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The Paleo Diet Challenge: My Plan

paleo diet challenge my plan lard

So when I say I’m following a Paleo diet, what exactly to I mean?

Good question. It is a diet that follows what caveman ate over 2 million years ago — meat and fish, vegetables, fruit and nuts. It doesn’t include any grains, legumes, dairy products, or refined sugar. But, like many things, it turns out there are several interpretations of what eating a Paleo diet really means.

To help figure this all out — and quickly, since I decided only a week ago to do this month-long challenge — I turned to a few sources. One was Mark Sisson’s blog Mark’s Daily Apple. Another was Robb Wolf, who sets some good boundaries around what a Paleo diet includes and excludes. A couple dozen more searches uncovered a number of basic guidelines on Paleo eating, and helped me determine my approach.

Giving up grains, for me, is huge. That will be my main focus, along with avoiding legumes (bye bye peanut butter..sob, wimper), processed food, and dairy. Avoiding dairy is actually a pretty big deal too, since cheese can be a key protein source for weeks on end if I’m feeling lazy about cooking.

Here’s what I’ll be eating:

  • Meats & Seafood: Fish, prawns, beef, chicken, pork, lamb, eggs
  • Fruits & Vegetables: All of them, including some dried fruits and coconut flour, as well as nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, the occasional white potato) which are frowned up on by more strict Paleo diets
  • Nuts & Seeds: Raw or ground (almond meal, flax seed meal), but not soaked
  • Healthy Fats: Olive oil, coconut oil, walnut oil, lard, and yes some regular butter
  • Herbs, spices and seasonings: Fresh from the garden parsley, thyme, tarragon, cilantro, chives, and definitely ginger and garlic
  • Dairy: A minimal amount of cheese, cream in my morning coffee

So there it is. It’s not a super strict Paleo diet by any stretch. I’m not completely cutting out dairy, alcohol or sugar but I’ll do my best to keep cheese to a minimum, but it will likely sneak its way in. And having a glass of wine or some chocolate? For goodness sakes, something has to keep me sane for the next month.

Check out what started this all off, why I’m doing this in the first place:
The Paleo Diet Challenge

The Paleo Diet Challenge

paleo diet challenge caveman

I wasn’t expecting to get quite so personal so early into the blog’s existence, but here goes. In the early 1990s I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease. I had no symptoms, aside from an inflamed thyroid gland. No explanation for why or how it happened, and no offer of any cure. The only thing the doctors did know is that it could be managed, by taking a pill every day to replace the thyroid hormone that my body couldn’t produce.

Since then I’ve been taking a little Synthroid pill every morning. And getting blood tests every 6 or 12 months to monitor the T4 and TSH levels in my blood.

Most of the time I don’t think too much about it, but when I do it bugs me. It’s a hassle. Yes, it’s very minor compared to all the possible diseases out there, but I still don’t like it one bit.

Fast forward to late 2011. It started with my dad, who told us about an article he’d read on the link between gluten and a number of diseases, like diabetes and Alzheimer’s, two of the demons in our family. Shortly after my sister instantly became a gluten-free convert after reading Wheat Belly. Me? I love bread — toast, pizza, crusty baguette with cheese — and I bake sweet treats on a regular basis. Very regular. I even used to be a baker of gorgeous artisanal breads too, in my early career days. The thought of giving up bread and baking seemed impossible to contemplate.

That is, until I stumbled upon the many articles linking autoimmune conditions, including Hashimoto’s, to gluten intolerance. I felt a little foolish for not checking this out earlier, since it seemed every Google search I did turned up more and more articles linking gluten consumption and autoimmune diseases like mine. Why had it taken me so long to look into this?

Now not everything you read on the internet is true, I know. But a lot of websites and blogs detail the dramatic effects of not just a gluten-free diet but a Paleo diet, free of grains entirely. Like Sarah Wilson who noticed “amazing differences” two weeks into the diet, or Ann Wendel who said a Paleo diet changed her life.

Wow. Life changing. Could I actually cure my Hashimoto’s by eating a Paleo diet? That clinched it — I would go Paleo for a month. Plenty of seafood and meat, vegetables and fruit, and some nuts and seeds. A minimal amount of dairy. What’s not to like?

Oh right, the bread part. Maybe I can just forget about bread for the next month. It’s not like I’m going to do this forever, right?

I’ve come up with three things I’m looking to test in this challenge:

  • I want to see if I can stick to a Paleo diet, especially the grain-free part
  • I want to see if I feel any different. More energy! More alertness!
  • I want to see if the Paleo diet makes any difference in my usual blood test results for thyroid levels

So I’m starting today.

What’s my plan for this anyway? Find out what I’ll be eating here.

 

Image courtesy of Lord Jim, via Flickr.