Benefits So Far
I've been on Paleo roughly a month, with far from strict habits. The occasional pizza, beer, hamburger bun, and ice cream have all snuck in. Moreover, I'm poor enough where buying perfect meat hasn't been possible all the time. Until I get a chest freezer I won't be able to buy large amounts of good meat. The biggest thing I make sure to buy is preservative-free bacon. I tried some of the cheap stuff and couldn't get it down. But I can go through a pack of the good stuff (Open Nature brand) in a day.
So far, here's my list of improvements:
10 pounds down
generally stable energy levels
more easily pulling myself out of gloomy moods
no PMS
seasonal allergies not as bad as my yard full of dandelions would suggest
usually less swelling of ankles and wrists... but it's hard to tell because of the heat waves we've been having
sweets cravings more easily overcome
sleeping better
happier poops—this means no five-minutes-cleaning-up, no straining, and only rarely the occasional bout of diarrhea when I cheat
better heat tolerance (it's currently 90 outside where I'm writing this)
less easily sunburned
But really, the best thing is the stable energy levels and mood improvement. It could just be that I'm eliminating hormone-filled foods, but I don't think so. While I did switch to Paleo from a rather extreme fast-food-filled diet because of my travel schedule, before that horrible ten weeks I ate fairly well: pasta with red sauce, homemade burritos, oatmeal, omelettes, pizza with lots of veggies. It could also be that just eliminating gluten has helped—my sister has celiac and so I'm a likely candidate.
The worst thing about this diet is that my mother's boyfriend, who is a religiously fanatical lean-meats-and-whole-grains type, has apparently been telling my mother that I'm going to die doing this thing, and that she should intervene and stop me. Um, no. It's my life, it's my body, and I wasn't getting any healthier on a whole-grains-and-lean-meats diet.
I still feel concern about eating meat when there are so many environmental concerns even about sustainable farming, particularly when I find myself buying ground wild boar that was shipped from Australia. Where is the eco-consciousness in that?
I think that once I finish my schooling, find a job, and am able to afford a few large investments (like a quarter of a cow and a chest freezer), I'll start really feeling the benefits of this diet and feel less guilty about my shopping trips.
