I'm SO excited to share with you all this brand new
Paleo journey that I'm taking my family on for the next 2 weeks!! I will be posting blogs, videos and pictures on FB and IG through all of my social media feeds and I would love for you to follow along. Bare with me, as this first post will be the longest as I tell you a little bit of our story as well as WHY we've decided to give this path a try.
If you know me, you know that I generally don't believe in "diets" or the idea that "one-size-fits-all" when it comes to what we should be eating. Every body has its own requirements and it's our job to figure out what foods provide us with the energy and vitality that are needed to live our fullest, healthiest life possible.
You may or may not know that I've been mostly vegetarian for the past 13 years. Sometimes I'm very strict about it, sometimes I'm not. I typically just go with how I feel because I deeply believe that our bodies will unfailingly tell us what we need through our levels of energy, how we're feeling, what we're craving, etc.
Sadly though, over the past 6+ months I lost my passion for being in the kitchen. Life got super busy and cooking (something that I truly love to do) became more of a chore than something that I enjoyed. I also got tired of making the same old things that never pleased the whole family (3 adults and 3 kids). So, I began to settle for less on what I was feeding everyone. I'd make separate meals which usually meant something healthier for the adults and something mediocre for the kids. Lately, it really started to get to me. My #1 commitment in life is to give my family the best in everything that I can, so how was I going to get over this major funk in the kitchen?
And then I no longer had a choice. I wasn't sure if I was going to share this next part of our story publicly or not, but one thing I know is that by sharing the REAL stuff in life then others can benefit in their own struggles. It is my hope that in sharing this part of our family's journey that you will gain something for your own life journey.
Last week we found out that our 8 year old son, Eddie, has Complex Partial Epilepsy. You may have followed some of
his story over the past 8 years. His issues have been pretty minor and very manageable. However, more recently we began noticing something a little more concerning - periods of complete absence, loss of memory and/or knowledge of his current setting. (We'll keep this part of the story short for now.) And so the tests began (physicals, EEG, MRI, etc.) and our suspicions were confirmed.
Once the devastation settled, reality set in. Something had to change. I knew deep in my being that the kid who would eat pizza at every single meal if he could, had to change his diet. And that meant this mama was going to have to have a solid plan. Whatever the plan was going to be, it needed to include the entire family.
[Parts of our family meeting will be posted on Youtube.]
After conducting much of my own homework as well as already having some intuition telling me that Eddie needed to be eating more meat, I reluctantly decided it was time to start bringing more meat into the house. After a few very DRY and not-so-yummy attempts (I've never been one to cook meat), the first person I could think to help me on this path was my amazingly talented and passion-about-food friend, Camille from
Recipe RX and
Paleo Living.
It couldn't have been more perfect that she was literally JUST launching her own program to help people transition into a healthier lifestyle, called
Paleo Cooking at Home: Fast, Easy & Cheap. I quickly jumped on her affiliate program last week, went shopping on Sunday and began our cooking journey on Monday (yesterday). No time to waste!
>>>>>
Meet Camille here!!<<<<<
And now the journey begins.
Sunday we completely overhauled the kitchen... out with the crap, in with the real food!!
Our first dinner was last night (Almond Coconut Crusted Chicken - holy heavens!!) and EVERYONE (yes, I said everyone) LOVED it!! So far, we have made last night's dinner, today's breakfast (plantain crepes) and lunch (tuna salad wraps), and all of them have been a hit!!
Words cannot express how exciting it has been in just 24 hours to make meals that the whole family loves! I'm seriously ecstatic!! I'm already thrilled to be back in the kitchen and I feel like this is exactly what our entire family needed to get on track.
Be sure to follow our 2-week "Pachecos Go Paleo" journey on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and now Youtube!!
