“When are you due?” was a common question women in Texas would ask me. My response would be a stern look while saying in a deadpan tone, “I’m not pregnant, just fat. Thanks for noticing.” No matter how many times I was asked this offending question I never thought I needed to lose weight. I like my body just the way it is. I earned this body, flaws and all.

However, in a few months I will enter into a new age bracket that comes with more body responsibility. So it’s time I start taking better care of it so I can avoid some genetic pitfalls like diabetes, glaucoma, and cancer. Plus, one of my best friends is getting married next year and I want to look kickass in my bridesmaid dress.

To accomplish this I have decided to start The Paleo Diet, which I am basing off the book Paleo for Beginners: Essentials to Get Started by John Chatham. It’s the 7-day beginner plan. Other diets have never seemed to work for me. I figured this one might because as a kid my mom made meals that were heavy on the protein and vegetables and I was a skinny thing.

Plus, the diet seems reasonable and easy to follow. Meat, vegetables and fruit are the staples of this diet. No bread, dairy, grains, legumes or starchy vegetables are allowed. Which means no potatoes, and I love potatoes. This diet may be harder than I thought because I also can’t have high–salt meats and snacks such as beef jerky or hotdogs. Good thing baseball season is almost over because I can’t go to a game and NOT get a hotdog.

This 69-page book covers a lot of information. It gives a brief synopsis on the history of the Paleo Diet, which was actually created in 1975 by gastroenterologist Dr. Walter Voegtlin. At that time it was called The Stone Age Diet. Voegtlin documented how his patients with Crohn’s Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome showed “significant health improvements” when they followed a diet that included “large quantities of animal fats and proteins and very small quantities of carbohydrates.”

This book claims that this version of the Paleo Diet “intends to closely duplicated the nutritional makeup of a Paleolithic diet without being unrealistic, difficult or complicated.” Even though some people wanted to be more authentic: “While there are a few Paleo followers who do literally hunt, gather or forage all of their food most people don’t have the motivation or time for that level of authenticity.”

The book states that the reason this diet works is the “Paleo methods align your diet with your body’s historical genetic programming. You can boost your metabolic rate, speed healthy and complete digestion, regulate some of the hormones related to energy and fat storage and reduce hunger and cravings for unhealthy foods.” Don’t worry it has an easy to follow list of all the allowed and not allowed food.

It also has a chapter titled, “Set Yourself Up for Success” that gives you “the tools to get geared up, motivated and ready to begin.”

There is also a chapter that gives you 7-daily steps to help you prepare for the diet. My favorite was the “Clean House” step. Instead of giving away the forbidden foods I just went ahead and ate them all. It was a great week! Just in case you haven’t heard Twinkies are now in stores!

The book helps you out even more by having recipes and eating plans.

To keep myself accountable I will log the weight I have lost from the previous week in a blog post. Feel free to join me on this less-fat adventure and tell me about your journey.