Can we do the Paleo diet?

Oh, hello, May! What have I been doing all month? Hmmm, who knows? Well, here’s the news on the food front (which of course is my favorite thing to talk about)…

The shot of Baby Cupcake eating never gets old. And I promise she was having fun on our New Hampshire trip (she just likes to hide it sometimes).

Baby Cupcake continues to eat tons of vegetables, fruits, and lean protein (even pureed salmon now!), so that’s what we’re doing, too. Minus the pureed part.

“Are we turning into Paleo people?” I asked Mitch this month. He assured me that we could not be paleo diet followers until I started pronouncing it correctly?!? I’ve been doing some paleo diet reading, and it’s clearly a cult of health-obsessed people. I’m nervous. Yet intrigued. “Oh, no,” you say. Oh, I know, I know.

Here are the facts on how we are currently eating:

• We’re big fans of organic chicken, grass-fed beef, and (expensive) organic eggs around here.
• And then there’s my well-documented obsession with vegetables. Remember the 21 vegetable challenge?
• We’ve cut out practically all processed foods.
• As you may remember, I’ve been experiencing with going “wheat-free” due to Wheat Belly. I am not totally wheat-free because of my also well-documented obsession with pizza and baked goods. However, of the 21 meals in a week (plus snacks), I’d say we have wheat products about 3 or 4 times. It’s not zero, but it’s a huge reduction over what it was before–say probably something like wheat for 20 of those 21 meals.
• I am lactose intolerant. I still eat dairy because I love cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, milk, and ice cream. I started eating less because I read that the dairy products I eat could cause Baby Cupcake to be fussy–clearly wanted to avoid that though I have decided that dairy has nothing to do with her feisty bouts of self-expression. However, I continue trying to eat less dairy because I think my stomach appreciates it, too.
• I would like to eat less sugar, and in this ridiculous improve-my-eating-habits project that I’ve embarked on in the past couple of months especially, it’s probably the next thing to tackle. My mom just informed me that she saw a news program that referred to sugar as a poison. Great. For now, I am now eating chocolate chips (little pieces of chocolate can’t be that bad for you, right?) instead of cookies…mostly because it’s easier!

Here are the facts on the Paleo diet (via “The Beginners Guide to the Paleo Diet”) regarding what you CAN eat:

• Vegetables
• Fruit
• Tubers (sweet potatoes, yams)
• Grassfed beef
• Poultry
• Fish (wild not farm-raised)
• Eggs
• Nuts
• Oils (olive oil and coconut oil and avocado)
• Seeds

So that’s what we’re doing. Sort of. We also eat beans. And rice sometimes (because otherwise we would have to punch new belt holes for Mitch and buy him a new wardrobe). I think this means we’re Paleo-Faking-It. It’s a change for sure, but I’m feeling pretty good about it. It’s crazy though because we buy so many vegetables that I think it will be impossible to eat them all in a week and four days later we need more vegetables. Maybe we’re not doing it right, but it takes A LOT of vegetables when it’s the main thing you eat!!