Lesson learned

This morning, I woke up feeling great. Well, that's not true. My kids kept me up all night and I only had a few measly hours of sleep, so I was tired. But I did feel lighter. No kidding. My usual belly bloat feeling was gone. I felt...skinnier. I have a scale in my bathroom. It mocks me every time I look at it. But I won't weigh until the week is up. If I weigh every day, I tend to get obsessed. But I just know I am lighter at this point in time. Sure, it's likely water weight; but it's weight lost, nonetheless.

Fast forward a few hours. Breakfast was fine; turkey bacon and a handful of grapes. But I totally, utterly blew it for lunch. My aunt and uncle came in from out of town, and I haven't seen them in over a year. They, along with another uncle, my parents, and my little family unit went to lunch together at Sam's Food and Spirits. I could've chosen a "healthy" option. But I thought, "What the hell. It's not often that we go out to eat, and I'm ordering whatever looks good." Big mistake. Big. (oh, and to be clear - on this diet you're allowed to "cheat" up to 3 meals a week. If weight loss is the goal, the less cheating the better. But it is allowed.)

I ordered an appetizer sampler as my entree. It included loaded potato skins, mozzarella sticks, green chile poppers, and deep fried vegetables. Oh, and let's not forget the side of fries. (ha!) First I should mention that even before the Paleo Diet began, I didn't eat that junk often - maybe a few times a year. But man. It looked good. So I ordered it. After a few bites of each appetizer, I started giving my food to the others at the table. I was starting to feel icky even while eating it. Before the meal ended (I was nowhere near finishing the whole plate), I got a terrible dizzy spell and thought for sure I was going to faint.

Fast forward again. About an hour after eating "the nasty" (the term I've always used for fried, cheesy junk on a plate), I felt absolutely horrid. I was bloated. I felt like I weighed a thousand pounds, and like I was trying to walk through molasses. I was a little surprised - what I thought was going to be *yummy* food turned out to be my nemesis. It's amazing how much better I have felt all week, just by eating Paleo foods. Suffice it to say I won't be doing that again anytime soon!!! Chalk it up to a lesson learned!!!

OK, so I redeemed myself for dinner. We had western omelets (well, more like western scrambled eggs) with green peppers, onions, kale, and tomatoes, sweet potato hash (I used yams. Honestly, I have no idea what the difference is, and it was my first time eating something other than an Idaho potato so I wouldn't know the difference in taste anyway!) with peppers and onions, and a few slices of avocado. It was quite tasty, and very filling! To me, the yams tasted just like white potatoes with a slightly different texture. Hubby told me I must be having allergy problems, because they tasted nothing like regular white potatoes. Who knows. They were good nonetheless!