My Paleo Journey: A year later

At Christmas 2011, my brother and his then girlfriend suggested I try this crazy diet they had been on since Thanksgiving.  They thought it might help with my severe allergies.
I thought they were crazy, but I had tried everything else, and I was willing to give it a shot.
I blogged once about it.

Shortly after blogging about it, I talked to my physician about it.  I also worked with him.  He looked at me and said "normally I would tell a patient they are crazy, but with you, we've tried everything, lets see what happens."
He ordered massive amounts of blood work based on what I had read about the diet.  He was well aware of my lifestyle and eating habits, and said "honestly I think this is over kill, it's all going to come back normal"  And guess what, for the most part he was right.  My white blood cell count, my cholesterol, all the normal stuff, was in the normal range.

Let me just say before I tell you the rest of the results of my blood work, I have very difficult veins to draw blood from, I have always had this problem.  When I was sitting in the chair at the lab, the young tech looked at my arm and said "I think you need someone more experienced."  About 45 minutes, 3 different phlebotomist, and 6 sticks later, they finally listened to me and tried my foot.  THANK THE LORD.  It was not fun, and I almost said "forget it, it's not worth it."
I'm so glad I didn't.

 My vitamin D was off the charts low.  Not surprising since at the time I was working ridiculous hours inside. I started supplementing with a vitamin D vitamin, and also making a conscious effort to spend more time outside during daylight hours.  (taking my lunch outside was the easiest method)

And then there was my C-reactive protein.  C-reactive protein is a marker in your blood for general inflammation, it is used to assess risk for cardiovascular disease.  It normally isn't done on highly active 30 year old women.  Normally a person's C-reactive protein should be at zero.  As the level goes up, the risk or cardiovascular disease goes up.  Over 3 is considered HIGH risk.
So what was mine? I'm glad you asked, it was greater than 3 (they apparently don't tell you how high it is after 3)  Basically what I'm saying is that the systemic inflammation in my body from allergies was so high that there is great potential that I would have been one of those people who dropped dead of a heart attack at 45 and everyone was like "other than her allergies she was so healthy"


When I first started the paleo diet I was suffering from severe eczema.  It was awful, I looked like a leper most of the year.  I always wore long sleeves to cover it up.  I didn't like wearing a swimsuit because it covered my whole back.  I took steroids, lots of steroids.
I had to time massive doses of steroid shots in order to wear the open back bridesmaid dress for my best friends wedding.  If you are unaware, steroids tend to have lovely side effects like massive bloating.  YAY!

By February 2012, after having been on the diet since late December, my eczema was gone. GONE. GONE GONE GONE.  My parents came to visit to help me move out of the house I'd just sold and they couldn't believe it.

There are a lot of things that are gone since starting the paleo diet.
Though I still have my nebulizer, and the drugs for it, I haven't used it in a year.
Though I still carry around my rescue inhaler, I also have not used it in a year.
Though I am still taking my maintenance asthma med (1 pill a day), I am working up the courage to go off it completely and see how it goes.  (I've been on this medication since high school)


A year later, I have learned a lot.
I have learned what I once thought were environmental allergies were actually most likely food allergies.

I have learned that you can be on a crazy diet and not ostracize everyone you know with your ridiculous eating habits.

I've learned that you can maintain the paleo diet AND have a really busy life AND travel a lot.

I've learned that contrary to popular opinion, you don't have to break the bank when eating this way (though you will spend more money when you eat out)

I've learned that you can find most of what you need in the normal grocery store (including, now that I live in New England, grass fed beef)

I've learned that foods I used to hate now don't taste so bad (I'm not completely sure why)

I've learned to use a lot more spices in my cooking.

I've learned that pinterest is my best recipe friend.

I've learned that if you don't label a food "paleo," people who don't eat that way will just think it's good food and eat and enjoy it.

I've learned that the people you would expect to be the most supportive, are sometimes the least.


Why am I telling you all of this?  Because if there is one person reading this who struggles with allergies like I did, and realizes that maybe a dietary change could eliminate their issues, then it will have been worth it.

There are a lot of blogs out there with lots of recipes,my now sister in law's included. (they got married this summer)

But not so many about how to make it work from a practical standpoint in the real world of everyday life.

I am not going to turn into a paleo blogger, but I was cooking food today and thought "I've learned a lot of practical things in the last year about how to make this work, maybe I should share them"