Paleo is pretty awesome, I’m a big believer in the health benefits and the ease of the lifestyle. If you don’t eat Paleo, that’s cool, as long as you are getting results. I’m not here to go all dogma on you and say that’s the only way to eat but right now it’s working well for me and for a lot of our clients.
One of the struggles I’ve noticed is that people understand the concept but sometimes have trouble applying it to real world situations.
You should eat a diet high in protein, veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds, healthy fats and avoid starches and sugars. Pretty simple.
BUT, what do you eat when you’re not prepping your own food?
We all have busy lives. Shuttling from home to work to the gym to other activities, you don’t always have the meat and veggies handy to eat a proper dinner at home at 6pm.
I get it.
My top tips are these.
1. Cook in batches. Make a dish that can last you 2-3 days worth of leftovers. If you are cooking for two or three people, you just have to double it up.
My favorite cook book right now is the Fat Burning Chef. This thing is loaded with Paleo recipes from all the top chefs in the industry. You can check it out here and download a copy.
2. My second tip is to have a game plan. If you have to eat in a restaurant due to travel, meetings or just because you didn’t plan your meals, then you need to know where you can go and what you can eat.
Let’s be honest. You DO have time to plan your meals, you just have to make the time.
In the meantime, you can find some great options that fit your Paleo and primal lifestyle when you go to a restaurant.
This definitely takes some effort and you have to sometimes be “that person” that adjusts the order a bit, but you have the right to know what’s going in your body and most places are pretty cool about it these days.
Asian Restaurants:
You can choose a meat and veggies option that some places offer. If not, you can doctor it up by choosing a stir fry without the rice or noodles. Make sure you ditch the sauce because that’s a sugar and salt bomb waiting to happen.
Greek or Mediterranean:
You can get a big salad here but make sure to avoid the chick peas and any cheese. Swap out the yogurt based dressings for a simple oil and vinegar mix. Kabobs are always awesome. If they are a meat and vegetable mix, even better. If you have just the meat on the stick (awesomeness) then grab a side salad to hit your veggie intake.
Make sure to skip the hummus as that’s made with legumes.
Mexican Restaurants:
This one takes a little creativity. You can order the fajitas and just skip the actual fajitas and the sour cream and cheese. Load up that plate with meat, veggies, salsa and some guacamole. Pretty damn good.
Also if you are at Chipotle for a quick fix, you can order a burrito bowl, no rice. Just go double meat, veggies, lettuce, salsa and just a scoop of guacamole.
American Restaurants:
These tend to be the easiest options because you can order a steak with a side salad or a burger with a side salad and ditch the bun. Just remember the watch the dressings which are the silent sugar killers. Opt for your oil and vinegar (every place has this).
If you are at a steakhouse and one of the sides is potatoes or rice, just swap that out for veggies and you already have your side salad so you’re good to go.
Breakfast:
This is another super easy option. You will actually find a lot of breakfast joints that serve until 2 or 3pm so if you are at lunch, this is a great spot to go for.
You can go with eggs any style, just make sure to skip the cheese. If you do an omelette, load it up with veggies and then do hot sauce or salsa to top it off. Swap out the order of potatoes for extra bacon. Hell yeah.
You can also do a small order of fruit to round out the meal.
My last tip is to simply use good-ole’ Google and search for Paleo restaurants or Paleo menus in your area or the area you are traveling to.
Eating out and eating on the go is not always going to be perfect. The goal of this lifestyle is to have some freedom from the traditional “diet” but that doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all. There are sacrifices to any solid nutrition plan.
The bottom line is that if you want results, you have to work for it and you have to make sacrifices along the way. Anyone that says you can have an easy-peasy eating plan AND get results is totally lying. It’s hard work. If you want to go out to restaurants and eat shit, you will not get results.
If you want to stick to a solid plan and make a few cut backs on what you eat each day, then you’ll look and feel awesome.
This is not to say that you can never enjoy a meal out. Treat yourself every other week to a nice meal and maybe a dessert. This will keep you on track. The thing to remember is that you’re adopting a lifestyle, not just a short term fix that you’ll abandon after you hit your fat loss goal.
I’d love to hear about any restaurants that you know or have been to that are great options for this eating lifestyle. Leave me a comment below.