Back in the saddle

As I've posted before, Bou Bou and I follow a diet called "Paleo," which in a nutshell means we eat anything that was around 20,000 years ago and not much more. No grains, no dairy, NO SUGAR. We've never felt better. Sometimes we blur the lines a little by treating ourselves to a milkshake or Chick Fil-A, but we don't tow the line too much, especially when it comes to eating sugar. (This is the best article I've seen recently on the nasty effects of sugar on the body).

Until this weekend. We drove up to Tyler, TX to see my sister and her family, who arrived there Thursday for the summer sales season. We got there Friday night, already having eaten. My sister texted on our way up, asking if we'd join them for dessert that night. Sure, we thought. Why not. We went to an amazing frozen custard place and shared a concrete. Not too bad. More sugar than I'm used to at this point, but not so overwhelming I felt sick.

Ravenous the next morning, I woke up to a pantry and fridge full of grains and sugar-laden food. Powdered donuts, baked chips, bread, bagels, candy, cookies, you name it. Then light yogurt (aspartame has similar effects on insulin level that sugar does, so it's still bad), Crystal Light, diet soda, hot dogs (mechanically separated chicken, pork and beef in one saturated fat laden cylinder), cheese, cream cheese in the fridge. Eggos, ice cream and chicken nuggets in the freezer, plus a tub of pre-cooked brisket slathered in sugary BBQ sauce for Easter dinner. The only thing edible in the entire fridge were the eggs. You're probably thinking, "But this is what's in my fridge too!" And it used to be in my fridge too (except for the hot dogs).

Let me cut to the chase. After a weekend of eating the processed, pre-cooked, heat from frozen junk most Americans call food, Jeff and I were physically ill. The 4-hr drive back to Houston last night was absolutely miserable. I felt fatigued, nauseated, we had headaches, we were close to vomiting, we wanted to die.

There's real food and then there's fake food. Real food is found on the perimeter of the grocery store. It either used to eat something or came from something that used to eat something (eggs), or it grew in the ground. It has no additives, nothing bromenated, no partially hydrogenated oils, no trans fats. It definitely has NO CORN SYRUP AND NO SUGAR.

Jeff and I eat small portions of meat or eggs at each meal. Coupled with that are fresh vegetables. We eat one serving of fruit with breakfast usually. We add a few nuts and seeds or good oils to each meal. Upon finding out what we eat, a few people have commented to me, "Wow, your food bill must be insane buying all that meat and fresh produce." But it's not. I buy meat on sale. I buy in-season produce. Once I splurged and bought grass-fed ground beef (I plan on doing this more--the nutritional benefits are worth the price). I do mostly buy no hormone/steroid/organic chicken, but I'd rather buy full free range (not the pasturized free range imposter though!) There are ways to eat healthy and stay in budget.

My moral: If you often feel tired and achy, lack energy, crave sweets, if your energy levels crash, you can't lose weight/you gain weight, nothing cures your acne, (and the list goes on and on), you probably need to remove some foods from your diet. Going Paleo is the best thing Jeff and I have done for our bodies EVER. Jeff is at a weight he hasn't been at since junior high, I believe. I'm at a weight I last saw freshman year of high school. We are also lean! Jeff is so close to his goal of a six pack, and my hip rolls are finally small bumps instead of giant hills. Give it a try for one week and feel the difference! I promise you will not be let down!

Rumbly in the tumbly

Health insurance. A heated topic among many Americans. After my experience yesterday, I have some clue why.

My most "generous" employer (I should add "selectively") provides me health and dental insurance with no detriment to my wage. How nice! I do not have vision coverage, which for my four eyes, means I fork over a few hundred dollars a year in optometry visits and new contact lenses. I haven't had new glasses frames for probably five years; no new lenses for three. My glasses see my face for an hour before bed, if they're lucky, so I'm not as concerned with these, but I do need them.

Since being back from Costa Rica, I've suffered from "bowel issues." (They say the water is safe to drink there!!) Jeff hasn't developed any troubles, so I'm not sure what I ate or drank that spawned this fun. He thought I should see a doctor as soon as we returned to the States. I would have, but I'd never used my health insurance, so I was wary of the cost of seeing a doctor, especially since we spent a wad in CR.

Finally, yesterday, after 2.5 weeks of unpredictable intestinal fistfights, I decided it was time to pay The Man and get some antibiotics. I had no clue what my co-pay was, or even if I had a co-pay. I saw a PA for 15 minutes, long enough for her to diagnose me with what I'd diagnosed myself with, thanks to mayoclinic, and send in a scrip for some bug killers, and send me back up to reception to pay.

My heart raced. How much will this visit be? $25? $50? $100? No. It couldn't be over $100, I thought.

I was shocked when I was charged $117.34. All out of pocket. Insurance paid nothing.

This is how the real world is? This is why the little man wants Obamacare? This is why so many other countries have socialized medicine? This is why I want to find a new job? This is why insurance companies are evil? This is why I will procrastinate seeing a doctor, even in a matter of life or death? Because the partners at the company I work for make hundreds of thousands of dollars each per year, and I make about 4.6 percent of what they make? What if BouBou and I accidentally get pregnant? Literally, we couldn't afford our baby!!!!

It makes me sick. Many of you are probably worse off. I feel cheated. I don't think I'm alone in this either!!!