About Paleo Diet

What is the 'Paleo Diet'?

The diet is based on the belief that human beings have not yet evolved with a tolerance to grains and dairy or namely the 'agrarian' lifestyle brought about by farming and producing our own food sources. Instead it focuses its attention on returning to our ancestral roots of the hunter gatherers by consuming only foods that our ancestors would have eaten like grass fed organic meat, wild game, vegetables and minimal fruit.
The diet itself is not restrictive as some would believe and has numerous varieties of foods that can be consumed liberally without fear of gaining weight or causing any aggravation to one's body.


What will the 'Paleo Diet' do?

Due to the connection between processed carbs and refined sugars with diabetes, weight gain and heart disease the 'paleo diet' claims to aid in weight loss, reduce the chance of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease and may help with autoimmune diseases. Only minor scientific studies have been carried out to prove the validity of the diet and many sceptics still remain. However a diet that encourages the consumption of healthy natural and unprocessed alternatives to our current lifestyle is well worth looking at particularly when over 60% of the worlds population are obese or overweight.

Day 1 ~ Starting the Paleo Diet

To be completely honest I have had a bit of a head start on the Paleo eating plan. In my mind I had to be 100% prepared for this 90 day challenge so first I researched what foods and beverages I could consume before I threw myself in the deep end. Officially I start the 90 days from this morning to make it nice and clear but I trialed a few days without grains and dairy before today, 3 to be exact. Considering I'm a long time sufferer of joint aches and fatigue you can imagine my surprise when I noticed a massive improvement on these symptoms in only 3 days!! I can't wait to see what 90 days will do and in fact I am excited!
Unfortunately I take regular medication for swelling and fluid retention so my main goal in 90 days would be to come off that medication because I no longer need it to control these symptoms.

Before breakfast

2 cups of organic loose leaf Jasmin tea with juice of half a lemon

Paleo herbal teas and beverages

Also

5ml organic omega-3 fish oil (Herbs of Gold is a really good non-commercial brand)
2 capsules of Inner Health Plus probiotics (although I will be getting a better brand in the upcoming week so I'll keep you posted)

Breakfast 

Broccoli and brussel sprouts lightly sautéd in extra virgin olive oil (cold pressed) and organic almond, cashew, brazil nut butter tossed with scrambled eggs garlic, peppercorns and coriander seeds (ground in a mortar and pestle). Add a sprig of dill and an anchovy and viola!

Paleo omelette

Paleo Ingredients for cooking

Just finished breakfast; I feel satisfied but not bloated which is such a massive relief! I used to always feel bloated and yuk after eating even the lightest meal and digestion took forever! I'm not going to overdo the eggs though cause they do feel a little bit heavy but defintely an improvement.
Also I really want to emphasize that I AM NOT doing this to lose weight but moreso to improve my quality of life.
Currently I weigh 51kg (weighed yesterday) and have put on 3 kilos since the start of winter. I know.. you're probably thinking 'what is she complaining about, she's only 51 kilos'!!! The truth is, like most women, I too struggle with putting weight on in those lovely areas our men love to grab such as thighs, hips and bum. Although I am not considered overweight I do not have the ideal body type, I lack muscle tone and suffer from muscle fatigue. Fluid retention is my greatest enemy... grrrrrr and I have taken prescription meds to help, something which I am not proud of since I have taken the natural approach on almost  EVERYTHING in my life!! It definitely got the better of me.

2:11pm

Only just started to feel kind of hungry after this morning's breakfast so good news... it's kept me going til now... bad news... I feel nauseous and foggy. Can't help but feel this may be a natural process to such an extreme change in diet. Did a bit of research and found a couple of forums on the topic of nausea when starting the 'Paleo' eating plan and nausea is apparently common in most people and passes quickly. It's commonly known as 'low carb flu'... hmm, sounds a lot like how I feel! It seems to affect women more than men from what I can tell from the feedback on the forums.
Recommendation: Eat some sweet potato so I'm going to do just that.

Lunch

Well I do feel much better since having some lunch and the nausea has subsided ( I wonder if the snacking on anchovies had anything to do with it?? I have a lot of energy atm though so I just cleaned out my kitchen of all processed crap (flours, ricecrumbs, corn and other bits and pieces). Can you believe it covered almost my whole kitchen table and took up 2 garbage bags?!! I am shocked cause I honestly thought I ate fairly healthy...
Okay so lunch was oven baked sweet potato with italian herbs and a slice of baked fish, I usually do it in foil to lock in moisture.

Steamed Fish and Lemon with baked Sweet Potato
P.S Lunch was awesome!!


Dinner

What an amazing day! (except for the feeling a bit icky earlier) I feel pretty good now though and definitely looking forward to the fun I'll get up to in the kitchen tomorrow, I might already be slightly biased in favour of this way of eating but I really think I could get used to this, permanently! I just love the food!!

Paleo beef casserole

Beef casserole with thyme, leek and capsicum. Cheers to no grains or dairy for a whole day!

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