Real Life Paleo by Stacy Toth & Matthew McCarry: A Story, Review, Recipe, and Giveaway

Let me tell you about my first interactions with Real Life Paleo. It was late on a Saturday evening, after another fun event at Matt and Stacy‘s house. Stacy asked Heather and I, along with Russ and Janey, if we wanted to see the new book. Let me just say that their fantastic book, Beyond Bacon, had recently released; so to hear that they already had another book in the works was surprising, to say the least. (We barely keep up with writing one post each Wednesday!) Lo and behold we were presented with a clipped stack of printed paper that was the rough outline for what is today’s release. It’s been so much fun to watch this project come together (and even help with shooting the front cover), and we think this book is going to do a lot for the paleo community. Even if you have all the other books out there, don’t think this is just another generic paleo cookbook. It’s not. Let me explain…

The cover of Real Life Paleo touts an “easy 3-phased approach” which really lives up to its claim. All too often in the world of health and diet, there is a dogmatic mind-set that everything has to be fixed right now, with no flexibility, for infinity. Small indulgences, or moments of weakness are vilified, and people are often left more stressed and feeling worse for having attempted to improve their health and relationship to food. If you’ve met (or heard) Stacy talk about paleo, you know that type of attitude is not in her wheelhouse, and you’ll find encouragement and support throughout this book. With meal plans, awesomely intricate labels and guides (e.g. one pot, 5 ingredients or less, under 30 minutes, on the go), and knowledge to help you improve—instead of perfect—your food choices, Real Life Paleo sets you up for success in the long-term.

If you care about your health, or want to empower someone to take back ownership of their health, this book is a must have.

There are a lot of paleo books out there right now that are brimming at the edges with recipes (and this one is no exception with 175), but few have the candor of Real Life Paleo. Transitioning yourself and your family to a new way of eating is an intimidating feat, and expecting miraculous results in a week, 21 days, or 30 days is often going to be a recipe for disappointment. Stacy and Matt take this head on with being realistic with yourself and your loved ones, and taking the small wins along the path to better health. Truth be told, we probably wouldn’t be writing this review, or this blog, if Heather hadn’t seen how a family of 5 made paleo work.

I’ll leave it there with my elevator pitch for why Real Life Paleo is the next best thing to hit your bookshelves or e-readers, and move on to a sample recipe that I hope will tide you over until your copy arrives: Turkey Thai Basil. Also be sure to head to the bottom of this post to enter to win a copy of Real Life Paleo.

We like this book so much, we want to buy one of you a copy. Open to all US residents, and closes on November 11th at midnight, Eastern time. Please sign up, and share this post using the social media below.

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