Paleo Archives - Page 9 of 34 - The Paleo Network

Are You Addicted to Your Smartphone?

Do you have a smartphone obsession? I know I do…

A few weeks ago, I was in Singapore for a couple of days on a stopover. After an insane bill the previous time I’d been overseas, I turned the data off on my iPhone. There was no wifi where I was staying, so for the first time in a very long time, I found myself completely cut off from the internet. And you know what, it was great. I was completely “in the moment”. I walked around without a soundtrack. I read a book. And I didn't have a clue what was going on in the world. If only I could do it more often.

Are you addicted to your smartphone too?

Is it going to rain today?

I wonder what Sarah’s up to?

I wonder how to make a paleo birthday cake?

Have I been paid yet?

Whatever the question, there’s an app for it. Bored, there’s always something to read or a game to play, right at your finger tips.

Living in the moment

It’s hard to live in the moment when you spend all day on your smartphone. All the incredible views you miss, the people who walk past, who you didn't even see. The real life moments missed when you were updating your Facebook status. The sounds of nature and life blocked out by your earbuds.

What are you missing out on?

Can’t sleep?

You go on your smart phone because you can’t sleep – or can’t you sleep because you've got into the habit of using your smart phone before bed? The blue light that streams out of your phone in a darkened room, is your brain mistaking that as a cue that it is day time and you should be active and alert?

The restaurant challenge

The last time you went out for dinner, did your companions check their phone during the meal? If so, this is a great game to implement next time – and you could get a free dinner out of it!

Digital Detox: Reclaiming Your Time and Attention

Smartphones are incredible tools. But they can also become shackles, keeping us tethered to a constant stream of notifications, updates, and distractions. If you've ever felt a wave of anxiety when your phone battery dips below 10%, or reached for your device without thinking during a moment of boredom, you're not alone. Many of us have developed a deeply ingrained dependency — and it’s time to take back some control.

Recognising the Hidden Costs of Constant Connectivity

It’s easy to justify phone use under the guise of productivity or staying informed. But behind those pings and endless scrolls are subtle consequences:

Fragmented attention: Multitasking between apps and alerts can reduce our focus and cognitive performance. That podcast you’re half-listening to while flicking through Instagram? Neither gets your full attention.
Relationship strain: Ever had a conversation with someone whose eyes keep drifting to their screen? We’ve all done it — and we’ve all felt dismissed by it.
Reduced creativity: Boredom often precedes creativity. But when we never allow ourselves to be bored — because we’re constantly stimulating ourselves digitally — we miss the chance for creative insight.

When Digital Becomes Default

Most of us don’t realise just how often we turn to our phones. It’s become the default response for boredom, loneliness, stress, and procrastination. Waiting in line? Phone. On the train? Phone. At a red light (hopefully not while driving)? Phone. It’s almost reflexive. But awareness is the first step in changing behaviour.

Try keeping track of your screen time for a few days — most smartphones have this feature built-in now. You might be shocked by the totals. Many people spend the equivalent of a full-time job each week on their devices — often without realising it.

Simple Swaps to Rebalance Your Digital Diet

If going completely without your phone sounds impossible, start with small changes. These simple swaps can help loosen the grip your phone has on your daily life:

Swap the bedtime scroll for a physical book — you'll wind down more naturally.
Replace your morning phone check with a walk, some stretching, or journalling.
Keep your phone in another room during meals — even if it’s just dinner for one.
Delete one app that’s a time sink (you know the one) and see how you feel after a week.

The Joy of Disconnection

When was the last time you truly allowed yourself to be unreachable? No buzzing, no checking, no passive consumption. Just you and your surroundings.

Try this for an afternoon: leave your phone at home and go to the park, beach, or local café with a notebook or just your thoughts. It might feel uncomfortable at first, but then comes the clarity — the quiet mental space that allows your thoughts to settle and creativity to emerge.

Many people report that some of their most profound ideas, realisations, or peaceful moments come during phone-free time. You might just discover that disconnecting from the digital world helps you reconnect with yourself.

Digital Boundaries: Tools to Help You Take Control

There are also practical tools to help reduce screen time and encourage healthier phone use:

App blockers: Apps like Freedom, StayFocusd, or built-in screen time settings can help you limit usage of specific apps or create phone-free windows.
Grayscale mode: Switching your phone display to black and white makes it less enticing, reducing your likelihood of mindless scrolling.
Notifications audit: Turn off non-essential notifications. You don’t need to be alerted every time someone comments on a post or sends a game invite.

Rethinking Social Validation

One of the hardest habits to break is the constant checking for likes, messages, and updates. It’s addictive — and for good reason. Social media platforms are designed to trigger dopamine hits with every notification.

But what if you gave yourself permission to miss a few updates? To be the last to know what’s trending? Chances are, it won’t impact your life in any meaningful way — but the freedom you gain from not constantly checking might just be transformative.

Reconnect with the Physical World

Use your reclaimed time to do things that nourish you physically and emotionally:

Cook a meal from scratch without filming it for Instagram.
Go for a walk without earbuds and listen to the sounds around you.
Meet a friend for coffee and leave your phones in your bags.
Start a hobby you’ve been putting off — knitting, painting, gardening, journaling.

Life happens offline. And while phones can enhance it, they shouldn’t be allowed to consume it. Set a few small challenges this week: perhaps one day with no phone after 8pm, or a Sunday with your phone switched off until noon. You might be surprised how much lighter and more present you feel.

Redefining Your Relationship With Your Phone

Phones are not inherently bad. They can help us learn, connect, and capture beautiful moments. But when they start taking more than they give — it’s time to reassess. Like any tool, the value comes from how and when it’s used.

So the next time you instinctively reach for your phone, pause. Ask yourself: is there something I could be noticing, enjoying, or doing instead? You don’t need to delete your socials or move to a cabin in the woods. But you do deserve some space from the constant digital chatter — if only to remember what life feels like without it.

The phone-fast challenge?

Could you go without your phone for 24 hours? No phone, at all. Leave it at home. I’d love to hear if you’re game enough to go without your phone for 24 hours, what you did instead – and if you felt better for it. Do share in the comments below!

9 surprising ways to get your five a day

9 Creative and Unexpected Ways to Get More Veg and Fruit

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We all know we're supposed to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Apparently it doesn't really matter what you choose for your five portions, more fruit than veg, it makes no difference. Whether your portions are frozen, canned, dried or part of a drink – it's all good.

Agree?

Well, in the interest of your health, I now present nine different ways you can get to your five a day. And of course once you've got there, you can eat whatever you like for the rest of the day!

1. A bottle of fruit juice

That's right, 150ml of processed fruit juice is enough to tick of one of your 5 daily portions of fruit and vegetables. So they may have up to 8 teaspoons of sugar in a bottle – but that's not important enough for us to worry about.

2. Baked Beans

Who knew? Apparently the sauce alone is nutritious enough to count as a portion. Don't worry yourself about the added sugar, they're clearly a health food.

3. Fruit Chips/ Crisps

Just replace the potato chips with fruit chips and you're winning! The best thing is that as they're dried, the sugars are concentrated making them even more appealing!

4. Sweets/ Lollies/ Candy

Why have broccoli as one of your portions when you have have the sweet stuff!

5. More Sweets/ Lollies/ Candy

Best to have two packets, rather than one, to get you closer to your five a day…

6. Fruit Juice

Water you say? No – that won't help you get to your five a day target. Have a fruit shoot instead. (Ingredients: Water, Sugar, Orange Juice from Concentrate (8%), Citric Acid, Natural Flavouring, Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid), Preservatives (Potassium Sorbate, Dimethyl Dicarbonate), Stabiliser (Xanthan Gum), Natural Colour (Carotenes) – that's all healthy good stuff, right?)

7. McDonalds Soda

You know those days when it's really hard to find anywhere to buy fruit and vegetables? Well luckily for you McDonalds can help you get your five a day.

8. Pasta Shapes

Pasta. Shapes. Are. Good. For. You.

9. Strawberry Bars

Marketed directly at school children make sure you incorporate these in your diet. They've even got healthy vegetable oil them.

Ingredients: Concentrated Apple Puree (an average of 282g Apple used to prepare 100g of School Bars®), Dehydrated Apple (20%), Maltodextrin, Oligofructose, Vegetable Oil, Concentrated Juices of Apple (3%), Strawberry (1.8%) and Pear (1%), Gelling Agent (Pectin), Natural Colour (Anthocyanins), Natural Flavouring, Malic Acid, Preservative (Sodium Metabisulphite)

I hope this post has helped you out. Have you had your five a day today?

Seared Pork, Pear and Fennel Salad paleo lunch recipe-min

Seared Pork with Pear & Fennel Salad

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Dessert for Diabetics on a Paleo Diet

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My gran is just about to start receiving “Meals on Wheels”, which is a great service. In principle. Vulnerable people (mainly the elderly) are provided with a cooked nutritious meal at lunchtime. For many recipients, this will be the main nutrition they get in that day, so it’s really important that the meal provides the nutrition they need. Especially for those with conditions like diabetes, you'd think?

Each day (it’s even available on Saturdays and Sundays) they offer a choice of a main course and a choice of dessert. The main course choices, as you might expect are a traditional meat based meal, or a vegetarian option. And the desserts? Yep, hot, cold or diabetic.

I was really shocked to see diabetic desserts – and even more surprised to see what they are. You’d maybe expect low-carb options, like a cheese board perhaps. But no, they’re traditional sweet desserts, such as cakes and pies.

Looking at the definition I found on the web of what the diabetic options should consist of, it’s clear the providers of nutrition are stuck with conventional wisdom. “Desserts for diabetics must be sweetened with artificial sweeteners or sweeteners combined with a minimal amount of sugar”.

How about making desserts sugar (and sweetener free) entirely – or even swapping the dessert out for a starter instead!? Where did the idea that all meals must be finished with a dessert come from anyway?

As meals on wheels only provides one meal a day, they have some helpful recommendations as to what diabetics should eat for the rest of their meals:

That's right – diabetics should get 6-11 servings of bread and grains a day! DIABETICS! Also, note the low-fat recommendations. Those diabetics have got to steer well clear of anything so much as resembling fat, and instead go for low-fat options, that have replaced the fat with carbohydrates. Oh, and fruit – go right ahead.

Rethinking Diabetic Nutrition: Beyond Outdated Guidelines

When it comes to supporting our elderly population, especially those managing diabetes, food should be medicine. Meals on Wheels is a brilliant initiative, but it urgently needs to modernise its approach to nutrition. The idea of serving sugar-free cakes and artificially sweetened pies as “diabetic-friendly” options might seem considerate on the surface, but it reflects a deeper problem – the reliance on outdated dietary guidelines that have long been challenged by more current nutritional research.

Why the Conventional Approach Falls Short

Traditional diabetic dietary guidelines are still rooted in the high-carbohydrate, low-fat philosophy that rose to prominence in the 1980s. While this was once believed to help manage blood glucose levels, we now know that excessive carbohydrate consumption – particularly refined grains and sugars – can cause significant blood sugar spikes, contributing to insulin resistance over time. This makes the recommendation of 6–11 servings of bread, rice, and cereal daily especially problematic for individuals with diabetes.

Even when desserts are labelled “diabetic-friendly”, they often include ultra-processed ingredients and sweeteners that may still cause a metabolic response. These sweeteners can also maintain a preference for sweet foods, making it harder to adopt healthier habits long term.

The Real Needs of Diabetics

What elderly diabetics truly need is stable blood sugar and real nourishment. That means meals built around whole, unprocessed foods, rich in nutrients, moderate in protein, and containing healthy fats to promote satiety and help regulate insulin levels. High-fibre vegetables should form the base of each meal, supported by quality protein sources like free-range chicken, grass-fed beef, or oily fish, and unrefined fats such as olive oil, avocado, and coconut.

The obsession with low-fat diets has done far more harm than good, especially in vulnerable populations. Fat is not the enemy – in fact, it’s crucial for hormone production, brain health, and absorbing fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K. Replacing fat with processed carbohydrates and sugar-free sweeteners only inflames the very issues it aims to mitigate.

What Should a Diabetic-Friendly Meal Look Like?

Here are a few practical examples of meals that could truly support diabetic health without relying on gimmicky desserts or misleading low-fat claims:

Roast chicken with steamed broccoli and roasted pumpkin – add a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of sea salt for flavour and healthy fat.
Grilled salmon with zucchini noodles and sautéed spinach – loaded with omega-3 fats and fibre.
Beef and vegetable stew – slow cooked with root vegetables like swede and turnip instead of potato, which helps keep the glycaemic load low.
Omelette with mushrooms, capsicum, and herbs – a brilliant source of protein and B vitamins, perfect for any time of day.

For dessert? Skip it. Instead, offer a nourishing starter like a cup of bone broth or a side salad with lemon dressing – something to stimulate digestion without a blood sugar spike.

The Role of Fibre and Fermented Foods

For elderly people in particular, digestive health is paramount. A fibre-rich diet can help regulate blood sugar, improve bowel function, and reduce inflammation. Fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, or coconut yoghurt (unsweetened) can further enhance gut health and immunity — something that becomes increasingly important with age.

Rather than offering ultra-processed “low-fat” puddings, why not introduce small portions of these powerful foods into regular menus? They may not be traditional, but they align more closely with the metabolic needs of someone managing diabetes.

Rethinking the Role of Dessert Entirely

The notion that every meal must end with something sweet is entirely cultural. Many traditional societies across the world do not regularly include dessert in daily meals. Offering a choice of dessert to someone with type 2 diabetes – especially when it’s essentially a sugar-laden option masquerading as healthy – feels more like a marketing gimmick than a health strategy.

Instead, institutions like Meals on Wheels could be leading the way by breaking the dessert habit altogether. What if the optional extra were a nourishing mini snack pack for later in the day – like a boiled egg, some sliced cucumber with hummus, or even a homemade seed cracker with avocado?

Supporting Caregivers and Families

Of course, it’s not just the meal providers who need to adapt. Families and caregivers also need clear, updated resources on what a truly diabetic-supportive diet looks like. That includes guidance on the types of fats to encourage, how to reduce carbohydrate dependence, and how to replace processed foods with real, nutrient-dense options.

Empowering those around the elderly is just as important as changing what’s on the plate. A collaborative, evidence-based approach is what will ultimately lead to better health outcomes – not just for diabetics, but for all elderly Australians relying on community food services.

A Call to Action for Change

It’s time to move away from the outdated dietary guidelines that continue to dominate public health institutions and food services. We must stop equating “low-fat” with “healthy” and start embracing the real science of blood sugar regulation and metabolic wellness.

Meals on Wheels and similar services have an enormous opportunity to improve not only the health but also the dignity of their recipients. No more artificial sweeteners disguised as health food. No more sugar-free jelly with hidden thickeners. No more pretending that bread and margarine are essential daily staples for diabetics.

Instead, let’s push for whole food meals, full of colour and nutrients, that honour the complexity of diabetes and support longevity and quality of life.

What Do You Think?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Are you or someone you know receiving Meals on Wheels or a similar service? What changes would you make if you could design a new menu from scratch – one that actually helps people thrive? Leave a comment below and be part of the conversation.