Get Back On The Wagon

 by Leeny Hoffmann

You were so good.  You conquered the paleo challenge and you ate good quality, nutritious food for 30 days.  You planned your menus, cleaned out your fridge, hit the farmer's market and prepared for tricky situations that might tempt you to stray.  You did something you didn't think you could do and you were proud of your efforts.
But then...it happened.  The thirty days were over and life got in the way again.  Old habits stealthily crept back into the daily routine.  Things got busy and you lost your focus.  You fell off the wagon, and it ran over you.
Guess what?  You can pick yourself up, chase that wagon down, and hop right back on.  You just have to decide to do it.  There are no rules and no judgement.  Just a personal decision to make an effort to eat quality, delicious food that maintains your gut health, keeps your hormones in check, and reduces inflammation.  Does it have to be perfect every single day?  Not unless you have some severe health issues that require a super strict approach.  Come up with a livable plan.  Maybe it's "stricter" paleo during the week so you can let your hair down on the weekend.  You might anticipate an upcoming week where you know you will be up to your eyeballs with work and thinking about food is just another thing on your plate. (Yeah, it was a bad pun...)  If that's the case, plan ahead and keep it pretty clean the week before so you are prepared to handle the dodgy week later.  But no matter what, make a commitment to yourself.  Keep it simple and work to string meals together that follow an evolutionary template that we know works and makes us feel better.  The wagon will always be back for you...you just gotta hop on it!

(For another perspective on paleo eating, here is a blog post from PaleOMG.   If you haven't read her stuff or tried her recipes, you're missing out!!)