What is extreme?

I've been steadily moving toward a paleo diet for the last year or so. Since I'm already gluten-free (and have been for 10 years), going grain-free was almost easy. When you cut out all gluten-containing grains, you actually have to work to fill in those spaces in your diet with grains that don't contain gluten. So instead, I eat an extra vegetable and forget about trying to work my diet around breads and pastas (which used to make up a large portion of our diet).

Anyway.

I've been reading the paleo hacks website on and off for a little while now. It's interesting. Through that site, I joined a group of women doing a 30 day paleo experiment. We've set our dietary goals and will be keeping track of everything we eat and do for the next 30 days. That gives me a good excuse to really push myself into doing a strict paleo trial, while keeping track of all those things like my measurements before and after and how I feel on a day-to-day basis.

Today on paleo hacks, there was this question: "Do you find yourself taking things to the extreme in your diet and/or exercise?"

Hmmm.... I'm fond of saying that normal is what you get used to, and any other week, I probably wouldn't have paid any attention to it beyond that. But this week, we have guests. Family. Family who do things much differently than we do. To summarize:

Even long before we had ever thought about low-carbing or being gluten-free or had ever even heard the term paleo applied to diet, back in the mists of time when we were raising our now-adult children, we were considered *mean* because we didn't let our kids have sodas and candy all the time. We probably allowed those sorts of things once a week. Maybe. We were still eating all those "heart-healthy whole grains", but when it came to sugar, I was the grinch.

Enter the family currently visiting us. If you consider white potatoes and ketchup to be vegetables, then the kids eat vegetables. They're typical picky eaters -- something we never dealt with because in our house, you ate what was put in front of you, or you went hungry until the next meal, not until you whined for whatever junk food was available. *ahem* And then there's the soda and "juice" drinks. Those kids (and their mother) never drink anything that's not sweetened. Water is a substance to be used only for taking a shower apparently.

What makes this all so much more frustrating for me is that this is the 2nd group of family members to visit us in the last few months. And again, 2 small children (although these 2 are significantly overweight) who drink nothing but soda and juice drinks, eat junk food snacks and cookies all day, pick at the real food served for meals and never touch a vegetable.

Back to the question: "Do you find yourself taking things to the extreme in your diet and/or exercise?"

For the next 30 days, I'll be eating real food. No grains. No dairy. No legumes. Plenty of meat, vegetables, and even some fruit. I'll be drinking water and unsweetened tea. So which of us is in the "extreme" category: the one eating real food that has been minimally processed before it was cooked for my dinner? Or the one who requires a whole industry to process the grains and sweeteners that they snack on all day long?