Why I decided to go Paleo

Colon cancer runs in my family. My grandfather had his colon removed when he was in his early 20s and many other cousins have intestinal issues. My mom suffered since she was 7 with stomach ailments. The last 3 years she was in and out of the ER thinking she was having a heart attack. After a year and half of testing, a doctor finally concluded that she had a high intolerance to gluten.
Last year, during my annual exam, my doctor welcomed me to that magical age of mid-life and lactose intolerance. Whooppie! So, I did the two week test and eliminated all dairy from my diet and low and behold, I really did feel better. Some of the bloatedness I've dealt with for many years went away. But, I still had issues with not being able to walk ninja like down the hall or climbing and descending stairs or sitting down or standing up. Seemed like I had my very own personal announcement system internally built. How maddening! Especially when you didn't want anyone to know where you are or hiding at. I had enough!
I went to Amazon and ordered Mark Sisson's "The Primal Blue Print" and the accompanying cookbook. After the books entered the shopping cart, I got the "Here is what other people are ordering" box and they were introducing Robb Wolfe's new book "The Paleo Solution". I clicked on the pre-read and was hooked. He described an eerily similar story. That book went into the shopping cart as well. While waiting for the books to arrive, I decided to remove gluten from my diet. Within 3 days, my announcement system broke and the rest of the bloated feeling went away. LADIES! You know that pooch around the belly button that we attribute to childbearing and we feel that we need to do more sit ups to get rid of it? It isn't childbearing that gives us that rounded edge- it is the lactose and the gluten. My rounded edge was shaved. It was more of a plane in a downward dog kind of way. Reality hit when we had Chinese food for dinner about a week after no gluten. O-M-G did my belly hurt and my personal announcement system went haywire. It sure wasn't MSG.
One of the things Robb talks about in his book is being able to sleep better-without sleep aids. Really? I just bought a Costco sized bottle of Advil pm. Such luck. I waited until there was a week when I could test this theory. I slept like a baby. Then I had pizza and was wide awake at 1 am waiting for the world to come to life. That wasn't a good morning.