If you are on this blog it is because you are either looking for paleo recipes and tips, are trying to figure out what this paleo thing is you’ve been hearing about, or are in my family and trying to help me get traffic to my site.  No matter the reason you are here, I am happy you are.

I started my journey into the paleo diet in september 2011.  Somehow I convinced my husband who for a long time thought I was losing my mind and becoming some kind of health nazi, to make this lifestyle change with me.  I also somehow got my 5 year old and 2 year old girls on board as well.  Granted, Sydney, my 2 year old is gonna eat what is put in front of her (most of the time), but I was worried about Rylee, my 5 year old.  She had just started kindergarten and it seemed that there was sugar filled birthday celebrations in her class twice a week with cupcakes and wheat filled snacks everyday.  But I did it.  I’m still in shock, but I did it.  And you can too!

Now about us.  We got married in 2002 and apparently decided at that point that we could eat anything and everything we saw and it was fine…well, about a year and a half later I had put on almost 60 lbs.  This is my picture from 2004:

When I saw this picture I got upset.  Not upset enough to stop eating all the junk I could find, but I got very depressed.  I was an athlete growing up, so getting fat was hard for me.  So not long after this photo was taken I started doing all the typical western crash diets… I failed miserably with all of them.  Then in 2005 I met someone involved with a supplement company who convinced me to spend $3000 to become an advisor with their company so I could get a big discount off of all their items.  I went full board into it.  I lost 30 lbs, and kept it off even after having my first baby in 2006, but with a new baby we just couldn’t afford to spend over $300 a month on supplements.  So we stopped taking them and I slowly gained 20 lbs.  Then I had Sydney and just decided to live with being fat.  I tried to hide it with oversized clothes, which in retrospect only made me look worse.  Now the entire time I was only concerned with my weight, and I didn’t care at all about what is actually healthy.

Then in 2010, I did something drastic.  I did the master cleanse.  I know, I know, it is really controversial.  I get that.  But it worked amazingly well for me.  I lost 15 lbs in 10 days and started to realize that I could do it.  so about a month later I did it again and this time my husband Jody did it with me.  We did it for 8 days.  I lost another 10 lbs and my husband lost 18.  At that point I started looking for ways to continue with a total day to day lifestyle change.  That is when  I found The Paleo Diet.  My Chiropractor was the first one to tell me about it.  Now something about me you have to know is, when I decide to do something, I do it, like automatically.  I don’t let myself think about it too long or I know I will talk myself out of it.  With the master cleanse, I heard about it, and went and bought the lemons and maple syrup that night.  So when I started researching paleo, I decided to try to get my husband on board as quickly as possible and a week later we got rid of everything that could be tempting out of our house.  Then we jumped in.  Since making this change, my husband has lost another 20 lbs, and I have lost another 30.  I have only worked out a few times and Jody hasn’t at all.  That is my next persuit.  But for me, paleo has been life changing for more than just weight loss.  I have had horrible migraines since I was 12 years old, and have been on medication for most of my adult life. I also have had sometimes paralyzing panic attacks and have been on anxiety medication for almost 5 years.  I now take 0 prescriptions.  Have not had a panic attack since getting all that processed junk out of my body.  That is completely life changing.

So, to sum up my really long first blog entry…I will finally cut to the chase.

I am 4′ 11 and in 2004 I weight 182 lbs and wore a size 16/18

today I am 123 lbs and wear a size 4

That’s my long story.  This blog will be a great place to go for recipes, tips and encouragement.  I will try to update at least once a day.