Paleo Diet Plan for 1 Week
 

i'm coming up with a meal plan for a week. feel free to give me suggestions, but i really only posted here as a place to keep my plan to look at.

Best wishes to you, Alyssa! I'm hitting it hard with the Paleo right now. Going strict for the next two weeks. I've got a follow-up DEXA scan coming up and I want to see a definite loss of fat and increase of muscle.

I cleaned my fridge and freezer today, and last week I cleaned out the pantry. It's a total Paleo-zone at my house. Even the dog is on Paleo!

Today I went a little nuts and ordered some bison bacon. I'm craving a BLTA stack (bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado). Mmmm!

Sunday
Breakfast: 1 scrambled egg, 2 slices bacon, 2 mugs coffee with unsweetened almond milk (no creamer, sugar, agave nectar, or honey)
Snack: Apple or Orange or Banana
Lunch: Tuna with Olive Oil Mayo on Cucumber
Snack: Raw or Dried veggie slices or V8
Dinner: Chicken breast with lightly buttered steamed veggies
Snack: 3 pieces of dark Hershey Bliss or 5 dark Hershey Kisses, or 1 Carnation Breakfast Drink
Exercise: At least one short walk

Monday
Breakfast: 1 over easy egg, yoghurt with berries, 2 mugs coffee with unsweetened almond milk (no creamer, sugar, agave nectar, or honey)
Snack: Apple or Orange or Banana
Lunch: Veg-heavy salad with red wine vinegar and oil, small handful of nuts
Snack: Handful berries (most likely strawberries) or a fruit smoothie
Dinner: Fish (Tilapia or Salmon) with lightly buttered steamed veggies
Snack: 3 pieces of dark Hershey Bliss or 5 dark Hershey Kisses, or 1 Carnation Breakfast Drink
Exercise: 1-3 miles on bike if nice, minimum 25 crunches and 25 pushups

Tuesday
Breakfast: 1 scrambled egg, 2 slices bacon, 2 mugs coffee with unsweetened almond milk (no creamer, sugar, agave nectar, or honey)
Snack: Apple or Orange or Banana
Lunch: Tuna with Olive Oil Mayo on Cucumber
Snack: Raw or Dried veggie slices or V8
Dinner: Chicken breast with lightly buttered steamed veggies
Snack: 3 pieces of dark Hershey Bliss or 5 dark Hershey Kisses, or 1 Carnation Breakfast Drink
Exercise: Optional

Wendesday
Breakfast: 1 over easy egg, yoghurt with berries, 2 mugs coffee with unsweetened almond milk (no creamer, sugar, agave nectar, or honey)
Snack: Apple or Orange or Banana
Lunch: Veg-heavy salad with red wine vinegar and oil, small handful of nuts
Snack: Handful berries (most likely strawberries) or a fruit smoothie
Dinner: Fish (Tilapia or Salmon) with lightly buttered steamed veggies
Snack: 3 pieces of dark Hershey Bliss or 5 dark Hershey Kisses, or 1 Carnation Breakfast Drink
Exercise: 1-3 miles on bike if nice, minimum 25 crunches and 25 pushups

Thursday
Breakfast: 1 scrambled egg, 2 slices bacon, 2 mugs coffee with unsweetened almond milk (no creamer, sugar, agave nectar, or honey)
Snack: Apple or Orange or Banana
Lunch: Tuna with Olive Oil Mayo on Cucumber
Snack: Raw or Dried veggie slices or V8
Dinner: Chicken breast with lightly buttered steamed veggies
Snack: 3 pieces of dark Hershey Bliss or 5 dark Hershey Kisses, or 1 Carnation Breakfast Drink
Exercise: Optional

Friday
Breakfast: 1 over easy egg, yoghurt with berries, 2 mugs coffee with unsweetened almond milk (no creamer, sugar, agave nectar, or honey)
Snack: Apple or Orange or Banana
Lunch: Veg-heavy salad with red wine vinegar and oil, small handful of nuts
Snack: Handful berries (most likely strawberries) or a fruit smoothie
Dinner: Fish (Tilapia or Salmon) with lightly buttered steamed veggies
Snack: 3 pieces of dark Hershey Bliss or 5 dark Hershey Kisses, or 1 Carnation Breakfast Drink
Exercise: 1-3 miles on bike if nice, minimum 25 crunches and 25 pushups

Saturday
Breakfast: 1 scrambled egg, 2 slices bacon, 2 mugs coffee with anything as long as i've been good and it's in small quantities
Snack: Apple or Orange or Banana
Lunch: Tuna with Olive Oil Mayo on Cucumber
Snack: Handful berries (most likely strawberries) or a fruit smoothie
Dinner: Chicken breast with lightly buttered steamed veggies
Snack: If I didn't binge all week, one SMALL slice Tirimisu
Exercise: At least one short walk

thanks! i just posted my week's plan. if i feel good after that week, i will start looking at more paleo recipes to vary my meals, but i want to be very strict the first week just to see if i can do it! i'd love opinions on my plan, i know it's just a every-other-day-same-food thing right now, but if i feel as good as i'm hearing i should, i'll ask for some good paleo recipes that don't include things i'm allergic to: onions, peppers, and avacado.

Great! At first glance, ditch the commercial chocolate/Carnation shake. The Carnation stuff is full of garbage. You can find some awesome quality high % cocoa bars, at most grocery stores. Cocoa nibs are bitter on their own... but AMAZING in a bowl of berries, too ;).

You got this!! Rock out with your bad self, girl! :)

I looked over your plan, Alyssa. It looks pretty good.

Except...and I'm making this little list because you said you wanted to be strict Paleo. The following foods are not Paleo:

V8
Carnation Breakfast Drink
Hershey Bliss
Hershey Kisses
yoghurt
And I have a question about olive oil mayo. Is it totally olive oil? There's no soy in it? And there's no sugar in it?

Having said all that, create your own version of Paleo. Georgia's version of Paleo includes dark French chocolate (has no soy lecithin in it, and must be 70% cocoa, and I only eat an ounce or two a week), heavy cream (for my coffee every day), and cheeses (not Kraft-like cheese, the good stuff, and no more than 2 oz./day). I do better with a daily bit of indulgence. I will occasionally have some yoghurt as well.

I found that if I eat a lot of vegetables (and I'm tall and muscular and do lots of weight training, so I eat at least 5 cups a day), I don't crave any sweets. And if I get enough protein (for me, up to 120 gm/day), I don't get edgy and noshy. Today and tomorrow I'm not exercising at all, so I'm cutting about 400 calories from my diet.

Go for it! :carrot:

i'd like to at least finish off the carnation drinks i have, rather than throw away money, same with the chocolate. however, once i'm out of them i can switch it to higher percentage dark chocolate bars that i just have a couple pieces of per day. i am majorly in love with the taste of chocolate and not willing to give it up completely, but i AM willing to get the healthier darker chocolate.

well like i said above, i'd like to finish off the stuff i already have. and why isn't V8 considered paleo? it's just fruit and veg juices. as for the mayo, idk, but i like the taste of the olive oil mayo with my tuna, the low-fat kind my grandmother gets tastes odd. and why not yoghurt?

Good luck! If you find yourself getting hungry, maybe eat 2 or 3 eggs for breakfast? I eat similar to the plan you posted but I'd be starving on only one egg. Cutting out grains has been so good for me, hope it is for you, too!

i can only eat lightly in the morning, otherwise i get ill. a few years ago i could only drink ensure in the morning, so the ability to eat a whole egg is crazy to me. also, i don't get hungry, i feed my body because i need the calories, but my body never tells me it's hungry. i'm hoping it will be great for me too, i have fatigue issues which i heard can be helped by removing the grains.

Paleo, if you're doing it properly, doesn't include dairy which is why yogurt is a no go!

Good luck.

If you look up the Paleolithic diet, Alyssa you'll find that the foods I listed are not considered Paleo. That's what I thought you were shooting for. I'm not telling you not to eat them.

Personally, I love good olive oil mayo. But it is difficult to find it without added soybean oil. And all things soy are also off the Paleo list. For me, I stay away from the soy because I have a strong intollerance to it.

As for the V8, it's a matter of personal choice. I won't drink or eat anything out of any container that's not glass, because of the BPA in the can liners. Also, in the ingredients, "natural flavors" is listed. That can be any number of ingredients, including soy. And while I do love a good Bloody Mary made with the spicy V8, I always get a reaction from it. So that tells me there's soy in it that isn't openly listed. Probably soy lecithin, which everyone tells me does cause allergic reactions, but that is NOT what my body tells me!

And I understand about not wanting to waste money and use up products you already have. That's a great way to live in order to save money. However, if you find that you're really struggling with backing off from sugar cravings, try cutting all forms of sugar, and even artificial sweeteners, for a minimum of three days. And then increase your fresh vegetables, healthy fats and protein a little. The Carnation drinks will still be there later on. If you still want them. ;)

You know what, Alyssa? Try it the way you planned it. There's plenty of time to tweak it as you like. It's what I did. I took the long slow route to get to how I'm doing it. And in the real world, most people who do Paleo do it about 80% of the time.

i'll try to finish off the V8 and carnation drinks and yoghurt before i start the diet, do you have any suggestions for what to replace it with?

Well, for afternoon snack, I eat more than you do. But a good snack that gets me through the afternoon is a few raw almonds, an ounce of dark chocolate and a few pieces of raw unsweetened coconut. I like a pear with almond butter too. A celery stick with tuna and mayo. I'm building mini-meals with protein, fat and non-starchy carbs.

Have you heard of coconut yoghurt? I have not eaten the stuff from the store. It's so full of ingredients! I found this recipe for it but haven't made it yet. http://nomnompaleo.com/post/45263391...ut-milk-yogurt

As for the V8, I'm not sure how to replace it, except with just eating more vegetables. Experiment with what you like. I do like the taste of V8. There's nothing else quite like it at the store. I just found a recipe for it that I think I want to try. http://www.runningtothekitchen.com/2...-own-v8-juice/ It sounds like there's a bit of effort, but with farmer's market season coming up, it may be a fun thing to do with some of the veggies I buy.

Looking forward to hearing how you're doing! I chose to go Paleo because it supports managing my health issues (type 2 diabetes, PCOS and food sensitivities). In some ways I've greatly improved (A1c down from 6.9 to 6.0, blood pressure down from 150s/90s to 109/ 67, less muscle and joint aches, cholesterol is awesome too), but I still have some issues (sleeplessness, menopausal stuff). It won't fix everything, but at your age, you are getting a head start at a great life full of energy and vitality.

Vegetable and fruit juices aren't paleo-friendly, because they aren't whole foods - the healthiest part has been removed (the skin/fiber). Any processing that decreases the nutrition or increases the caloric density of a food is non-paleo (at least for weight loss).

Thin paleo athletes can get by with some minimally processed, calorie dense foods such as dried fruit, fruit/vegetable juice, baked potato... but for weight loss these foods aren't ideal.

It isn't that V-8 and other veggie juices are so terrible, but that whole vegetables and fruit are so much better because none of the good stuff is lost. Eating whole fruit and veggies will be more filling than juices, because the whole veggies and fruit digest more slowly and provide more nutrition.

Carnation drinks are mostly sugar. There are some paleo protein drink powders, but they're not cheap or easy to find. There are paleo smoothie recipes you can find online through google.

I do sometimes used canned tomato juice or V-8 as a base for my homemade veggie soup, but I dilute it with chicken stock and add tons of veggies and greens. I'm finding though that petite diced tomatoes with chiles (from the dollar store) work just as well and is cheaper and more paleo-authentic.

It takes quite a bit of effort to eat paleo on a tight budget, so you may need to make some compromises, but sugar, fiber content and calorie density are the most important variables. Any processing that makes the food smaller and therefore higher calorie per gram is counterproductive - that includes juicing, peeling, drying, and long cooking at high temperatures.

I know this all sounds confusing, but it boils down to eating foods as whole as they grow. All of the plant or animal is eaten, and you don't throw away parts that are edible. It's hard to do that with meat, but it's important to eat whole produce and whenever possible, the whole animal (at least some skin and organ meats).

thank you for the info <3 i also know a few people who do a lot of greens smoothies, i can also ask them for recipes. what about my dried veggie chips? i'm assuming not paleo?

as im sure you can see through my conversations, i am willing to give up everything... except coffee and chocolate, and even those i'm willing to make CHANGES. i do want to do a very very strict paleo diet for this week, so i'm open to any and all suggestions... which is why i posted this ^^ other people doing Paleo can direct me to paleo alternatives of my favorite things!

Don't worry too much about being strict or perfect, that can set you up for frustration. Don't expect weight loss every week either, because you're bound to make mistakes along the way. Just focus on learning to do better today than you did yesterday.

As for the veggie chips, what are the ingredients listed on the label? Depending on the vegetables used and the other ingredients, they might not be a terrible choice for an occasional treat. The same is true of nuts and dried fruits. A tiny amount sprinkled on a big salad now and then is fine. Eating handfuls frequently can be a problem when you're trying to lose weight.

sweet potato, taro, squash, carrots, green beans, non-hydrogenated canola oil, dextrin, and sea salt. i'm assuming it's going to be a no-no due to the canola oil, and dextrin.

and i just wanna try and be super-strict just to see how hard it is. if it's too hard to forgo some things, i'll add them back into my diet but in smaller amounts than usual, and i'll do semi-paleo instead of strict paleo. i do want to continue to cut out sugars and artificial sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup solids. my goal is more for health than weightloss.

and i DO wanna lose FAT, but i also want to GAIN muscle. ive only been awake 3 hours and ive already done a 1-mile bike ride, 15 crunches, and 15 pushups. i haven't eaten yet, but that's because today is one of those days where the smell of food is making me feel ill. i will be making a mushroom omelette soon because i NEED to eat, but i already know it's going to be difficult... but i'm still on antibiotics so i can't skip any meals today at all.
also, i'm starting to get into the habit of drinking water with meals. ive never been a big water drinker, but drinking with a meal is easier than drinking it by itself. i also have mio flavoring for my water, but i use it sparingly, so it won't be hard to stop using.


do you know what i could replace yoghurt with?
*edit* looked it up. i don't do greek yoghurt or yoghurt made with coconut milk... would home-made almond milk yoghurt work?

You can always throw any veggies that you like into the scrambled eggs or put some pico de gallo on the eggs =)

I end up making veggie and/or fruit smoothies to have as snacks.
afridgefulloffood.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/05/home-made-real-food-v8-juice-aka-vegetable-smoothie.html


You don't just have to steam them. You can also try something like this...
everydaymaven.com/2013/how-to-make-cauliflower-rice/

i LOVE steamed veggies :3 but sometimes i DO do stir fries. this week is a challenge to see how i feel at the end, and if i like how i feel i will look into more recipes, to have more variety. right now i decided to keep it simple as possible.

okay so i went shopping. all i bought was salad stuff, apples, fish, chicken, and heavy cream to replace my coffee creamer, and chocolate. the chocolate i got has SOME carbs, but it's dark chocolate with almond with no sugar, no trans fat, and no gluten.

I know that people who are strictly paleo don't eat certain things like yogurt, nuts, etc. But many people follow a mostly paleo diet and eat these things without issue. I am one. (Actually, I had no idea what paleo was until I started on 3FC.) As I read more about it, it occurred to me that most of what I eat is paleo. I can't give up the yogurt or nuts though - or an occasional piece of cheese!

Question: For those of you who do paleo strictly, is there a reason why you follow it strictly? Did you try eating things like yogurt and nuts and could not lose weight? It seems like some people follow it without regard to the issue of whether they could eat these other, non-paleo foods and still lose weight.

There are so many forms of paleo that I believe strict has no meaning. If you wanted to follow a strict paleo diet in terms of anthropological authenticity, you'd have to eat only wild plants and game, including all parts of the animal - skin, blood, organ meats, insects (probably lots of insects and worms -they would have been in the plants, and paleo people would have sought them out as well, in their own right) and perhaps even a fair amount of dirt since cleaning food would have mostly consisted of shaking the food plant or wiping it without water).

No modern paleo diet suggests eating like this, but it's hard to talk about strict paleo when one can only adhere strictly to the paleo diet one is following and they can be quite different.

Some paleo diets don't allow honey, some do.

Some allow no dairy, some allow only fat free dairy, some allow only full-fat dairy, some allow only fermented and aged dairy, some allow dairy only from goats, sheep, and donkey (I forget the logic behind that one, I think the argument was that these animals were domesticated first - or were small enough for paleo humans to occasionally capture and milk, something like that).

Some allow all tubers (potato, sweet potato, tarro, squash, carrots, beets... anything that grows underground). Some allow none, and some forbid some but not others such as allowing sweet potato, but dissallowing white potato.

Some forbid eggs (or chicken eggs specifically, strawberries peanuts, shellfish and any other food that is a common allergen (due to the theory that allergens are common only in foods that are relatively new to the human diet).

Some forbid legumes entirely, while some allow the legumes which can be eaten whole (such as green beans, snap peas and snow peas) and some allow small lentils, but not dried beans.

Some allow coffee and cacao (unprocessed Chocolate), some do not.

Some allow nightshade vegetables (such as eggplant, tomato, bell pepper, hot pepper) and some do not.

Some demand that all meat must be wild game or grass-fed for a better omega 3 balance, while others recommend supplementing with omega 3 supplements and fatty fish, and others don't address omega 3 balance at all.

Some paleo diets are meat-centric and others are plant based (in the USA, the meat-centric low-carb is more popular - but there's decent evidence that many paleo people foraged more than they hunted - meat was an occasional treat, not the staple of the diet).

Because there are so many types of paleo, I think it's almost impossible to talk about "strict paleo" unless you're eating bugs and getting all your food from the woods.

when i said i wanna be strict, it was more about actually sticking to the plan i set than eating bugs xD i'm trying to be as strict as POSSIBLE FOR ME. i'm cutting out my yoghurt, my granola bars, my fiber one brownies, no more hershey chocolate, no more carnation drinks, stop with the cereal and oatmeal, and instead trying to have some sort of fruit and lots of veggies every day. believe it or not, i LOVE veggies, sometimes i'll have 2 cups of steamed veggies just as a snack. fruit is harder for me because i tend to binge on sweets and the fruits i like (apples, oranges, peaches, raspberries, strawberries) are all quite sweet. however, i'm planning on, if i do this long-term, having 1 cheat day a week where i CAN have a bowl of cereal or a granola bar. i'm not going to cheat to the point of tons of carbs, but just a bit.

And that's what's important -finding the style of eating that allows you to meet your health, fitness, and weight goals. There's a lot of wasted time and effort in the paleo communities (such as on the Mark's Daily Apple website) arguing over what is and isn't paleo and who has the best, most strict, most paleo diet... and the horrible potential consequences of following the imperfect path.

The danger in focusing on perfect or strict is that it's very easy to start second-guessing yourself or that the effort in finding which of the many paleo diets is right for you, and how strict you need to be.

Your veggie chips for example - some would say they're not paleo because of the starchy veggies like the tarro, others would say the added salt, and others the oil, and still others the fact that frying removes the water (and therefore they're less hunger-satisfying than the equivalent calories in whole, fresh veggies) and still others would say they're fine in reasonable amounts.

I can't tell you what your paleo looks like. The very definition of paleo is difficult to pin down unless you adopt someone else's definition or create your own. That's what I both love and hate about paleo. I've read dozens of paleo recipes online and in cookbooks, and there are always recipes among them that I don't consider truly paleo
Or that I consider paleo, but otherd do not.

When you follow paleo, you have to be comfortable with others disagreeing with your choices, even others following paleo, because their paleo may not be your paleo.

The many flavors of paleo make it very difficult to be a paleo beginner, because none of the rules are agreed upon by everyone within the paleo community.

yeah i noticed a lot of different things like that in paleo. some sites say yoghurt is okay, some say sweet potatoes are okay, and others completely eschew ANY dairy or types of carb-y vegetables. i think it's good now that i edited a bit and got myself better chocolate than the hershey's (it's even gluten free) and removed the yoghurt, and added heavy cream to the coffee instead of sugary creamer. i'm also taking a multivitamin, so if i undereat on something or another, i'll still be getting an extra helping of nutrients. and like i said, i'm gonna have a once-a-week cheat day, but even then it's not gonna be much of a cheat other than some cereal or a granola bar. i really want to limit my carbs as much as i can without removing carbs from my diet 100% or removing healthy carb foods like apples. i'm also going to eat my dried veggies as snacks regardless of carbs because i simply enjoy the dried veggies, and i never have much at once anyway. but they're expensive so i'm going to stop buying them anyway, so i can afford more non-dried veggies. i'm also avoiding dried fruit because for some dumb reason they add sugar to it! i mean, it's fruit, it's already sweet, why do you have to go and poison it with craploads of sugars?