Join me on my latest day hike adventure to a local state forest. I hike along a series of multi-use trails in an attempt to navigate to a closed down burnt bridge crossing over a lake. Weather was perfect, and a wonderful time was had. I used my cook kit to make a cup of coffee, discuss Paleo Friendly snacks on the trail, and observe hundred of ducks enjoying a dip in the lake. Come along and let’s go for a hike!
Series Revisited: Keys to Paleo Success Part 3: Patience (and the Paleo Cheat Hypothesis)
Today I will talk about one of my downfalls; not just with Paleo, but with life in general! I am guilty of not having much patience in life, and at times I think it hurts me in many ways. Let’s look at how patience is important to Paleo.
When you start down the road of a Paleo lifestyle, you are bound to have ups and downs. It is very hard, if not impossible to have the willpower to be perfect. Often you slip up and don’t even know it until much later. Even the definition of what is and is not paleo is fuzzy in certain areas so who is to know for sure where all of your choices will settle out.
I am a perfectionist, and that can be good in some places. When it comes to eating Paleo though, I have learned to avoid the temptation to think that I can be perfect. I think of my eating as a fuel meter that ranges from 0 to 100.
It is unrealistic that I can keep this meter pegged down at 100 all the time, and if I make that my only acceptable goal I will fail. I’m not saying that you should not care, or try to eat clean, but you must be patient with yourself. Life is after all to be enjoyed, and occasionally that may mean deviating from the Paleo path. I don’t do this often, but I have in the past, and I am certain I will again. The key is that when I choose to “cheat,” I do so very deliberately and with no remorse. I keep my fuel gauge as close to the 100 mark almost all the time, so I will allow for episodes of dietary indiscretion in rare instances.
When I started Paleo I was gung ho crazy to be perfect. One important part of Paleo I had not yet learned to appreciate is trying to eliminate stress from your life. If you place so much pressure on yourself to be perfect that a cheat will literally ruin your week, you have to reset your priorities a bit. I was guilty of such behavior, and I was taught early to change my ways by my biggest cheerleader…my lovely wife. One night about 4 months into changing to the Paleo lifestyle we took the kids to Dairy Queen. I can say honestly up to this point I had been 100% compliant to my knowledge, and it was becoming almost an obsession. For me, an obsession is easy to come by, and not healthy at all. We pulled through the drive thru and I ordered my kids some ice cream. As I looked at the menu, I just decided on a whim to order a Peanut Buster Parfait. I’ll be honest…I ate it all, and it was SO good. That night I could not sleep I felt so guilty. I had not planned it, and I felt weak to just order something so half-hazardly and eat it! I moped much of the next day and into the evening, and my wife, knowing me all too well, asked me what was wrong. She knew what was wrong, but asked anyway. I explained to her my guilt, and she simply asked me what I would tell a patient in that situation. It was easy to know that I would tell them that we all make errors, and you just move on.
This episode was very good for me in many ways. First I realized that even though I ate ice cream, it did not change my Paleo values in any way whatsoever. I picked up the next day and carried on with my clean diet. This showed me another aspect of food no longer controlling me. Food can control your behavior, but it can also control your reaction to your behavior. I essentially forgave myself for eating the Dairy Queen, and moved on! I never really looked back (remember the fuel gauge) and that’s something I had always had a hard time with.
This also led me to develop what I call the Paleo Cheat Hypothesis, and it goes like this. If a caveman walked into a cave way back in the day, and stumbled upon a Peanut Buster Parfait from Dairy Queen, would he taste it and reject it on principle? NO WAY! I have no doubt he would have eaten it and gone back home to tell his family! I know, I know, it’s a little silly, but just the same way that occasionally a prehistoric human found a comb of pure honey, we can occasionally gather edibles that are not the healthiest. It’s gonna happen to you eventually. You have two choices; either fester over it forever with the belief that you should have been perfect, or just let it go and move on. Just keep that gauge between 95-100 as much as possible, and everything will be ok. Always be patient with your fallible human self.
In addition to patience with yourself, you need patience with your progress. We all want to get healthier, fitter, happier, more energetic, and for our biomarkers like weight, blood pressure and cholesterol to improve. That said, it won’t happen overnight, and may not happen ever to the extent that we want. Don’t make demands on yourself and make them a prerequisite for success. Your goals are important, but so are the lessons that the journey will teach you. Use every day to learn from your successes, and your failures. Remember that going Paleo is a lifestyle, and a lifestyle lasts your whole life!
In life we all want to believe we can and should be perfect, and that we can be that way now. I advise all my patients to try to be all that they can be. This means pushing yourself, redefining what you feel you can achieve, but also to do this with a good deal of patience and appreciation for the journey. You will never be perfect, you weren’t designed to be perfect, and don’t be fooled into thinking there is anyone out there who is. I’m certainly not, and I’m actually kind of proud of that. In fact, my imperfection has taught me to be a better Christian, father, husband, doctor, and person overall.
-E
Series Revisted: Keys To Paleo Success Part 2/4 – Understanding
This is the second part in a series on what I feel are some of the keys to making the Paleo lifestyle successful for you over the long haul. The first part of the series was on cooking and it seemed to be pretty well received. Today’s topic? Understanding…
One of the most important things that will allow for long term commitment to anything in your life is understanding why you are doing it. This may sound a bit simplistic or obvious, but take the time to think about it. Changing your life in a way many consider “drastic” is not easy, and you need a good reason to do it! When I started the journey on a Paleo diet I asked quite a few questions about why I should do this. Being a physician and the fact that many Paleo principles go against much of what I was taught about diet and nutrition I set about learning as much as I could. Making a fundamental change in your life, no matter what area it is in, requires a real belief in what you are doing. Belief can only come with knowledge.
When my wife and I decided to go paleo, I downloaded and read Robb Wolf’s book The Paleo Solution. I mentioned it in an earlier post, but I will give you this advice. You need to understand two things about Paleo; how we do it, and why we do it. Robb’s book gives you the option to simply read about the how to do it, and suggests you can follow Paleo without worrying about the why. Of course he is right, but I think to be most affective you need to know the why. How to follow Paleo is pretty simple as we all know. There will be a point, or likely many points when you will feel like going back to your old ways. A solid foundational knowledge on why you follow Paleo will serve you well during these times and get you back on track.
When I discuss any topic with my patients I hope that they ask me questions. Curiosity about why I am telling them to do things a certain way lets me know they are thinking, and that they care about what we are talking about. Simply taking something on blind faith is a risky proposition. Don’t get me wrong, you have every reason to trust any of the major Paleo book writers like Robb Wolf, and his book is extremely well written, researched, and presented. That said, you need to take ownership of your own life and health. My experience with patients is simple; if they just accept what I’m saying to do and nod absent mindedly they are unlikely to have followed through with any recommendations I made when they return for their next follow up visit. If they show interest and ask good questions, they are much more likely to show improvement.
So take the time to read The Paleo Solution cover to cover and UNDERSTAND. Although the Paleo lifestyle will offer you significant improvements in many areas of your life it is not good as a means to an end of a single specific goal such as weight loss. Look at your health as a whole and see all the ways changing your diet could help you. Look FORWARD in your life and see how changes today can change your life tremendously many years from now. Don’t simplify the decision to go Paleo but rather make it about long term happiness and health.
Once you fully understand the driving principles behind why following the Paleo lifestyle is best for you, you will be able to pass it on to others. Whether it be to patients or clients of your own, friends, or even family, proper understanding will allow you to successfully lead those you care about to also go Paleo. This ultimately is where we can make the most impact on our future.
So take the time to learn and understand Paleo, what it does, and why it does it. You do not need a medical degree to grasp the basic concepts. I try to learn something new about Paleo everyday, and you have all the resources you will ever need with a computer and an internet connection. You will be questioned about your diet by many, and if you plan on helping them understand why you are right (and they are wrong!) you need convincing knowledge on your side. Study up, past the test, and join the fight!
-E
Ultralight Backpacking Cookset Revisited – New and Improved!
This video takes a fresh look at my ultralight cookset and some changes I have made. I have added the possibility of adding my Vargo Titanium Hexagon Wood Stove as a pot stand and windscreen, thus adding the versatility of a wood burning stove in case of emergency. Weight conscious? We look at all the weights and see where it stands. This is a very easy, “relatively” inexpensive way to put together a great cookset! Let me know what ya’ll think!
Gear Review Wednesday! – Affordable Tactical Flashlight – Tasco XR5
Some may say I have too many flashlights…I say there is no such thing! In this gear review Wednesday I review a very cheap and well made flashlight you can buy in a 3 pack at many wholesale clubs across the country. Check them out!
Should Athletes Eat Fat or Carbs – From the New York Times
I don’t often post a link to another article, but I think this one is pretty important to many of my readers. It just shows the steady move away from fat being the cause of so many things, and more to carbs being the issue. In this case, carbs are finally targeted as maybe NOT being the best choice for athletes. Let me know what ya’ll think!
Should Athletes Eat Fat or Carbs?
Series Revisted: Keys To Paleo Success Part 1/4 – Cooking
I have quickly come to understand what I believe are the major areas one must concentrate on in order to be successful for the long term with a Paleo lifestyle. I’m not talking about specifics when it comes to what you eat, or how you eat, it’s more about behaviors and attitudes. Today’s post is the first of a multi-part series discussing these areas, and today we concentrate on cooking at home.
Some of the biggest complaints I here from my patients about the Paleo lifestyle revolve around cooking. “I can’t cook like that,” or “I can’t cook at all” are what I often get. Being inLouisianapeople just can’t wrap their heads around coming out of the kitchen without biscuits, rice or potatoes playing a major role in dinner. The same is true for any regional cuisine and that cuisine’s traditional staples. It’s almost sacrilegious to tell people that Grandma’s famous dinner rolls gotta go! The Paleo lifestyle revolves around what goes in your mouth, and what goes in our mouths every night has to revolve around a home kitchen putting out the right kind of meals.
Let’s talk restaurants. The first thing I suggest is to get over the idea that you can successfully convert to the paleo lifestyle by eating out every night. Although I do not instruct my patients to count calories when eating Paleo, I do think some obvious restraint is necessary. The average meal at a chain restaurant these days contains 400-750 calories for an appetizer, and 1200-1800 for a main course. These are averages, and many far exceed these numbers. Want to scare yourself more, take a look at the calorie numbers at common kid’s meals these days! Even splitting an appetizer, having an run of the mill entrée, along with a little bread and salad, you still are easily at 2000 calories on a good night. You simply can’t do this 4-5 nights a week and succeed.
Another problem with restaurants is cost. I have absolutely no problem going to a very nice restaurant and spending a little money on a nice meal (in fact, I rather enjoy it!). That said, when one of the biggest issues patients complain about is the cost of eating Paleo, you have to be smart where you spend your money. A 16 oz Ribeye at a local steakhouse is 24-28 dollars, the same Ribeye is 12-14 dollars at my local butcher. Take this evening for example. I am cooking crabcakes with red pepper coconut sauce, roasted asparagus and a side salad. Here are some rough numbers on the cost.
Home:
1 pound of Crabmeat – $16.00
½ bell pepper – $1.00
1 Shallot – $0.50
Paleo Mayo – $0.50
OldBaySeasoning – $3.00 (For whole thing!)
Asparagus – $4.00
Salad Greens – $4.00
Total – $29.00 or $7.25 per person
Local Seafood Restaurant:
2 Adult Crabcakes – $18.00 each
2 Kid’s Chicken Strip Meals (We won’t battle the kids out to dinner!) – $8.00 Each
2 Sides of Asparagus – $4.00 each
2 Waters – $2.00 each
2 Kids Drinks – $1.00 each
Total – $76.00, with Tax and Tip – $95.00! or an average of $23.75 per person
Now this is just an example, and I didn’t even give the kids crabcakes (which they love by the way). There is just no way anyone can argue that cooking at home is not immensely cheaper than eating out. The problem is many people don’t really see this because it just adds up. Ten bucks for lunch here, 50 for dinner there, and before you know it you have spent tons on dining out. I hear it all the time…”It’s just too expensive to cook at home!” Man! Get a calculator and discover the truth!
Another area of concern with restaurants is that you have NO IDEA what they are cooking your food with. Did you know that a Wendy’s chicken sandwich actually contains some beef?! Even nicer restaurants are out for one thing (as they probably should be) and that is to make their food taste as good as they can so you will come back and eat again. They don’t do that, as well as turn a profit by cooking with natural oils or without cutting some nutritional corners. A major part of the Paleo lifestyle is being completely aware of what is going into your mouth. You can’t do that going out to eat unless you know who is cooking for you well, and you are able to given them specific instructions on what to do and what not to do. It can be done, you just have to be very proactive when you order and make them understand how important it is to you that things are done right.
One last issue with eating out is that you are always prone to eat more when going out to dinner. Have you seen serving sizes these days! You go to a restaurant to eat, you are presented with a plethora of options, and given little extras to fill you up while you wait for your food to be cooked. How are we not going to overeat in these situations? How many of us when cooking at home serve an appetizer, bread, salad, main dish, and sides at every meal? When’s the last time your local Mexican joint failed to refill your chips and salsa on demand?!
Enough about eating out, lets talk cooking at home for the rest of the post. I get it, I’m a foodie kitchen dork who loves to cook and make my family happy at meal time. I also have tons of time and don’t work but 3 hours a day….NOT!! Maybe you don’t like to cook? Or is it that you don’t feel comfortable in the kitchen? Or maybe nothing turns out as good as it does at Chilis? Here is a few suggestions.
The first thing I suggest is that you keep a well stocked pantry at all times. When we designed our new house I let my wife essentially do the whole thing…except for my pantry. I knew exactly what I wanted, and I even ended up having the builders rip a wall down and steal more space from an adjacent guest closet to increase the size. No matter the size though, you need to keep pantry staples on hand so you don’t have to constantly be running to the store to get everyday items. If you make it a priority to stock your pantry, you can spread the cost out over 3-4 months and end up with a good stock on hand. I can’t emphasize your pantry enough.
Next I suggest you start easy and slow. Find some easy Paleo recipes on the internet or in a book and follow it step by step. Look here for a place to start! Read and understand the recipe well before starting, prepare your ingredients, and put it together. You just have to try! Don’t have much time, pull out the crock pot and take 10 minutes in the morning to fix dinner before you leave the house! This may sound obvious, but for a while I would stick to meals that you KNOW you and your family will love. If you are new to cooking, and your family is wishing Domino’s was delivering instead, the last thing you want is to try something a little out of the norm and (literally) leave a bad taste in their mouths. Cook some “fast balls down the middle of the plate” for a while to build your confidence, as well as the confidence of those you are cooking for. Once you feel pretty good about some easy recipes that everyone enjoys, start experimenting with new techniques and ingredients. Above all else, try to make cooking fun! Involve the kids and make a mess every once in a while. You are teaching your kids knowledge that will serve them a lifetime if they learn to produce great meals at home.
Another MAJOR component to successful cooking from the home is planning. If I don’t have anything planned for dinner when I leave the house in the morning, we probably have a 75% chance of getting take out that night. We spend more, eat more, and likely are eating some things we should not. Plan ahead for 2-3 days and try to have your ingredients on hand. Check your family schedule every week and look for things that could get in your way. Always have church till later on Wednesdays? Why not try making Wednesdays crock pot night and you don’t have to worry about dinner other than to get home and serve. We usually do go out to lunch every Sunday after church, so it gives everyone something to look forward to on the weekend. Just find a schedule and plan that is right for you and stick to it.
I want to give you guys two quick tips that I have discovered for myself over the years being the cook and planner in the house. First, I used to try to plan meals for the whole week on Sunday, and get everything bought early to cut on my trips to the grocery store. For me that just did not work very well. Almost always, what sounded good for dinner Thursday night when I was planning Sunday night did not sound as good when Thursday came around. This led to more going out to eat, and wasting of food I bought for that dinner if I did not quickly find another use for it. I now plan 2 days in advance maximum (unless I am using the Sous Vide for more than a 48 hour soak). I go to the store more, but it allows me to always keep what we eat fresh and more consistent with the moment.
Second I want to talk cooking temperature. If you have ever watched Mario Batali cook on TV he says often that the difference between a home cook and a chef is in the “aggressiveness of the heat.” What he means is that restaurant food tastes so good because they cook with high eat and are not afraid to slightly burn food to get that umami flavor we all love. Be aggressive, but to be so you have to be there while your food cooks. My wife can’t do this because she tries to do too many things at once and can’t concentrate on just cooking. Not a bad thing, it’s just who she is! To cook with high heat and get great flavor you have to watch and be there for all the action. Work on this and your food will start tasting better immediately.
I know this has been a sort of hodgepodge of thoughts, but cooking at home is absolutely essential to making Paleo fresh, affordable, and consistent in it’s results for you and your family. Make it fun for the whole family to find the best ingredients, visit local farmer’s markets, get to know the guy raising your beef if you can. If this is too much, maybe you can at least get to know the guy cutting your beef for you at the grocery store. One of my major goals as a dad and a cook is for my kids to know where food comes from. I don’t want them to think food comes though the car window, or from a box, or served mainly for us by a waiter at a restaurant. Real food comes from the home. And as I say; Real Food…Real Health.
-E
What Is the Cause of the Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity Epidemic? – Carbs, It’s That Simple!
As most people know, diabetes is absolutely rampant these days and it will be on the rise for the foreseeable future. Why is this? And why is the Paleo diet so effective at treating and controlling diabetes? Lets talk about that today!
Your body is an amazing thing, and God designed it to maintain remarkable tolerances. Blood sugar is very toxic to organs and tissue above a certain level, and it is no surprise that when functioning correctly, your body maintains it inside a very narrow range. The main player in all this is insulin, that is produced by the pancreas in response to elevated blood sugars, and in turn shifts glucose inside of cells where it can do no harm. So you take in a glycemic load, your body senses it and releases enough insulin to maintain sugars at a safe level. Sounds easy enough right?
So what happens if your diet depends too highly on carbohydrates, particularly highly processed carbohydrates with high glycemic indices? Basically your body is forced to produce more and more insulin to maintain a safe glucose level, and eventually two things happen. First your body starts to ignore the released insulin (what is known as insulin resistance) and second your pancreas eventually just burns out and stops functioning. Insulin resistance leads to non-insulin dependent diabetes, and continued abuse of your pancreas in time leads to insulin dependence requiring multiple daily insulin shots. (Both considered Type 2 Diabetes in this case)
Not sure if everyone has noticed, but diabetes is kind of on the rise lately!
Incidence of Diabetes in America
Facts about Diabetes
Incidence of Childhood Diabetes in America
Why is this so? I mean why is diabetes on the rise so much these days? Well, I’ll give you one guess: it starts with carbo and ends in hydrates! Our bodies were designed to run on a certain blend or mix of nutrients, much like your car is designed to run optimally on a certain gas mixture. Over the last 25 years we have altered the formula by increasing the percentage of carbohydrates and decreasing the percentage of fat in the typical American diet. DON’T tell me it’s genetics because last I checked, genes don’t change in 15 years! People love to say that diabetes “runs in my family,” which it may, but what your family eats also runs in your family! We eat so many carbohydrates that we force our Pancreas to keep the accelerator to the floor on insulin production to compensate for our carb-addicted ways. Go ahead everyone, please, give me a different BIOCHEMICALLY PLAUSIBLE explanation for the rapid rise of diabetes in adults and children in America in the last 25 years! PLEASE, comment below with the cause if it is not our diet? Does protein spike glucose in your blood? Does fat do it? No, so all we have left is carbohydrates. Anyone notice something else on the rise in America? OBESITY! They are kissing cousins, they run hand in hand.
How does Paleo fit in? Well that’s easy, it eliminates the fuel to this fire. It takes the burden off the pancreas to produce excess insulin and allows it to relax! It’s that simple, Paleo takes away the oxygen from the fire that is diabetes. No oxygen, no fire 🙂
We often try to complicate things. I mean, it must be a vast number of things that is leading to the obesity and diabetes epidemic in America right? Sorry to disappoint, but it’s actually very simple. We eat more carbs, we gain more weight, we develop diabetes more frequently, and we therefore die younger. But, we don’t die before imposing a tremendous financial cost to society through our illness.
Our society is now all about convenience. Convenience food must remain fresh for extended periods of time, cook up in an instant, and be cheap as dirt. Convenience will be the downfall of American health, in fact it already is.
There is no conspiracy here, diabetes is about ONE thing…Inappropriate intake of carbohydrates. Any other attempt to describe the epidemic, and any other plan to stop the problem is pure fantasy.
Eat Clean, Find An Adventure that MOVES You!
-Ernie
PS – As one of my readers pointed out, this article is about Type 2 Diabetes which is very different than Type 1. The biochemical pathway discussed above traces how adults (and more frequently children) develop Type 2 Diabetes.
Day Hike in the Louisiana Swamps with Kids
Ever visited Louisiana? Or wanted to? Check out our recent hike with some friends at a local state park and have a look at the real Louisiana swamps! What a great time we had!
Family Car Everyday Carry Bag – You and Your Family Be Ready!
Is your family car ready for an emergency or unexpected breakdown? See what we carry for these situations! Share and help others be prepared as well!
PaleoHikerMD 