The Paleo Food Pyramid (from The Paleo Diet)

I hate the word diet.  I know even saying that is cliche in and of itself… everyone claims their diet is not, in fact, a diet… it’s a lifestyle.  But let’s face it, Zone, Skinny Bitch, Nutrisystem, South Beach, Atkins, the list can go on… those are diets.  No one ever ate like that.  There are not cultures of people who do this regularly.

Paleo is different.  We, as a species, used to eat like this.

In thinking a little more about this Paleo diet, and see its popularity beginning to rise, I hear people’s concerns about how boring it may be, or how hard it may be.  This site, and all of us, are here to tell you the otherwise.  If you’re willing to accept the simple fact that the Standard American Diet (based on the Food Pyramid) is not the best for you, then you’re most of the way to mentally accepting Paleo.

What it comes down to is shedding the notion that you’re eating for weight loss, nourishment, or performance, and instead eating because you like good food.  Seriously, you can’t tell me the Paleo diet is bad, or boring food.

To show that, let’s outline what I’ve eaten so far this week:

• Breakfast: omelet muffins. use a muffin tin and create muffin-shaped turkey, pepper, onion omelets.
• Lunches: Bison meatloaf, using almond milk as a binder instead of bread.  Almond milk, cabbage, onion, garlic.
• Dinners: grass-fed flank steak salad, more bison meatloaf, almond meal crusted pork chops, carmelized broccoli.
• Dessert: coconut milk ice cream, dark chocolate with sunflower seed butter.

Tell me this list does not sound good.  None of these meals took me more than 30 minutes to prepare.  For most of them, I made enough so I can use them as leftovers for lunch.

Eating like this is not only good, it’s good for you.  I have more energy, I don’t crash after my meals, I’m shedding body fat and setting PR’s in the gym.  In the words of Robb Wolf, I look better, feel better, and perform better.

When I eat tons of processed carbs, breads, lots of sugar, I get an instant headache.  I crash within an hour of eating.  We were not meant for this.

I like what Dutch has to say about cheating, and more importantly, about eating in general.

First of all lets talk about why I do the things i do.
I drink Coffee black for the caffeine.
I drink Tequila on the rocks for the alcohol.
I eat beef, barely cooked and with little seasoning for the nourishment.
I lift heavy weights so i can be strong.

Why do you do the things you do?  Why do you eat what you eat?