Today I’m fasting — doctor’s orders (vision quest, vision quest, vision quest) — So naturally, by 9:00 a.m. I was ravenous.
That’s ridiculous. I often don’t eat until 11:30 or noon without even thinking about it. And since I practice intermittant fasting (IF), going without food until late afternoon or early evening is fairly routine and entirely non-traumatic.
But tell me I can’t eat — and poor, pitiful me!
—–
Speaking of IF, which is part of going primal … somebody twitted me the other day about my drinking sugary tea to recover from a hot, sweaty morning on the roof.
“Since when is sugar primal?” said twitter queried pointedly.
Um … well, yeah. Since never. But I haven’t been strictly primal for a while. And even if I were, I’d probably keep some sugary, salty, electrolyty-chemically beverage on hand for body-out-of-whack emergencies.
I did go straight primal for a while about six years ago and it was interesting. It helps a lot of people and toward the bottom here I’ll say why I think it can be a great idea. But I wasn’t looking to clear up any medical condition or lose weight or gain muscle mass or any of the things primalistas rave about. So interesting was about the extent of it.
These days my diet is somewhere between modified primal and modified Mediterranean. Tons of veggies, nuts, seeds, modest consumption of fruits, healthy oils and butter, white meat and fish, other meats used more as a condiment than a main dish, and once in a while some whole grains. (I do think the no-grain recommendation of primal/paleo makes sense; I’m just more inclined toward moderation.)
The biggest differences between my diet now and primal/paleo or whatever varients are around nowadays are legumes (because, face it, these are the king foods for providing both protein and fiber in one delicious bean dip), starchy root veggies, and the fact that I’ll occasionally eat any darned thing I want and damn anybody’s rules.
I got tired of reading primalista lists of “10 foods you must absolutely never touch” and of reading absurd recipes for recreating processed junk foods with “healthy” ingredients. Srsly? You mean I can’t ever eat potatoes, but I can spend two hours whipping up some faux substitute for cheesecake as long as I use powders I bought from your website? Um … no.
Cavemen ate … whatever non-poisonous natural thing they could get their hands on. And I’m going with that.
I still think primal/paleo can be a great idea for anyone who really needs to change lifetime eating habits. If you’re overweight, sluggish, chronically ill, have bowel problems, or other miscellaneous conditions that have resisted every proposed cure, giving up processed foods in favor of veggies, nuts, seeds, and grass-fed meats might just perform a miracle for you.
But that said, it’s most likely the giving up processed foods and eating healthy, natural ones that’s the miracle worker. Unless you have specific bad reactions to certain foods (and I know some here do), a medical condition, or you’re in training for a marathon or somesuch, there’s rarely a need to follow anybody’s rigid nutrition regimen.
The great thing about primal/paleo (and all their cousins) is that they get you thinking down a better path. Going primal for a time certainly made me very conscious of what I eat and what effect my choices have on mind and body. It put me on a healthier, more conscious path.
But paths have lots of turnings and branches.
I went through the process you’re going through a few years ago- the ‘don’t eat this and don’t eat that’ for a couple of days and then the fast. In the evening you’ll have to drink that foul tasting stuff and then wait for the action to start.
The only advice I can offer is that when you feel the first twinges, don’t stop to look for a magazine, a book or the paper. Hurry yourself down the hall immediately or you’ll be in big trouble.
So, stock the little room with reading material in advance of the happy event. And remember that two is one, one is none…
Not precisely sure what procedure you’re preparing yourself for, but I went through something requiring similar preparation several/many years ago. (Men have this thing called a “prostate”) Interesting* experience, and had I suffered any uncertainties before it certainly would have ended any question of whether I’m a closet homosexual.
*”Interesting,” in this context to be taken as meaning humiliating and deeply, deeply, oh god deeply unpleasant. Fortunately, once it was over it was over.
I tried several diets, most of them made me sicker than I was when I started. I eventually designed my own, using spreadsheets and nutritional databases to make sure I was getting all the nutrients.
The eating plans I came up with ended up being WAY too much food, but were still under 2000 calories. My metabolism is slow enough that cutting the meal plan in half works just fine. I’ve been following that diet (mostly!) since Jan and it seems to be helping some. But, I’m not an expert and I don’t claim it would work for anyone else.
What prompted it was ending up in the ER with what I swear felt like a heart attack, but turned out to be potassium deficiency. Blood tests taken then and in the weeks that followed also showed my iron levels dropping steadily, to the point where my doctor asked me how it was I was still conscious. (I felt normal, but then, I’ve had so many health problems that my “normal” is probably skewed.) Since supplements made me throw up, she put me on IV iron for a while. Just what someone who’s needle-phobic needs, right? I figured I’d better find a way to get stuff through food, because there was no way I could do that much longer.
I don’t practice intermittant fasting on purpose, but on my days off I tend to get so focused on a project that I forget to eat. Does that count?
“Does that count?”
Yup. That counts. In fact, I find that’s the best kind of IF (at least for me).
Wow, you have been through a lot with nutrition! Just my opinion, but I think for some of us, the “modern” processed-food diet we grow up with seriously whacks out our bodies for a long, long time. Getting back to any sort of healthy state can be a lot more difficult for some than others.
The diet that has worked for me has been a low carb 1800 cal diabetic diet. Found out May 15 I was type 2 diabetic had to make a serious life change. I exercise for about 1 hour a day low impact pool exercises in the summer months now walking daily. I have managed to lose 40 lbs so far. I was considering weight loss surgery but now have changed my mind. I will always be diabetic so I cant really go off of this diet like I could do with other diets in the past.
Joe — Good work on making such a major change.
Define ‘paleo’. [grin]
I hope it is not a colonoscopy. My brother just had one a couple of weeks ago and then two days later had to go back to the hospital for 2 days for excessive bleeding.
“Cavemen ate … whatever non-poisonous natural thing they could get their hands on. And I’m going with that.“
Agreed. And a lot of those foods paleo proponents say did not exist cannot be proven because they left no evidence behind, such as animals leave bones.
Jo Robinson, the author of ”Eating on the Wild Side”
http://www.amazon.com/Eating-Wild-Side-Missing-Optimum/dp/0316227935/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441744951&sr, offers research evidence for some foods (legumes, potatoes, corn, e.g.) that Paleos deny were eaten at that time. But it’s reasonable to assume that any food that has evolved naturally had to begin somewhere. And that book explains how many fruits and vegetables did evolve. (Some with human help when humans became aware of “the sweetness factor” – it mostly began with grafting a sweeter item onto a less sweet item.)
I eat a mostly paleo diet, but am limited to much of paleo by intolerance for most grains and other high glycemic-index carbs. I also cannot tolerate processed foods (due to intolerance of MSG and nitrates/nitrites). I have no true allergies except wheat and nuts, but eating fast-converting carbs > sugars do make my joints ache. I think this is a pre-disposition to diabetes, but as long as I stay away from them, I can control my diet and well-being. (It took several years to reach this acceptance, but now eat, say, hamburgers or BBQ without buns, I make several condiments from scratch – ketchup, tartar sauce and seafood sauce, e.g. – and don’t miss most “white foods” anymore.)
Hope “the procedure” went well and came out with a clean healthy report!
“The (Infamous) Procedure” was scheduled for this a.m. and has now been moved back to midday. I’m starving, but probably wouldn’t feel up to eating even if I were allowed. Oh well.
That was a perfect explanation…and the by-word for certain is ‘moderation’, which Miss Claire has got a terrific grip upon. Your words are ‘whole foods’ to me. 🙂
Great blog post. All of it.
“…and the fact that I’ll occasionally eat any darned thing I want and damn anybody’s rules.”
😀
“Cavemen ate … whatever non-poisonous natural thing they could get their hands on. And I’m going with that.”
As would any thinking individual who has spent more than two nights in a row camping.
Suburban hipsters do not have the practical life experience to give them a realistic framework through which to evaluate how their ancestors -from ANY prior era- lived.
“Srsly? You mean I can’t ever eat potatoes, but I can spend two hours whipping up some faux substitute for cheesecake as long as I use powders I bought from your website? Um … no.”
I always had a good laugh at this. “You can’t eat mom’s homemade rolls anymore cause it’s gonna make your belly explode but HERES A RECIPE FOR PALEO CUPCAKES its got weird powder and smashed up fruit and it looks a chicken nugget but it’s really good. I don’t understand what a Macro-nutrient is I just read a lot of blogs. OOOOh look, barefoot shoes!”
Having gotten back into the gym again and diet being a part of that…I looked at the primal thing…and decided to skip right over it. Considering that most of the paleo fitness crowd looks more at home in a coffee shop where poetry slams take place than a gym…no thanks. Have fun discussing Crossfit over Espresso shots.
I do know a few impressive powerlifters that have pulled off the ketogenic thing with great results, but hearing them tell about having to frequently time the consumption of carbs that sounded like how a diabetic would take…make me err away from that. Maybe if I could juice up and dedicate 4 hours a day to working out, but nah. There’s a lot of science around carbs and fitness and it’s a hell of a lot easier do deal with.
Claire, you’ve just described approximately my own take on food. Give up sugar and milk? Ain’t gonna happen. But I do cut down sugar as much as I can tolerate.
I also go for intermittent fasting AKA not getting around to having lunch and breakfast. The overall project is just to eat less in general. At my age I no longer burn the calories that I used to, so I’d better also not consume them in the first place.
This year I added 2 TBSP raw hulled hemp seed daily to increase protein intake, replaced most oils and fats with raw coconut oil as well. I’m making kefir too, consuming at least 16 oz a day. Nothing else changed much… never had a sweet tooth. I bake my own whole grain bread each week, and do grow a few vegetables (providing it doesn’t hail too much…)
I’m too disabled to get any serious exercise, and often struggle just to climb the stairs in the morning.
In any case, over the last six or seven months I’ve lost 50 pounds. Still losing gradually, with no idea what’s actually going on. I’m not going to worry about it, at least not just yet.
So now, what is paleo?
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/09/14/440292003/paleo-people-were-making-flour-32-000-years-ago