Eating Paleo is not like most clean eating programs out there. For starters, it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and even the most novice of cooks can easily throw together a delicious Paleo meal with little effort. People who eat this way love the fact that they don’t have to rearrange their lives in order to finally start to lose weight and feel good about themselves. And best of all, unlike most healthy eating plans out there, eating Paleo doesn’t mean driving miles out of your way to get those hard-to-find ingredients or buying ingredients off of the internet because you can’t find them anywhere else. Eating Paleo is about making your meals simple, easy and delicious without the added expense of overpriced ingredients or the need to buy expensive appliances.
But in all honestly, there is one part of Paleo that people seem to struggle with, and it is something that many people will try to avoid doing because they are afraid of the cost. To be truly Paleo means that you understand the need to eat organic foods as much as possible. That means that all of your meats, vegetables, and fruits should be free of any added chemicals or hormones.
Even if you are following the most strict Paleo regimen, you won’t get the full benefits of this lifestyle until you make the commitment to be organic. Sure, you might lose a pound here or there, you might even be able to impress your doctor with your lowered cholesterol and great insulin levels. But when you are talking about your overall health – your lifelong health – organic is not a choice, it is a necessity.
Think about it, even if you have ditched all the processed foods and sugar to follow the Paleo path are you really eating clean? Yes, you are definitely eating cleaner than you were before and you are surely going to start to lose weight and help your body because of it. But if you are still putting those chemicals and hormones into your body at every meal then you are still hurting yourself.
Eating organic is the only way to make sure that you are eating a truly clean diet. One thing that many people believe is that they just don’t have it in their budget to eat this way, it is more expensive after all. And even though this might be true for some people one thing you should do is go through your budget and make absolutely 100% sure that you really don’t have the money to be organic. Most people can make the switch to organic foods, they just don’t realize it.
Take a notebook with you when you go to the grocery store or the farmers market and start to write down the prices of both the organic and nonorganic foods that you buy on a regular basis. Then add everything up and see if there is room in your monthly budget to make the switch.
Ask yourself how much you will be spending at the doctor this month. Remember, eating clean usually means that you can cut down on your medications and doctor’s visits. Eating clean also sets you up to be healthier in the future, so when other people are starting to rely more heavily on doctors and medications in their old age, you will still have energy and a zest for life.
If you are eating consciously and you are making an effort to eat clean, then you should be very proud of yourself and you deserve all of the weight loss success that you have coming to you. But if you are looking to make changes that will help you to truly heal your body from the inside out in a way that will reshape the rest of your life, then you should consider switching to organic foods.
