Simple Paleo Rules

Get Started With The Paleo Diet

The paleo diet is more than a diet, it’s a lifestyle. Under its strong, caveman like wing you’ll learn what to eat to ensure optimum energy, effective and seemingly effortless fat loss as well as easy, efficient muscle gain.

Additionally, because of the large amount of clean and usable nutrients you will be exposing your body to, you will feel great and sleep much better. All of these benefits can be had for some easy to action changes to your diet. The trick is to maintain the changes until they become the norm.

What changes do you need to make on the paleo diet?

Firstly, you will need to cut out all grains. That means that you should no longer eat any bread, corn or rice based foods. Next, you need to remove legumes from your diet. Legumes include peanuts, beans and foods like chickpeas. Dairy should be held at arms length, being viewed as an every so often food. Milk contains some serious allergy and inflammation promoting proteins.

For the most part the above is all you should aim at removing. Your basic macronutrients on the paleo diet are protein, fat and carbohydrates, just like any other diet. The difference here though is that the quantities and quality of each food group changes.

Restructuring your diet

Fats should be reframed as being a healthy, necessary and desirable food. Now don’t get me wrong, certain fats should be avoided, but you are more than likely not eating nearly enough fat. Good fats are those obtained from animals, foods like avacado and nuts, and boasts massive health benefits. Fats are required by the body for a multitude of bodily functions. Some of these functions are directly related to the maintenance of brain health, fuel supply to muscles and cell function.

Protein is your friend, and go to food group. It should be included in at least 40% of your daily eating, and should make up an equal amount (40%) of your calorie intake. Protein is required for many body functions, including muscle maintenance and muscle building. Good sources of protein can be found in meats, nuts and eggs. If you get hungry, a handful of nuts will keep you going for quite a while, and because they contain good, healthy fats, you will feel full and satisfied.

Carbohydrates should be viewed as a required rather than a desired food group. Carbohydrates play havoc with your insulin levels, and insulin controls fat storage. Keep carbohydrate intake low (around 50grams per day), and you will see natural, healthy and effective fat utilisation in your body in no time. This natural state of fat burning is called ketosis, and it is the process through which your body swaps using carbohydrates with fat for its basic energy source.

This is the way your body should operate. Carbohydrates aren’t, or rather weren’t eaten by our ancestors simply because they weren’t that readily available. Even simple bread is an incredibly processed food, incorporating a multitude of intestine challenging ingredients.

Conclusion and take aways

So we’ve broken down some simple attributes of the paleo diet, and by doing so have hopefully opened your mind to a “new” way of eating, where the priority is not the taste buds, but the body. Now that’s not saying the paleo diet or any primal diet foods are untasty or bland. Far from it in fact. Some of the most delicious meals I’ve had are one hundred percent paleo, and after having eaten for quite a while according to paleo diet I find that I only want to eat paleo meals now.

If you are interested in trying the paleo diet to lose weight, have more energy and feel better, why not head on over to paleomunch.com, a blog about applying paleo principles to your life.

Guest Author: Andrew Childs is a paleo diet fanatic who aims to optimise his nutrient intake, build a better body and live a healthy lifestyle, all while getting back to his caveman roots. paleomunch.com is a blog for those interested in alternate, effective lifestyle choices related to the paleo diet. Give paleomunch a try and if you like what you read, why not subscribe!