Four Benefits of Paleo Diet Meals

The Paleo diet goes by many names, including the Caveman Diet, the Hunter-Gather Diet, and the Stone Age Diet. Regardless of the name you call it by, the benefits of Paleo diet are numerous. Once you adjust to this different way of eating-and looking at food-you will begin to feel the difference in your body.

Our bodies are simply not designed to process and utilize many of the foods in our modern diet. Many of the staples of the modern diet that we consider healthy are in fact products that man himself cultivated. They are not naturally occurring foods. And they are certainly not foods that our bodies were designed to use as fuel. Relatively speaking, these foods are new to our diets and our bodies have not fully adapted to our intake.

The result of our consumption of these foods is much like what happens when you use the wrong fuel in your vehicle: a sluggish engine. Our bodies respond by becoming susceptible to illness and disease. Our bodies run more slowly and less effectively than they should. In general, we just don't feel good. However, most of us cannot remember a time that these 'foods' were not in our diets, so we don't realize that how we feel is not normal. We are unaware that our bodies can in fact feel better and perform at much higher levels.

The four benefits of the Paelo diet are: increased energy; clearer, smoother skin; weight loss; and a stronger immune system.

Increased Energy

One of the benefits of the Paleo diet is increased energy. You will have more energy than you know what to do with. Some people say they feel younger, but others claim they have more energy than they ever recall having. Think about it: the Paleo man had to have a lot of energy just to get through his day, which centered upon surviving. His diet sustained him through the equivalent of walking ten miles each day, as well as running from predators, and lifting heavy objects.

Clearer, Smoother Skin

Your skin will look clearer and smoother skin than ever before. Sometimes we don't even realize how dull and lackluster our skin's appearance has become until it begins to clear. The Paleo diet is a skin-clearing miracle.

Weight Loss

Many of us begin battling our weight as we age. Once you make the shift to the Paleo diet, you will be surprised by how easy weight loss becomes. The Paleo man did not battle the bulge like we do. His physique was slim and trim.

Stronger Immune System

Once you eliminate the damaging processed and cultivated foods we have added to our diets, your body begins to regain its natural resistance to illness and disease. The Paleo man had a short life expectancy due to a lack of medical care, not due to illness. He did not suffer from heart disease or diabetes like we do.

Paleo Diet Meal Plan: Tips for a Successful Paleo Diet

The "Paleo diet meal plan" has an obscure sounding name and lots of seemingly bizarre rules: no bread or beans? Despite the list of dos and don'ts, the theory is the easy part, the doing it is the hard part.

Eat only what the earliest humans ate.

It's that simple. What isn't so simple is keeping your commitment. If you're like me, or most humans really, goal setting easy. How many New Year's Resolutions have you made? How many have you fulfilled? So before you jump into the Paleo diet only to abandon it a few days in, set yourself up for success.

Make a Paleo diet meal plan

My least favorite part about adopting a new healthy eating regiment is that invariably the cookbooks will list out recipes which require ingredients I don't have. Since you can't buy 1 tablespoon of paprica, I end up buying a whole bottle... and more than I need of countless other ingredients. Meal plans are tedious, boring, and rigid. "I'll just go with the flow," I tell myself. The problem is that going with the flow requires a mastery which I do not yet posses. I need a Paleo diet meal plan because if I don't have one, I'll end up eating unseasoned chicken breast and apples for every meal of every day. That is not sustainable.

You can make a plan yourself or find one online but you need a plan. A goal without a plan is only a fantasy. Map out what you'll eat for the next 1 - 4 weeks. You don't need an exact meal by meal "I have to eat this Tuesday for lunch" but you should have enough meals to get you through. You should also make sure you have enough breakfasts, enough lunches, enough dinners, and enough snacks. Never underestimate snacking. If you don't plan for snacks, you'll either ditch your Paleo diet meal plan immediately and opt for a non-Paleo snack or you'll be so hungry when meal time comes around that you don't stick to the Paleo diet meal plan. You don't want that. Include a variety of foods in case you're just not in the mood for something and make sure you, at least in the beginning, stick with what you know. If you can't prepare, or don't really like, the food you're eating, you won't stick to your Paleo diet meal plan.

Evolve: if humans did it, so can you.

Start with foods you know and like but don't stay there. Gradually introduce new foods into your Paleo diet meal plan over time. Your first week should be only foods you know and love. Your second week, try to eat something new once per day. After that, try to incorporate something new and unusual into every meal. A key component to the Paleo diet is variety. Hunter-Gatherers didn't have the luxury of a grocery store, or even a Paleo diet meal plan; they ate what was available. You need to intentionally branch out in the beginning because we have been conditioned to only eat certain types of food (cereal, bacon, eggs, and toast for breakfast; a turkey sandwich for lunch, pasta or casserole for dinner).

Ultimately, a written meal plan and specific commitment are crucial for your success in converting to a Paleo diet meal plan. Hey, if humans could do it before the invention of indoor plumbing, I think you can handle it too.

paleo diet meal plan.Planning Your Paleo Meals is Key to a Successful Paleo Diet

If you have recently learnt about the paleo diet meal plan, you'll have come across one the biggest hurdles anyone new to the paleo diet must face: where do I find my paleo recipes and ingredients and how do I plan my paleo meals correctly?

Most people when starting out on any diet begin with lots of motivation. They manage to stick with it for a couple of days, and all goes very well. After this lovely, motivated feel-good-about-yourself period however, most people will tend drop the diet altogether. Let us take a look at why that is.

The first reaction of most people will be: "This is too hard"! They will have run out of healthy ingredients in the fridge, they'll be invited by a friend to go eat in a restaurant with nothing remotely paleo friendly on the menu, and generally it all goes to pieces. When deciding the follow the paleo diet, it is extremely important that you take some time to plan your new dietary lifestyle. Motivation is what gets us all started, but it is discipline and planning that keep you going.

Let us take a look at what you will need:

- a comprehensive Paleo recipe list

If you can only think of three recipes for dinner, two for breakfast and a salad for lunch, chances are that you will be finding this very dull indeed. Having easy access to an extensive recipe book for all occasions is an absolute must.

- A fridge and even more important: a freezer!

Leading the busy life most of us have, there will always be times when you don't have what you need in the fridge. When you're hungry and tired, you'll grab whatever is left. The way you can fix this is by cooking large portions whenever you do cook! I always try to freeze an additional portion ready for use for when the inevitable moment of the empty fridge comes around.

- A fixed day to go shopping

There are quite a few places where you can buy paleo friendly ingredients, but Unless you're very lucky, you won't find them all in the same shop around the corner. Try to pick a fixed day every week, or every two weeks, where you can make time to go grocery shopping.

Selecting your paleo diet meals plan for the week should be fun. Browsing through recipes, planning your grocery list and buying the ingredients you need doesn't have to be tedious. By going about this in an organized manner, you will turn your diet that started by motivation into a daily habit. This is the key to success in the paleo diet.

If afterwards you are invited by a friend, and you find yourself cheating on your diet - you will be able to handle it much better. Having a fridge and a freezer ready for you next day full of healthy goodies will motivate you into sticking with your diet.