Where will Paleo take you?

It's funny how different my life is after being Paleo for five years. We're constantly telling new people just to trust the diet and watch the difference it can make in your health. And that slowly you'll find yourself making subtle changes over time going more and more in that direction, because you want to and not because it's a "diet". I never thought I'd be making my own mayo or spending money on rainwater barrels. At some point, you may find yourself passing up food you'd never thought you'd be willing to pass up.

Then one day you realize that your life is going in a completely different direction. I just hit that milestone. I recently purchased a piece of land just outside of Folsom, in an area called Uneedus. It isn't huge or even beautiful. It doesn't have shade trees, rolling hills or beautiful scenery. It's mostly flat and open land with a small, dated trailer. The property is lined by barb wire fence and has little to no cell phone reception. Doesn't it sound wonderful?

It happens to be land that my grandfather grew row crops during his retired years. And I remember his passion like it was yesterday. He seemed to always be on that big tractor. Although he loved it, I never saw anything special about the land. It was utilitarian and represented a lot of hard work. Fast forward to today and I cannot adequately express my excitement about this little plot of boring land. It's literally all I'm thinking about.

The plan is to grow lots and lots of non-GMO crops! And I thought it was utilitarian before but soon fruit trees and beehives will replace the current bamboo, and blueberry bushes will fill in previous dead space. I'm even looking forward to spending my weekends sweaty and covered in dirt! How did this happen? I'm willingly giving up my manicures and dinners out for farm land?  Or better yet, food that I can buy cheaper in the store?

I turn 40 in a week and instead of a party I'd rather spend my time fixing up my new trailer! Crazy huh...

Help Keep NOLA Paleo Strong

I love this group! Your positive energy and enthusiasm towards all things Paleo shows just how far we can push New Orleans restaurants to serving food we can eat. If you are new to the Paleo world, you may not know just how far the New Orleans area has come in the last year. And I don’t see the momentum slowing down anytime soon!

Our group started on meetup.com, but that website didn’t have an easy way to communicate. We continue to get new people from there, but I always encourage them to join our new home at the NOLA Paleo group on Facebook. The biggest problem with using Meetup.com is the cost, which is $19/month. But I still believe it is worth paying the monthly fee in order to meet other Paleo people.

Once the NOLA Paleo Facebook group was in full swing I became focused on using the size of our group to make restaurants aware of how we eat and to provide Paleo-friendly choices for us. I know that it would be much easier to live our lifestyle if local businesses realized what a huge portion of their market they are turning away. I started www.NolaPaleo.com in an attempt to grow our movement by educating newbies, pushing people towards the Facebook group, and showing tourist that New Orleans is Paleo-friendly.

All of our efforts have paid off and the group continues to gain new members every day. This is proof that we are moving in the right direction. Eventually, local restaurants will have no choice but to recognize us and other groups that demand similar food choices.

Unfortunately, leading and organizing our group isn’t free. Meetup.com fees, hosting fees, and domain fees all begin to add up. I have always said that I would keep the group completely free and find other ways to cover these costs. I never wanted to make members pay out of pocket to support what we do.

Ideally, I’d like for businesses to realize that THEY NEED US and for them to help cover our costs through advertising, but I also really want there to be a payoff for them as well. Business owners will be much more willing to accommodate us if they see a clear benefit from it.

Until we can get that going, I have found a way to cover the expenses of running our group without asking for donations or charging fees. Amazon.com has a great affiliate program that doesn’t cost anyone anything extra and will generate income for the group. Using this program will make a very small percentage of income for each purchase made through the use of an affiliate link. It costs the buyer NOTHING EXTRA! So basically Amazon.com would be paying for the expenses of our group!

While the money made most likely won’t pay for all the fees our group has, every little bit helps. And if we should ever collect more than we need, think of the primal wine we’ll be pouring at our events.  :-)

In order for us to benefit from the Amazon Affiliate Program, please click on the Amazon Logo on the homepage of NOLAPaleo.com before making your next Amazon purchase.

Your purchases do not have to be Paleo-related, because every purchase made through this affiliate link benefits us, regardless of what you buy. Please remember to use it every time you shop on Amazon.

If you don't use Amazon, you can still help in other ways. We’re always looking for new members; the bigger we are the more of a difference we can make. You can also help by spreading the word about the group with friends and family, or even mentioning us to any restaurant managers you know.

Thanks to everyone for your support! I look forward to moving our group forward together as we continue to grow and change the New Orleans area into a more Paleo-friendly place to live and eat!