Paleo baby, Paleo. I've never in my life been into specific diets, and have been very skeptical about crazy sounding ones like Atkins, but I'm sold on Paleo.
The underlying reasoning makes sense to me - homo sapiens have existed for the 200,000 years (and our various ancestors for millions of years before that), and for the first 190,000 years we lived on and evolved with hunter-gather diets.
It wasn't until 10,000 years ago that agriculture was invented and our nutritional intake, lifestyle, culture, economics, and everything else changed with it. But physiologically we haven't fully overcome millions of years of adaptation to the hunter-gatherer diet.
Paleo is about constraining your diet to something as close to the hunter-gatherer diet as possible - no processed sugars or grains, but rather meat/fish/poultry, nuts, berries, roots, vegetables that don't require agriculture to obtain, some fruits, etc.
A few benefits off the top of my head - I'm less hungry, more satisfied, and have more sustained energy throughout the day, with less food. I feel 'cleaner' and healthier, and have almost no gas (the biggest revelation). And I've never had a terribly unhealthy junkfood diet, but Paleo is still a noticeable improvement.
You can also cheat and go 70%-80% Paleo, instead of strictly 100%, and still derive some benefits (enough to sell you on it), although 100% Paleo is exponentially better.
There's also no crazy initiation period like there is with Atkins and South Beach, you just go read a book about what constitutes Paleo food, and start integrating it into your diet and replacing non-paleo foods at your own pace.
Something I'm very passionate about is explaining that "Paleo" is not a diet in the traditional sense. It's a lifestyle that promotes health and disease prevention through food choices and exercise which has the additional benefit of easy weight loss.
It's also the easiest* food/health hack that I've ever experienced.
*easiest: I don't get food cravings, can still eat amazing food (try Vietnamese without the rice/noodles), and am actually enjoying exercising 30 - 45 mins a day.
Go Paleo/Primal, do a little exercise, eat bacon, gain washboard abs.
(although that last statement is a little flippant, a paleo lifestyle will help reduce a number of inflammatory diseases, and other issues associated with lectins, omega 3/6 imbalances, etc)
On the hunter gatherer theme I practice alternate day fasting. This is where you eat normally every alternate day and limit your food intake to 600-700 calories on your 'off' days.
The theory being that hunter gatherers when going to hunt wouldn't eat every day, but might be out for a couple of days subsisting on berries and fruit. I aim to try and do a off,off,on pattern when I get used to this.
Yes, I've heard that too, and have done it a few times but not regularly. Another way of stating it: make your food intake frequency vary like a power law distribution, with a day or more of relative fasting interspersed with spikes of glutony, rather than keeping it constant.
x2. I follow a modified Paleo diet- include milk, cheese and yogurt, no processed carbs or sugar (I relax on the weekends). I used to get sick 2-3 times a year, since I switched to Paleo 3 years ago, I've been sick once (in 3 years). I feel good, energetic and my athletic performance has improved. Can't recommend it enough.
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Paleo baby, Paleo. I've never in my life been into specific diets, and have been very skeptical about crazy sounding ones like Atkins, but I'm sold on Paleo.
The underlying reasoning makes sense to me - homo sapiens have existed for the 200,000 years (and our various ancestors for millions of years before that), and for the first 190,000 years we lived on and evolved with hunter-gather diets.
It wasn't until 10,000 years ago that agriculture was invented and our nutritional intake, lifestyle, culture, economics, and everything else changed with it. But physiologically we haven't fully overcome millions of years of adaptation to the hunter-gatherer diet.
Paleo is about constraining your diet to something as close to the hunter-gatherer diet as possible - no processed sugars or grains, but rather meat/fish/poultry, nuts, berries, roots, vegetables that don't require agriculture to obtain, some fruits, etc.
A few benefits off the top of my head - I'm less hungry, more satisfied, and have more sustained energy throughout the day, with less food. I feel 'cleaner' and healthier, and have almost no gas (the biggest revelation). And I've never had a terribly unhealthy junkfood diet, but Paleo is still a noticeable improvement.
You can also cheat and go 70%-80% Paleo, instead of strictly 100%, and still derive some benefits (enough to sell you on it), although 100% Paleo is exponentially better.
There's also no crazy initiation period like there is with Atkins and South Beach, you just go read a book about what constitutes Paleo food, and start integrating it into your diet and replacing non-paleo foods at your own pace.
I highly recommend checking it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_diet
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
http://www.arthurdevany.com/
http://reddit.com/r/paleo
Something I'm very passionate about is explaining that "Paleo" is not a diet in the traditional sense. It's a lifestyle that promotes health and disease prevention through food choices and exercise which has the additional benefit of easy weight loss.
It's also the easiest* food/health hack that I've ever experienced.
*easiest: I don't get food cravings, can still eat amazing food (try Vietnamese without the rice/noodles), and am actually enjoying exercising 30 - 45 mins a day.
Go Paleo/Primal, do a little exercise, eat bacon, gain washboard abs.
(although that last statement is a little flippant, a paleo lifestyle will help reduce a number of inflammatory diseases, and other issues associated with lectins, omega 3/6 imbalances, etc)
On the hunter gatherer theme I practice alternate day fasting. This is where you eat normally every alternate day and limit your food intake to 600-700 calories on your 'off' days. The theory being that hunter gatherers when going to hunt wouldn't eat every day, but might be out for a couple of days subsisting on berries and fruit. I aim to try and do a off,off,on pattern when I get used to this.
Lost 5kg in a month.
Yes, I've heard that too, and have done it a few times but not regularly. Another way of stating it: make your food intake frequency vary like a power law distribution, with a day or more of relative fasting interspersed with spikes of glutony, rather than keeping it constant.
x2. I follow a modified Paleo diet- include milk, cheese and yogurt, no processed carbs or sugar (I relax on the weekends). I used to get sick 2-3 times a year, since I switched to Paleo 3 years ago, I've been sick once (in 3 years). I feel good, energetic and my athletic performance has improved. Can't recommend it enough.
If you knew how meat is produced, you'd not feel as good.
I get my meat (grass feed, free range) from a local butcher/farmer. I know exactly how it's produced and where it comes from.
There are any number of ways to get your food. Shrink wrapped from a bulk supplier is only one of them.