Paleo Week 1

Paleo Week 1

Last week I wrote a short blurb about me reading the Paleo Diet book and my interest in changing my eating strategies.  So below is the strategy that I decided to adopt and the outcomes I have seen already from a few small changes.

One week ago today my girlfriend and I decided to change our eating habits.  We have started an individualized version of the Paleo diet that I created for us.  We have already started to see some impressive results.  Physically she has lost approximately six pounds this week from our minor changes to our eating routine.  Granted I am well aware she is just shredding off some excess in the beginning and is going to see a platue in her weight loss.  I personally have not seen a lot of difference in weight, but I can attest to the fact I have 100% more energy than before.  My workouts have been amazing with my new ability to focus even more. 

In short after reading the book I took and modified the program to better suite our lifestyles.  We have gone to eating only lean meats, vegetables, and fruits.  We decided to leave potatoes, rice, and cheese in our diets for now.  With the goal of eliminating them one by one as time goes.  Cheese is the only dairy product that we are consuming, no bread at all, and only sugar and salt found naturally in the foods themselves.  One aspect about the new routine we have enjoyed is that it makes us become creative with our choice in foods.  Not only does it make us find ways to season our meals so that they are not bland, but also forces us try new things that we may not have if we were not on the diet.

One thing to remember when creating your own diet is take small steps.  I am a firm believer that there is no such thing as a diet.  Individuals go on and off of diets and for the most part never make any progress and in some cases end up gaining more weight than when they started originally.  If you do not make a lifestyle change and commit to something for a lifetime then you are doing yourself an injustice.  By starting slow you can begin a lifelong transition for the better.  You would not simply start a training program trying to be an Olympic power lifter.  You would start light and gradually progress to that level.  The same concept applies when changing your eating routine.  If you eat fast food everyday and tomorrow you wake up and say I’m never eating fast food again you will not succeed.  Whereas if you wake up tomorrow and say for the next month I plan to only eat fast food every other day you will increase your chances of sticking with the plan.  Maybe the month after that you say “ok I am now only going to eat fast food once a week”.  This sets the conditions for you to in the future have the ability to never eat fast food again.  Anything is possible if you set a major goal and short term goals to achieve that standard.