The first time a friend told me she had gotten a “paleo cronut,” I thought she was learning Italian. Flash forward a few years, and it feels like half of my Instagram is filled with “Try this Paleo recipe!” and “I did Whole30, and it felt great!”

If you’re like me, it probably all makes your head spin. Before now, I had no idea what any of those words meant. Even though I was happy for their healthy choices, I had no intentions of eating the things they were advertising as “yummy.” 

It’s so easy a caveman could do it?

Until now. For week 2 of the “Bekah Try-It Diet,” I’m going full Paleo. But you can’t just declare, “I’m going Paleo!” and expect results. I had a lot of follow-up questions for Google.

Basically, the entire premise of the plan is to eat only what you would find at a bakery display fridge. Here are just a few of the basic rules:

• No grains (so long, pasta)
• No dairy
• No added sugar or artificial sweeteners. If it’s not found in fruit or honey, you better throw it out the window.
• No processed foods. As a general rule, if you can’t pronounce it, you can’t have it.
• No fun. This isn’t an official rule, but after day #1, it feels like it.

If you know someone that has done “Whole30,” they do an even stricter version of Paleo for 30 days straight, and you should probably pray for them.

Reading Every Label

There were a few things I was excited about for this week: I can eat a ton of meat, and I can eat whenever I want! Dinners were covered with some lean meats to grill, but everything else was going to be an issue. I quickly realized that I’d need to learn to love eating extra veggies. Here’s a side-by-side of the snack foods my husband and I purchased for ourselves this week:

My husband is a little mean and possibly 12-years-old.

I also quickly realized how annoying it is to read every label. The grocery trip took WAY longer than usual. Did you know that breakfast sausage has added sugar? I picked up 8 different boxes before doubling back to the organic section to find one that just had honey added.

Expectations for the Rest of the Week

I am not looking forward to being that friend that has to read every single label. I’m also not looking forward to being that friend that has to ask a dozen questions before I order something at a restaurant. But we all have that friend, and I know it’ll be good to get some perspective from the other side of things.

The one thing I’m looking forward to least? Sharing my home with the Fruit Gusher king and my office with Wally Wonka himself. Hopefully, they won’t rub it in my face too much.