Paleo what?

Based on some of the comments I've heard around the gym lately, it seems like many who adopt the Paleo diet share this experience:

You're out in a social situation, someone notices that you're not_________ (drinking alcohol, devouring dessert, noshing on the bread basket, sucking down pasta noodles, etc). They ask what's up and you find yourself going on and on and on about the Paleo diet, what it means, why they shouldn't be eating any of the things they may have just devoured, or hold dear to their hearts and should instead eat just meat, veggies, fruit & nuts. As you can imagine several things happen, people's eyes glaze over and they mentally check out of the convo as soon as you start calling into question all the nutritional "truths" they've been told for all these years, or they start grilling you, digging for more info (or maybe for holes in your arguments) or perhaps you just start alienating your friends and they stop inviting you out any more...

In an effort not to have that last bit happen to me, I've done what others have found effective - drafted a long email full of info and links that I can quickly shoot off to the curious and non-believers alike. 

So, for efficiency's sake, I'll post it here too: 

Paleo in a nutshell is the philosophy of eating as our paleolithic ancestors did - meat, vegetables, some nuts & seeds and little fruit. We exclude processed foods, grains, legumes, rice, dairy (some debate here), sugar, etc.

It might sound extreme, but once you give it a shot, the rewards really pay off! Here's a short clip of a story Nighline did on Paleo recently.

We were introduced to this diet by our Crossfit gym, and you really can't argue with a whole bunch of people who eat this way and are some of the fittest people I've ever met - and not just fit like ripped - but toned, svelte and sleek looking. So we gave it a shot for the recommended 30 day intro period with strict adherence (meat, veg, nuts, fruit only). Giving up bread & pasta were hard, but harder still I found was giving up milk in my coffee, cheese and wine! But, we stuck with it and saw some results. We both lost weight (Mr. Buck more than me) but I can see in both of us that our body composition is starting to change. 

After the 30 day strict introduction we've relaxed a little bit into what I like to call "Paleo Plus". Many Paleo followers who've adopted this lifestyle long-term talk about the 80/20 (or 90/10) principle as the best way to maintain health for the long run (cause let's be real, home-made bread, greek yogurt, cheese, alcohol - sometimes you've just gotta live a little!). 80/20 is basically:  80% strict adherence, 20% allowing foods you enjoy or which are nutritious but still not technically Paleo, I'll be monitoring how my body responds to adding these types of things back in and make changes as necessary.

Despite all of our friends thinking we're crazy & joining some kind of cult, Mr. Buck and I are both liking this journey & seeing what we can really do with our bodies if we give it our all. We've both tried calorie restriction & plans like Weight Watchers in the past, with some success. But right now this seems to be working for us, so we'll keep going!

If any of you have any questions or want to know more, please feel free to leave a comment or email me: mrs.blissblog (at) gmail.com. 

Also, here are an amazing array of resources I've found which provide more information on the scientific arguments for this way of eating, as well as tons of recipes, etc. 

To get us started we read this book: The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf (check out Robb Himself introducing the book here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m29KMZX74LRX3C/ref=ent_fb_link )

This is one of the best posts I've found which succinctly & clearly lays out why some people want to eat this way - and how to do it - a great starting point especially if you don't want to get overwhelmed at first with all of the scientific data in the books: http://www.fitbomb.com/p/why-i-eat-paleo.html

Here are some blogs that I follow for information & recipes:

http://www.primal-palate.com/

http://nomnompaleo.com/
http://www.balancedbites.com/
http://cfscceat.blogspot.com/
http://cosmopolitanprimalgirl.wordpress.com/
http://memorable-meals.blogspot.com/
http://everydaypaleo.com/
http://www.foodrenegade.com/
http://jensgonepaleo.blogspot.com/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
http://paleo4health.blogspot.com/
http://blog.modernpaleo.com/
http://paleoblocks.blogspot.com/
http://paleodietlifestyle.com/
http://paleogirls.com/
http://robbwolf.com/
http://whatsinwhatyoueat.org/

Enjoy!