Paleo

[java]

I was asked to bring this over but I want to update this subject since it's been 5 years for me so far and this was written at the 3 year mark. Here we go...

I'm reluctant to write this (but castlekat asked nicely). "Diet" is like religion, guns, and politics. People are set in their ways and things have a tendency to go Global Thermal Nuclear War.


So consider this as an information thread. I have no desire to convince you to jump on the bandwagon. If you're interested, I'll be happy to point the way. If not, no harm, no foul. Ultimately, it's up to you to do your homework and experiment. There's a lot of flexibility with Paleo but if you pick and choose too much you're really not doing Paleo so don't go around telling fibs about how you "tried it but it doesn't work" because you honestly didn't do it did you?

Anyhow, just remember this is not a historical re-enactment. That's correct: Paleolithic man did not eat cold pressed organic extra virgin olive oil from a fancy glass bottle.

Background
November 2010. I'm about 20lbs overweight and I'm yo-yo'ing again. At this point in my life, 38 years old, I've done the P90x, running, cycling, Body for Life, South Beach Diet, and counting calories on my iPhone with LoseIt! (I may have forgotten one or two other programs). Let me say this. THEY ALL WORK. So why do people fail or more specifically why did I fail and keep yo-yo'ing? THEY'RE NOT SUSTAINABLE FOR LIFE. And that was my litmus test. Whatever it is I'm doing must be sustainable and doable for life. I don't mind busting my arse for a few months but I'm not counting calories until the day I die. I may have delusions of grandeur but I'm not crazy.

So here I was right before Thanksgiving looking to diet and exercise. I start slow and easy with a little run/walk and P90x again in Jan or Feb. I do what I've been taught to do since my school days. I eat whole wheat and 5-6 meals a day. I'm watching my calories and I'm doing "Doubles". For those who are not familiar with P90x, it means I'm doing the program 6 days a week and doing two a days on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'm also running. Ouch. I'm guessing total workout time for the week is way north of 10 hours. After 3 months I'm burnt out and having to take breaks from little nagging injuries (Plyometrics will rip you up). I forget I'm not 18 anymore. I'm also tired of tracking calories. I take the whole month of June off even though I'm down to 140lbs. There's got to be an easier more sustainable way and that's when I ran across Mark's Daily Apple.

The Beginning
I was sceptical. I know everybody who tries to sell you something tells you they were at first. It's the whole "I know how you feel, I felt the same way, but here's what I discovered" spiel straight from Sales 101. But, seriously, I wasn't fully onboard. I read and read and read about this thing called The Primal Blueprint which was the Paleo lifestyle (you'll discover there's probably hundreds of Paleo schools) plus milk if you can handle it. Didn't buy the book until much, much, much later because all of the info was free on Mark Sisson's website. The site has so much info that it's hard to comb through it all so the book is better for beginners.

I resume running but much less ever since I fractured my foot from a 7.5 mile jog. I'm not doing P90x. I'm dabbing with the info I'm reading. He has something called the 80/20 rule which is basically encouraging you to do 80% of what he's telling you to do and at this point I'm probably 50-70%. I'm still going out eating burgers and hot wings with the guys at work and drinking beer.

Surprisingly, it's working. I'm hovering around 137lbs and not busting my arse working out. I'm probably running about 5 miles a week instead of 10. Not working that hard and I'm happy about it.

November and an Old Friend
I discovered that my friend was doing Paleo a year before and having great results. Always trusted her judgment so I'm starting to take this thing more seriously with her support. Then November rolls around and I realize my allergies are not acting up. One of the set in stone rules in Paleo is to avoid wheat (I'll explain later in a separate post). Wheat causes a low grade systemic inflammation and may be the cause of many auto-immune diseases. Naturally, I didn't listen, sticking to my burgers, beer, and pizza but in much less quantity. I finally put it together. I'm allergic to cedar and juniper and my allergy season starts in October. No wheat means no low level systemic inflammation that magnifies my allergic reaction. Immediately, I toss glutens out of my diet. February is the witching hour for me, the month when I can't breathe at all. I am full blown Paleo at this point and down to 131 (weighed 130 in middle school). February rolls around and no issues. No upper respiratory infections. No insomnia. No meds. I'm not immune to cedar and juniper. It's just that my respiratory system no longer over-reacts. I can breathe. My friend fixed what an army of doctors over a lifetime could not.

What is Paleo?
In a nutshell: www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-primal-blueprint/#axzz2YbU6tUQ1

This is Robb Wolf. He's more hardcore than Mark but very informative. He can get heavy on the biochemistry, which I love, but he's also pretty easy going (surfer dude). His website has free podcast which I love.



My friend is a big fan of Chris Kresser. Very informative stuff.
chriskresser.com/beyondpaleo

Sarah Fragoso has some great stuff.
everydaypaleo.com/faq/


Tidbits from java
Here are some things I've discovered in no particular order because I'm getting tired. My advice is out of context and you may not understand where I'm coming from if you have not done your homework.

~EAT. Never go hungry. EAT. Eat substantially. I probably eat 2 or 3 times a day now. I rarely snack just because I'm not hungry. I'm off the sugar roller coaster ride and I'm no longer crashing at 2pm from a dip in blood sugar.

~I discovered eating fresh foods and avoiding processed foods, grains, and sugar changed my biochemistry. My body went from being a sugar burner to mostly a fat burner. I'm off the addiction.

~Eat plenty of meats. My hunger is in check if I eat a hunk of meat every day. If I eat a fatty meat like wild caught salmon, I'm seriously full.

~Fats are friends. If you eliminate processed foods, sugar, and grains, you won't have much sugar to burn. Fats become your friend if you eat healthy fats. My house is stocked with rendered duck fat, grass fed butter (LOVE), coconut oil, and olive oil. Oils are also important in salads because they perform the vital task of transporting the nutrients from green leafy veggies into your system so that you can absorb all that good stuff (vitamins & minerals).

~Peptide YY. This hormone regulates appetite. Fats causes the body to release the most and proteins second. Carbs don't cause much peptide YY release. Peptide YY along with several other hormones help regulate hunger and fullness. Your body was not built to run with an iPhone app to count calories. It has it's own internal calorie checker and that app is predominantly Peptide YY. However, our modern processed foods circumvents and sabotage this system and you're body is not able to tell you to stop eating. Either Mark's or Robb's book talks about it. Maybe both.

~Leptin. Turns out that your fat cells constitute an organ! They release this leptin hormone that tells your brain how much fat is available for fuel because your brain runs predomantly on fats. If you lose a ton of weight and you get down to low body fat percentages, there will be less leptin released and your metabolism slows down. If you're very obese you release tons of leptin but over time you become leptin resistant so your brain doesn't get the signal to stop eating.

~Fear you're going to clog your arteries and die of a heart attack or stroke? Read this. If you eat lots of fat and unhealthy carbs, those carbs will damage your LDL particles which leads to clogged arteries. It's not as simple as LDL bad, HDL good, nor is it about low cholesterol levels. Your cell walls are made of fatty acid and it is the job of LDL to help repair those walls. It is the job of HDL to remove the excess that's not in use. When you eat fresh foods, the system works in harmony. If you eat poorly, the whole thing doesn't work well.

~Digestion. Your intestines are made of smooth muscles. Good fats help with digestion, oiling the process sorta speak. What you want is a diet of good fats and enough fiber because both keep you regulated and you want to avoid foods that damage those cell walls and give you a "leaky gut".

~Ditch the sodas. Diet Coke has aspertame which passes the blood brain barrier and interferes with the hypothalamus which regulates fluids. Drink too much and you'll be running to the bathroom at 3am. Personal experience. May I suggest San Pellegrino if you need something bubbly? I also like Zevia which is made from Stevia.

~Learn to substitute. For me, whiskey (Scotch or bourbon) replaces beer. San Pellegrino instead of sodas even though I still have my occassional Diet Coke (I'm a flawed human). Ribeye slices on a bed of spinach instead of a rinky dink salad that leaves you hungry in 2.3 seconds.

~Spinach is your friend. I consume a huge amount, always with olive oil for absorption, about once a day. I don't eat greens with all my meals but I do keep mental notes and make sure I get a healthy amount in (I may skip a day) and you may get to a point where your body automatically tells you to eat more leafy green stuff. I no longer take daily vitamins. My blood panels are good. Oh, blueberries are your friend, too.

~It's not about being low-carb. Everybody thinks Paleo is low-carb. No, no, no. Paleo means eating fresh foods. There's a fight over potatoes, a tuber, and whether someone on Paleo should eat it. Well, as Mark says, earn your carbs. Need to lose 60lbs? Well, avoid potatoes for now. Fit as a fiddle and wanting the carbs? Go for it. Asian and must eat white rice like me? Have you been a couch potato all week? Probably not a good idea. Pumping iron and doing burpees? Go for it. Context is key.

~Read the labels but you won't have to if you're eating fresh foods. However, beware of sauces. Kikkoman soy sauce has the 1st ingredient as water then wheat. I use San-J Organic Tamari Wheat Free Soy Sauce. It's gluten free and fermented for 6 months but pasteurized before bottling. Also, be aware that wheat is used many times as a preservative so always read your labels including shampoos.

~Move. I'm a runner and I'll be honest that walking trumps running. I think last year Runner's World made the recommendation to limit mileage to 5 miles a week.

~Strength training is necessary. You need to build/preserve lean muscle mass as you age because it has beneficial affects on hormones and metabolism plus you want functional health meaning you're healthy and strong enough to do the things that life requires like carrying in the groceries, getting in and out of chairs and vehicles, and playing with grandchildren and pets.

~Your taste buds will change. I use to have to drown my salads in dressing. Vegetables taste different to me now, fresher, tastier. Even 90% dark chocolate taste sweet. Used to HATE dark chocolate.

~This is a lifestyle so take it as such, meaning don't rush overnight and expect to hit all your goals tomorrow. This is a sustainable way to live. Give it time. Your biochemistry will change. Don't fight it. Make smart decisions one day at a time. You'll get there.

~IMO, it's 80% diet, 10% sleep, and 10% exercise until you get down to the last 10 pounds and trust me when I say you don't really know what that last ten pounds really is until you're almost there. Make sure you sleep and exercise but if you're not changing the way you eat you'll have to work very, very hard because your diet is defeating you. If you truly are down to that last 5lbs - 10lbs, it's more like 40% diet, 30% sleep, and 30% exercise. You're gonna work very hard for that last few pounds to come off.

~This is not a panacea. You're not going to look like Nathan or Stana afterwards and I'm not promising it'll cure what ails you (like my receding hairline). The attempt here is to give your body the freshest raw ingredients for it to heal and exercise and sleep to be strong while avoiding toxins. There's so much more to this lifestyle but that's for you to discover.

~Budget for a new wardrobe if you're planning to drop the pounds. Seriously, kid you not.

[java]

Some suggestions to get started and some information to chew on. Run with it for 30 days.


1) You may need to examine some core common beliefs.

The view from the very top.
Key Concepts.
Food Concepts.
Cholesterol.
Saturated fat.
Insulin and diabetes.


2) You may be a sugar burner. Time to get off that fuel system.

Clear old the Old.
In with the New.

3) Avoid wheat (gluten). Avoid all grains. Avoid sugar. Avoid beans/legumes. This is not forever avoidance but for now it is. Once you're a model of health and you've established a baseline and good habits and you know what it feels like to be healthy, then you can start adding a few things back slowly for an occassional enjoyment. You however can never go back to eating and living the same way as before because you've already seen how your body reacts to the old you. Yes, even the glutens may be acceptable on a cheat meal but you better be in great health. Glutens are a very complex issue and I promise to cover it later.

4) Avoid alcohol for the next 30 days. We can come back to them later to enjoy once we get you squared away.

5) Eat a hearty breakfast. I love eggs and bacon with sliced tomatoes and an avocado. I'm not a fan of salads in the morning although if I'm in a hurry I will nuke spinach with olive oil in the microwave. Sometimes, breakfast is leftovers from dinner.

6) Eat a hearty lunch. I typically eat a big salad like this one. I always hear, "I'm not a rabbit." Well, my salads are more like a hunk of meat sleeping on a leafy bed. I use olive oil for two reasons. First, the fats from it will release a lot of peptide YY which triggers the satiety signal in my body. Second, oils are needed to help transport the vitamins and minerals from all that good green stuff.

7) Eat a hearty dinner. My biggest hunk of meat is usually during dinner although I will eat a smaller portion if I've had plenty from breakfast and lunch. What I don't eat meat wise goes to breakfast tomorrow, or is packed as lunch, or goes to the dogs.

8) Don't exercise for the next 30 days. Yep, that's right. Don't do it. If you like to do something, go for a walk. Move the body but don't run or sprint or lift weights. Why? Because unless you're a professional athlete you're not going to out exercise a bad diet. Life, work, family obligations and injuries get in the way. If you focus on the exercise, all that fat loss comes roaring back if you don't make it back to the gym. Also, exercise requires fuel. Change your diet then slowly add exercise back in.

9) Sleep. Get good rest. Fat burning works wonderfully during sleep. Get into good sleep habits day in and day out regardless of whether it's the weekdays or weekend.

10) Toss the scale. Go take a picture of yourself from the front and side. Do this on the same day at the same time once every week. These photos are never to see the light of day. This is only for you. You'll regreat it when you're down 35lbs and wanting to post a before and after photo on social media. Okay, maybe not.

*********************
Slow and steady wins the race. Take it one day at a time. This is a lifestyle change. You have one now but it's not working. Change it. Send me a pm if you have questions.

And most importantly, be kind to yourself.

[java]

I will try to keep this short. Below are my observations about glutens after almost 5 years.

Gluten definition and overview: www.celiac.com/articles/8/1/What-is-gluten-What-is-gliadin/Page1.html.

There are folks with serious, debilitating celiac disease. I don't have it and I'm not going to even attempt to adress it. The above link will give you more info if you haven't read it. Me? I fall under what's been recently labeled as NCGS or non celiac gluten sensitivity. 

It's been a strange road. I'm allergic to cedar and juniper and I have severe allergies from October to April/May and I usually end up with an upper respiratory infection, requiring antibiotics. This went on for almost 40 years of congestion and a runny nose. Can't breathe also means you can't sleep. Can't sleep means you unravel mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Remove glutens and I'm fine. During a very heavy pollen day (I keep a pollen count app on my iPhone), I can feel it in the air and I may need to blow my nose but that's it. I'm still allergic but my immune response, my histamine response, is much lighter. After all these years of reading about the subject, it seems like glutens affect everyone because it is an irritant but there is a huge spectrum of reaction with celiacs on one end and those who don't feel a thing on the other with autoimmune diseases and folks just being overweight or uncomfortable in their own skin in between the two poles.

So, depending on who you are, the ingestion of this irritant may cause a systemic inflammation (fancy way of saying you have inflammation throughout your body) that could be mild or severe. In my case it was mild until cedar and juniper are introduced at which point my system overreacts and pretty much involuntarily tries to kill the host - me. In others, it could be as weird as eating an apple and having that apple leak into their gut and their immune system develops antibodies against it and they end up with a weird apple allergy that no one can figure out (see zonulin).

What I'm trying to get at is that the symptoms of NCGS are all over the map making it hard to pinpoint because not everybody ends up with gastrointestinal distress. I get a runny nose and skin rash if I'm exposed to cross contamination. A couple of years ago, I tried a cheesecake and ended up with a runny nose and vertigo. I had to sit still for 30 minutes.

There is current debate about whether NCGS is real or not or maybe it's FODMAPS. Maybe it's Roundup? Maybe it's the genetically modified short wheat stalk from the 60's? I don't know what the answer is. I do like what Robb Wolf asked: "If people have a health problem, should they wait until 'all the research' is in?"

Should you try a gluten free diet? That's your call. It is commandment #1 in Paleo and in The Primal Blueprint. For a country (U.S., I know there's a lot of Canadians on this board but I didn't want to speak for y'all) that puts rugged individualistm on a pedestal, there sure is a lot of outcry over folks wanting to eat gluten free.

What if you didn't want to try Paleo but you wanted to experiment with a gluten free diet to see how you feel? Simple, remove the obvious stuff like bread and read your labels. Labels are much better now. Most will list allergens like peanuts, wheat, and nut allergies. When in doubt, avoid. Before eating out, lookup the restaurants. Most have gluten free menus online now and the celiac sites are a great wealth of information on restaurants. Just Google the name of the restaurant and "gluten free menu". Search all the restaurants near home and work and all your favorite establishments.

Beware that gluten free foods will substitute wheat with something else like potato or rice flower so if you're on a diet and wanting to cut carbs, read the labels to decide if the substitution fits within your macronutrient needs for the day. Also, be careful of cross contamination. Some restaurants will warn that the ingredients are gluten free but the processing area is not or the deep fryer used for your french fries is being use for wheat battered chicken breast. Some products like dark chocolate will list that it was manufactured on a machine or in a facility that also processes wheat products.

So, getting back to what I said in a previous post, can you have a gluttonous gluten dessert or cheat meal? Once again, that's your call based on your goals, how your body reacts to glutens, and whether or not you want to pay that price and that price can be very little or very high, and I cannot predict nor decide for you.

Good luck.

[ProudTVJunkie]

Thanks for posting this here java. It saves me the trouble of copying it all from the 12th!

[Deleted]

Seeing this thread brought here/preserved, brings me immeasurable joy!

THANK YOU, java!