Keep This In Mind
The truth about diets is that they all work. There is no “best diet.” The best diet is the one that works for you. Regardless if it’s Keto, Atkins, Weight Watchers, etc., they all work. In dieting you have to gain before you can lose. Gain control of what you eat and lose weight. Structuring your diet is a major factor in finding success.
The reason that all diets work is that they all have several things in common.
First, they limit calorie consumption is some way, shape or form. Whether it’s limiting carbs, sugars, meats or plants you are controlling what you consume. And that act of gaining control of what you eat is the first major step in achieving your weight-loss goal.
Second, when you diet you will consume more nutritious foods packed with vitamins and minerals and improve your ratio of macro nutrients (carbs, proteins, fats). In addition, you will limit your consumption of unhealthy foods that have a negative effect on your endocrine system, digestive system, integumentary system and every other system that helps your body perform at its most optimal rate.
Finally, when you make better decisions with your diet you tend to make improvements in your physical activity. People who diet are more likely to workout, go for a walk, take the stairs or perform any other physical activity that will accelerate their intended goal.
Your role in dieting is to find the diet that works best for you and your lifestyle. Find what you like and what clicks in your mind. Some diets come more natural to people while others are an improbable task. Just because someone else find great success at one particular diet doesn’t mean you will. Try different diets until you figure out which one works. You can also combine diets to create a better fit for your lifestyle. For example, intermittent fasting and the Keto diet are a very popular duo, as is the duo of the Keto and Carnivore diet.
Find your diet. Improve your nutrition. Increase your physical activity. That is the secret to losing weight.
Remember this: Successful people have a habit of doing things failures don’t like to do.
Diet Overview
Paleo means old. The Paleo Diet involves eating a diet in that is similar the way our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate: Hunt for food, gather for food. The Paleo diet was inspired by the idea that the current Western diet has contributed to obesity, as well as a long list of health problems. The Paleo Diet promotes a diet that claims to improve energy, help weight loss, improve overall health and reduce risk of chronic diseases.
Four General guidelines to help create a healthy lifestyle over the longterm using the Paleo Diet:
- What to eat: mimic a hunter gatherer diet.
- How to eat: follow ancient culinary traditions.
- What not to eat: avoid industrial foods and sugars.
- Make it meaningful: experiment, customize and enjoy.
Diet Rules
What to Eat
Eat foods that mimic hunter gatherers. These foods include:
- Meat
- Seafood
- Roots and tubers
- Leafy vegetables
- Fruits
- Nuts
- Eggs
Meat makes up about 50% of our ancestors diets.
Eat nose to tail. This means eating like an omnivore. Everything is on the menu, including bone marrow, heart, tongue, etc. Of course, eating everything isn’t necessary but is within the diets parameters.
Eat fermented foods. Fermentation makes food healthier and, like cooking, helps transform food. Fermentation processes foods with bacteria. It’s commonly used in leavened bread, curdled cheese, pickled veggies, cultured yogurt, cured meats and sour foods such as sour dough, sauerkraut and sour cream.
Coffee and tea can be consumed because they don’t have any calories. You can add heavy cream or butter to your drink but no sweeteners of any kind because they are plant based or artificially made.
Alcoholic beverages are up to the individual. All alcohol is made from plant sources. But you can be flexible here and enjoy yourself in moderation. It’s simply a matter of devotion or goals. The impact of a few drinks is minimal so choose from the following options:
What NOT to Eat
What Not to Eat
This is just as important as what to eat. You can improve your health simply by eliminating bad foods.
Avoid eating industrial foods … or foods made in a factory and don’t spoil.
Avoid eating cereal grains and legumes, as they are considered slow acting poisons when consumed in large quantities. Cereal grains are the seeds of grasses. These include wheat, corn, rice and barely. The seeds of these grains contain toxic proteins. Many of these proteins are hard to digest. The idea is that seeds want to grow and not get digested so the seed will survive our digestion in order to grow. White rice is your one exception.
White rice has had its bran (the outer layer) and germ (the nutritious core) removed during processing, making the taste, texture, coloring and nutrition breakdown of white rice different from that of brown rice. This makes white rice consist mainly of pure carbohydrates.
Avoid legumes. Legumes are grain-like seeds. The biggest one in our diet is the soy bean. Other legumes include peanuts, lentils, peas, alfalfa and all beans. Many legumes are extremely toxic in their raw state. Of the top-8 food allergies, half involve a seed or seed-like part of a plant: peanuts, soy, wheat, tree nuts. Nature doesn’t want you eating them. Beans can cause gastrointestinal distress and interrupt normal digestion.
Avoid large quantities of sugar. Sugar comes in many forms: glucose, fructose, sucrose, lactose, but none are healthy in large quantities. The body metabolizes sugars in different ways, which means different sugars bring different risks and benefits.
Avoid vegetable oils. These oils contain vegetable toxins. Diets high in polyunsaturated fatty acids can lead to obesity and other health issues.
Avoid industrial drinks such as soft drinks, energy drinks and skim milk.
Eating Vegetables
Eat a variety of plants. The key approach is to provide a diversity of nutrients. This is important because eating a variety of plants diversifies nutrients and minimizes toxicity since every plant has different toxins and each toxin is usually safe in small doses.
Best overall plants are green leafy vegetables and seaweeds. These plants include:
- Kale
- Swiss chards
- Arugula
- Collard greens
- Bok choy
- Mustard Greens
- Spinach
Roots and tubers are safe starches. Which simply means they have a lower level of problematic anti-nutrients. This starches include:
- Sweet potatoes
- Yams
- Potatoes
- Carrots
- Rutabaga
- Taro
- Parsnips
- Squash
- Beats
- Onions
- White rice is another non-toxic starch option
Dairy and What to Drink
Dairy
Experiment with dairy, as roughly 68% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant — which means they can not fully digest the sugar (lactose) in milk. Lactose malabsorption is usually harmless but can cause bloating and gas and can be uncomfortable.
When consuming dairy, aim for full fat or fermented diary foods. These foods include:
- Heavy cream
- Sour cream
- Cheese
- Yogurt
- Real butter (not butter blends)
What to Drink
Water is your number one beverage in every diet and for every fitness goal. Water should be your go-to drink.
Milk is the only thing our ancestors drank during infancy. Milk from animals have lactose and casein (milk protein) that are also found in breast milk, so these compounds aren’t completely foreign to the human metabolism. In addition, many of the herder population that consumed large amounts of dairy don’t appear to have suffered from diet-related health issues.
When consuming milk, the Paleo Diet suggests full fat, unpasteurized milk.
Tea is a common drink in the Paleo community. Tea started out as a form of medicine and eventually for enjoyment. Many teas contain bioactive compounds that promote good health.
Bone broth is a staple of the Paleo Diet. It is made from simmering the bones and connective tissue from animals. It’s highly nutritious and commonly used in soups, sauces, gravies or to drink.
Alcohol. Avoid sugary mixed drinks. Wine and beer can be drank in moderation. Ideal alcoholic beverages for the Paleo Diet include:
- Cider
- Wine
- Hard alcohol
- Sake
- Gluten-free beer
- NorCal Margarita (tequila, lime juice, soda water)
How to Cook
Cook with traditional recipes. Use real ingredients and healthy whole foods.
Cook meals with low heat. Slow cooking is one of the oldest ways of cooking. Buying a slow cooker can make this method easier to perform. This isn’t necessary, but mimics the traditions of of hunter gatherers.
Soak, sprout, ferment grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. These three forms of processing foods make the aforementioned foods less toxic.
Cook with traditional fats and oils. Coconut oil and olive oil provide the healthiest oils. Avoid canola and soy bean oils.
Eat raw foods if possible. The goal is to eat foods in their natural state. Any kind of processing or heating can change their structure. This means eating raw foods will provide more vitamins and minerals, more fibers that aid in digestion and more phytochemicals that may help fight cancer and other diseases.
Eat more colors. Different colors in plants indicates different chemical compounds that provide a different set of antioxidants and nutrients. Eating a variety of colors allows you to eat a variety of micronutrients.
Diet Mindset
When committing to the Paleo diet your mindset should be that of a caveman.
Eat like your hunter-gatherer ancestors did thousands of years ago. Follow a whole-foods based diet and lead a more physically active lifestyle.
The Paleo Diet is based on the idea that if a caveman didn’t eat it then neither should you. These are the foods that humans were meant to eat. The Paleo Diet was designed around foods that were only available to our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
Here's the Plan
As mentioned above, eat what your hunter-gatherer ancestors would have eaten. Focus on real foods. Cook with heat or consume foods in the raw. No one is perfect, and you don’t have to be! But make your meals as paleo friendly as possible. Put your focus on eating mostly unprocessed, whole foods that have gone through little or no processing. And just a reminder, you don’t have to go out and howl at the moon every night.
Although the conventional idea behind the Paleo Diet restricts anything prepackaged, nowadays you’ll find many “paleo approved” snacks that you can eat in a pinch or on the go. Of course, you can still grab a spear and go find your own food but the former idea just seems a little easier.
When deciding on food, focus on the following sources:
- Meat
- Fish
- Eggs
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Herbs
- Spices
- Healthy fats and oils
Avoid the following foods:
- Processed foods
- Sugar
- Soft drinks
- Juices (to reduce sugar intake)
- Grains
- Some dairy products
- Legumes
- Artificial sweeteners
- Vegetable oils
- Margarines
Knowing what is healthy and doing what we need to do to change is a constant struggle. Find inspiration and keep making the right decisions every day. The Paleo Diet, as well as many other diets require a change in mindset. Sometimes you just need a little pep talk.
Pep Talk
Living well starts with living. It’s healthy and important to bend the rules occasionally. Stay true to your diet, your goals and most importantly yourself. But if you have an opportunity to eat something truly amazing and memorable then you should do it! Live your life and enjoy these moments. Set guidelines so that you don’t revert back to old habits. To find success you will first find insecurity and self-doubt. Keep at it and keep tweaking until you find what works for you. The decision to change your life and improve yourself begins with your choices. Make the right choice more often than not and build on each of those victories. As JFK once said, victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.