Paleo

Eating Paleo

One of the persistent and growing voices in the massive health and fitness community world wide is the collective support for people eating far less processed carbohydrates in their diet. This approach is known more commonly as eating “clean” or eating a paleo diet. As a practitioner of this style of eating myself, as well as a cheerleader for the practice, I am also well aware of it’s shortcomings. I enjoy trying to clear up points that might cause people to not look at paleo as a viable option.

Without going into too much detail, the “paleo” name is derived from the nutrition, rest, and exercise habits of our caveman ancestors. With regard to nutrition, the idea is that eating things directly from the ground (plants, fruits, vegetables, nuts) or animals with minimal processing (beef, pork, fowl, fish) is better for us than processed foods such as grains. Of course all the permitted items of the caveman are available today, but now there is the multitude of other choices which are derived from grain processes and/or packaged with preservatives.

Paleo says these processed foods are bad because our body, from an evolutionary perspective, is not built to digest these foreign chemicals. Additionally, grain or grain-based food consumption causes our blood sugar to spike which causes us to automatically store more of what we are eating as fat. Example of a paleo food choice moment: for breakfast choose eggs and sausage rather than a bagel.

Like I said above, I am a true believer in paleo for the reason that it worked great things in my world. In fact, I haven’t met too many people who haven’t reported looking and feeling better with the approach. Weight magically comes off and stays off without you feeling deprived.

So why isn’t everyone doing it? Well beside the lack of knowledge that the approach even exists, I would say the biggest reason is people can’t let go of persistent health myths. Things like obsessing over calorie counting and concerns about the relationship between animal fat and heart-related health issues cause people to quit before they even start. I think with time you’ll see many of those folks actually try it. The principles are too sound and the old answers out there have been proven a failure.

Why People Start But Don’t Finish On A Paleo Program
To me this is the group that needs to be turned if the idea of eating clean is to take hold on a large-scale basis. The folks who put their foot in the water for whatever amount of time, but don’t like the feeling of being wet. My opinion has been that they probably need to do some basic things differently in how they mentally approach the change. First and foremost, eating clean means changing your diet by at least 80% from what it used to be. If you were eating a lot of pasta, breads and cereals, they need to be slashed by 4/5 right off the jump. This represents the hardest commitment to make and stick to and for my money the biggest reason people stop and fall back into their old eating habits.

4 Basic Strategies To Eat Paleo For Life
For those who want to, but just don’t feel like they can when it comes to the whole paleo eating thing, consider these points to aid you:

Like I said above, you only need to be 80% compliant to start out. If you rid your diet of 80% of the grains and replace them with approved paleo foods talked about in paragraph 1, you’ll see astounding results. It’s important to understand that we strive for improvement, not perfection. 80% is definitely an acceptable baseline and that still leaves you a day a week to eat other things. I’ll be willing to bet that you’ll get to liking how you can eat all you want of the right things and still look and feel super. As you see success, you’ll eat even better.

Eat dessert after meals. Every meal if you want. If you do an internet search for “paleo desserts” you’ll likely crash your computer there will be so many results. Get into that immediately and have sweet treats on hand right from the beginning. Focusing on good flavor is a must. There aren’t too many of us who don’t like sweets. So start there.

When you pick restaurants during your time away from eating paleo, pick nice places and go there less often. Instead of doing fast food a day each week, go to a place you really like that might be pricier a day or two each month.

Measure your progress in how you feel after 14 days, and how you look after 30. Don’t expect anything prior to at least day 10. I’ll wager you’ll feel and possibly look better even sooner. That’s the anchor which will propel you forward to adopting this eating plan for life. (That and the end of worry about how much you are eating).

Cheryl Boswell is a writer and researcher on home fitness and health products. Check out a recent article on her fitness website here: http://bodyslimdown.com/george-st-pierre-workout-program-it-isnt-all-perfect-in-those-user-reviews/