What Does An Average Paleo Day Look Like?

If there is one question I get from people the most, it is what does an ideal Paleo day look like?  I get it all the time, but truth be told, I enjoy those kinds of questions because it shows interest and gives me a chance to show people how truly easy it is.  So with no real plan this morning about how I would end my day blogging about this, here is what I did today.  Before I go any further, I’m not advocating EVERYONE HAS TO DO IT THIS WAY.  There are  many average Paleo Days and variations.  This is simply how I spent mine, OK?

My alarm woke me at 5 A.M.  OK, let’s start there – that is not ideal, waking up that early, right?  But I choose to do that so that I can get my workout in and start my day feeling productive.  From there I headed to my garage where I have a squat rack and an Olympic weight set.  I did a little stretching and then did my Stronglifts 5X5 program.  That consisted of 5 reps of 5 sets of compound movements; today’s exercises were squats, overhead presses and deadlifts.  I rested a little between sets and then finished up.  Coming back inside, I grabbed my iPod and looked at where I am on the 100 Pushups Program, something else I enjoy doing as part of my workout.  I finished a total of 100 pushups and then got my day started.

One topic that comes into play at some point with Paleo/Primal folks is intermittent fasting.  What that means for me is I typically don’t eat past 8 PM at night, I train fasted which is shown to raise growth hormone levels and then I hold off eating until noon.  This fasting period allows the body’s system to rest and recover.  In addition, like the Paleo Man, it forces my body to turn to body fat for energy versus being the standard American sugar burner.  It works for me, but it may not work for everyone.  If you are new to a Paleo/Primal diet, I’d suggest focusing on that first.  Once you have your diet dialed in, you may wish to fast from time to time as well.  I pick up a lot of my intermittent fasting advice from Martin Berkhan over at LeanGains.

I brought my lunch to work today, which is pretty typical.  I brought an organic yam and some Smokey Pot Roast.  But as lunch time got closer, I felt like chicken.  A nearby grocery store sells rotisserie chickens, so I went and picked one up, eating about half to 3/4 of it.  Yum!  The yam was awesome too, but it took about 10 minutes to cook off in the microwave.  It WAS a monster!  That would be my only carb source of the day.

Once home, I wanted to save some foods in the fridge for the next evening, so I kept it simple.  I made breakfast for dinner and had four strips of bacon, sauteed some mushrooms in my bacon fat, added my eggs to the pan and scrambled them up.  Then I added half of a sliced avocado, grabbed a big cup of water and settled in to watch the World Series (Go Cardinals!).  I also supplemented the meal with 5 fish oil capsules and 5 Vitamin D capsules.

The one thing I miss but I am experimenting with is less coffee this week.  My morning main stay is coffee with heavy cream.  My adrenals get overloaded with my coffee intake, so once in a while I pull back from coffee for up to a month to make sure my system is not overly reliant on it and to change things up.

And that, my friends, is a typical Paleo day for me.  How about you?