In the mood for paleo

I started eating paleo (aka the caveman or hunter gatherer diet) last October.

There are a couple of reasons I decided to give it a try:

• after 10 years of running, triathlon and nearly a year of Crossfit, I still had a gut and weight close to 190lbs.  
• It seemed like a very popular diet among Crossfitters and I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about.
• I won't do diets (or lifestyles or meal plans or whatever you want to call it) where I have to measure, weigh, count, calculate or account for what goes in my mouth.
• and finally, (this was the clincher for me) I saw this video of Dr. Terry Wahls on feeding your body the nutrients it needs to stay healthy, and how through diet she reversed her symptoms cause my multiple sclerosis.  Her diet, it turns out, is essentially paleo.

The premise behind the paleo diet is to feed our bodies what the human body ate during the hundreds of thousands of years of it's evolution before the agricultural revolution.  So basically meat (including organ meat), fish and shellfish, leafy greens, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seaweed, insects, etc...  (now before you go all "gross"! on me, I'm not strict paleo, I don't eat bugs, in fact I don't know of any "paleo" eaters that do, but it wouldn't be incompatible with the diet). So no processed foods, no food with sugar added, no gains or rice, no legumes including peanuts (other nuts are fine) and no dairy. Potatoes seem to be a point of contention among paleo aficionados, I eat them on occasion.  I also eat dairy, but as I mentioned, I'm not what would be called "strict paleo". 

I like the idea of eating what our bodies ate as we evolved as a species, so I guess that's a fifth reason.  My sister asked, wouldn't we have evolved in the last ten thousand years to adapt to bread and grain? And I thought she had a point. But once I really thought about it, we probably had, to a certain extent. Anyone who could not process wheat, barley, oats and whatnot, would've died at a young age, and those incompatible genes would've been removed from the gene pool, but any effects that manifest after child bearing years, like hardened arteries, disease from years of nutrient weak diet, or effects that weren't fatal, would still be around today. 

Without bread or pasta to fill my belly, my vegetable intake has skyrocketed. I lost ten pounds the first month and five more over the following two months.  Now I've stabilized at 170lbs and I feel great. My gut is all but gone, and for the first time in my life, I'm seeing some definition in my abs.  *glee*

The other interesting side effect is this.  Before, every once in a while, like every month or two, I'd fall into a sad mood, a kind of melancholy that lasted a three or four days, sometimes more. When I got this way, nothing seemed worthwhile, nothing seemed to have a point.  I had become used to it and was aware of it, so I knew if I just coasted through it (and made no decision during it), it would pass and I'd be fine.

Kiza pointed out to me that it hasn't happened since October.

Until last Monday after the family reunions that is.  Coming down from the excitement of two reunions (the Sauvé side on Saturday and the much smaller Dubeau side on Sunday), I was a bit sad that it was over.  More than a bit sad, it was that familiar melancholy settling in that I hadn't felt in over half a year.  But then I realized, I ate cake (well mostly icing, and not just a little) at the Sauvé reunion, and ice cream cake and dessert pizza at the Dubeau reunion. 

I returned to my regular diet and by the end of  Tuesday the feeling had gone.

I think the combination of the emotional down turn of the big weekend being over, combined with the sugary food in my diet threw my hormone response out of balance.

I think I'll just stick with paleo.  It seems to be working for me.