Throughout Lent, but especially for the past week or so, I’ve attempted eat a strict Paleo diet. Not easy. Not easy at all, my friends. It’s a minute-by-minute struggle. But, for my body composition at least, the struggle is worth it.
What I’m saying is, for the past 40 days or so, I’ve eaten more macadamia nuts than I can count.
For various reasons, eating Paleo reminds me of Amy. Mostly this is because we were both vegetarians for sort-of the same time period. During one summer of that period, we ate EVERY SINGLE meal together. Our similar eating trends would continue when we both started eating meat again a couple years ago. Also, last month we both tackled a Whole Thirty/Strict Paleo diet.
For those of you following along at home, the short of it is, we both went from not eating any meat to eating only meat.
And macadamia nuts.
Through the process, we’ve had some of the same observations.
1. Cutting refined sugar and carbs out of your diet gives you the energy of a “puppy on crack” (quote from Amy). Also, while eating whole foods, I’m not bloated, I think so clearly, and, again, I have so much energy. I mean, yes, I daydream a lot about how easy ordering pizza would be. But, again, the increased energy is nice. It allows me to cook all these labor-intense Paleo dishes.
2. I would like to point out the daiquiris in the above picture are made with rot-your-teeth sugary syrup that is no way-no-how paleo-friendly. I’m sure those daquiris were cold and sugary and delicious at the time, but you know what? They don’t look that great right now. And, make no mistake, I spent the better part of my life craving sugary-red-juice in various forms. So, the second realization about cutting out sugar is that you eventually stop craving the stuff. Which is so helpful when you’re trying not to eat it.
3. Another Paleo quote from Amy, “Nick [her husband] lost 18 pounds eating bacon.” This. Is. So. True. During college I gained twenty pounds. This is partly because of my love affair with cafeteria food (baked potato bars make me swoon), but also because of all the college carbs. And the low-fat, high-carb craze of the ’90s. I distinctly remember a sign our RA posted on the bathroom wall, “Did you know a salad with ranch dressing has 30 grams of fat? A slice of cheese pizza only has ten!” As a vegetarian who ate SO MANY slices of cheese pizza and not nearly enough salads, I learned that gluten and carbs are not my friend. Carbs = sluggish. Plus, did I mention the macadamia nuts? How am I eating hundreds of these and not gaining weight?
4. Last week Amy and I talked about all the pasta we ate as vegetarians. Which touches on the problem I had with being a vegetarian. I often forgot to eat vegetables. But I did eat LOTS of cheese and bread. Based on the above photo, my shirt also didn’t cover my potbelly. Which may have been related to all those carbs.
Hold on. My shirt still doesn’t cover my potbelly sometimes.
Huh.
5. Amy is a wonderful cook, and food has played an important role in our friendship. She made M and me a cookbook of vegetarian recipes for our wedding. When I was hugely pregnant with twins (photo below), she flew to Houston to cook for me. Incidentally, I had gestational diabetes at that time and only ate chicken, so the cooking was hard. During our Spring Break trip, she made the BEST chili I’ve ever eaten. It’s so good, I’m craving it as I type this. Really, go make it this weekend. It’s called Spicy Pineapple Chili (you can omit the jalepeno to make it not-spicy), and the recipe is here.
