Over the past two weeks (tomorrow!), I have been experimenting with the Paleo Diet aka The Caveman Diet. The Reader's Digest version of the diet is that it is made up solely by foods that can be found naturally on the earth -- so no products of agriculture. Largely, this means no dairy and no grains. That means no bread, pasta, rice -- somewhat staples in my diet. It also means no legumes (black beans), or other "healthy" grains such as quinoa and cous cous. The idea is that by removing all of those nutritionally "empty" sources of carbs, you are forced to get your carbs from more nutritionally dense forms of food -- mainly fruits and vegetables. Very sound idea, so I wanted to put it to the test.
I decided on two weeks to see if A) I could pull it off, and B) how would such a "low-carb" diet make me feel if I was doing consistent aerobic training? Luckily for me I am only running about 25 miles a week right now, but that's still enough to warrant a decent carb intake to provide necessary energy/recovery. I was curious. Now that I'm one day away from the two-week finale, I am no longer curious.
Overall, I would say that the diet has been sustainable. In the beginning (first 2-3 days), I didn't really experience many cravings for no-no foods. Since a large staple of the diet is meat, I was enjoying trying "new" meats that I don't usually cook -- i.e. flank steak, pork chops. I was also enjoying a much more consistent consumption of excellent leafy green vegetables such as kale and cabbage. My main complex carb source was sweet potatoes, which I ate 1-2 each day. By eating more fruit than normal, in addition to my sweet potatoes, I found that I felt that I was getting enough carbs to keep my energy level up.
Still, there was the occasional "brain fog," as I've seen it described online. Essentially, this is the feeling you get in your head when you're running low on blood sugar due to inadequate carb intake. This was one of the things I was afraid of, but also one of the things that pundits of the diet claim that your body adapts to as it becomes more efficient at burning other sources (fat) for fuel instead of relying on carbs. The brain fog would come and go, and I didn't really notice a drop off in my energy for my daily runs/workouts.
After the first week, my weight had dropped from 149 to 144. Five pounds in one week is fairly drastic, and who knows exactly how accurate given general fluctuations in weight to begin with. But it was still enough to make me scratch my head and look forward to the results after another week. The final weigh in is tomorrow morning.
So on the Sunday at the end of the first week, I had a "long run" scheduled -- 8 miles. Nothing that would warrant "carbo-loading," yet still a long enough distance that the body would need to be sufficiently stocked on glucose in the muscles. The run itself was fine, but poor planning/scheduling after the run did not allow me to get a solid meal (including sweet potatoes!) directly after the run. Instead, I went and played poker. I ate fruit and nuts in hopes that the fruit would provide enough sugars to give my brain some thinking power and help my muscles recover. WRONG. I sat there like a brain-dead man, and just pissed my money away. Brain fog.
Over the course of the next week, I did begin to notice a decrease in my exercise performance. After the long run and a makeshift track workout a couple of days later, my legs began to feel heavy. Nothing terribly abnormal, but my body seemed to be telling me that it was not receiving the adequate nutrition for recovery, even at my "low" level of training. And I can't argue with my body.
I went out to dinner twice over the course of the two weeks, which was doable, but required discipline. Most entrees available are mostly paleo-approved, and may just require a small tweak or substitution (which I did). Still, it didn't mean there weren't increased cravings, watching other people eat there starchy sides, fried foods, and tasty desserts.
So tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday, and at 6 pm, the end of my Paleo experiement. I plan to indulge on all of the tasty Super Bowl fare that arrives at my apartment. And I plan to drink a beer (or 3). I do realize that I will probably need to take it slow, as my body will most likely go into shock with the re-introduction off all the unhealthy carbs and processed sugars, but I am very much looking forward to it.
So what's next? I have definitely seen the merits in this diet. It has forced me to increase my vegetable intake, and to think about my sources of carbs more closely. To a degree, I want to keep this going for a while longer to see what a more "long term" implementation does for my overall health/fitness. So I've decided that on Monday, I will re-introduce beans and quinoa into my diet, and will otherwise keep a Paleo diet during the week. I will do my best to limit all other restricted items (breads, dairy, processed sugars). On the weekends, I will allow myself to "splurge" a little more -- pasta dinners, beers, bagels. But I am interested to see what this does to me over the course of a little more time. I think that it's a very healthy diet, just fairly tough to sustain with any sort of high-activity level.
It's been fun, but I'm ready for a pizza, and a beer.
