10,000 Years Ago?

Did it really all go to crap 10k years ago? Or was it more like 100 years ago?

I'm reading a lot about how we evolved on the Primal diet and were healthier before agriculture. I need to do more research about that. I think it's pretty undeniable that overall health has been in a tailspin for the past 100 years, especially after canning and processed food really took off post-WWII. But I'm not completely convinced we need to reject all grains and legumes. Corn syrup, sugar, and the grain-based diet, though - very plausible link to the uptick in obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc. Stuff to research.

Note from an email discussion with my sister I want to keep in mind:

"My opinion is that the diet really went to crap not 10000 years ago but about 100 years ago with the industrialization of food production. Humans did some forms of agriculture for a long time with pretty good results. Once you got to a point where diet was being dictated by other people though (think feudal era where you couldn't hunt, or similar setups where people were farming crops that mostly got taken away to feed other people) - well, I think that's where malnutrition and diet-related illness got a foothold. But the era where we created things like Cheez Whiz is really where the wheels came off."

Breakfast
Repeat of yesterday's smoothie

Snack
Carrots, apples and raisins. Still needs cinnamon. Not enough carrot (never thought I would say that)

Lunch
Managed to get a grilled chicken breast and grilled veggies from the diner where the colleagues ordered lunch today. It was much tastier than I expected. Hoping it wasn't marinated in sugar or something.

Snack

Dinner

Balanced

The Primal diet is unbalanced by modern diet standards - and makes no bones about it. It's unbalanced because the premise is that the grains and the like that the modern diet is based upon are unhealthy for the body.

Now, I can kind of understand nutritionists saying this diet isn't idea because you eliminate whole food groups - we're been working for years under the idea that a healthy diet is a varied diet, and overly limited diets are either inadequate on the nutrition or just too dang hard to stick to.

But what bugs me is the whole dairy thing. I read a post yesterday from a registered dietician that said eliminating dairy was bad because you might not get enough Vitamin D.

Excuse me? Vitamin D does not naturally occur in dairy. That's just where we happen to put the supplements, since it goes so nicely with calcium. So how does that make sense? If I need Vitamin D, what makes more sense: either take a Vitamin D pill or maybe go out in the sun for a little while, or take a glass of milk and dump some Vitamin D in there, drink it, and repeat until I get enough??!?

The idea that this is an unbalanced diet because I'm missing out on supplements commonly put into milk - or bread and cereals, for that matter - is just silly. If I need vitamins, then the idea that I should eat other food that doesn't contain those vitamins either, but which has been supplemented with them -- well, this just sums up how skewed our whole relationship with food has gotten, in my opinion.

Breakfast

Green/fruit smoothie - blueberries, pineapple, banana, spinach, water, and my personal Smoothie Boost (dulse, maca, hemp seed, flax seed)

Snack

Diced apple with shredded carrot and a handful of raisins

Lunch

Spinach salad with bacon and scallops

Snack

Lara bar - Cherry Pie, contains peanuts but I'm still using up what's in the pantry

Dinner

Boneless pork chop and Birds Eye Steam Fresh Asian

Paleo vs Primal

The first thing I learned is that Paleo and Primal are not equal. They both start with the same principles, but from what I can gather, Primal looks a little more relaxed.

Primal does allow for butter and dairy for those who are not lactose intolerant (whoo hoo!) and Paleo seems to exclude some other stuff that Primal is okay with. Paleo, strangely, allows diet sodas and artificial sweeteners, which I avoid overall. I think my version will be more Primal.

Also I have learned that people have strong opinions about Paleo/Primal, both pro and con, and get downright nasty when talking about it. Yipe. Let's be civil, people.

Today's food was mostly Primal. I'm trying to use up a few things in the kitchen, and I did treat myself to a square of dark chocolate tonight. After a trip to the grocery I'm a little apprehensive about sticking to this. There's corn syrup and sugar in sausage? Really? Why is that necessary??!?

Brunch

Egg, over hard

Apple

Snack

Lara bar, Apple Pie

Dinner

Pork chop

Birds Eye Steamers Red Skin Potatoes and Green Beans (not really Primal but in the freezer)

Another New Year, Another Diet

I'm 40 and I'm fat.

Having tried various versions of diet plans from vegan to Biggest Loser to low-fat to low-carb to Lemon Juice Fast over the past year (um, except for the last one), I've found that I keep reverting to a crap-full diet with too much beer on the side. Unsurprisingly, given that my running was severely limited for a long period because of an injury at the same time that my eating habits were falling apart, I gained a good chunk of weight this year. Okay, I'll say it out loud: nearly 20 pounds. That's appalling.

Okay, even 20 pounds up, I'm not really fat. I'm pushing the upper end of the normal BMI for my height, though, and I don't like it. My clothes don't fit and somebody added a spare tire around my belly over the past year. Oh wait, that was me.

So, new year, new me, right? I stumbled across the Paleo diet plan and it seems to make a lot of sense. Paleo's underlying concept of eating the way our bodies evolved to eat makes sense to me. I think today's Paleo diet needs to take into account the lifestyle changes of the past 10k years, but nonetheless, it makes sense to me that a diet heavy in veggies with fruit, lean meat, nuts, and the like is probably better for me than McDonald's cheeseburgers, fries, and light beer.

Now, I do NOT think that all-meat, all-the-time is good for anyone. The Atkins diet where you can eat all the bacon cheeseburgers that you want, so long as you skip the fries and the bun, doesn't make any sense to me at all. Our paleolithic ancestors ate meat when they caught it and the veggies and nuts they found the rest of the time. So I don't think this is a license to eat unlimited fatty meat. Eating whatever we want because it's available and it tastes good is, after all, what's causing the problem.

I'm not quite sure how I'll do in a world without pizza. Sushi with rice. Onion rings. Gatorade and Gu Chomps. Milkshakes. Cheese. Chocolate... oh, chocolate... But... here's the thing. I have tried all of these balanced diet plans that were absolutely guaranteed to make me lose weight. And I haven't lost weight, and I feel like crap.

I am sick and tired of feeling like crap, and fighting with my body to force it into the lean machine that will power me through a competitive half marathon. You hear that, body? No more of this. We're going to work this out once and for all. I sincerely hope that does not mean that this can of Michelob Ultra on this airplane is the last beer I'll ever have, but I'm telling ya, if that's what it takes, that's what we'll do. Got it?

This blog is my version of a food journal, I'm hoping to use it to keep track of what I eat and how it affects me. My plan is to do 30 days of strict Paleo. I was going to start it after January 1, but I may ramp up starting right after I finish this beer. Seriously, do I think it's gonna get any easier in a few days? Probably not.

After 30 days I'll figure out if this is a fad or a lifestyle for me. A lot of what I'm reading indicates that eating Paleo 80% of the time, or even 6 days out of 7, is adequate to maintain most of the health benefits without driving yourself crazy. Crazier. My race calendar for next year calls for a half marathon or a 10 miler sometime in March, so I'll have to consider how heavy training will affect what's suitable for food. We'll wing it.

In any case, it will be an interesting experiment. I'll take some "before" pics when I get home (NO, I am not posting them!) and see what we can do for a soft launch of my 30 Days of Paleo. Yippie!