When I originally launched Fridge Foragers in 2009 it was originally going to be a blog about creative ways to use up leftovers, batch cooking ideas, freezer cooking ideas, and so on.

Shortly after that, my family went on a gluten free diet when we suspected my daughter had celiac disease or gluten intolerance. At that point I thought I’d write a blog about gluten free cooking and review some gluten free products and so on. We lived gluten free for a couple of months but after celiac was ruled out as the cause of my daughter’s digestive problems and she was diagnosed with IBS the gluten free diet was dropped. If anything we began eating more gluten laden meals than ever.

In that time frame, from late 2009 until October, 2011, while eating a lot of pizza, pasta, bread and a lot of processed foods, I gained 20lbs. In addition to the weight gain, I was tired, depressed, cranky, had flu like symptoms frequently and had daily headaches. By this past summer of 2011, virtually none of my clothing fit. I felt worse than I ever had physically and mentally. For months I talked about exercising, eating better, making changes but I was all talk and zero action.

In September, 2011 I learned of the terminal cancer of a good friend, only 10 years older than me and the cancer of a cousin, only 7 years old than me. Last year a neighbour who was 5 years younger than me also died of cancer. My mortality was suddenly very much on my mind. The fact that, on the day of my friend’s funeral a few weeks ago, I could not find one item of clothing apart from a single pair of jeans and a few oversized t-shirts, that would fit me brought things into very sharp focus.

In mid October (I don’t have the exact date but likely around October 20th) I decided that once and for all I was going to get healthy. I’d heard about the Paleo diet (also known as the Caveman Diet and the Primal Diet) a couple of years ago and a lot of it made sense to me but up until now it was easier to call for a pizza or make some quick pasta than it was to change my lifestyle. Now things are different.

I’ve read a lot about the various diets and I’m following the Primal Blueprint now.

Essentially, the Paleo or Primal diet premise is that during the first 2 million years or so of human evolution, humans ate plants, nuts and animals. Whatever they could forage or kill. They were hunters and gatherers. Grains didn’t make an appearance in the human diet until around 7,000 years ago. Processed foods didn’t appear until the last century.

I’ve cut out all grains, including rice and corn, completely. So Primal is gluten free.
I’ve cut out sugar. I’ve cut out processed or packaged foods.  I’ve cut out eating things with chemicals or hormones injected into them.

So what it boils down to is that I’m now eating only grass fed, free range, hormone free meats, fish and eggs.
I’m eating organic and local vegetables and fruit.
I’m eating minimal organic dairy: butter, aged cheese and yogurt.

I began slowly, I was two weeks into this before I went completely grain free and completely grass fed and organic.

I’ve been doing this for about 3 weeks now and I’ve lost 15lbs. I can fit into clothes I haven’t fit into in 2 years. More importantly my digestive problems have gone away. I’ve gone from waking up with headaches that lasted until I went to sleep to having had only 2 mild headaches in 3 weeks. I feel more energetic. My mood has improved. I sleep better and I’m not having that mid-afternoon sleepiness I used to get. All food cravings have stopped.

So the new Fridge Foragers will be about this new lifestyle I’m taking on. The food, the movements, the changes it’s making in my life physically and mentally.

Welcome. Pull up a rock around the fire!