Could paleo ruin my life?

Today is Easter Sunday, what used to be my favourite time of year. No guilt associated with having chocolate for breakfast, hot cross buns smothered in nutella and then some more chocolate. You know, total sugary chocolate indulgence.

I’ve now been following the paleo way for 13 weeks now, fairly strictly. That means eating as organically as possible, and not eating any grains, no sugar, no dairy (although I have good quality natural yoghurt and good quality cheese twice per week or so), and avoiding legumes and potatoes.  Basically, paleo is eating seafood, grass-fed beef, pasture raised free range chicken and eggs, nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruit.  And I’ve always stated that I would aim to eat paleo 80 to 90 per cent of the time.

Today, being Easter Sunday, I chose it as one of my ‘off paleo’ days. I had a cappuccino, first one in 13 weeks – first time I’ve had milk in that time.  I started the day ok with paleo granola and almond milk. Then the panettone came out and I watched my dad and aunt dunk it in their coffee. I resisted it for about 30 minutes. Proudly, I’ve been quite good for 13 weeks, (besides one meal at Guy Grossi’s Florentino). The taste of panettone took me right back to my late Nonna’s suburban house in Glenroy (Melbourne) – fond and happy childhood memories.

After a light grazing lunch of seriously good homemade patè (made by my aunt’s husband John who makes the BEST patè – hoping to share a recipe with you soon), roasted capsicum, my uncle’s homemade Italian sausage, olives, and marinated white anchovies. All paleo, all good.

My stomach started churning soon after lunch, in an unpleasant bloated kind of way. For dinner we had beautiful roast chicken, slow roasted lamb, roast vegetable salad, and roast carrots and pumpkin. All delicious, and all paleo.

Then it was dessert – mum and I had made tiramisu earlier in the day, following a Guy Grossi recipe. It tasted beautifully creamy, but not nearly as decadent as the real deal at Florentino in Melbourne. Nothing about tiramisu is paleo – ingredients include marscapone cheese, sugar, liqueur, savoiardi Italian sponge biscuits, dark chocolate and coffee. It’s been my favourite dessert forever and today was a special occasion where I was going to allow tiramisu.

Then we had some lovely Margaret River Bahen & Co chocolate that I had brought to Mum and Dad’s with me, and some Yarra Valley truffled chocolates. One truffled chocolate made me feel a bit sick, nauseous. Of course we had to wash everything down with a few glasses of lovely wine, then some dessert wine – The Growers botrytis that we’d purchased on our last Margaret River trip. I enjoyed it all at the time, the truffled chocolate withstanding.

Then the affects started – within a couple of hours, I felt gassy, bloated, and just horrible. I felt like I was getting a sugar hang over, felt like my body was expanding, storing fluid. And I got a headache. My stomach was really upset. I did not feel good at all.

Has paleo ruined my life? 

Right now, it’s hard to imagine that I’ll ever be able to eat “normally” ever again. And you know what, if it makes me feel this this, I never want to. So no, it seems that paleo has changed my life, but not ruined it.

I actually can’t wait for tomorrow to eat clean.  Speaking of tomorrow, I’m quite excited. On the menu is dad’s chilli crab – if it’s as good as I remember, I’ll share the recipe with you soon 🙂

Hope your Easter excesses haven’t made you feel terrible x