Going Paleo

I decided to get into the Paleo diet for a month.  I've had friends who've done it and had impressive results, some even decided to make it their lifestyle.  The Paleolithic diet, also known as Caveman diet, as the name suggests, is a diet modeled from the ancient era where people would hunt and gather for food.

Basically, the diet restricts you from intaking dairy, grains, sugar, starch, processed food, soy and legumes.  Thus, the bulk of what you eat are lean proteins, fruits, vegetables.  Here is a helpful infographic that best explains the diet:

A month of doing Paleo served as a learning experience for me.  It helped me beyond just physical benefits.  Here are the things that I gained from getting into the diet:

Control over appetite.  One of the main reason I decided to go into a diet is because I've noticed how my cravings have started to take control over me.  There was a point where I started giving in to my every urge to eat.  The more this happened the more my appetite was insatiable.  I had to take action to put my flesh in its rightful place.  A lot of the food that I craved for like sweets, dairy, bread where not allowed in the Paleo diet.  So deliberately cutting off those food made me develop self-control.

Creativity and resourcefulness.  I'm a foodie.  I love to cook and eat good food.  I have a palette for flavors.  Paleo put me in a position where I was limited with the ingredients I could use to cook.  It challenged me to come up with something delicious that was within the boundaries of the allowable food of the diet.  Luckily, there are tons of sites online with really good recipes.  After researching and trying out some recipes, I was able to come up with my own.

Here are some of the Paleo friendly meals I made:

 

Well-being.  Making a decision to live a healthy lifestyle does wonders not only physically but also mentally and emotionally.  One of the benefits of Paleo that was really evident to me was feeling energized.  I was less tired and felt like I had more strength for my activities (work, workout, tennis).  This made me feel more productive.

Perseverance.  I cannot really quantify my results in the basis of a weighing scale.  I would weigh myself almost every 3 days and still be stuck in the same weight I started.  It actually made me feel discouraged because I felt like I'm cutting all the yummy food for nothing.  My friends would tell me that the scale wasn't an accurate basis because I had to look at my progress in terms of body mass or inches.  I had to really stick to my commitment to the diet for a month.  I did feel like it was effective because my clothes seem to be looser and I can see that my stubborn body fat has shrunk (whew!).

As it is often stressed, a healthy diet is good but it should always be done with proper exercise.  It works hand in hand. During the course of my diet, I didn't stop working out.  I did Crossfit, tennis and plyometrics.  Paleo was perfect because it fueled my activities and helped me achieve results.