The Paleo Diet - Loren Cordain [70]
Lunch
Lunches are usually pretty easy, now that most restaurants offer salads, lean meats, and fish as entrées. If your salad comes with croutons, ignore them, and try to get an olive oil-based dressing. For dessert, order fresh fruit.
Dinner
Dinners out are usually fairly easy, too. Even pasta-heavy Italian restaurants usually have seafood or meat entrées. You can ask to have these dishes prepared without added flour or breading, skip the potatoes, and get a side order of steamed vegetables. Treat yourself to an occasional glass of wine with dinner. Japanese restaurants are a breeze. They almost always have fish, shellfish, or lean beef and plenty of steamed veggies; just skip the rice and the soy sauce (it’s far too salty, and most soy sauces are made with wheat). Chinese restaurants can also be dealt with deftly by avoiding dishes that are rich in sugary, salty sauces, such as sweet and sour pork and deep-fried “crispy” dishes. Go with stir-fried chicken dishes or, better yet, steamed crab or fish. Use the same strategy in ordering Chinese vegetable side dishes; ask your waiter or waitress to omit any sauces and just bring fresh steamed veggies. Mexican restaurants are a bit of a challenge, but again, with careful selections you can stick pretty closely to the Paleo Diet. Once in a while, there will be no choice; you’ll have to accept whatever food is available. In those cases, limit your portions.
When You Travel
You may choose to dine out, buy food and take it with you in a cooler, or buy it in supermarkets, grocery stores, and even roadside markets along the way. Fresh fruit and veggies are universally available, and they travel well in an ice-filled cooler. Try making your own beef jerky (see chapter 10); it’s delicious and filling, and it tastes great with fresh fruit. Hard-boiled eggs, cooked beforehand and stored in the cooler, can be indispensable for breakfasts on the road.
Instead of stopping where most traveling Americans do—at the first exit with a fast-food restaurant that looks fairly clean—drive a mile or two from the highway and find a supermarket. Most food stores have deli sections with premade salads, and many offer a salad bar. Apply the triage principle and do the best you can. For example, precooked chicken (roasted or rotisserie-cooked) is available at most supermarket deli counters and is an option in a pinch. Make sure to take the skin off before you eat it. If you didn’t bring any paper plates and plastic utensils, pick some up while you’re at the store. Water-packed tuna isn’t ideal, either, but it will do while you’re on the road.
Ask Your Friends and Family for Support
The support of your spouse, immediate family, and friends can make a world of difference in any big life change. Tell them what you’re doing and why—whether it’s to lose weight or to improve your health. Explain the logic and rationale of the Paleo Diet and share your successes with them. You don’t necessarily have to put the entire family on the diet, and many of the meals that you’ll be eating on this lifetime program of nutrition are not very different from the types of food you ate before. You can always include bread, rolls, or potatoes with your family meals and give family members the option of eating them. In nearly all public settings, unless you call it to their attention, most people won’t even realize that your diet has changed—until they notice your weight loss, increase in energy level, and improvement in health. Who knows? They may see the healthful changes you’re experiencing and want to join you.
The Paleo Diet is humanity’s normal diet. The abnormal diet, the