Welcome to Day 22 of the Minimize Yo’ Butt Fitness Challenge.
Life isn’t always simple, but making food choices can be.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m not a dietician or a fitness guru. I just know what works for me and what doesn’t.
Here’s what hasn’t worked for me in the past:
- Counting calories (this makes me feel obsessed with food)
- Counting carbs (the first stages of Atkins nearly killed me)
- Eating 6 small meals a day (I can’t make myself eat when I’m not hungry)
- Getting up an hour early to exercise (I’m so not a morning person)
- Finding an hour or more to exercise (I’m lucky to get 30 minutes of uninterrupted time)
As a homeschooling, work-at-home mom of three kids, I have to keep life as simple as I can. If planning menus and deciding what I can eat isn’t simple, it just doesn’t work for me. Switching to eating Paleo has made life as simple as it can be.
What is Paleo?
The Paleo diet comes from the term “Paleolithic” otherwise known as the cavemen times. My quick description of the Paleo diet is eating natural foods that would have been available to cavemen. That includes things like meat, veggies, fruit, and nuts.
It’s a pretty basic description but it helps me make good food choices. I can simply ask myself “Would a caveman have that?” and if the answer is no, it probably means it’s not the healthiest option for me. I don’t think there were too many potato chips or macaroni and cheese floating around any caves all those years ago.
I won’t be focusing on all the health benefits of Paleo today. You’ll have to check back for more about that. I just realized the more I talked about Paleo during the Minimize Yo Butt challenge, that not everyone was familiar with what it was.
Why Paleo Appealed to Me
I have been a carb addict for some time now. I didn’t just focus on junk food carbs, but I certainly ate plenty of them. I am a lover of all breads, pretzels, and every other carb in between. I knew it was something I wanted to get control over so I tried going cold turkey and I tried the Atkins diet. The problem I had with the Atkins diet was that it limited even healthy carbs found in fruit and other foods.
Paleo appealed to me because it had many similar elements of Atkins like focusing on proteins and limiting carbs. It won me over when I realized I could have all the fruits and veggies I wanted and just needed to get rid of the carbs found in breads and grains. Choosing a more natural diet has made me feel better overall.
I have found fruit to be a new found treat. I always loved fruit and I really missed it when I tried Atkins. It has surprised me how I don’t miss the constant snacking of pretzels or crackers because I feel more full and satisfied with my diet made up of natural food choices.
Honestly, I think I fell in love with the simplicity of Paleo. I don’t count calories. I don’t count carbs. I don’t even pay much attention to portion sizes. I have found that a lot of it just takes care of itself. I get fuller faster so my portions stay smaller. It’s also a lot harder to eat too many calories when you’re eating naturally.
I really feel like this is a way of eating that I can live with long term. For me, that is the biggest reason that Paleo is so appealing.
I’ll be sharing more details about what we eat as a Paleo family this week as well as a preview of one of the Minimize Yo Butt prizes.
So tell me about your diet. What have found works for you? Do you have any questions about the Paleo diet?
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