Today has gone fairly well considering I didn't sleep much last night. I'm not complaining! I did that to myself. Just stating facts. But now I'm home and comfy. I'll probably make good progress with my work after I decompress a little.
So, once again, I'm not full paleo right now. I'm just grain and legume free. As we speak, I just finished off the Chobani plain yogurt in the fridge with some strawberries. Because yogurt is pricey, tasty, and perishable. I'm not going to let that go to waste. Surprisingly, there is yet another half tub of no name local yogurt in there because of bad fridge organization and planning. That tub is the really good stuff. Super fatty and creamy and delicious. No way in hell am I going to toss it. There's milk and cheedar too, but I remain uninterested. Knowing myself, the milk will go bad, I'll throw it out, and then I'll agonize over whether or not to freeze the cheese or eat it. Such is life.
My opinions on the diet so far.
1. I was completely bloat free today and Monday. On Sunday a friend convinced me to head to a fair for a few hours where I ate fried butter and fried snickers. And a hamburger on a pasty white bun. I've always wanted to eat fried butter. So I did. To feel so good the following day, wow. Quick turn around.
2. Beyond straight up skipping a meal, I become full way before I become stuffed. You would think this is self explanatory, but it's not. A lot of times, my body hasn't told me to stop eating whatever I'm eating until I'm stuffering from it. I'm gonna keep that typo right there. It's now a new word. Stuffering: overeating to the point of uncomfort. This happens most when it comes to candies. I don't feel satisfied until I'm stuffed, so I keep eating until the bag is gone. Or if it's a big bag, the majority of the bag is gone.
Now this makes sense for two reasons. The first is that fruits and veggies have a lot of fiber in them. They fill you. The second is that fats and proteins produce stronger satiety signals to the brain than carbohydrates. So you become full way before you stuff yourself to oblivion. It's one of the reasons I like Wolf's book. The science matches up to the physiology and metabolism we've learned in class.
I like the way that this matches up here too: eating fat and protein release less insulin than carbohydrate. Overly simplified, insulin is a storage hormone. So a body overwhelmed by insulin would be in storage mode right? Or on the flip side, promoting less insulin release would promote less insulin resistance, which is a big issue in type II diabetes, obesity, etc. Yet the body is still provided ample carbohydrates in the form of veggies and fruit. The only thing that limits the veggies you eat is filling up. This isn't Atkins, which sigh...yes I did that for about a week when I was a teenager because my parents were doing it, I was convinced I could 'beat them at it', I had body issues, and it was summer so meals were very laissez faire around the house (AKA: I could get away with it). Atkins is not an easy diet to follow, I didn't feel awake or well when I was on it, and then everything halted when I passed out the first day of band camp. Yep, I took band camp very seriously.
Nutrition seems like something that should be inherently simple to me. Or at least the ideal should. Yet everything is needlessly complicated because the scientific literature started fighting a war in the 80s and it's still going.
To me, I think there are different tiers of dietary health. I also think those tiers need to account that each person needs something slightly different depending on their ancestry. I would organize them like this, with the most important on the top:
1. Get enough calories. Keep from dying.
2. Get enough macronutrients and micronutrients. You know, to prevent deficiencies like kwashiorkor, pernicious anemia, whatever.
3. Get enough nutrients while removing all food allergies and intolerances. Even the minor ones.
4. Follow an allergen free diet while eating organisms that were harvested in optimal health. Low pollutants, better living conditions, etc.
That's it. It should be that simple. I should never have to count calories or tally points. I should just eat until I feel compelled to stop. Food shouldn't be some crazy, uncontrollable monster. Weight management shouldn't be some mysterious thing confined to the world of celebrity diet. It should just intrinsically make sense.
I'm really holding out for this paleo diet because it does seem to make sense to the principles I laid out. It removes all the common food allergens which probably gives your body enough of a rest that it can finally feel what a healthy base line is like. And once I get to that point where all the extra noise is drowned out and my body can be heard, I'm going to add foods back in, one by one to figure out what my own bad guys are.
I'm very excited about all of this. I've always wanted a personalized diet and now I've got a plan. It feels like I could really make this happen.
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