RULES & GUIDELINES
The Rules
Keep It Simple, Eat Real Food:
Meats, seafood, eggs for proteins as a “condi-meat”, fist size portion
Fill the rest of your plate with vegetables. Eat the rainbow!
Some fruits with your meal (not as a sugar or dessert replacement)
Healthy plated fats such as olives, avocados, nuts, and healthy cooking fats such as coconut, avocado and olive oils.
For 21 Days You:
Do not consume added sugars or sweeteners of any type, added, real or artificial. This includes honey, agave, maple syrup, stevia, saccharine, monk fruit and all other sweeteners. Ingredient labels must read 0% Added Sugars and no sweeteners. Naturally occurring sugars in foods are acceptable. For example, sugars in fruits, vegetables, and minimally processed foods sweetened with naturally occurring sugars such as apple or fruit juices. Follow the Sneaky Sugars reference page for a complete list of over 60 names for sugar. They are everywhere.
Do not eat gluten, grains or pseudo-grains. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, sprouted grains, and all gluten-free pseudo-cereals like quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat. This also includes all the ways wheat, corn and rice are added into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starches, and so on. Many frozen vegetable brands contain starches as a crisper or stabilizer. It may say "gluten free" on the front but there could be another non-compatible ingredient on the back of the package. Most frozen French fries will contain a modified food starch to retain crispness when cooking, for example.
Do not eat legumes. Beans of all kinds (black, red, pinto, navy, garbanzo/chickpeas, white, kidney, lima, fava, cannellini, lentils, adzuki, mung, black-eyes peas), and peanuts. This includes peanut butter, soy sauce (which contains both soy beans and gluten), tamari, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and beware of soy ingredients such as emulsifiers like soy lecithin.
Do not eat dairy. Cow, goat, or sheep’s milk products like milk, cream, cheese, kefir, yogurt, sour cream, ice cream, or frozen yogurt.
Do not consume additives such as carrageenan, MSG, or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label of your processed food or beverage, it’s out for The Paleo Protocol. Be sure to refer to the Additive reference guide.
Do not use processed oils such as canola, vegetable, peanut, grapeseed, soybean etc, in your home cooking as well as in ingredients of products you purchase.
Do not consume alcohol, in any form, not even for cooking, No tobacco products, marijuana, vaping or other types of inhalants.
Fake Bakes: IMPORTANT: Do not consume, recreate or purchase sweet treats made with compliant ingredients. It creates confusion and compromises your results. If your brain is craving a cookie, for example, it doesn't know the difference between an almond flour cookie and a chocolate chip. It just wants a cookie. If you find that certain foods, especially sweet treats, have any psychological hold on you, now is the time to get it under control.
Can’t Eat Just One Foods, includes chips, commercially made or fast-food fries and other foods which contain little to no nutritional value, and you cannot stop eating once you start.
No Numbers, Scale Or Measuring: During the protocol you will not weigh yourself, take measurements, weigh or measure foods (unless for a recipe) or track calories. We track certain macros and other nutrients, so you eventually learn how to properly visualize a plate without counting. Primarily the most important tracking will be Lotus Life Benefits. Find the Lotus Life Benefits guide in the Reference Guides.
Guidelines:
Smoothies:
Due to the fact that most smoothies are primarily fruit-based, they can have several side-effects. Fruits are high in natural sugars, so if you want to break the sugar cycle or adjust your glucose tolerance to sugar, smoothies are not the best option. Smoothies are low in protein, so you won’t feel full as long as if you eat a meal based around protein. Adding a protein source, such as protein powders, may contain ingredients that are not compliant with this protocol. Finally, you will drink, rather than chew, therefore you’re missing the satiety signals that chewing sends to your brain, which actually keep you full longer. That being said, if you choose to have smoothies as a meal, be sure to select a protein powder that is compliant, and incorporate at least 50% vegetables into your smoothie, such as cucumbers, spinach, avocado, steamed carrots, sweet potatoes and other sweet vegetables, along with some bone broth for an extra protein boost.
Here’s a link to my Gut Healing Smoothie Recipe.
Replacement Foods
cassava or almond flour tortillas, cauliflower wraps, vegan cheeses with no added sugars, sweeteners and other non-compliant ingredients, cauliflower and cassava pastas are fine for the protocol, as long as they are used in a recipe or paired with protein and healthy fats, following the meal template. Recipes with no added sugar such as chia pudding and savory waffles can be included as well. Most people don’t have an unhealthy relationship with these items, nor are they problematic for many people. However, be critical of why you feel these foods are important to your diet before you include them.
Exceptions:
Ghee or Clarified butter, because the milk solids are removed, leaving the buttery flavor without the dairy. This can be purchased or make your own easily with grass-fed butter.
This video shows you how I make my ghee
Fruit juice. Some products or recipes will include fruit juice as an ingredient or natural sweetener, which is fine for the purposes of your reset. Just be certain there aren't any other forms of sugar hiding on the ingredients panel. There is no rule against drinking juices, but consider this: Rather than drinking juice, eat the fruit instead. It takes 3 oranges to make 1 glass of orange juice. You might eat one orange, but you'd probably never eat three. The fiber in the fruit keeps you satisfied longer and the sugars from the fruits enter your blood stream much more slowly when eaten, rather than drunk.
Exception to Legumes: The exceptions are peas, snow peas, snap peas, green and yellow beans. Despite being considered legumes, these are more “green” than “bean” since the pod can be eaten, and are full of good fiber.
All vinegars: Allowed for the protocol, with the exception of malt vinegar, as it contains maltose, which is a sugar.
Extracts such as vanilla, which sometimes include alcohol, all other ingredients must be compliant.
Coconut Aminos: Excellent substitute for soy sauce. Check that the brand does not include added sugars. Do not confuse coconut aminos with Braggs Aminos, however, which contains wheat.
Table Salt: Did you know that all iodized table salt contains sugar? Dextrose, a form of sugar used as an anti-caking agent, is an exception to our “no added sugar” rule. It’s fine for dining out, however for home, purchase a good sea salt or kosher salt with no additives. I like pink Himalayan sea salt.
Canola, Vegetable and other PUFA Oils: If you are dining out, canola and other cooking oils are acceptable.
Doctor’s Orders: Do not stop taking medications or supplements prescribed by your health practitioner. However, if you are electively purchasing supplements, do read the ingredients and avoid any of the eliminated ingredients. Many lower quality supplements contain sugars, rice, soy and other fillers.
Religious Customs: God is greater than The Paleo Protocol. You do not need to discontinue any customs around religious beliefs, (such as communion) unless you so choose.
