Back at it Again

I have been back to eating Paleo for a full two months now and life feels so much better. I have dropped two pants sizes (which is always nice) and, more importantly, I feel like I am getting my brain back.  Sometimes, I spend my days feeling like a Paleo evangelist just talking up how wonderful Paleo is, how good it is for your whole body (not just the parts you want to loose), and how easy it is in comparison to what folks think it is.  But then I read the Paleo blogs and I am reminded that to eat like them is as hard as it seems (at times) and expensive to boot.

And you know what, eating a 100% paleo and living the lifestyle to its fullest is expensive.  It costs a good chunk of change to eat only grassfed proteins and all organic produce. I know it does; the first time Yvette and I went shopping for paleo food we spent over $500 on one grocery shopping spree. Now, if you know me, you possibly know that I own nothing (save my car) that costs that much.  Nothing. So to drop nearly a whole weeks worth of pay on food like that was scary! We justified it though, saying that spending that much on food now would save us in doctors bills later (which I still firmly believe). But when you are trying to accomplish more in your life than just eating right you have to make some compromises.  You can still see the world through grassfed glasses but pick a choose your battles so that both your budget and your body can win.

In my mind, there is a hierarchy of priorities that can help align you with the mentality, and as you can you move higher up the totem pole (if you will).  So when weeks are tight you revert back to the “lower level” and when you can you move back to the higher/cleaner level.  Today I am going to list them out and then I will come back to each on for their own post (hopefully before the cows come home). 😉

Level One: Whole Ingredients
Level Two: All Meats in “Natural”/Nitrate- & Nitrite-Free (All Seafood Wild Caught)
Level Three: Dirty Dozens in Organics
Level Four: All Meats Organic
Level Five: All Produce Orangic
Level Six: All Proteins Grassfed
Level Seven: All Products Organic, Locally-Sourced (when possible), and Sustainably Obtained
Level Eight: All glass or stainless steel containers

Now before any die-hard paleo lifers, loca-vores, or hipsters get upset with me.  I thoroughly agree that ALL of these things are important and do amazing things for your body as well as the world around you. I just also know, as someone who has dabbled in and out of paleo and is striving to live below her means as opposed to at or above them, that sometimes it is more important that you play inside of your financial lines as well as your dietary restrictions.  This makes you feel more secure about what you are doing and therefore less likely to feel like you must give it all up becuase you can’t afford the grassfed ground beef this month.  It doesn’t make you (really) any less paleo so long as you go back to the basic premise which is: form your meals from whole products that either grew from the ground or walked on the ground. That is where health is found.  The rest is just the whipped coconut milk icing on the gluten- & refined sugar- free cake.  But chat more about that soon.

Until then, I’ll just be eating my way through it. 😉

~A