For starters, what is paleo? You may have heard it called the caveman diet or stone age diet. Basically, you eat what the cavemen ate during the Paleolithic era, i.e. meat, veggies, roots, fruits, and nuts…and avoid grains, legumes, sugar, processed oils, salt, alcohol, coffee, and dairy products. In a nutshell, cut out the processed food and live off the land!

Food has changed drastically through the years and it’s causing some problems, to say the least! People, myself included, often ask why are things so different now? What is up with all of these intolerances? It used to make no sense to me! I grew up on a farm and most meals that we ate where made from scratch. (Thanks, mom and dad! I never knew how beneficial that all was!) I never had digestive issues or thought they were that common. However, in recent years, I’ve had so many friends develop intolerances or gut problems, including my husband. WHY?

Jill from Naturally Savvy does a great job explaining how our food has changed through the years. In a nutshell, factory farming wasn’t a thing way back when. The animals raised by our ancestors were not consuming growth hormones, antibiotics, and genetically modified feed. They were raised outside and ate grass! I’ll spare the details of the awesome living conditions of most of the meat that this world eats today. However, I will say that the cheap ground beef you just bought at the grocery store is more unnatural than you can imagine and filled with chemicals…that you’re now about to consume. Look it up. Learn about how the kind of dairy you eat affects your skin, how it causes acne and those awesome gross stomach feels. It’ll blow your mind. WHO KNEW?! Fear not though, not all dairy is bad for you either. Remember, your grandparents ate it and they were just fine! What could have changed? THE PROCESSING. If you grab some of the un-tampered stuff, you’ll find that it is actually nourishing and good for you! Organic, grass-fed is the way to go! It may cost you a couple extra bucks, but your body will thank you down the road! Your health is an investment, NOT AN EXPENSE!

I’m a firm believer in being able to read and pronounce the ingredients in the food you eat. If you can’t confidently say it out loud and explain what it is, do you think its safe to eat? I surely do NOT. We need to go back to caring about what we put into our bodies. I know life is crazy, and cooking at home is not convenient, but…like the saying goes, “FAILING TO PREPARE, IS PREPARING TO FAIL.” Meal prep sucks and chopping tons of veggies at one time gets old, but let me tell ya, it makes cooking dinner on a busy night, SO SIMPLE when you have everything ready to throw in a pan. There’s no guilt and your stomach isn’t yelling at you for what you just did to it. It’s actually thanking you!

It has never been easier to find healthy options, than it is today! You just have to look and maybe pay a little more. Shop smart, though…or put in the time and grow your own organic foods! Personally, you’re going to be spending money on yourself and your family anyways…it’s either going to be on good-for-you food that AIDS your well-being, or on medical bills trying to figure out what’s going on with your system and possibly never finding a solution!

All of this isn’t to say you can’t grab some food through a drive-thru window every now and then – I personally would rather go eat a big tub of ice cream than that…but to each his own. I’d also like to add – if you’ve been eating processed foods for the majority of your life (that probably includes some meals that you ate at home that were made with processed ingredients) it’s going to take some time to repair your gut. I’ll be adding another post of some of the supplements and “potions” I made my husband take while on his personal journey to a healthier gut. Combined with our paleo diet, these things really made a difference!

I hope you aren’t running away after I totally picked a part how you eat and cook. Cooking is fun and all, but sometimes…it just sucks and you DO NOT WANT TO DO IT. Also, those dang dishes…curse them! We are all real people. Health-nuts can be (usually are) annoying. Come on, those Whole Foods people are WEIRD. I used to think that. Haha! Now, walking through the health food aisles at my local grocery store or actually shopping at a Whole Foods (we don’t have one by us – SAD DAY!) is one of my favorite things to do! I’m still a down-home cooking type of girl. I have to be a lot more conscious of the ingredients that I cook with these days, but the meals don’t have to feel like health food!

My goal with everything that I make: I don’t want to be able to tell that I’m eating a healthy version of something…I just want to think, “Man, this hits the spot!”