Day 5: First official weigh in...

I kind of jumped into this whole paleo thing pretty quickly. I mean, I understood the basic fundamentals--avoid anything processed, eat what the cavemen ate--and I understood the healthy logic behind it all, but I had no real interest in trying it until I heard about the almost immediate effects it can have on the way you look and feel.

I am on day five of my own personal paleo-palooza, and the scale says I've lost 4 pounds. 4 pounds! I feel like the only person who really understands how happy this makes me is this kid. Results like that make my commitment to paleo as real as the streets.

But the last 120+ hours of my life have become consumed with asking myself one confusing and frustrating question: is this paleo?? You know that scene in Mean Girls when Regina George is trying to understand the ridiculous all-carb diet Cady Haren suggests she try out? Thats basically me before putting anything in my mouth. I pity the fools who have spent any amount of time with me around food in the last few days--you are all saints.

There are a million different websites out there that tell you a million different things. I make no claims to know which ones are best, or which ones are right, but I can give you a couple of my favorite ones thus far.

• For information on the fundamentals of paleo dieting, this site gives you a dummy breakdown of the top 15 rules to follow. It also goes on to explain why 400 calories of non-paleo food has a completely different effect on your body than 400 calories of paleo food. 

• For recipes, I check out Punchfork. While not all of the recipes are strictly paleo, it helps to have a visual aid when deciding what you want to gorge on, caveman style. A friend also recently suggested this site, and every thing looks amazing. 

• For a solid paleo shopping list, check out Robb Wolf's plan of attack when at the grocery store. This one is also really helpful, and what I used on my first attempt.

• PaleoHacks is a great message board to ask those paleo questions that keep you up at night.

• For general motivation and fun, NerdFitness.com is pretty good. He also posts workouts, which is nice. They have an app too, which I shelled out the .99 cents for, but don't do it. It's got a lot of bugs in it and their database is pretty small for now. 

Obviously, this is just a sampling of the sites I've been obsessively reading and re-reading. Feel free to drop bombs and make it rain in the comments section below with more suggestions!