Eating – What should I do?
Diet?
Your diet is simply what you habitually eat. Unfortunately, people think about losing weight.
This year, I have given up on worrying about the weight because if I am fit and healthy and strong AND I eat the things that I am NOT allergic to, I should be ok 🙂
2 eating styles I am currently considering:
My friend Dave (the physio from Canberra) - he put me onto Paleo. The best way I can describe Paelo is to eat meat and green vegies, nuts and seeds. I am sure there is a better definition but I figure I will keep it simple - Eat stuff that isn't processed! The other thing is to avoid grains - wheat, rice, etc etc. Basically it is a low carb diet.
The second eating style I am looking at is recommended by the Crossfit mob - Zone. You can read their article here. This balances the carbs, fats and protein into a 40%, 30%, 30% breakdown.I kid you not, you DO NOT go hungry.
What I think
Basically Paleo is easy for me - I love my roast and BBQ meat and salad or green vegies - no thinking, just eat. I am sure I am supposed to watch my portion control but that's ok. I will get there 🙂
Unfortunately, gout+paleo = pain if I overdo the meat...
The Zone eating style is more balanced but I am finding it hard to prepare all the food I need to have. However, I have seen it work on one of the girls down that the CFX gym - she is looking great!
Conclusions from my reading...
1. Eat meat and veggies - but not too much meat or my gout will play up
2. Nuts and seeds are ok
3. Grains can possibly cause inflammation in your system and possibly even in your joints
4. Fructose is evil - that is research proven. Sugar is half fructose...therefore sugar is evil too!
5. Fruit has fructose as well so limit it to 2 pieces per day as it has good stuff in it too
6. Fruit juice doesn't compare to real fruit - ignore the advertising and get the real thing!
About Post Author
Hi Antony,
Nice article, I had a couple of thoughts and would be keen to hear what you think.
“3. Grains can possibly cause inflammation in your system and possibly even in your joints”
Are you talking about rice, oats, etc? I would be interested to see some more information on this. As an aside I have also read that eating more fish as well as vegetables and certain nuts can help reduce inflammation in joints. Fish oils, omega oils, etc are all good stuff.
As an aside I will have to do some searching to find it, but I read an article by Charles Polaquin who talks about the paleo diet and specifically rice and how humsnd may not have adjusted to it yet. He mentioned Chinese people may have more tolerance as they have been eating it for a couple of thousand years more than most other humans. But rice may do more harm than good in some cases.
“4. Fructose is evil – that is research proven. Sugar is half fructose…therefore sugar is evil too
5. Fruit has fructose as well so limit it to 2 pieces per day as it has good stuff in it too
6. Fruit juice doesn’t compare to real fruit – ignore the advertising and get the real thing!”
I agree (processed) sugar is evil, but are fruits not an important part of a healthy diet?
Fruit would have been a big staple of the diet of our ancestors and we also benefit from eating it (so it definitely meets the criteria of the paleo diet, as well as any healthy diet) . Carbohydrates are out bodies preferred energy source and that is what we get from fruit, as well as many vitamins and minerals.
I understood fructose was actually broken down into the liver first before it enters the blood stream, so you do not get the same insulin response as you would from processed sugars.
Again everyone is different and some people may have reasons why not to eat too much fruit or certain types of fruit (allergies for example), but I think if people can cut out processed foods and replace it with fruit then they are going to be much healthier for it.
Great Post!!!
The Zone was the missing piece to the puzzle for me and a pinnacle discovery in my training. I started feeling better both mentally and physically, which allowed me to push harder within my training and performance, thus resulting in a leaner, stronger, happier, and fitter me!!!
My thoughts and experience on the Zone Diet below:
http://myjourneyrx.com/2014/03/11/my-experience-on-the-zone-diet/
Take Care,
Michelle