2011: The Year of the Caveman

  When my husband first started talking about the Paleo Diet, I thought he was crazy. First Vibrams, now this. He is turning into a caveman. Totally going primal. Soon he will be re-inventing the wheel.
  Well, I listened to what he had to say about this diet of no more sugar, no more grains, no more dairy and thought, "This man is more nuts than I thought if he thinks I'm giving up cheese and bread!" Of course curiosity got the best of me, so I went and questioned my good friend Google.
  I scanned over the Paleo Diet  website and still really wasn't convinced I would like a diet full of lean meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits and nuts. Could I really do this for 30 days without cheating? Do I want to deal with fixing new recipes that might be time consuming and contain hundreds of ingredients? Ordering a pizza seemed SO much eaiser.
  But after reading through Robb Wolf's book "The Paleo Solution" along with looking over his website, not only was I ready to ditch the pizza, I was overly excited to get started!
   On Wolf's website he explains, "The Paleo diet is simple yet remarkably effective for fat loss and halting or preventing a number of degenerative diseases."
  Wolf says that to reap the benefits of the most effective nutritional strategy known, we need to build meals from the following:

• Lean proteins (ideally) grass fed meat, free range fowl and wild caught fish
• Seasonal fruits and vegetables
• Healthy fats such as nuts, seeds, avocado, olive oil, and coconut oil

Wolf challenges readers to change their diet for at least 30 days. He says that regardless of your fitness or health goals, you WILL look, feel and perform your best on the Paleo diet. 
  Sounds awesome, right?? Easy? Maybe. Challenging? Yes. And I welcome that challenge with open arms.
  To prepare ourselves to stock our kitchen Paleo-style, my husband and I began by going through week one of Wolf's cookbook (which is part of his book and one reason why I decided to go Paleo). Wolf lays out complete meal plans for all 30 days for breakfast, lunch and dinner and even includes a daily snack. He also includes the recipes for these meals and let me tell you, when you read things like Stir Fry Beef Salad, Peach and Pecan Scramble and Slow Cooked Rosemary Veggies and Meat, you don't even think about pizza (unless it's Wolf's Paleo Pizza!)
  Remember how I was worried about the complexity of the recipes and the use of several unfamiliar ingredients? My worries are completely gone. Nothing about Wolf's recipes is neither confusing nor time consuming. They are every day types of recipes, with every day types of ingredients, but HEALTHY!
  So now, the part of getting started I was really looking forward to the most. Shopping! We had our shopping list ready and we hit the stores. Because Paleo is up and coming, a few of the items we needed we were unable to find. Fortunately, the foods the diet is primarily based on are readily available, so we stuffed our cart full of fish, shrimp, pork loin, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, apples, pears, almonds, walnuts, almond butter...just to name a few.
  I took pictures of our loot purchased mainly at Aldi and the rest at Walmart for approximately $100:

 You may notice that some of the items are not 100% Paleo. As previously mentioned, some of the more strict items are not available in this area. With that said, we were still able to buy about 90% Paleo.
  We are prepared to start our 30 days of Paleo on Monday, January 10. We will weigh ourselves, take our body measurements and will post our progress for all to see. I also plan on posting the recipes I will be using along with pictures of the completed meals.
  I'm looking forward to this month of healthy eating and I'm ready to let go of all the nasty ick  I've been putting in my body for decades.
  And who knows? Maybe 30 days will turn into 30 years.