Pretending Paleo

Pretending Paleo??  You either are or you're not right?  It seems that societies views are that if we follow a popular 'diet' (and I consider Paleo a lifestyle, not a diet), we must follow it all the way or we're not truly doing it justice.  I don't really understand why that is, why can't we adopt the concept of eating and living a certain way without the rigidity of the way some are structured?  Why should we feel ashamed, or guilty if we don't happen to follow the perceived exact route?  This is my life!  I refuse to feel guilt!

So why am I going at this part of the way?
On the plus side: I truly believe that there are great benefits to following a paleo lifestyle, I have a married couple that I know that are completely paleo and have seen the benefits to their personal selves, so I know at least it works for some.  Plus any lifestyle that promotes eating delicious meat is one I can get behind. 
On the negative side: While I have a career, and I am able to pay my own bills, my grocery budget is not very large.  In fact, I often go over what I am budgeted to spend on groceries just to be able to eat pretty healthy, with a few splurges here and there.  Maybe better grocery shopping is something that I need to work on too.  Always room for improvement!  I know there are many people and websites out there that say you can eat paleo on the cheap, but often it goes where I will not.

I have accepted the fact that I will not go to the lengths that some people do, such as raising their own food (look my kale plant is awesome, but it's a miracle it's survived, I'm in an apartment, and my patio is in almost full shade 90% of the day), having a deep freezer for that side of cow in my living room is not in the list (while it's a large living room, it's not huge), an there are some random other things.  I accept these and things that I personally am not willing to do, but kudos for the people that do, I don't knock it.

This just means that while I try and eat healthy, I'm just not 100% paleo, and I'm ok with that.  It's not drug or alcohol rehab, I don't have to go all in.  But I really do like those paleo honey muffins.  Yum.