Finding a Label That Fits, aka I Don't Care If It's Paleo

It seems that some of the people who influenced me when I first went "primal" or "paleo" back in 2011 are squirming a bit under those labels. 

That actually pleases me, because I just can't seem to be comfortable with those labels myself these days. I played with the term "easygoing paleo" lately, but that was because I didn't know what else to call myself.

Here's the thing: I have no patience for conversations based on "Is it paleo?" I agree with Melissa McEwen over at Hunt Gather Love that it's about eating in whatever way works to improve or sustain your health. It's a process of discovery, not an education on how to conform to a label or some one-size-fits-all set of rules.

As we experiment over time, some things that work for me won't work for you and vice versa. I don't see that as failure. Ideally, as we learn from our experiments and personal reactions we can all succeed in becoming and staying as healthy as possible. We can share information at community level for testing at the individual level.

As Melissa's current post points out, what works in one month or year isn't necessarily what works later. We start with different problems and our bodies change over time based on so many factors that we're trying to catch raindrops with a sieve half the time. Sometimes the changes allow us to be more indulgent and other times they force us to retreat back to "safe" foods for a while.

So, where does that leave me? I'm doing very well, thank you. I am ignoring, quite cheerfully, all the conflicting admonitions about what are/aren't the correct paleo foods, ratios, macros, schedules, etc.

I don't care what is/is not paleo or [insert label here.] I care how I'm reacting to my last few meals and what that says about planning my next few meals.

Please note that I'm not anti-paleo or [insert label here.] The latest findings and recommendations are of interest and may generate new ideas for me.

I know that how quickly/slowly I lose my remaining excess fat will be influenced by how often I choose to indulge in a sugary treat or extra fruit. Right now, I'm not indulging often because losing fat is a higher priority than dessert.

The only problem I have is coming up with a label that does describe my current eating habits. There's some overlap with paleo, vegan and other regimens that emphasize whole foods, but I don't think I'm in full compliance with any popular approach. I suspect that means I'm doing it right, so if we must have a label for my eating habits I choose "common sense."

Thoughts About Ancestral Eating

Note: I read and enjoy every single comment. At the moment, though, the darn blog isn't letting me reply. My comments disappear into thin air--maybe the universe is trying to tell me something?

I've been somewhat philosophical this weekend, pondering what I/we mean when we say we practice ancestral eating. There are many iterations out there, after all.

I was reading a great blog post over at Paleo for Women and her comments were centered around the recent paleo conference, paleo fx.

Two of her comments caught my eye: eating lots of fruit, and being ashamed of it, and "I suspect the paleo diet’s infatuation with fat with some day be debunked." She wasn't saying fat was bad, by the way, but questioning the assumption that it's somehow holy and the only good body fuel.

Anyhow, I had to laugh when she said she "came out" about loving fruit but still shaded her confessed intake downward--I did that just yesterday! When I wrote my Saturday Brunch post I described my fruit dish as "banana and a mineola orange" rather than "2 bananas and a mineola orange." I definitely eat more fruit than many paleos if their online comments are accurate.

Her other comment, about paleo infatuation with fat, also struck a chord because I'm convinced it's healthy, for me at least, to avoid meals that consist only of high-fat/starch foods. My gut, brain and muscles all perform much better after meals if I eat a combination of food types and densities. On a daily basis, that means my main dish may be meat and/or tubers but the total meal includes greens, low-starch vegetables and/or fruit. If I eat just the meat/tubers my brain and gut just aren't satisfied enough to leave me alone until the next day. I love fatty meat, but it's a bit much without the salad. I enjoy tubers, but I enjoy them more paired with colorful low-starch veggies.

This morning I was not in a mood to cook; I spent my time outside enjoying our beautiful cool Nevada morning. So, I popped 2 nice potatoes into my toaster oven, one sweet and one white, and went back outside.

Since I wanted to go low-prep, I completed my meal plan with banana (just 1 this time) and an orange. When I dished out the sweet potato, which was ready before the white one, I rinsed and added canned green beans. The beans have a pleasant flavor with the yam and make a decent substitute for greens when I'm too lazy busy to make a salad. I might have added broccoli, asparagus or something else low starch instead. Low-starch plants add a nice amount of food volume while diluting the intensity of the tubers/meat. I didn't bother heating the beans; I just put a little butter on the yam, waited for it to melt, then dumped on the beans. I flipped them over after a minute or so and they were nicely warm when I ate them.

When I finished my potatoes--the white one was simply buttered with salt and pepper--I had the banana/orange dish as my dessert.

What works for you? Do you also eat meals of mixed food densities, or do you strongly favor density vs. volume?

Hands-On Eating: The Importance of Finger Food

The other day I was thinking about my history of binge eating and I had an "ah-ha" moment. My personal binge foods list included: burgers, fries, hot dogs, chips, popcorn, crackers, cookies, Hostess  cupcakes, etc. ALL of those are things you eat with your hands. There's a tactile element quite different from the typical use of silverware--which may relate to why so many Americans enjoy playing/eating with chopsticks.

I also realized that one of my favorite meals at present is the "tear and crunch." The "tear and crunch" meal is a large bowl of raw vegetables--today's included large, intact leaves of leaf lettuce (1/4 head?) plus about 5 stalks of celery, a palm-sized chunk of red bell pepper and a similar amount of fresh fennel and cauliflower. I also threw in 2 small skin-on carrots. Since I am not all-raw or vegan I measured 2 tbsp of vinegar and 3 of olive oil and sprinkled that over the lot. I also sprinkled on some kelp powder and RealSalt.

I don't blame you if you say that meal should be called "salad" but I like "tear and crunch" because I left everything in much larger pieces and used no silverware. It felt like a much more primitive way of eating as compared to polite forkfuls of salad.  I wrapped the crunchy vegetables in 2-3 layers of folded lettuce leaves but ate the celery and carrots on their own. I'll freely admit that I could probably eat this meal without the oil and vinegar, but why would I?

Look at the 2 photos below; see the difference?

I'm not saying that silverware caused my binge eating disorder, although there's probably a funny joke in there somewhere, but I'm convinced that part of the comfort I enjoyed from my binges was the tactile involvement of grabbing the food and sucking my fingers, etc.

Based on that, I'm pretty sure part of my enjoyment of fruit and my "tear and crunch" meals is that my hands are involved. To the extent that it's helping sustain my apparent recovery from disordered eating, I'd say finger food aka "tear and crunch" is pretty important.

How about you? Do you enjoy hands-on eating?

Training for Maintenance: It's Not Easy

This is the 3rd post in a series about taking a break from active fasting/dieting and just practicing what my daily life would be if food were not the central issue in my life. I still lack confidence about maintaining a good weight because of my history of yo-yo dieting and relapses of binge eating. The kick-off post of this series can be found here and part 2 here.


"I eat merely to put food out of my mind."  N.F. Simpson

While I've been doing well, I suspect maintenance won't be easy for me because I seem hard-wired to obsess about food whether the focus is buying/eating junk or buying/eating healthy or reading non-stop about eating. There aren't that many ex-bingers walking around the US looking lean so I will count my whole-foods journey as a success if I manage to reach/stay at a desirable weight even if I have to struggle with obsession forever.

After two weeks of concerted effort, I MAY have managed not to think too much about food yesterday (yes, I see the irony--it's a joke, okay?)  As far as I know, I didn't plan my eating schedule and I didn't build my main meal around a predetermined ratio of macronutrients. I didn't measure ingredients or count calories. I just pretended it was easy to eat whole foods for fuel and go about my business.

Sure, go ahead and laugh but many of those in the "paleo" or  ancestral eating community DO think hard (and communicate almost endlessly) about eating schedules and macronutrient ratios.  But I don't think naturally lean people do that--I've known some and they've always given me bored looks when I talked about trying to lose weight. Some of those friends ate a lot of junk and ate whenever they wanted to without ever getting into trouble. Damn them.

I've also had some lean friends who knew they needed to be careful in what they ate, and were, but managed to make it look easy. They didn't seem to build their lives around what/when they ate. They tried to shop sensibly and eat sensibly and that was about all the thinking they did about food. Frankly, they are my desired role models although I also want to build my nutrition around whole foods which they didn't/don't worry about.

The rest of my friends have either been failed dieters who were out of control or active dieters who were completely obsessed with their efforts because that's what it took for them to continue dieting. I'm assuming this sounds very familiar--I've been in both groups numerous times and I don't recommend either as a long term role.

For my second week of "training" for maintenance I had 2 rules:

• eat only when hungry    
• eat what I wanted from what was in my kitchen

Yesterday was fairly typical of all the days in the past week. I didn't give food much thought while I sipped my morning mugs of coffee (adulterated as usual with heavy cream and honey) other than to marvel at feeling strong and calm. Right around noon I noticed the first stirrings of true (stomach/gut) hunger and opened the fridge to see what looked good.

I grabbed the package of bacon and saw that the grandkid left me 2 pieces; I also grabbed the egg carton but there were only 3 left so I decided to leave those for him (or me on another day.) I slow-fried the bacon on med-low heat and, while it cooked, peeled and ate a grapefruit. Note: I always cut bacon strips in half for even cooking in the hottest parts of the skillet--plus 4 little pieces somehow seems like more than 2 longer strips.

I removed the bacon when browned and added 4 beef patties (from the package of grassfed ground beef I took out of the freezer yesterday.) I have a small package of little-neck clams in the freezer. I heard them calling, but only faintly, so I opened a can of sardines (in olive oil), sprinkled them with powdered mustard AND a spoonful of the liquid bacon fat from the skillet and sat down to enjoy. Big thumb's up for the bacon/sardines combo.

After happily eating the sardines, I flipped the burgers and chopped up 2 small yellow summer squashes. Actually, the squash was my second choice--I'd lost track of some fresh broccoli and when I grabbed it I realized it was no longer "fresh." After taking out the cooked burgers, I dumped the squash into the skillet for gentle cooking/browning. Two of the burgers went into the fridge and the other 2 were my main meal along with the squash. Yes, I know I ate HALF A POUND of beef plus 2 pieces of bacon. Plus the 3 or so cups of squash. Given my history of spectacular binge eating, why would you consider that noteworthy? I skipped salad, after all, due to lack of desire. For the record, this meal made me feel happily full but not uncomfortably stuffed. For the record.

About an hour after eating that delicious meal I decided my sweet tooth needed a fix. I took a handful each of (frozen, organic) wild blueberries and red raspberries--okay, they were LARGE, carefully balanced, handfuls. I was in the process of making yogurt but didn't have any in the fridge, so I poured on a little heavy cream. I didn't measure the cream but there was none sitting in the bottom of the bowl and only some of the fruit was coated--3 tablespoons? 

Anyhow, I credit my recent frozen-fruit-with-yogurt-or-cream romance with totally distracting my lust for ice cream. On my last shopping trip I cheerfully walked past the ice cream section of the store to find the frozen organic fruit section and it didn't feel like a sacrifice.

For me, eating whole foods--only when I'm hungry--will be a key piece. Stocking my kitchen with whole foods and not worrying constantly about food rotations and ratios--and not boring the world with my epic struggles--may be as close as I can come to experiencing maintenance as an "easy" process. I think I will gain some security if I continue my recent practice of monthly status checks, since I can make small, routine adjustments if/as needed yet monthly frequency will not feed day-to-day obsession in the way NOT checking would.

Part of me now feels energized and confident and ready to tackle the final phase of fat loss, but the rest of me feels the need to continue this rest phase. Right now, I'm basically obsessed about not being obsessed but I seem just a little closer to being ready for maintenance. This coming week may be my last one of practicing for maintenance or I may extend the maneuver for another week. Maybe.

What is a Whole Food Anyhow?

Note: I am still "in training" for maintenance and will post my next update on that at mid-week but this post was dominating my thoughts--namely, the importance of shopping  versus eating choices. Nance

Once you get home from the store, your near-future eating choices are pretty much defined--only the sequence remains in doubt. Therefore, the time to grab hold of your emotional commitment to improved health and body profile is on the way to the STORE, not your kitchen. 

That said, as I walked into a store the other day I pondered my mantra of "eat whole foods." What does that mean, I asked myself. After all, I usually start my day with ground/heated/filtered coffee to which I add cream and honey--nothing in that mug can truthfully be called "whole" and I am at peace with that. 

BUT I am standing in a personal commitment to optimize my health and avoiding a dependency on prescribed drugs for as long as possible. So how does "eat whole foods" influence  what goes into my shopping cart? Picture if you will the insides of your local grocery store. For the moment, erase the non-food products such as pet food, cleaning/hygiene products and birthday cards, school supplies, etc.

Half or less of what's in your store is intended to be chewed/swallowed. And of those items, less than half are still close enough to their natural state for easy recognition. Don't scoff! Open that bag of chips/crackers, or cake mix, or even a can of Mountain Dew and identify ALL the ingredients without looking at the packaging--take your time, I'll wait.

Point made, I hope. When I go to the store I walk around the outside first and grab fresh vegetables and fruits plus chunks/pieces of meat and fish/shellfish. Hold any of that in your hand and you won't need a label to tell you what it is. I duck into the aisle to grab canned salmon/sardines--open those cans and you can indeed name them without a label. I walk down another aisle and by visual clues alone I can find olive/coconut oil although I frequently buy online for better quality. In similar fashion, eggs work and even Kerrygold butter, organic cream/milk and frozen organic fruits/vegetables are fine.  And yes, I also buy ground coffee beans and I don't plan to stop but at least they are not the exclusive result of a chemical mixing process with a goal of simulating nutrients.

See? It's really pretty easy and once you accept the concept that to be "food" it must be identifiable by appearance, smell and taste you don't have to be an "expert" to select whole foods. Or make them 90% of your nutrition.

Once you get home with your bounty, just fix meals using the most perishable items first and let your eyes/stomach decide the sequence of the rest. Sounds like "eat whole foods" to me!

Do You Vary Your Eating Routine?

Yep, that's the question for today--how often do you change up what you're eating?

In your "bad old days" that meant switching from burgers to fried chicken, right? I mean, even on the artificially-taste-enhanced SHAD (supposedly healthy American diet) you didn't always eat the same thing every day.

Now that you're buying and fixing/eating real whole foods, variety is even more important for several reasons:  

• boredom is a great way to get tired of eating this way in the fastest possible time  
• good nutrition is achieved by eating lots of different whole foods, each of which contains a different mix of things your body needs   
• your hunger is both stimulated and satisfied by a mix of different foods   

Does that mean you have to eat different things at every meal, or every day? Of course not! If you imagine yourself back on the ancestral plain a successful hunt for meat would be cause for celebration and an initial feast of the choicest bits followed by carefully and thoroughly eating every last scrap of the critter. I assume as you got to the less-favored bits you threw in more and more plant-based tubers, leaves, etc. And if you were out of meat then the gathering of vegetables and fruits was pursued even more vigorously. In that natural environment, you ate a bunch of the particular greens, vegetables and fruits that happened to be tastiest at the time so your menu varied widely on a weekly or monthly basis. 

We're not trying to eat exactly as we really did back in those days--for one thing, I'd be the old granny everyone waved a sad goodbye to when the group had to move out to find food and left me behind because I couldn't keep up. :-))  

But we  can keep our "natural" way in mind and feel free to eat our fill of what sounds/looks good this week knowing that next week we may select a quite different mix. In my case, I find I have times when I eat a LOT of meat and fat but I also have times when I'm really, really hungry for vegetables and fruit and a modest serving of meat--or no meat at all--is fine. If we assume that you've been eating ancestral foods for at least 3 weeks now, your body should be giving you signals now about what is needed and I strongly recommend you follow them.

If you wake up some morning and want a huge meal of fruit and nothing else, go for it unless there's a medical reason not to such as blood sugar response; even if you have to be careful about fruit, just mix it with low-response foods or watch your portion sizes--have what you're hungry for. If you wake up hungry for bacon and eggs--or a slow-fried steak--enjoy and you probably won't want much if any food for the rest of the day. Or maybe you will be hungry, but for other things and that's great too. A lot of raw stuff for a few days followed by a few days of cooked-foods-only is just fine.

I've definitely noticed that my tastes change from week to week and if I allow myself a range of healthy menus I tend to lose weight a little faster even if it seems like I'm eating more. And the good response to variety includes SHAD meals occasionally as long as they don't include wheat. The best "weight loss formula" for me is that there is no set mix of foods to eat--if I always eat the same things I get bored and I stop losing weight.

Yesterday I ate 3 hard-shelled tacos with a few forkfuls each of rice and beans at a nearby cafe. When I got back home I added a few pieces of fruit and a chunk of fried pork rind (I buy large pieces rather than machine-cut products) to complete my daily menu because I was still hungry for those things. This morning, I woke up feeling very hungry and high-energy and that's my typical reaction as long as my splurge doesn't include wheat or manufactured food-like products. I've found the active appetite means my metabolism was stimulated by the food change. I can choose to eat more than usual, with probably no weight change, or I can eat wisely and lose a little more weight than usual this week.

You don't have to eat boring meals with no variety over time to be healthy or lose weight! Be creative, have fun and listen to what you're hungry for even if it doesn't fit a uniform "routine."

How are you doing/feeling?

The first half of January has been pretty uneventful for me. I haven't been tempted to eat any non-healthy foods and I've been feeling great. Of course, I didn't cut back on my yogurt and coffee as I thought I might either. If I go by the signals my body is giving, I've lost a little weight anyhow so I haven't felt the need to be overly-restrictive.


But that's enough about me, how are you doing? Have you been trying to change what or how much you eat? Has that caused any problems for you and, if so, what have you tried so far to get around it?


I can tell you this--health goals rarely if ever unfold in a straight line. A binge eater, for example, almost always has one or more crisis points and may binge a few times while trying to break the pattern. It's not about whether you struggle. It's about whether you get back up when you fall.


Many people who try to leave grains and refined "neolithic" foods behind them suffer withdrawal. Has that happened to you? The lucky folks just look back fondly at their old foods while others are shocked by how strong their cravings are. They have to become obsessed with their goals for a while in order to see past how much they want wheat or other addictive foods. If/when they succeed in breaking the pattern the obsession can be managed and then broken by learning new tricks such as intermittent fasting but that can be a tough period.


Other withdrawal symptoms include feeling what is referred to as the "low-carb flu." If you ate grains and heavily sweetened neolithic foods for many years you have gut flora that include the "bad boys" and they are the source of feeling both cravings and sickness. Cravings mean they're demanding to be fed junk food and sickness means they're actually dying because healthy food encourages the "good guys" who crowd out the bad ones. So being sick for a while can mean you're getting healthier!


If you changed your eating pattern at New Year's and stuck with it, you may be feeling fabulous about now--how cool is that? If you're like me, you hadn't noticed that you hadn't felt GOOD in a long time so you're feeling too good to be legal.


If you tried but couldn't stick with healthy eating, why not give yourself permission to try again? Instead of beating up on yourself, how about being your own best champion and rooting for yourself to feel really, really good after you get through the tough part?


Well, it's a beautiful day here in southern Nevada and I'm going outside to play with my 3 toy dogs and visit with my neighbors. You should do something that gets you outdoors, particularly if the sun is shining--sunshine is very healthy.


Just remember--you own your body and you own your life, so live toward having the one you wish to have.

Are You Pessimistic About Weight Loss?

No, seriously. If you want to lose weight, are you afraid you won't or you'll gain it back?

I guess I should be. It seems like every blog, web site and magazine I've seen in the last week or so has quoted grim percentages regarding the difficulty of achieving/sustaining weight loss or they had ongoing conversations about all the people who've lost and then re-gained body fat. On my favorite forum, Paleo Hacks, people who've been trying ancestral eating for a week or a month sometimes complain they aren't losing weight and are frequently told "this is not a weight loss plan."

Unless you're selling a book. The only place I've seen unbounded optimism about weight loss, in fact, is on the covers of all the newly released books about eating--ancestral or otherwise. 

But I'm confident anyhow. I've lost significant body fat so far and I hope to lose a lot more. I believe my ancestral eating regimen is working and my body is going to continue its release of excess fat. I also believe that if I continue as I am I'm not going to put any weight back on. I admit it could turn out differently. After all, I lost and "found" the same 50 pounds four times before finding ancestral eating last April. I could find myself getting hungrier and gaining weight back or my weight could stop going down.

So why aren't I worried? For one thing, I'm not "on a diet." I'm following a lifestyle that includes real, whole foods rather than manufactured food-like products. I like what I'm eating; everything tastes wonderful and leaves me with a feeling of contentment. I feel great from the moment I wake each morning until I go to sleep at night. I feel calm and content rather than anxious and guilty. I doubt many people who are "dieting" can say the same.

I've had a lot of ah-ha moments lately. One occurred yesterday morning when I was typing a comment and off-handedly mentioned I was feeling a little hungry but not going to do anything about it. Hell-o? Former binge eater here. Any twinge in the GI tract was enough to send me scurrying to the kitchen--and also enough to make me worry I was about to binge. Nowadays, though, the feeling of physical hunger is just another normal sensation--it has no more meaning than the first hint that I'm getting a little tired. I can choose to respond but I can also choose to ignore. Nothing bad is going to happen.

This morning was another ah-ha. I woke up and was considering the drastic action of leaving my warm, comfy bed for the very cool air of my bedroom. Thinking, not moving, you understand. As I lay there, I realized I felt very lean and perhaps lighter. I moved my hand to touch my side but before I got there I "hit" the layer of fat that still surrounds "me." That was the first moment that I noticed I no longer include my body fat in my identification of "me." It's just a covering like a heavy winter coat and the only connection to my lean body is that it slows me down when I  move--but a lot less than it used to.

Unlike a calorie-restricted diet, my choice of real foods is causing me to slowly assume my natural shape and resume my natural level of activity without feeling deprived or anxious. There is no famine response from my body because I'm well nourished. At some point, I will stop losing weight and I don't plan to worry about that. I may be close to my desired weight or I may be quite a bit heavier. Either way, as long as I feel this good I will probably just keep going as I am and see what happens.

As I read all the depressing articles and optimistic book titles I plan to walk the middle path and just do what feels right. I'm not worried and I'm not afraid. 

If you aren't already doing so, I hope you'll try eating some real, whole foods and see what happens. What have you got to lose?

Weight Loss Tactics for 2012 - Part 4

Review:

In Part 1, we talked about distinguishing between physical and emotional hunger because for weight loss we want to feed one while distracting the other.


In Part 2, we talked about losing weight slowly and steadily rather than trying drastic measures that can back-fire.

In Part 3, we talked about supporting your health and energy by moving around a lot and incorporating walking or other exercise.

Today, the subject is one people love to argue about: which type of eating pattern is best for your health and well-being in the long run. Please note that I very carefully did not use the word "diet." Any time I do use that word it will refer to "how you eat" versus "reducing calories." Let me be blunt: reduced-calorie diets don't work. You either don't lose weight or you make things worse and a year later you're heavier than you started. The goal is to find a mix and volume of foods that naturally moves you toward--and keeps you at--a leaner and more energetic (healthier) state.

You'll find people who swear by eating only plant-based foods. Some of them claim it's more humane or sustainable in addition to being healthy. They don't seem to notice how agri-business is raping the planet and wiping out wildlife while meat-producing land normally includes a bounty of wild animals and plants. Hmm. Also, plant eaters are a significant percentage of patients that medical professionals see.

You'll find people who swear by eating only meat/fat. They claim it's what we were meant to eat. They don't seem to notice that the only paleolithic people known to eat mostly meat were in harsh conditions where plant-based foods weren't much of an option. And over time a significant number of them seem to suffer metabolic/hormonal imbalances which they try to treat with supplements--think manufactured, highly processed supplements. Hmm. And while low-to-moderate carb intake seems to work for many, zero-carb makes me shudder with thoughts of rampant constipation. That might just be me.

I want it all, so I eat whole meats/eggs, vegetables and fruits with an occasional handful of nuts plus a little cream, butter and yogurt and my favorite probiotic food--water kefir. I will admit that if I could only afford to eat one type of food I'd go for meat for the protein/fat since, in a pinch, we can make whatever we need from them in an emergency.

When I say whole meat I mean the entire bird or a cut of meat from the animal. I love a rare treat of summer sausage, ham or even a hot dog but it must be said that they are processed and full of additives--the very things that give me fits. So, they make great treats but I don't consider them whole food. 

I eat whole eggs rather than just yolks or whites--you know when ancient people stole from nests they didn't throw half of each egg away! And I make yogurt at home so it's full-fat and has no additives other than my yummy fruit and cinnamon. If I had a local source of raw whole milk I might make my own butter and use the buttermilk for yogurt but since I don't eat butter often I feel comfortable going full-fat with the yogurt.

Okay, so why am I recommending the above approach? Well, for starters I tried just about all of the others with horrible results. I adore fruit but it takes less than 2 days of just fruit for me to start climbing the wall with cravings. The same is true of just-meat or just-plants. For me to be content and high energy I need a little of each AND I need to stay away from refined grains, oils, and sugars. Yes, I put a tsp of honey in a mug of coffee and I use fruit to sweeten my yogurt but that's it. Other than my morning coffee, any coffee/tea/chocolate I have is totally unsweetened. 

And there's a funny thing; when you're eating refined sugar every day eating unsweetened chocolate is unthinkable and for me coffee/tea were the same. After a month or two of no sugar, a grapefruit is sweet and unsweetened coffee/tea/chocolate may not taste like treats but they no longer seem inedible.

So, let me repeat that the goal is to find a mix and volume of foods that naturally moves you toward--and keeps you at--a leaner and more energetic (healthier) state. We don't want to be hungry/tired/sick all the time. You may need to experiment to find the best overall mix--you may do better with just a little meat and lots of starch or vice versa.

Have fun figuring out what's best for you!


In the final post of this series, we'll talk about the reality and importance of dealing with your emotions while trying to lose weight.

Weight Loss Tactics for 2012 - Part 2

In Part 1, we talked about distinguishing between physical and emotional hunger because for weight loss we want to feed one while distracting the other.


In this post, we'll talk about losing weight sensibly--interpret that as slowly and steadily--rather than trying to lose it too fast--going into crisis mode and doing things that will risk your health and/or cause you to lose control and actually gain weight.


Whether you suffered from binge eating as I did or just gained some extra body fat over time, I'll bet you didn't get to where you are now in a week or two. It takes time to gain AND it takes time to effectively lose excess body fat.


I don't recommend using a scale because your poundage will change erratically based on retaining/releasing water, gaining/losing muscle tone, eating more/less food volume and having/not having bowel movements.  We're not really interested in most of those, although improved muscle tone should indicate improved general health.


If we think of our body as a living machine, we realize that the body already knows how to "run" but we, as the driver, have control of the steering wheel, accelerator and brake. Think about that--what's going to happen to your car if you put in the wrong kind of fuel? Or put the accelerator to the floor? Or slam on the brakes? How are those actions likely to work out?


Well, the body's not that different. We can start by using the right fuel--whole meat, vegetables and fruits. In this case, by "whole" I mean in the natural state as opposed to processed meats like hot dogs and whole vegetables/fruits instead of juice or vegetable/fruit products with sweeteners and/or additives.


So how do you lose sensibly? The good news is that if you are eating "plain" whole foods most people don't tend to over-eat the way we do when eating manufactured food-like products. You shouldn't need to use a scale or count calories, at least at first. If you start your day/meal with a nice portion of fatty meat that's one way to knock your appetite down to size. If you tend to over-eat the meat--only in terms of weight loss--then start with a nice leafy salad or other raw vegetables to gain a feeling of comfortable fullness before starting to eat the meat. Whether you use a little raw fruit as an appetizer or dessert doesn't matter. If you start with fruit, though, use your logical side to decide the right amount and then move on to the salad or meat.


If you eat in that way for a month, you are likely to find you feel and look better and your waist and hip measurements may be smaller. If not, don't panic! Your body may have needed a month to adjust to this different way of eating. You may need to eat/drink some probiotic foods/beverages to improve your ability to digest foods. Or, you may need to make SLIGHT adjustments to what you're eating and drinking. For me, that would mean looking at how much cream/honey I'm using in my coffee each morning, how much yogurt I'm eating per day and how many cups of fruit I'm eating. Frankly, I seem to lose weight no matter how much meat/fat/vegetables I eat although if you like starchy vegetables like white/sweet potatoes you  may keep an eye on portion size there. The goal is to make sure the portion sizes aren't too generous rather than to eliminate any of the foods you're eating.


So, if the first month of ancestral eating causes you to drop some body fat that's terrific but it's not the end of the world if you don't. This is a slow, steady process and to reach the destination we'll make gentle use of the gas/steering. In the second half of the month, and in the months to come, we can talk about other strategies such as how many meals are eaten per day, the importance of bone broths and organ meats, etc. For now, let's just keep it simple!


In Part 3, we'll talk about the relationship between your health and moving around a lot.

What Does “Ancestral Eating” Mean?

You may also hear terms such as paleo, primal, stone age or cave man. They all mean roughly the same thing—we should eat the foods that best nourish our bodies and contain as few additives and contaminants as possible. We should avoid foods and food-like products that interfere with health.

Throughout human history, regardless of location, people ate whole foods they prepared in fairly simple ways. They used fermentation and dehydration but they didn’t have today’s manufacturing processes. They ate many vegetables and fruits and they also ate a variety of meats—pretty much the whole animal.

Until about 10,000 years ago people ate little or no grains. As agriculture developed and populations grew, people learned to use fermentation and careful preparation to make grains more digestible. For many people, particularly older ones, grains cause or aggravate autoimmune and digestive problems. Unfortunately, most modern grain products focus on rapid production and profitable sale rather than digestibility.


Dr Kurt Harris did a wonderful job of describing ancestral eating in one page he calls the Archevore Diet . J Stanton at Gnolls.org has another terrific explanation. I also like the "5 basics" described by Paleoista.

Frankly, I think many people waste a lot of time trying to find the "perfect" ancestral-type diet. We don't all thrive on the same mix of foods--I happen to have ancestors who were all far-northern and I don't thrive on tropical foods. What's wrong with that? Should I expect folks with tropical ancestors to thrive on the same foods I do? In general, the farther north your "clan" was from the fewer tropical foods you may find delicious and vice versa.


You don’t really have to go back much farther than 50 years to think about healthier eating. If you are over 60, odds are if you think back to your childhood  most adults were slender compared to today. Those who were overweight were said to eat too many sweets—NOT too much fat. People happily buttered their vegetables and ate the fat on their meat.

After the meal, they might have home-made cookies or cake or pie. They didn’t drink a liter-plus of soda every day and they didn’t munch constantly on chips or crackers. Eating mass quantities of snacks/desserts was reserved for special occasions.

Ancestral eating is easy:

1.     Eat real, whole foods, not manufactured food-like products

2.     Eat a variety of meats including bone broth and organ meats

3.     Eat a variety of vegetables and whole fruits

4.     If you can/wish, eat dairy that is organic and free of additives

5.     A few nuts or a little honey are okay but avoid excess

6.     Avoid highly processed foods; this includes grains, legumes and sweeteners. No lists of ingredients unless they are real foods!

7. Avoid all oils except olive and coconut; cook with animal fats such as lard, tallow or butter