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."

Online Reading and a Digestive Upset Impact My Thoughts

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, so any comments received will be answered by inserting them as q/a updates to this post.fixed!

Well, this will be a fun post to write! It's now about 2 months since I went back to eating whole foods. I resumed reading some paleo blogs and discussion sites a little over 2 weeks ago and I resumed posting thoughts on this blog at the very end of March. And today, I have suffered the first digestive upset not caused by wheat since April 2011.

So, what has been the impact of all this? Well, good and bad--what else did you expect?

Let's consider these things in temporal order:

My return to eating whole foods again fostered a dramatic improvement in my subjective health and energy. I did things differently this time. 

In April 2011, for my first few weeks I ate a high-meat, high-fat, very-low-carb regimen. I then gradually introduced fruit with later additions of fermented foods and tubers.

This time, with a playfully coined label of "easygoing" paleo, I reverted immediately to the fully-rounded whole foods assortment I had most enjoyed in 2011-2012. During my first 2 weeks I had 2 social situations in which I ate a significant amount of sweets. At the first, I deliberately chose to take a sugary dessert--jello, mandarin orange segments and whipped cream topping. At and after that event, I hit the jello hard. At the second event, a buffet, I ate a pretty spartan paleo meal with 2 exceptions: a tall glass of Coke and a few bites of a breaded fried chicken wing. The Coke was wonderful, but I think the breaded wing bit me back a little.

Since then my general regimen has been to eat fruit and low-starch vegetables as desired, with main servings of meat and tubers on alternate days. About the only specific goal I have tried to follow is to average 6 teaspoons or less of sugars per day from my honey, fruit and whatever.

During the first few days that I resumed scanning paleo sites, I enjoyed checking out the recent topics and seeing which sites were about the same and which had changed in tone or opinions. The impact of the sites on my mental state was benign. I'm pretty comfortable with my approach to eating and whether I agree or disagree with other bloggers doesn't seem to affect my mental balance.

I also resumed reading and participating in 2 paleo discussion sites: the paleo sub on reddit.com and the question/answer forum on paleohacks.com

My reactions to the 2 discussion sites are different but, surprisingly, both have had a negative impact on my mental balance. In the case of the subreddit, I think I simply don't have a "pure" enough alignment with what their definition of paleo is. On paleohacks, I'm troubled by the amount of spam and the impulsive, anxious nature of many of the questions. I tried to respond to some of the latter, but I found myself stirring up the old conflicts and anxieties of my disordered past. <Step away from the edge!>

Resuming my participation in this blog has been a positive thing for me and a few of my recent posts actually were valuable to me this morning in an unintended way.

That's my segue to discuss today's digestive upset. I was quite surprised to wake up this morning with a bloated, gassy gut. Unlike my historical symptoms from wheat, there was no brain fog or GERD or head/chest congestion. Just the unhappy gut.

I walked my dogs and when we returned I used the bathroom. [warning: I'm about to get grossly specific so make your own best choices.]

The ensuing bowel movement was larger than my usual. It looked completely digested, but was the consitency of oatmeal which is definitely not my norm. After a brief period of relief, I noticed lower gut soreness and mild cramping and was back in the bathroom. This time, I had a very small movement with some gassy spatters.

Okay, another short period of relief followed by more soreness and somewhat more urgent cramping sent me back to the small room. To my considerable surprise, this third movement was about normal volume but consisted of at least half undigested food. The 2 most untouched items were sweet potato and chopped hazelnuts, which had been eaten on recent-but-separate days. 

The bottom line there is that something I ate was apparently contaminated or beginning to spoil. It shut down my gut temporarily and some of my food was pushed through rather than being digested. I'm not assuming the guilty party was either the yam or the nuts--it could just as easily have been the the boiled shrimp or fresh pineapple I also ate on the days in question. Whatever the cause, my Superwoman cape is slightly tattered because this is the first time in 2 years that I've suffered any illness or GI distress not caused by wheat.

So, where does all this leave me? 

1- I plan to continue eating mostly whole foods with occasional sugary treats. The only thing that will stop me from sweet indulgences is elevated blood sugar.
2- I will still read at least a few of the paleo sites listed on this blog's reading list, but I may prune that list and I plan to *stop* visiting the 2 discussion sites. It's just not worth risking my hard-earned and slowly-gained mental balance even if I know I could possibly serve as a resource for some anxious people. If I can't control my own anxiety, it's not feasible right now.
3- I won't change anything because of today's gut rebellion. If you are going to buy and eat fresh fruit, vegetables and meat and particularly if your budget forces you to shop at big-box supermarkets, you will occasionally bring home some uninvited guests. That beats the heck out of eating processed food-like items that are mildly toxic in their own right and have minimal nutritional value. After all, I used to have an unhappy gut every morning.
4- I will continue to share thoughts on this blog. I won't recommend any one way of eating other than to build your nutritional foundation around foods that have been processed as little as possible. After that, to each their own!

Next Day Update: LOL, my resolution to avoid the discussion sites isn't going so well. Curiosity is driving me back "to see if I have comments deserving responses." Yeah, right. Okay, so I'll probably keep visiting *but* I am doing better at avoiding threads that seem based on anxiety. 

Yesterday after my gut calmed a bit I ate a baked potato, a baked sweet potato and a leftover piece of beef with garlic. Everything seemed to hit the spot except the garlic. My spirits are good but my lower gut is still a bit sore so I plan to avoid citrus, nuts and garlic today--mainly because the thought of eating any of them turns off my appetite. 

I Don't Like Food Politics Either

Yes, today's title is a not-so-subtle mention that we're in an election season. I have opinions about political matters but, unfortunately, like many others I am disillusioned about either party making things better any time soon. Let's face it, if they really had a plan they'd be less excited and more calm/confident that they knew what to do.

When it comes to food, I find I'm pretty apolitical there too. I don't care whether we call it paleo, primal, ancestral or insert-your-preference here. I'll browse long detailed articles as fun reading but my philosophy is short and sweet:

1. I prefer whole or minimally processed foods. A banana is a whole food, as is an egg or a carrot. Heavy cream or a slice of beef shank or ground coffee beans with hot water poured through them are minimally processed but I don't care. Milled wheat powder mixed with a list of other such ingredients is a processed food whether you call it bread, spaghetti or a pancake.
2. What's right for me doesn't have to match exactly what's right for you. My teeth, GI tract and other personal traits reflect my personal genetics and so my best mix of foods is just that--mine.
3. I try to be honest about what I'm eating. If I'm dying for some ice cream I'll have it, but I will admit it's junk and I won't complain about my mild gastric symptoms.

I'm still making some use of #3 above, but I seem to be eating/drinking less junk and becoming more happy to eat healthy.

The other day I made an interesting base for upcoming dishes; I slow-cooked some slices of beef shank until the bone cross-sections were completely clean and the meat broke easily into small chunks. With the fat and marrow the broth is very thick. I added some long grain rice and deliberately over-cooked it, making it a soft consistency very similar to barley added to a soup. The final base ingredient was a can of French-sliced green beans. I then portioned the batch into 7 portions and froze 5. Each portion is used as the base for a stew that is finished with a unique mix of vegetables for palatability. I tend to add small amounts of processed meats such as kielbasa or sausage plus large amounts of vegetables such as carrots, yams, squash, brussels sprouts, broccoli, rutabagas or even beets.

I know my food choices are moving in the right direction when--as happened this week--I have little interest in a bagel but go nuts over baked chicken thighs or my above-described stew base.

So, while it's great fun to read the various paleo blogs I just don't see the need to fight over the details of the menu. I'm ready to put food back where it belongs as an enjoyable and important (but not all-important) part of my life.

3 Steps Forward, 2 Steps Back: Where's That Leave Me?

Hello to any and all who choose to read this post--hope you had a great summer.

First, if you came to this blog expecting a "pure Primal/Paleo/Ancestral" point of view, you'll need to read posts dated April 2012 or earlier or go elsewhere. From now on, I will only claim to be Human. I'll communicate what's going on and how I react.

If I had found the paleo community in my 20s, which assumes it would have existed then, I truly believe I could have followed that lifestyle all my life. Due to the conditioning from 40+ years of binge/starve eating cycles, plus the stresses life will always include, I'm not able to manage ancestral eating on a sustained basis although I continue to respect and admire those who can.

My current eating pattern seems to be supporting my health and well-being but it doesn't fit any of the above labels as I stress whole/real foods but also compromise around my entrenched emotional cravings. This post was hard to write as it's a confession of weakness, including a much-dreaded new mugshot.

In April 2012, I celebrated a full year of "ancestral" eating. The first 3 months were Primal, the next 6 were Primal plus fermented water kefir/yogurt, and the final 3 incorporated occasional processed treats. In March 2012, I believed I had achieved a permanent healthy regimen and was no longer an out-of-control binge eater. I was down at least 30 pounds from my starting weight and I felt better physically than I had in 20+ years.

BUT, on the emotional side I was not so good. I'd already suffered weeks of severe family-related stress and frankly it was stressful to consistently avoid processed foods. My stress and performance grew worse in May but I tried my best to hold on. The underlying problems were that I couldn't solve the ongoing family stresses and I was in denial that I could avoid all junk food forever. While many claim there's no such thing as food addiction, my symptoms are pretty damn close--it's always been all or nothing. In mid-May I cracked, people. Folded, collapsed, lost control. Yes, I finally found comfort but I found it in the old familiar standby, binge eating of processed junk foods.

As always, binge eating of processed foods made me feel like total crap and trust me when I say my loss of control and rapid weight gain did nothing good for my self-esteem. For about 2 months, I'd say I was clinically depressed and in addition to eating mostly junk food I instinctively avoided people--not just in person but by avoiding email and Facebook--all human contact. Not only did I shy away from writing blog posts, I stopped reading my extensive list of health/diet blogs.

The somewhat-good news is that I didn't settle into the junk food binge for long this time. In the past I would've wallowed in my misery for years. This time, I thought and thought and thought about what had gone so well for a whole year, what had gone so wrong in May and where that left me. I was also less tolerant of the heartburn and other physical symptoms of eating junk.

So, where I am now?
My current mental health is good because I'm pretty clear on who I believe I am--or, should I say, who I am not.

I am not comfortable with a plant-exclusive eating pattern. My natural lifestyle is clearly tilted toward meat although I truly enjoy greens, veggies and fruits. My emotional cravings insist junk food is all I need/want but that's a guaranteed ticket to GI issues and malaise.

I am not a social butterfly. Put bluntly, I am an introvert and while I am naturally positive and serene when surrounded by Mother Nature, and companion animals, I am easily stressed by contact with the negative energy frequently surrounding other people. I love my family and friends but can only handle them in positive situations or limited doses. Bottom line: I am an emotional wimp.

To feel my best, I need nutritious food such as salads, fruit and beef or oily fish, but emotionally I can only handle that as a pure regimen for 6-12 months using maximum willpower. In order to avoid explosive junk food binges, I appear to need reasonable daily doses of the items my lifelong conditioning defines as "comfort."

Exactly what am I doing, you ask? I sip a couple mugs of coffee each morning--coffee that includes CoffeeMate liquid creamer. I'd prefer to use organic whole cream and quality honey but can't afford it. I've found coffee depresses my appetite for several hours and is soothing. For the remainder of the day, I drink ice water or carbonated water or 1 cup soda diluted into a 3-cup mug topped with water.

In late morning, I eat a meal that's usually 3 courses: fruit, salad and entree. My meals include meat but otherwise are some combination of vegetables, tubers, legumes and grains. Since my fruit and salad portions are large, my main meal portions are generous but not huge. I use oil and vinegar on my salads and thankfully that's my personal preference.

Within 2 hours after my meal, while I am physically full but subject to emotional cravings, I have a treat. One week it might be chips or pretzels, another week it could be mini-Snickers bars and another week ice cream. In other words, whatever I'm most craving but only one kind of processed food and I must be full when I eat it.

I limit myself to one coffee--meal--treat cycle per day. I don't feel physical hunger but I do (at present at least) still feel strong cravings for junk food in late afternoon and evening. I try to shift the cravings into anticipation of the next day's food and that's been working well. Discipline is still required, but not extreme willpower and not for extended periods--like forever.

The result of this compromise--so far--is that my GI tract is again happy, my energy level has rebounded and I'm not obsessing about a massive junk food binge. After all, I'll be having another treat tomorrow.

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!

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.

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