Paleo Challenge Recap

Well folks, if you can do the math, it has not in fact been 30 days since I started the Paleo Challenge, but I've already failed so I might as well jump ahead to the recap.

If you remember correctly, this challenge allowed me to eat nothing. Just meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs, and nuts. That's it.

I'm here to say that is near impossible for me for 30 days. Maybe I just don't have any willpower, but a life without cheese, bread, popcorn or anything that actually tastes good is not one I want to live.

But I'll give you the run-down on my thoughts of the challenge (in completely random order):

1. My stomach honestly does feel better (which was the whole point in the first place). I haven't had beer or pasta since I started the challenge and I can tell a difference. I did have to cheat and eat bread - it's incredibly hard to eat quick, semi-healthy lunches while eliminating sandwiches completely. My coworkers and I had lunch at Panera one day and I had a sandwich and salad. Oh well.
2. I hated how my coworkers had to narrow down lunch options because of my diet. The only way I even had a chance of surviving the challenge was to tell my coworkers what I could and couldn't eat. So every day when it came time to decide where we were eating lunch, they were constantly saying, "Oh, how about this place?" "Oh yeah, you can't eat there." And my poor coworker is several months pregnant and super sick, so the fact that she was worried about what I could eat instead of what she could stomach, really bothered me.
3. I actually like drinking my coffee black! This is shocking to me, as I always put a splash of cream and sugar in my coffee every morning. But once I got used to drinking it black, I don't even think about it now.
4. Having such a restrictive diet is completely impossible to maintain long-term. Especially since this was voluntary on my part. I wasn't getting a single ounce of calcium from anything I was eating, which I know isn't a good thing.
5. I missed my old breakfast of a whole grain waffle topped with peanut butter and bananas. It's one of my favorites and immediately went back into the rotation after I gave up on the challenge.
6. Almond butter is absolutely not a substitute for peanut butter. That is all I have to say about that.
7. Eating is one of my favorite activites of all time (go ahead and judge me) and this challenge made me hate meal time. Since I couldn't eat anything I actually wanted, I dreaded having to decide what to order in restaurants at lunch and for dinner during the weekends. It made me cranky. Some nights I just skipped dinner all together because nothing sounded appetizing. I also stopped trying new recipes completely because every recipe I want to try doesn't fit the "paleo" rules.
8. I'm glad I did this challenge (at least for 15 days), so I know I should probably limit the amount of grains in my diet and I don't think dairy is the culprit.
9. I do still plan on at least considering the things I order when I'm eating out so I can avoid the tummy aches later!

So while I may have totally failed at the challenge, I'm perfectly content with a dinner of chips and salsa.

So worth it.