Going Paleo....

In December of 1996 I was diagnosed with Diabetes.  Not really a huge shock for me since it runs in my family, but I was only 18 and I was the only kid out of eight to get this fabulous news.  So, over the past 16 years (wow, has it really been that long?), I've been all over the map with how good I've taken care of myself . I've gone from tight control with A1c's of 6.5 while pregnant to really bad control (groan!) with A1c's of 11.3.  That is an incredibly embarrassing number for me to admit.

A quick primer for the general public on what an A1c actually is, it's a blood test that shows your average blood sugar over the past 2 - 3 months.  A 6.5 translates to an average blood sugar of about 154 (excellent) and 11.3 to about 329 (very poor).  Yeah, you can see I'm really good to myself.  I've had to come to terms with the fact that this isn't going away.  And it's definitely not getting any better while pretending that pft, no, I don't have diabetes, what are you talking about?  Bottom line, I have 3 beautiful children that want a fully functioning mommy for as long as I can be around.  At least, that's how they feel today.  :)

This brings us to the beginning of a journey.  Since this year began (2012) I've been doing research.  Tons and tons of research.  So much research that I think my husband is tired of hearing, "Honey, you have to hear this!"  I have just felt all along that there is a way to take care of myself that will negate the need for medication.  I don't feel good on insulin, never have and I'm fairly certain that I never will.  You see, I'm not just diabetic, I have insulin resistance.  In a nutshell, my body still makes insulin, just not enough (diabetes) and to add insult to injury, my body doesn't even use what it makes effectively (insulin resistance).  So, when I'm on insulin, I'm just pumping my body full of more of the hormone that my body already can't use, so when I've been put on insulin, I take a lot.  That just doesn't seem effective to me... at. all.  And I really don't want to take insulin even less when I feel like crap on it.  Thank goodness oral medications work for me!  But even then, I only want to take them if I have to.

So, this is why all the research.  I know my body better than the doctor or any researcher out there.  No, I'm not saying I'm smarter than them and I certainly don't have all the answers.  But if I listen closely, it tells me what it needs, so I've decided to go ahead and listen and see where we end up.  

The first thing I ran across was a study that was done way way way back in the early 1900's involving a Starvation Diet for a very short period of time (12 weeks) and how it had reset some Diabetic pancreas' and turned the clock back for them.  Basically, by doing this they were giving their overworked pancreas a break and allowing itself to reset.  This sounded great!  But honestly, who can live on 800 calories?  Especially when I have a hungry crew to feed and shop for.  Yeah, I went ahead and tried this, brave sole that I am.  I did great for 6 weeks... dang, I only made it half way through!  I mean come on, I'd made it through the hardest part, how dare I give up at that point?  Sigh... 

I then moved to books.  The first book I read was The Leptin Diet: How Fit Is Your Fat? by Byron J. Richards.  There was a lot in this book that clicked for me, maybe not everything, but a lot of it made sense and it started the wheels rolling for how I needed to treat my body.  Next I moved on to Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD.  This book pulled more pieces of my puzzle together and I was starting to get really excited.  Once again, there were a lot of things that I just knew would work for me.  Last, I read The Blood Sugar Solution by Dr. Mark Hyman and voila, everything clicked into place and a plan jelled together for me.

Basically, my goal is to eat lots and lots of non-starchy vegetables with some meat.  I don't eat sugar, dairy, grains, legumes, nuts, etc. and I've even limited fruits to 1/2 cup of berries per day and man, I feel great!  Well, this is great for me and it very well may not be the best answer for everyone and that's okay.  You have to find the right solutions for you. 

I started thinking about my own growing family and decided I better keep researching to find something that will work for them and that's when I found the Paleo diet.  And bam!  We have a winner!  This keeps my family off of the wheat and sugar and processed foods that I just don't feel good about feeding them and it adds in fruits, nuts and some other vegetables that are healthy that they can eat, but my blood sugar just doesn't seem to like.  This is something the whole family can do and it's a littler more well rounded than my personal diabetic diet is requiring.

This is all just starting, so I wanted to start recording how this goes for us from the beginning.  I did one solid week last week and my blood sugars were perfect, I felt great, my belly started shrinking and I felt really good about the changes.  This next week, my family will be going full Paleo and the work will really begin.  We'll do measurements on Sunday and take pics... ones that will only get posted as "before's" when I'm able to post the "after's" as well cause really, who likes to see their "before's" knowing that's how they look to the general public?!  Okay, so maybe I'm just being a little vain... instead, I've posted our most recent family picture below!  :)

Here's to a new chapter of "Health Happens!"

The Incredible, Edible Egg

I eat eggs for breakfast, lot of eggs. Michael eats eggs for breakfast. Between the two of us, each morning we go through a whole dozen. Yep, you read that right... a whole dozen! When I first heard from our trainers that this was how we'd start each day, two things went through my mind. First, wow, that's a lot of eggs. Second, I am going to get so sick of that.

Well, we are three weeks in and the only thing I can say is that if I don't have my egg whites, I sure crave them! I do switch it up on the weekends, but during the week it's pretty much hard boiled eggs every morning. We boil them the night before and get them all ready to go so that we can just grab our breakfast on the way out the door. On the weekends, we get creative with omelets and scrambled eggs filled with spinach, onions, bell peppers and sometimes mushrooms (for me). If we really feel like being spoiled, we'll add ham and cheese.

So here's why they are so good for Michael and I:

Egg Whites

Calories: 17 (only 17 calories per egg!!)

Protein: 3.6 g

Carbohydrates: 0.21g

Total fat: 0.06 g

Whole egg

Calories: 75

Protein: 6.29 g

Carbohydrates: 0.39 g

Total fat: 4.97 g

We mostly eat egg whites which keeps the calories and fat low and the protein high. So, my egg breakfast is 143 calories, 20.60 g of protein, 1.23 g of carbs and 5.21 g of fat. Plus all the vitamins! On the weekends, these numbers go up depending on which vegetables I add, but mostly that just adds more vitamins and minerals!

Michael's egg breakfast is 177 calores, 27.89 g of protein, 1.65 g of carbs and 5.33 g of fat.

The high-quality protein in eggs helps you to feel full longer and stay energized, which contributes to maintaing a healthy weight. In fact, research* shows that eggs eaten at the start of the day can reduce daily calorie intake, prevent snacking between meals and keep you satisfied on those busy days when mealtime is delayed. I personally have to set reminders for myself to make sure I don't skip meals, because I really do feel satisfied longer and the urge to snack just isn't there.

Research indicates that high-quality protein may help active adults build muscle strength and middle-aged and aging adults prevent muscle loss. Why is this good for me? Lean muscle burns more energy (calories) than fat does so the more lean muscle mass, the more of a burning machine I'll be. Eggs are just part of equation, but I'm all for anything thats helping me.

For more information check out the offical home of the incredible edible egg!

* Vander Wal JS et al. 2005. Short-Term Effect of Eggs on Satiety in Overweight and Obese Subjects. J Am Coll Nutr. 24(6):510-515.

The rest of the story...

Michael and I are lucky enough to have 3 young children. All of them are WAY too young to diet or be put on a formal exercise program! Even if I didn't have an educational background in health, my common sense would have kicked in and told me that. But, no one is too young to eat healthy and be active… seriously, it can be that simple (some medical conditions aside).

That being said... I'm not a blind mother (seriously, I think some people don’t see their children accurately. I don’t think anyone knowingly endangers their children’s lives and let’s them get overweight, but again, I digress). I could see what was slowly happening in my own household; the cute little tummy pooches and adorable pinchable cheeks. But, a recent family vacation with extended family brought me to tears when I found out some things. Before I get into this story, let me preface by saying that my children are not obese, they don't spend all day on video games, they do get outside to play and they most certainly don't eat all junk food. They actually like vegetables and simply adore playing at the park.

Now, back to the story. As mentioned in the post about me, I am a working mother, which means I am very busy. So, when the annual Bear Lake vacation was coming up, I was so touched that my mom offered to take my oldest girl up to the lake so she could enjoy the whole week and then the rest of my little clan would come up on the weekend to join her.

Apparently during that week some very startling events occurred. First of all, my daughter (who is 6, by the way) started noticing her older, taller and thinner cousins and would say that she wanted to look like them. She took notice of what they were eating and would ask my mom that if she ate salad too, would she be as skinny as “Jane?” She started noticing the Nutri-System commercials and said she wanted to eat the food that made you skinny… yes, advertising works.

On one of the afternoons, my sister-in-law decided to go for a walk with her 3 youngest kids and my daughter went along as well because her cousin that is her exact age was going. My sister-in-law had noticed that while the other kids were running around and back and forth, my daughter kept pace with her and didn’t play with the other kids. You would think she was just being obedient and mild mannered except for the fact that halfway through the walk, my daughter stopped, bent over with hands on her knees, winded and said “I don’t think I’m going to make it, do you think the baby could walk and I could ride in the stroller?” Yep, that’s the moment that got me too…

I can’t control what happens at daycare, but I can certainly implement changes at home to encourage healthy behaviors. This blog won’t be about my children, but as parents become healthy, children naturally follow. We are making changes that are for our whole family. I don’t fix a separate meal for us and then something “kid-friendly” for the kids. We don’t have a yard, so we go to the park around the corner regularly and let the kids run around. We play games, have foot races and chase each other around.

I cook chicken breasts, broccoli and salad for the kids too and guess what? I don’t get a single complaint at dinner. Children want to eat healthy! Admittedly, my children surprisingly have always liked most vegetables. But we ate fast food A LOT more than we should have and they used to prefer eating a Happy Meal over eating at home (they got their way a lot too). Implementing change in your home might be a little more difficult, but then again you might be surprised. One of the most effective changes I have made was that I put a big fruit basket on the kitchen counter and bottles of water in the fridge. Healthy food is readily available, ready to eat and on display. It’s an obvious, conscious reminder that we are focused on fueling our bodies with good, nutritious food!

As a side note, I can’t even recall the last time we drove past McDonald’s and my kids begged to go inside. They do however BEG us to go to the park ALL the time… I’d take that trade any day!