When you start any new eating plan, there are things you want to eat, things you have to eat, and things you need to avoid at all costs. Granted, eating Paleo is much more freeing than other diets out there. With Paleo, you make sure all of your meals have protein, good carbs (from vegetables), and good fats. The rules sound easy enough, but they can be a bear to follow during those special occasions when you are out with friends, on holiday or vacation.
Look, people cheat on their diets all the time. As long as you don’t make it a habit, you should be just fine. But one thing you want to make sure that you do is to minimize the damage of cheating on your diet. If you are worried that cheating on your diet is going to make you lose all of the progress that you have made, here are some foods to avoid so that you can jump back on the Paleo bandwagon with ease.
First, you want to avoid the sugars. This sounds easier said than done, and there is a reason for it. But that doesn’t mean that it is impossible. So let’s say that you go out to dinner with your friends, instead of soda, you can ask for diet soda. And dinner can be as easy as a salad with vinaigrette, a large sweet potato with cinnamon, and two sides of vegetables.
Next up, you want to avoid fried foods and processed foods. This one can be pretty tricky, especially if you are staying in a cabin or somewhere else where you don’t have a lot of room to store things. Eating the processed stuff just seems easier, after all, it does last longer. The one thing to keep in mind is that there are plenty of Paleo foods that won’t go bad that you can keep on hand if you are in a pinch. Things like nuts, trail mix, apples, and granola will all last a good while in the cupboard and are good to have throughout the day. Remember, if you are in a position where you feel you have to cheat you want to at least be a smart cheater. Save those foods that are not Paleo for dinnertime when your body has nothing to do for the rest of the night but work on digesting them.
Even though eating Paleo is easy, there are still times when sticking to Paleo is hard, especially when you are away from home or the people that you are with are not Paleo. But when you make conscious choices about when you are going to go off of your healthy eating routine, then you make it that much easier for you to get back on track. When you go ‘off Paleo’ for any period of time, you will start to notice that your body tends to scold you for giving it unclean food, so you want to be sure that any cheat foods you eat are foods that are worth cheating for. You also want to be sure that you cheat smart, making sure that you make it as easy as possible for you to get back on board with your Paleo eating plan as soon as possible.
