I’ve been off and on low carb for a while, and seem to keep losing the same 10 pounds. Granted, in that time a lot has been going on in my personal and professional life, and I always seem to fall off the low-carb way of eating. But sometimes I wonder if part of why I keep dropping the low carb ball is because it can be a little bit of a pain to keep track of my net carbs. So I’m going to try something a little bit different for a while, and see what happens. That something different is the Paleolithic Diet.

The Paleolithic, or Paleo Diet, is pretty simple, and at its core mimics the preagricultural diet of Paleolithic, hunter-gatherer humans. Of course modern-day humans don’t have to hunt and gather food, as we actually do have agriculture, and domesticated animals, but the diet attempts to limit anything that Paleolithic humans might not have had access to, such as processed foods, grains, sugar, and dairy.

My Paleo Diet will consist primarily of food that might have been hunted or gathered, such as:

• Grass-fed meat
• Wild-caught fish and seafood
• Fresh fruits and vegetables
• Eggs
• Seeds and nuts

That looks pretty low carb, doesn’t it? That’s part of why I think this diet will work. I almost always feel better when I eat low carb, but I do sometimes crave sweets so being allowed to eat some fruit from time to time should help keep me on track.

I plan to stay away from many foods that were not eaten prior to the advent of agriculture. So the following will be absent or limited from my diet:

• Sugar
• Salt
• Grains
• Legumes
• Dairy
• Potatoes
• Processed foods

The dairy will be the most difficult things for me to give up right now. It’s going to be especially hard to give up cheese, but I’m going to try!

I think it’s also going to be difficult to limit processed foods. To me that means if it’s not fresh, I shouldn’t be eating it, but I know that’s not particularly realistic. So I do anticipate continuing to use things such as canned diced tomatoes, pre-packaged frozen seafood, pre-packaged herbs and spices, nut butters, and oils (coconut and olive). I will try not to eat or drink anything with chemicals in it, such as artificial sweeteners.

I’m going to try to document what I eat, complete with recipes and pictures.