My wife and I were talking about how much our lives have changed since we adopted the Paleo Diet, and one thing she reminded me of is that preparation is key to success. Not just preparation in the kitchen, but preparation in planning the meals, in getting rid of non-compliant ingredients, planning ahead for dinner parties, for what to eat when going to a work lunch, or for me, what to eat on drill weekends when all the foods present are carb-rich and unhealthy. Having healthy alternatives, or at least a plan to mitigate the damage from non-compliant foods is essential to success on the Paleo Diet.

Through preparation, we mitigate the costs associated with the Paleo Diet by planning our meals carefully. Sherry then cooks on Sundays and packages all our meals for us to use throughout the week. I then make sure to have enough lunches for myself to eat and one extra in the event I’m working late.

Before we started our first Whole30, Sherry prepared our kitchen by getting rid of all the non-Paleo ingredients and foods. We also read as much as we could about the foods we could eat and purchased a bunch of the ingredients to have on-hand. We made sure to buy only the amounts of meat and vegetables we needed to control cost. While eating the Paleo Diet may seem to be expensive, when you factor in the amount of food you can make and for how long those meals stretch over the course of the week, it actually ends up saving us a lot of money. We also take into consideration all the meals we no longer eat out (lunches and dinners) and the savings is actually quite substantial.

Planning for dinner parties is something we’ve been fortunate to not have to do too often because the friends with which we have dinner parties are also on the Paleo Diet. For those rare occasions where we are attending a dinner party of non-Paleo people, we either bring a side or snack that is Paleo compliant, or we limit the amount of food we eat and try to choose the most Paleo-friendly options available.

The same goes for any work-related lunches or dinners. Fortunately, those tend to be at restaurants where choices can be made and options tailored to ensure non-compliant ingredients are left out. Almost every restaurant has a meat and vegetable option as well.

As for me, like I said in a previous post, for my drill weekends, I pack RX Bars and other Paleo snacks to make sure I have energy through the day of my drills.

A little preparation goes a long way toward the success of people adopting the Paleo Diet. It’s not something you can just go into without planning, and it’s not something you can do without doing some research. Do the work, and your health will be rewarded.