30 Day Paleo Challenge
This has come about because there has been a lot of chatter about diet and nutrition of late. This is not about turning you all into ‘cave man’.
Un-fortunately, many people are clueless as to how modern food techniques have damaged the quality of healthy food, of how chemicals and carcinogens enter our body almost every second of the day, how important sleep is to our health and how a good diet based off the foods we were created to eat can dramatically alter the quality of our health.
During the month of November we are going to set the challenge of trying to clean up your eating habits and improve your knowledge of what you should be eating and what you shouldn’t be. We will have a blog on the web page to post what you have been eating, ideas, recipes and anything else you wish to put up there. Your measurements & weight will be recorded for those of you who would like to see the improvement you can make over the month.
With the support of the other athletes here at Southern CrossFit it should be a fun way to improve your thoughts on diet.
So what is the Paleolithic Diet?
The Paleolithic diet / paleo diet is the oldest and most basic diet which humans have evolved with; it is basic to our biology, our digestive system and is what provides us with good health.
The paleo diet focuses on consuming foods we as humans evolved to eat, while simultaneously eliminating the over processed sugar laden foods now linked to causing the many, many diseases we are faced with in society today.
Around 40 thousand years ago, we humans lived as hunter gatherers; we lived off the land and what the land provided for us to eat and drink. As hunter gatherers, we fed off fresh fruits and vegetables in season, nuts, seeds and animals. There are many people who still live off the land, many villages in Africa and China will grow their own crops and eat what is available to them.
So What Foods Make up The Paleo Diet?
- · Meat
- · Fish
- · Plants
- · Vegetables
- · Fruits
- · Nuts and Seeds
These foods are available through Mother Nature with no agricultural or processing needed to be edible.
But things have changed. No more than 100-200yrs ago the industrial revolution began to refine and process foods until hardly any nutrition was left within those food products. Bread became whiter and whiter, dairy went from raw to pasteurized and sugar began to make its way into almost every modernized food product.
We are living in a society where the rate of illness and disease is on a continuous rise, in America alone there are 23 million people diagnosed with cancer every year, 41 million people diagnosed with heart disease, 50 million people with high blood pressure, 80 million people with diabetes (and that’s expected to double in 2 generations) and 64% of adults in America are either overweight or obese.
Nutrition has the ability to take charge of our health, wellness and longevity. Whether the nutrition is good or bad, the foods we put into our mouth can dramatically alter our hormones, our energy levels and of course, our well-being.
Studies have shown that 70% of all deaths in America are diet related, I wouldn’t be surprised however if that statistic was more like 90%.
There is a common link towards nutrition and health, and nutrition for treating illness. As Hippocrates said “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food“.
Good nutrition, obtainable through the consumption of nutritionally rich foods making up the paleo diet has and continues to treat and cure many conditions which go un-treated (and sometimes looked at as un-treatable) every day. Illnesses such as epilepsy, a condition many children and adults continue to face on a daily basis has been cured many times in both children and adults through the dietary changes of following a paleo diet. Unfortunately in most cases medication will be prescribed and often continue to be prescribed for a lifetime
28 Comments
Reader Comments (28)
Guys please see one of the boys about getting your measurements done.
Looking forward to this challenge.
How about portion sizes and how much to eat of things?? Can we eat as much as we want or should limit it??
I'm not participating in the actual November challenge, due to my drinking problem (should really seek some help about that ;p) and also because I'm off on holiday halfway through November. Though I followed the Paleo diet yesterday and today and I have to say its been really good. I thought I would starve, but I found that I (for the 1st time) was not absolutely starving at any stage either. I also didn't have a stomach ache, which I get on a daily basis from eating dairy, bread ect which was awesome. I also gave up on the masses of coffee I drink, pepsi max and lollies I eat at work (wasn't as hard as I thought).
I had roast chicken, carrots, apples, cucumber, mango, strawberries throughout the day. Dinner I hate steak, squash, roast pumpkin and carrot. (and also tried Ross's very yummy pear and blueberry dessert).
Can I still get my measurements done even though I'm not participating in the full challenge??
Am I blind? Where is the recipe for pear and blueberry dessert?
I will give it a go - nice and slow, bread/rice and pasta first then dairy then coffee!!
My thoughts on portion size are eat until you are full, not put a fork in my I'm stuffed full, more that was a good meal full.
I always over shoot the mark :/
From what I have read when you cut out all carbs and start eating just fats and protien you will actually fill up quicker as your body isn't quickly breaking down the food.
For serving sizes your body should tell you how much is enough.
Astrid- I've been doing Paleo for a week now and your body definitely starts telling you when your full! it's pretty hard to over shoot the mark (I used to overeat too... so full that I felt sick haha). You tend to snack throughout the day anyway rather than have 3 big meals so you'll be alright with portion sizes!
Great to see the chatter and the support going on here. In regards to the amount/portion it doesn't matter. Just eat, what we are trying to do is to get your all thinking along the same thought.
QUALITY FIRST !
Good work Leah, guys we don't need to go 'cold turkey' straight up, if you can or want the challenge on the other hand. In the end if you all only get one thing out of this and you have cleaned up what you eat in one way or another then it has been a success
Ok so Ben and I are 'in' to a limited extent. Whilst Leah is easing out her bread/rice then pasta then dairy then caffeine Ben and me are just easing out white wine, then beer, then red wine then martinis ... you're not alone Astrid! Ross you might want to review the existing link to "COCS" - sounds like a male strip club :-))
Bahahaha! I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking that about the website link name ;p
Hahah yeah I decided I would limit myself to one night of binge drinking instead of two this weekend ;p Thats an improvement right? ;p I've gone paleo for 2 days and ppl are torturing me with their damn junkfood hehe
Thought I'd share my yummy salad I just made for lunch. Was DELISH!!
Spinach
Finely sliced apple
chopped red and yellow capsicum
Chopped boiled egg
Sliced spring onion
A little roast chicken
Mushrooms cooked with fresh garlic
Sooooo soooo yummy :D
Sounds great Astrid. You're really good with this paleo challenge so far and we're not even started yet :)
Bren and I will give it a go - eating habits have been a little poor lately so need to get back on the right track! Not cutting out wine / beer completely though : )
Just getting a head start seeing as though Im cheating and had four vodkas lastnight ;p and also because I doubt I will go paleo in bali :)
My biggest concern is cutting out the rice and noodles...being asian its pretty hard to give those staples up. But I'm going to give this Paleo diet a go.
Giving up the coffee and chocolates is going to be the hardest for me. Plus I'm going to need alot of help with the Paleo recipes.
Im in on the challenge guys! I think giving up bread and weekend booze will definetly be the hardest thing of all. But im willing to give it a crack and try my hardest. I will hav to get my measurements done some time this week and see what this lifestyle diet can do for me in general!
BRING IT!!
Also ross i will hav to catch up with you mate for some different meal ideas?
24hrs without diet coke or coffee. . . . Headache pain score 10/10, otherwise this aint too bad!!
Hey everyone,
I started going paleo last week and I have been doing some major research in the reciepe department all weekend. I even did some trials with some of them. Thought I might share what I found and what I cooked. BRING ON THIS CHALLENGE (starts tomorrow!!!)
Saturday night I cooked
CURRIED PRAWNS one person receipe alter for more
7 jumbo prawns
1/4 cup light coconut milk
1 tsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp curry powder
6 spears asparagus
fresh ground pepper
lightly coat asparagus with olive oil and grill, cut into peices and set aside. Saute garlic in olive oil and add prawns and saute until pink. Add coconut milk, asparagus and curry powder. Serve onto plates and crack a bit of fresh pepper onto prawns. I also thought you could put other veggies in with the asparagus maybe brocolli and cauliflower.... up to you.
When I cooked this there was ALOT of garlic so if you want to change that go for it.
Recipe No. 2!!!
STUFFED MUSHROOMS (heaven)
4-6 large field mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
1 onion
1 can diced tomatoes no added salt
2 rashes spek/lean bacon
1/2 green capsicum
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp oregano
Alfoil
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C. Oil pan, dice onion,bacon, and capsicum, crush garlic. Add garlic onion,oregano and bacon to pan. Fry them off. Add can tomatoes allow to simmer add capsicum. Now to the stuffing bit. Break off stalk of each mushroom. Make 4-6 alfoil "baskets" for the mushrooms to sit in while in the oven place on baking tray once on baking tray stuff with mixture. Finish with fresh ground pepper. Wack in oven for 10 mins. Serve with steamed vegetables.
I cooked these and my exchange student who ate them commented that it was like eating pizza. Let me know what you guys think of it. I took a picture of the mushrooms before putting them in the oven on my mobile but don't know how to up load them onto here.
Hey guys, I'm going to need heaps of idea's for breakfast. At the moment my breakfast tomorrow is going to be 2 bananas, 1 cup of srawberries and two cups of watermelon.
Can I eat rolled oats (porridge) but without milk? or is rolled oats not allowed?
Reece omlettes are great and quick. chuck whatever you want into it.... I do mushrooms, capsicums, tomatoes I even tried brocolli can't complain it tasted pretty good. Then I usually have some fruit after that or before it.
Have a hard boiled egg or something with your fruit that'll give you the protein.
Bacon or speck is out for paleo, sorry
I'm keen to take up the challenge.. the only thing i'm worried about is breakfast as i can't eat eggs in large quantities so omelets, scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs etc are out for me. if anyone has any other ideas for brekkie that don't involve eggs that would be awesome. i have googled it but all the interesting recipes seem to have egg as the main ingredient! and eating random meats for breakfast doesn't really appeal to me!! haha
Hey Reece, pretty sure oats is out champ..
What i am doing, if it helps, is having a fried egg and then watermelon, banana etc and then a few nuts.. pretty sure that covers your fat, carb and protein for the meal.. =)
Rhi, for brekky you could aways roast a chook up at the start of the week and have some chicken, fruit and nuts for brekky.. (?)
Im gonna make a spinach and egg quiche type dish tonight and have it in the fridge for breakfasts during the week.. that way, all i need to do is grab it on my way out in the morning.. =)
gotta say, I am missing ice cream and bacon already..
Rhi, what about some mushrooms, tomato and chicken as a hot breaky or Banana, strawberries ect and some nuts??
I've never been a big meat eater, but my good am I enjoying eating meat for a change.....its really strange!!
Hmm, thanks for the ideas guys. I think I can deal with chicken for brekkie.
Zucchini quiche/slice = excellent for brekky (but it has eggs sorry Rhi). I've also used 2 x egg whites to each yolk, that way you get the protein from the whites w/o too much of the fat from the yolk, plus I find it makes the slice more fluffy anyway :-) You grate the zucchinis, then squeeze out all the water, then add lots of sliced mushies, chopped capsicum, carrot, whatever veggies you want - then I add lots of spring onion and chives - they add lots of flavour. Pour over the egg white/egg mixture, and bake!
I must say though, I'm quite alarmed that chick peas and lentils aren't allowed?!?!
oooo, ali, that sounds wicked!!!! yummo - im gonna do that one tomorrow...