Paleo, Is it All That?

Yep, I am going to think out loud right now. I have been tossing this post around in my head for awhile knowing that I won't agree with everyone on this.

Here's a little back story:

As many of you know, I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism over 12 years ago. Looking back I think my doctor put me on thyroid meds because I wanted an "easy" way out of my struggles with maintaining my weight. I think if I hadn't pushed it I would not have started down the path that I am on. Fast forward 5 years later and my hypothyroidism had developed into Hashimoto's, an autoimmune disease in which your immune system attacks your thyroid. In short, my body thinks my thyroid is a disease. This is not a convenient situation as my body desperately needs my thyroid to regulate my mood, weight, body temperature, my digestion, memory, hair growth and blood sugar, to name a few. As you can imagine it has been very frustrating to have it functioning so poorly for the last 12 years.

Over this course of time I have tried so many different ways to take the stress off my thyroid with dreams of one day curing my disease. I became a Raw vegan because I had heard of several people that cured their Hashimoto's with this lifestyle. After 2 years I had lost about 30 lbs. but my weight started to go up again so I decided to add cooked grains and vegetables to my diet hoping the change would shock my system. I usually find that changing things up a bit helps my weight go back down but this time it didn't. I was desperate so I went to an Ayurvedic endocrinologist to get his opinion. He did an expanded blood panel on me and said everything looked fantastic and that I "should" be feeling great. Yeah, I'm glad the tests said that, now if I could just feel that way!

Well, a few months ago I decided to get the opinion of yet another health professional. This time I went to a Naturopath that my sister had her son going to. The only problem is that he was in Kansas. I had an hour consultation with him over the phone and we decided that it was best for me to add fish into my diet. He is a firm believer in healthy fats and he felt that I was not getting enough in my current diet. He also wanted me to avoid all grains and corn. My sister and her family were on a Paleo diet so I knew the basic parameters and it sounded like the diet he wanted me to do was a loose version of Paleo. "No problem", I said. I figured I've been strictly following these other eating plans, I can do this. And it wasn't a problem, still isn't. This is because I follow it loosely! Oh this doesn't mean I'm not completely rigid with what I eat, I am (It's called OCD!). I just don't subscribe to every detail of the Paleo mindset, and here's my top 10 reasons why:

1. I don't think eating excessive amounts of bacon will ever be healthy.
2. I don't think a lot of society has the money to eat the high quality meats that would be a "healthier"  option so they just eat the commercially available, grain-fed, junk meat.
3. I don't think being Paleo should be an excuse to eat way too much meat.
4. Just because they call it Paleo doesn't mean it's not just another low-carb diet.
5. This diet/ lifestyle, like others, can be abused and contorted to an unhealthy one.
6. I don't think alcohol should be encouraged on any healthy eating plan.
7. I have a problem with beans not being allowed. (my vegan tendencies:)
8. I don't think cavemen should be an example of healthy living.
9. I like peanut butter too much. (organic, of course)
10. I can't afford Cross Fit so I feel like less of a person....

I know, I know, I just really annoyed some of my readers!! This is not intentional and as I said in most of my reasons, these are just my personal thoughts about the whole Paleo idea. I encourage you to respond to my thoughts. Go for it!

BTW, my thoughts on the whole meat issue do not stem from my being vegan, that was a choice I made NOT for animal rights reasons but for my personal quest to heal my body. Guess what? It didn't work for me. There is not a diet/ lifestyle out there that works for every single person. There never will be.

In August I went to Kansas and met with my Naturopath in person. What a helpful meeting this was! After a biofeedback test as well as several other tests, he concluded that my thyroid was functioning wonderfully. Halleluiah! Wait. If it's functioning fabulously, why am I still feeling crappy? Oh, that's what I found the answer to. Turns out my hypothalamus and pituitary gland are not functioning so fabulously. Here are some of the symptoms: hair loss, weight gain, moodiness, bad digestion, depression, fatigue. Hey, wait a minute. That sounds like the same symptoms as a malfunctioning thyroid! Heavens to Betsy, it is!! Maybe there is a light at the end of this really long tunnel! I was put on a natural medication to combat the hypothalamus/ pituitary gland problem. Here goes nothing!

What is my current food plan? Here it is:

Fish
Seafood
Eggs (limited)
Beans (limited)
Vegetables (kale, spinach, zucchini, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.)
Fruit (berries, melons)
Salad
Smoothies(coconut milk, Sun Warrior Warrior Blend protein powder, fruit)
Coconut Milk
Coconut Oil
Goat's milk yogurt
Goat's milk cheese
Kombucha (yum!)
Nuts & Seeds(limited)
Honey Mints(from Trader Joe's) Yep, it's a food group!
Chocolate(for a special treat)

It sounds limited and at times it can be, but I am so used to it that I don't mind at all.

Okay, go ahead, I want to hear what you have to say : )

Nicole

Mindful Eating 101

Mindful eating is my project of sorts. After talking to my nutrition counselor I realized this mindless overeating has become a serious issue for me as of late. I am glad she brought light to it so that I can really work at correcting this bad behavior before all of my hard work is undone. I am going to make a point to be more mindful when I eat. I have a bad habit of overeating especially when I'm not happy with my body or when I'm stressed.This behavior has to stop. I found a great site, eatingmindfully.com. Dr. Susan Albers had some great insight on Mindful Eating and I wanted to share it with all of you. It's easier to determine if you are a mindful eater if you know what mindful eating is. Here's a great breakdown from Dr. Albers site:

Mindfulness, and more specifically mindful eating, isn't a new concept. In fact, it is centuries old and based on the Eastern concept of mindfulness or “pure awareness.” If you are eating mindfully, you are aware and attentive to all dimensions of eating. It includes mindfulness of the mind, body, thoughts and feelings.

Mindful eating: is about being conscious of why you are eating. Are you hungry? Are you tired? Are you bored?( I've been known to do this a LOT!) There is no menu or recipes to follow. It's about learning HOW and WHY you eat, and less about WHAT you eat. When you are so closely in touch with what is going on inside, you know the exact moment you are satisfied rather than stuffed or starving. To understand the why, what, when and how we eat, we have to be compassionate and nonjudgmental. This allows us to take a closer look at our behavior.

MINDFULNESS of the MIND On a scale of 1-10, how aware am I at this moment? Am I tasting every bite or am I mindlessly chomping away? Observe the taste, texture, smell, and sound of food. This helps you to pay attention to what you are doing. Identify whether you are mindlessly snacking or in touch with every single bite.

MINDFULNESS of the BODY. Listen to your body. Do I pay attention when it says stop? Or, do I ignore my body's feedback. Identify how your body tells you it's hungry and full. Pay attention to hunger pains, a rumbling stomach, your energy level, movement, body posture and muscle tension. If you don't respond, your body could stop giving you important information about how it is doing. Learn to know the difference between emotional hunger (stress eating) and physical hunger.

MINDFULNESS of FEELINGS is noticing feelings that start and stop eating. Anxiety, guilt, stress, comfort, boredom and pleasure are just a few. It's important to get in touch with your emotions. If you don't get a handle on your feelings, Sometimes, coping with your feelings is more important that changing the type of foods you eat.

MINDFULNESS of THOUGHTS. Be mindful of your thoughts. Observe “should” and “should not” thoughts, critical thoughts (I'm so fat!), food rules, "good" and "bad" food categories. Notice how positive and negative thoughts sway your behavior. A thought is just a thought, you don't have to respond to it.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry myth suggests you eat what feels good in-the-moment and use food to de-stress, soothe emotions celebrate. Eating is routine and given little attention.

    •    Multitasking while eating (watch TV, drive, talk & eat) (Didn't we talk about this? :)
    •    “Grazing” on food
    •    Routinely skipping breakfast or meals
    •    Ignoring hunger and body cues (stomach rumbling, low energy)
    •    Continue to eat although full (stuffing rather than satiating) (Guilty!)
    •    Member of the “Clean Plate Club”
    •    Disregarding nutrition needs
    •    Avoiding physical symptoms of over or under eating
    •    “Live to Eat” rather than “Eat to Live” ( I've always wanted to be an Eat to Live girl)
    •    Use “Comfort Foods”
    •    Believe you have little or no control
    •    Shoulds and Shouldn'ts dominate eating


Eat, Drink & Be Mindful is being diligently attentive to your body, mind, thoughts and feelings as you eat. A conscious awareness and attention to food choices, body and nutritional needs. Nonjudgmental, accepting and compassionate toward yourself and others

    •    Nonjudgmental of self and food choices
    •    Fully in-the-moment while eating
    •    Focused attention. Able to bring attention back when it 
          wanders
    •    Alert and observant of thoughts.
    •    Able to “let go” of critical thoughts and emotions without 
         reacting
    •    Diligently watchful of pre and post eating feelings
    •    Food just is what it is rather than categorized as good and 
          bad
    •    Mindful eating is an ongoing journey
    •    Compassionate toward self and others
    •    Acceptance of self and body as you are


I hope this article helps all of you to become mindful eaters. Let me know what you think. After reading this do you think you may be a mindless eater? Have we as a society become too busy to slow down, enjoy our food and become more mindful of our meals? Sometimes I wish we could be more like Italy or other countries that still sit down, relax and savor their meals. Let's try it, together!

Nicole

What's up? and a Food Challenge

How's everybody doing? I want to hear from you! Are you sticking to your New Years resolutions or are little treats and missed workouts sneaking in already? I hope that the Healthy You 2010 Series helped jump start your resolve to live healthier and happier life from here on out. I know I need a reminder every now and again so just writing the series helped me big time. For all those of you who have been sticking to your clean eating lifestyle, how do you do it? Do you have any secrets that would help others stick to the plan? I would LOVE to hear from all of you!!

The road blocks I have been coming across lately is that I'm wanting to eat out of boredom or eat to relax. One of the biggest no-no's for me is eating in front of the TV or the computer. Recently I have taken to eating blueberries while watching my shows or blogging. I know, I know, you're thinking blueberries? What's wrong with that? Well, my brain now triggers a response to my body that if I am sitting down watching TV or typing that I need to be eating something. Now for most of us a bowl of blueberries wouldn't be a problem, but what if you're out of blueberries and your brain tells you, "TV/computer time, it's time to eat"? Guess what, those blueberries may turn into a bowl of ice cream or other bad food choices. Another problem with eating while distracted is that we eat much more. You're brain has a hard time being satiated when it wasn't really involved in the eating process. We need to PAY ATTENTION to our food! It gets so lonely when it's ignored ; ) So, what are we going to do about it?

Here's a challenge for you, I want you to make a concerted effort this week to eat ONLY when you're at the dining table or other area that is designated solely for eating. Let me know if it helps kick those bad food triggers! I'm in it with you because I'm going to try it too. It's going to be tough because I like to multi-task and eat lunch while blogging and checking e-mails. Whatever will I do with my time? Maybe I can workout more : )

Nicole

Raw Emotions- How do you deal with them? Not just for Raw food enthusiasts!

I have officially been 100% Raw/Vegan for over 6 months now, yay! I have made this way of eating a lifestyle, not a diet. It's been a long road but so worth it. I made this decision as many of you know to rid myself of the thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) I have had for the past 10 years. Is it working in that aspect or not, it's too soon to tell. I was hoping I would notice a change in my TSH numbers by now but that has yet to happen. Am I discouraged? No! I feel so much better day to day without burdening my body with processed foods of any kind.

My latest Raw adventure, EMOTIONS! I have always used food as a medication of sorts. When I was sad, angry, annoyed, tired, bored, etc., I would get myself a special "treat". It could have been anything from a coffee to a piece of cheesecake, just something to make me feel happy and content. Well, guess what? All of my usual special "treats" are gone now that I am Raw, so what am I left with? ANGER.

Yep, anger is my new best friend. Believe it or not this is a good thing. I feel like I may be getting to the bottom of my eating disorder. I am always upbeat and happy, joking with people all the time so this is an interesting development for sure! I had been told by many of the Raw nutritionists that anger might be an issue and until now I hadn't experienced any. Annoyed yes, angry no. Now most of the nutritionist said it would be a detox symptom but 6 months in I have come up with a theory of my own, I have pacified myself for so many years with food that I never got a point where I had to deal with what was going on inside. Now I'm not saying that there was a traumatic childhood incident or any reason that I know of to be angry but alas, here it is. The question is, what do I do with it? I know I can do something constructive, but what?

With every other diet or eating lifestyle I have adopted I have never dealt with this kind if emotion. When the going got tough I would just let myself have a little treat here and a little treat there and eventually I would feel good again. Of course, I would gain weight, feel lousy, and the whole cycle would begin again. Feel bad, treat, feel better, gain weight, feel lousy, lose weight, treat, gain weight, fell bad, etc.....

This made me think of all of you, my fellow foodies and fitness buffs. How many of you out there may be ignoring an emotion or feeling that may be stopping you from reaching your goals? I am not talking about any mumbo jumbo here, just honest, true feelings that we may not realize we have because we are pacifying ourselves with food or working out. Maybe distracting ourselves from the issue is a better way to look at it. Have any of you ever dealt with this? I would love to hear from you!

By the way, I will always post Clean Eating recipes, vegan or not. I will also continue to post Raw/Vegan recipes because I love creating new ones : ) I have no issues with others choosing to eat animal products. Now I know this will relieve some and make others angry but it is what it is. I am Raw/Vegan out of necessity, not out of conscience. Because of my thyroid issues and my lack of a gallbladder I have a hard time digesting animal proteins. I also have to avoid soy because the affect it has on my hormones. I have found many vegan alternatives so this has been such an exciting journey!

Another note, I will also continue posting my favorite workouts, moves and reviews. Fitness is my first love and what really gets me excited! It makes me feel good and endorphins are so important especially at this hectic time in my life. Fitness has always been my constant and it will continue to be for as long as these little legs can keep up : )


So what do you think? Do you agree with any my little ramblings? Did you learn anything? Did it make you think? Let me know!!

Nicole