How to Go on a Paleo Diet (6 page)

At least half of the things that are in this cabinet won’t work in the diet. Clearing it out is the best thing to do. (
source
)

You need to make sure that you remove foods that are not in the Paleo diet from your home. This includes removing any products that appear to have been artificially processed. The key is to simply avoid all foods that have not appeared back in those times so you can make sure that you avoid the temptations that come with them.

What you do with the food that you clear out is up to you. For example, you can consider giving the food to other people in your neighborhood or even donating it to a local food bank that could really use it. Either way, the key is to make sure that you get everything that doesn’t work on the Paleo diet cleaned out.

Besides, you’d be amazed at how much room you would create in your cabinets if you cleared out the stuff that you shouldn’t be using while on the diet.

Consider Your Meal List

You then have to take a look at the meal list that you can use when getting into the diet. This may include details on the different kinds of foods that you can consume while on the diet. These foods will vary in terms of what you can and cannot go along with and should be considered carefully.

Keeping a Diary

You should make sure that you keep a diary running while on the diet. This should be used to list information on the following points:

1.
       
When you were eating something

2.
      
What you ate at the time

3.
      
Any results in your weight loss plan

4.
     
How you felt after eating; this includes whether or not you were actually hungry after you finished eating

The diary is used to help you out with not only recording what you have done but also to see how well you are going on the diet based on what you have been doing. The information you get out of your diary can prove to be effective and helpful for your weight loss needs thanks to how it will all be run with your general health in mind.

What Will Your Meals Be?

You then need to plan ahead of your diet by setting up an appropriate list of meals that you can use while on the diet. This list should include plenty of options to choose from while on the diet and can be arranged with individual times of the day in mind.

A good plan would be to set up a meal plan that can work over the course of a few weeks. This is used to help you out with figuring out what your meals are going to look like. These include different meals that feature different parts of the diet to keep you healthy.

Your meal plan should involve meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. An appropriate snack may also be added in between lunch and dinner if needed. You should use this for a few weeks so you can prepare yourself as well as possible.

In fact, it might be easier for you to stick with the diet if you use a variety of meals on the diet. This should be prepared through a meal plan diagram to help you make sure that you are not going to become bored with eating the same things every single day while on the diet. You will not be likely to be bored by the diet if you focus on a plan with multiple kinds of foods in mind in order to keep your body healthy.

Remember,
this is all subject to whether or not you actually feel hungry.
You can always skip a meal or two during the course of a week if you do not feel hungry. Eating when you aren’t hungry is just going to keep the diet from working out as well as it should be able to.

Set Time for Exercise

You have to prepare yourself after a while for exercise if you are to stay healthy. Your planning can involve setting up an exercise routine that involves a number of workouts each week.

You should schedule your workouts based on the times that you have available and what you want to do with them. This is so you can get your body prepared for all the exercises that you have to use while dieting.

Any Recipes You Can Use?

It’s also helpful to see if you can find quality recipes relating to the diet. The odds are very good that you can find some recipes that include only the safest ingredients for eating while on the diet. This should improve your chances of losing weight and sticking to the diet.

These recipes may also be useful for helping you out with sticking to the diet by using only the right ingredients. It should make the shopping process for the diet a little easier to live with. Speaking of which, that is the next point that you should be taking a look at.

Shopping for the Paleo diet does not have to be a real challenge. In fact, you can easily get you shopping done once you have an appropriate meal plan set up. This should help you out with only the right ingredients and foods for what you plan on using while on this diet.

Of course, the foods that you will have to pick up should be very specific. This includes working only with foods like what you’ve already read about here. However, there are several other things that can be done in order to make it easier for you to shop for foods on the diet.

Organics are Useful

The USDA’s official organic food certification label. (source)

First, you have to see that you are going along with organic products that have not been treated with artificial materials. One of the best options to find among organic products involves meat-based products that have come from grass-fed sources.

It particularly helps to see what labels are listed with regards to the certification that a certain product has gotten from an organization like the USDA. Groups like this can certify products as being organic based on how they are prepared and readied for people to use.

Always Check Labels

You should see what the ingredient labels are on different products that you buy. The odds are very good that something that has a bunch of artificial ingredients or some things that you have never even heard of will be off-limits during the Paleo diet. You always have to check and see what is included.

Always check on the label. (
source
)

The nutritional label can also help you to see how many calories come from something and any fats that are involved. This is to make sure that you get something with only the right fats and as little saturated or trans fats as possible. It’s also good to see this in order to get an idea of how many sugars are naturally found in something that you are going to be using while on the diet.

Check Your Recipes

As mentioned just recently, you can have an easier time with planning for the diet when the best diet recipes are considered. You should keep your shopping list limited to whatever ingredients are listed on these recipes. This includes sticking specifically to different kinds of foods that were already listed on the recipes that you have found.

Always When Not Hungry

There is also the need to avoid shopping for the Paleo diet when you are hungry. It has been found from one study after another that shopping while you are hungry is a dangerous thing to do. It can make it easier for you to gain weight by buying more food than what you really need to get because so many foods will look more appealing when you are hungry.

This is especially problematic considering how so many markets and food companies get their foods displayed in a way to where it will actually make you want to eat something right now. You must control your diet by buying the foods you want when you are not hungry.

Ask Someone Else for Help

It might help you to stay on the safe side and ask someone else to shop for you if desired. This can be done by providing someone with an appropriate food list to use when shopping. It is a simple idea but it could be a real key to dieting success considering how it might be easier for a person who follows your instructions to get foods for you.

This could also help you to avoid the temptations that come with so many foods found in a market. Temptations can be very tough to control and can throw you off of a diet. Therefore, you have to protect yourself by avoiding them at all times even if it means having someone else go out to buy your food for you while on the diet.

It’s always tough to get accustomed to a new diet. This is especially if you have been so used to certain habits over a period of time. However, you will have to concentrate on a few things in order to make it easier for you to avoid losing time on the diet. Here are a few habits that you need to stop dealing with when trying to use the diet.

Controlling Breakfast

It can be a real challenge to enjoy your breakfast while on the Paleo diet. The truth is that you have to let go of habits relating to dairy products and cereal grains while on the Paleo diet. These are obviously not needed in the diet but it can also be tough for you to work with if you aren’t careful enough.

You might have an easier time with getting through these pressures if you use a controlled breakfast that features appropriate meats that have been prepared carefully alongside a fruit or two.

Avoiding Sugar

You also have to let go of the habit of consuming sugar in your diet. Sugar is only going to hurt your chances on the Paleo diet due to the added pressure that is created on your body. You have to consider substituting sugary drinks with water if you want to keep your diet under control.

Remember, you might experience some withdrawal symptoms while avoiding sugar at the start. Keep reading this guide to learn how you can take care of these symptoms.

Excess Exercise

You need to work with exercise but you should avoid any exercise that might be strenuous or tough on your body. This includes avoiding excess cardiovascular workouts. The key is to make sure your body is healthy and capable of handling the efforts that you are getting yourself into as you are trying to lose weight.

Sticking to Set Eating Times

While it might sound like a good idea in theory to stick with some very specific times for eating, you should make sure that you avoid the habit of eating at extremely specific times in the day. You should be eating when hungry and never when you don’t have a real need for doing so. This is even if it requires you have to skip a lunch or dinner just to get in the diet. Remember,
your gut feeling for eating is the key to keeping on the diet.

Every diet has its own series of temptations and distractions and the Paleo diet is no exception. You could end up dealing with many pressures from outside sources to try and break off from you diet. However, it is not too hard to get away from these pressures if you know what you are doing when trying to keep yourself on the diet.

The Rewarding Process

You might think that you can reward yourself with a day off from the diet after a while. However, this is only going to make things harder for you to deal with because it will be easy for you to gain back weight that you have lost if you end up straying from the diet.

You clearly have to watch for what you are doing with yourself while on the diet. Be sure to avoid trying to reward yourself with any old food that you want to use. You really need to stick with the particular plan for handling food the right way.