I recently started following a paleo diet, to some degree. I've had people telling me about the "caveman diet" for a long time and urging me to try it out. After hearing more about it than usual in the last few months, including pro sc2 player Sheth was swapping to it and having great success (http://www.teamliquidpro.com/news/20...eight-and-pain) I decided to have a go myself. After all, I love eating meat, more of it couldn't be bad right?
Basically it emphasises lot's of natural, unprocessed foods and removing grains, dairy, legumes (beans etc) and junk foods which it claims the body isn't adjusted for and struggles to process and digest.
For me a diet is just a guideline on getting good nutrition and cutting out excess crap from what I want to eat. Whilst I avoid most grains, legumes and dairy with this diet I still eat some and aren't super strict about the diet, it's more a guideline to eating well so I don't gorge on crap.
Large servings of meat, eggs and vegetables at all my meals + several pieces of fruit/nuts throughout the day for snacks has been amazing. I rarely crave junk anymore, and can always eat until I'm full. I feel physically stronger, more energetic and mentally a lot more positive probably because my body is satisfied all the time and I'm not stuffing my face with chocolate late at night!
Some common recipes I cook:
Breakfast: Omelette (2 servings) -
Ingredients:
6-8 eggs (depending on size)
~400gm of frozen vegies (capsicum, beans, broccoli, cauliflower)
2 rashers of bacon (optional)
+any leftovers, chicken, roast vegies or whatever else.
Mixed herbs or Oregano
salt + pepper
Preparation:
1) Defrost vegies in microwave
2) dice bacon
3) chuck them both in the fry pan to fry up
4) break the eggs into a bowl and add a good amount of pepper + herbs, if not using bacon add some salt too.
5) whisk the eggs thoroughly till a thick yellow paste with no lumps
6) Once the bacon and vegies are cooked to your liking pour the eggs over and reduce frypan to low heat. Cook ~7-8 minutes or until browning and then turn over and cook another 2-3 minutes on the other side or until browning.
^^
breakfast/lunch of champions :P
As for vegies, frozen vegies get pretty boring after a while so myself and Dot have started baking up a bigass batch of pumpkin, sweet potato and carrots once a week. We brush them all lightly in oil and mixed herbs and bake them for about 30-40 minutes @180degrees then increase to 230degrees for another 10 minutes to crisp them up. Apparently if you add cinnamon it's delicious, looking to try this on our next batch
Result = a constant supply of delicious roast vegies to go along with every meal.
Often dinner is just a good serving of roast vegies + whatever the meat of the day is:
Dot has become super pro at cooking meat and insists it must sit to room temperature, then rub in garlic, herbs, salt and pepper and let it sit for 10 minutes before cooking it on high temperature either with a turnover every 30second-minute constantly for the whole process or for 2-3 minutes on each side with just one turnover, or until just nice and pink but not too bloody inside.
The Actual Results
Ok so since on this I've dropped about 3-4kg in the past I'd say month or 6 weeks. Most importantly I feel a lot stronger. Partly because I'm ensuring I go jogging 5-6km at least twice a week. This isn't really a lot of exercise especially since in the past I used to go to the gym 5 times a week, however it's completely sustainable and fits my busy work schedule really well. I'm working to slowly increase the amount of exercise I do without every cutting into the rest of my life.
Overall I feel a lot happier and more positive and still eat the occasional grains, pasta or dairy without any real adverse effects other than feeling a bit more bloated/lethargic than I do after a Paleo meal.
Feedback
I'd like to hear anyones input on what possible vitamin deficiencies are possible on a paleo diet, for instance where do I get calcium if I don't eat dairy? Any issues you guys have with it or reasons you like/dislike the diet!
fresh food from market > frozen veggies
i am kinda fine with beans though since they have iron and fibre & folate
(good for blood)
I also have barley and buckwheat noodles from time to time aswell. since they have nutrition unlike normal noodles and rice.
eggplant is pretty epic too.
fresh food from market > frozen veggies
i am kinda fine with beans though since they have iron and fibre & folate
(good for blood)
I also have barley and buckwheat noodles from time to time aswell. since they have nutrition unlike normal noodles and rice.
eggplant is pretty epic too.
Some studies (dunno if all or whatever) have shown that you get a small extra amount of nutrients in frozen veg to the stuff you buy at the supermarket/fruit+veg store. That being said the shop-bought ones will usually taste better! I wish I had a wholesale market near my house I would go to town on the fresh stuff!
@Meatex
Yeah I would never go no carb. I eat lots of sweet potato and carrots and whatnot. Also I'm not completely dairy-free but I am largely avoiding it. Probably only having it once a week when eating out having cheese/mayo/cream/icecream. I'm curious though what nutrients specifically in dairy is useful for muscles/sleep meatex? I've been sleeping super well!
@Pinder It takes a LOT of work to put on lots of muscle! Only people with hyper metabolisms and really strong genes will grow muscles at the rate you're talking about. I think doing some weighted exercises is great, however I agree with you in that going for a run or playing some football is better for you!
@Meatex
I'm curious though what nutrients specifically in dairy is useful for muscles/sleep meatex? I've been sleeping super well!
Casein, whey, BCAA's, fats, carbs, electrolytes, water, nutrients such as, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin K vitamin B-12, vitamin D, biotin, riboflavin and more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PiG
@Pinder
I think doing some weighted exercises is great, however I agree with you in that going for a run or playing some football is better for you!
In seriousness tho, this is my problem with this whole "what is healthy" topic. So many things are healthy to certain extents, that nothing is physically THAT bad for you, in conjunction with other 'healthy' things. There is no such thing as a singularly healthy meal, since if you eat shit for the other meals, you are still not actively being 'healthy'. For many other reasons this is why I don't really give a shit what I eat as long as I hit my protein/carbs/fat intake, and don't worry about all the other crap, because at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter, and there are so many other more important things to worry about. This blog is kinda off-topic now as most threads that discuss diet are, so I'm going to stop posting I guess, unless someone says something really wrong (guy who said eat differently for different blood-type /facepalm)
Casein, whey, BCAA's, fats, carbs, electrolytes, water, nutrients such as, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin K vitamin B-12, vitamin D, biotin, riboflavin and more.
Better for you how?
Just my opinion that you get a lot more out of running around playing sport doing natural sort of activities that that increase flexibility and are more cardio focused than lifting weights. The joggers and sports-players I know personally almost always seem "healthier" than the weightlifters. The guys that do both tend to look stronger and healthier than either of course.
Might as well copy-paste latest updates from the TL convo also:
Quote:
On March 06 2013 00:39 QuanticHawk wrote:
i can see avoiding grains and processed shit, but what's with no beans?? beans are ******* awesome and generally pretty healthy. i am no nutritionist so i dont know why that is
my only experience with paleo stuff is once I made some pad thai recipe i saw using zucchini instead of noodles, i think. it was pretty good actually
Yeah I used to consume a lot of beans, lentils, chickpeas etc. I actually didn't eat much meat at all for quite a few years when I was extremely poor while studying and used a lot of legumes to make up for it. I haven't looked into the rationalisation behind them being not bad for you, nutritionally. I think I'll look it up.
First google search pro-paleo:
"Legumes have a similar story to grains; they weren’t consumed by the paleo hunter-gatherer because they needed to be cooked in order to be edible. Legumes also have similar traits to grains in their make-up; they contain phytates which inhibit nutrient absorption and cause inflammation. They also contain lectins and play with healthy hormonal functions.
Types of legumes to avoid on the paleo diet include lentils, all beans (such as kidney beans, pinto beans and broad beans), peanuts (peanuts are a legume not a nut), soy beans and chickpeas." http://www.livingpaleo.com/foods-to-...he-paleo-diet/
Next google search "debunking paleo":
"But (and there’s a big “but”): Legumes and whole grains have also been shown to reduce risk of disease and improve insulin sensitivity and blood glucose levels — not to mention decrease BMI[7][8][9][10]. So what justifies keeping them out of our bellies? Paleo proponents argue that legumes, grains, and other starches (i.e. potatoes) contain high levels of antinutrients (lectin, prolamin, phytate and saponins, for starters). These compounds, the Paleo philosophy holds, block key digestive enzymes, promote inflammation and, in some cases, lie at the root of autoimmune diseases and cancer[11].
Research does show that excess consumption of some antinutrients offsets our belly’s bacteria levels and puts us at risk for inflammatory diseases like asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel syndrome[12][13]. But there isn’t as much science to support cutting them out completely. Some studies suggest dietary lectins from legumes and grains may bolster good bacteria inside our tummies and aid digestion[14]." -http://greatist.com/health/debunking-diets-paleo-facts/
Quote:
On March 06 2013 03:59 Kukaracha wrote:
Quote:
On March 06 2013 03:23 Grumbels wrote:
I don't get the paleo diet. It sounds to me like a pseudo intellectual way to rationalize eating lots of meat and eggs every day. Congrats, you can now convince yourself that the food you want to eat anyway is good for you.
Huh? The paleo diet is actually quite restrictive. Try eating only meat and vegetables. It's not cheap and it's not easy to make, unlike daily plates of pasta.
I've found my grocery bills actually aren't any higher, partly because I don't spend money anymore. I know in some countries meat and fresh produce is a lot more expensive than here in Australia though so it would be extremely hard to follow in a place like Japan!
I have to agree with you that the whole caveman, rationality behind the diet and lack of strong science behind some of its elements makes me doubt the benefits of it all. I do think the way it's explained like this gives it an incredibly sensory description to the diet that makes it seem very attractive. It is extremely easy to understand the general concept behind the diet, and the diet itself involves eating a lot of meat, fresh fruit and vegetables and of course this makes people feel good. Hence hype builds around the diet and it gets very popular.
(@Kez read from here and understand what benefits a diet gives people, it's never about supreme health like people like to imagine, its just about improved lifestyle! )
That being said I feel there are some points in the diet which are very strong. For me, a diet is just a way of guiding myself towards eating foods that make me strong and feel good, and away from the ones that make me feel like crap. The Paleo diet rules out all the categories of food that are extremely energy-dense and emphasises ways to enjoy a lot of foods that you can eat until you are full. This results in a diet that allows you to lose weight, sleep well, feel stronger and healthier from increased protein and vegetable/fruit nutrition and at the end of the day it doesn't impact your lifestyle very heavily. There are no moments where you feel like starving and in fact you feel less lethargic and tired after meals as your body fills up quicker and digests easier on meat + vegies.
So for me the diet is a big win so far. I think I'll start taking a multivitamin and eating sesame seeds to make up my calcium and any other nutritional holes in the diet .
I appreciate the feedback from everyone it's already made me more aware of a few things I'll be researching into further
Well that's my point really, that its a lifestyle not a said 'diet' that you can only eat 'x' food because of 'y' reason, and that nearly any diet can work if its fits your lifestyle.
However I STRONGLY disagree with "just my opinion that you get a lot more out of running around playing sport doing natural sort of activities that that increase flexibility and are more cardio focused than lifting weights. The joggers and sports-players I know personally almost always seem "healthier" than the weightlifters. The guys that do both tend to look stronger and healthier than either of course."
A weightlifter, and even a bodybuilder (yes there is a difference) will always be stronger than any cardio/fitness/sports person and will also be fitter than any regular joe, and even some more so than less-fit cardio/'fitness' people. Somewhere along the way weightlifters and bodybuilders got demonised as unfit and not strong (lol) but you need a pretty decent amount of cardiovascular strength and endurance to do long lifting sessions. Furthermore, they are still pretty unrelated in terms of what your goals are. A weightlifter will never be a marathon runner, and a marathon runner will never be able able to lift like a weightlifter. They are just different, and don't need to be compared, but both are still good for your 'health' as typically a good looking body is a healthy body.
@duckvillelol, I neglected bringing up ketones because I didn't want to have to get into the science too much. When we starve the brain of glucose our body will make us glucose or ketone bodies from effectively 2 locations. We more or less burn fat to create ketone bodies (good thing). But then we get an excess of ketone bodies in the blood which disturbs the acid/base balance towards acidic blood. When ketosis occurs purely from nutritional reasons the levels are reasonably low and shouldn't represent a problem unless other stresses compound the issue. But the brain physically can't derive all it's energy from ketones, some glucose needs to come from somewhere.
To supplement this though the body will breakdown certain proteins that can be turned into intermediate products of the kreb's cycle to mimic glucose. This is my main issue, if you take carbs out entirely (which I appreciate you aren't) your body will start breaking down your muscles and even though the goal of these diets is to slim down this strikes me as not what people are wanting.
The main thing is that we take these things with a degree of moderation which is what everyone here seems to be doing. At minimum your brain will usually require 30 or so grams of glucose a day when running on ketones, any extra you need will be produced from the protein in your diet and muscles.
Yeah I would never go no carb. I eat lots of sweet potato and carrots and whatnot. Also I'm not completely dairy-free but I am largely avoiding it. Probably only having it once a week when eating out having cheese/mayo/cream/icecream. I'm curious though what nutrients specifically in dairy is useful for muscles/sleep meatex? I've been sleeping super well!
I have always had trouble sleeping since uni 0.o But milk has a good amount of protein and the stuff that helps you relax and sleep though can't remember what it was called.
I read it recentlyish flipping through a mens health magazine
Another thing I read was that the no carbs in the evening thing is a myth and what matters is type of carbs
As I said I cannot keep a proper diet cause of my parents so I just try to keep away from sugars and exercise a lot. Though I don't think i'm losing any weight I at least am not gaining except in muscles
and regarding the cardio vs weightlifting... I think both are needed in a routine... but not excessive bench work
Im not jumping on this cross-fit bandwagon, but i can honestly say i haven't felt as good as i currently do in a long time
I followed the Body4Life program for 3 months got huge.. i felt super strong but was very slow due to the extra muscle and weight.
last year i did a Squash / Cycling only routine and i lost alot of weight but i didn't feel strong... didn't get definition, just skinny.
I think a good combination of cardio, and exercises using your own body weight is the way to go, Just give those filthy 50's a go
I did a ketogenic diet for a solid 4 months and lost ~20kg over this summer. Easily one of the best choices of my life, and would highly recommend paleo/keto as a temporary solution whist you exercise. I couldn't vouch for it over a long-term, but I've heard a lot of stories that people are able to successfully do it.
I'd say the best thing about it is that it forces you to eat clean as opposed to dirty, and any muscle gain will look 10x better than if you bulked it on in any other ways.
There are subreddits dedicated to paleo/keto, and I highly recommend checking them out for ideas/nutritional info/recipes.
Best of luck man, it's truly an eye-opener to how you eat and how foods work!
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