Paleo - How It Changed the Way I Think

About a year ago, my brother and I were having a discussion. I confessed to him my unhappiness in my health and how I cannot for the life of me figure out how to exercise without getting bored or frustrated. If you are unaware of my past, I played softball until freshman year of college and have had coaches telling me to "condition" and lift weights on a dime. I never really liked the idea of working out for the sake of working out. So we were bouncing ideas back and forth, and he eventually told me about this Paleo thing. I believe this was the exact video he showed me, and I consider myself to be a pretty intelligent person... so it made sense. The root of everything seemed to consistently come down to nutrition. Everything.

Here I am a year later, having done relatively extensive research on lifestyle diets and, tried and true, Paleo is the one thing that has worked. Now I won't say I'm any expert, nor did I do nearly as much research as some of the other folks out there, but my goal was to find something that worked FOR ME nutritionally so I could focus on other things. It's taken me almost a full year to figure out how to change my lifestyle for the better, and here are some findings I've observed:



Problem? My decisions were made based on my emotions when I consumed more dairy, grains, and some starches. I had to cut those out in order to have a clear head and not snowball into 3 weeks of fast food. One craving would lead to another and another and another until my immune system would weaken to the point of me getting sick or unable to recover quickly from an injury.

Solution? Trust me... cutting it out is the only way you're going to get over it without any amount of guilt, worry, or shoulda-coulda-woulda-thoughts hanging over your head. There are chemicals released in your brain when eating these foods and they will literally cause an addiction- similar to heroin. Rehab is the only answer. Period.


Problem? Whole Food is too expensive and fast food is cheaper. True Facts. And I'm on a budget.

Solution? Well for me, since I'm Freelance for most of the year, this was a tough one.

#1- I basically started out with little to no money for groceries in the first place, so my only solution at the time was to spend ALL of my grocery money for the week at the Farmer's Market and literally have no choice but to cook at home. This can only work for so long, as I got more hours, and eventually a more generous paycheck at a new company.

#2- For this scenario, since I still had money left over that COULD be used for bad food choices (in case of a craving emergency), I started investing in things for cooking. I would save up for a trip to Whole Foods and get Coconut Oil, Almond Milk, Garlic, Lemons, and other random things that most people who are health conscious and cook a lot should have in their kitchen. Investing in the process really got me to invest in the good food. I started making it less convenient to go out because I had no reason to not stay in.

#3- This is a branch off of 1 and 2... I have now finally figured out a budget that works for me. My solution now (since pinching pennies isn't too much of a problem ATM) is to just go weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) to get veggies, fruit, and sometimes meat. I found out where the local Farmer's Markets were after I moved, and I made it a point to try to make it every single time. Constantly having food available at home and readily available to eat when I was hungry made it more convenient to stay home. YAY!


Problem? My decisions were made based on convenience. It was more convenient to stop and get food on the way home than sit and cook dinner for an hour. It was more convenient to take out Rice-a-Roni than to make something from scratch. It was more convenient to snack on something that was pre-packaged than to cut up some veggies I had stored in the fridge. All of these things led to poor decision-making, even when I didn't have cravings.

Solution? First of all, I threw out anything that wasn't ideal out of my cupboard (ok, I gave them to my room mates as to not be wasteful). Whenever I had a moment (either I was bored or in between tasks or needed a break) I would check out what I bought at the Farmer's Market and figure out how to make it more convenient. Let me explain. If one of the reasons I didn't feel like eating carrots was because they had dirt on them still (fresh picked!) and weren't of convenient size, I would cut them up and prep them for the week. Boom. Same with meat- I would pick something from the freezer and put it into the fridge so it would start defrosting. How guilty would you feel if you took the time to go to the Farmer's Market and pick out these items only to spoil them because you chose to go out three times that week? Guilt-trip FTW!


Problem? Networking basically requires you to go with the flow and go out to eat every once in a while (so does having close friends as room mates).

Solution? I'm still getting the hang of this one. I try to not pick fast food and persuade them otherwise (usually works in some cases). If fast food is the main choice, I choose to fast and just go along for the trip. Fasting is NO PROBLEM when I've been keeping up with the ideal lifestyle choices. My blood sugar is fine (my hypoglycemia is under control), I am deaf to the calling of the fast food because I've had none to cause cravings, and I still get to hang with the people who are going. If a decent restaurant IS the main choice, it gets a little tougher. You have to worry about contamination of gluten (it is not against health regulations to cut bread and then cut fruit with the same knife), whether or not the particular ingredients are ideal (not as picky as grain-fed vs. grass-fed, but instead being able to identify if one ingredient can be substituted or removed), and lastly, the awkward moment of asking the waiter these questions AND being "that guy" among your friends or acquaintances. So, I just make the best decision I can with what is there and try to pick something with the least amount of impact if something does go wrong. Usually a "side" of something and a plate full of veggies and maybe some meat is the best way to go (and delicious!). If all else fails, I order the minimum and fast. Again, no problem there.


Problem? I don't didn't know how to cook.

Solution? I read A LOT of recipes and grab tips-n-tricks from different sources. You'd be surprised how many people don't know how to cook an artichoke properly or why their gravy isn't thickening. Alternative cooking ingredients act very similar to the SAD (Standard American Diet) ingredients. Almond flour still expands the same as wheat flour when baking biscuits. Coconut milk will still create a saucy texture for your gravy in place of milk. You can still cook meat with coconut oil and not burn the pan because you didn't use vegetable oil. Also, Trial-and-error was a huge thing for me. There were times, I admit, that I completely screwed over an entire meal for one reason or another and went to Jack-in-the-Box because it was 10pm and I still had no dinner. But that was then. I have learned the basics enough to cook a decent meal, and I have even gotten compliments!! AND I try to pick up new ingredients or cook a new recipe at least every week, so I'm constantly learning things to improve my techniques and understanding (and make it taste better, of course).


Problem? I don't didn't exercise enough.

Solution? Actually, this one is still not ideal. But, I have found that as long as I walk around town, go on a bike ride, hike every few weekends, and sprint at the beach when I feel like it, I am still losing weight. I haven't set up a routine because I have no routine schedule ATM, so I'm just enjoying things and not forcing myself to do anything I don't feel like doing. I take every opportunity my friends give me to get out to walk around, and I make sure I PLAY whenever I can. Here is a great video on why I prefer play over hard-core exercise. I may start BJJ or something else once I can afford it, but for right now, I'm happy getting out and doing whatever the day presents as an appealing option.



So, to conclude, this post is not me trying to convince anyone of any particular lifestyle. This is simply to get those gears turning in your head to observe behaviors in your life that need to be hacked. How will you change your lifestyle in order to feel, look, or perform better? Why are you not achieving your ideal nutritional goals every single day? What small things can you do RIGHT NOW to ensure your success for the future when those decisions aren't easy to make? Like I said, it's taken me a year to come this far, and I still have micro-goals I want to accomplish. But at least I have set myself up for a healthier life, and I can start to focus on other things. That was my plan all along ;)