Going from being *95% vegetarian to a diet that includes some meat, but excludes all grains and added sugar has been, to put it mildly, difficult.
You never realize how much of what we consume every day is out of the question:
- Breakfast - toast, bagels, cereal, porridge, muffins, juice
- Lunch - sandwiches, buns, jams, spreads, processed meat and cheese
- Dinner - bread, buns, any dessert you can think of
- Snacks - chips, nachos, cheese and crackers, soft drinks
The general "rule" I'm living by for the next week and a bit (with almost three weeks behind me - and I've passed up some fantastic looking food) is to eschew grains and sugars (except sugars naturally occurring in fruits or vegetables), eliminate beans - including soy beans and tofu, and not to eat anything my grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. The results of this experiment will be to see:
- How I feel - more/less energy
- If my sleep patterns change
- If my digestion changes
- If my **blood-work changes
I really don't like calling this whole thing a diet, as the word "diet" sounds so temporary and mostly driven by losing weight. I have lost some weight, but that's surely not the reason I'm giving this a go.
I suspect (and lots of others now believe as well - including my doctor) that the fast-burn carbohydrates from grain and sugar are the root cause of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and strokes. There's a lot of science behind this, and it's too involved to get into here. Suffice it to say that it's our amplified insulin responses to grains and sugar that cause this medical cascade of serious problems. And the cure is to stabilize a low level of insulin in your blood - just like nature intended. Ask anyone with diabetes how their insulin level responds to bread (whole wheat or regular) or sugar and see what they say.
I've been quite pleasantly surprised over the last few days how many people are interested in this "Paleo" thing. The "interested" outnumber the "you're a lunatic" about 3:1. But giving up the grains and sugar (because it's in everything) is really hard in our society if you should want to play along.
In my experience, limited as it's been, is that you really crave sugar and carbohydrates for the first week or two. All the while thinking "what can I eat?". After you get over the craving hump, you're still left with the "what can I eat" question, but answers are starting to appear all over the place. I can now go to almost any restaurant and get a good low-carb meal. And when we get home I have to overhaul the pantry and make it easier to find suitable food. It should be pretty simple.
If you've read here for a while, you'll know that this entire adventure was an accident - I stumbled across this "Paleo" idea (by the way, I hate that name. Let's call it "Eating 3.0"). While the results I'm hoping for are medical, I've read much about the whole "Eating 3.0/Paleo" lifestyle program, and I have to say that I like it - it makes sense to me:
- Eat lots of plants and animals
- Move around a lot at a slow pace
- Lift heavy things
- Run really fast once in a while
- Get lots of sleep
- Play
- Get some sunlight every day
- Avoid trauma
- Avoid poisonous things
- Use your mind
There's a great explanation behind each of these over at Mark's Daily Apple. It's mostly about doing what we've always done (until recently). No more worrying about how much we ate, or when we last hit the gym, or how we'll get some sleep before work tomorrow.
For now, the sugar/carb cravings are mostly gone (that has to be a good thing regardless of the long-term decision I make about this), and I'm feeling pretty good. None of my clothes fit, though.
I'll update this again as I get closer to an answer as to whether this is for me, and see if it's sustainable.
* I ate some fish, and a little chicken, turkey, and red meat on special occasions. But not very much.
** I'm concerned only with HDL, small-particle LDL, and triglyceride measurements. I've discovered that the general cholesterol numbers we've been fed for years at the doctors office are mostly useless.
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