Looking Back–Three Months of being “Primal”

This post is long overdue.  I meant to a “one-month-as-primal” post, but the beginning of August slipped by before I new it.  Then I figured that a two-months-as-primal would be just as good, but next thing that I knew it was September 15th – and I hadn’t posted.  So here I am, just barely making the 3-month mark.

So in July I went “Primal.”  I have to put it in quotes now, since I can’t say that I am strictly Primal.  I still use some dairy products (cheese and butter, and milk in baked goods), and probably eat more sugar than I should (the result of loving to bake).  I would have to characterize my diet more as “grain-free, low-sugar, and low-dairy.”

I am extremely happy with eating this way.  It was a little hard at first (on day one I thought that I was going to starve), but once I got used to it and figured out what I was going to eat, it was not that difficult (in addition to getting over a strange attraction to bread in week three, when I would find myself holding a loaf of bread, telling someone that it was good bread).

I was also expecting to have all these food cravings, and have lists of things that I missed.  I don’t.  Once in a while I will really want something that isn’t primal, usually when someone else is eating it.  But it usually passes.  I have also noticed that I do not have chocolate cravings anything close to what I had before.  I realized this when, at 3 weeks of being Primal, I still had that bar of chocolate that my mom had bought for me before I started this diet, and it was only about halfway gone!  It usually doesn’t last that long.  I am not convinced that this is a good thing, though.  I love chocolate!

As for having all these things that I missed, I have missed some things.  But I have usually been able to do without that or find an equally delicious substitute.  Think zucchini noodles.  There are still a few things that I miss (bread, butter, and jam – how else do you eat fresh jams? A spoon just can’t cut it).

But.

I have not had this much fun cooking and creating for a long time.  It has been SO MUCH FUN learning to bake without grain flours and traditional sugar.  There are scads of different things to try.  And I have only seen the tip of the iceberg.  I can’t wait to see the rest.

I have also seen so many of my issues disappear.  To begin with, I very rarely wake up in the middle of the night with an upset stomach, which was a regular occurrence.  I used to use my peppermint oil on a regular basis, and I just used it the other day for the first time in several months.  Once I am asleep, I sleep through the night.  My stomach has felt incredibly better.  I’m not sick after every meal, and if I do feel sick, I can usually trace it back to something I ate.  I have been able to eat eggs again, which I haven’t been able to do for months.  I am also doing better with eating beef, something that used to make me quite sick.  It can still mess with me on occasion, but I can usually alleviate that with some digestive enzymes.  I have been able to try yogurt again some, too, but I tend to get carried away with that and eat to much, making myself sick.  And this is only a few things.

Most of this didn’t happen on day one.  Actually, it took me a while to notice it.  One day I would be thinking and suddenly I would realize that I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt yucky.  One night I ate grains and I was up for two hours in the middle of the night.  That made me realize that I hadn’t had a sleepless night since I went grain-free.  It was really a gradual realization of an absence of symptoms.

I have also noticed that I seem to be much cheerier than I had been.  I was an overall grumpy person usually, which I didn’t like.  I thought I had a huge character issue to work on.  But after I went Primal, I was MUCH less grumpy.  Not perfectly cheery, but generally happier.  And now, when I do eat grains or I don’t eat Primal, I can usually expect to be grumpy.  My mood may also be changed by the fact that I am not sick half of the time.  Yes, that could definitely be helping, too.  🙂

I am just so thankful for the healing that the Lord has brought to me through this!