Stepping Stone to Paleo

    I wanted to be a nutritionist when I was growing up. Food excites me. It all started when I was in Grade V. We had this subject, Home Economics, wherein I was a leader of one of the 4 groups in my class. This subject was about home management and caring for your home and family. We were taught how to run a family properly, handicrafts, sewing, cleaning a house, cooking, baking, nutrition, even how to plan a balanced meal. I was always excited to learn anything about this subject but what really sparked my interest  was food and nutrition. Hence, I started to read about food, what it does to our body, what the nutrition value of a certain food is, and recipes!

    I baked my first cookie when I was 12 and have been baking since then. It gives me a certain high every time I see my baked products. But after all the butter, gluten from flour, sugar that I consumed for the past 40+ years, I acquired this problem in my stomach. I had hyperacidity or acid dyspepsia which later led to stomach ulcers. Good thing it was treated with medication but from time to time I still felt bloated and acidic. Until recently, Paleo diet was introduced to me, but I did not attempt to try it right away. My husband then was having problem with his knee and the doctor advised him to lose weight. I had now reason to try Paleo diet for him and for me.

    I started searching for Paleo in the net and found this. I began cleaning up my pantry. Little by little, I got rid of the canned goods (except for the tuna), the instant noodles, the soy sauce, refined sugar, salt, cornstarch, flour, butter, milk (evaporated and condensed), cheese, seasonings. I looked for substitutes that are paleo, like coco aminos for soy sauce, coco sugar for refined sugar, coco flour for all-purpose flour, coco milk powder for milk, sea salt for salt, and recently, oyster-like coco sauce for oyster sauce.

    For 30 days we tried the Paleo diet, and I lost 10 pounds while Tommy lost 15 pounds. We never felt as healthy as before, as slim as before and most of all I do not feel bloated and do not feel any gas pain in my stomach anymore.

     I may no longer be baking my favorite goodies, but I am more satisfied now that I do what first attracted me to food - cooking what is nutritious and good for the health of the family. My goal for today is to create a dessert and baked goodies using Paleo-friendly ingredients. Hope to come up with my creation in the next two weeks or so. And yes, this is included in my 60 before 60.