What I've learned after 8 years of Paleo

Started Paleo when I was 17 and have been doing it on and off for the past eight years.

1) Like with any diet, you need a fitness/diet app. No not to be used as a calorie counting app, but an app that tells you your macronutrients (please hear me out! macros used to overwhelm me but with an app there’s no measuring, calculating, or guessing for you to have to do at all). On average it’s suggested people eat 50% carbs / 30% fat / 20% protein. On the Paleo diet it is best to go with the ratio 30% carbs / 40% fat / 30% protein. I use MyFitnessPal. It’s free, and all of the food you need to track has already been entered and saved by other users. This is important, and the app does all the math for you, just search and add the food. Now I know things like…

• a Cashew Cookie Lara Bar is 44% carbs / 47% fat / 9% protein
• an egg is 2% carbs / 62% fat / 36% protein
• a cup of almond milk is 13% carbs / 74% fat / 13% protein

2) Dairy is up to you, if you find it works for you it works for you, if it doesn’t work then it doesn’t. The only dairy I consume is grass-fed butter and whey protein powder. No cheese, milk, yogurt, or sour cream in my diet. But if you feel good and look good eating dairy, go for it.

3) A serving of meat is ½ a cup. A Little bit of meat goes a long way. ½ a cup of chicken or ground turkey doesn’t look like a lot, but it is.

4) A serving of nuts is 1/3 cup. It’s easy to sit there and eat a ton of almonds and cashews, but if you don’t measure out something like 26 nuts you’re overeating. 26 is also a lot more than you think.

5) Stop eating lettuce. It has 0 calories and no nutritional benefits. Switch to either kale or spinach. They both taste better than lettuce anyway and have so many more nutritional benefits. If you’re eating romaine lettuce you’re wasting your time and money.

6) Have fun with substitutes! There are tons of other (although more expensive) ways to enjoy your favorite foods on the Paleo diet. I love Doritos, can’t eat Doritos, so instead I buy grain and dairy free Paleo Puffs or Siete chips (this brand also makes almond flour tortillas you can use for dinner or breakfast tacos). Can’t eat Betty Crocker’s brownies, so I buy a brand instead called Simple Mills that makes almond flour brownies. I eat two of those brownies basically every single day on my diet. Craving pasta? A brand called Capellos makes almond flour pasta, and Primal Kitchen makes a dairy free alfredo sauce, as well as several other awesome dressings. I don’t eat these every day, but it’s fun to try out Paleo cereals, chips, baked goods, gummies, ice cream, candy bars, pastas, etc.

7) Watch out for vegetable/canola oil. All companies use these oils because it’s cheaper, but it’s not Paleo. I hate to see people on Paleo enjoying Blue Diamonds “Lightly Salted” or “Smokehouse” almonds. They literally fry those almonds in vegetable oil, it’s not as healthy as you think. Or when people buy frozen pre-made sweet potato fries or fish (I’m victim to purchasing the frozen fish brand Sea Cuisine for years, it’s not Paleo, it’s highly processed, and is made with non-Paleo oils). Look at that nutrition label, they are always made using vegetable oil. Yes fish and sweet potatoes are Paleo, but not when they are fried in non Paleo oils. Only consume olive oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil, those are literally just about your only three options.

8) Don’t eat any foods that aren’t Paleo. Not because of some dumb rule, but because if you are on this diet and you find it hard to lose weight, it’s for a reason. You’re probably intolerant to one of the following: grains, dairy, gluten, soy, legumes, sugar. If you include any food that is non-Paleo it will effect your overall progress. If you think you’re doing Paleo right, then come to realize from this post maybe some of the foods you’re eating actually have non-Paleo ingredients, I encourage you to do it for real for a week and you will see better results and feel amazing.

9) Protein supplements are in my opinion completely necessary, especially if you are trying to both lose weight and gain muscle. I eat a decent amount of meats and eggs, and it’s still not enough for me to reach my daily diet goal of 30% protein. The Paleo diet (at least Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint) also mandates exercise in the Paleo lifestyle. I use 100% Whey Protein from Optimum Nutrition (whey is dairy mind you). I drink it every day, but on days you workout you must drink it within 30 minutes of ending the workout (I also used to totally make fun of the bros who drank protein powder…until I realized how important and healthy it is for your muscles; it’s not all about the looks, it’s about health and recovery too). Also you don’t need a gym or a trainer unless you want one. But if you’re clueless about exercise, you’ll need someone to help. I find DVD workout programs to be best because there’s minimal equipment, a trainer to teach you form and give you a complete workout to do, and they are relatively cheap programs, like this one I’m doing now for $45.

10) Have the mindset of “I want to feel good” not “I want to look good”. If you have an intolerance to grains, dairy, gluten, sugar, soy, or legumes, and you actually take those things out of your diet, you will feel amazing. FYI humans have been eating fruits, vegetables, meat, nuts, and eggs for over 300,000 years…bread was invented 10,000 years ago. Some foods are really not supposed to be in our diet. And don’t be jealous of the skinny guy who can eat 4,000 calories of bread every day and never gain a pound, don’t be jealous of the people who were born with a six pack because their parents have good genes. Work with what you got. My family history on my dads side is high blood pressure, lung cancer, and ulcers and my moms side is diabetes, stroke, obesity, and high blood pressure, then they created a whole new kind of messed up genetic nightmare in me. The only way to make things right in my world is the Paleo diet. I can’t eat rice, I can’t eat peanuts. It’s not how my body works. And if you’re here because you have a hard time losing weight, you might be in the same boat. Stick it to the companies and society that wants you addicted to their high calorie, processed, oily sugary, cancer causing foods.

My daily diet plan, roughly:

Breakfast:

• Cashew Cookie Lara Bar with a tbsp of Justin’s ORIGINAL almond butter (don’t buy anything vanilla, maple, hazelnut, chocolate flavored because it’s just a ton of added sugar.)
• an apple
• 2 Simple Mills almond flour brownies
• Two cups of coffee sweetened with almond milk

Lunch:

• Usually a breakfast taco using one almond flour tortilla from the Siete brand (find this in the frozen bread section at your grocery store), three scrambled eggs, half a cup of turkey sausage, 1 tbsp of Primal Kitchen Ranch (find this in the condiment aisle), Frank’s hot sauce, lime juice, and finely chopped kale.
  • Make your own ground turkey/ground sausage. I’m a victim to buying Jimmy Dean’s turkey sausage patties for years. It’s processed, who knows what is in there. Also Jimmy Dean is owned by Tyson which is disgusting). I just buy a “simple/organic truth” brand and cook and season it myself. Tastes 100x better, Jimmy Dean tastes like rubber now.

Dinner:

• 2 cups of chopped kale or spinach
• ½ cup of either fish, ground turkey, or chicken that I made (just look up some recipes, I love baked chicken or fish recipes made in the oven because it’s less work then doing it stovetop)
• 1 cup of roasted sweet potatoes (don’t be like how I was and buy those frozen Alexia sweet potato fries. Learn how to chop up sweet potatoes, drench that in olive oil and spices and bake it. Tastes great and you can eat more (12 Alexia sweet potato fries = 140 calories…a whole sweet potato = 112).
• 1 - 2 tbsp of Primal Kitchen Ranch

Snacks:

• 1 serving of either raw almonds or cashews (about 26).
• Protein smoothie: 2 cups of frozen berries, 1 cup of UNSWEETENED almond milk, 2 scoops of vanilla 100% whey protein powder, 1 tbsp of almond butter (consume immediately after if working out that day.
• 1 serving (15 chips) Siete Jalapeno Lime chips.
• 350mL (½ a bottle) of red wine, lol
• 1 tbsp olive oil (an assumption based on the foods I cooked and made myself (ie roasted sweet potatoes, chicken, turkey sausage, etc.
• Also not really a snack but take a multivitamin every day. I use Centrum.

Based on my height, weight, and goals I’m expected to eat 2,500 calories a day according to My Fitness Pal, 3,000 calories if I workout.

The above diet plan comes out to a surprising 3,200 calories according to my app. If I wasn’t working out this day I would probably remove the almond butter, brownies, tortilla chips, and/or wine.

I hope that any of this helps! It’s a learning process for sure, it’s taken me a long time to know what I know today, and I still have so much more to learn. Make it fun! It’s a challenge but it’s definitely doable! Just know you get to eat a lot more than you think, and there are so many fun substitutes for cereal, chips, pasta, baked goods, etc. Good luck!

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