactured. It is a lifestyle of unplugging from our fast past technology driven days, giving our bodies and minds a chance to rest, getting enough sleep, bonding face to face, enjoying the out of doors, allowing yourself the chance to thrive in the manner we evolved. Seems like a great idea to me!
Eliminating from our diets the following foods, dairy, grains, legumes, processed foods, soy, refined sugars and industrial seed oils. It seem healthy, and easy as I think telling me what not to eat versus what to eat is much easier for me to follow. Plus red wine is not on this list… this I can do.
So here I am 24 hours into my new diet/life style and I am going to document my 30 day trial. I have weighed myself, placed my need to get back into clothes at one end of the closest awaiting my weekly test to see if inches are falling off. I have filled my refrigerator full of fresh approved items and ready for my weight to fall off.
So day one, started with a breakfast meeting in a restaurant, my menu choice, a bowl of fresh fruit and a cup of green tea with honey to sweeten, easy! Lunch yet again a meeting, my menu choice, grilled chicken upon a bed of lettuce with a slice of tomato, side dish was fresh fruit, truly resisting the sweet potato French fries was not easy. Not bad for day one with client meetings. My evening is busy with a trip to the ranch to visit Forrest, my horse, and I am home late in the evening so I warm up a piece of chicken we had grilled that weekend…. I am satisfied with my daily choices, not hungry, ready to relax and get ready for bed. I awoke this morning to no breakfast meetings and ate a banana for breakfast which really wasn’t to satisfying. For lunch we had an office meeting, with take out from a local restaurant, my choice was a summer salad with no cheese and balsamic dressing. It came with a slice of French bread and a freshly baked cookie… which I gave both away, begrudgingly. This evenings dinner was left over steak with avocado and tomato slices atop a coconut meal wrap… good but the wrap was a bit sweet, not like my favored flour tortillas.
I feel fine, not robbed of energy and I do believe I am a bit less bloated. I slept great last night and had a clear minded day. Tomorrow is my early morning jog with Dizzy dog, as the summer is in full swing right now, the days are long and hot with just as warm nights… we will see just how much energy I have in the morning. I miss my bread, and while walking past the fresh bagels in the office this morning I longed for a cinnamon raisin bagel, toasted with cream cheese. I pray my cravings of all things grain pass soon, this truly is my weakness.