Life has been a bit crazy lately, so I’ve been trying to get back to simplicity. I feel like eating a more paleo inspired diet has made me a little Pinterest (or insert other foodie app here) crazy, and making lunch and dinner has basically become an all day affair. After a while, I realized that one of the advantages of the paleo/wild diet lifestyle is that food can just be super simple, because the quality of the food is so high.

I’ve found quite a few recipes for paleo bread and tortillas, but the reality is that even paleo approved recipes violate the spirit of the lifestyle. I use these recipes on occasion, but I’m trying to find ways to use more veggies rather than nut flours. I don’t really like collard greens, so I’ve been using romaine leaves to make wraps and tacos, and it’s been working great!

For me, the hardest part about maintaining a paleo lifestyle is that none of my friends or family eat this way, and that makes social occasions hard to manage. The Wild Diet advocates two cheat meals per week, and I’ve been trying to save those for when we eat with friends. The problem with this is twofold — I like to see my friends more than twice a week, and cheating (particularly with anything gluten/grain based) makes me SERIOUSLY ill. I knew I was a little bit sensitive to gluten, but I had no idea how bad it would be after not eating it for a week! I’m still figuring out how to manage this, but for now I just try not to leave the house hungry, and I try to bring a green/protein smoothie with me anytime I’m going to be away from my house for a while.

This has helped, but it’s not the same as having an active support system. My hubby has a friend at work that’s been eating this way too, and we’ve been trying to have dinner together at least once a week. It’s so nice to have someone who we can cook with and not worry about explaining food choices, and I love sharing recipes! 

We also have a few other friends and family members that are trying to eat a bit healthier too, and even though they don’t specifically eat paleo it makes it easier to find something we can all eat together.

I’ve also been using a free app, Yummly. It lets me put in preferences (gluten-free, paleo, etc.) that make it super easy to search for recipes. They even list how many ingredients each recipe has right on the front, so I can find the simplest recipes when I don’t have much time.

I’ve also been trying some new things to get Micah and Jonah to actually eat fruits and veggies. So far it’s not super helpful, but I’m going to keep trying different pictures and food combinations. Hopefully it’ll help eventually…

I also started working out regularly again a month ago, and it feels amazing to be active again. I’ll post my official weigh in this week, but I’ve lost some inches and 5 or 6 pounds already so I’m happy. It’s taken a lot for me to get my life organized to a point where I can workout almost every day, get my homework done, and still manage to spend time with the kiddos and the hubby. I’m not going to lie, I’ve fallen down a bit with keeping the house clean but the more active I get the more I’m noticing that I have energy and I’m getting more done around the house.

I’m also starting yet another round of spring cleaning/downsizing. I’m pretty sure the Goodwill down the street would go out of business without us! Funny how no matter how many times I do this every year, there’s always a couple of truckloads of stuff we don’t need anymore. At least getting rid of clutter always feels great, even if I just did it 3 months ago. 🙂

Do you prefer simple recipes, or getting crazy in the kitchen?