The first time I heard the adage "Abs are made in the
kitchen", I wanted to die. Just kill me, please. I knew I was doomed to
being pudgy because everything that's cool and worth living for revolves around
eating. Summer time barbecues, Dinner with friends, getting promoted, birthday
parties are just a few examples of how the type of food makes the event. You
could have walked around that barbecue with a huge hole in your pants lookin' like a fool but nobody cares because
DAMN those ribs were on POINT!
I've tended to stay away from diets and regulate my weight
by eating LESS crap food...which I'm bad at. Who doesn't love junk food?
Actually, my father hates junk food. He says it tastes like plastic. But
unfortunately for me, I inherited his nose and not his taste buds. As I've said
before, any type of diet where I have to live off lettuce leaves for the first
ridiculous phase and lighten up to Lettuce leaves and lemon juice the next is
just not going to happen with me, okay? I live in the real world with real
world problems! The person who invented those types of diets lives on a friggin
lettuce farm with one stinking lemon tree...and hates puppies, I’m sure of
it... just trust me on this one.
So fast forward me in May of 2012 when I started Crossfit (I'll
get into my love affair with Crossfit later) which stands by The Paleo Diet as
their nutritional foundation. I'd heard of it and subsequently wanted nothing
to do with it. After incredible results of consistent Crossfit, I figured,
'Hmmm. Wonder how good it would be to couple exercise with the Paleo diet.'
Well, as soon as they said "no bread" I bowed out...not even
gracefully. It was more like a clumsy somersault out. You can shut that noise
down because I don't want to hear it. Although, I did want to start eating
better so I decided to cut out candy…
Slowly but surely, I kept edging my diet to healthier habits
but didn’t exactly know what guidelines I should be following. All I knew is
that it had to be simple. Someone had mentioned that in the Paleo Diet, you don't count calories because it's quality food. Out of curiosity, I looked into the Paleo Diet again. I kept running into this guide…
When I looked back at my diet, it could easily be modified to fit these standards.
Eating out was scary because I didn’t know the guidelines by heart so my mental
checklist pretty much went like this: Is it Meat? Is it a vegetable? If it
passed those two guidelines, I was good to go. Instead of a bunch of Chicken
Salads, it was more like Steak and broccoli.
Needing to find a way to make it easier at home, I headed to
my beloved Pinterest. I. WAS. HOOKED. It was Paleo galore. Recipes that looked
better than the garbage I was eating before. I couldn’t wait to cook them all.
Heck, most of the time, it really did taste better. Now, I can't get enough. I still struggle with portion control but honestly, it hasn't really affected my weight...
 |
| This is after a week of not paying attention to portion control |
To me, this way of eating has been a blessing. It fits me perfectly and I'm completely content with cutting out foods I used to regularly consume. A Mexican on a No-bean diet?! IT'S SACRILEGIOUS I TELL YOU! No, I'm kidding but I urge you to try something that fits your lifestyle. You'd be surprised what you're willing to give up when you know how to cook amazing healthy food.
If you'd like to give it a try, here are my FAVORITE websites to the best Paleo recipes:
Even if
you aren't looking to change your diet just yet, I urge you to try a recipe
from any of these sites. You'll find it
very satisfying to not only make something delicious but know that you're doing
your body a favor ;)
Let me
know if you do try a recipe. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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