It is six days into the New Year, a good time to see how we are doing with those New Year’s resolutions…
It’s a year-end American holiday standard, right up there with wreaths, mistletoe, bad fruit cake and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rocking Eve. We stuff ourselves full of sugary treats, fattening food and alcohol for weeks – then we resolve to lose weight when the calendar hits January. We expect to wave our magic wand and in one day turn all of our bad habits on their head. “It is a New Year with new possibilities after all,” we tell ourselves…
Like many of you, I overindulged during the holidays and am paying a huge price for it now.
I am bloated and cranky and it doesn’t help that I am sick and have spent the better part of the first week of this New Year asleep as I fight off a bad head cold. Yes, you read that correctly. I have been asleep for the majority of this last week.
The reality is I was not very nice to myself during the holiday season… and it could have something to do with the state of my health now. I didn’t sleep nearly enough, was super-busy at work, went to too many Christmas parties, ate way too much sugar and drank too much wine. My indulgences are not out of the norm given the season’s festivities but they don’t make it easy to get back on track either.
Over the next few weeks, I am going to move away from my typical food policy discussions on this blog. With my own New Year’s resolutions in mind, I am going to get a bit more personal and share some of my thoughts on how our physical well-being is affected by our daily dietary and fitness choices. I’d like to examine what we can do to take ownership over our own health and vitality. For me, the norm is following a pretty simple diet and working out six days a week. I let some of that slide during the holidays – I still worked out, but I ate poorly and didn’t get enough rest. I am anxious to get back on track – and maybe you are as well.
I will be eating a strict “Paleo” diet during the month of January. Some of you have probably heard of this way of eating as it is becoming quite popular in certain fitness communities across the country. It consists of eating REAL, WHOLE foods that nourish our bodies and provide the building blocks to fight off disease and illnesses. It is called “Paleo” because it is taken from the diet our “Paleolithic” ancestors ate. When we eat the way we are meant to eat, we thrive… it’s that simple.
I am on currently Day 5 of a 30 Day Paleo Challenge. The basics of the Paleo diet include eating lean meats, vegetables, fruit and healthy fats like nuts, seeds, avocado and olive oil while avoiding all grains, dairy and legumes. It’s all pretty simple really, and it’s all about treating your body right. You are eating healthy nutritious foods that your body was born to process.
I know, I know -- I can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth now. “No BREAD? No CHEESE?” Yes, that is exactly what I said. It might seem extreme, but many of these foods actually wreak havoc on our digestion systems. I will get into the hows and whys of Paleo in my next post, but for now feel free to do some reading on your own. I am providing some links below that will give you some more background on this way of eating. And please, let me know if you are interested in joining me on this adventure.
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