Experimenting with Paleo

While Adam was in Atlanta for training, I decided to try experimenting with the Paleo diet. For those who don't know, the idea behind the paleo diet is that you try to eat a diet more suited to human evolutionary development. It's high in saturated fats, protein, vegetables, and VERY low in carbohydrates. In particular, you avoid grain products and refined sugars as those are believed to have deleterious effects on most people--they cause inflammation and jack up your blood sugar and cholesterol in the form of triglycerides.

Well, I have to say that the experiment was pretty successful. Within the first day I noticed I was shedding retained water and the chronic swelling in my ankles and feet disappeared. My intestines seem much happier with this diet, as well. I ate some bread a couple of days ago and I was not at all pleased with the result. The stuff sits in my stomach like a lump of wood.

The paleo works well for controlling hunger pangs, too. I can easily go down to one meal a day without really noticing, especially if I wait until later in the day to eat. (I start looking around for snacks in the evening, so it's easier for me if I eat later.)

The really funny thing about this (to me) is that Adam is more into this diet than I am. Not *eating* it--he's not the diet type because he wants to be able to eat whatever he feels like eating. No, he's having a fun time making sure I stay on it, to the extend that when he wants to go out, he'll spend time poring over the menu to make sure there's something I can eat. This is quite a sea change for him because usually he's far from supportive whenever I try a diet program of some kind.

It really is pretty surprising how hard it is to find meals that don't involve some sort of bread/pasta/potatoes, though. Usually salads are my best bet, and they're not exactly high in saturated fat. So I expect to be cooking at home more in the future.