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So this is the worst quality picture ever, but luckily I got a new camera as a wedding gift (hooray!), so this kind of terrible photography will never happen again. I promise. However, it’s a picture of some of the attendants at my first Paleo meetup in Boulder, which is AWESOME!

This post is just to encourage you all to set up or join a Paleo meetup in your area. I put mine together at www.meetup.com, and while it did cost me $40 to join, it’s totally worth it in my opinion. We now have a Boulder Paleo/Primal Meetup group, a Denver Paleo Meetup group, and a Longmont Paleo Meetup group, and we’re all joining forces to promote each other’s events.

Last week I hosted my first event at my favorite new Paleo-friendly restaurant, Shine, in Boulder, CO. If you live in the area and you haven’t been there, I strongly urge you to get a burger (without the bun) and their sweet potato fries.

About 13 people showed up of all ages and backgrounds, and I only knew 2 of them previously. We laughed a lot, shared our experiences with the diet change and our knowledge of Paleo, and answered each other’s questions. AND ate good food while we were at it.

Tonight I’m going to the June Paleo Challenge Information Party put on by the Longmont Paleo Meetup group, where we’ll kick off a 30-day challenge (using Paleo Plan’s ebook). So I’ll go and introduce the diet and answer questions for the people who are doing the challenge. So far, 10 people are going to be there, and I’m really excited. (Update: I attended that meetup and there were about 25 people there! Here’s a picture of my favorite heckler of the group, Sid, (left) and the owner of the CrossFit gym, Sarge, who hosted us.)

Creating a meetup group takes a little bit of planning and a desire to reach out to your community, but the pay-off is, well, more community and a way to learn a lot of new things, usually for free. There were people at the meetup last week who’d been Paleo for 3 years or more, and I think even they learned something new from the others. And I think we all felt a little less alone in the world, knowing there were other oddballs like us living nearby. So see if there’s a meetup group in your area, and start BBQ-ing, Paleo Challenging, and doing other fun things with people just like you :)