Friday, December 20, 2013

Planning your Paleo Diet

You must not embark on your Paleo diet before planning what foods you are going to take during the first week. Buy the things that are needed in advance to avoid reaching out for some sugary snacks immediately craving starts. It is wise to have adequate supply of snacks like walnuts, almonds, peanuts and fruits. When planning your Paleo diet you have to focus on mealtimes. Here is a sample meal plan.

Breakfast

-Eggs, mushroom, garlic, onions and steamed spinach
-Use coconut oil
-Avocado

Lunch

-Chicken salad with red onions
-Herb, olive oil and lemon juice dressing
-Pecans, cantaloupe and blackberries
Snack
- ¼ cup macadamias

Dinner

-Venison steak
-Ginger cabbage and olive oil
-Steamed summer squash with lemon juice, cinnamon and coconut milk
Desert
-Shaved almonds

Your first shopping trip ought to include fresh vegetables, lean meat, chicken, fish and some allowed snacks. Buy load of herbs, coconut oil, epsom salt, olive oil and anything that will help you survive the adjustment phase.

Taking care of yourself

It is a great idea to observe your body's reaction to the new diet. There are plenty of nutrients and no filers in the Paleo diet. Many people experience a detoxification period where their bodies learn how to use fats as the main source of energy instead of carbohydrates.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Benefits of Going Paleo

Weight Loss

Losing weight is hard for most people because they are either going on crazy diets or they are simply eating foods that aren't good for them. The Paleo diet can help you lose weight because the foods you will be eating are healthy and good for you! These can help you cut out fats and calories that you just don't need. This will result in weight loss that doesn't come from you starving or having to give up eating foods you enjoy. Most people continuously lose weight while on this diet because it's so healthy and easy to stick with.

Energy

Have you ever felt really tired and lethargic after eating a big meal full of carbohydrates and fats? Fast foods and unhealthy meals can make you feel terrible because they don't have anything good for you inside of them. By changing the foods you eat to those that are healthy, you will have more energy overall and feel great each day! Getting the proper vitamins and nutrients in your diet can make a huge difference with the way you feel and really help you get extra energy you have been lacking.

Nutrition

When eating a diet of junk food, candy, sugar, carbs and other bad foods it's difficult to get the proper vitamins and nutrients that are essential for a healthy body. When you switch to the Paleo way of life you will easily be able to get the nutrients that you need. All of the foods you eat will be packed full of things like fiber, vitamin a, vitamin c and other nutrients that are great for your body. When you have better nutrition in your life you will feel better and look better!

Allergies

The junk foods that people eat today are packed full of toxic ingredients that can easily hurt the body. For example, gluten intolerance is one of the biggest problems most people have today. The Paleo diet will make it possible to eat good food without having to worry about food allergens. Of course you should pay attention to what you eat if you are sensitive to certain things, but you won't have to deal with any chemicals or hidden toxins.

Recipes

There are a lot of different recipes you can make for the Paleo diet. These are easy to find and they taste great as well. These can help you find new foods that you enjoy eating and that are really good for you. When you aren't starving yourself or feeling deprived it will be easy to eat healthy and change the way you eat on a daily basis.

All of these benefits are worth considering if you want to change your eating habits and your health. The Paleo way of life is easy to adopt and can make you feel great from day one.

Monday, December 9, 2013

What is the Paleo Diet?

Currently a lot of people are talking about the paleo diet; some people also refer to it as the caveman diet. Well this may be true due to the fact that it originated from our ancient ancestors.

Humans have changed drastically in times of technology, culture and diet. On this particular discussion, our interest is on diet. After the Neolithic period, humans started practicing agriculture hence a variety of ingredients become available for consumption changing our diet immensely.

Paleo eaters argue that as much as our environment have changed, our bodies have not had any change compared to our ancestors with our genes having changed by a mere 0.001% therefore our diets should not change as well. Modern foods have been associated with a lot of medical conditions such as cancer due to the ingredients they contain while they may be tasty and appealing, natural foods are healthier.

This brings us to the popular question, what exactly is the paleo diet?

This is a low sugar, high protein and low sodium diet that is meant to provide optimum health by following in our ancestors footsteps who lived in the Paleolithic age. The basic principle about this diet is optimum health but is also a good alternative if your aim is to lose weight.

A lot of evidence has been found to prove that our ancestors had the finest health and this is attributed to their diet. Different people may have various definitions to answer this question but there are similarities in all these definitions i.e. minimally processed, locally available, in-season foods. A good way to also define this diet is by saying what it is not i.e. paleo diet is not any industrial refined oil, sugar, dairy, alcohol etc.

Pastured, free-range chicken, grass-fed beef and anything organic are the most preferred foods for a paleo dieter. In terms of proteins, seafood/fish, poultry, lean meats, wild game are favored because they contain less saturated fats unlike processed meats.

When it comes to nuts or seeds, the ones with the most concentration of omega-3 i.e. walnuts, macadamia, almonds and cashews are the best. Fruits with low glycemic index e.g. tomatoes, melons, onions and broccoli are favored unlike modern fruits to be large and look good. Herbs and spices are recommended regardless of whether they have been processes since they are organic anyways i.e. vinegar.

Fast foods or foods in flashy wrappers are attractive, sweet and tempting; I bet you always salivate when you walk past a fast food café. The smell of fries, burgers and a drink of cold soda, well it is completely normal to feel that way (almost everyone feels that) but after trying Paleo for about 6 months, you would be surprised that a diet soda tastes very different than what you used to know, you can literally taste all the chemicals in it.

The paleo diet is growing daily as more people are getting concerned with what they eat, we are looking for ways to prevent or lose weight. By recreating our early human diet, we are getting in touch with the ancient taste while reaping all the benefits that come with it. I believe this has answered the question, what exactly is the paleo diet and a couple of the foods recommended.