How To Successfully Diet The Paleo Way

For the month of July I took on the challenge of trying out the Paleo Diet. It’s a pretty popular diet most people have heard about, but may not totally understand. Nerd Fitness says it’s pretty well, “If a caveman didn’t eat it, neither should you.” Now don’t confuse that with thinking everything must be eaten raw or cooked over a campfire. It just means stay away from processed, man-made, fake food creations. You do have culinary freedom to be creative with the caveman ingredients, and put together some fun meals that will satisfy your taste buds, and make a caveman jealous.
Once you get past the negative connotation that this diet can give off – it’s no fun, it’s not realistic, it’s too difficult – and you sit down and actually give it a try, it’s not that bad. Really. I’m being serious.
What I like about a structured diet is that it has a list of foods that are acceptable to eat, which makes grocery shopping a heck of a lot easier. Here’s the list, and thus that I is what I buy. As this diet does not require you to measure or weigh food, you can literally just throw a bunch of stuff together in a pan or pot and voila, dinner is served! If you struggle with coming up with recipes on your own, and having to switch from your typical go-to meals, simply head on over to Pinterest.
So how does one get started and actually succeed at this diet?
- Do a quick read online and understand what the diet entails.
- Go in with a positive, excited attitude. If you’re a downer and skeptic from the start, then you’re going to last about two days and likely complain a lot.
- Stick with the list, but be realistic. I know hardcore paleo dieters would likely give me grief about this, but if you can’t find (or afford) the organic or grass-fed version of a food item, the regular item is fine if it is still healthier than whatever other alternative you used to eat.
- If you don’t want to give up alcohol, switch to red wine. If you don’t like red wine, well there’s more than one type, and likely there is something out there that’ll satisfy your drinking urges.
- Prepare for future meals. You don’t have to do an entire meal prep, but for instance, today I will take out meat or fish from the freezer and put it in the fridge so it is ready for breakfast or lunch tomorrow. I don’t want mealtime to come and I’m left with minimal choices, or only bad choices, simply because I didn’t take 15 seconds to thaw out something the day before.
How did my challenge go? After having done the Zone Diet strictly in May, and then semi-strict in June, my body is pretty used to this type of eating now. I had lost several pounds in May and June and my body has stayed the same in July. I think it is now sitting comfortably and I need to give a swift kick to get it going again.
Note: This diet did not have a negative impact on my ability to exercise. I still have plenty of energy. I know for many active folks that is always a concern, but I did not find it to be the case for me. Now if you are completely changing your diet, it may, but in just a short period of time, your body should adjust positively.
I have decided my August challenge will be all about running. I have a half-marathon to run later in the month (that starts at 4:30 AM, ugh!) so my focus will be on discussing tips to get started on a running program, how to stick with it when it sucks, how to improve your endurance, and so on…
Stay healthy and active, friends!