Joshua Weissman - The Slim Palate Paleo Cookbook

The

Slim Palate

Paleo Cookbook

written and photographed by

Joshua Weissman

First Published in 2014 by Victory Belt Publishing, Inc.

Copyright 2014 Joshua Weissman

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-628600-11-7 (paperback)
978-1-628600-48-3 (ebook)

This book is for educational purposes. The publisher and author of this cookbook are not responsible in any manner whatsoever for any adverse effects arising directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided in this book.

RRD 0114

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As a little boy I loved to cook. I would stand at the ready in the bustling kitchen, helping with every task I could as my anticipation for the meticulously prepared feast swelled. There are even photos of a 4-year-old me with a chef's hat the size of my torso towering over my head.

Unfortunately, as I got older, I drifted away from these practices to try other things, and I fell into a pattern of unintentionally poor eating that caused me to slowly gain weight and become obese. School grew difficult for me due to extreme ridicule and physical harassment from other students. I began to realize how much being overweight plagued me daily and was causing me to be increasingly unhappy. From age 9 to 14 I lived through this torment until, at the age of 15, I decided to change everything. I completely transposed my eating habits almost overnight and began eating real foods with consideration rather than labeled diet foods. Slightly more than a year and a half passed, and I lost over 100 pounds (see before and after picture ).

This journey rekindled the love for cooking that I'd had as a child. Back in the kitchen, I took it a step further and started my food blog, Slim Palate, which flourished thanks to the kind and generous real-food community. Eventually it led to this cookbook that you hold in your hands, a cookbook in which I can share my recipes and my story in a way that I hope everyone can enjoy and learn from.

In America and some other places (but not many, to be honest), people have a massive disconnect with food. This voida void that I fell into myselfseems to be swelling at a rapid rate. Without realizing it, people have turned away from real, whole foods like meats, vegetables, and fruits in favor of packaged foods that are dense with processed carbohydrates and sugar. These foods line supermarket shelves, with labeling gimmicks designed to make people think that they are healthy choices. The average person is much more likely to pick up a box of Wheat Thins than a zucchini in an attempt to live healthier, which to me is rather baffling.

The biggest mistake I have ever made was to disconnect with real food. Because reconnecting was such a key component of my journey, I want to help others reconnect, whether you want to know more about your food, become healthier, or lose weight.

If losing weight is your goal, then I need to set one thing straight right off the bat: Losing weight is not easy, especially as you get closer to your goal. And the more weight you want to lose, the harder it gets. That doesnt mean you should fear stepping up and trying to make a change, though. I promise you that I didnt get it right the first time, or even the first few times. Take it head on, and let good nutrition be your pencil and time be your eraser.

My goal in writing this book is not to tell you how to eat, start a new way of eating, or launch some celebrity diet. However, I do believe that there are certain places people should begin in order to learn how to listen to their bodies and reconnect with food. It doesnt come naturally to some people, myself included, so it is helpful to have a frameworkmore specifically, to have guidelines so that you can learn which foods make you feel good and perform well. The Weston A. Price Foundation and Paleo/primal ways of eating are great places to start and learnor even to remain for a lifetime.

Weston A. Price, sometimes called the Isaac Newton of nutrition, was a dentist. In the late 19th century, he began studying the relationship between diet and dental health. By the 1930s, his research had led him to conclude that real, whole foods, including the fat-soluble vitamins found exclusively in animal fats, contribute to both dental and overall health. The organization that bears his name promotes eating nutrient-dense whole foods such as organically grown produce, grass-fed and pastured meats, and raw grass-fed dairy. To learn more about the Weston A. Price Foundation, visit westonaprice.org.

This way of eating is similar to the Weston A. Price Foundations but eliminates grains, legumes, and in some cases dairy. Paleo promotes the idea that we should be eating what the human body was designed to eat based on what humans have been eating for thousands of years. People who follow a Paleo/primal diet avoid foods that were unavailable in the Paleolithic era, prior to the advent of agriculture and the cultivation of grains. This means no bread, no oatmeal, no quinoa, no beans; just real, whole, nutrient-dense vegetables, fruits, meats, nuts, and seeds. Many people boast of the health benefits of eating Paleo, from enhanced workout performance to simply feeling amazing every day. If you would like to learn more about Paleo, there are many excellent websites devoted to it, including robbwolf.com, marksdailyapple.com, and chriskresser.com.

No matter how you choose to eat, the most important thing is to eat real, whole foods and find what makes you feel your best. During a lot of my weight loss, I followed the Weston A. Price guidelines, but I switched to a Paleo way of eating about three-fifths of the way through my journey, which made a significant difference in my physique and overall wellness. After eating Paleo for a while, I began experimenting with some of the foods I had eliminated to see what my body could and couldnt tolerate. I have found a way of eating that works for me that I continue to explore and expand.

One of the keys to my losing weight and becoming healthier was abandoning my fear of fat. I can understand if it takes someone a bit of time to get used to the notion of not fearing fat, because I had an incredibly difficult time believing it, too. I avoided fat like the plagueespecially after being told my whole life that fat is bad for you. Health experts suggest that if you eat fat (especially saturated fat), you will get fat and develop heart disease. But what if I told you that much of what you have been told about fat is wrong?