An introduction

Hi! My name is Samantha and I am 18 years old. I am starting this blog because I want to go primal/paleo and it seems I do better when I have an audience. I also want to help other teens or anyone else who struggles with primal/paleo on their journey.

A little background: I have gone paleo before, most recently in January of this year. I think I cheated a bit, and I felt guilty about it, but overall I did pretty well. It helped that my aunt was doing it as well. Before that, I had dabbled in paleo and primal eating but I'd never really been able to commit. My brother eats very badly, and his foods are always around the house. Not to mention that when we go out, he often complains about how I eat, saying it's too difficult to eat this way all the time. I agree that it may be difficult, but I also agree that it works, and it makes me feel better than I ever have before.

So basically, my rules are pretty simple. For a month, I am going to follow a standard paleo eating plan. I'm not going to worry about exercise in this month, and instead focus on the food aspect. That's not to say I won't walk or bike ride sometimes, but it will be for fun and not a hard workout. I have written some simple rules below.

Rules:
-Avoid vegetable oils such as peanut oil and canola oil, and make a point to ask restaurants what oils their foods are cooked in. I don't want to ruin perfectly good sweet potato fries with canola oil.
-Avoid wheat and gluten, as well as oats.
-Avoid rice and white potatoes. I want to see how not eating rice for a month will benefit me.
-Use primal 80/20 rule. Basically, try to eat at least 95% paleo/primal all the time, and only cheat when I absolutely must, such as the only food in a restaurant I can eat is cooked in vegetable oil, or a hamburger is made with gluten.
-Try to stay away from dairy and chocolate. Technically these things are primal, but I want to see if I have any intolerance to dairy, and I tend to treat myself too often with chocolate. I'll allow a bit of dark chocolate (hopefully 80% or higher), and butter, possibly cheese, but no milk.
-Experiment with different carbs, though stay under 100 g/carbs a day. I can eat sweet potatoes, though not too often.

Some difficulties I may have:
-My brother eats a standard American diet: lots of wheat/gluten, packaged foods, and fast food. So does my mom. My dad eats a lot of wheat, but understands paleo so he is more supportive.
-We go out to eat a lot on the weekend, mostly because of my brother. I will have to take more advanced methods to really find out about the foods I eat.
-While my dad is supportive, my brother often hounds me about how awful it is that I have to eat differently and thus we cannot go to our favorite restaurants. I need to make sure I don't cave so I can continue to feel good.

I also realized the other day that while I had been eating paleo before, I wasn't really observing the real science and idea behind it. I was eating foods that were "technically" primal or paleo, but not really thinking about how they would affect me later. One example is the fact that I was eating chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-a. I figured they must have fat in them, and they were chicken, so they must be okay. But they are breaded and fried in peanut oil--not very primal. Hopefully this next month will teach me the importance of quality foods, and really get me to understand the idea behind eating for health.

I will be trying to track my foods with My Fitness Pal, but I may skip some days if I forget. I will try to update this blog every day, but I may also forget about it.

I may have forgotten some things, but I'm sure they'll be covered in the next few posts. If you have any questions, feel free to ask the in the comments, and I'll try to answer them as best I can. :)

Thanks!
Samantha