Paleo Living

Beginnings

If I am to approach the topic of food from a place of inquiry, than I must begin in earnest by talking about myself and my own personal relationship with food.  When I think about food these days, I think more about something that needs to happen during my day to ensure my survival.  It's like that old saying, "Live to eat, or Eat to live;" I'm firmly placed in that latter category.  It wasn't always this way.  Like many things, my relationship with food has been consistently evolving since I was born and undoubtedly will continue.  Like all people, I have specific tastes:  I love anything briney or vinegary, I love both salt and sweet yet when combined it's nuclear happy for me, I hate cilantro, and I recently found out I'm allergic to a great number of common fruits and nuts.  It was a bright day the day I discovered why I felt horrible after eating oranges or walnuts -- I literally thought it was just a "tough medicine" to eat those healthy things.  Turns out, my body thought otherwise.  Anyway, my food journey started in my mother's decidedly southern kitchen, took a tragic nosedive into eating disorder territory in my teen years, then gained some serious levity in my early adulthood in learning about all sorts of foods through my "Hello Bite" policy, then I hung around with some serious foodies for a while and learned a lot, and came out here where I am today -- healthy at age 26 and Paleo-ish in my eating habits.  By "Paleo-ish," I mean that I generally abstain from wheat, dairy, and sugar but on occasion I love me some Cheetos and a Coke.  At the moment, I'm in a 30-day "hard core" Paleo challenge where I'm eating strictly by the rules -- so, sadly(?), no Cheetos or Coke on the horizon -- but more on that later.

So how did I get here?  Well, many of you may have known me a few years ago, hell, even A YEAR ago when I was heavier than I am now.  How much heavier?  27 pounds heavier to be exact.  On a small framed person like myself, that's a heavy load to carry.  At my heaviest, in Spring of 2010, I weighed 145 pounds.  Here's a picture of me then:

I apologize for the image quality, but I had to cut the photo to protect the innocent.  

I sometimes find that people are shocked when I tell them that I was a vegetarian when this photo was taken.  You know that imagery of the frail, weak, boney vegetarian?  I certainly was not that girl.  Let me put it this way -- I was really good at being a vegetarian, I just wasn't good at actually eating lots of fruits and veggies.  My diet consisted of carbohydrates (BREAD, pasta), dairy (all forms), and free reign of sugar.  If you really think about it, bread with butter on it is just cake minus the sweetener.  And while I did a lot of yoga in this time, to quote a friend, "you can't out exercise a bad diet."

So here's me now at 118 pounds:

Life is different for sure!  Not only do I look better, but more importantly I FEEL better!  I am outdoors constantly, exercising daily, and eating a diet that is balanced, healthy, and doesn't leave me feeling hungry or deprived.  Sure, I still indulge in the un-healthy brethren of Cheetos and Coke, but not frequently, and only for a treat.

Yes, I did lose 27 pounds, but it didn't happen quickly -- it took three years of small changes that moved at a glacier's pace.  I didn't do any crash diets, or have any surgeries.  I didn't order pills from the internet or down gallons of maple syrup-cayenne-lemon water.  I just ate less, ate better, and moved more.  When I started eating Paleo-ish last year, it was like the final cog in my wheel.  It was easy to do and, more importantly, it helps me to feel amazing in my body every day.

Paleo-riffic!

In his "Live at the Beacon" performance, comedian Louis C.K. plays out a scenario where God visits Earth to find it trashed by human kind for money.  Louis's God asks humanity why they needed money, and the human says, "To buy food."  And God says, "Why the fuck do you need to BUY FOOD? I left it here for you ALL OVER THE GROUND!  Pick it up and EAT IT!"  This really boils down the Paleo theory.    

Paleo takes its name from the Paleolithic era of over 2,000,000 years ago.  During this time, peoples of the Earth were migratory nomads.  As a result, they ate what food they could gather or kill and spent an awful lot of time moving.  In Paleo eating, nearly all fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, lean meats, and some oils are fair game.  Legumes (which includes peanuts!), white potatoes, wheat or white flour products, dairy, and refined sugar are off limits. Paleolithic peoples survived without the convenience of super markets, cars, or the internet -- a feat that would ultimately make them our ancestors.  The fact that people have a melt down when the WiFi is shoddy at Starbucks is proof that our Paleolithic grandparents would kick our modern ass at anything.  These people harnessed FIRE without lighters while we can't even explain how our convection oven works.  The point is that these Paleo persons were healthier because they ate a diet of the stuff on the ground-- like God intended -- and walked it all off before their next meal.  I don't think "foodies" existed in the Paleo day, but you never know . . .

The first Yelp: "We had the deer here, but it was too gamey..."

Fairly recently, Dr. Loren Cordain began publishing on the inherently obvious fact that eating and living as our ancestors did was the healthy and best way to live.  He is considered the founder of the Paleo Diet movement, and you can read about him, his work, and his books at The Paleo Diet website.  

My own experience with Paleo began last year when a friend started to eliminate things from her diet due to what she called "inflammation."  According to this friend, whenever she ate things like wheat,  dairy, or sugar,  it would cause her body to become inflamed and in pain.  Friend and I are both massage therapists, and our job is very physically demanding.  Therapists work on their feet, contorting their bodies awkwardly, and heaving their body into dead weight for often hours on end.  Friend was really feeling her work at the end of the day.  But once she started eliminating these foods she felt better.  Feeling a lot of pain and discomfort in my own body,  I felt I should give it a shot as an experiment.  At the same time, I started dating someone who ate Paleo-ish and before long I was in that rhythm, too.

I want to stress to people that I don't like the word "diet" applied to Paleo in the way that we are accustomed toward using it today.  I associate the word with fads like "Southbeach Diet," or the "SlimFast Diet," or the "Cayenne Pepper Maple Syrup Water Diet."  "Diet," when used that way, sounds like something that you do for a little while before you go back to doing whatever it was you were doing before, thus requiring another Diet!  "Diet" means temporary and results-driven, with brief flourishes of commitment.

Then there's "Diet" as in the natural or medical terminology  -- as in a Koala consists on a diet of bamboo shoots and bugs.  Koalas don't go on crash diets.  Koalas just have a diet, period.  And that's how I think of Paleo -- it's a lifestyle, and a new way of thinking.  And because of that, in the very beginning it's hard to do. It certainly takes a lot of work and mental jockeying, but after a while it just becomes natural -- because it is natural.  In the end, you will find yourself happily munching on that bamboo shoot just as a Koala does, without a care in the world.

Just look at this happy guy!

Paleo vs. Paleo-ish

 I am going to borrow a graphic from Dr. Cordain's website  to demonstrate what pure Paleo looks like:

It is very clear in its outline and it's easy to follow; I love that about Paleo.  It's easy to weed out foods into "eat" or "don't eat."  I don't spend hours reading labels, counting calories, or worrying about serving sizes.  I just eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full.  

When I'm eating Paleo-ish, I let myself have some other things I want during the day.  Maybe someone brings cupcakes into my office.  I'll eat a cupcake but won't eat sugar the rest of the day, or the next day.  Maybe I go to the movies and eat some popcorn and pop.  I'll enjoy my movie treats and then eat very clean the next few days.  A Paleo-ish diet is LARGELY paleo with indulgences here and there.  This is how I have been eating and managing to keep the weight off. 

Then there's strict Paleo as documented above, which is, well, strict.

Last week, the Boyf and I ate poorly.  Like, epically poor.  In our defense, it was a birthday weekend and lots of fun and festive foods were had.  But by the weekend's end we looked at each other and acknowledged how awful we felt.  Then I had an idea -- let's challenge each other to 30 days of strict Paleo!  We both agreed and started Monday morning.  There are some terms and conditions, such as we still allow ourselves to eat salt (thank God!) and we allow ourselves one cheat meal a week.  BUT -- the cheat meal has to be enjoyed together at a sit-down restaurant and we aren't allowed to take leftovers.  

It's certainly been hard.  I broke down and ate some mini-snickers last night.  I'm not proud of it, but it goes to show how hard it is to get away from sugar, and dairy, and wheat.  If you really think about it -- and I challenge you to really think about it -- I would be willing to bet that one of your favorite foods has one or all of those three ingredients.  

And there's a reason that we love those things!  Because even though our body is still running 2 million year old software, our surroundings and circumstances of living have changed drastically.  The fat that our ancestors used to chase across the grassland now comes to us in prepackaged individually sized units; easy to purchase and easy to access.  

In the next blogs, I'll start looking at why we love those foods so much.  I'll also share with you my trip to the grocery store for a Paleo lifestyle, to show how our modern food access is unnaturally structured.  I'll even through in a Paleo recipe or two!  

So stay tuned, and wish me luck on this hard core Paleo journey!