This Paleo malarky is taxing my brain.
I’ve read everything I can get my hands on, I’ve raided the local fruit and veg shop and The Teenager can’t find his yoghurts in the fridge without foraging through bags of curly kale and spinach.
I’ve scoured Gumtree and am now the proud owner of a juicer (ok, not strictly Paleo, but I’m easing myself in gently). I have also bought a spiralizer gadget thing which I tried out yesterday; after grating my fingers over and over I finally figured out how to make carrot ‘spaghetti’, yum.
I made a packed lunch for work today, eschewing my usual carb-laden fare and pulled out my brand new salad box (with detachable dressing pot) and started munching away on my carrots before moving on to four chicken drumsticks. I also turned down a pastry and snacked on nuts instead. Unheard of.
So far, so good. I’m feeling virtuous and renewed, and it’s only Day Two. I’ve read that Paleo can be excellent for MS although some of the internet posts verge on the fanatical and are a little worrying. According to some of them, by not doing Paleo before, I’ve been compromising my health and making my MS worse. I even – if you can actually believe this – read that the Paleo lifestyle, i.e. living clutter-free and calmly, can cure MS. Oh, really?
I like the idea of Paleo, eating a more natural diet, cutting out the wheat, etc. It’s basic and it makes sense. And that’s where it stops for me. None of this forum nonsense with people posting questions such as, ‘I weakened and had a Dairylea Triangle and now I’m devastated, how can I overcome my feelings of shame?’. Or, ‘can I feed my cat a Paleo diet?’
For now, I’m going to stick to the 80/20 rule, i.e. for newbies like me, Paleo 80% of the time and treats the rest, even a Dairylea Triangle if I fancy it. Or some chocolate cake. Sigh. Will I stick to it? I reckon so, as long as I relax about it. Since my thyroid’s been playing up I’ve had the unparalleled joy of losing two stone rapidly then piling most of it on again. I spent a couple of weeks in my skinny jeans and loved it, but it was the wrong way to lose weight.
This time, I’m going to do it properly. And reward myself along the way …
Anything that has pale in it doesn’t sound healthy to me, are you sure they didn’t say aero or rolo ?
Brilliant! Maybe I’ll rename it the Paero Diet??
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I applaud u for trying yet another MS related diet (for lack of a better word). My daughter has been on it since Jan. 1 & says she feels a little better & has lost 2lbs so far. She does not have MS, she just wants to try something different. I’m the type of person that wud love to give this a try but wud like to live with someone who wud buy (as I can’t get out as easily to shop), & prepare these meals. Frm what I understand most of it is prep time & having to make everything frm scratch. I know I sound so lazy…lol I’m actually not at all….I over work myself in other areas of my life & I guess that’s the thing it exhausts me thinking about all the prep for every meal. It’s putting things in priority. Eating healthy shud b first on my list but alas no I’m a little ocd about other things. Maybe one day I will attempt it. Keep us informed as to ur progress & any positive changes in ur MS symptoms. Good luck
Thank you and I will do! I’m awfully lazy though – I have a big kitchen table, so I sit down and chop all the veg, lol. Waaay too much effort otherwise. Mind you, I haven’t tried the aubergine yet. It scares me. Give me a couple of days….
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p.s. let me know how your daughter gets on!
H, I’m not a believer that this or any other diet will cure MS or any disease. I’ve spoken to 4 neurologist’s re the Paleo diet all say same won’t cure MS, but if you enjoy dieting then go ahead. Its what suits you at the end of the day, I like the comments about aero or roll, I agree with that, but seriously good luck, if it was me it would be 20% Paleo 80% anything goes.
Its hard to give up bacon butties
Totally! There is NO cure for MS and I despise websites that peddle the myth. It angers me so much I could eat a whole Dairylea round in one go. I so don’t enjoy ‘dieting’. What attracted me to Paleo was they said you can eat as much as you want from this list… Yay! Until I read the list and it sounded like, well, a healthy diet, lol.
I will never, ever, give up my bacon butties. You just can’t beat it. Standing around underneath scaffolding, having a laugh, slurping tea, munching on a buttie and chatting away with your mates. Priceless.
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I can see why the paleo diet is recommended for health reasons because we have been evolving for millions of years without all the processed gunk you find in the shops. Our relatively sudden change to man made processed ‘food’ is depriving our bodies of the nutrients it has become accustomed to over all that time. It makes sense that it is going to malfunction, much like putting diesel in a petrol engine.
However, having developed diseases with unknown causes, I am not convinced that reverting to our natural diet is going to completely undo the damage or cure us. There are too many other pollutants as well as the lack of the natural environment we used to live in that was teeming with all sorts of airborne stuff that is good for us (got that from a BBC documentary about the possible reason why we are so allergic now).
I think going paleo can only improve our health by helping our bodies to cope with modern life but diet it is only part of the story.
I think the biggest challenge with diet is convincing people that a large percentage of supermarket stock is likely to do them more harm than good. Think bottle of Coke with ‘mum’ written on it – can’t be bad can it, it’s only a drink? Marketing eh?
I try and eat well but my taste buds are conditioned to crave chocolate and cake. That’s my excuse anyway. 😉
Have you tried kale stir fried with chicken? Yum! xx
That’s very true – I was reading the other day about how ‘compromised’ our food is so Paleo isn’t the be all and end all. I just got to the point where I was eating way too much junk and comfort food and I didn’t like it! Plus the thyroid bouncing around didn’t help. I’m not expecting miracles, but I’ve already noticed a (very) slight increase in energy levels. Guess it’s like any healthy eating wotsit – the less junk and more fruit and veg, the better!!
Funnily enough, I have bags and bags of kale in the house! I’ve always liked it, which helps lol.
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