Oh, Paleo!

In its relatively short history, CrossFit has gained immense popularity. "The Sport of Fitness" has taken metabolic training and gymnastics to guys who would have only done traditional weightlifting before. People who would have originally skipped all cardio are now doing AMRAPs (circuit training where you do As Many Reps As Possible), running, double- unders (jump rope where the rope makes two revolutions per jump), and swimming. The row machine (especially the Concept 2) is nop longer outdated. CrossFit has also increased the popularity of something that has been around quite a bit longer, Paleo.

Paleo, or the Paleolithic Diet, is an escape from the overproduced and overprocessed world we live in. A little more than 60 years ago (not long at all) Paleo was considered everyday eating! The basis of the diet is simple! Return to eating the foods (not the scientific experiments we like to call food these days.) Simply put, eat as our ancestors ate before death and disease was so common. With the largest pesticide company (and also the originators of Agent Orange) the largest food manufacturer, you can see the benefits of this. In a society where questions about dinner are no longer "what should we make?" but rather are "where should we go?" going Paleo will definetely help.

It is not as harsh as say, veganism or the other current fad diets. It doesn't cancel out basic macronutrients like fat or highlight others like protein. Though Paleo does restrict how to go about getting those. It does not say "carbs are the enemy" or "carbs are bad," but stresses that all threee macronutrients (carbohydrates, fat, and protein) are important. It does stress that thier sources are what is important. Do not get them from refined, bleached, and chemical foods like bread and pasta. Paleo is among the other diet trends in the Eat Clean movement. Perhaps that is why milk and dairy are excludeed. That last statement is also why I personally could not go Paleo, though I understand and commend its ideals.

The Paleo Movement is is not calling for a return to the wild. Though it is also referred to as the Neanderthal Diet. It does not even say that we should trade in all of our advanced tools for a mallet and chisel. It is, however, a call to eat better. Make substitutions. Eat better quality foods. Use spaghetti squash instead of boxed noodles that taste like the package they came into. Top your steak with natural juice and vegetables rather than sauce with ingredients you can't even pronounce. Eat a baked or sweet potato instead of chips or fries. Indulge your love of bacon! Quit the aerosol cooking sprays and use olive oil. Avoid words like extra, encriched, low-fat, or added! It is no coincidence that as non-Paleo foods entered the market, our health and the health of our planet tanked dramatically. Thats what we get for thinking scientists and flavorists could do better than God or the Universe in providing for our nouishment. If you want to eat better, Paleo definetely has its benefits. Though I find it difficult to recommend any "diet" that cancels out any food groups as Paleo does with breads, beans, dairy, and pastas. However, for some, it is definetely an alternative to the drive-thru, processed, over-time, and over budget lifestyle we live in!