Each time I have led one of these challenges, I am asked about recipes or certain foods, whether found in a “paleo” cookbook or online and whether they are or aren’t allowed. Most of the time, the point of contention and discussion came down to whether an ingredient was “natural” or “refined”.
I will tell you this — it doesn’t matter one iota if a caveman could have had access to it. That should not be your primary criteria! Sound, clean nutrition is about a physiological response, not a list of ingredients. While it may be true that a caveman could, say, from time to time get honey. Eating honey daily doesn’t support the physiological response you are looking for.
Sugar is sugar is sugar. They all do bad to terrible things to your body when consumed in excess. Agave, honey, evaporated cane juice, doesn’t matter. This isn’t political, it’s scientific. If you are going to debate it, you want to talk about the effects, not the hypothetical universe of the caveman (which you really know nothing about anyway!). If you are resorting to anthropological arguments, you are probably trying to justify something.
More importantly, you may want to look at whether you are actually committed to the things you say you are. I mean really look. Not in a bad or judgmental way, but at whether you really want to spend your time on them. Why waste your time on something that’s not important to you? To be liked? To belong? That’s a lot of energy for nothing!
Commitments are not there for you to find shortcuts around. What would be the point? If you’re looking for shortcuts, you’re better off stopping and doing something that matters to you.
You wanna find your way around something useful? Find your way around everything that is NOT your commitment. Those are shortcuts worth knowing. What are the “tricks” and structures you can put in your life to trick the uncommitted part of you? Sneaking your way around paleo nutrition on a regular basis is like looking for ways to appear like you have a commitment without actually living it! How silly!
Your commitment is your creation, not your prison. Look for how you can own it. Because if you don’t, it will surely own you.
