Paleo Challenge

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The Paleolithic Diet- (Used with permission from CrossFit Downtown Winston)

Paleo Diet Ground Rules:

All of the lean meats you can eat.
All of the fruits and non-starchy vegetables you can eat.
No cereals or grains (wheat, oats, corn, etc.)
No legumes (peanuts, beans)
No dairy products.
No processed food.

Reference:

The Paleo Diet. Cordain, Loren. Wiley&Sons, Inc. 2002

How to do this:

EVERY MEAL should contain 3 things:

Protein:

Take your pick:

Chicken/Turkey 3-4 oz

Beef 3-4 oz

Fish/Shellfish 3-4 oz

Eggs 2-3 whole eggs

Note: Those are your protein choices. Notice that tofu and beans aren’t in there. Paleo is not vegan or vegetarian.

Beef – grass fed
Chicken – free range
Fish – wild caught
Eggs – free range and/or Omega-3 enriched

Make these choices whenever possible. If grass-fed/free range are outside of your budget, that’s fine. Conventional meats will work just fine. Eating a grilled chicken breast is still better than eating a deep-fried hot dog.

Carbohydrates: Fruits and Non-starchy vegetables

Vegetables – all varieties…as much as you want, especially:

Broccoli

Spinach

Kale

Cabbage

Asparagus

Onions

Tomatoes

Note: More vegetables exist than those listed above, you may eat those…unless they appear on the “no-no” list below.

Fruits

In order of preference:

all berries

melons

oranges

grapefruit

tangerines

apples

Try to eat what is in season and local.
Try to avoid canned fruits/veggies. They usually have salt/sugar added to them.
Frozen fruits/veggies are OK. In fact, it’s a good idea to have these frozen items on hand for quick meals:

Broccoli, green beans, asparagus, blueberries

Fat

Nuts: raw or LIGHTLY roasted and preferably unsalted – small handful

Almonds

Cashews

Pecans

Walnuts

NO PEANUTS –they are legumes and not nuts.

Avocado – medium sized one

Olive Oil – use as salad dressing – 1-2 Tbs.

Note: Fat does not make you fat. We recommend a moderate to low carb diet. It is healthy and effective. Ask questions, check blood lipids but for crying out loud, just do this stuff for a month! Do you see ANY processed food in this? Any sugar? Trans fats? No, no and no. It’s whole, natural foods and you will thrive on it.

Drinks:

Mainly water (big surprise). Lemon/lime wedge OK.
Coffee/tea are OK. Preferably espresso/Americano. Black. No sweeteners or milk products.

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

All flour products (bread/cake/cookies/scones/tortillas/pastries)

All sugars
No Dairy (cheese/milk/butter/cottage cheese, etc)
No Mochas, No Latte, No Frappaccino’s
No Artificial Sweeteners
No potatoes, corn, beans or other starchy vegetables

Now…similar to the admonition to “eat this at every meal” the “absolutely not” category means….don’t eat it! You have a month of introduction in which we will help you get your insulin levels normalized, clean up your digestive health and likely a whole slew of other considerations, all while losing fat and feeling better.

Additional Thoughts:

Every meal contains protein AND carbohydrates AND fat.

Eat 4-6 meals per day. Breakfast/lunch/dinner, and snacks between as needed.

Long term – 100% compliance is neurotic, 90% is realistic. Plan 1-3 cheat meals into your week (after the first 30 days). Allow yourself to break paleo once in a while. This also gives you the freedom to eat an unexpected non-paleo meal. Just don’t let this turn into a cheat day/week/month/year.

Reading through this something might have occurred to you: Do I need to learn how to cook? YES, YOU DO. You don’t need to become a master chef, but you will need how to do some basic food preparation. It’s scary how many people don’t know how to cook. Sandwiches and other grab-n-go fast food crap seem to be the norm. Food quality matters. You need to learn how to cook. Acknowledge, accept, move on. An excellent quote comes to mind: “If you are unable/unwilling to cook, then you are placing your health and well-being in somebody else’s hands”.

“I’m too busy to cook”. Everybody is too busy. If you are “too busy to cook” you need to reevaluate your life. How much time do you spend watching TV? Be honest and realistic because if you legitimately do not have time to feed yourself correctly you are heading towards serious health problems. We will detail some simple strategies and recipes below on how to construct nutritious meals in a minimum amount of time.

As day follows night, eating can only follow shopping. You cannot and likely should not eat out all the time. That means you need to stock your pantry and have food on hand to cook nutritious, possibly even tasty meals. On the flip side, get all of the starch, sugar, and other crap out of your house. Scenario: You are at home and you are starving hungry. You have sandwich stuff and chocolate cake in the fridge. Are you going to go out and buy healthy food or are you just going to eat crap? If it’s not in your house, you won’t eat it. Goes equally for good food as it does for bad food.