First week of straight paleo.

Blew off some much needed steam at the Halloween party last night. Whut? Halloween in November?

Look, med students don't celebrate much of anything on the given day unless it's right after a test.

Anyway, there was a foosball table present, which made me very happy. It's pretty much the closest thing I'll get to team sports. It's a really fun game for me because I'm good enough to play, but novice enough to get a lot of challenge. The game stays interesting that way. My parents can still whip my butt, of course. But if I had the money, and they had the space, that's what I would buy them for Christmas. I'd rather have a foosball table than a television. That's the truth.

In other news, the autopsy I was supposed to attend was canceled, so I rescheduled for right after Thanksgiving. I'm actually sort of happy about this, because I had a discussion paper to write(just finished!) and I also need to discuss creating an advanced directive with my parents for ethics. And of course, there is a LOT of cleaning to do in the fish tank after ignoring them for my exams.

I also need to buy the guys some more food, because right now they're fighting pretty viciously over a piece of zucchini I threw in to tide them over. At least, as much as a goldfish can fight.

But! That is neither here nor there. I'm writing this to give a 1 week update on my paleo diet.

Stuff I've learned going 1 week paleo.

1. I thought I would miss dairy more, but I don't. Having my Yogurt back might be nice, but it's not a major issue for me. Besides....

2. The fridge is exploding with vegetables, and I don't work at it, they'll never be gone. After that huge shopping trip to start myself off with, My first CSA box came in, with more vegetables. Then my boyfriend came over and bought mostly meat, but yet more vegetables. Then the second week rolled around, and my second CSA box came in, with more vegetables. There's a lot of vegetables in my house right now. Let's say it one more time to get it out of my system. Vegetables.

Yet this set up is far superior to what I was doing in the past. For one, I'm getting a variety of veggies from my CSA box. Lots of greens I wouldn't normally buy. So I'm not getting that sick feeling when you eat too much of any one thing. The apartment always has some stock of fresh food in it and there's plenty of meat hoarded in the freezer so I didn't get really weird and starved right before that last test.

Don't get me wrong, my diet was still kinda weird. I get less willing to cook the closer to an exam. On exam day I ate 5 boiled eggs before the day was over + the last grapefruit and the last apple. Still. Five. Boiled. Eggs. I think I'll be sick of those for a while.

3. My sugar cravings are actually becoming quite manageable. My roommates still make a bunch of sweet wonders in the house, and I am always welcome to them. There is a vanilla rum glazed pull and peel pumpkin bread loaf on the counter right now, but it's not particularly tempting. Really, it's not. I can play the taste and texture of it in my head and it might seem pleasant, but it doesn't pull. I haven't gotten any crazy cravings since that first time I ate my apple with cinnamon and cocoa powder. I made the recipe again, and it wasn't nearly as OMG awe inspiring as before.

4. Things have gotten sweeter. Sometimes that's a great thing. The fruit at the Halloween party was awesome last night. Everything was excellent. But sometimes you get a sweet undercurrent from something completely random, like a vegetable or a meat. Just barely there. And you wish it wasn't. It's a bit weird to have so much food taste sweet.

5. I'm continuing to lean out, and it's kinda making me wonder how much water I was holding. It just doesn't make sense to me to drop so much weight so quickly. (and besides my candy cravings, so painlessly). Now I've never been overweight. I am 5'6" and by the end of my first year of medical school I was 139 pounds at my peak. Just ate a bunch of food, feeling bloated, etc. I was 135 in the mornings. Then I went overseas for the summer to work in a clinic, caught a nasty flu, and dropped 10 pounds. I started my year hovering around my undergrad weight of 128, and comfortably went back to 130-132. Now I've only been cutting grain for 2 weeks, but I'm weighing in around 125-127. I feel fine, but it seems to be a bit crazy for me. I'm just a regular sized person. I don't do much exercise beyond walking to class, and running when late. Losing weight this quickly, I'm just suspicious. That's all.

But I did have my period last week so I guess that could explain for continued weight loss? Whatever, If I lose too much, I'm going to start weight lifting again.

6. The only way to keep my eating easy, is to cook too much food and eat left overs for lunch. I don't know the equivalent of a paleo sandwich, and I haven't figured out any "lunchy" foods beyond salad and meat. And screw that. I'd rather eat dinner again.

7. This is weird, but I actually kinda miss my sugar cravings. I mean, what I am going to get all worked up over now? I mean, crap...I'm gonna have to find a new passion in my life or something. If you think it's boring to eat a diet without sweetness, it's not. Because everything changes and starts becoming sweet anyway. What's boring is to feel so dang reasonable about it. You miss the emotional roller coaster that goes with the food. Yeah, I know. It's odd. But there's some truth in there.