The Primal Blueprint

Over the past couple months, I've been listening to a bunch of "Paleo Diet" podcasts on stitcher.com (a streaming radio, like Pandora or slacker, but with podcasts instead of music).  At first, I was a bit leery of Paleo diet.

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about from Wikipedia:

The modern dietary regimen known as the Paleolithic diet (abbreviated paleo diet or paleodiet), also popularly referred to as the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet, is a nutritional plan based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various human species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic era—a period of about 2.5 million years duration that ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture. In common usage, such terms as the "Paleolithic diet" also refer to the actual ancestral human diet. Centered on commonly available modern foods, the "contemporary" Paleolithic diet consists mainly of grass-fed pasture raised meats, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils.

So yeah.  It seems a bit extreme: no grains; no dairy; no salt; no refined sugar; no processed oils.  [I know you just read that, but I'm telling you again, for affect.]

So I checked the internets for some more info and found that many people who follow a Paleo Diet have AMAZING success with weigh loss, as well as general improvements in health and energy.

In peeking through "paleo" on amazon.com I found a book that seemed like people really were into.  4.5 stars out of 5, reviewed by over 190 people... I figured I'd check it out.  It's called The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy.  The author has a website you can check out at www.marksdailyapple.com.

While reading the book, I really started to understand how grains and processed foods really ARE kinda toxic to our digestive systems.  The writing is technical, yet very approachable and surprisingly easy and quick to read.  After reading about the affects of grains, I tried to skip them, but gosh is that hard.  So Instead of having a burger, I'd have a burger minus the bun with sweet potato fries.  (Technically fried food in general is a no-no, it really is about moderation.)  You just do the best you can.  And slowly. And then when you're in the mood for it, you just switch to barely any grains and processed foods.  At least it was that easy for me.  Especially after learning/knowing how much the processed food chemicals affect our digestion and health, it was almost like knowing the negative effects, changed how I felt about the actual food.  [I did a similar thing with aspartame and soda a few years ago, now I barley touch the stuff.  When I see friends and family consuming these products I try to tell them about what the chemicals do inside your body.  I try not to be judgemental about it, but it's almost an evangelical urge to tell everyone I meet!!!]

The book also supports the 80/20 rule.  Where you stick to your healthy good food at least 80% of the time and the other 20% you can do what you want.

So far I've been easing my way into it over the past 2.5 weeks and just started being a bit more strict about grains and sugars (I already almost always avoid processed foods to begin with).  I thought it would be more difficult; after a while you just kinda eat what you should be eating, instead of craving things you shouldn't.

Have you tried the paleo diet?  What do you think?