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Following A Paleo Diet Is So Much Harder In Some Places meal food court eating out options-min

Following A Paleo Diet Is So Much Harder In Some Places!

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I live in Sydney and have always found it very easy to follow my Paleo Diet. In fact, I don’t really have to think about it, eating Paleo just naturally happens. Even when I have to find lunch in the city. Great quality food and ingredients are everywhere. Similarly I find Melbourne fantastic for good Paleo friendly food options.

I'm often not organised enough to bring my lunch in from home, but in Sydney, it isn't a problem. I'm spoilt for choice with a huge range of lunch options. The other thing I love about lunch in Sydney is that, even in a food court, it’s generally freshly prepared as you order it. Every food court seems to have some great create-your-own salad options and a roast dinner option when you can choose your meat and have it with your choice of fresh vegetables.

Paleo lunch in the city

 This is a very easy lunch to find in Sydney; Roast meat and vegetables. Simple.

Eating dinner out in Sydney is even easier, with almost every restaurant offering meals that are fairly Paleo, but the flexibility to tweak the menu slightly, making sure you get exactly what you want.

So spoilt have I been by the food options I'm used to, that now I am working in another city for a few days a week, I'm surprised by how much harder it is to stick to my Paleo diet.

A lot of this is due to not having the local knowledge about the best places to go, but having explored the CBD, I'm fairly convinced that Brisbane just does not have the range of healthy options I find in Sydney. I have found a couple of food courts which offer a roast dinner – but sadly the “vegetable” sides are all beige. Processed potato croquettes, potato wedges or hot chips. Not quite what I had in mind. I have found some restaurants which offer meals that are more suitable, but these are far too substantial for lunchtime.

Breakfast at my hotel looks great on paper, but the colour and taste of the bacon and eggs makes it clear that these are very poor quality. Definitely not organic and probably not even free-range eggs. For the $29 they charge for breakfast, I could cook something amazing with incredible ingredients – which makes the hotel breakfast even harder to swallow.

I'm sure there are lots of great restaurants I should be making use of in the evenings, so I will have to make sure I research this better.

Fortunately I've managed to find somewhere new to stay for the coming weeks, that will hopefully help solve some of these difficulties. I've found a serviced apartment that is the same price as the hotel, but offers a kitchen! This means I’ll be able to buy my own, good quality, ingredients and cook my own Paleo meals. I’ll also be able to take my lunch in (or perhaps even pop back to eat, as it is so close).

My other observation is that overall, people in the CBD look a lot less healthy than they do in Sydney. Is this because it is harder to eat good food; or is there no good food because people don’t want it? I generally find the hotter it is the easier it is to eat well – it’s hotter here, so I'm surprised how many junk food outlets there are?

Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely love Brisbane (I’ll be up for the Brisbane leg of the Low Carb Down Under Seminar Series), I just wish there were more Paleo friendly food options!

Have you noticed following a Paleo diet is harder in certain places? Do you have any tips and tricks for staying Paleo whilst working away? And if anyone has any Brisbane specific Paleo tips, I would LOVE to hear them!

Following A Paleo Diet Is So Much Harder In Some Places meal food court eating out options-min

 

Finding a Paleo Lunch in the City food court ideas diet healthy

Finding a Paleo Lunch in the City

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I always have good intentions of bringing a Paleo Lunch in to work with me.  When I do, lunch is great.  I take in leftovers from the previous evening, and reheat them at work.  Or I take in slices of meat that I roasted at home and eat it with vegetables.  But, there are often times when I don’t get round to making my lunch – or even more annoying, leave my lunch at home!  I often catch up with friends over lunch – another occasion when I venture away from home cooking and towards the food courts.

I work in Sydney CBD, so there are literally hundreds of food outlets within minutes of my office.  The choices however, often leave a lot to be desired, sadly they're are many that are not what I would class a Paleo Lunch!  There are the usual fast food joints like McDonalds , Hungry Jacks (Burger King to the rest of the world), Oportos (Australia fast food chain specialising in chicken burgers) & KFC.  Then there are Mexican chains like Mad Mex and Guzman y Gomez.  There are pancake outlets, salad outlets, fruit juice outlets, Thai, Chinese, Japanese… the list goes on.  There is a wholefoods chain, Iku, in Sydney, which should be amazing, but sadly they seem to have a vegan agenda – most of their foods contain grains and legumes – and soy seems to be commonly used.

Finding a Paleo Lunch in the City food court ideas diet healthy

Most of these options are strictly off limits for me, as they just aren't Paleo!  Whilst the Mexican chains seem to use wonderful fresh ingredients, most options also include tortilla, beans, cheese and rice (grains, legumes and dairy!).  Most lunch options in the city seem to serve grains, legumes and dairy.  I'm also very mindful of the fact that these outlets don’t care about our health – they just want maximum profits, so are likely to use ingredients that I won’t – to improve the taste of their products to keep us going back.  I can’t imagine a single outlet uses coconut oil or grass fed, organic meat!  Whilst salads are a safe option, I find they tend to bulk them out with lettuce and meat is often in very small quantities; not good value for money and certainly not satiating.

The best option I've found so far, is from one of the many outlets offering roast dinner.  I often have roast beef (or pork or chicken) with a serving of seasonal roasted vegetables.

Finding a paleo lunch in the city-min

I've also found a few good places that will let me get creative and go “off menu”.  For example, last week I met a friend for lunch and found an organic burger joint, who were able to arrange a burger with no bun, sauces or fries.  Instead they served the burger with bacon and an egg – result!

Recently I've been trying to have brunch instead of lunch.  This means I can get bacon, eggs and avocado; a much better option!

Finding a paleo lunch in the city brunch-min

Until there’s a Paleo food outlet in every major city, I’d love to hear what your Paleo choices are for a city lunch?