Baers go Paleo: .......

At thirty-five years old, I am the oldest of our little team; make no mistake, this has never meant the wisest. Oftentimes I learn from my sister, Kimberly, as she researches new ideas and concepts. The Paleo lifestyle is yet another of her discoveries that I have embraced wholeheartedly.

During my adolescence, I was the girl who lived on McDonald's and Snickers bars, and rarely gained an ounce. As a high school cheerleader, I stayed fairly active without even trying, and assumed (with the innocence and optimism associated with the teenage years) that I would never have to worry much about weight or health.

Now in my 30's, I am far more interested in creating a healthy, strong body that will sustain me for the remainder of my years than one that fits into a certain size of jeans. As I've gotten older and kicked the diet pills of my 20's, my metabolism has slowed and my ever-present sweet tooth has taken over my eating habits to a terrifying degree. Enter: Paleo. In the first 3 weeks of eating Paleo I lost several pounds, several inches, and gained energy and mental clarity that I hadn't experienced in years. I am excited to have a place to share, commiserate, and celebrate with my family of sugar-junkies!

I am 33 years old and a homeschooling mama of six boys. I was first diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes in my fifth pregnancy, but I found that by carefully monitoring my diet, I was able to avoid taking insulin until the last week before my baby was born. After delivery, I swore to work hard at taking off the baby weight to reduce my chances of contracting Type 2 Diabetes. Instead, a barrage of back problems landed me at the chiropractor's office for six months and kept me out of the gym.

By the time I was seven months pregnant with my sixth son, my Gestational Diabetes had come back with a vengeance. Immediately upon being diagnosed I was put on insulin, and found that I had to continually increase my dosage to keep up with the growing level of pregnancy hormones. In my last few weeks before delivering, I stumbled upon the Paleo diet/Whole30 food challenge and had a sneaking suspicion that it would do wonders for my sugar numbers. I began altering my diet almost immediately with great results. Not only did my numbers decrease rapidly, allowing me to cut my dosages of insulin, but I found that my sugar withdrawal and cravings were almost nonexistent (or at least nowhere near as bad as other eating plans I have tried). I was excited to share my newfound knowledge with my big sis and encouraged her to send the news to our cousin ASAP.

My new son was born May 27th. I am getting back on my feet and am hoping to use the Paleo diet to drop these extra pounds and get my sluggish pancreas working well again!

The youngest of the sleuth - and the last to jump on the bandwagon. At 27 years old, I am currently the most active and fit I have been in life. Having never participated in sports as a child or teen, I steadily gained weight out of high school, reaching an unhealthy weight. I became active about 5 years ago, thus slowly taking it back off. It's been a difficult process, but after persistence I now have 7 months of crossfit and a half marathon under my belt.

Having chosen nutrition as my career, you'd think this would be easy - Far from it. I've dabbled in about a gazillion different types of diets (nothing extreme, I know better than that), but ultimately didn't stick to much of it. I've always had an extreme sweet tooth - but even moreso a bread tooth. Give me a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter and I will eat PB&J sammies until the cows come home. Not to mention the fact that all three of us have also acquired exceptional baking and candy making skills - easy to indulge when you know how to make delicious things....

After eating a steady diet of all high-glycemic carbs and virtually no protein (I gravitate towards vegetarianism and veganism as a general rule) I not only became physically ill but had exacerbated my already-wild insulin roller coaster. I lived on cereal and chocolate covered protein bars, and the abundant cake and cookies at work - constantly craving and crashing.

After learning that both Brigitte and Kimberly struggle as much as I do, I stopped beating myself up for lack of "willpower" with sweets and began to think about the fact that we could very well have a genetic link of blood sugar issues. After seeing their success, I decided to try.I'm not doing 100% Paleo - I am including nonfat and low fat dairy. It is still difficult for me to get adequate protein (as I'm getting used to eating meat regularly again) to counterbalance the heavy weightlifting I participate in. Other than that - going mostly-paleo has dramatically changed my entire physical well being, and I can't wait to see what other changes are in store.

Baers go Paleo

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

....... - Megan

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