Hi Michael,

Well, first of all thanks for joining the plan – we’re happy to have you :)

Secondly, I need to bring some attention to the whole carb thing with you as an athlete. Please don’t go too low carb with Paleo. The meal plan is designed for a not-super-active person, so you may start to feel depleted and fatigued if you eat off the meal plan as is with your workout schedule. If you do, just add in more carbs – sweet potatoes, white potatoes (as long as you don’t have a sensitivity to them), fruit of all kinds, tapioca flour (see our crepe recipes), honey, etc. “Sweets” are good for serious Paleo athletes, as long as they’re Paleo sweets. You need the carbs to keep you going on those runs and rides, and even through the CF workouts.

Ok, as for eating at restaurants on Paleo, it’s really about what you can tolerate well. For instance, if you do fine with white rice (many people do), go ahead and get a curry with rice at the Thai and other Asian places. If you don’t do well with rice (common symptoms would be bloating, diarrhea, gassiness, or personally I get hot itchy skin and headaches from it), then have the curry without the rice. Just make sure it has no MSG in it because who wants to eat MSG? That shouldn’t be too weird to order “curry no rice and no MSG” with your clients? Or maybe it is – it’s up to you.

As for Mexican, fajitas are the way to go. Just ask for fajitas and even if you don’t ask for it without the tortillas, someone else will probably eat them for you (suckers ;). Then just eat the meat, peppers, guac, and salsa.

Italian restaurants usually have a meat entrée with a choice of salad or veggies, so that’s pretty do-able. Grill-type restaurants, or American fare joints are easy. You can always just get a burger with no bun over a salad with olive oil and vinegar. If they have guacamole or avocado in house, you can ask for that on the side and just mix it all together. You’ll have yourself a hearty beef salad.

Or do the same with a chicken breast, fish filet, or pork chop if those are options. Sometimes there’ll even be a salad on the menu you can order. You just have to be careful with the salad dressings, since a lot of them have dairy in them. But again, it’s about what you can tolerate, so if you’re ok with dairy sometimes, go for it. But I can’t do dairy ever, so I always just ask for olive oil and vinegar. Throw some salt on it, squeeze a lemon over it, add some mustard, and it ends up being really tasty. That’s basically how I make my own salad dressing at home, anyway: oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, lemon, honey, and spices.

Or you can always ask for a grilled or roasted chicken breast with a side of whatever veggies they have, and/or a baked potato or baked sweet potato if they have them. A side of fruit is always a great option, too. Restaurants are where I splurge and get fries sometimes, especially if there are sweet potato fries, even though they’re cooked in vegetable oil. If you do that, make sure they’re not also battered with flour.

If I’m not in the mood to hammer my server with questions and hold up the ordering process by making him/her go back to the kitchen to get answers, I just go for the simpler options that I mentioned.

It takes some practice, and you have to get to know how your own body reacts to certain food items, but you’ll get the hang of it. Eating out is almost never ideal, as I know you know. Just do your best and do it as seldom as you can. Pay attention to what your body can and can’t tolerate, and order your food accordingly. And don’t worry about it while you’re eating because those two things don’t mix well ;)

I hope that helps!

Best wishes to you, and please let me know if you have other questions.

Neely