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Sunday, July 22, 2012

Beginning Paleo Diet

Maybe you've just been hearing about this "paleo diet" thing, or maybe you have a friend or know someone who has had amazing results from eating and living according to this template...


Perhaps you have tried to ignore the whole thing, not wanting to change your life and mindset around after all these years of being brainwashed into the low fat high carb Standard American Diet LIE...


But, since the ancestral diet and it's benefits are very real, and the path we are on in the Western world is leading us into slow suicide by eating ourselves into diabesity,  accompanied by prescriptions of pharmaceutical drugs that compromise our health even more with all of the inevitable side effects, resulting in early disability and death- well, "going Paleo" starts to not sound that hard after all!

So, how do you finally get off the sidelines and start making meaningful, healing change??


Clean out your cupboards!  Ditch the grains- bread, pancake mixes, brownie mixes, cereals, vegetable and soy oils, Crisco, anything you have that is not real food.  If it's not in your house, you won't eat it.

Try a Paleo smoothie!  This is a pet project of mine- I have developed my smoothie into a drink that is continually evolving, since I want to maximize my nutrition optimally, but starting out, keep it simple:

Just get out your standard, $20 blender, and make a simple Paleo Smoothie:

1 can of coconut milk
handful of fresh strawberries
a big leaf of fresh kale
a banana
sprinkle of cinnamon

Blend it all together for about a minute or so- you're done!

Easy, right?  It's so easy, you will start to think as I did- "Hey, what if I add this ingredient, and that other super healthy food, and then that..."


You are on the slippery slope to health my friend, and trust me, that's where you want to be!  You'll start adding raw eggs, and then you'll want the convenience of using frozen vegetables, and the ability to mix just about anything, smoothly and easily into your smoothies- at that point you'll want to get a Vitamix blender, since it it the best tool for engineering the most amazingly healthy and filling and appetizing Paleo smoothies on the planet!

Interestingly, I just read a news story in Barron's, the business newspaper, detailing how the Starbucks chain has bought a smoothie making chain of restaurants, and plans to expand dramatically, doing for smoothies what they have already done for coffee!

While I'm sure it's better than the unhealthy coffee drink market they've been profiting from at the expense of the American people's health, I would suggest strongly that you make your own!  I guarantee that anything made by a corporate giant will be vastly inferior, since the bottom line for such a company is to cut costs wherever possible, to maximize profits. This means low quality ingredients, cheaper, faster, worser! (There, I invented a word!)

So, Go Paleo Young Man! (Or woman)!

At first, I would just make a smoothie each morning, and eat eggs and meat, salads, seafood, veggies and nuts with a little fruit sometimes.  For me, cheese and whole cream are fine- try them out, if you feel worse, maybe they aren't for you!  Some folks can handle dairy, some can't... raw dairy is vastly preferable, if available.  

Believe it or not, at first I do not recommend any exercise!  Especially, if your are a "cardio-holic", used to doing lots of running, bicycling, aerobics, etc. just stop for awhile!  Getting your diet in order is far more important than exercise, and along with adequate sleep each night of 8 hours or better, will get you 90% where you want to go.  Just concentrate on those things for a month- learn to eat, and sleep like a paleolithic hunter-gatherer.    Next month we'll add in exercise- hey, I even have an eBook specifically about it...

A good idea, especially if you currently have health problems, would be to have a blood work up just before starting this at the Doctor's office.  Then, a month later, have it done again.  I guarantee the results will startle both you and your Doctor- and then, he'll probably try to talk you out of doing something so "crazy"...

The thing to remember is this- even if all you had read about nutrition was this one blog, you would already know more about nutrition than your Doctor learned in all of medical school.  So, take his or her opinions with more than a grain of good sea salt...

After your initial month, take a good look at how you look, how clearly you can think,and how you feel.  Perhaps you already have had some drastic changes; many people do.  And after actually sticking to the diet for one month, almost no one goes back to their standard diet!  The benefits are that compelling- you may even become like me, shouting the news from the rooftops, because you almost can't believe the benefits of eating real food like a real person!

Soon I will write Part 2- the Intermediate Paleo Diet!  But just do this for a month first- no need to rush things!  Here are some links that will give you lots of good additional information:



J




2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi There, enjoyed your article and blog. I have recently eliminated wheat from my diet and am interested in the paleo diet and would like to eliminate one item at a time. Would you suggest dairy or sugar to eliminate next? thanks

PaleoJay said...

Omigosh- SUGAR! Sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners- all horribly bad!

Dairy is fine, if it is whole fat dairy (NO SKIM!), and the best versions are fermented: kefir, cheese, Greek yogurt, pastured butter and cream and whole milk. Fat is your friend here! Good Luck Emma!!