Thoughts on “diet” and my personal experiences with Paleo

A note of preface to my contacts on LinkedIn

Being that LinkedIn is a professional website, there are blog posts that are fitting to it, and there are others that aren’t. I realized this from the start after I began my LI account, but I would forget to turn off the sharing mode when I posted poems and other things on the blog that didn’t fit in the LI world. My apologies for that. I’m getting better and will continue to do so.

Still, some of the verses were read by more than a few people. I think one even had over 50 views, and I don’t even have 50 contacts yet. So, I’m assuming the interest does exist in the LI community. If so, those of you who are interested in stuff of that nature can visit me at paulelmo.com. Feel free to share anything of interest you find there. Some of the posts from the “Humorous hopefully” category have been well received, and my faith in my appreciation of “Music” is such that I think the posts in that category are worth a look.

In all you’ll find writings on “Philosophy,” “Substance Abuse and Recovery,” and “Bartending” (sic) among others. There are even a couple of videos with me doing spoken word pieces, and more will be coming soon. So, if you get a chance, stop by; I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks,

Paul

 

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Diet. The mere word makes us think “What do you mean by that?” We need context to tell us how the word is being used. Is it being used as a noun, referring to a specific type or course of eating, or as a verb, referring to the restriction small amounts or special kinds of food.

As far as my writings are concerned, I’ll give you a tip: I don’t care for the word as a verb. That’s as clear as I can say it, so if you see me use the word as such, you can pretty much assume that I’m not doing so flatteringly.

I think there are few words and concepts that are as screwed up in our society–and, given our country’s ever-growing trend of weight problems, I can think of few words and concepts where clarity could benefit us more–as the word, the concept, of “diet.”

In regards to who I am and how I make it through life, I do not use the word “diet”; rather, I use the phrase “eating habits.” I have never been on a diet, nor do I ever plan to be. Still, I’ve always been aware of how I eat and how it makes me feel. For as long as I can remember, I’ve chosen more often what to eat by how I can expect certain foods will make me feel rather than how good something might taste.

Food has always seemed too important to me to me to simply let my eating habits be solely driven by the oral satisfaction or pleasure of the experience. It helps that I eat almost everything and can eat almost anything. Still, even a finicky person can apply this principle.

Those of us who have gotten a little bit older than 22–I have no disdain for you 22 year-olds, only a bit of envy–have probably discovered that there are food groups that don’t make us feel as good as others. In many cases, this just sucks because it seems to be the things we enjoy that are the ones that don’t agree with us as much as they once did. Most of us can think of someone who loves ice cream but has become lactose intolerant or someone who is a straight up bread fiend until his or her doctor tells them that they have a problem with gluten.

For those of us who aren’t so particular with what we eat, it doesn’t prove to be as much of a problem. Still, for all of us, these discoveries force us to find something that can help us recapture as much of the pleasure of eating that thing as possible without actually eating that thing.

For that, I have found Paleo. You may have heard the term “Paleo diet,” which is something else you won’t read here too often, and can affix to that all of the yucky and confused thoughts we have whenever we just hear that word “diet.” It’s like “budget”; we know it’s something that could turn out to be good for us, but we’re kind of scared to find out how.

The very word causes problems, and I hate it that something that has proven beneficial for me, “Paleo,” is sidled up beside something of which we’re so wary.

Paleo is not a diet.

Before I go any further, let me say this. I discovered this program of eating from a movie called The Perfect Human Diet. After that, I watched one called Love Paleo. Both proved informative and beneficial, but I took more from the first one.

The basic thought is that we eat–as often as is possible or pleasing–the way humans did before the advent of agriculture. Yes, we cut back on the breads.

The basic Paleo eating program consists of fruits, nuts, non-starchy vegetables, and meat. The idea is not that I only eat these things, but I eat these things with higher regularity than I did previously. There are three things, aside from meat, that I eat every day now. I eat a lot of grapes and apples, and I don’t eat too many almonds to make them unhealthy. Every day, I eat these things. For those who think immediately about the cost, you needn’t. These things, and what they cost, do not add to your grocery bill as much when they take the place of other foods as they do when you just add them to what you’re already eating.

Do I still have the occasional dip of ice cream? Does a fat baby fart? You betcha. And do I sometimes eat sandwiches out of convenience? I do indeed. Still, I choose to eat fruits and nuts as snacks more than I used to, and I try to give myself enough time to sit down and eat a salad rather than running out the door with things slapped between breads.

There, you get into questions of risk versus reward, and sometimes I know that the good feeling I get from eating an ice cream cone, the joy, the pleasure, will far outweigh any negative aspects of doing so.

And that’s it. And I love it. For a year and a half I dropped weight because I was running more regularly, but now that I’m not having the time to run as much, I see that my weight is staying constant on the strength of my changes in eating habits.

The benefit is evident in every facet of my life. I have more energy. I sleep better. I see better. I think better. I’m stronger in every physical way.

And this applies to the LinkedIn community because it’s a way to betterment that makes me better and more successful at my job.

So, if you’ve been wondering what you could do to give yourself more energy–and yes, I do still drink my coffee, but almond milk replaced the heavy creamers a couple of years ago–or to work out problems of focus or sleep, this might be something for you to check out. Both movies can be found on Hulu, and they’re a good place to start.

Thanks for your interest and attention as always. Until next, take care of yourself.