Change Can Take Time
Dear Nell,
I was reading through your blog and saw some things that surprised me; you mention goat milk yogurt, rice cereal and greens powder. I thought those things were not part of the Paleo diet. Are they? I’m confused.
Thanks,
Mitch, Portland
Oh, I am so glad to have this question as a blog post.
To set the record straight, those posts in question are from when I first started blogging, in 2007 at which point I had only been Paleo for two years, and was still learning the ropes. Back then, I would still have a yogurt from time to time, as well as rice cereal before a long race, and even a green ‘vitamin’ powder, none of which were Paleo.
I left these posts up on purpose because I feel they are reflective of my own Paleo journey and thought perhaps they’d be useful to refer to as you readers continue along your own Paleo path.
For those who know my history, completely cutting out gluten from my diet in 2004 was the biggest single epiphany moment I’ve had with regard to my diet and nutrition and I say that because it was so dramatic so quickly. I had a gluten free diet for another year before I found Paleo and even then, it took me a good two years to then isolate all the little hidden culprits and then avoid those as well.
Vitamin powders, prescription medicines, the occasional product with rice or peanut… it all had to go. I don’t miss any of those things and I go to great lengths to not eat them at any cost. This is likely already quite evident to you if you read my post the other day about manually picking out every last surprise corn kernel that ended up on a salad I ate the other day!
I noticed huge changes after going Paleo at first, and then, the healthier, fitter and leaner I became, the more I wanted to get as close to optimal health as I could and that’s where becoming extremely diligent about getting as close to 100% Paleo as I could.
The closer I got, the better I felt, and the positive momentum grew and grew.
I hope this helps motivate anyone who is new to Paleo and struggling a little.
It’s worth it. It’s so very, very worth it. Can’t say so enough.
