What To Expect On A Paleo Diet

I had always believed in the philosophy of “everything in moderation” and never gave much thought to speciality diets such as Paleo, Keto or Whole30. That’s why I somewhat reluctantly agreed to a 30 day elimination diet, using Paleo as my guide for what I should and shouldn’t eat. Elimination diets have become fairly common, especially in January when many decide to detox after a long holiday season filled with cookies, pies and all the comfort food you could possibly want. The idea behind them is to stop eating the foods that are most addictive and damaging to our health, like sugar, wheat and vegetable oil.

If you’ve never done an elimination diet, I’m sharing my experience to show you it’s not nearly as difficult as you think and the benefits are immense. Remember, it’s only for 30 days. Think about how quickly a month goes by! I won’t lie and say it’s a cake walk. The first week or two definitely require lots of self-discipline while you change your habits. I’m sharing my struggles, how I dealt with them and how I set goals for myself that would force me to incorporate new foods and habits to replace the old.

Why Would I Do This To Myself??

I’m lucky to be blessed with good genes and metabolism, and I’m fairly well disciplined about eating healthy. I’ve never struggled with my weight or gone on a diet, so, when I signed up for a nutrition class and committed to a “diet” for the month of April I was entering completely new territory.

I joined the WholeMade Kitchen Spring Reboot program to learn more about which foods are most nutritious and have the biggest health benefits. I wanted to better understand the reasoning behind why certain foods cause negative reactions such as sluggishness and bloating. There was just one catch. This was a learn by doing program that involved adhering to an elimination diet for 30 days.

The gold standard of elimination diets (unless you have an auto-immune disorder) is Whole 30. Admittedly, I was hesitant to go with Whole 30 because I doubted my ability to stay away from all sugar (aside from fruit sugar) and flour substitutes. Sugar is definitely my weakness. I thought my best bet was Paleo. Paleo isn’t quite as restrictive as Whole 30 and I felt I could better set myself up for success by following the Paleo diet.

If you aren’t familiar with the Paleo diet, it’s fairly straight forward. The philosophy is that the most nutritionally beneficial foods are those that our ancestors ate. Those foods include meat, vegetables, wild caught fish, nuts, seeds and fruit. Foods excluded from the diet are grains, dairy, legumes, refined oils and refined sugars. Natural sugars such as honey, maple syrup, stevia leaf extract and those found in fruit are allowed in small quantities.

The WholeMade Reboot program didn’t just involve eliminating food. The owner, Helen Allard, is a Certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and each week of the program she hosted a class discussing a different topic about diet and nutrition. With so much nutrition information available online, it’s almost overwhelming to learn on your own. That’s why it was great to have Helen very simply break down things like the benefits of fat and the dangers of a high carb diet.

The weekly classes were also highly beneficial for providing a community of support and keeping us on track. It’s one thing to stop eating certain foods for 30 days, but if you don’t understand the reason behind it and how your body functions and reacts to food then you don’t fully understand the benefits to permanently cutting back or eliminating the foods that don’t provide any health benefits.

Since Helen has spent far more time than me researching and learning about nutrition, I made it a point to incorporate one or two of her weekly tips into my diet to help establish better eating habits. I generally thought of myself as a healthy eater, but that didn’t mean I had nothing to improve upon. Conveniently, our classes were held at the beginning of the week, so I based my weekly goals on that week’s lesson.

Preparation

The first class focused on why eliminating certain foods is beneficial for everyone, not just those with known food allergies or other medical conditions like autoimmune, celiac or irritable bowel syndrome. Helen spoke about how a poor diet is one of the ways we place additional stress on our bodies. Stress contributes to inflammation which is highly damaging. Though not a cure-all, a paleo-style diet can greatly reduce inflammation in the body. Just as too much of the wrong food can cause diseases such as diabetes, removing those damaging foods can have the reverse effect.

Armed with this new knowledge about the damage caused by inflammation, I set off to prep for my month of eating Paleo. I stocked up on vegetables, grass fed meat, fruits and dairy-free yogurt. And of course I turned my mostly healthy diet into a mostly unhealthy diet to get my fill of the foods I wouldn’t be allowed to eat for a month. I indulged in pasta, arancini, a cheeseburger, ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, a panini and Cadbury Mini Eggs. I feel sick just thinking about all that food! I washed it down with a couple beers since that’s not Paleo friendly either. After my junk food binge I felt awful and had no desire to eat the empty calories found in sugary desserts and refined carbs (i.e. most breads). I was ready and excited for day 1!

Week One

Class Lesson: Hydration

Water is essential for ensuring your body functions properly. Dehydration has been shown to commonly result in heart burn, constipation and headaches. It can even contribute to osteoporosis in those who may be prone to it. Water sits among our joints, so to maintain your full range of motion and ease the impact of high impact activities like running be sure to stay fully hydrated.

Drinking a lot of water makes sense since the body is comprised of about 55% water. Human beings can only survive 3-4 days without water but can survive about three weeks without food. If that doesn’t convince you of the need to stay sufficiently hydrated then I don’t know what will!

How much is sufficient? The general rule of thumb is to drink half your body weight. I had heard this rule before but I hadn’t considered the next part of it. Helen told us we had to drink more than half our body weight if we also drank diuretics such as coffee or carbonated beverages. She also provided us a handy worksheet for calculating our required daily water intake.

I already knew I regularly consumed 80-100 oz. of fluids daily but was curious to know the recommended amount of water based on Helen’s worksheet. I generally don’t drink many different beverages so my calculation was fairly easy. I only had to consider water and coffee. Except I was wrong. I was surprised to learn coconut water is considered a diuretic because of the sugar it contains. Coconut water is a staple of my diet because it’s a natural source of electrolytes. Considering that, along with the large amount of coffee I consume daily, my suggested water intake was 130 oz. That’s more than a gallon a day!

The good news for me was that we shouldn’t exceed a gallon (128 oz.) of water per day. This is generally the maximum the human body can process in a day. You can exceed the gallon rule if you’re participating in vigorous physical activities in the hot weather and sweating a lot. Drink enough so you don’t feel as though your mouth is dry. Try to drink warm or room temperature water since our bodies have to work harder to process cold water.

Weekly Goals and How I Met Them

• Reduce coffee consumption- I made slow progress with this but successfully reduced my consumption to about 20- 24 oz. a day from 24-30 oz.
• Limit coconut water- Reduced from 16 to 8 oz. per day
• Add salt to improve water absorption- I started adding a few grains of salt to my water. I didn’t notice a difference in my ability to absorb water but I liked this simple way of replenishing electrolytes and benefiting from the healthy minerals contained in natural salt. I used Redmond Real Salt because it’s available in fine grain and easily dissolves in water.

How I Felt

The first couple days on Paleo were fairly easy, and I thought to myself, this is easy, I’ve got this. A few adjustments to my normal routine and I’ll be just fine. But then the sugar cravings hit! I have a big sweet tooth so I’m used to periodically having sugar cravings but all of a sudden there was no sugar in my body and I couldn’t get it off my mind. It also didn’t help that I went to a birthday party and my favorite birthday cake was sitting on the table staring at me. But I held my ground and didn’t cheat. Success!

I knew (hoped) the sugar cravings would eventually subside but they were sometimes hard to ignore, so I allowed myself a snack containing a little natural sugar. A few things that worked for me:

• Almond butter on a banana or celery stick with a drizzle of honey
• A few bites of Paleo granola naturally sweetened with honey
• One or two dates

It’s best to stick with whole foods like fruit to curb sugar cravings. Try your best not to substitute the “banned” foods with healthier versions. For example, don’t substitute a paleo dessert for a traditional dessert. The brain can’t tell the difference and this will only contribute to your cravings.

Week Two

Class Lesson: Digestion and Leaky Gut

I found this class quite fascinating. Digestion is a much more complicated process than I thought, making me realize how important it is. I always thought of digestion as primarily occurring in the stomach but that’s only a piece of the complicated digestive machine. The digestive system does its best to work properly, but as with any machine, if you treat it poorly and don’t maintain it, it will eventually break down.

When fed highly processed and/or toxic foods, the digestive system does its best to break it down but since it’s working in overdrive, the toxins begin to build up. That’s why at age 20 we can eat whatever we want but at age 40 we all of a sudden start having negative reactions or heart burn and indigestion. By the way, heart burn is not necessarily a sign your stomach acid is too high. It’s more likely an indicator you don’t have enough stomach acid to properly break down your food. So, those over the counter medications for heart burn and acid reflux probably aren’t helping you at all. Try changing your diet and chewing your food more slowly instead.

Slowly and completely chewing your food is one of the keys to good digestion, especially with protein since it’s one of the more difficult foods to digest. Many of us eat while doing other things, making it less likely we’ll focus on chewing. A distraction free meal will help focus on proper chewing, so try your best to sit down and focus only on eating. Put the phone away and focus instead of having a conversation with friends and family between bites.

Weekly Goals and How I Met Them

• Try a new probiotic– Probiotics contribute to improved digestion and immune health. I chose to try sauerkraut and made slow cooker sausage and sauerkraut. I admit it was not my favorite meal but it’s a good way to incorporate a probiotic into your meal. And since I made enough to feed a family of ten I was able to freeze some of it to enjoy later.
• Apple cider vinegar before dinner to aid with protein digestion- A tsp. of apple cider vinegar (make sure it has the mother) mixed with water before meals is supposed to aid in digesting protein. I started strong but kept forgetting to drink the ACV before dinner so I only met this goal three of 7 days.
• No multi-tasking while eating- I generally multi-task while eating, but to allow for proper digestion I committed to not doing anything else while eating for one meal a day. I chose dinner, and successfully met this goal everyday. To help with this, I moved my phone out of reach, turned off the TV and made sure the table was free of distractions.

How I Felt

This was a pivotal week in terms of settling into a rhythm and I think if you make it through the second week successfully you’ll have no problem with the next two weeks. I had made diet adjustments but still needed to figure out how to sustain them. I knew if I didn’t effectively replace the “bad” food with healthy and satisfying alternatives, I would have a difficult time making it through the whole month.

One thing I was still figuring out was feeling full and satisfied after meals. Helen suggested eating more fat since it provides a healthy dose of calories. Of course, not all fat is made equal, so I focused on adding two of the healthier fat powerhouses to my Paleo diet- avocados and wild salmon. These are both delicious and very versatile so it’s easy to mix these into your daily meals.

A great and simple meal is an avocado stuffed with canned wild sockeye salmon. I was a little reluctant to try canned salmon but was pleasantly surprised. Lightly mix the salmon with mayo (I prefer Primal Kitchen Chipotle Lime Mayonnaise) and add salt and pepper or onion if desired.

I found breakfast one of the harder meals to prepare satisfying meals that would carry me through to lunch, so I gave egg cups a try. Making these is like making quiche. You can mix in whatever you have on hand. I used bacon, mushrooms, and spinach. These were great for a quick breakfast that can be heated at home or in the office. A couple of egg cups to start the day, along with a small cup of cashew milk yogurt or slice of Paleo bread with avocado or ghee was enough to keep me full until lunch.

In addition to figuring out meal prep, in week two I really started to notice how certain foods (or lack thereof) made me feel. In particular, I noticed that wine is a gateway to snacking and more sugar for me. On some level I knew this already but didn’t want to believe it. I made a concerted effort this week to cut back on wine consumption. I used to typically have a glass (or two) of wine after dinner but I didn’t drink any Sunday through Wednesday night. I definitely noticed a huge difference in my ability to unwind and relax before bedtime and I didn’t have the big urges for late night snacks. Out of habit, I still felt like I wanted a snack after dinner but the cravings definitely weren’t as strong. I also found myself going to bed a little earlier because the alcohol wasn’t stimulating my system.

Week Three

Class Lesson: Perils of a High Carb Diet

This class was all about the dangers of sugar and the sugar “death” spiral we can easily get into. I looked forward to this class because sugar was something I often struggled with limiting. If I didn’t have it I was ok, but as soon as I had a little I wanted more. And it wasn’t just refined sugar, but sugar in all its forms. One thing that really came to light during this class and in the first three weeks was that sugar takes so many forms and is in so much of our food. You would be surprised at how many foods contain sugar. Reading labels is key to avoiding it!

Helen focused on the blood sugar rollercoaster we find ourselves on when we start to eat sugar. What’s scary is that sugar triggers the same reaction in our brains as being high on drugs. That’s one of the reasons it is so appealing and addictive. The more we eat the “higher” we get and the steeper we crash. But it doesn’t end there. Once we crash our bodies try to course correct which just makes us crave sugar again and start the whole cycle all over. It’s best to stay off that rollercoaster all together by eliminating all refined sugar and limiting the amount of natural sugar consumed.

Weekly Goals and How I Met Them

• Limit fruit- Helen challenged us to not eat fruit this week but I had already bought fruit (blueberries and sliced mango) so I didn’t want it to go to waste. Instead of cutting out fruit completely, I focused on eating small portions and ate it with meals so that I was eating fat along with the fruit to keep blood sugar spikes at bay.
• Phase out snacking- I’m a frequent snacker so this was challenging and I continued to snack on most days but my snacks were much smaller and less frequent. A large part of snacking is habit but the size of meals is important to keep from thinking about food between meals. I focused on adding protein to every meal and eating additional healthy fat by adding more olive oil to greens, cooking with more oil than usual and adding avocado to my smoothies and salads.

How I Felt

At the beginning of the week I was still experiencing pretty intense sugar cravings, but not on a consistent basis. After listening to Helen’s lesson about how our bodies regulate blood sugar and how that can quickly go awry and send us on a sugar craving rollercoaster, I paid a little extra attention to what might be causing them. I figured out the culprit- bananas. A banana at breakfast set me on a path for afternoon sugar cravings. I was bummed because I like bananas and eat them frequently but I decided to cut back. 2-3 times per week I make protein smoothies and typically add a banana, but I cut back to a third of a banana and that seemed to be enough sugar for me to handle without causing cravings.

The end of this week included the Easter holiday and I decided to indulge with a Paleo dessert. To that point I hadn’t eaten any Paleo desserts so this would be a bit of a cheat day. I made avocado brownies and, for my first try with a Paleo baking, they were a success. They were a cake-like brownie sweetened with maple syrup and coconut sugar and had a deep, rich chocolate taste. I prefer brownies to be more traditional and fudgy so I would like to make them again and add more coconut oil and/or reduce the amount of almond flour.

The most surprising thing about eating the brownies was not the taste, but how I reacted to them. Between the two brownies and the accompanying cup of coffee I was wired! I’ve never had that reaction to desserts and coffee. Ever. I was most definitely on a sugar high and couldn’t fall asleep that night. Before starting the Paleo diet I could eat all the dessert I wanted and drink coffee shortly before bedtime and not have a problem falling asleep. That tells you how much sugar I was regularly consuming! I was desensitized, but after three weeks of limiting sugar I became highly sensitized and it was awful.

Week 4

Class Lesson: Benefits of Dietary Fat

Helen kicked off this week with a class all about fat. The bottom line is fat is your friend! I definitely increased my fat intake during the month by eating a lot of avocados, eggs, salmon, mayo, olive oil and coconut oil. Healthy fats provide crucial omega 3 fats that benefit body and mind, provide energy and keep you fuller longer than carbs do. You also don’t get the blood sugar swings that cause post-eating crashes that you get from carbs. Americans have been programmed to believe fat is bad but the fact of the matter is we need fat. The subtle nuance is that we need to eat good, natural fats. This includes oils made from fruits and nuts, like olive, avocado and coconut oils, omega 3 fats found in nuts, nut butters and salmon, and fats found in meats like steak and dark meat chicken.

Weekly Goals and How I Met Them

• Eat sardines- Sardines are incredibly healthy because they’re so rich in healthy omega 3 fats. The problem is they have an extremely strong “fishy’ flavor and smell. They’re not at all appetizing and are definitely one of those foods that requires adjusting to. Since Helen challenged us to eat sardines this week, I was willing to take that challenge! I took her suggestion for mixing them with avocado, cumin and crushed red pepper. I also added Primal Kitchen Chipotle Lime Mayo (so good!) and mixed everything together like a tuna salad and scooped a heaping spoonful onto a bed of greens. Helen also recommended mixing in a crunchy vegetable but at the suggestion of a classmate I added a pickle. I know that sounds completely out of place, but hey why not give it a try? It was a surprisingly good addition to my sardine salad! While I wasn’t thrilled to eat it, it was much more palatable than eating plain sardines and something I can see myself getting used to eating over time.

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How I Felt

Week 4 had me feeling great! It’s hard to describe, but I just felt more even. There was never any doubt as to how I would feel after eating something. I especially liked that I was not experiencing the intermittent bloating i used to feel after eating gluten, legumes and sugar. While the Paleo diet still didn’t feel completely “normal” to me, I didn’t need to put so much effort into making sure my meals were Paleo because I had a good handle on what was allowed and disallowed.

By the end of the month I was much more aware of how foods made me feel and was also surprised at how easy it was to adjust to some of the Paleo diet changes. For example, I was fully adjusted to drinking black coffee and not missing the half and half like I thought I would. Since I had reduced my coffee intake throughout the month, I noticed I was much more sensitive to caffeine. I didn’t need to have a large amount of coffee to feel the effect. Definitely a good thing!

Week 5

Class Lesson: Reintroducing Foods

Almost there! Class was on Monday and the end of the 30 day experiment was just two days away. That meant we had the option of reintroducing the “banned” foods into our diets. Helen spoke to the differences between food sensitivities and intolerances and how it’s important to understand the difference when reintroducing foods. Intolerances typically indicate a digestive problem and you’ll notice a reaction within a couple of hours of consumption. Sensitivities cause various reactions, including brain fog or digestive issues and responses can be delayed up to 72 hours.

To best identify the foods we’re sensitive to or intolerant of, Helen urged us to reintroduce one food group every three days, starting with the foods that are less likely to cause problems. Of course, the food most difficult to stay away from (gluten grains) was last on the list.

Weekly Goals and How I Met Them

• Reintroduce foods one at a time- EPIC FAILURE. I traveled to Atlanta which is in the heart of soul food country. At the suggestion of the guy I sat next to on the plane ride to Atlanta, I found my way to South City Kitchen which is known for its southern cooking. I began with good intentions of ordering a reasonable meal of lamb rids with a side of cauliflower. But how could I resist the bread basket? I was no match for the warm, fluffy biscuit and delicious cornbread. They were well worth the indulgence! Accompanied by a beer, I was well on my way to full on carb reintroduction. I loved South City Kitchen so much I went back for dinner another night. After a belly full of chicken livers (they were delicious!) and fried green tomatoes, the bartender asked if I liked chocolate and placed a complimentary dessert in front of me. Once again, I couldn’t resist!

How I Felt

Much to my amazement, I wasn’t dying to reintroduce the foods I eliminated the past month. But as I mentioned above, once I had a taste of carbs the addiction kicked in and I was quickly reminded of the addictive nature of carbs and sugar. It was tough to stay away!

I had a couple of carb heavy meals in Atlanta but aside from those I tried to keep carbs to a minimum by sticking to meat and vegetables. But the damage was done. I arrived home on a Sunday and weighed myself on Monday morning. I had gained 7 pounds from a week before! I was very bloated so could tell at least a few pounds was from water weight. I slowly lost the weight over the next week but it just goes to show how much inflammation is caused by gluten and sugar. I don’t have an allergy to either of these but clearly have a sensitivity.

Changes to My Diet

The best benefit of the Paleo diet was consistency. Stable blood sugar levels limited my sugar cravings and the elimination of inflammatory foods resulted in there being no surprises about how I would feel when waking up in the morning. I didn’t have the bloating that comes with sugar and refined carbs and I wanted to keep that feeling going.

I’ve committed to a roughly 80/20 Paleo diet, meaning roughly 80% of the time I’ll follow Paleo guidelines and 20% of the time allow myself to have refined foods. I also made the following changes to my diet I likely wouldn’t have made if I never took part in the WholeMade Kitchen Reboot program:

• Stopped using half & half in my coffee
• Replaced greek yogurt with almond milk or cashew yogurt
• Got rid of my traditional mayonnaise and replaced it with Primal Kitchen mayo that is made with avocado oil instead of soybean oil
• Replaced grain based granola with Paleo granola made from nuts. Paleonola is fantastic! (Find it online or at Whole Foods.)
• Incorporated Paleo bread and crackers along with the Food for Life sprouted grain bread I typically eat
• Replaced hummus with guacamole

Keys To A Successful Elimination Diet

1. Commitment- Don’t even think about starting an elimination diet if you haven’t mentally committed and bought into the fact that you will absolutely stick to the diet for 30 days. NO CHEAT DAYS!
2. Team Work Makes the Dream Work- Recruit a few friends or significant other to join you on your journey, or seek out a group in your community willing to do an elimination diet together. It’s great being able to bounce various recipes and food substitutions off other people. You’ll also help keep each other honest.
3. Be Open Minded- To get the most benefit you need to be willing to try new foods and replace the tried and true stand-by foods that don’t serve you. If you’re not mentally prepared to change your habits then you will never successfully find a replacement for that bagel you eat for breakfast every morning.
4. Keep it going- Don’t automatically revert to your bad habits once the 30 days is over. Sure, you’ll want to indulge in a few of the prohibited foods from time to time but don’t undo all the positive progress you made in the last 30 days.

Note: I am not a medical professional and this post does not constitute medical advice. It’s solely meant to share my experience and personal opinion. Please consult your physician prior to trying Paleo or any other elimination diet to make sure it’s the right choice for you.