Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Diary Of A Caveman





The “CrossfitLondon UK Lent/Palaeo/Zone/Try somethingdifferent diet challenge” lasted from 22nd February to the first weekend in April a not too insignificant amount of time.  People were invited to choose a diet and try their best for the period of Lent. Lent being the traditional Christian period of abstinence other periods of abstinence are available and in fact there was nothing religious about the challenge. Although people do get very Evangelical and often preach about such subjects. The challenge started with a weigh-in, measurements taken along with some calliper and body fat composition measuring and the obligatory before photographs.

I opted for a Palaeo style diet it seemed the hardest challenge to do and therefore the most appealing and rewarding, in my eyes. I have had it pointed out to me that I am an extreme character, all or nothing, no in between.  On reflection I have to agree.  I did not make the measuring and weighing. But I knew I was carrying surplus pounds my size 30 jeans were struggling and I could see the changes in my body composition. 

On my diet I cut out rice, pasta, bread, milk, cheese, other dairy, cereals, beans, tea, coffee, alcohol, chocolate and all types of deserts and greatly reduced potatoes (maybe once a week). I had one weekend off for a pre planned birthday party.   The first couple of days I was exhausted and in bed by 9pm asleep! I put this down to the zero caffeine but my girlfriend pointed out that I should check my calorie count. I had been consuming only 1200 calories a day. I should be at least double that. I addressed that by eating loads between meals. The Zone diet would have avoided this.  

A typical day would look like this:
Breakfast; 3 egg omelette with some sort of meat, usually chorizo.

Lunch; meat usually chicken, fruit usually berries, sardines, banana.

Dinner, meat or fish loads of either salad or vegetables.

I drank nearly exclusively only water for the whole period.  If I cheated it was orange juice. 

I snacked on nuts, fruit and seeds constantly.  

I decided not to do all that alternative Palaeo substitutes. Palaeo pancakes, palaeo muffins, palaeo cup cakes, palaeo ice cream etc. In my eyes it’s cheating. Austere is where it’s at.        

So what were my experiences? 

Well you have to constantly plan and think about your food and look for alternatives. Pop into Pizza Express and look at the menu! When eating out I found myself asking for alternatives and or leaving food on my plate.  Which I hate doing.  Going out with friends and watching them getting drunk was odd.  It made me feel strangely superior and in control and saved me a small fortune. I have lost weight and my jeans fit me again (sigh of relief) on the training side I have not been following my usual program as I am currently experimenting with the Smolov squat routine, probably poor timing but I seem to be making progress. Look out for a future post on this.  I feel great generally, sleep really well and I too have noticed improved dental hygiene I guess it’s the lack of tannin and sugar. Plus I have also noticed my shoulder inflammation issues have gone.  I did/do have low days when I wanted that chocolate fudge cake and a nice coffee after a good meal but I am very stubborn and always got passed it. If I craved something sweet, a chilled orange did the job just great. 

What changes will I keep?

Tea and coffee definitely will be massively reduced I was a 10 cup a day man sometimes. I substituted mugs of hot water, strangely comforting. Alcohol too (although not 10 cups a day!) my extreme personality meant that when I drank, I got on it! I like not feeling shit, sorry Janie (I will come back to that later).  I already had cut or greatly reduced bread, rice, pasta and potatoes and will continue with this. Plus my desire to end every meal with a desert has been conquered too.

What are the lessons?

Very early on I came to realise that Palaeo’ was a misnomer.  I am a bit of an amateur anthropologist and already had some understanding of what Palaeolithic man lived like and more importantly what we do not know. I intended to write extensively on this but you can read about it here instead and more here too. Both excellent articles.

But just to summarise most vegetables if not all on your plate are “man made” that is they have been selectively grown and harvested to produce something that is disease resistant, looks pretty and tastes good. Most wild vegetables don’t comply.  In fact they taste bitter and foul, its part of their survival system. Where as, wild fruit are pretty and taste good, they need to be, so that they are consumed in order to reproduce.  The idea of meat everyday would not be realistic, even every week.  Hunter gatherers are opportunistic and seasonal.

Palaeo’ man and woman eat to survive we eat to enjoy and thrive often way beyond what could be considered normal.  Athletes whether Crossfitters, bodybuilders, soldiers, etc, take their bodies and smash them to pieces and rebuild them to improve. These adaptations constantly require huge amounts of nutrient dense foods, Palaeo’ man would not have this luxury.

But there is a massive amount of ever growing evidence that starchy grains are not good for us and that sugar is the problem and not fat. I use these terms in their broadest definitions. These poor choices are not helped when dieticians and governmental bodies along with associated educators are still harping on about the high carb’ low fat diets.  Food for thought, take a look at this.

I have learnt a lot about myself and peoples perceptions of me.  I was amazed at how many people would say “Diet!? But you don’t need to lose any weight” I have mentioned this in other posts but people instantly associate the word diet with weight loss. I think this says a lot about our culture.  Diet obviously is not just about weight loss.  I have also learned that those close to you often regard the changes that you make as slightly negative and view them from a point of view of “How will this affect me?”  I have learned that I can go out and socialise and have fun without alcohol, some find this worrying, interesting… 

2 comments:

  1. Great post colin!

    I too, had that 'you don't need to lose weight comment'. But for me it has always been eating better than eating less. Most people forget that losing weight is only a by product of becoming healthier (given certain circumstances of course)

    -allan

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  2. Thanks mate, its always nice to know you are normal like everyone else!

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