The Incredible Shrinking Booty?

2012 started out well, wonderful and rested after a week at home with mom and visiting family. Lots of sleep, lots of bonding time, and my sister and I trying to explain the phenomenon of hashtags to the Reilly clan. It was a great time.

I spent the first weekend of 2012 back in the hospital for tests, all seems okay for now. My slacks have been slipping off my waist a bit, looking a little droopy. (One of the first signs of weight loss for me is that my pantlegs suddenly get longer when my behind is not taking up as much room. Since I'm already short, this leads to me walking on the edges of my pants. Not fun.) Anyway, I thought I might have lost enough to try on some old pants, and so tonight after seeing Trainerman Alec for my workout, I came home, showered, and broke out The Pants The Preceded My Current Behind. (Also known as The Size Before, Minor Goal Pants, and The Pants of Hopeful Thinking.) Slacks one size down are just a little snug in the middle, but jeans one size down fit nicely. Hooray!

Four pairs of jeans have been resurrected from the Drawer Of No Return, and I've decided to have Trainerman Alec level up to Necromance Trainerman for bringing the pants back from the dead. I'm still a large lady, but things are moving in the right direction, and that makes me terribly happy. It also helps fuel me to stay on track in terms of hitting the gym, eating properly, and resting well.

Now, hashtag practice:

Do your booty fill your jeans? #mybootydo
Do your booty bounce? #mybootydo
Do your booty shrink? I can happily say, #mybootydo

Jumping Into Paleo: How I Got Here

My name is Colleen, and this is my entrance into the Paleo lifestyle.

After a long spring and summer of surprise joint issues, my rheumatologist diagnosed me with ankylosing spondylitis - as the docs explained it and from my skimming of some sources, it's a lot like rheumatoid arthritis with the added bonus that the joints are also attempting to fuse. The emergence of the joint issues coincided with a resurgence of my gut issues. Many sick days and two hospital stays later, the GI doc noted he can't say definitively that it's Crohns, but it's a possibility, since Crohns and rheumatic issues tend to cavort together. Whatever it is, carbs, processed foods, and dairy are pretty major triggers for me at this point. Doing a wee bit of research - I'm a librarian, it's what I do in times of uncertainty and stress - it sounded like cutting out all of those essentially left me with the Paleo diet.

I was hoping I could sneak through the holidays and start the paleo thing once Nana's Stuffing (and pumpkin pie, and cake, and various other delicious foods) season was over, but no such luck - after eating what I wanted for Thanksgiving, my innards duly punished me. And so here I am, saying goodbye to sugars and grains and legumes and dairy products and refined/processed foods. Excuse me for a moment while I desperately hug my boyfriends Ben & Jerry for a tearful goodbye.

And so, thus begins my paleo journey. As I type, I have two crockpots full of vegetables and beef bones simmering in the hopes of getting a decent broth out of it (I'll be posting about weekend mass-cooking soon). I'm scouring the 'net for other good paleo blogs with useful recipes that I'll try to pop into the blogroll for anyone interested, and I'll post good recipes as I discover them in my own kitchen. As I read more about the paleo lifestyle and gut issues, I'll be posting reviews, info bits, and bibliographies with links to the resources I find particularly useful. If you're a paleo veteran, I hope you'll stop by with tips and advice; if you're a newbie like me, I hope you find something useful here.