Our Top Paleo Tips!

Our Whole 30 has officially ended…but our Paleo lifestyle is definitely still kickin!!  We have successfully completed the 30 day challenge, and the results have been nothing short of amazing.  Both Alexis and I feel better than we ever have in our entire lives, and the improvement definitely shows up in the before/after pics.  This was not about vanity or looking good, but even so, we are both extremely happy with the results since beachtime is coming up :-)

Day 1

Day 29

Day 1

Day 29

 We celebrated our "graduation' with a trip to Lake Elsinore, CA for the Warrior Dash (awesome, hilarious race…check it out).  

Pre Race

After the race, we decided to have a little ‘cheat meal’.  Went to a favorite neighborhood spot, La Grande Orange, and crushed some nachos (arguably the best in LA btw), a little pasta, and a huge bowl of frozen yogurt…YA.  Of course after that though, I spent about an hour feeling like I may throw up.  I skipped breakfast the next morning (still not quite right) and wrote the dinner off as a reminder as to why I love eating Paleo. 

Over the last month, we have cooked about 90% of our meals at home to try to stay in compliance.  We have learned a few tricks along the way…call them our “Tips to Eat Right without Going Broke or Hungry.”  Here we go…

- Always have some kind of salad greens on hand.  Salads are easy to make and you can load em up with anything you want (bacon, egg, veggies, leftover chicken, canned tuna, etc…).

Our lil cobb

- Learn to make burgers with grass-fed beef.  A good, hot cast iron skillet, sea salt, and good meat are really all that you need.  Shoot for about ¼ to 1/3 pound per patty.  Cook em up, top them with virtually anything that sounds good and put it on top of some greens.  Good, healthy, and EXTREMELY customizable.

 - Buy a slow-cooker.  These are the BOMB.  You can cook big, cheap cuts of meat without much effort.  We do this once a week and it makes plenty of leftovers.  Try pork butt (shoulder), roasts, or short ribs.

Carnitas slow cooked

- Speaking of leftovers…when you cook, cook too much.  I almost never cook a lunch, but lunch is always homemade.  Leftovers are necessary for Paleo-survival.

- Buy tons of eggs.  Hard boil them for portable protein.

- Feed the dessert beast.  If you must have something sweet, try fruit.  If regular fruit isn’t enough, try adding heat (bake or sauté) and some cinnamon.  

Baked apples with cinnamon (dessert!)

- And finally, leverage the Pros.  If you are running out of ideas, or if you are craving some specific dish but don’t want to cheat, chances are that someone out there has an answer.  I google “Paleo (insert dish/ingredient here) recipe” almost daily.  There are TONS of resources out there. 

Check out our most recent recipe find from Everyday Paleo…DELICIOUS meatloaf!

Tastes wayyyy better than it looks :)