Paleo vs. Paleo "Friendly"

I am constantly on my clients about eating the right way. As a matter of fact, I usually will send an a message to our Yahoo group out of the blue on this very topic. I just know how people really eat. They like to soup things up. They want to see what they can get away with or they really don't know what is allowed and not allowed. The funny thing is, it's not about what is and what is not allowed. It's about using common sense and truly listening to those that know what they are talking about.

When we come into a new approach to eating, some of us will selectively hear what we want to hear. I know, my wife tells me all the time that I am hearing selective. We look for how we are going to keep eating the things we have always been eating but more Paleo "friendly." Unfortunately, it doesn't work this way. Initially, you may see some changes and you might even feel better but you will come to a screeching halt if you continue with this way of eating.

You need to understand that going primal does not give us the opportunity to try and figure out how to accommodate the diet to our liking. It gives us and requires that we accommodate our lives to this lifestyle approach. It's kind of sad too because those that usually suffer from this misinterpretation the most are those that are overweight or have existing problems. It will seem as those that have the least amount of problems will do the best because they tend to have the most will power, or what ever you want to call it, to follow through with the needed changes.

You must think about this for a second. The further you are away from what you want to feel like, perform like, and look like, the harder you have to work and the more simple you have to be. This is why I think that the males doing our challenge seem to have a lot of success, because they don't know how to cook. They keep it simple. They eat what I tell them to eat.

In any sense, you must take a look at what you are eating and ask yourself if you are really following the challenge of eating the way you are supposed to or are you following it with the mindset that you need recipes because eating this way all the time is going to get boring?

Amy Kubal is a registered, licensed dietitian who is also a committed athlete just like most of my clients (yes I am calling you committed athletes). She is of the Robb Wolf and Dr. Loren Cordain camps. She is very good at what she does and one of the few United States recognized credentialed that I would actually ask for advice. She posts on her website, Fuel As Rx, on the topic above.

Read her thoughts, her website, and her advice, and think for yourself but understand that primal is MEATS & VEGETABLES, A FAIR AMOUNT OF GOOD FATS, AND SOME FRUIT. THE KEY WORD BEING SOME FRUIT.

What Paleo is not: paleo cookies, paleo pancakes, shakes and smoothies, or anything else you try to throw in because it may say natural. You know what is natural because it doesn't have to say it on the package, meat, veggies, and fat.