Well, the Paleo Challenge is officially over and I think I did pretty well considering my wedding dress stress. Since I saw such great results with my skin, I’m continuing a good portion of this diet until my wedding day. I’ll be strictly staying away from dairy and most sugars, pasta, and processed food. I’ve started incorporating rice and beans back into my diet and just a tiny bit of whole grains. Of course, my birthday weekend will be tough – tradition calls for chocolate swirl cheesecake. I’ll have to limit myself to half a piece of cheesecake for the weekend to avoid any pre-wedding breakouts.
So what helped me along the way? It was a little tough coming up with good Paleo meals every week. These cookbooks (which I checked out from the library) really helped with our weekly meal planning:
My favorite go-to Paleo meals would be spaghetti squash with meatballs and anything grilled: hamburgers, brats, ribs, salmon. Add some veggies to the grill and you’ve got a great Paleo summer meal! Also, having eggs on hand all the time helped. Boiled eggs are a nice breakfast or snack to take to work when there are no other tasty options. After the second week we were not missing bread or pasta. Those two things will continue to be very rare in our diet moving forward.
The past four weeks have not been easy, but it has been well worth the trouble. I’m sure having to cook for children or a very picky adult would have made things much more complicated. So, for those Paleo parents who are not cooking several different meals per day for your young ones; I applaud you and your kids. This does take some getting used to, but it’s possible to do if you really put your mind to it.
Just joining and want to take a look back at my 4 Week Paleo Challenge? Look below for the links to all my Paleo posts:
