What I Know...I Think...Maybe?

What I Know is that the human body is an incredible piece of art.  No matter which origin story you subscribe to (if any), it cannot be denied that the way the human body works is just a masterpiece in ingenuity.  It is always striving to correct and heal itself. 

I Think that some of the worst illnesses that we can suffer from are caused by the body’s desperate attempt to heal a perceived ill, to fight off a perceived enemy, to expel a perceived toxin.  

Maybe there is something we are doing or consuming that is sending our bodies mixed signals, wrong messages, and/or contributing to the illnesses we are suffering from.

What I Know is that what we are currently doing isn’t working.  I’ve tried following all the rules, all the recommendations, all the official advice, only to have the problems in our health continue.

I Think that it’s time to question the status quo, take inventory of what we are doing to ourselves, what we are putting in our bodies and reevaluate.  

Maybe, just maybe, those who claim to be here to guide and protect us don’t always know best. 

What I Know is that what drives any organism and how well it operates depends largely on its fuel.  Listen, it would be amazing if we could put Skittles in the gas tanks of our cars.  We could prevent a lot of toxins from entering the environment and the exhaust would smell amazing!!!  But the simple fact is that our cars won’t run on Skittles.

I Think it’s safe to assume that our bodies work the same way.  We cannot put junk in our mouths and expect to look awesome, feel spectacular and be able to think clearly, it just doesn’t work that way.

Maybe we also need to redefine what we think junk food is.  Junk food isn’t just that which is deep fried in oil or dripping with sugar.  Junk foods are also those foods we are told are good for us, but in reality block our bodies from absorbing nutrients, leach nutrients from our bodies or take more energy to process than we receive.  They are the foods that make us look bad, feel bad and make it difficult for us to think clearly.

I spent a lot of time reading, and reading, and reading.  I wanted to know everything I could about diet and how it affects the way we feel, look and think.  How it effects our health and how it can help heal us.  There was just something telling me I was on the right track, that if I changed the way we ate, I could help our bodies heal. After digesting all of the information I was taking in, I came to the conclusion that our food had to be:

• Whole
• Organic 
• Non-GMO
• Grain Free 
• Gluten Free 
• Bean/Legume Free 
• Sugar Free 
• Dairy Free (at least for the initial transition period and thereafter only dairy products containing a high fat content) 
• High in Saturated Fats 
• High in Animal Proteins 
• High in Fresh Vegetables and Fruits 
• High in Omega 3 fatty acids 
• Lower in Omega 6 and Omega 9 fatty acids

The honest truth is that I had NO idea how to do this.  I’m Hispanic, my husband is Italian.  We eat pasta or rice with every meal!!!  I didn’t even know where to start.  So I sent out a tiny S.O.S.  Just a little something to get us started.  It was a simple request really, “Hey Paleo peeps. Can you hit me up with breakfast ideas?  I’m assuming you can’t live on bacon alone…or can you?” I had heard of Paleo in passing.  I knew the diet was grain free and sugar free and took a mother lode of will power, but beyond that, I didn’t know much.  The response was overwhelming.  So many people chimed in to offer advice, recipes, a helping hand.  Then, it happened.  My sweet neighbor, and sister in everything food related, walked over with a cookbook.  It was really meant for me to flip through, find a few recipes or ideas and return when I was done.  Something inspired me to open it and actually read it, and boy am I glad it did.  In the brief, maybe 5 page, introduction this woman was offering me the answers to everything I had been searching for complete with recipes, meal plans and exercise routines.  And it was in that very moment that I decided……

My family is going Paleo