Running out of decent breakfast fruits and veggies at home. Time to hit the grocery store. Breakfast was a couple handfuls of grapes and an orange.
Learned something at lunch today courtesy of McDonald's: Apparently when people in the southwest United States make a salad, they like to cover it with tired looking imitation Fritos. So my lunch activity consisted of me meticulously picking corn and corn chips off my lettuce, cheese, and chicken.
But those fries... My goodness those french fries were good. I'll be seeing more of you salty little bastards in the coming weeks. And the berry smoothie was a nice touch.
What Is This?
If you're reading this, you may have read Tim Ferriss's lifestyle post about completely cutting grains from your diet. I did. I found it on Hacker News, and I thought it sounded interesting.
I was intrigued about the diet, for no other reason than that it satisfies my "what would monkeys do" rule of thumb. That is, the lifestyle choices that were available to our primate ancestors are, by way of evolution, quite often the circumstances we're best evolved for.
The simple truth is that grains are probably not a food that you'd find paleolithic man eating. The advent of agriculture was actually quite recent on an evolutionary time scale. Before that, we were mostly toiling away in the wild eating whatever sustenance we could get our hands on - fruits, nuts, vegetables, leafs, bugs, tubers, meat, etc. That 6 billion of us have transitioned to a diet of mostly grains in a few thousand years is not only amazing, it seems to me there's a reasonable chance that it's less than ideal.
Anyway, enough background. I found this on Hacker News and, at heart, I am a hacker (as in one that tinkers and experiments). To that end, I am going to take Tim Ferriss's challenge.
For 30 days, I will completely remove all grains from my diet. No foods containing wheat, corn, oats, barley, etc.
Now the dietary elitists among you will probably exude various protestations: "no alcohol - that irritates your stomach lining" or "no dairy - that rankles your colon" or "no simple sugars - that messes with your blood sugar". Forget that noise, I'm not a monk. This is a test of one variable alone - what happens when you *completely* remove grains from your diet. We can do dairy or cheese or meat some other time...
I suppose a litlle detail about where I'm starting from is probably in order. I am a 33 year old male. I am 5'11" and weight 171 pounds. I exercise regularly, though not particularly intensely. I'm mostly in pretty good health, though I do get the occasional stomach ache, back pain, and am bothered by a bit of chronic environmental allergies. But nothing particularly serious.
Okay, enough talk. Let's see how this thing shakes out.
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I'd like to point out that your body is adjusting to the no/low-grain diet, and you should expect strong bread and grain cravings initially. From experience, I can assure you these cravings will diminish significantly. For me, it took about 3 weeks. And yes, I know the plural of anecdote is not data :)
ReplyDeleteYou might find yourself more satiated if you eat protein with every meal, especially with breakfast. Instead of staring the day with just fruit, have some eggs, maybe with sausage (Trader Joe's has some great chicken sausage, try the Chicken Apple Sausage). Carrots and sweet potatoes are also good to have with any meal. Greek yogurt, or cottage cheese with grapes, are solid snacks.
ReplyDeleteI cut out grains a few months ago and, through trial and error, have found that eating protein early and often helps with the hunger cravings.
It's also important to remember your body is going through a transition, so for the first two weeks or so you will feel weird as you enter grain withdrawl. It's not easy to do, as the cravings are sometimes very strong, but hang in there!
http://www.robbwolf.com/ is a good resource if you haven't already checked it out.
Addendum: animals are the preferred protein/fat source, IMO.
ReplyDeleteCheck that there wasn't corn oil in the oil blend they were using. Also dairy evolved around 10k years ago-take agriculture for both grain and dairy so it would make sense to cut.
ReplyDeleteI've found that cottage cheese for breakfast helps considerably and you can have that with fruit if you'd like (whether you mix them or not mix). Plus it has a lot more protein so it keeps you full longer. It also has the benefit of being quicker to have than making eggs, although you could boil some eggs and bake some bacon the night before. I'm only on day 3 of the "no grain diet" and in about the same health.
ReplyDeleteIf you do start eating cottage cheese or not I find it always tastes better with something, wether that is fruit or hot sauce or chili powder. I rarely eat it by itself.
I think this is going to be rough for you, because besides the "primary" reasons not to eat grains, the other is that they are simple carbs. So you are greatly reducing your effective sugar intake, but it sounds like you are still eating starches (potatoes) and other sugars, so you'll exist in this purgatory hungry state for a long time. Believe it or not, also removing simple starches and sugars will make it worse for the short term, but you'll find it much easier after a week or two.
ReplyDeleteI'm not strict paleo by any means, because I'll eat dairy as long as it's low-sugar. (most yogurt is not low sugar) Use eggs where you would traditionally use bread (add ingredients to an omelet instead of sandwich) plus hard boiled eggs are easy to take to work as a snack. If you need fast, whey protien powder (low/no sugar) added to a smoothie will keep you full, after you are off the sugar.
Sounds crazy but after a few weeks you should be doing a lot better. :)
Ditto on the protein recommendation. Also, get friendly with healthy fats (olives, olive oil, avocado, almonds) to up that caloric intake. Fruits and veggies alone are not going to do you any favors.
ReplyDeleteA couple quick food tips: various sorts of canned fish. Wild-caught Alaskan salmon is great for a quick lunchtime salmon salad. And brisling sardines canned in olive oil are actually quite tasty.
My son is on the ketogenic diet to control his epilepsy (it controls about 90% of his seizures where most medicines have failed). His diet is 4 parts fat to every 1 part protein plus carbohydrate. I can sympathize with menu planning. :)
ReplyDeleteI've cut carbs substantially out of my own diet in commiseration with my son but grains have always been hard to drop. Maybe your experiment will be the motivation I need. :)
Your local grocery store or Whole Foods will carry a variety of flours--from almond to coconut. These are great for making pancakes or baking (with the right recipe). Lots of Atkins or ketogenic diet websites and resources are out there with recipes which may help. Good luck!
Sausage wrapped in bacon, and the dipped in maple syrup for ever meal.
ReplyDeleteHow about more fat? It seems to me you may be a little light in that area. Also, here's another breakfast idea: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/almond-banana-pancakes/
ReplyDeleteNot my recipe, but they look good.
Plain and simple, you are doing it wrong.
ReplyDeleteIt is this easy.
1. Eat tons of veggies
2. Eat protein (meat) and fat (natural) all the time (grassfed beef, bison, fish, eggs, coconut milk/oil).
3. Eat some nuts
4. Little fruit.
It isn't about eliminating grains (do some more research), it is about controlling insulin spikes. You also need to eliminate ALL sugar from your diet other than some fruit (note: little fruit...don't go crazy with the fruit).
I've been doing this for a year after having done the whole endurance athlete thing for 5 years (where I ate tons of carbs/sugar/grains). I can say I am a better athlete, in better health and overall better shape now than I have ever been. Also, coming out of the endurance sport world I was also pre-diabetic. I actually weight MORE now, but it is all muscle and my blood glucose level is great.
my breakfast: 4 eggs w/ bacon and mac nuts.
lunch: HUGE salad with bison and olive oil dressing (lettuce, tomato, brocolli, carrots, avocado).
Dinner: summer squash or something like it, bison bacon burger and almonds w/ blueberries for desert.
Eliminate the sugar and you won't be hungry, but if you keep w/ the starch and sugar in your diet, you STILL will be hungry b/c you will still have the insulin spikes.