What is the paleo diet, how do I know if the paleo diet is for me, how to make a 1-day paleo meal plan? This and delicious paleo recipes all in one post.
What the heck is the Paleo Diet anyway?
In a nutshell: it’s a diet where you try to eat the way humans ate when they were in the Palaeolithic era.
A diet that suggests eating everything we ate when we were hunters and gatherers, or any food before the agricultural revolution.
That excludes all grains, legumes, dairy (except for butter and ghee for some people), hydrogenated oils as well as refined sugar and anything containing refined sugar. Basically, all processed food.
The motto here is: eat real food!
To read more in depth info about this check out this article.
A healthy Paleo breakfast for your Paleo Meal Plan – pan-fried bacon, tomato, mushrooms, eggs and parsley.
Important Points For a 1-Day Paleo Meal Plan
One very important point about the paleo diet in general and the paleo meal plan specifically is that this diet discourages calorie counting or tracking.
Your body knows exactly how much it needs to eat and there is no need for any calculator to guide you.
The paleo diet encourages you to skip weighing and measuring yourself and if at all encourages you to count nutrients as opposed to calories. So the only thing you should take into consideration when meal planning is making sure you’ll approximately cover your macronutrient needs and then simply eat as much as you feel like when it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner time.
Something I personally love about this diet is that it encourages you to listen to your body and thus fosters a healthier relationship with food in general. Something I’ve always done, still incorporate in my own clean eating meal plans, and encourage my children to do on a daily basis.
Listen to your body! Not your mind playing tricks with you and telling you “OMG I want moooore because this is sooo delicious”. Ask your body, am I still hungry or is this just a craving?
A healthy Paleo Lunch for your Paleo Meal Plan – pan fried chicken breast with roasted sweet potato and asparagus.
What can I include in my Paleo Meal Plan?
- animals and non-dairy animal products (i.e. meat, fish, poultry, eggs, bone broth)
- vegetables
- fruits
- nuts and seeds
Paleo Diet the Healthiest Diet?
Is this the best diet for me if I want to be healthy? Short answer: Maybe.
Long answer: This depends on your health situation, your metabolism, your cultural understanding and upbringing, your personality, your goals, your current diet.
Before starting ANY new diet it is always advisable to talk to your physician and/or nutritionist to see if the diet you choose to follow is safe for you.
There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all. There are for sure people that should avoid grains (or better said gluten) and dairy. Not all of us need though however, some of us might look and feel better eating grains and legumes in moderation. So for those who do, this might not be the healthiest diet.
If you are currently on what many define as the Standard American Diet – a high sugar and sodium diet including a lot of processed foods – you most certainly are better off eating a Paleo Diet.
There is also studies being conducted to find out the effects of this diet on people suffering from certain diseases or other health issues and it seems to have an extraordinary effect on their health so for these people the paleo diet might after all be the healthiest diet of all.
So in the end in comes down to you and your body.
To read more about the pros and cons of the paleo diet in order to be able to make up your mind and find out if this could be the healthiest diet for YOU, check out this article.
A healthy Paleo Snack for your Paleo Meal Plan – apple slices dipped in almond butter.
Paleo Meal Plan
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 2 strips bacon
- 1 tomato
- 3 mushrooms
- 1/2 Tbsp parsley
- 1 Tbsp avocado oil
- 150 g chicken breast
- 1/2 sweet potato
- 15 asparagus
- 1/2 Tbsp avocado oil
- 150 g salmon fillet
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- 1/2 Tbsp parsley
- 1/2 bunch swiss chard
- 1/2 head broccoli
- 1/2 leek
- 1 apple
- 1/4 cup almond butter
- sea salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Breakfast: Preheat skillet over medium heat, then add bacon and fry until half way to being crispy, add washed tomato cut in half cut side down, remove stems from mushrooms and add stem side down, crack 2 eggs into remaining space and continue to fry until egg reaches desired doneness. Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley.If you like your egg white well cooked you might want to cover the skillet with a lid for the last minute or so.
- Lunch: preheat oven to 400 F (200 C) and preheat skillet over medium heat.Peel and small dice sweet potato; wash dry and remove hard part of asparagus; add diced sweet potato to a small baking sheet add a splash of avocado oil, sea salt and pepper and roast for 15 minutes. Add a splash of avocado oil to skillet, salt and pepper chicken breast and fry chicken breast for approximately 6-8 minutes per side or until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 F (74 C). Take diced sweet potato out of the oven and stir and return to oven for another 10-15 minutes or until fork tender. Add asparagus to a small baking sheet add a splash of avocado oil, sea salt and pepper and roast for 8-10 minutes.
- Dinner: preheat oven to 400 F (200 C) and preheat skillet over medium heat.Wash, dry and cut up chard, broccoli and leek. Add a splash of avocado oil to the skillet and stir fry leek until nice and tender, then add broccoli and stir fry, then add chard and stir fry.Place salmon fillet on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, season with sea salt and pepper, drizzle with some avocado oil and roast for 8-12 minutes.Sprinkle salmon with freshly chopped parsley and sesame seeds.
Nutrition
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Kirsten Thomas says
what I love best about this is the entire day at a glance, with list of what we need to do it. I have been paleo for 9 years now, and still stumble occasionally and fall into the “make paleo baked goods” pit. Gradually I begin adding more sugars, and then I have weight issues again. Every now and again I do a quick correct and this is the sort of info that is very helpful to me to do it. It eliminates processed sugars and reminds me of what a day looks like. I wish you would post more of these, brilliant!
Kenny says
Great post! Thank you for sharing!
Brook Gustafson says
Thank you so very much, this will help get me started!!
Elliana says
These Paleo recipes do not make me feel like I’m starving or dieting at all. Blessed to have discovered these, thank you!
Long says
One of my favorite recipes! I’ve made it too many times to count and it is always a huge hit- my friends husband once hid them during a party to make sure he would have them all to himself. Thank you for sharing this awesome recipe!!
Samantha says
This is amazing! Looking at those yummy pictures…it seems that you are not having a diet at all! Thank you for sharing your diet plan. A lot of people like us are now inspired to take another step for diet. 🙂
Lorena Grater says
I’m glad you enjoyed this post :)
Ford says
thank you for sharing
Ford says
I love the visual serving suggestion and the simple, straightforward language that describes the paleo diet!
Ronda says
So, 1st of all THANK YOU! I’ve been trying to get my husband on board with my Paleo lifestyle for 3 years… tonight I made your Stuffed Peppers and he LOVED it! He had no idea he was eating a paleo meal, and he about fell out of his chair when he learned that I got the recipe off a paleo site. Thank you!
Lorena Grater says
I’m so happy you and your husband enjoyed the recipe :) I have to warn you though. While many of my recipes naturally fall into Paleo restrictions my website is not strictly paleo. I simply make clean eating recipes, that’s all :)
CINDY WINTER says
I love the visual serving suggestion and the simple, straightforward language that describes the paleo diet!
Allison says
What a great and simple way to explain how to prep paleo meals! My biggest problem with paleo has always been incorporating enough fats. In addition to eating paleo, I’m also eating low FODMAP, so there are lots of nuts I can’t eat, or I can eat only small amounts. Greens are also an issue for me. But it can be done with clever meal prep and this is a wonderful example :)