The Revolutionary 12 Step Paleo Diet Program

This post was originally published on November 21st, 2010 by Patrick Vuong on the Fitness Town Blog.  In light of all the messages I've received about the Paleo diet, I just had to re-post this article.  Enjoy!

This program is for those who are in serious need of help and/or want to lose weight, look, feel, and do better. Most diets out there are hard to follow. Diets are easy to preach, but hard to practice. I can’t get you from zero to hero in a day. I know for a fact that eating a grain, dairy, legume free diet will lead you to a healthier life but most people can’t implement these changes overnight. Following a paleo diet will get you looking, feeling, and performing better. It’s just that going from how you eat now to how you’re “supposed” to eat is easier said than done.

I wanted to create a program that is realistic, doable and practical. Using the widely successful A.A. 12 step program as an influence, here is my 12 step program to eating healthier, losing weight, looking and feeling better. Many of these rules are borrowed from PaleoNu.com.

The Rules

Apply these changes one at a time. Start at step 1 and only move up if you’re able to, don’t skip steps. The beauty about this program is that you can stay at any step you want. If you’re happy at step 7 and you’re seeing results and making changes, you can stay at step 7. However, if you’re hitting a plateau and not making progress, continue to the next step. I guarantee you that if you make it to step 12, you will be on a diet that’s optimal for health and longevity.

The order of each step is not based on the most important to the least. It's based on what change is the easiest to adhere to and make. Step 1 is easier to carry out than step 12. Take it one step at a time. Following these steps in order will get you from zero to hero.

The Half in 3 Weeks Rule

It takes 21 days to form a new habit. How do you go from eating the foods that we love/hate so much to cutting them out completely? Here’s my answer. Take the amount that you usually eat and cut it in half, keep up that for 3 weeks, and then cut it in half again. Keep doing so until you’re down to 1 serving per week.

For example: If you normally drink 2 cans of diet cola a day. Start drinking 1 can per day for 3 weeks. If you can maintain that amount for 3 weeks, start drinking 1 can every other day. Do that for 3 weeks, then 1 every third day, and so on and so forth until you get down to 1 per week, or even better, cut it out completely. Once you’re down to 1 of whatever per week, you are then allowed to move to the next step. Why 1 per week and not none? Because food is delicious and I’m not a hypocrite, and everyone deserves a cheat meal as a reward. If you’re able to cut out junk food completely, kudos to you!

Without any further ado, I present to you...

The 12 step Paleo Program

1. Make sure you get enough Vitamin D. Get daily midday sun or consider supplementing with 2000-5000ius per day.


2. Adjust your omega 6 to omega 3. Pastured (grass-fed) dairy and beef or bison has a better omega 6:omega 3 ration, more vitamins and CLA. A tablespoon or two of Nutrasea’s fish oil (1-2g DHA/EPA) daily is a good compensatory supplementation if you eat grain-fed or no fish.


3. Limit 1 Alcoholic drink per week. Use the Half in 3 weeks rule above. If you are going to drink something, I suggest the Robb Wolf’s famous Norcal Margarita. This way you can still have a social life and get your buzz/party on at the same time. The lime juice blunts the insulin response of alcohol. The carbon dioxide bubbles in the soda water helps get ethanol in your blood quickly meaning you don’t have to drink quite as much and get crunked faster. Drink early in the evening and have some protein/fat at night to limit the hangover the next day.
   1 glass of wine per day is not healthy for you! It has too much sugar, which makes your insulin skyrocket, making you insulin resistant thus making you gain fat easier.


4. Eliminate grain and seed derived oils (cooking oils). Cook with Ghee, butter, animal fats, or coconut oil. Olive oil is good as a salad dressing but not cooking it at high temperatures forms free radicals due to oxidation making it a bad fat.


5. You must eat more veggies and meat than starches like rice, pasta, bread, or white potatoes. Here’s how you do it, divide your plate of food in 3. 2/3 of the plate should be veggies and meat. 1/3 of your plate can be the aforementioned starches. This is a good start for most people because you may not realize it but most meals you eat are about 70-90% starches/grains. If you get to this step, you can’t eat your lasagna, pasta, breakfast cereal, pizza, fried rice, chow mein anymore unless it’s only 1/3 of your meal portion and you must eat more veggies than you do these foods. The goal is to substitute all your carb sources with just veggies. So 2/3 of your plate should be veggies and 1/3 of your plate is meat with a dash of good fats. Use the half in 3 weeks rule. If you could get to this step and maintain it successfully, then move on.


6. Get 8-9 hours a sleep per night minimum. Exercise 2-3 times per week minimum – emphasize resistance and interval training over long aerobic sessions.


7. Limit 1 serving of junk food per week. This applies to chips, chocolate bars and soda pop. Yes, muffins, donuts, cakes, and pastries are junk food too! Use the Half in 3 weeks rule above.


8. Eliminate legumes. Legumes are beans, peas, lentils, soy and peanuts. These foods contain lectin are acidic and throw off the acid / base balance, promote gut permeability and promote bad gut flora.


9. Start eating proper fats. Use healthy animal fats or coconut fat to substitute fat calories for carbohydrate calories that formerly cam from sugar and flour. Drink whole cream or coconut milk.


10. Eliminate sugar(including fruit juices and sports drinks) and all foods that contain flour, this means cutting out all muffins, donuts, bagels, bread, cake, etc. Use Half in 3 weeks rule.


11. Eliminate all remaining dairy including cheese


12. Eliminate all gluten grains . Limit grains like corn and rice, which as nutritionally poor and disastrous if consumed in copious amounts. You are now at the level of optimum health and wellness.

[caption id="attachment_5214" align="alignright" width="280"] A couple of my favorite Paleo Cookbooks[/caption]

Want to take it to the next level?