Eating Paleo has sustained me and my family for over a year. The longest that any diet change has lasted me, before Paleo , was 2 months, and that was when I was doing Weight Watchers. I was a diet nomad wandering from place to place trying to find a way of eating that would stick. Eating Paleo works. It sustains. I will never eat another way.
I want you to be able to say the same thing. I often hear that someone has “tried” Paleo but they couldn’t keep up with it. I’m often bewildered by this because eating Paleo has become a simper lifestyle for my family. I don’t want you to fail. I want you to thrive on Paleo.
Here are some signs that you might be on the road to becoming a “Faleo Paleo”:
- You try to just eat just lean meats (because you don’t believe fatty meats are good for you) like chicken, turkey and fish, yet when you head to TGI Fridays with your friends you order a burger and hungrily eat it like you haven’t had food in ages. Then you decide that the Paleo diet is ridiculous and you give up.
- You stress over every little bit of food, if it’s Paleo or not, and after a while, the stress frustrates you so much that you say, “screw this” and go back to your old way of eating.
- You are ill-prepared when starting out and cravings get the best of you. You give in to the remains of your kids mac n’cheese, engulfing them like a starved vulture. You think, “oh how ridiculous is this,” and then proceed to eat the rest of the mac n’cheese on the stove, a half bag of sour cream and onion chips, and the half-eaten corn dog.
- You, literally, believe we should eat like a caveman…literally. Caveman didn’t eat almond butter. Caveman didn’t eat coconut flour. Caveman didn’t eat canned tuna. Cavemen didn’t eat Paleo cookies.
- You criticize other Paleo-eaters. You criticize their butter, their heavy cream in their coffee, their white potatoes, their quinoa, their non-organic meats, their store-bought eggs, their frozen veggies, their raw dairy…how could they call themselves Paleo, you wonder?
- You change your diet to Paleo, yet you keep feeding your kids garbage. This garbage makes its way into your mouth and you give up.
- You leave no room for grace, pizza or beer. You think that you must be 100% Paleo for it to work.
- You’re not losing weight. You quit the first week because you didn’t lose any weight.
- You think Paleo is too expensive. You compare the expense of eating Paleo to your old, coupon-clipper days and decide it’s too expensive.
- You stay away from healthy fat. You can’t, for the life of you, see how eating healthy fats like olive oil, coconut oil, palm shortening, and butter/ghee is healthy, so you resort to baking your chicken breasts without any flavor.
Before you quit, try this…
- Plan ahead for dining out and, also, realize that all kinds of meat bring nourishment in their own way! I have a great guide written up here that includes suggestions for top chain restaurants.
- Don’t stress. Make the best choices you can and when you want to indulge, do it! I have pizza once a week. It’s my dirty, little, Paleo secret. But it keeps me grounded. Just don’t do it everyday.
- MEAL plan, meal plan, meal plan! Take a look at my Pinterest page for lots of recipes and, also, consider eMeals.com
! eMeals.com
- Paleo is a guideline. Please don’t compare us to cavemen. Yes, Paleo replicates their style of eating, but c’mon! We use KitchenAids and food processors and mandolin slicers. We got it easy…let’s appreciate and accept that and stop thinking you have to do everything like a Neanderthal.
- Not everyone is as rich as you, dude! Some of us don’t have much money to work with and we make the best choice we can. Yes, we know grass-fed beef and free-range chicken is ideal…we, also, have some guilt that we can’t give our family that option. We do the best we can. And, stay away from my butter in my coffee! Read my suggestions for saving money!
- Stop giving your kids garbage and feeding yourself like royalty. I know changing a child’s diet is hard, but make some effort to rid processed foods from their diet as well. If you need help take a look at what I feed my daughter. It is possible! One small step toward this is all that is needed. Then keep building upon that.
- I am about 80% Paleo. I will NEVER, and I repeat, NEVER be 100%. If I was Paleo would feel like more of a diet than a lifestyle. I prefer to leave room for some indulgences because it keeps me balanced.
- Your body needs time to adjust to a new way of eating. It also takes time to find that balance and learn what foods your body can handle and which ones restrict weight loss. For me, it’s nut butters. I have to be very careful with nut butters and nuts, in general. Now, I rarely, eat them. BUT, it took me months to figure this out! Months of plateaus. Months of the scale not moving.
- You will have a hard time finding coupons for meat, produce, almond flour, and healthy oils. It just doesn’t happen much. However, you need to realize that your health, and your family’s health is worth the extra expense. And it might not even that much extra. I think I spend around $100-$130 a week on our family of 4.
- You must have heard it by now that fats are healthy. Well, take it to heart. Fats are good for you. Stop being scared of them. Take a look at the proper portion-size is for healthy fats here.
I hope this posts helps you realize that Paleo does NOT have to be all or nothing. Paleo is a guideline. It is not a diet. Yes, many people do it to lose weight or because they have allergies to gluten/dairy/soy. Be easy on yourself and make the best choices you can! This will help you succeed. This will help make Paleo become a part of you.
I love this! Thanks for telling it like it is and making me feel a little more…normal, maybe? I’d love to see success like yours and to achieve that I know I have to…just do it! 🙂
This just rocked my world!! I just did the 21-day sugar detox last month after only having “gone Paleo” a couple months prior. It was awesome and also rocked my world but the last week or 2 after the detox have been eh.. rocky to say the least. But this definitely helped to put things in perspective and give me a little boost – I need to chill out! 🙂
Thanks Kim and congrats on the sugar detox!!!
I want to hug you. I switched to REAL food back in October and have seen some results, but have been toying with going Paleo. (I did a wheat free January, except for 2 times toward the end of the month.) Cutting out the processed stuff was easier than I thought, but, while I can give up wheat/grains 95% of the time, I don’t want to give up cheese or sour cream 100% of the time. I think that’s what’s been holding me back.
So often we strive to be 100% perfect and follow everything to the letter, we forget that we’re human and sometimes we should indulge. Pizza once a week sounds like an awesome idea. I make an awesome pizza. It never occured to me to have one day (meal) a week where I can have “the things I shouldn’t eat” (like a cheeseburger with a bun, or a couple of slices of my homemade pizza).
I think I might be able to get my husband to go along with this as well… Except he won’t give up drinking milk. I’ll probably never get him to change that. But he did give up soda. Lesser of two evils, I say.
Just found your blog via Paleo Parents, and now I’m gonna read it more!
Thanks for the reality check!
Congrats on your awesome transformation! I love this list of guidelines. We all need to keep things in perspective and not become victims of dietary-OCD.
Since going paleo a month ago my daughter and myself have each lost between 5-7 lbs. We too are not die hard paleo. We do allow ourselves to give into temptation at least once a week but have found that since we’ve been eating so healthy we don’t care for that much junk food anymore. We love how we feel eating paleo, more energy and no more stomach upset. It amazes me that so many people eat so much junk out there! I realized tonight that we have not had any bread or pasta in a whole month and haven’t even missed it. Love the inspiration and daily recipes on your Facebook and web pages!
This is just what I needed to read. I am on day 20 of the 21 DSD and its the first detox I have ever done. I am also just entering the paleo lifestyle and tend to go overboard with stuff. I was starting to do that and realizing that it was driving me crazy. I am also trying to figure out how to change over my kids and my husband without being a nag and know-it-all. My son will be tough since he doesn’t “do” veggies. This post made me realize that I can relax a bit once my 21 days are up. But I love the results so I definitely don’t want to go back to my old ways 100% or even 50%. I think like you I will aim to be 85-90% Paleo.
Jackie, I’m SO glad you wrote this blog entry…It couldn’t have come at a better time. Both of us being Army wives and the stress that goes with it, has taken its toll on my lately…almost to the point of totally returning to my old eating habits…I could feel my “addiction” rearing it’s ugly head! After reading this it was like a breath of fresh air and I know I got this! We are human and we are allowed to fall every so often. But we never fall hard enough that we can’t get back to where we were. You make the Paleo Lifestyle so EASY to follow. I haven’t felt like much of the “Pretty Paleo Princess” lately…It sometimes feels like the “pressure” of people looking up to you and being inspired by you is sometimes too much….But then I have to remind myself, and SHOW myself how far I have actually come and it is Amazing the changes that have happened in my life this past year. Becoming a Zumba Instructor and having my own class was NEVER something I pictured myself doing…EVER! But I did and now I’m taking all those wonderful feelings and running with it! You Inspire me to keep going, pick myself back up, grab an avocado and nitrite free deli slices, eat them, then throw on my sports bra and go shake my booty in Zumba! lol You are a Blessing and I pray God continues to bless you and your family on your new Journey!!!! 🙂
Girl, I’m smiling from ear to ear! YOU did this. You changed yourself. I’m proud to have done it with you!
Love this post. I am on the last full week of my 21 day going paleo/primal phase. I have been enjoying this so much. I know that I’m still on a high from seeing all the improvements in my life but I am bookmarking this post. I know I will need it 🙂 I just right now can’t see me going back. I’m slowly getting my son over this way too. I allow grace for him to eat some treats now and then but I am finding HIM making the choices to eat Paleo 🙂
This was wonderful! Thank you so much~ I think my weight loss stall is the nuts I’m eating so I will cut them out for a while to see. This makes me feel better that its ok to do your best with Paleo but sometimes an indulgence is ok too:)
I found your blog today while searching for Paleo for kids, and have been browsing it for about 2 hours. We are about to take the leap and go Paleo. I have two sons (6 and 3), and both have eczema. The oldest is also allergic to everything it seems (including wheat, milk, peanuts, soy, and eggs), and Paleo seems like a way he can eat without messing with his skin too much. I’m so glad I found your site. The information is great, and the personal stories help to make me feel less guilty.
Mega-ditto’s!
I’m geeky enough that one time I calculated myself out to be 87.6% Lacto-Paleo. Good enough. The health results more than worth it. I have my own “absolutes” that work for me and me alone (like no gluten, no matter what), and yours might be different…so be it! We’re all on our own journey…
Kudos!
You must tell me how you only spend $100 to $130 a week on your family of four. We are a family of 4 and I spend at least $300 a week. Granted we do have a 6 month old in formula and baby food and a 2 year we are still potty training and not to mention a 80lb boxer to feed as well. But if I could spend just $150 alone on our food that would amazing.
Serra, I wrote this article in Feb before my son was eating so much food and when we had to keep a real tight budget. Currently, we budget $200 per week which includes all our household supplies. When we were budgeting 100-130 we had to make some sacrifices, like non organic produce and meats…we also had to stretch our foods a lot more.
Love this post – we are doing a challenge at our box and this is the perfect blog post for our group. Seriously thank you so much! Glad I found it and now going to share it.
Trina
You’re welcome and thank you!
Thanks for this blog. I love the diet. It’s been easier than I thought. I was brought up on bread and well it was easy to give up. The diet has helped me so much. I can no longer gluten, it gives me the worst stomach pains. It has taken me 37 to figure out where I was always getting my stomach aces from. I am not hard core at all either but I think about 75%. Kids and hubby don’t mind either. My little guy loves green veggies but my older one hates them but I make it work.
It’s good to find a realist every so often. I’m trying to go Paleo but it really puts you off when you Google for some recipe advice and stumble onto a Paleo Nazi debate about the most authentic way to make butter out of buffalo or whatever. It seems that it doesn’t matter what the subject you will always find elitist snobs. Thanks, I’m off to browse the rest of your site.
Oh I wanted to thank you…as I have been pretty much that person; though I changed my mind about fat I didn’t change so much when it came to bread/pasta…so I was cheating all the time.
This is very right on and I’m glad to have found your blog!
Evie