Change is hard, but it might be worth it.
So, you're thinking about going paleo.
Maybe you want to lose weight, maybe you're just looking to get healthier and feel better. Either way, you're not alone. Paleo was the most googled diet in 2014, and chances are you have at least one friend who swears by it. BuzzFeed Life asked three experts some basic questions about what the paleo diet is, why it works, and how you can make it a part of your healthy lifestyle.
1. Know which foods are allowed on the paleo diet and which are not.
2. If you're up for it, go strict paleo for 30 days. You'll see changes faster this way.
3. If the all in approach absolutely doesn't work for you, focus on eating only unprocessed foods, then eliminate one thing at a time.
4. Find a community of like-minded people for support.
5. Get rid of everything in your kitchen that isn't paleo.
If you have unopened canned or dry goods to get rid of, find a local food bank and donate them. And what about all of the opened condiments, wheat flours, grains, refined sugars, and refined oils you have in your pantry? Give them to friends, or throw them away.
6. Stock your pantry with paleo staples.
7. Understand that you're not necessarily on a low-carb diet.
But if you're trying to lose weight, you might want to go low-carb paleo.
8. If you’re going paleo to help you lose weight, watch your portion sizes.
9. Limit paleo "treats" to a few times a week.
10. Grass-fed meat is best. But if you can't afford it, grain-fed meat is also OK.
11. Don't be afraid of animal fat.
12. But, don't ONLY eat bacon. It's important to get a variety of seafood, poultry, and red meat.
While Giovinazzo tells her clients not to be afraid of fat, she also says that lean protein can help with weight loss. "If you're going for a leaner protein, it could help you because it's lower in calories," she says. "It's kind of six of one, half a dozen of the other. The main thing to remember is variety."
Eating a variety of animal proteins also means you're getting a variety of fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals, which is important.
Recipes (left to right): Pistachio-Crusted Salmon, Cracklin' Chicken, Beef Sirloin with Fresh Herb Marinade.
13. Eat tons of vegetables, too.
"When you eliminate grains, you are lowering your opportunities for fiber," says Gans. "Fiber is important for regularity, and for regulating cholesterol levels.” On the paleo diet, almost all of your fiber will come from fruits and vegetables, since you won't be eating grains. You can even cook them in bacon, if. you want.
Recipes: Roasted Vegetables (on left), Massaged Kale Salad (on right).
14. Cook in big batches so that you have leftovers for work lunches and weeknight dinners.
"Preparation is the key to success, so being prepared with your food is always helpful." says Giovinazzo. On Sunday, do your grocery shopping for the week, then cook enough vegetables and meat to last well into the week. Here's some good advice for cooking and storing big-batch meals.
15. Look to paleo food blogs for creative recipe ideas.
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Eating a plate of unadorned meat and vegetables for dinner every night can get boring. Luckily, there are plenty of delicious ways to spice things up.
Here are some great ones:
2. PaleOMG
5. Paleo Leap
16. Invest in a slow cooker to make dinner with little effort.
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Slow cookers are great for making paleo-friendly stews, soups and other braised meat dishes. Just add all of your ingredients to the slow cooker in the morning, then set it and forget it until dinner.
33 Delicious Paleo Recipes To Make In A Slow Cooker
17. Make paleo versions of classic favorites by mastering a few easy ingredient swaps.
Cauliflower is a super versatile substitution. You can make cauliflower rice to go with stir-fries and paleo curry dishes, or mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes.
Make noodle and pasta dishes with spaghetti squash. Try this spaghetti squash pad thai instead of take-out. Or, make spaghetti squash and meatballs.
Make tacos, wraps, or sandwich wraps using lettuce instead of a tortilla.
18. Eggs are a super easy and versatile breakfast option.
"I'm big on eggs. I really love eggs and salsa, and that's kind of my breakfast every day," Giovinazzo says. You can also do a lot with leftovers. Serve roasted vegetables with fried eggs on top, or bake them into a frittata. Also, if you have leftover tomato sauce, one of the most delicious things you can do is heat it in a skillet, crack a few eggs on top, and simmer everything over low heat until the whites of the eggs are cooked through (the dish is called shakshuka, and it's incredible).
Recipes (from left): Cauliflower Hash with Fried Eggs, Zucchini and Sweet Potato Frittata, Shakshuka.
Also: 2 eggs + 1 banana = Paleo pancakes.
These don't taste exactly like pancakes, but they're sweet and pretty delicious in their own right. Mix two eggs with a banana in a blender to make the "pancake batter," then cook the pancakes in a skillet with a little coconut oil.
Recipe: 2-Ingredient Pancakes
19. Jerky, nuts, and dried fruit make great on-the-go snacks.
Convenience stores and airport kiosks carry lots of not-paleo snacks like chips and candy bars, but you can find at least one of the above snacks pretty much anywhere. Or to be safe, carry around your own.
20. When you're at a restaurant, don't freak out. Eat protein and veggies.
Look over the menu and find a piece of meat or fish that's grilled, roasted or steamed. If it comes with grains or dairy, see if the chef can make it for you without them, and ask for a side of vegetables, instead. Most restaurants are willing to do this. "The thing you'll have to be more lenient on is oil," says Giovinazzo. "You can ask for something to be cooked in olive oil or coconut oil, but a lot of the time they're probably going to be cooking in some kind of vegetable oil."
Wolf says not to lose your mind over these smaller details. "When you're worried about some soybean oil that they're spraying on the grill before they cook your hunk of organic grass-fed beef, that is just completely misplaced." Dining out should be fun, so don't sweat the small stuff.
21. Throw away your scale.
Carolyn Kylstra / BuzzFeed
Basing progress just on a single number can be stressful and counterproductive. "When people look at their scale weight, that's what causes them to skip meals, and binge and purge and get neurotic, and it's incredibly unhealthy." Wolf says.
Giovinazzo agrees: "It can be really helpful for women to throw out the scale, I've had women do that and feel so much more liberated." Plus, the scale doesn't tell the whole story. "If you're losing fat but gaining muscle, then your body fat percentage will go down but your weight might stay the same," she says. "It can be frustrating when you're weighing yourself and the number isn't changing, but your body is changing pretty dramatically." For those people who really rely on looking at numbers to track progress, she says a body fat percentage scale is your best bet, though she advises that you pay attention ONLY to the body fat percentage, not to total weight.
22. Set a performance goal that you can work towards.
Getty Images/Fuse Fuse
The goal of the paleo diet is to make you healthier, which means not just looking better, but also feeling better and living better. "Focusing solely on weight is what leads to disordered eating behavior," Wolf says. "When people focus on looking good, feeling good, and having a performance goal, it causes them to not just eat, but to eat well." If you're not an avid exerciser, it doesn't have to be anything intense. "It could just be to walk around the block faster. You know, once a week you time yourself, and each week you're able to go around a few seconds faster."
If you're someone who likes exercise and wants to get a little bit more ambitious, Wolf suggests picking a bodyweight exercise, like a pull-up or a handstand walk, as your goal. "I'd love for everybody to be able to do at least one pull-up, walk 20-feet on their hands, and run a mile at a decent clip."
23. Sleep. A lot.
Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed / Via sleepfoundation.org
Wait, what does sleep have to do with losing weight or going paleo? "Slleep is even more important than the nutrition side," Wolf says, for both weight loss and overall health. Lack of sleep—less than the recommended 7-8 hours per night for adults and 9-10 hours for teenagers—can lead to metabolic changes that may be linked to obesity and diabetes, and adequate sleep is important for blood sugar control, according to the CDC.
Here are some things you can do to get better sleep.
24. Don't stress about eating 100% paleo, 100% of the time.
"We can't let perfection get in the way of good enough," Wolf says. And he recognizes that, in real life, sometimes we have to settle for 'good enough.' "I can go into a 7-Eleven and cobble together a paleo meal of a slim jim, a banana and a handful of nuts that have soybean oil and salt and stuff," he says. "Is that the the highest quality food I could eat? Absolutely not. But it's better than eating a bagel and a slurpee."
25. Once you've gotten the hang of the paleo diet, you can try reintroducing dairy and certain starches and see how you tolerate them.
Ultimately, the paleo diet isn't meant to be a quick fix. It's meant to change your life and the way you think about food. While a strict paleo diet is manageable for a month or two, it might not be realistic in the long term. "Think about what can you sustain," Giovinazzo says. "If this is not a way you can eat for the rest of your life, it’s not a good diet." She sometimes eats white rice and white potatoes, neither of which is technically paleo.
And as long as you tolerate dairy, it can be a part of your long-term paleo lifestyle. "Reintroduce and see how you do," says Wolf. "If you don't really notice any adverse effects, then include it in the diet" And don't just stick to cow dairy—many people notice that sheep or goat dairy has fewer negative effects.
26. It might actually be helpful to eat your favorite non-paleo "treat" once a week or so.
Some people call this a "cheat meal," but Giovinazzo doesn't like the negative connotation. "I don't like to call it cheat, I'd rather call it treat," she says. "Cheat makes it sounds like it's bad, and it's really just about moderation." She warns to only eat non-paleo treats once a week or so, since otherwise you risk falling back into old eating habits.
27. Stick to gluten-free alcohol. And view it as a treat.
Getty Images/Fuse Fuse
To be clear: Alcohol is not paleo. Though tequila tends to be the paleo dieter's alcohol of choice—because it comes from the agave plant, not from grains or potatoes, and it's lower in sugar than wine—it isn't paleo. Giovinazzo advises people to stay away from beer, since it's not gluten-free, but otherwise she doesn't think one type of alcohol is "more paleo" than another. "In terms of alcohol, I tell people to have what they enjoy, because alcohol counts as a treat."