...and here's my dinner from last night: mahi mahi fillet, bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin, and asparagus with Hollandaise sauce.

Breakfast, August 6th, 2012: Plate of bacon and fried eggs with Sriracha.

Lunch for Saturday, July 28th, 2012: crab cakes benedict with aioli sauce and homemade coleslaw. When I left for vacation I had a 'fridge full of food. I realized after I came back that I needed to use up some eggs and cabbage. This was the result. There are eggs in the crab cakes (made with canned crab meat, celery, white onion, garlic, egg, black pepper, and gluten-free wheat flour), poached eggs on top of the crab cake, and eggs in the aioli sauce. Oh, and bacon too. Can't go wrong with bacon.

So fell off the Paleo-wagon big time. I went to the beach for 4 and a half days to visit my lady friend who is vacationing down in St George Island, FL with her family. I figured the beach would be a safe destination... lots of seafood which equals lean protein, right?

Well, their were lots of kids there which meant grilled cheese sandwiches were a lunch mainstay. And lots of the adults stayed up into night, which meant more drinking of alcohol than normal... so needless to say I got back to Alabama feeling a little gassy, sun-exhausted, and dehydrated. I had a good time overall, but let's just say I don't feel super well-rested.

Here's my dinner tonight, made with a mind towards easing back into a better eating routine. Salmon fillets, Brussels sprouts, and fried green tomatoes (which I made with a mix of 1/2 almond flour & 1/2 gluten free wheat flour.

Do you have to buy sushi quality tuna to eat it raw like that?  I love raw fish, but I'm scared to eat it raw when it comes from a grocery store (especially in the midwest, far away from where the fish was harvested).

There's a fish market where I live that gets shrimp, live oysters, grouper, and tuna fresh from the coast a few times a week. The people who own this fish market also run a local seafood restaurant. I have no fear eating that tuna raw (or seared). Store bought tuna or salmon... no way. Most salmon is artificially colored... so who knows what the hell it would look like without the dye? I'd check with any seafood markets you have in your town and find out when they get there shipments and buy that day.

And incidentally, I try not to eat any tuna more than once a month. Mercury content and all...

Good Stuff Abbot,

Haha, yeah, if you're going to cheat, then Parmesan cheese isn't the worst possible item.
I eat cheese all the time, so technically I'm not a 100% caveman, but to each his own.

Keep up the great work!

Thanks for the kind words. I do like cheese and have found it hard to give up. Whiskey too, but I digress...

I can really live without cheddar, swiss, provolone, or all the other "sandwich" cheeses... but Parmesan, goat cheese, and feta are probably the most common cheats I'm guilty of!  Trying to be strong! 

Based on your diet as you've described it, sounds like you are only a few steps away from a Paleo Diet. Lean meats are good, but don't shy away from fatty meats too.... Loren Cordain in his most recent book has revised his earlier opinion on fats. I'd cut out as much of the dairy as you can. And focus on leafy veggies; kale, chard, collard and mustard greens, that sort of thing. Veggies to avoid are beans and corn. Also reduce the amount of potatoes eaten. Things like celery, asparagus, and brussels sprouts are good veggies that should be preferred over potatoes and beans.

Nut butters are okay in small amounts, but remember that peanuts are actually a legume, not a true nut.

I've been Paleo for a year or so now, and I love it. Paleo cooking is easy because the style of eating lends itself to simplicity. You are eating a lot of whole foods, so you don't do a lot of stuff with processed food items that complicate the cooking process (no batters or breaded meats, for example).

The most complicated thing is sauce making, you want to avoid most store bought sauces because they add lots of unnecessary sugar and preservatives. On the other hand, you also learn to enjoy the taste of food without sauces. I used to always eat seafood with either tartar or cocktail sauce. That's something I rarely do now. So it balances out in the end.

The best part about the Paleo diet is that it doesn't bother with ridiculous practices like calorie counting. You just eat as much of good food as it takes to fill you up.  And you lose weight. I've lost over twenty pounds and I haven't counted one damn calorie. I suspect I eat about 2500 calories a day, but I'm not sure, because I don't keep count. Since you are not restricted by amount of food, only type of food, you don't worry about hunger because you eat as much as you need to.

The downside to the diet is that processed foods tend to have longer shelf life. So since on the paleo diet you will be buying more fresh produce and meat, you will go to the grocery store more often. I usually go two or three times a week, and buy just for the next two or three days. If you live far away from a grocery store (and I'm in Alabama where entire communities do), you might want to take up gardening or chicken farming.  Good luck!