Girl Scouts vs cavemen

They look so innocent . . .

There are a couple of dozen varieties of Girl Scout cookies at most, all of which are beloved by somebody, usually a lot of somebodies.  You probably know the drill -- the cookies are delicious, the salespeople are adorable (and often the daughters of coworkers or, worse yet, bosses), and the whole process is good for girls because it funds their activities and teaches them business skills.

Girl Scout cookies are also the reason we, in my family, decided that we would merely test the paleo diet, rather than simply embracing it.  The best way to switch over is to simply toss out all the food which doesn't fit and start from scratch.  We had cookies on order and they are just too delectable to reject like that, so we knew from Day One that paleo would just be an experiment until those cookies came and went.

For me, it's the Thin Mints which are my weakness -- eaten frozen with a cold glass of milk.  In my younger days, I could put away one of those cello-wrapped stacks without even feeling any bloat.  Now, though, they are just the kind of engineered overstimulation which leads me to seek out a diet which respects my body rather than treating it like a junk food processing plant.

So many flavors, so little time.

Now I'm not one to weigh myself, but after a week of eating paleo and hearing positive reports from my spouse, I tried to get into the habit.  I was quite surprised by the first number, which was a good dozen pounds higher than I expected.  A couple of days later and I had lost more than a pound, so I know the eating plan was having some effect.

Then, the cookies.  I knew I wasn't alone in eating them, but I also knew that they were my only chance to finish up the close to a gallon of milk we'd had to freeze lest it sour out of abandonment.  The cookies arrived Sunday, the milk was thawed by Tuesday, and by Thursday I had packed away probably a full box myself, and the rest of that milk.

First, the quantifiable:  I picked up two pounds just by giving up on avoiding the "bad foods" for a few days.  Wow.  Maybe it's because I am not in the habit of weighing myself, but I'm really surprised at how quickly those numbers on the scale can jump up and down.  No wonder people get obsessed about their size.

But the changes have been more than the merely measurable.  I'm more aware of my body now, simply by spending a couple of weeks being conscious of my food choices.  And with that awareness, I feel pretty gross after spending a few days going back to eating crap like cookies, pizza, and MSG-laden treats.

I like that I'm finding that a binge like this makes me feel disgusting.  It tells me that my body has had a taste of something it likes better, and it would like more of that, please.  There are cookies left, but I think I've had enough of them, thank you.