Eating Like a Caveman...er..woman

So, this weird new diet going around-- Paleo.

When I first heard about it, I thought it was a crazy idea. Of course, when I first heard about it, it was presented as more a "you shall not eat anything but rabbit food" sort of idea... However, after looking into it more, I rather like the idea of it.

For those of you who don't know, Paleolithic eating is pretty much eating like you're not in the modern world. No processed foods, a lot of them cut out grains and dairy even, and (dun dun dun....) no sugar!

However, I found that part of the Paleolithic eating style is the fact it's flexible. Some Paleo eaters eat grains, some eat dairy, some don't, some don't eat meat. As long as you're not making processed food a part of your diet, you can term yourself a Paleolithic eater.

Now, even though I thought this was pretty cool, at first I had another concern about it:
Uh.... MONEY??

I mean, fruits and vegetables and beef are pretty much the most expensive things in the grocery store. Could a diet be anymore expensive?

Well, I'm not sure if the "purist" Paleo people would view this as proper, but I realized that frozen fruits and vegetables are a lot less expensive. And you get get a much bigger variety-- I mean, you can get a bag of stir fry mix for just a few dollars, and it has baby corn and peas and carrots and all that yummy stuff in it! And frozen fruit? Can we say SMOOTHIES?

Also, when you think about it, Paleo eating doesn't necessarily add to your grocery bill... because you're buying certain things instead of the processed stuff you used to buy. So yes, it probably will still be a little more expensive, but you also have to think of all the stuff you're cutting out and not spending money on anymore. Like... four dollar Starbucks coffees... with those four dollars you could buy a thing of beef that could last a few days...

Anyway, in case you hadn't gotten the idea yet, I decided to try out eating Paleo. My take on it is this:

1) Fruits and vegetables and meats = Okay, obviously.
...Except for those yummy frozen chicken patties... and other handily frozen meats that are super processed like that...
Since I don't have tons of time for making lots of food, I also decided that the no preservative, minimally processed lunch meat is okay, because I'm at work or school half the time, so I need something easily packable.
2) I also decided I'm very much not cutting out dairy, because Greek yogurt.
3) No sugar (so *plain* Greek yogurt, not the fancy flavored stuff...). Which is probably the hardest so far, but Stevia is okay, so I have hope.
4) I decided that whole grains are all right, in moderation. So no white bread (not that I ate that anyway) or white pasta or white rice, etc.etc.. But whole wheat bread is good because packable sandwiches.
5) My beloved peanut butter is lapsing into the natural, refrigerated stuff that has a weird texture. Meh.
6) To help me stay on track at first, I'm allowing myself one "free" meal a week. This will probably change to one free meal every other week, then once a month eventually.

Anyhow!
So far things are going good! In that I haven't failed. I have been fantasizing about sugar and fried food though. The second one is weird because I don't even like fried food. But oh well, I'm sure my brain will get over it eventually.

Also, it's forcing me to actually 1) EAT, and 2) Eat foods I normally wouldn't because I don't like them and would fill up on other foods instead.

Oh, and something I'm finding helpful is to keep a log of what I eat on one of those calorie/health tracker things, so make sure I'm getting enough of what I need to be healthy.

So far so good!!

-The Raven