The Why's!

I've been overweight most of my life. I started gaining when I hit puberty and never really stopped. I've spent years and years struggling with my weight and trying out every fad diet I could. When I focused I could really drop the pounds in no time, but without fail within a year I'd lose focus and gain it all back. I loved food. I loved cheese. I loved bread. I loved sweets and man o man did I love Pepsi! After the birth of my second daughter, ad at my highest weight ever I knew I needed to get healthy. I needed a lifestyle change not just another fad diet. The moment hit me one day when my children were napping. I had a rare moment alone and a new addiction to netflix documentaries where I watched hungry for a change, followed by, fat, sick and nearly dead. Watching and hearing about how our food has become a chemistry experiment and how were just shoveling processed and refined foods into our mouths on a daily basis instead of focusing on what is natural and provided to us by mother nature opened my eyes. When was the last time I had veggies for a snack? I couldn't tell you the last time I ate a meal that didn't contain sugar in some form... and what really bothered me was how much my children were consuming. Yes, they loved vegetables (thank goodness) but between goldfish crackers, jello cups, yogurt, chips and candy how could I ever expect them to make healthy choices in the future? I needed to lead by example. Thus began our journey into the Paleo lifestyle. We chose Paleo because it made sense to us. Get rid of the gluten (my husband is celiac, so that was an important factor), get rid of the sugar and get rid of anything processed. If it contained a chemical name, it wasn't entering our bodies. We did a lot of research into the changes people had seen on this lifestyle. Weight loss (yay!), better skin, teeth, hair, nails. Nourishing the body instead of filling it with junk! Not to mention many people with chronic health issues saw them disappear. Having dealt with eczema and allergies my entire life, and both of us having families plagued by various types of cancer, we want to do the best we can to be here for the long run! The theory is that when the body isn't trying to combat all the crap you're putting into it, it has time to actually heal itself. And that's what it wants to do! We saw no harm in trying. So we began....