Science Experiment

I'm glad Blogger has decided to stop being cranky and is allowing me to post today.  In case you missed it, Blogger went down on Thursday due to something that happened during routine maintenance, so all blogs were converted back to how they appeared a few days ago.  That meant that all the recent posts were gone.  However, they did still appear in my Google Reader.  If you read this blog, we know each other and you have your own blog, you should know that I follow it via my Reader.  I know you can 'Follow' people through Blogger, but I read all my blogs in Google Reader because I read a lot of non-Blogger blogs (WordPress, self hosted, etc.).  I don't even know how to follow people on Blogger.  I'm seriously technologically challenged.  Just as long as I have access to Gmail, Twitter and The Sartorialist, I'm good to go.

Anyway, this morning's breakfast was different than my normal grain-based first meal of the day:

Full disclosure here: you are probably going to see a shift in my meals.  For the past year and a half, I've been eating a plant & grain based diet.  In the past couple of months (since I've been blogging again), I've been including more meat.  I've had issues with fatigue for as long as I can remember, and I'm tired of it (pun intended).  It cannot be normal to be tired all. the. dang. time. especially when I'm not exercising as much as I used too (I haven't really talked about that on the blog, but I'll post on it soon).  I've been doing some research and listening to some podcasts, and I've decided to up my protein and fat intake.  I get a pretty good amount of fat as it is (avocado, eggs, nut butters), but my macronutrient ratios are still tipped to the carbohydrate side of things.  Even though I eat mainly non-processed, complex carbs, I still think I may be eating too many.  I've read about the Paleo or primal way of eating for a very long time, but due to its emphasis on meat, I've shied away from it.  However, recently I've been intrigued by it.  I don't do diets, and their associated dogma.  The Paleo community appears to be very dogmatic to me, and I'm not all about that.  I read an article this morning about Paleo 2.0 and I liked how the author stated that eating in this way should be an approach or methodology, not a set of rules.

Anyway, Paleo doesn't do beans or diary, and um, I like those things.  I've read some of the reasonings behind why paleolithic man didn't eat them, but we aren't living in paleolithic times.  I do think we live in a genetically modified, overly processed, chemical laden world in terms of the food we eat, which is a far cry from the food that the Good Lord intended for us to feed our temples (1 Cor. 3:16-17).  However, until I do more research, I don't plan on cutting those out.  Maybe lessening the beans in favor of meat, but I still plan on consuming my daily 1/2 & 1/2 in my coffee and eating greek yogurt and/or kefir.  I guess what I plan on doing is more of a Paleo/Weston Price combination because I also plan on including grains, just to a lesser extent.  I cannot recommend enough that if you are the least bit interested in nutrition, you check out Nourishing Traditions which is based on Dr. Price's findings.  It blew my mind in the way I thought of food.

In sum, I'm going to cut down some on my grains and see if I have more energy.  What has really spurred me on in all this is the thought of my 15+ hour Tuesdays & Thursdays starting this coming week.  I start class again, and I don't want to be starting class at 6pm with my head spinning and fatigue setting in.  I'm not saying grains are the culprit, but I'm willing to see if perhaps cutting down on those, and upping my protein would have a good affect.  It's a science experiment!  Carbs definitely increase insulin production, and I've always been very sensitive when it comes to insulin & blood sugar.  I even thought I was diabetic at one point in time and had to do that God-awful 5 hour glucose test.  I thought I was going to pass out when doing it due to my blood sugar dropping so low.

Wow, I've typed a lot about all of this.  Sorry.  I just wanted to give reasoning behind my shift in meals.  And because I've spent the last 4 hours reading all kinds of articles and blogs on Paleo.  I'm just beginning my real foray into this and as with everything I do, it's just my take on things and not following any one thought/theory/diet/etc.  I always want to be real here on the blog.  I'm still going to be eating whole foods like always, and not that much is going to change really other than breakfast and just more meat in general. Regardless, if it fails (for me), you'll know.  If it works (for me), you'll know.

MOVING ON.

After I got off work yesterday, I went warehouse shopping at Sam's.

And while I do believe in buying as organic as possible, I obviously didn't in this trip other than the spinach.  Sam's doesn't offer many organic products, and I refuse to be dogmatic and dichotomous in the way I shop.  This actually goes against my grain because I'm very much an all or nothing, feast or famine type-A personality, but I have to remind myself constantly that life is too short to get caught up in the details.  If you try most of the time to buy organic, and occasionally don't, I don't think you're going to die. :)  Eat some genetically modified veggies?  Possibly.  Die?  No.

After I went to Sam's, I stopped at Publix and bought the entire Greenwise freezer section of meat.  But, let's face it, meat isn't pretty to look at so I didn't take a picture.  That, and when I got home Thad insisted I quickly put everything up and watch Dumb & Dumber with him.  We've been married for 2.5 years and he's pestered me about watching that movie since the beginning.  I finally relented last night.  Well, for half of the movie.  An hour into it, and my eyes were bleeding so I begged him if we could finish it today.  Not really my type of movie.

I really should go clean my house now and stop avoiding it like the plague.