An Education on Paleo featuring Two Fabulous Die-Hards

Photo Credit: LoubiesandLulu

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure to listen to two great champions of the Paleo lifestyle at Barnes&Noble.  Even though Paleo is not new, it was new to me and I found out about the event through the Instagram bloggers network.

First of all, let me be clear in that I am NOT a diet kind of girl.  I genuinely love fruits and veggies but also love meat just as much so when I heard that the essence of Paleo is "meat, fish, fruit and veggies", I was immediately interested in learning more.

The event centered around popular Paleo authors:

•  Ciarra Hannah (@Popular_Paleo) whose mission is to help people "Eat with Intention" by promoting wellness through whole foods centered around meat, vegetables, fruits and healthy fats. Her book is titled "The Frugal Paleo Cookbook"; and
•  Stephanie Gaudreau (@StupidEasyPaleo) whose mission is to help people make the Paleo lifestyle work for athletes, runners and fitness competitors.  Her book is titled "The Performance Paleo Cookbook".

There was a diverse crowd at the bookstore.  The first thing I noticed was that neither of the authors were size 2 stick figures.  Personally, as soon as I go to any health event and the main speakers look unhealthy, skin pale, jaunt cheeks, etc., I turn right around!  I've been to so many health events where the people who are sharing information about the program are not necessarily people I aspire to be like...just saying!

The Authors with Paleo Fan/Blogger Andrea

I was particularly interested in Ciarra's book "The Frugal Paleo Cookbook".  As I wrote in my first 2015 post of the new year, I live a simple and frugal lifestyle in support of my work for my startup companies.  I get so much enjoyment and pleasure for what I do that unfortunately, it's all I do and all my money has been directly reinvested back into the company.  So my health has suffered but I also don't want to spend a fortune on whatever healthier food choices I make...in other words, I'm looking for more balance.

Here are some tidbits that stood out to me from the event about the program:

• A great way to start the Paleo lifestyle is choose either to go all-in, cold turkey and stick to every thing on the Can Eat and Can't Eat lists OR ease into it by choosing a single thing to eliminate at a time.
• Coffee is a CAN on Paleo (This was especially important to me!)
• Ciarra, apart of a family of four with two small children, has had great success in adopting Paleo for her whole family.
• Be prepared with grocery lists and prepare what you will eat in advance, which will support you making proactive choices.

I must admit there was one point where I thought I would literally run for the hills!  A guest asked how the authors dealt with eating raw liver.  I thought I had misunderstood her question but no, I had heard correctly.   Since I'm new to understanding Paleo, I'm not sure at what point they do this but eating organ meat is apart of the healing and dietary aspects of Paleo....ok?!?!

So all in all, I learned some things last night, I loved some of the recipes as I flipped through the books and I can completely see how Paleo is a lifestyle.  However, I am not going to say I think I'll be a die-hard.  I will adopt the things that I think will help me get over my sluggish-ness and get on the road to better health but I'm also okay with telling you: I'm definitely going to leave the organ meat out!

Let me know if you have any thoughts about Paleo or suggestions...I'd love to hear about it!

Que
@QSwerve
Curva-Lish
curvalish@gmail.com

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