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My diet has never worked.
Even when I watch my calories, it is not a healthy, balanced diet.
I have constant GI issues, which I usually blame on my now missing gallbladder. They’re somewhat unpredictable, though coke and pizza are pretty reliable triggers.
I am usually hungry again 10-40 minutes after I eat, even if I stuffed myself (also not healthy). I thought that was because I was fat, because I had distended my stomach so severely.
I am over 100lbs overweight.
So my diet - and by that, I mean “what I eat” - doesn’t work, not well, not right, and not healthy.
I spent 2 months cutting my calories and it netted me 25lbs of weight loss. My GI issues remained, and my energy level would spike and drop, spike and drop. My sleep sucks. It was a success, but a limited success. Could all of this be… nutrition?
I’m guessing yes.
CrossFit seems to have a companion nutritional model (yes I’m avoiding the word “diet” as in weight-loss). That is The Paleo Diet. I’m still reading up on this. The premise is solid - all the processed crap we eat these days are not what our bodies are designed to eat. Instead we should eat more along the lines of what our paleolithic ancestors ate.
Here’s what I know right now: that is, not much. No grains, no legumes (did you know peanuts were a legume? I didn’t!), no dairy.
My initial reaction to this was, “no bread, and no milk? kindly go away, impossible.” I may have rolled my eyes. I am the picture of maturity, can’t you tell?
I’ve been “playing” with this diet the last few days - based on almost total ignorance (I’m reading the books ok?!) I replaced my cow’s milk with almond milk - a permanent change, it tastes much better! I did have two prohibited multi-grain english-muffings: one yesterday, one today. But I’m also not throwing out food (people are starving somewhere, probably right around the corner) while I figure this out. They’re now gone and not being replaced.
I’ve been focusing on protein rich food. I’ve had chicken after my workouts, I’ve been eating eggs. I had some organic pork links today which have very little added. Now sausage is processed, and is probably not recommended. But I went with the purest form I could find, and it’s a work in progress, ok?
I’m eating almonds right now (and drinking almond milk, they’re very complementary). I bought cantaloupe and pineapple (chopped up but just the fruit, not preserved, not in any juices).
The paleo diet says as long as you’re eating the proper foods, you can eat what you want. One of the CrossFit trainers said the same thing, especially in combination with the high intensity workouts I’m now doing. No counting calories, no points, no food scores, etc.
However I’m still logging my foods; and surprisingly, though I haven’t been hungry in 2 days, I’m having a problem hitting 1000 calories (hence sitting here eating almonds and drinking almond milk. I’m 400 calories under where I should be).
One of the things I read on paleo is that “if you can eat it raw, you can eat it on paleo” or some such. That doesn’t mean you should eat it raw - and I’m not going to be eating raw meat, thankyouverymuch. But that’s the basis on why legumes are out, and things like cashews (I didn’t know you couldn’t eat those raw, learning new stuff all the time over here).
Anyhow. I’m fairly confident that I’m totally butchering the paleo diet - so I’m being careful. I bought a ton of veggies to incorporate and had a nice, hearty salad today to make up where some of the greens were missing (greens = calcium and stuff, you know?)
So far, while ruling out dairy and bread does sound extreme - I’m actually enjoying this diet. My stomach has NEVER felt better, not ever, and that alone is reinforcing enough for me to continue to read and push forward, getting better at it all the time.
The way I figure it is this - even if I mess up paleo; my diet before was unnatural, unbalanced, and awful. Even a messed up paleo diet will be a huge improvement.
To me, going to the paleo diet is much like the reason I put my dogs on a raw diet. It’s more natural to our biology and to our genetics and history. This isn’t something I’m looking at for weight loss (but I hope it helps) but for the long-term lifestyle benefits. As long as my stomach continues to be trouble-free, that’ll serve as enough “proof” that this could be truly the right move for me.
-Lisa, on March 10, 2011 at 8:22 pm