A slow transition or shock and awe?

Whenever I’ve started on a new diet/eating plan or fitness programme I’ve always dived in head first, but maybe this isn’t the best plan? There’s always lots of enthusiasm when turning over a new leaf and this gets you through the first few days of pain and cravings, but after those first few days I find that it’s too easy to fall off the wagon or miss a training slot.
So this time, I’m trying to ease myself back into a paleo/primal blueprint type eating and exercise lifestyle. After a couple of months of 50:50 paleo eating, the last few weeks I’ve been eating like a caveman for about 70-80% of the time; now it’s just the chocolate cravings after dinner that’s stopping my paleo halo from shining! I’m also using intermittent fasting as developed in Eat Stop Eat as a tool to try and improve my body composition. I’ve dabbled before but now I’ve completed two weeks of IF and find that Monday and Thursday suit me well, Monday to “clear up” after the weekend and Thurs as it’s almost the weekend but not quite party time yet! If I don’t eat breakfast I find it quite easy to not eat until 5:30pm, though my work colleagues seem convinced I have an eating disorder!
Training is difficult this time of the year as it’s dark and often wet outside, and temperatures can vary between quite mild to sub-zero on a daily basis. I think the key is making a plan and then sticking to it and trying to avoid winter colds and sniffles. Trying to balance my training and also see my family is another challenge, so I try to train in the early morning before my girls are awake, though I do try and have a more social run with others after work once a week. Mark Sissons at www.marksdailyapple.com isn’t keen on anyone doing a lot of cardio, but I think I’m remaining n the realms of primal training but really need to get some strength training done to build lean mass. Think I’ll start with body weight training and I’ve used this plan before from the vacation body plan from http://fitnessblackbook.com/. You’re supposed to do three rounds but after two I’ve been completely whacked and close to vomiting it’s so intense! It’s a good starting plan before I work up to doing some www.crossfit.com! Another plan is using http://www.simplefit.org/ that uses simple bodyweight exercises.