What is the Paleo Diet?

I get asked this all the time. This is a diet that is big in the CrossFit community. Basically it is eating the way our hunter-gatherer ancestors did. Some refer to it as the Caveman Diet. I recently took on a 8 week challenge with 16 other people that belong to CrossFit Painesville. We are all doing the Lurong Paleo Challenge. It consist of eating clean and doing an appointed weekly WOD. There is a web site where we all log in our results. We have to check in with either a clean or a cheat for each meal, and post our workout times. Most of the group has lost about 10 pounds each, and we are only starting our 5th week. Some have lost more and some have lost less.

Here are some tips is this is something you want to try:

Follow the Paleo roadmap as closely as possible. Yes, there will be an occasional detour (We only have 3 in our group who have not cheated...YET, I am not one of them) Some off-roading can be fun and well worth the indulgence. Just keep moving in the right direction and that means to avoid gluten, soy, added sugar, processed junk and other gut wrecking foods. This is a picture of one of my cheats...I do miss alcohol.

As a busy mom I am always looking for short cuts and rely on modern conveniences that caveman didn’t have. If you do not have a food processor it’s time to invest in one. I did not have one when I started this challenge. I purchased one the first week and I am not sure how I lived without it for so long. We also have a service called Paleo To Me that delivers weekly meals to our gym. For those nights when I just don’t feel like cooking...It’s kind of like our fast food choice! For what its worth...I also enjoy indoor plumbing that cavemen didn’t have. Just sayin....ha

Too many people think that eating Paleo is about deprivation, and all we eat is ground beef and broccoli. I’m telling you it is not that bad. Buy a cookbook. I have two adult boys that have been eating the food and they like it. I will also mention that it only took me two weeks of eating Paleo before I found out how to make sweet stuff like cookies, smoothies and pancakes! Here is a picture of a Friday night meal. We are aloud to have 6 oz of red wine!

Stick with it for 30 days. Switching over is not easy. I felt terrible the first two weeks. I have heard this time referred to as the Paleo flu. But if you can make it through this time period you will come out feeling amazing.

Eat Like a champ. Don’t be afraid to try new recipes. I think this diet may have made me a better cook. I felt restrictive at first, but then I opened my mind to trying recipes. Here is a recipe for Pumpkin Cookies!