My Transition from Hot Pocket Hottie to Coconut Cavewoman

Eat like a caveman. Yum! Live like a caveman. Logical! Workout like a caveman. Roar!

PRIMAL LIVING ROCKS MY SOCKS!

Almost 3 months ago my daughter, Jazz was born. Her older brother had such extreme allergies that I was convinced to stop nursing early on because he dropped in weight dramatically from a lack of nutrients from my breast milk. I felt completely at fault. Nursing had been a struggle from the get go so I was ready and willing to let the nastiest formula ever, Alimentum, nourish him, since I couldn't. I feel some guilt still for not trying harder to do an elimination diet but he was allergic to 16 out of the 20 foods tested. Living off of rice, potatoes, garlic and carrots sounded beyond difficult and to be honest I was so stressed by that point that my milk was drying up fast. Our horrible pediatrician had yelled that I was "Starving!" my poor baby. It was a bit traumatic for me so we did our best. He's a strong healthy 1.5 year old boy now! (And he can snap his fingers which is just plain impressive.)

With Jazz's arrival I decided to eliminate all common allergens in case she had severe allergies to. I was determined to breastfeed her so she could get the ultimate nourishment!

Foods I Eliminated:
Wheat
Corn
Soy
Dairy
Sugar (For my Hypoglycemia.)

While I was researching allergy-free recipe sites I found, Mark's Daily Apple. It was dedicated to Primal Living. The Paleo Diet (or Caveman Diet, Hunter-Gatherer Diet) was exactly what I needed:

No grains, No sugar. Meat, Veggies, Fruit & Nuts!

His website got me so fired up about the entire lifestyle. Everything about it made perfect sense to me. My husband had been wanting to phase out agricultural grains, knowing that they're completely unnecessary to our diets and that their introduction to us brought about so many health problems! We decided to GO PRIMAL together!

I saw a change in my digestion immediately. There was a cleansing process that was slightly shocking. I felt bad that I'd been clogging my body with so much disgusting fast food, etc! Now I am an amazingly clean running machine. (Hopefully you all know what I mean without me getting more graphic...)

My skin stopped breaking out and is shinier. Weird.

I've had zero grains in over 2 months and it's been surprisingly easy to avoid them. No sugar has been a struggle though! I thought I could have it in moderation but when I get a taste it's a lot like alcohol or any other substance I've been addicted to in the past. I just want MORE! So I've had a couple sugar binges but nothing too drastic and it hasn't derailed my success. MDA says go for 80/20 with your eating. I've been about 90/10. I try to use the 10% for cooking sauces, salad dressing or any occasional bite of sweets.

Most importantly, Jazz is doing beautifully! She's eating well and growing well. Her skin is perfect unlike the awful rashes and eczema Lyric got from his allergies. The new wonderful pediatrician said it's good I'm eating this way because she can see small signs that Jazz is a sensitive baby as well.

Lately I've been getting sick easily, which is really not cool since my profession is singing and it's no fun (and not very pretty) when I have a head or chest cold. I know that lack of sleep is a huge part of it. Being a new parent doesn't afford much rest. I decided to count my calories and make sure I'm getting enough as a nursing mom. I realized that they might be too low which would be giving Jazz all the good stuff and leaving me with little to keep my strength up. The absolute least amount of calories a nursing mom should have is 1800, and that's if she's still trying to lose a lot of pregnancy weight. I'm 5 lbs from my pre-prego weight and figured I should be getting at least 2,000 calories a day to be healthy right now. At the end of my first day keeping track I'd taken in 1,200 calories and I'd felt like I'd eaten a lot! Uh oh.

I am now keeping a detailed journal so I make sure to get:
Calories: 2,000
Carbs: 100
Protein: 100

I've decided to modify the diet a bit while I'm nursing to include sweet potatoes and quinoa to up the carbs. I'll let you know how it goes!



Typical Day of Meals:

1. Superfood Smoothie: 1 tbsp Flaxseed, 1 cup kale, 1 tbsp Hemp E3 Live w/ Maca Protein Powder, 1 tsp Camu Camu, 1 tsp Mesquite, 1 cup frozen fruit, 1 tbsp Chia Seed, Coconut Water and 15 drop Phytoplankton.

2. 1 bell pepper w/ hummus

3. 1 large piece of chicken. seasoned with salt, pepper, cinnamon and cooked in 1 tsp coconut oil and 1 tsp soy sauce. 1/2 avocado. 1 cup lettuce.
OR
Steak and Asparagus

4. 2 egg omelet w/ 1 tbsp Flaxseed and 1 sausage link. Cooked in 1 tsp olive oil.

5. Handful of almonds, pistachios and/or pecans.

6. Raw Foods brand Super Cookies. Marsala Chai, Lemon, Carrot Cake and Chocolate are my favorites.

And I sip on water with lemon juice, Yerba Mate tea and Perrier Water throughout the day. Oh and of course 1-2 cups of Coffee with a dab of coconut oil.

I'll keep you updated on my Primal Journey!

What results have you seen from living primally? Did you have any difficulties with babies with allergies? Any tips for the rest of us?

Veggies! Vitamix! Victory!

I eat vegetables now. Raw. Nutrient filled. Healthy. 

A few years ago my diet consisted of (in order of importance) 1. Champagne 2. Hot Pockets 3. Skittles 4. Wine. You might think that's a joke but unfortunately it's not. I wasn't overweight or particularly sick. I functioned through long days of work, rehearsals and partying...for the most part. And I clearly didn't care much about myself.

But then I decided to have some babies with this dude I thought was the shit and suddenly there was someone I really wanted to take care of. And since that someone was living in my body I had to consider changing up my habits! Thankfully dude or "my husband Eric" as some call him, was a real nutrition aficionado and he encouraged me to eat a lot of good foods. We made a big chart to check of food groups, we went on walks, I quit boozing it up, and I slowly but surely started changing my mind about this crazy idea of healthy living.

Today, nearly 2 years and 2 kids later, I can say with confidence that I am healthy and I LOVE IT! I took ample time to grieve over the loss of my microwave and my addictions. Now the fog has cleared and damn I feel good!

My first born had TONS of allergies and because of that I was asked to stop breastfeeding very early. I really wanted to nurse my new baby so I decided to take a preemptive strike against allergies and just cut out every common allergen food group. That meant no wheat, corn, or dairy. And because of my hypoglycemia I'd just cut waaaay back on sugar. On my search for allergy free recipes someone recommended the site, Mark's Daily Apple. HALLELUJAH! That discovery set the path for the way of living my husband and I are embracing now! Mark Sisson is the author of The Primal Blueprint. It's all about the Paleo Diet and living life the way cavemen did. Hunter gatherer foods, specific non time consuming exercises like sprinting and heavy lifting, parenting skills such as baby wearing and homeschooling, barefoot or vibrams, no stress, nature, etc. There is so much that I'll have specific posts on later but basically it all made so much sense to us and we were fired up to get started!

The paleo diet is meat, vegetables, fruits and nuts. Exactly what I need and my body is loving it! It's been a month and I had a nice/uncomfortable detox cleanse from cutting out all the agricultural grains. I now have more energy, no sugar/carb crashes, no food comas, clearer skin and the baby weight is almost all gone! (She's 7 weeks old today.) Most importantly Jazz is still nursing, gaining impressive weight and has never been sick.

We're enjoying making new creations in the kitchen and for the first time in my life I want to cook! It's a creepy miracle that no one in my family saw coming. 

Vegetables lose so many nutrients when cooked that we try to eat them raw but I yearn for warm meals! We found a solution! 

Vegetable Soup in the Vitamix!

First we grabbed all the veggies that looked good from the fridge. Kale, Zucchini, Celery, Carrots, Orange Bell Pepper, Asparagus, Onions and Tomatoes.

Next we chopped them up and threw them in the vitamix with warm water (the exact amount to fill our two bowls) & bouillon (1.5 tbsp). We saved the tomatoes to mix in at the very end for texture.

Voila! Two warm bowls of nutrient filled vegetables. Seasoned to taste with fajita seasoning, salt and pepper. 100 calories per bowl. (2.5 cups) YUMMY!

What are your favorite soup recipes? Have you tried making warm creations in your Vitamix yet?