Progressively Paleo
Going “Paleo” with your diet comes with a long list of benefits for health, performance and longevity. For most people at CrossFit Winnipeg, the Paleo Diet is what I would recommend before going to the Zone diet.
Making the jump to a wheat-and-sugar-and-dairy-and-legumes-free diet is not easy. And since we’re not looking at this is a temporary solution, but rather a lifestyle choice, we want to get into this in a manner that will stick.
Here’s a quick intro to the approach that I have been using for the last several weeks to get myself through the transition in a way that will stick.
Step 1 – Determine a few things that you regularly do in your diet that are not compatible with your goals.
I made a short list of some of the frequent problem areas in my diet.
Step 2 – Choose any one of those problem areas as the one you’re going to work on this week.
Step 3 – Frame your goal for how you’re going to address this problem in a way that you are confident you can handle.
For example, my first area was peanuts. I was eating a lot of peanuts and peanut butter. Peanuts are a legume – not a nut – and have qualities that are not favourable if you’re interested in being lean. I framed my first change as “Replace peanuts with other nuts, and peanut butter with almond butter”.
Step 4 – Practice implementing your new change for 4 – 7 days before returning back to step 2.
I’ve been doing this now for about 2 months and have made tremendous progress which seems to be sticking. I’d encourage you to allow yourself 1 – 3 cheat meals per week at which you do not gorge yourself, but you give yourself the freedom to eat some of those foods you used to regularly consume.
This is not a rapid guide to fat loss or performance increases, but you will experience both over time. More importantly, you’re setting a foundation for healthy diet habits for the rest of your life.
Some other changes I have implemented:
- One glass of milk per day
- One small dessert per day… later on I moved on to one small dessert on the day before rest days
- No more wheat products at meals
Let us know if you have any ideas for other manageable changes. Sometimes, realistically, “never eat ice cream again” is too daunting a choice to make that is pretty much doomed for failure. But over weeks, months, and years of small changes some very big changes can take place.
I have no time to edit this before publishing. I hope it makes sense. Feel free to ask any questions. If you’re not sure where to start in your diet, bring me a 3 day food log and I’ll give you some suggestions.
Thanks B, that breaks it down and makes it more manageable. I know for the summer we tend to go our for ice cream quite often so I have limited myself to once a week and only a small cone.
Thanks Brendan! I will do my list now
My downfall is having a Tim Horton’s in the same building as me and an insane craving for carbs at about 2:00 p.m. every single day I’m at work. How the heck do I fight it? I eat eggs in the morning, and I usually eat a huge tuna salad right before I get a big craving – doesn’t even matter if I’m hungry or not. Not enough protein? Thanks for any help.
Your “Progressively Paleo” lesson could not have come at a better time. I have yet to workout at CF Winnipeg due to my ligament knee injury. I try to follow the WOD as best I can at home, but needless to say, eating has not been great. Nothing like comfort food to see you through an injury. Thanks for the wake up call.
Charise .. are you eating fat?
Need more ideas on protein sources other than meat and eggs! Man cannot live off of protein powder; besides I’m trying to reduce milk based products. Have already cutout cottage cheese, yogurt. Still need my daily serving of cheese. I actually feel better after reducing the intake of milk and milk based foods, go figure.
I’ve been doing paleo since christmas and what I’ve found is that paleo takes planning. And if you cheat or succumb to a craving, it’s not the end of the world, i.e. don’t get down on yourself. Since it’s a lifestyle change not a diet, small mis-steps are negligible when you look at it long term. I live with a part-time cake decorator…enough said.
Charise, I still get irrational carb cravings (but they’re getting less and less frequent), and I find that having a planned paleo snack on hand is a good substitute for when the rest of the office is eating doughnuts and muffins.
I’ve been baking like crazy (I didn’t bake before) since going paleo and this past weekend I made mini-carrot muffins (from Suzanne!) and they are absolutely delicious
The paleo blogs are a recipe goldmine.
Gluten Free Carrot mini muffins
¼ c coconut flour (from Bulk Barn)
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 eggs
¼ cup grapeseed oil (I added an extra TBS and used some oil to grease the tin)
¼ cup honey
1 cup carrots, grated
¼ raisins (I added chopped walnuts instead, less sugar/more protein)
Combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix with a hand blender.spoon into greased mini muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
I also found that on days where I ate more fat (avocados, eggs, coconut milk, etc.) I was much more satisfied and didn’t want the carbs as much. Oh and apples with almond butter is a fantastic mid-afternoon snack!
John, eat more nuts perhaps?
Oh and on days when you have to have some chocolate…Irene approved this one…
Chocolate Orange Cake/Brownies
3 eggs, seperated
1/3 cup olive oil
½ cup honey (I’ve been halving the honey in all my recipes, but maybe start sweet)
1½ cups almond meal (I grind my own and a coarse grind is fine for this recipe)
½ cup cocoa powder
Grated rind and juice from one large orange
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F), fan-forced
Cream egg yolks, oil and honey in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add almond meal cocoa powder orange rind and orange juice, combine well.
In a separate mixing bowl beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, fold well into chocolate orange mixture.
Line a cake tin (I think this makes better brownies, so I used a square dish) with baking paper and poor in chocolate orange mixture.
Place in oven for 50-60min or until cooked. Test by inserting a knife into the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean it is cooked through.
@Charise
I agree with what has been said, make sure you are eating enough fat. I find a piece of fruit with some protein helps get past that craving. Kim’s idea of apples with almond butter is delicious and very satisfying. Give it a try.
@John N
John, there aren’t a lot of options outside of “meat”… but meat is a pretty broad category that includes:
BBQ’d batches in the fridge
Homemade jerky
Vats of chili
Fish
Birds
Wild game
Buffalo
Beef
Lamb
What’s that stuff… oh, pork (bahahah)
What’s the issue, variety or convenience? As a hog farmer I’m thinking it’s probably not an ethical thing
this also comes at a great time for me brendan! i’ve been changing to a paleo lifestyle over the past two weeks. wheat was not a problem, and dairy wasn’t so bad to cut out either surprisingly. the biggest thing for me is trying to get enough meat since i really don’t like much besides chicken, and beef, only if it’s heavily seasoned to hide the beef taste! i just told irene the other day that bison was too “meaty tasting” for me
i’m open to try some fish, so i’d appreciate any recipes since i don’t know where to start!
thanks for the “sweet” recipes kimberly! i’ve tried the carrot muffins before and they are yummy! one of my favorites are the following pancakes that i pile high with mixed fruit:
Banana and Flaxseed Pancakes
1 mashed banana
2 tbsp almond butter
1 ½ tbsp ground flaxseeds
1 egg
Coconut oil
Place ingredients in a bowl except for the coconut oil and combine well. Place some coconut oil in a frying pan on low-medium heat, and then place a scoop of pancake mixture into the frying pan. Cook for 1min before flipping over and cooking for a further 1min on the other side.
delicious!
Angela, I do a lot of stews, soups, and chili to get my meat and veggies in one dish. It’s a nice change from having a piece of meat on your plate with side vegetables…and with a slowcooker, dinner is ready when I get home from work
You could do all types of curries, traditional stews and pretty much anything can be thrown together to make a hearty soup. The meat takes on the flavor of the sauce so you might not mind the taste. Thai stews/soups are great too bc you can add full fat coconut milk and then you get the fat, protein and veggies all in one.
Yeah, slowcookers are awesome!
@Kimberly
thanks for the suggestions kimberly! i don’t use my slow cooker much, i need to start taking advantage of it more often!
A lot of good ideas being thrown around here… Thanks everyone for the advice. I eat eggs and coconut milk almost every morning now but pretty much stop eating all fats after that. By the time dinner rolls around my willpower is gone and I go straight for sugar. I will take steps to stop this!
BTW, does anyone know where to find good, full fat coconut milk? I’m trying to look for a container bigger than a can. Thanks,