The Adventures Begin!

So I decided to give this Paleo thing a try. I've heard a lot about it, a couple people at work tried it and report good things, so I was already interested. I started this blog to record my journey without being "That Guy" who spams my friends' Facebook feeds. :-p

The basic idea of the eating plan is that you eat what a Paleolithic caveman would eat. (Thus, "Paleo"). Basically, if you can hunt it or gather it, you can eat it. 

There's so much more info about Paleo out there! Pages upon pages that go into all the sciency reasons for avoiding legumes and wheats and grains... articles describing processed sugars and carbohydrates and lipids in dairy... Some info I believe. Some I don't. (One page said cavemen didn't have wine. Come on! You know that almost as soon as the first berry was plucked off the first shrub, someone accidentally fermented it ;-p) 

Anyway, every bit of that research was engaging for a bookworm like me. Enough to blow the mind and burn many hours in front of a computer. And, now that I know there's no one golden recipe playbook, I've at least done enough reading to build my own plan of attack :-)

Rule Number One: Diet changes aren't supposed to be too crazy unless you're asking for yo-yo results. 

My friends were giggling to me that this Paleo thing was going to be a bit hard to adopt. They're right. 

Here's a shortlist of the stuff you can't eat:

• grains (including oatmeal)
• breads (unless you made it from a Paleo recipe! yay, loophole!)
• any type of alcohol (siiiigh)
• all legumes (including peanuts)
• junk food, sodas (which, well, duh)
• all processed sugars
• all packaged/pre-made desserts & meals -- basically, anything that comes out of a box or bag
• all dairy
• all nut oils, vegetable oils, and mystery oils (what the heck is 'canola' anyway?)

What you can eat:

• vegetables
• meats
• eggs
• fruits (not a lot)
• nuts (not a lot)
• coffee (black), tea, water
• coconut oil & olive oil & some nut oils.

(This site has more details if you like.)

I'm lucky to be starting where I am. For a lot of people, giving up cookies and chips and soda and crackers is a monstrous ask. I've been there. It took a while, but nowadays I try to eat healthier, so those things are already wired as "treats" in my brain.

For me, the biggest ask now is giving up oatmeal and peanut butter. And, of course, bread. I mean, bread??? Aaaaagh!

Now What?

Last week I ate all the cereals and breads I had kicking around, all the leftovers of pastas and cookies, freezer-burned ice cream, and all the other delicious nom noms I either cooked or bought -- all gone. My kitchen is a bare canvas. I am ready.

This weekend I start my game plan. Phase one: food shopping! Veggies and meats and fruits. I'm going to spend a lot of time prepping my kitchen Gordon Ramsey style. Chopping up chicken, tossing supplies into the freezer so I don't have to invent every single meal this week. Pre-cutting veggies now so I don't grumble later. My goal is to plan out easy access to deliciousness so I don't feel like I'm dieting ;-)

Here I go!