Monday, October 24, 2011

Paleo Fail-e-o.

 THE PALEO:


As some of you may know, I have been researching eating a more natural diet. By that I mean: more-natural-based-on-the-evolution-of-humans-diet. There are several paleo-type diets to choose from including Perfect Health Diet, The Primal Blueprint, Neanderthin, The Paleo Diet.
Each diet has its own rules to follow (mostly along the lines of "don't eat" foods) but they all uphold the same overarching ideals which are: eat natural, unprocessed, nontoxic foods to achieve the health and vitality that allowed humans to become the dominant species before the Neolithic (shall we say, "age of agriculture") era. This means you should avoid all things that weren't around before agriculture...especially grains. I call them "devil grains". There are differing ideologies, perhaps "sects", to paleo dieting where some followers will strictly avoid anything that lines up with agriculture, which means avoiding all forms of dairy. The cavemen probably wouldn't milk a mammoth, you know. Some will allow dairy, if you can enjoy dairy without getting any adverse effects.
What everyone should understand though, before they start settling into a diet, is that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to dieting. What works best is to incorporate little snippets from all the paleo-type diets to reach the best balance for yourself.
I like to follow the Primal Blueprint (a good starting place) mixed with The Perfect Health Diet (which allows dairy and nontoxic starches like potatoes and rice).
I would recommend a Paleolithic-type diet to anyone. You feel great when you eat it! And you can use it to lose weight (yes, despite all the pure fat you eat).

The Faileo:

After the above brief introduction, I want to get to the real reason behind this post. I got my wisdom teeth out last Thursday. All four of them. My face is still puffy and my teeth are still sore today. Needless to say, I'm having a hard time chewing.
When I was sitting in the chair before they put me under they told me to get myself an ice cream when I'm done and not to go eat a big old steak or anything. Now, to someone who tries to eat paleo, this is kind of heartbreaking to hear. Oh well. I supposed I could take a little break from paleo while my mouth healed.
On a side note: I have never been "put under" before but found the experience rather pleasant. I don't remember much after I came out of it, but I did manage to draw a more or less anatomically-correct diagram of a wisdom tooth in the "memo" section of check I wrote them. 
After my teeth were out and I was awarded a nice ice cream cone from my dad, my well-meaning mom took the opportunity to baby me and take care of her poor, puffy, drooling Kadie. On came the carb-fest. I enjoyed mashed potates, applesauce, tiny Hagen daz ice cream cups, more mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese for several days. Granted, I love being doted on (thanks, mommy, it was lovely) but I pretty much ate nothing but carbs the entire time. Here's a warning: if you're eating a low-carb to moderately low-carb diet, then all of a sudden start eating nothing but carbs, expect a little slingshot effect in your weight. I gained about 4 pounds since Thursday. :p

Today, I'm going to try to reset my system. Then I'll try to eat paleo again. Since I don't think I'll find anyone who'll chew my food for me (or the stomach to actually partake in the offering), I'll need to find other ways of getting in my delicious animal proteins without swallowing too much whole. *ouch* After eating a piece of roast beef, goat style, with only my front teeth the other day, I realized I will have to try to make it a little easier on myself. And Steak Shakes really don't sound too appealing. Maybe I'll plan a nice melt-in-your mouth pot roast, or a bone broth soup.

For now, though, I'm doing a nice ketogenic fast to reset my system. Intermittent fasting is an important part of paleo dieting as the human body evolved through periods of plenty and periods of famine. The body is designed to work well on this system. Also the ketogens produced from fasting are very nutritious for your brain. Their smaller molecule passes through the membranes of your brain more easily than glucose which is part of the reason ketogenic diets are so therapeutic and recommended for brain-related diseases like epilepsy, Alzheimer's, etc.
Another good reason for ketogenic fasting is that it retrains your body to use fat as fuel rather than glucose (read:carbs). When the body burns fat as its fuel source, expect to have a lean, fit body devoid of excess fat.

The Perfect Health Diet offers a good system for ketogenic dieting:

*Eat lots of fat throughout the day, but no other macronutirent (protein, carbs).
*Enjoy vegetables (not the starchy kind) to curb hunger. According to Perfect Health Diet, vegetables are considered a fat because the fiber from vegetables is broken down in your gut into fatty acids. Vegetables don't offer much else when it comes to the other macronutrients (Perfect Health Diet is wonderful when it comes to explaining the science of why this diet is ideal. Expect to read about chemical reactions, molecular break-downs and evolutionary, comparative studies)
*Enjoy butter, heavy cream, and most of all, coconut oil.
*You can have coffee or tea with cream stirred in

So, what I plan on doing for my ketogenic fasting day is to make a creamy broccoli soup to eat when I get hungry. I haven't looked up a recipe but will probably just mix my ingredients to taste and puree the whole thing.
I'll probably just steam some broccoli to soften it up (and improve flavor) stir in a couple tablespoons of coconut oil, butter and cream, and add some pepper and other seasonings. Then heat it over the stove. Easy peasy and safe for my sore teeth.

I'll post some of the squishy things I'll make for later this week too.  I'm getting back on the band wagon!

2 comments:

  1. Do you have massive holes in your gums? That was the worst part for me. I was so terrified of getting dry socket that I obsessed over those holes. I didn't get dry socket, though, and I didn't really go out of my to avoid suction. Those damn holes took forever to close up though.

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  2. Nope, Spencer, I have stitches not holes. My lower teeth hadn't erupted yet so I had plenty of skin to cover them I guess.

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