so so i just started doing this paleo diet thing - feels like it should be bullshit. is it?

Paleo strikes me as somewhat different from other fad diets because you don't, strictly speaking, have to be in caloric restriction to eat paleo. It's a lifestyle/diet you can maintain even once you've reached your goal weight (if you want to lose weight) because all it really boils down to is the Michael Pollan line about eating food, mostly plants, etc..

(really, you only have a caloric restriction BECAUSE you're cutting out so many high-calorie/high-carb foods like bread and pasta and milk)

yeah i'd think that paleo/veganism (our resident NNs favorite diets) are more focused on maintenance than they are on "losing weight"

I figure you could skip the mumbo-jumbo and just write the world's shortest diet book:
- eat a solid amount of protein to maintain lean mass
- eat a ton of non-starchy vegetables, mostly greens
- don't drink sugar
- dairy's okay if it doesn't give you the shits, don't drink too much
- bread/rice/etc. in small doses - don't live on the Endless Pasta Bowl, etc.
- fast for a day or two on occasion

^^^

well I dunno about the fasting thing

See I prefer "eat lots of rice and quinoa and ease up on the corn, wheat and potatoes" but I used to be macro/vegan so that's my own bias talking. I think I just have a problem with "lots of meat!" in any diet b/c of processing, sodium, environmental concerns, cruelty, non-sustainability, mercury, nitrates, expense, and that it's such a privileged diet to indulge upon. Boring concerns, yeah zzzzz. Generally I decide what to eat protein-wise by allowing myself a chicken, a fish, a steak and a dozen eggs every week but I like that kind of symmetry. The parable diet.

totally feel you on the meat thing. industrial production of beef is pretty fucking odious.

paleo diet is like this one weird trick to get you to eat unprocessed foods

fast for a day or two on occasion

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, September 20, 2012 1:42 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

milo tell me more about fasting

just eat more fancy beets. you'll feel like a million bucks!

― Broney, Pt. 1 (Pillbox), Thursday, September 20, 2012 9:38 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark

Words to live by!

So what do you paleo people eat for breakfast? No fiber cereal or oatmeal?

a live salmon

OP: Mostly bullshit. There's no question that eating less processed food is healthier, and if you're going to eat meat that grass-fed beef is healthier (its higher in n−3 fatty acids). But, overall, a low carb animal protein based diet will kill you.

The argument in Loren Cordain's books (which started the paleo fad over a decade ago) was a lot of hand-waving and few studies. Our paleo ancestors weren't subsisting on a diet of persistance hunting run down antelope. Hunter gatherers get around 60% of their calories from plants, with the exception of the Eskimos, who died young, with lotsa of gout and osteoporosis from eating too much protein. And there's ample evidence that our common ancestor with the common chimp and bonobo got 80% of their calories from plants, the average human has 3 times the number of amylase (starch digesting) gene as chimps (even the Eskimos), so we've likely been cooking tubers and seeds over the campfire for as long as we've controlled fire (400k, maybe 700k years BP). So a evolutionary argument for a mostly animal protein paleo diet would rest on any adaptations we picked up in the window after bipedalism and before fire - a pretty short window considering how long our primate ancestors were eating leaves a fruit.

the thing is, everything will eventually kill you

paleo endorses eat plants and carbs just fyi, you might be thinking of atkins

So what do you paleo people eat for breakfast? No fiber cereal or oatmeal?

― curmudgeon, Monday, September 24, 2012 10:25 AM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

eggs and kale usually, maybe a lil smoked salmon

leafy green (spinach, yam leaves, whatever, steamed) + leftover block of protein (whatever i ate for dinner or pwo meal) . first meal is always mainly protein + fat + leafy green. and the last meal of the day is always prepped with breakfast in mind.

if im really pressed its boiled egg * 3 + block of frozen spinach splashed with olive oil after microwaving

so i am a week in now, and pretty sold on this deal. lost 1.5 pounds, but more importantly the location of that weight seems to be shifting out of ye old beer belly and into like muscles and stuff in a pretty notable way? way more energy, sleeping better, not feeling like i am going to die after i work out, drinking a shit ton more water. and most of the recipes have been awesome (crustless swirled quiche less so) - in particular a laab esan variant made with ground turkey that made me realize that up until now i have been living a lie thx to not having chinese 5 spice in my house.

one quick question - this thing keeps hassling me to replace my soy sauce with coconut aminos, which sounds terrible to me. is it a thing? does it suck?

are you using a specific cookbook or piecing together stuff based on a cornucopia of sources

a specific cookbook that pretty much rules, ks brother who is one of those terrifyingly healthy dudes (hes a physical trainer) tried a bunch of them and recommended it. lemme find a link

one of the things i like abt it is that it has a bunch of 30 day meal plans, and you can go to the website and download complete weekly shopping lists, which is urgent and key for a slack asshole like me that needs to be told what to do wrt feeding myself.

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Paleo-Customized-Whole-Foods-Lifestyle/dp/1936608758/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348764484&sr=8-1&keywords=practical+paleo

oh that's pretty awesome, right now we keep having this issue where instead of planning meals we will buy "staples" which then means we end up with a freezer full of catfish for three months

jj can i ask what your workout is?

beercan curls

ha i was gonna say we can have a tedious gym talk over some complex sugar and alcohol beverages sometime

beercan curls a component of course

nothing crazy, long dog walking (which is an upper body workout as well because 110 pounds of dog + a world full of terrible things to smell is an adventure) and the dusty elliptical machine upstairs. prob going to return to doing kettlebell stuff with ks brother after the first month of this, but i dont want to kill myself that way quite yet.

"the HENRY workout"

to be clear, i think my positive results are going to be a little more extreme than most thx to the fact that prior to this i basically ate complete fucking garbage 24/7.

hooray for my weird metabolism, by all rights i should weigh like 300 pounds at this point.

also there are moments of super weird cravings, i was walking through trader joes and there was a little carrot juice sample counter and i was suddenly ravenously interested in drinking like a carton of the stuff, despite not giving two shits abt carrot juice in the preceding 30+ years of my life on this planet.

well carrot juice is the best of all juices so I think that just means your body is readjusting to normal

no way, grapefruit or go home

^ knows what hes talking abt

breakfast = big smoothie: fruit, oils, honey, coconut milk or avocado, eggs.

my absolute hatred of all things avocado that are not named guacamole has been kind of a slight stumbling point wrt this paleo thing actually. "need a snack? why not have half an avocado?" why not fuck you buddy.

they (and eggs) are something I came around to.

so i get the hatred.

avocado with soy sauce is superb.

avocados are fucking delightful

one of the things i like abt it is that it has a bunch of 30 day meal plans, and you can go to the website and download complete weekly shopping lists, which is urgent and key for a slack asshole like me that needs to be told what to do wrt feeding myself.

this is u&k and might get me to purchase said book. like djp, I just sorta buy "stuff" and end up having to chuck things or not having the right ingredients or w/e

btw I wrote that post from the twenty four hour McDonald's that is located INSIDE the hospital

The thing about carrot juice is you don't have to drink a huge glass, a lot of health nut people just have a little cup of it. Then you have your vitamin situation taken care of for the day! If you hate it, it goes down easy...but it isn't that bad!

meanwhile I ate a gigantic fake Asian soup with DUMPLINGS! and bulgogi in it for lunch: 375 calories (allegedly)

oh I also ordered that book because yay shopping lists

the meal planning is a lot of work still. I don't have much time after work and the gym everyday so spending some time on sunday prepping stuff for the week is a must.

that's fine, I spend a good chunk of the weekend watching TV anyway (when I'm not in a rehearsal)

can i ask you guys something? do you already do most of the meal planning/grocery shopping in your household?

Once I get on the recovery path from my current pathology, I need a healthy diet that works for a single person who hates/is ignorant of cooking.