Finding My Inner CaveWoman

So...I'm pretty excited about this!
With my new years resolution to get in shape and eat better, I've decided to go paleo/primal. (No, I won't be moving into a cave, but I do intend to find my "inner cavewoman" :P)

Before I get into that, here are my overall/ultimate goals:

• Be able to do at least 1 pull-up/chin-up by the end of the year.
• Lose at least 3-4% body fat if not more.
• Cut sugars, dairy, gluten, and processed foods out of my diet.
• Eat as clean as possible/budget-able (grass-fed, pasture-raised, organic dirty dozen, stuff like that).
• Learn to have a better relationship with food (as much as I LOVE carbs/sugars ...they don't love me back, so I have to learn to let em go in favor of the foods that will treat me well ...kind of like dating relationships :p).

WHAT I'M AVOIDING

Sugars, Processed Foods (Yeah...this category also includes beverages like soda as well as some popular cooking things like Vegetable oil), Gluten/Grains (Did you know corn is a grain? And humans can't actually digest it. Oh, and this category includes oats as well - goodbye mushy oatmeal), Dairy, and if you're gonna be really strict about it: No legumes, beans, white potatoes (although, I'm in the camp that says that white potatoes, while lacking in nutrients, are okay to have now and again) ...and there are a bunch of other controversial "is it paleo/primal or not?" foods -- I'm kind of avoiding legumes and beans too...but mostly because I'm really not a fan of em anyway :p

WHAT I AM EATING

Anything Real/Natural! Veggies (Any of em...except corn and white potatoes); Fruits (preferably fresh ones rather than dried ones but it doesn't really matter - however, because fruits tend to have more sugars, they're meant to be eaten a little less often than veggies); Meats/Fish (meats are obviously important because of the amount of protein they provide) generally, on a paleo diet, you wanna eat grass-fed beef/buffalo/etc.; Nuts (like wal-nuts, almonds, etc. - exclude legumes of course); and Fats (for cooking, it's a good idea to avoid vegetable oils and use clarified butter or even coconut oil instead - I love using coconut oil; as well as other fats sources like avocados!).

RECIPES

In preparation to start eating paleo, I wanted to make sure that I had a lot of recipes on hand so that I wouldn't wuss out and be like "I don't know what to have...oh, look! Bread! nomnomnomnom" and ruin the whole thing. This is a list of websites where one can find a variety of yummy paleo meals/recipes:

• http://www.paleoplan.com/recipes/
• http://paleodietlifestyle.com/paleo-diet-recipes/
• http://www.chowstalker.com/whole30/
• http://nomnompaleo.com/recipeindex
• http://paleoblocks.blogspot.com/p/recipes.html
• http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/recipes-index/
• http://www.wholelifeeating.com/
• http://everydaypaleo.com/category/food/
• http://balancedbites.com/2010/10/priorities-for-eating-paleo-on-a-budget.html (This link is actually specifically about eating paleo on a budget!)

WHY PALEO? WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

Personally, I'm doing paleo because it takes into account the things that make me sick/feel blah anyway (like dairy, gluten, etc.) and because, by eating paleo even for just a week, I had more energy; I wasn't as hungry all the time; my skin got a little bit clearer; and I even lost an inch off my waist (these were just some of the things I've been self-aware enough to notice in the first week - After 2 weeks, I've seen even more benefits). If you read more into the diet itself here, here and here, you can get a better idea of what other benefits one might gain from it.

With the New Year, I decided I didn't wanna do one of those (typically) short term diets; I wanted to change my eating habits entirely to be much more healthy (you can ask anyone who knows me well, and they'll tell you that I'm not exactly known for my healthy eating habits :P) and I wanted to really get rid of the things that make me sick (you would not believe how badly I used to crave cheese, despite the fact that I'm lactose intolerant and shouldn't eat it). Obviously not every diet is perfect for everyone, this is just what I've decided would work best for me. I'm not gonna be a total nazi about it if I'm like out with friends or whatever (confession: I went to zupas the other day and... yes, I did eat the chocolate covered strawberry - but not the bread! :p), but it is something I intend to stick with as well as I can while keeping practicality and budgeting in mind!

In addition to healthy eating, I plan to increase my exercise (for now I just do a couple sets of body weight exercises at home, every other day) to some weight lifting (to build a little more muscle, tone up, and hopefully reach that pull-up/chin up goal) and cardio (hitting the treadmill!)