Paleo Education

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”:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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?
6. 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.
7. You leave no room for grace, pizza or beer. You think that you must be 100% Paleo for it to work.
8. You’re not losing weight. You quit the first week because you didn’t lose any weight.
9. 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.
10. 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…

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. MEAL plan, meal plan, meal plan! Take a look at my Pinterest page for lots of recipes and, also, consider eMeals.com! eMeals.com is a meal planning service that does all the planning for you. All you have to do is buy the food and make it! They have a Paleo plan, which is what I use and I love it. The dinners are easy to make and only require about 20-30 minutes in the kitchen!
4. 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.
5. 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!
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.