ER nurse transitions to Paleo and now uses Practical Paleo as a textbook

A few years ago I would have laughed at you if you told me I would be writing a blog for a food website.

I regularly burned dinner, which mostly consisted of ingredients from a box.

I lived on fat free yogurt, and swore by bagels as being the ultimate health food.

Thank goodness for a wake-up call from the Paleo community.

I have the typical story: I started cleaning up my diet about three years ago after discovering Paleo through the CrossFit world. My family, including my two young children (ages 4 and 5), transitioned away from boxes and started enjoying delicious new recipes and playing in the kitchen.

We immediately started seeing positive changes in our health. As my kids started asking me, “Mommy, why are we the only ones that eat healthy?” I started asking myself the same question, wondering why more people don’t know about the benefits of real food and Paleo. I decided it was time to start educating others about how to break away from the SAD and the many chronic diseases that accompany it.

I work as an ER nurse, and a public health nurse in the School Based Health Clinics.

As a nurse, I get a lot of insight into how people take care of themselves. Since 2004, I have seen the number of people on prescription medications rise, along with skyrocketing rates of obesity and chronic disease. I have seen too many people suffer due to these modern problems knowing that, in most cases, this pain could have been avoided by implementing more effective diet and lifestyle choices.

I also get a lot of insight into how the medical world may be doing our society a disservice by providing outdated, inaccurate information on how to properly fuel the body for health and maintenance.

Over time, I realized that my nursing education did not provide me with the necessary nutrition education to truly help people. So, last Fall I enrolled in the Nutritional Therapy Practitioner program via the Nutritional Therapy Association.   This started my journey to providing healthcare, instead of sick care.

It was the beginning of my NTP program when Practical Paleo arrived at my doorstep and a light bulb went on.

I poured through the beautifully presented material and was pleasantly surprised at how simple and delicious the recipes were.  While reading the digestion section, I thought to myself, “This should be a textbook,” as it paralleled much of the information that I was studying in my NTP course.

So, a few months later, I have developed the Real Food Academy. I am thrilled that Diane has given me permission to use her “encyclopedia of Paleo” as a textbook to teach a class on nutrition.

This will be a 6-week course, during which time participants will go through a 30-day “reset.” The participants may choose a diet change for 30 days, and use the classroom and textbook information to guide them to better health.

The 30-days will give their bodies time to adapt to new fuel sources, and they will be able to observe and feel the changes that will be taking place. The “reset” can be anything from working on improving hydration to implementing a strict Paleo diet.

The Practical Paleo tear-out guides and meal plans will assist the class members in navigating the marketplace and creating culinary masterpieces. The content in the beginning of the book will be required as homework to supplement the concepts of the course, which focus heavily on the base of nutrition: digestion, blood sugar regulation, and fat.

I am also excited to be able to spread the word on local food resources, and the class will be held in our new local food hub’s classroom, Central Oregon Locavore, which has it’s own Weston A. Price inspired section. Participants will be able to step next door for pastured eggs before learning the benefits of this particular food in the health of the body.

I think back to all that the Paleo community has done for me in terms of teaching me about health and nutrition, and I look forward to giving back to it by spreading the word on how life can be free from modern health dilemmas by making the right choices.

Of course, I realize that we “nutrient seekers” (as Diane and Liz would say) are few and far between. However, I hope to change that by providing people with good ideas and information on how to break away from the SAD world we live in.

• For more information  
  
• FAQ about the Real Food Academy
• To register for the Real Food Academy
  
• Check out www.facebook/primalplaygroup for ideas on fueling hungry kids while following a Paleo/Primal/Real Food diet.