What We Like/What We Miss

Hey-Donna here. We are doing our first dual blog and we want to list what we miss as we get more paleo, and why we are happier with our new lifestyle.
First, what i miss...comfort food breakfasts...toasted english muffins dripping with marmalade or Terry's fabulous scratch pancakes.
Now what i'm glad to see go...prilosec, nexium, and tums...counting calories and oh, roughly 20 pounds.

Terry here. Number one with a bullet is macaroni and cheese. Close second is spaghetti. Then I miss pancakes - I made the best. Fourth is Fritos - especially covered in Helluva Good clam dip (which you can only buy in Connecticut). Finally, it would be bagels, although I miss them a lot less than I thought I would. On the good side, I'd say that my use of Rolaids has gone down about 95%, and, strangest of all, I have not had a snoring episode since I went on the plan, according to one who knows.

Make your momma proud

My wife insisted that I call my mother in Arizona and let her know that I had gone down a pants size. Mom had been lecturing me about my size for more than a few years, so that call made her day. Now she has taken to lecturing my little brother because he is headed in the opposite direction. It's not telling tales out of school to mention that my brother and I are not extremely close, so this would not be designed to improve that, but being thinner is the best revenge. Since she refuses to go online, I will need to send a picture of the New Me to her nearest Walgreen's for processing. For your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of the Old Me and the new me. Not hard to figure out which is which.

Cavey/Not Cavey

Hi, Donna here! I've been encouraging my husband to write the entries, but he has indicated that it is now my turn, and so I shall address "The Art of the Open Meal." Since I discovered this new way of eating because of my thyroid operation, I was very surprised that it had a name and many followers. If you are a strict "by the Paleo Diet Book" caveman, your diet would consist wholly of meats (non-wheat fed), vegetables, fruits, berries nuts, and seeds. This is almost impossible to follow, and I don't really think many people actually do. However, built into the diet is the fudge factor called "Open Meal" which gets you off the hook sometimes. We incorporate open mealatude several ways, i.e. a little pita bread to hold salad and salsa. But while we are not really cave people, we try to be as "cavey" as we can, especially in avoiding processed foods. Here is an example of a raw fish meal that is perfectly cavey. And here is an example of (eek) a breaded fish meal, that is decidedly uncavey. We ate and enjoyed them both!

That Magic Number

Baseball fans and Douglas Adams fans are both aware of the magical properties of the number 42. In Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a supercomputer is used to answer the question "What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?" The answer was 42. Then the computer had to spend a few million years answering the further question: "What is the question?"
Baseball fans will recognize 42 as the number of Jackie Robinson. Just before this number was retired for all of baseball, it was picked up by a skinny young relief pitcher in the Bronx - Mariano Rivera. If you are both a baseball fan and a hitchiker fan (like me), the number 42 automatically gives you the shivers.

What does this have to do with the Paleo Diet? For years I have been wearing size 44 pants. Over this weekend I went shopping at Penney's and got two pair of size 42 pants. This number speaks volumes about the effectiveness of this plan. I'll look forward to 40, but hate to leave 42.