As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, you can track your carb counts using a tool like MyFitnessPal.com but the best thing is to develop an understanding of the amount of carbs in different types of foods.

This way, you will be able to create meals that stay within the target carb range without having to look them up in your online food tracking tool.

To help you develop a good foundation for calculating carbs counts, I’ve broken down various types of Paleo foods into 3 categories: Carb Foods, Protein Foods and Fat Foods.

Definitions:

Carb Foods: Foods that have more Carbohydrate (Carbs) than Protein or Fat

Protein Foods: Foods that have more Protein than Carbohydrate or Fat.

Fat Foods: Foods that have more Fat than Protein or Carbohydrate.

Most of the foods below have some level of each MacroNutrient (Carbs, Protein, Fat) but they are listed by the dominant macronutrient.

1) Carb Foods

1/2 Cup Cooked Spinach = 2 Grams Carbs

1/2 Cup California Blend Veg = 3 Grams Carbs

1/2 Cup Broccholi = 3 Grams Carbs

1/2 Cup Cauliflower = 3 Grams Carbs

1 Sweet Potato = 24 Grams Carbs (check for portion size)

1/2 Cup Quinoa = 60 Grams Carbs

1 Baked Potato = 63 Grams Carbs (check for portion size)

1/2 Cup Jasmine White Rice = 72 Grams Carbs

As you can see, you could eat a HUGE amount of Broccholi, Spinach, Cauliflower each day and still stay under 100 grams of carbs.

Eating a cup or two per day of these vegetables is a great way to improve health as they are super low in carbs and high in vital nutrients and fiber which help repair and restore health.

Sweet Potatoes, White Potatoes, Quinoa and Rice are also good choices if you want something more hearty but you just have to watch the number of portions to keep carbs in the right range.

2) Protein Foods

2 Eggs = 1 Gram Carbs

4 oz Chicken (mfp had 1 filet 77g) = 0 Gram Carbs

4 oz Beef = 0 Gram Carbs

4 oz Fish = 0 Gram Carbs

Protein rich foods make are great if you’re trying to control carbs. Why? Well as you can see above most Protein rich foods have low or zero carbohydrate content. Also, Protein is the most filling food which helps to control hunger and has been shown in studies to have the biggest impact on weight loss.

3) Fat Foods

1 Tbsp Butter = 0 Gram Carbs

1 Tbsp Coconut Oil = 0 Gram Carbs

½ Cup Almonds = 12 Grams Carbs

½ Cup Cashews = 18 Grams Carbs

Sunflower Seeds (Raw) = 14 Grams Carbs

Pumpkin Seeds (Raw) = 8 Grams Carbs

Macadamia Nuts (Raw) = 9 Grams Carbs

Fat rich Paleo approved foods are very interesting. If you’re talking about something like Coconut Oil or Butter, the Carb count is zero.

However, seeds and nuts have more carbs than you might think and it’s quite easy to eat more than 1/2 cup of nuts which can make it easy to eat too many carbs. Bottom line, seeds and nuts are a good choice to get some healthy fat into the diet and keep carbs low but portion control is key.

The post How Many Carbs Are In Paleo Foods first appeared on Renegade Dad.

The post How Many Carbs Are In Paleo Foods appeared first on Renegade Dad.

Think again.

You can make a meal with one of the healthiest meals on the planet in 2 minutes.

What meal?

Scrambled Eggs.

Seriously, this literally takes 2 minutes from start to finish and produces incredibly soft and fluffy scrambled eggs.

You have the time. Eggs are incredibly healthy. Give this a shot.

What you need:

1) 1 Bowl

2) 1 Fork

3) 2 Eggs

4) Microwave

How To Make 2 Minute Scrambled Eggs:

1) Crack the 2 eggs into the bowl

2) Scramble up the eggs with the fork

3) Put the bowl into the microwave for 1.5- 2 minutes

4) Done!

Microwaved Eggs? Eeeewww Gross!

If you think Microwaved Eggs sound gross, I hear ya. I thought the same thing.

But I wanted to test it out to see if it’s possible to make good scrambled eggs in the microwave because, if it’s possible, it would save me time and I’d be able to eat more eggs.

And I couldn’t believe it. If you follow this recipe, the result should be light, fluffy, delicious eggs. You may need to tweak the time a bit depending on your microwave but once you get it right, it’s kind of shocking how good they are.

And you can’t beat how easy this is:

Tools:

1. Microwave,

2. Bowl

3. Fork

Ingredients:

1. Eggs

Total Time: 2 minutes (or less)

Instructions:

Please forgive my pictures – doing Food Photography well is something I haven’t figured out yet!!!

Step 1: Crack 2 Eggs Into Bowl

Step 2: Scramble Eggs with a Fork (Or Whisk)

Step 3: Put Eggs Into Microwave And Cook For 2 Minutes

Step 4: Done! Ready to eat. 

Toppings (Optional)

I highly recommend adding something to your eggs. Plain eggs are just boring but add some Grass-Fed Butter and Sea Salt and they’re delicious. Below are some of my favorite toppings. Add your own – just make sure they are Paleo/Primal approved foods to keep this breakfast healthy!

1. Salsa

2. Butter

3. Sea Salt

4. Guacamole

Additional Ingredients

You can also add some frozen vegetables to the eggs before cooking them.

Some vegetables I’ve added are:

1. Frozen Spinach

2. Frozen Broccoli

3. Frozen Peppers

Just sprinkle some vegetables on the “uncooked eggs” then throw it all in the microwave and cook for a minute or so at a time, then mix everything up with a fork and cook again for another minute or until everything is cooked.

How To Cook 3 Or More Eggs This Way

You can make more eggs this way also but it just takes a little longer. For example, 3 Eggs takes about 3 Minutes. As I mentioned above, I cook them for a minute, mix everything up then repeat the process until everything is cooked.

The post How To Make Scrambled Eggs In 2 Minutes Or Less first appeared on Renegade Dad.

The post How To Make Scrambled Eggs In 2 Minutes Or Less appeared first on Renegade Dad.

The first time I heard about the Paleo Diet I thought “Great! Another fad diet!”

But as it turns out, the Paleo Diet really isn’t a fad diet at all, it’s actually more of a lifestyle.

Paleo In  A Nutshell

Essentially, the Paleo Diet is based around whole foods that our hunter, gatherer ancestors ate during Paleolithic times. This is why it is also called the Cave Man Diet or Hunter, Gatherer Diet.

So why would we want to eat like our Paleolithic Ancestors?

To understand why we would want to eat like our Paleolithic ancestors, we need to put things in perspective.

The Paleolithic period lasted over 2,000,000 years. Yes you read that right…TWO  MILLION YEARS.

During that time, humans hunted and gathered their food.

That meant that they ate animals, plants and probably some seeds and nuts. And as it turns out, those people were very healthy – lean, strong and without modern diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease etc.

So what happened? Why are so many people sick now?

Well, about 10,000 years ago we began to create highly processed foods with all kinds of chemicals and additives that our bodies were not “adapted” to handle.

And because our human genes have not evolved much since the Paleolithic period, it is believed that our bodies work best when fueled by the type of foods that our Paleolithic ancestors ate.

Foods like meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, eggs and nuts.

Whole, natural foods. Not chemically engineered, highly processed foods.

Eating whole, natural foods makes a lot of sense to most people as a way to improve their health but unfortunately it isn’t so easy to get back to the way we used to eat.

When I discovered the Paleo diet and decided to test it out, I ran into some unforeseen challenges.

So although I think the Paleo diet is a great idea for most people, there are some challenges you may want to consider.

I’m not highlighting these challenges to discourage you but rather to give you a heads up so you can plan how to handle them should they happen to you!

Paleo Diet Challenges

Challenge 1: Family

Spouse – It’s one thing to get yourself to eat differently, it’s another thing to convince your spouse to follow along 🙂

Children – We all know how hard it is to get our kids to eat different foods. Kids like what they like and that’s that.

Challenge 2: Convenience

Grocery Stores – The bottom line is it’s just more difficult to eat Paleo. So much of our grocery stores are filled with processed foods (like bread, crackers, chips, sodas, juices, cereals etc.)

Eating Out – It’s insanely hard to find meals that conform to a truly Paleo Diet when eating out. The easiest and most universal Paleo meal that can be found at most restaurants is a salad with some type of protein like chicken, beef, salmon etc. This can get old pretty quick if you eat out a lot. For several reasons, we’ve been cooking a lot more dinners at home which leads to the next area of inconvenience.

Challenge 3: Preparation

Preparing meals with vetables, meat, fish etc. takes a bit more time than slapping together some ham, cheese and a couple pieces of bread or popping a frozen pizza into the oven. We all have those days when we work late and we don’t feel like spending a lot of time making dinner which makes it a lot more appealing to order a pizza instead of cooking a steak and vegetable dinner.

Challenge 4: Cost 

Eating more Meat, Fish and fresh produce like vegetables and fruit is typically more expensive than eating processed foods like Frozen Dinners, Pasta, Pizza and sandwiches.

Benefits of Paleo

Despite those seemingly large challenges, I believe Paleo is worth every single bit of inconvenience.

Benefit 1: More Muscle, Less Fat

Since I began eating a more Paleo diet I’ve seen some great results like lowering my bodyfat percentage from 14.5% to 10% which equated to 8lbs of fat while simultaneously increasing lean muscle by 2lbs. That happened in 2 months and I was already in very good shape and eating a good diet by most people’s standards.

Benefit 2: Less Inflammation, Aches and Pains

Many processed foods are HIGHLY inflammatory. Inflammatory foods can cause all kinds of problems from minor aches and pains to disease.

Check out the “old me” on my About Page to see how I looked before eating Paleo – I was swollen and inflamed, carrying extra weight and I was exhausted. I also had been experiencing aches and pains in my back, knees and my knuckles would crack constantly!

I’m not going to say I NEVER get an ache or pain. That would be ridiculous. But I can say that I very rarely get aches and pains and I feel more flexible and limber than ever before.

Benefit 3: More and Longer Lasting Energy

This is a BIG one for me. Every parent wants MORE energy. Our kids seem to have a limitless supply all day long and it can be pretty exhausting trying to keep up with them!

When I made the switch to a Paleo diet, I noticed my energy change. I didn’t have the afternoon slump that I had always experienced. I used to eat every hour or two to “keep my energy levels up” but no matter what I always had that afternoon crash.

Most days I experienced several crashes and my wish was to just drink more coffee. Some days I’d drink 4-5 cups of coffee. Now I only drink 1 or 2 cups per day and I use mostly decaf beans now. Seriously, try Paleo for a week and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Benefit 4: More Focus and Less Stress

Believe me when I tell you Focus has ALWAYS been a challenge for me. I was never tested for ADD but I am pretty sure if I was tested, I would have been at the top of the charts.

And once again, I’m not going to give you a bunch of BS and say that I’m laser focused, but I have SO MUCH more focus now than I’ve ever had.

And I know the Paleo diet has made a difference because I literally feel more distracted and also, more anxious when I eat a “standard american diet” full of processed foods.

Conclusion

I could go on and on about the benefits of eating Paleo but I think you get the point. I STRONGLY encourage you to give it a try and report back to me with your results.

If  you’d like to do some of your own research on Paleo (and I encourage you to do so) you should check out some of the experts that I follow like Mark Sisson from MarksDailyApple.com, Chris Kress from ChrisKresser.com, Dave Asprey from BulletProofExec.com and Robb Wolf from RobbWolf.com to name a few.

Also, if you follow a Paleo diet I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. What kind of benefits have you seen? How hard has it been to give up processed foods? Did your spouse buy into it? Any tips or tricks to get your kids to eat healthier whole foods like meat and vegetables instead of processed foods mac and cheese?

The post What Is The Paleo Diet? first appeared on Renegade Dad.

The post What Is The Paleo Diet? appeared first on Renegade Dad.