How do I feel about Paleo after doing one week of it?
January 29, 2018
Before I review my experience with Paleo, let me clear up what it actually is. Paleo is a “hunter, gatherer” diet, based off the Paleolithic era. Paleo people basically eat what cavemen ate. If you can’t pick it or kill it, you shouldn’t eat it.
So why do people think that the only carbs they can eat are fruits? I’m honestly not sure. Probably lack of research and the people that told them about it didn’t do theirs either.
So why is “only sweet potato” as a carb popular among Paleo people? Again, I’m not 100% sure. There’s no real backing behind this, because like sweet potato, white potatoes are a vegetable too. White potatoes are a more “starchy” carbohydrate source, which is probably why. But I doubt cavemen cared that much about the glycemic index back then.
For the sake of consistency, I went with the traditional “sweet potato only” preference on my Paleo diet, and had our kitchen revise my old notes and allowed ALL meats and veggies, to get a better idea of what our clients receive.
Now that we’re on the same page with what Paleo actually is and what my meals were, these are my 3 observations from being a caveman for a week:
- Superfit Foods does a great job, but we can do a littttle better!
No matter who is making it, sweet potatoes in every meal will get old. I eat 5-6 whole meals per day, so despite variations, I’m going to get bored. All of our items (sweet potato fries, home fries, pasta, baked and mashed) were really good! But we can definitely add some more options over time. I’d give us a solid 7 out of 10. (I’m a tough critic so 7/10 is solid – I think we still crush 9/10 other meal prep companies!)
- Sweet potatoes get old!!!
At this point, I don’t want to see the color orange in my food for a few weeks. I love sweet potatoes just as much as the next person, but there’s only so much you can do with them! Hot sauce is weird on them, they’re sweet so adding salty stuff doesn’t really help with the whole eating healthy 6 times a day thing. There’s certainly worse things to have to eat, but I fell out of love with them by the end of the week.
- I felt good – but not better.
A lot of people jump on a diet trend and say, “I had so much more energy!” or “I got the best sleep of my life!”, which is awesome. I’m a fan of whatever makes people healthier. The thing about that is, most people who start a diet trend usually are transitioning from the traditional American diet AKA fast food and missing meals. I switched from being really healthy with normal meals, to eating Paleo for a week, so I can’t say that my workouts got better, or my sleep was more satisfactory. Either way, sweet potato is definitely one of my favorite pre-workout carbohydrates because they are low on the glycemic index, but that’s a whole notha’ blog.
Conclusion?
If going Paleo is what it takes to get you eating healthy and for a long period of time, then I think it’s the best diet in the world… for you. If you go to Crossfit and everyone else is doing it, jump on board. Culture creates accountability all day. And if you are going to go Paleo and need help with prep (like 99% of humans) then you should definitely try Superfit Foods, because we do a really good job! But in my opinion, it’s not much better than simply eating healthy meals (grains included) on a regular basis.
