For some the minimal results are confirmation that exercise is a waste of time. They quit and go back to their lives and continue to suffer under the mediocrity of their decisions. Others are happy they have managed to halt the effects of their late night eating and drinking and search for ever more intense exercise programs to maximally combat their bad habits. The smallest percentage find it interesting that exercise is only providing a small change to their fitness and endeavor to make changes to their nutrition. These people see the most changes and get the best results.
A great option I’ve seen this group have success with is the Paleo diet. It consists of high quality unprocessed whole foods, including wild caught and grass fed meats, organic fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. It also eliminates common inflammatory foods like grains, dairy, and legumes. Robb Wolf wrote a great book called “The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet,” on the ins and outs of the diet and also a has a great website with tons of reliable information on the subject.
It is strict in terms of what you can eat, but also offers flexibility in terms of when, how much, and which of these foods are right for you. When you make the commitment to a Paleo diet you will have to eat real food and you’ll have to prepare meals yourself. Eating out indiscriminately will become a thing of the past.
These changes in food reduce sources of inflammation in the diet from common irritants like dairy, grains, legumes. Grass fed cows and organic produce come from smaller farms and are raised without hormones and harmful pesticides that are common in large scale farming and agriculture. The combination of real food that is also clean and nutrient dense is powerful.
After making this switch most people experience consistent energy throughout the day, weight loss, and better performance in the gym. Many others will find issues like achy joints, digestive issues and rashes are drastically reduced. The combination of feeling great and improving health complications is incredibly rewarding. All the positives make it more likely you’ll want to keep the ball rolling and benefitting from these positive changes.
From here it’s easy to keep moving forward. You can add things like grains and legumes back into your diet strategically to see if you tolerate them well. If you do, great! That gives you more variety you can personally enjoy. If not, great as well. Then you’ll know from personal experience that certain foods make you feel bad and you’ll no longer want to eat them.
Paleo creates a solid framework on whole foods you can follow and adapt to your personal needs over time. The basic principles of eating whole, minimally processed foods can be applied to the foods you enjoy and you can decide how much or how little of these foods work for you. Over time you can refine and adjust the diet to suit your personal preferences and the level of intensity in your training. Difficult tasks like when to eat are more simple when you know which foods you’ll be eating and are already sure these foods make you feel good.
