I recently finished reading a great book, The Paleo Diet. Now I really hate the word “diet” and instead like to refer to it as a nutrition plan. Diet has such a negative connotation in our society today because people tend to think of it as a short term fix to drop a few (or a lot) of pounds.
The Paleo Diet goes into quite a bit of detail about how to revamp your eating plan to eat naturally and include all fresh foods. This can actually be done very easily and the book provides some great recipe ideas. If you have time to pick up the book, it’s a great read and really changes your idea of food in our society today.
I’m not one to make healthy eating really complicated. You shouldn’t have to count calories or grams of fat because who really has time? If you are eating natural and fresh foods, exercising and training the right way, getting enough sleep and drinking plenty of water, you are in good shape.
The Paleo Diet describes a nutrition plan based around eating lean proteins, nuts, fruits and vegetables. Notice that these are all things that have been found in nature for thousands of years. When people had to hunt for their food they were not eating bread, chips or processed snacks. These things all came along with the farming era when people realized that they could make food much cheaper, in bigger quantities and it could keep longer by adding processed ingredients. This was actually the downfall of our healthy eating plan. People in that era were still working hard physically though, and they were not becoming overweight. Combine those foods and our generally sedentary society today and we have an over 50% obesity rate.
I read The Paleo Diet and I took the diet and made a few modifications. I was never a big starch eater anyway, I’m not a person who loves bread and I never eat processed snacks. If I’m going to cheat, it’s going to be ice cream. So, this was not a huge change for me. The one thing that you do realize is just how MUCH sugar we are consuming on a daily basis. I have made the staples of my nutrition plan the following: lean meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and nuts. I allow myself 2 servings of dairy per day (one yogurt and 1 serving of chocolate milk post-workout).
In just increasing my protein intake, snacking on fruits and nuts during the day instead of protein bars or dairy, increasing the amount of water that I drink each day, I have noticed HUGE changes. I have lost several pounds of body fat, tightened my entire body and notice that I’ve even put on a few more pounds of muscle. I don’t worry about my weight so adding a few pounds is no big deal.
Our “food pyramid” recommends 6-11 servings of whole grains per day. This is insane! No wonder the country is fat. In this natural nutrition plan you are getting all of your carbohydrates from fruit and vegetables. I found no drop in energy levels and it’s actually really delicious to be able to eat as much fresh fruit as you want.
So, the take home message here is that you need to cut out starches and processed foods. Eat your 5-6 small meals and snacks per day and you really can eat as much fruits and veggies as you want because they are so low in calories. You’ll never over-eat with this kind of program.
And the best thing is that you can totally have a cheat day!
Check out a great recipe for chicken salad. Wrap these in lettuce for a great lunch without the bread, mayo and process sugar:
1 cup of diced cooked chicken breast
1 cup of romaine lettuce, chopped
1 cup of butter leaf lettuce, chopped
1/4 cup of red cabbage, chopped
1/2 cup of sliced almonds
1/4 cup of chopped Medjool dates
1-2 tsp of flaxseed oil
1-2 tsp of freshly squeezed orange juice
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl except liquids. Toss with flaxseed oil and OJ. Serves two.
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