The Paleo Mama

Homegrown and Handmade

Starting Paleo

My First Cave-mama Kill

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Dividing up our kill

So this is what a whole cow looks like! We went in with 4 other families and bought a whole cow to share. Of course, we didn’t have to do the dirty work (how un-cavewoman like of me) but we are now reaping the benefits of having yummy, grass-fed beef. We got 1/4th of a cow and I am hoping it lasts us 10 months or more. We have bought 1/8th of a cow before and I stretched it out to lasting us 5 months. But, we got so much more this time around. We got it from a local farmer to Savannah out at Treutlan farms (https://www.treutlenfarms.com/).

For 1/4th of a cow we got: 64lbs of ground meat, 8 rib eye, 9 TBone(some look like they may have NY strip attached), 3 Liver, 7 Sirloin, 4 roasts, and 7 cube steak. The cost was $4.50lb (everything included) and delivered to my house to split. The cow weighed 750lbs on the rail! Big boy!

I am a firm believer in buying local and knowing where your meat comes from. I was at the grocery store the other day looking at the meat prices and ground chuck was ON SALE for $4.99lb. And that isn’t even grass-fed. That stuff is also sprayed with preservatives and loaded with antibiotics and other nastiness.

Buy local! And second best option, buy your meat from a meat market. They aren’t sprayed with preservatives.

My Paleo Story

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Yay!!! I have been talking about Paleo for so long now, I thought I should start documenting how Paleo has changed my life, start documenting recipes and things I cook, and start sharing with the world how Paleo is FOR EVERYONE!!! My goal for this blog is to present Paleo options to my readers on how to be a modern-day Paleo mama; not only in choosing healthy options for your families to eat, but also in loving and caring for the earth, living sustainably, and loving the Creator of it all!

A couple days ago a very popular Paleo website, www.paleoparents.com, asked me to write an article for them on how Paleo has helped my family. I follow them on Facebook and they had a status update on how they love bacon. Who doesn’t!?! I commented and said that my husband had jumped on the Paleo-train with me and this past month and his cholesterol had dropped 61 points in just one short month of eating Paleo!!! That is insane! I knew Paleo would work, but I never dreamed it would work THAT good! So, here’s my story I sent in to them explaining how Paleo not only lowered my husband’s cholesterol, but also, helped me to overcome some things I was dealing with too.

My Paleo journey began in October 2011 out of curiosity. My friend had talked about it, and since we already were real food eaters I thought that this wouldn’t be that much more of a stretch for my little family of 4. I had just had 2 babies in 2 years, so I had the inevitable pooch pouch and just “Ick” feeling all the time. Two months prior to my Paleo journey I gave birth to my second baby. A month prior to starting my Paleo journey I had very tragically lost my younger sister, and in that month after her death I had put on a good 5-8 lbs. I felt terrible. I had weight from my pregnancy, and now I had extra weight from the stress of losing my sister. Not only did I feel miserable physically, but mentally I was really struggling as well. I was diagnosed with depression and parts of post-traumatic stress disorder, so needless to say, I was one big mess! I needed something and I needed it fast.

My husband wasn’t on board with me at first. I didn’t push him, because I wanted my life and health on Paleo to be evidence enough. After I started with this new way of eating, I felt so much better. My mind felt clearer. I could function more thoroughly as a mother and as a wife. My depression went away. I felt more confident. I felt like the clouds had cleared, and I could now see ahead of me again.

It was around the same time that I started Paleo in October ’11 that I had asked my husband to get off his statin drugs. He had struggled with high cholesterol for 4 years, and had been on a statin drug ever since. He agreed to get off his statin, but didn’t make any significant changes in his diet. A few months later around December’11 he went in to see what his cholesterol numbers were and they were 250—much higher than the recommended 200. So, he said he was going back on his statins. I pleaded with him to give Paleo a try with me for the month of January and to retake the cholesterol test at the end of January. He agreed! We did the Whole30 Challenge together from January 1st-January 30th.  We ate the approved foods for “strict” Paleo, which consisted of lots of red meat, bacon, sausage, eggs, nuts, fruits and vegetables. We had no dairy, wheat, beans or sugar. My husband retook his cholesterol test when our Whole30 Challenge was over and his numbers dropped from 250 to 189!!! We were shocked! We had also lost a combined weight of 35 lbs in just one month of eating Paleo (45 lbs if you count from October when I started Paleo).

We are now, wholeheartedly, Paleo believers and have a happy Paleo family consisting of a Paleo toddler and a Paleo baby! This lifestyle has changed our lives pretty drastically in so many ways!

(You can read the article here: https://paleoparents.com/2012/guest-blog-how-paleo-reduced-cholesterol-in-30-days/)