Well, it's the start of the year, which means one of several things are going on: 1) I'm trying to blog regularly again or 2) I'm trying a new form of diet.

Surprise! It's both.

We'll see how long each lasts; I have lots of intention and not always good follow-through.

But in the effort to have one feed the other (no pun intended) I'm going to give it a shot here, wherein I mention just what weird stuff the Paleo diet is doing to me. Hopefully, weird stuff will equal "drop off the ridiculous extra poundage you've had on you for some time now" and then I'll be thrilled to be blogging about it.

But a few props: I got inspired by Heather Armstrong's post at her Dooce site a few months back:

http://dooce.com/2011/08/03/wherein-i-go-touch-more-insane

In theory, Paleo (that is, Paleolithic diet) is just another way to try and trick your body into being full while still dropping weight — viz., Atkins. But I liked her approach — she didn't see it as a whole-life-changing schmear, but as something that she could take week by week. It helps that Heather Armstrong does not appear to have ever been overweight (really) in her life, but I digress. I was interested. So I got the book, checked up on the Website (http://thepaleodiet.com/store/the-paleo-diet-revised/) and did some reading.

It ain't super-simple: No grains, no dairy, no starches, no sweets other than say, from fruits and dried fruits. Yes, I did repeat that: Fruits and dried fruits. But the other thing that hooked me is that they swear you simply will not be hungry and are not sitting around measuring out every single ounce of every single thing you're eating.

That worked for me.

I started today — after really having a chow down holiday season. Sometimes that's the way to go; you want to get sick of eating all that crap and remind yourself just how sluggish it makes you feel, so you can jump right into the other stuff.

So here I am, most of the way through the first day. I had eggs and fruit and carrots and raisins for breakfast (there is a sample meal plan in the book, which I'm adhering to for now); lunch was tuna with onions and celery and homemade mayo (with flaxseed and olive oil), plus lettuce, and no-salt almonds on the side. Truthfully, I'm not hungry. Or I'm about 10% hungry, that kind of hungry you get when you're mouth- but not stomach-hungry. I will say that the "Brockaway Tuna Salad" I made as per the recipe — which had 1/4 tsp of paprika — kind of blew my head off. A little spicy, and I've had a bit of a headache since about lunch.

Then again, that could be from the one non-Paleo thing I'm allowing myself for now: Cherry Coke Zero. One mugful, which is fair. I will say that I've also felt a bit buzzed. I've been very productive today.

Downside: Aside from the restrictions, there's a lot of prep work for much of the meals. With January usually being a quiet month for freelance, that could work in my favor. But it isn't the same as popping a frozen meal in the microwave and coming back in 5 minutes. This takes some effort.

So here we are, day one, second day of the new year. Will update — hopefully — daily!