When I met him he was eating… well, let’s just say he had some compromised tastes in food. Over the years, he’s realized that eating this way helps him feel better, climb better, and look better.

So here are 6 reasons I’m thankful for my husband’s Paleo-ness.

But even if he weren’t Paleo I’d love him all the same :)

1. I’m thankful that my husband is Paleo because I get to eat his leftovers. For instance, today I stole his leftover burger stuffed with guacamole and bacon and ate it for lunch while he was away at work… Sorry, Seth!

2. I’m grateful that he knows how to transform the toughest cuts of grass-fed meat (you know the kind) into the most delicious smoked steaks ever created. If he weren’t here to use our smoker, it would never get used. But… I guess it was a wedding present from his parents, so I wouldn’t even have the smoker if not for him…

3. …So that’s reason #3 that I’m thankful for his Paleo-ness…

4. When I bake things, he’s able to offer suggestions about how to make the coconut flour cake less like an anchor and more like the fluffy masterpiece I’d like it to be. Sometimes I tell him to mind his own business – that my cake will be perfect without his advice – but at least he knows what tapioca flour, arrowroot starch, and coconut milk are good for!

5. Sometimes when I’m having a weak moment, I walk through the frozen section at the grocery store and pull out a box of doughnuts or waffles or cookies with that mischievous, desperate look in my eye that used to be there almost constantly. When he sees me do this, he gently takes the box from my clutched hands and puts it back in the freezer, knowing that if he didn’t, I would pay dearly for my transgression. Thank you for saving me from myself, Seth.

6. My husband is a better eater than I am. For example, as a “snack” he will take a (very) large handful of mixed greens and eat each leaf one by one. I, for one, am not a huge fan of greens and would consider that more of a punishment than a snack. He eats inordinately large piles of vegetables and gets grossed out by conventionally raised meat. He drives to faraway places to pick up our pastured meats, and he stays away from foods he knows make him feel bad.

He pays close attention to his health and makes sure he stays in great shape (so he always looks hot, too).

For that, I am grateful. A lot of people have to worry that their other half doesn’t take care of him or herself, and that they’ll someday suffer the consequences of their unhealthy diet. If anything, I have to make sure I take care of myself as well as he does of himself. So thank you for setting an amazing example for me, Seth :)

Happy 1st anniversary! I hope we have many, many more happy and healthy years together!

The post 6 Reasons I’m Thankful for My Paleo Husband appeared first on Paleo Plan.

1. Fat-Burning Chef

We recently were honored to be chosen as a contributor to the new cookbook, Fat-Burning Chef, by Abel James of www.fatburningman.com.

Abel asked 20 of his favorite Paleo and Primal sites to contribute some recipes and their expertise to this beautifully laid out cookbook. It’s on sale now here.

2. Primal Moms Look Good Naked

Our friend Peggy Emch of www.theprimalparent.com just released her new book, Primal Moms Look Good Naked. Since Peggy is one of the hottest Primal moms we’ve ever seen, I think she knows what she’s talking about :)

This book talks about how gaining weight, having stretch marks, and feeling bad through your pregnancy are not inevitabilities. What you eat really can make a difference! It’s now on sale here.

3. Beyond Bacon: Paleo Recipes That Respect The Whole Hog

Stacy Toth and her husband Matthew McCarry of www.paleoparents.com have written what may be our favorite Paleo book of all time (except for our own, of course)! Neely’s favorite meat is pork, and her favorite way to cook it is on her smoker, and this book explains how and why you’d do that (even without buying an expensive smoker).

With recipes like Smoked Spare Ribs and Cajun Rubbed Tenderloin, why would you NOT get this book? It’s officially on sale on July 2nd, but you can pre-order it on Amazon here.

What about you guys? What Paleo books are catching your attention right now??

The post Our Latest Paleo Book Recommendations appeared first on Paleo Plan.

My friend Rachel has rheumatoid arthritis.

On top of her crippling joint pain, she also suffers from eczema, constipation, and fatigue. And to make matters worse, she’s on a breast cancer drug that causes joint pain, and she’ll be on it for the next 5 to 10 years, as she’s a breast cancer survivor.

But that hasn’t held her back.

She’s a spitfire to say the least. It’s rare to see the kind of fiery discipline that she has, and couple that with her East Coast attitude, she’s a force to be reckoned with.

She’s an ambitious owner of a small business, rides a Harley on the weekends with her fiancé, and she has a wedding to plan. So all these pesky symptoms just get in the way of her life.

When I first met her, she was a vegetarian and suffering a lot from her symptoms. The second time I talked to her, she was tinkering with Paleo, eating meat, and seeing good results. She was on a very restrictive diet, without eggs, nuts, dairy, fruit or nightshades, plus all the other non-Paleo foods.

She became a client of mine shortly thereafter, and after a lot of encouragement from me and some hemming and hawing by her, she gave up her beloved coffee as it seemed to be contributing to her eczema. She saw some results after doing that, but when she was left with just meat and veggies in her diet and still having eczema, she lost it.

Feeling totally deprived, in her own words, she “went on a little adventure.”

In other words, she started eating whatever the hell she wanted: gluten, dairy, legumes, eggs, fruit, etc. And it did not bode well for her. She gained 6 pounds in 2 weeks, felt so depressed that she “didn’t want to get out of bed,” and her eczema and rheumatoid flared up so badly that she wanted to go to the hospital (but, of course, she didn’t because she’s an obstinate badass).

Then she came to her senses and put herself back on Paleo.

However, it was different this time. Some little voice in her head advised against meat, and assured her that eggs and nuts were actually ok for her. After a long time avoiding those two things, she’d really felt like she was missing out on a lot of food choices, so this was a huge relief.

So at this point, several weeks later, she’s eating a Paleo diet, including veggies of all kinds, nuts, fruit!, and healthy fats, but without meat. She does great with fish every day (she said she’ll eat meat about once a week now). And no coffee.

Her eczema is almost completely gone, her RA symptoms are almost completely gone, and she’s no longer depressed.

I didn’t ask her about her other symptoms, but as she said, “I realized I’m not deprived on this diet: I’m the winner when I eat this way!”

Best. Comment. Ever. To a Paleo nutritionist, that is :)

It just goes to show that everyone is so different. No meat? Who would’ve thought? But she listened to her body, did what she needed to do, and now she knows for sure that this particular way of eating works for her.

I don’t think she’ll be going on any more dietary “adventures” any time soon!

What do you guys think? Have you experimented with your own Paleo diets and found anything interesting?

The post Rheumatoid Arthritis Sufferer Figures Out Her Own Version of Paleo appeared first on Paleo Plan.

As some of you many know, I host a free Paleo Q&A Google Hangout sometime in the middle of every month. This month it’ll be on June 17th, 2013 at 7:30 Mountain Time.

Who am I?

I’m a Certified Integrated Clinical Nutrition Therapist specializing in the Paleo diet, and I answer people’s questions about Paleo for a living here at Paleo Plan :) Here’s my complete bio for more info on me. And that’s me below.

If you’d like to be part of a Google Hangout, please email me at neely@paleoplan.com.

What’s a Google Hangout?

A Google Hangout is sort of like Skype in that we’re all on video talking to each other as a group. You can be on the call without being on video. We use Google Hangouts and not Skype because it allows so many more people to be on the call. You just have to have a google account and install the plug-in to participate.

Here is what your screen will look like on a Google Hangout. (Photo courtesy of google.)

This is not meant to substitute for personal consultations with me, as there will be other people on the call and my time to answer your personal questions will be limited. But I think it’s still a great opportunity for people to ask questions about the Paleo Plan meal plan itself, all of our products on Paleo Plan, as well as any questions you have about Paleo (is X food Paleo, how many carbs should I eat, will I lose weight, etc.). If you want specific help with a complicated health issue, please consider doing a month package or a 30-minute call with me, instead. More info on my coaching options can be found here.

Again, if you want to be included in the June 17th Google Hangout, just email me at neely@paleoplan.com with subject line “Google Hangout” and I’ll invite you to join us at 7:30pm Mountain Time on June 17th.

Note: After you download the Google Hangouts plug-in from this page, you may have to go into your “downloads” folder on your computer and click on the file called “GoogleVoiceAndVideoSetup (1).dmg” to get it to install on your computer.

The post Free Paleo Q&A Google Hangout June 17th appeared first on Paleo Plan.

She’s one of the first people to embrace the PaleoFit workouts, and we feel lucky to have her testimonial for you!

A Lazy Start
Before we were married my husband said to me, “Let’s grow old and fat together.” I was 20 pounds overweight at the time. In the following eight years we got married and started having babies and that 20 pounds grew along with our little family. By the time we were done having our four babies, my 20 pounds over weight was more like 50. I avoided social situations because I refused to buy clothes that fit, I couldn’t possibly be bigger than a size 12, could I? I grew content. In other words, I quit trying.

The Winds of Change
Then my husband started to lose his “baby weight.” In four months, he shed all the extra weight. I tried juicing. It helped; I lost 17 pounds, but was still 30 or so pounds out of the healthy range. For months, I plateaued with juicing and riding my stationary bike.

It was mid-June 2012. That’s when I asked Max for help. We talked nutrition, and we talked exercise. What he said blew my mind, and it sounded not only easy, but doable. My first couple workouts were short, but hard. I worked harder in those first couple of days than I ever had in my life, and the workouts were all less than ten minutes long!

Guess what? My plateau broke. The inches and the weight started coming off.

Breaking From the Past
I’ve been fat my whole life. Even when my body was skinny, my brain was fat–my life was fat. I’m not an athlete. I never played sports. I remember having a conversation in high school with a guy telling me about his workouts: My exact words were, “Why do you work out? You’re not fat–you don’t need to lose weight!”

My body had never moved like it did in these workouts. It had never been pushed like this. Because of the newness of it all, I still sometimes struggle with form, speed, and mindset, but I’m learning. When I’m struggling, my kids cheer me on, “You can do it, Mama! You’re doing great! Keep going!” And sometimes I’m slow, but I keep going.

I’m not going to quit on me again.

Sizes Shrink, Confidence Grows
By the end of that summer I was wearing size 10 jeans, instead of those tight 12′s. But here’s the interesting thing: I could feel muscle in places I had never felt muscle before, even when I was thin.

By Thanksgiving I bought size 8 jeans (now those were tight instead of the long gone 12′s). But forget the jeans; now I could do things! Things like moving a 30 foot extension ladder in a storm! I could carry two of my babies down the stairs at the same time, without fear of dropping someone, and without huffing and puffing!

I now have strength. Something I never had before.

There were so many years of poor habits and false information embedded into my brain that I still struggle with letting go of some concepts, but then the results beg me to look at things differently. Right now the scale (the same scale that I worshipped for many years), says that I am up 5 lbs, but my measurements are down; the size 8 jeans keep getting looser.

It’s Not Just About the Workouts
The guidance of Max through PaleoFit has changed more than my jean size, and more than my ability to move furniture up stairs. It has changed my marriage. Instead of sharing a platter of nachos, Ben and I now share workout stories. We challenge each other with burpees. We say, “Feel this,” about our new improving physiques. We encourage each other to keep up, to plug on.

It has changed my influence on my kids too, who now show off their burpees to anyone who will watch! They say, “Feel my muscles!” with each other. They showed Mickey Mouse at Disney World their biceps. Yes, I have a picture of Mickey squeezing little biceps! We race each other and now, when my kids win, it’s not because I’m too out of shape to keep up with them.

Not Before & After: During
I still have a long way to go, but feel as if I have the rest of my life to keep getting there. The sad thing is until I started changing I had no idea how bad off I was. I had given up on myself, and I guess that’s as bad as it could get. I can’t remember what I looked like a year ago. I certainly don’t remember the carb-addicted woman, and I don’t miss her. And on the weekends now I say, “All I did for a workout today was burpees,” the very same burpees that I thought would kill me a year ago (don’t get me wrong, burpees are still not my friend, but burpees challenge me to be better, and I have risen to that challenge).

I thought even if I lost some weight my thighs would always rub together, and my triceps would always jiggle. Now, I know better. My brain isn’t a festering wasteland of negative thoughts. Why? Because I see just how capable I am, I see who I want to be. Each burpee puts distance between the old me and the me I am now, each burpee brings me closer to the me I want to be.

A Change of Mind, A Change of Life
I no longer gauge my progress in terms of my old pal The Scale. In fact, it’s been a long time since I even knew a number of what I need to lose. I stopped trying to lose and started gaining a better perspective.

It’s taken some time to sink in, but I finally realized how much these weekly sweat sessions have changed me.

I realize now that it’s not a workout plan: it’s a lifestyle choice.

The post Our First Success Story for Our Fitness Plan, PaleoFit! appeared first on Paleo Plan.

Asparagus can be pretty expensive at the grocery store, as you know. So driving a few miles out of Boulder to a few irrigation ditches to scour the earth for some of those delectable green spears was a small price to pay for about 3 pounds of asparagus.

Normally, asparagus is ripe for the picking in the month of May, at least in Colorado.

But on June 1st we still managed to find a whole bunch. Asparagus is not particularly easy to find, but it’s worth it if you do. I was only smart enough to snap that one photo of the asparagus in the bowl, but I wish I’d gotten some of what the asparagus plants looked like on the ground.

Luckily, www.boulderlocavore.com has an awesome post on exactly what my family and I did this weekend with lots of pictures. You can see that it just grows right up from the ground like a thick piece of grass. Sometimes it’s in clusters and other times it’s not. We found some grass near an irrigation ditch that had recently been burned, so the asparagus spears were very obvious in the bare soil.

By this time of the year, a lot of the asparagus has bolted, which means it’s really tall and mostly tough.

But we picked some of the smaller spears off the top of those bolted plants and it was super tender. There was plenty that wasn’t bolted, too, but that won’t last long. I ate a bunch while we were picking it. I know, I know – I should’ve washed it off beforehand, but I couldn’t resist.

One bad thing about this hunter gatherer expedition was that we have no idea what, if anything, was sprayed on and around the field that irrigation ditch was irrigating. It could’ve been crop dusted – I have no idea. So don’t do this if you have any serious sensitivities to pesticides and herbicides. Or make sure you know what’s being sprayed on the asparagus. We were doing this because it was (very) fun – not because we plan to get our asparagus from there every day, so please no tsk tsking in the comments :)

One rule: NEVER EVER go onto private property to collect asparagus.

We found a public space along a road that was not behind a fence. I wouldn’t want to disrespect a landowner, much less test the “Make My Day” law. Coloradans love their guns, after all…

When I think of asparagus, I think, ‘delicious vegetable, but kind of bitter and it makes stinky pee.’

Well, this wild asparagus was somehow not very bitter at all, and it hardly made my pee smell. So that was awesome.

How We Cooked It

We coated the asparagus with olive oil, rosemary, salt, and pepper, and stuck it in our Traeger (smoker) in a colander so the smoke could permeate it. Needless to say, I have no picture, but it was amazing.

The point of all this is that someday, before it’s too late (in other words, very soon), you should take a drive out to the country, find a healthy irrigation ditch, and get your hands dirty looking for asparagus. You’ll know it when you see it!

The post The Great Wild Asparagus Hunt appeared first on Paleo Plan.

This is a post addressing some of the major criticisms of CrossFit that people have. If you don’t see a question that you have here, PLEASE post it in the comments. We want to do a follow-up post!! This post was written by Max Shippee, CrossFit 1440 Owner and Coach, and PaleoFit Coach. 

For a review of what we’ve already said here about CrossFit at PaleoPlan, here’s Jason’s great post/response to safety concerns about CrossFit, and Neely’s two posts (about starting and stopping CrossFit).

Let’s start with a confession:

CrossFit isn’t right for everyone.

Maybe your life has been changed by CrossFit. So has mine. That doesn’t mean that every person you meet is going to have that same reaction. While you’re WOD-ing on the weekend, some people are out there dressing like Harry Potter (& if they CrossFit, they look like a jacked Harry Potter!). I’m not here to judge or suggest what you do with your time, I’m here simply to state what worked for me.

At the end of the day, honestly, I want you to be living a healthier life. If that involves CrossFit in some way shape or form, awesome. If it turns out it doesn’t involve CrossFit, that’s cool too. I just want you off your couch and moving more.

There is a caveat here, though…

CrossFit CAN be right for everyone.

There’s very rarely a physical or biological reason that a normal person can’t do CrossFit. Everyone from amputees to cancer survivors, from kids to grandmas, from overweight to hard gainers can utilize the CrossFit methodology to move their fitness in a positive direction. Most of those people LOVE it. However, CrossFit isn’t going to be a perfect fit for everyone. That’s ok. Yoga isn’t a fit for everyone either. Neither is boxing or running or swimming (you can make this list as long as you want). As a coach, I just want people to live a lifestyle that helps them to live longer and be more useful to society. If that means walking with your grandkids 2 days a week. I’m totally down.

What is CrossFit?

At the risk of WAY over simplifying things, CrossFit is, essentially, strength & conditioning. We can get out a longer list of words (specifically; cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy) if you want to, and we would quite readily agree that an increase in these physical capacities would be beneficial. But “strength & conditioning” is pretty much the smallest nutshell we can put it into.

Simply, CrossFit aims to make you stronger and faster.

With all that being said, we’re going to address the major issues people usually bring up with CrossFit.

1. The Coaches aren’t qualified.

The CrossFit Level 1 certification takes one weekend. You answer 50 questions at the end of the weekend. If you score well enough, you’re CrossFit certified.

When CrossFit was first created, the people getting certified were already certified trainers by other organizations. For the most part, the attendees had already been training and/or training others for quite some time. Most were simply adding another aspect to their training. Nowadays, that may not be the case.

A good coach, whether certified through an agency or not, knows how to listen with empathy, yet lead with discipline. They know how to encourage you to do better than you did yesterday, and have a goal in mind for you, and a road map to get there. Good coaches are in constant communication with their clients, and are also constantly adjusting both their expectations and workouts to suit their clientelle. And, of course, a good coach knows his/her stuff.

If you’re gonna start CrossFitting, make SURE you feel confident about your coach. It’s really the biggest factor in both keeping you coming back and keeping you safe.

2. CrossFit will injure me.

CrossFit will push your limits. It’s inherent in the CrossFit methodology the same way it is in anything from running a marathon to jiujitsu. The trouble is our egos. We see people on TV or in class pushing it hard and think that we can do the same. Maybe we can, but often we can’t.

We are a comparative species. We’re constantly comparing ourselves to others. Setting people up to workout in a group can be very supportive. It can also bring out the unhealthy competitor in us.

The trick is to know yourself well enough to know when to push it, and when to ease off. We ALL have egos, and many, many of us don’t know when to ease off. Especially guys. So much so that there’s a mantra at our gym. “Don’t be stupid.”

When you’re stupid, you get injured. When you have coaching “issues” (see above) the potential for injury goes up.

3. CrossFit utilizies high skill movements in an irresponsible way.

Before trying CrossFit, most of my clients had never heard of a deadlift, a snatch, or a clean & jerk. These three lifts specifically (and many others), require a great deal of balance, coordination, strength, and practice to do effectively and safely. In order to ensure longevity with our workout program, attention must be paid, especially at the beginning, to form.

The trouble here is that most people are used to very low skill movements that promise to get them in shape in weeks (ab-doer anyone?). They take this same “easy” mentality and put it on top of CrossFit. You can’t master these movements in a few sessions. Heck, you can’t even master them in a few years.

It takes incredible patience to move from form check with a length of PVC pipe, to a light training bar, to a proper bar, to starting to load it up. Many people don’t have the patience for this, and push themselves too far too fast. Once again, this increases the risk of injury.

These movements take time, patience, and practice. They are not a quick fix. They’re hard, hard work.

4. They don’t do real pull-ups.

Many, many posts have been written about the kipping pull-up. Here’s my take.

There is a time and place where the kipping pull-up can be very, very useful. That time is NOT within the first few months of CrossFit. Strict (often assisted) pull-ups should be the norm to strengthen the shoulder before loading it with 4-6 times your bodyweight with a kip. This is another skill that needs to allow time for adaptation as you progress.

I will say this, though. There IS value to the kipping pull-up. I can do more strict pull-ups than most people I know (26 last time I tried), and I’ve also got quite a few kipping (46 last time I tried). People who say that kipping won’t build strength for the strict, in my experience, may not have all the information.

5. Fitness is individual and can’t be accomplished in a group setting.

I will admit that if I had my way, I’d be full of private clients. Not only would I make more money, but I could provide each client with a more personalized system for getting them to their goals.

The fact is, working out with your friends is fun. It’s also incredibly motivational. If you know that Dave & Betty are both coming to class tomorrow at 6pm, you’re more likely to come. You’re also more likely to push yourself a little harder, since you don’t want Betty to smoke you again like she did today.

The group can be powerful, even if it’s not for everyone. And individual goals can be accomplished in a group setting. It just takes good coaching, as well as attentive and focused clients.

6. You can get just as fit doing other things.

Yes, yes you could. There are a LOT of good systems out there. CrossFit is one among a pretty good number of them. That doesn’t take away all the success stories. CrossFit works because people do it, and do it with passion. And because you’re sharing your workout with others, I mean who doesn’t like to kvetch after a hard workout?

7. CrossFit is just clever marketing.

To my knowledge, until CrossFit got a sponsorship agreement with Reebok, they had never done any marketing. People found it, tried it, got results, got hooked, and told their friends.

These days, individual CrossFit gyms may, indeed, market themselves, as does Reebok at this point. Marketing alone doesn’t necessarily make a product “good” or “bad.” Try it, and make up your own mind.

8. CrossFit is expensive.

CrossFit HQ, and every CrossFit gym that I know of, post their workouts on their websites daily. You can just surf over there and do the workouts if you want. No charge. That doesn’t seem expensive to me.

More money spent for more results is effective, not expensive. You pay $19 a month to never go to your globo gym–or to work out in isolation without a plan. If you go, you do only the exercises you like, and that are easy or comfortable for you. CrossFit is an investment and a commitment of your time and your energy to make exceptional change in your life. Any amount of money you spend to get real, lasting results, get healthy, and get connected with a supportive fitness community, CrossFit or otherwise, is worth every penny.

PaleoFit, by the way, provides intelligent, multi-leveled programming, delivered to your inbox weekly, that you can do anywhere, instructed (with videos!) by a dedicated, experienced coach who is accessible and eager to respond to your needs, questions and comments. And, at $9.99/month, it’s also a killer deal.

The Summary

CrossFit is growing in popularity. Like in any high growth industry, there are gonna be a few bad apples. It is my hope that if you experience a bad apple, you don’t let it cloud your view of CrossFit as a whole. If you want to try it, do your research, go to a couple different gyms, and see which one fits you best. If it’s gonna be right for you, I can’t change that. If it’s wrong for you, I can’t change that either. ;)

P.S.

It was this “interesting” video, forwarded to me by Jason, that got this post started a few weeks ago.

This is NOT CrossFit.

This is one extremely advanced and specialized movement that is the equivalent of Pele’s backward bicycle kick, or a triple somersault/twist high dive. It’s NOT a typical movement.

They are performing a strongman movement called the Continental lift, also known as axle cleans. I’m going to assume two things about them: 1) Their coach likes & coaches strongman movements regularly, and 2) all of these people have tried & trained this movement before their local competition. The fact that they are dropping the bar and such, actually makes the movement safer. Knowing when to stop, and knowing how to “bail out,” actually help make this movement more approachable.

In brief, it looks ugly as hell, but has been around for a long, long time, even before the clean that you’re used to seeing in the Olympics. Though it may look more like an awkward intestinal massage, it’s actually great at building raw strength.

If you saw this video and thought, “CrossFit is not for me,” you’re right. This movement is not for a beginner, and some (most) people can do CrossFit for years, and never have the need, or find the opportunity, to do this movement. This video is gym, and coach, specific.

The post A CrossFit Owner’s Thoughts on 8 Common Criticisms of CrossFit appeared first on Paleo Plan.

“I feel better and look thinner, but there seems to be something missing.”

“What are you eating?”

“I follow PaleoPlan. They’re awesome!”

“Agreed! How are your workouts going?”

“Um…”

“You’re working out, right?”

“I walk my dog…”

“Good on the PaleoPlan, but we’ve still got some work to do.”

Doesn’t it seem like every time you think you’ve made some progress, there’s something more? Yeah, yeah. Well, we’re gonna talk about your next step today.

We’re gonna get you moving.

There’re quite a few of you who’ve already taken the PaleoFit plunge, and from what we can tell, you all dig it. That’s awesome….and we would love to hear from you more in the comments!

While getting your nutrition squared away is the best way to start the road to wellness, we all need to get moving as well.

We, as human creatures, were never meant to sit for long periods of time like we do today. We evolved moving. When we weren’t eating, we were chasing something down, or gathering something to eat in the future. We ran away from predators, or fought the next tribe for access to the blossoming fruit trees. We’re MOVERS!!

Getting to the gym, for many people, can be quite intimidating.

For many of us, it also may not be necessary. It turns out you can get a pretty darn good workout done right where you are now, probably in the very room that you’re in.

photo by Alice Kuo Shippee

At least that was the thought when Jason and Neely of this very site approached me with the idea of creating companion workouts for PaleoPlan. We decided that the best workouts were ones that required minimal to no equipment, and that could be finished, with warm-up, in around 20 minutes or less. We even have one workout a week that’s always designed to be less than 5 minutes.

We wanted to make the barrier for entry into the program easy enough for anyone to start, regardless of fitness level. We also wanted the option for the more advanced of us to be able to gain some goodness out of them as well. We really feel like we’ve done both.

Without making this sound like the shameless plug that it is, have you even been over to check PaleoFit out yet? Do you KNOW what you’re missing?

I mean, with workout vids like this one, how can you NOT sign up?

In addition to sweet vids, and being stronger and more fit, you’re also missing out on heavy breathing, the right to bare arms, & a perkier butt. If you’re a guy, trust me, nothing beats catching your wife checking out your butt. Oh, yeah.

So….why should you PaleoFit?

Because it’s the best deal in town, and you’re gonna get results. Seriously, why haven’t you signed up yet? Let us know in the comments, so we can have a great discussion about how we can help you make it fit into your weekly routine!

photo by Alice Kuo Shippee

The post Why You Should PaleoFit appeared first on Paleo Plan.

For years it was on my chin, my neck, and my back and chest were always troubled areas, too.  It was embarrassing to wear tank tops, and I was constantly picking at and scrubbing my skin with random potions, making it even worse. If I had pictures I’d show you. Wait, no, I wouldn’t. It’s hard to look people in the face when you have red marks all over your face and neck, much less publish pictures of yourself even years later.

Anyway, as I started courageously removing foods from my diet for other reasons, it eventually got better and better. Cutting out gluten and dairy helped take some of the inflammation away, but I still had it pretty bad.

Then, I had an epiphany. A very terrifying one… that chocolate was the major culprit.

I f@*king love chocolate. I want to be very clear about that. I would eat nothing but chocolate if I could, and that’s exactly what I used to do sometimes. If I had it in the house – chocolate bars, chocolate covered fruit, chocolate almond butter, chocolate whatever – I would not eat meals and just eat the chocolate.

I was a total addict, which in hindsight should’ve been my first clue that I shouldn’t have been eating it. Most days, I would at least eat a bar of Chocolove bar, which, by the way, is over 600 calories. Bad idea. (I was also larger back then.)

But I gave it up nonetheless because vanity, I decided, was more important to me than eating chocolate. And voila! My skin totally cleared up! It was the BEST feeling to finally not have to inspect myself every time I left the house. And it’s been like that for the past 4 years or so, and I can honestly say I don’t ever think about chocolate anymore.

I’m not saying I never get zits. I do sometimes.

And especially in the last month, which is why I was provoked to write this. It’s frustrating sometimes when you don’t know what’s going on with your body, and right now is one of those times. I’ve been getting headaches, nausea, and zits. I’ve thought about it, and the only food I can conjure up that would be giving me these unbecoming blemishes, and maybe even the other stuff, is olive oil.

I really haven’t eaten olive oil in about 4 years either, after the food sensitivities test I did told me I was highly sensitive to it. I remember taking it out of my diet and after a month I added it back in. Every time I ate it I got all itchy and sneezy and decided I didn’t want to eat it anymore. So knowing that it was a problem food for my skin before, and considering that I’ve put it back in my diet in the last month, I’m going to take it out again and experiment.

So this is the process I’m constantly going through. Trial… error… success… error… trial…

I’m assuming some of you go through this, too. You have something going on with your health – maybe it’s not your skin but your digestion or your sleep – so you just start pecking away at the possible culprits. Then you figure it out and move on… to the next mystery weeks or months later :)

Either way, if you have skin problems, I really encourage you to start thinking outside the box of possible causes for it. I’m absolutely not saying that chocolate is the cause for everyone. Or olive oil. That’s what it is (maybe) for ME. So experiment with different foods and find out for yourself what’s affecting your complexion.

Also know that my friend Liz Wolfe of CaveGirlEats.com has a whole guide about skincare and food called Skintervention if you want much more detailed information about it.

Anyone have any stories to tell about their skin and their food?

The post Zits and Paleo (My Current 1st World Problem) appeared first on Paleo Plan.

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