Let's start at the beginning. I'm a black woman overweight with two children. Big whoop so's everybody. It was hard for me to notice the weight creep up because the black community tends to be really forgiving about extra weight.
So I'm packing on pounds eating chocolate chip cookies at a capacity that would frighten you. And My husband has this bright idea to take pictures with the beautiful lake scenery behind us. When I looked at the picture, I could barely see the lake for my A@$ ! I was bustin out of my 18-20 slacks and secretly unbuttoning them to sit comfortably.
Real talk. I hate the way I look. I would show you guys a picture but I'm not comfortable showing you how awesomely bad I looked. The photo takes away a piece of me every time I see it. Here is something a little similar, just to help you get the idea.
I just didn't feel like myself. There is an incongruence between the person I know myself to be and the person I am now. My lack of discipline began to leak into every aspect of my life. My work was late and uninsured my kids were in processed food comas and my husband was well let's leave that out until We know each other a little better huh? So I was supposed to be writing but I started surfing new diet success stories. Such a weird past-time I know but it's true. I go through diets like...well like I go through chocolate chip cookies, so I was just looking for a new fix. Something caught my eye. Paleo
Paleo is short for Paleolithic, and the premise of a Paleo diet centers around the idea that our bodies have not adapted sufficiently to eating foods that weren’t available to us 10,000 years ago. It is thought that more than 70% of food consumed today was never available in Paleolithic times. We put so much processed food into our bodies; most which us unhealthy. The advances in agriculture and mass food production have caused us to move away from eating real food; food meant to work with our bodies for optimal health.
A Paleo diet involves eating meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, little starch, some fruit and no sugar. It means no grains, legumes, dairy or alcohol. It means staying away from all processed foods. It means eating as our hunter-gathers ancestors did. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is riddled with refined sugars, adulterated vegetable oils, dairy products and grains all of which can lead to obesity, heart disease and type-2 diabetes. Diet-related chronic diseases represent the largest cause of death in America. These diseases were rare or nonexistent in the Paleolithic era and can largely be blamed on excessive consumption of modern foods including cereals, refined sugars, processed vegetable oils and industrially-raised meats.From www.practicalpaleoliving.com
But is going Paleo a privileged diet? Organic foods and high quality meats and vegetable are not available to those in the poorest communities. As a black woman I wonder is Paleo a middle class indictment of cheap food? Is it just one more form of distinction, from the working and struggling poor in America? Where you shop says a lot about who you are, and what you are willing and able to pay for. Often, having an organic eatery your neighborhood is really a status symbol, not a health symbol. Or It's just part of a hip trend articulated in This Article "don't get caught without your green tote. "because it's totally cool to shop organic."
Either way, I'm gonna try it. Can I do it on a budget and without alienating my family? Food is so social-- going to Aunt Verna's for thanksgiving and passing on the pie is gonna look suspicious. And for many I know, the extra weight loss isn't worth the perceived loss of comfort and savor that traditional southern cooking allows. I am one week in. I hope you all will share this experience with me! share your insights and stories with me! I want to see this through!
P.S. R.I.P. Golden Oreos the ride was worth the fall...*tips forty*
