One area where many people struggle when eating paleo is finding the right balance in their meals. On the surface eating paleo seems simple, you just opt for meat instead of junk food and you are good to go, right?
The answer is yes and no. Yes, eating paleo can be easy but no that doesn’t mean that you don’t need to put some thought and effort into your meals. Paleo is about balance, and if you aren’t paying attention to that balance when you are eating, you won’t be experiencing the full benefits of everything eating paleo has to offer.
For instance, let’s say that you ate an abundance of protein but you didn’t eat any fiber or healthy fats during the same meals when you were eating protein. While it is true that we naturally need a lot of protein in our diets, protein needs something to help push it through your system. In other words, if you are eating protein but you aren’t eating anything else with it, then you are doing yourself a huge disservice.
So What Goes Into the Perfect Paleo Meal?
There are three things that you should eat at every meal:
- Protein
- Healthy Fats
- Vegetables
These three things are like the perfect ‘paleo triangle’. No two can stand on their own but when you combine them they will do amazing things for your body.
Protein helps you to feel full. If you are getting hungry between meals it is likely because you don’t have enough protein in your system. In addition to feeling full, protein also helps everything from your muscles to your skin and nails.
Healthy fats are critical for a variety of reasons. First, when you combine proteins with healthy fats you tend to stay full for a longer period of time. Secondly, healthy fats help to keep things moving in your system, allowing you to naturally start to lose weight. Lastly, healthy fats help to protect your body’s vital organs.
And then there are your vegetables. It’s no secret that veggies do a lot of great things for our bodies, but there are two things in particular that are critical for your health. The most obvious is that vegetables flood the body with the nutrients that it needs. But certain vegetables also give your body a healthy dose of natural hydration. And of course, that hydration helps every other process in your body.
Generally, you want to be sure that your protein is about twice the size of your palm. While there is no real limit to the healthy fats and non-starchy vegetables that you can eat, it is a good idea to make sure you have more of these items than you do your protein. Remember, your goal is to help the protein to get digested by your system.
So there you have it, the three things that you should be basing your meals around when you begin eating paleo. While you can also add things like nuts and paleo desserts to the mix, you do want to watch your intake of these things if you are trying to lose weight.