02/02/2012 Paleo Challenge Day 27

Today was a rest day from workouts and from work, so no physical activity other than a great massage from Ingrid.  I did a 90-minute session, and I felt like I had been in a car accident after she was done, you could say I like being manhandled by a woman…

I spent another day doing errands, and cooking food for the upcoming week.  If you looked into my fridge it would appear that I am keeping a circus animal as a pet, lots of meat, and green veggies.  As the months pass, my shopping habits continue to evolve and change, the more often I go to the grocery store, it seems the less I buy shit in boxes or pre-packed bags. 

In the bad old days I think I spent most of the time in a supermarket in the center aisles, buying packed products like cereal, noodle, pasta, and rice packs, bottled sauces, enough ketchup to fill a bathtub, and my favorite breads and bread mixes. 

Can a brother get some cornbread?

I would come back home with a $200 whole foods bill put stuff away, and realize I didn’t have a whole lot to eat.  There was a moment about 8 months ago where during my fourth or fifth trip to Whole Foods after my visit to fat camp where I placed my shopping cart aside, went to grab some vegetables and then couldn’t find my cart.

I was standing right next to it; I didn’t recognize my own shopping cart.  I’m sure a result of years of poor habits, and conditioned behavior.  This has happened one other time, and at this point I’m used to seeing only things that were alive at one point.

Today my time at the supermarket is mostly spent on the borders where all the real food is placed.

Clearly my ideas about food have changed, and as I continue my evolution, I find that food doesn’t move me in the same way.  I guess what I mean is, I don’t act impulsively when it comes to eating.  It’s a lot easier to make decisions about what I eat before I eat them.

In the past I would have the urge to eat, and if something came my way I would attack it like I’m Godzilla, and the food was Tokyo, only to realize 20 minutes later I had punished all of Japan with the rumblings of heartburn beginning, it would literally take discomfort in my stomach or throat for me to stop eating, and I would come out of what can only be described as a trance like state. 

I always felt hungry.  Uncontrollable hunger. 

While going through this weight loss process after fat camp, I was less hungry, but still had a compulsion to eat.  The change in my diet, and the addition of lots of vegetables and fruit made it easier to not crave the refined carbs.

But this new intake required me to snack frequently, and sometimes no matter what I did the eating seemed to fuel the hunger.  I couldn’t get satiated.

The interesting thing that has occurred during the 5 week Paleo Challenge is that, I’ve basically stopped snacking, well not entirely.  Whereas before my snacking was a direct result of a schedule which was designed to help carry me through in between meals, my snacking now is really about satisfying hunger because I have physically hungry, or I know my energy void is a result of not eating enough.

I have found myself in several situations where at the end of the day I was eating less than I had been with the old way of eating, because I just wasn’t hungry.  On days that I workout I monitor my food more closely, so I don’t end up in the up starvation zone, during days like today (rest days) I choose to try and live based on my bodies natural drive to eat.

Because I’m not eating fast digesting carbs, I’m not in a food fucking purgatory, where you continue to eat, get hungry, and eat again, get hungry, and eat again until you fucking explode.  My old way of eating was like one long 33 year version of Groundhog Day, where every morning Ned, would stop me in the street and say  “Phil? Phil Connors?”

Today I eat, stay satisfied, and after hours my body says feed me, and I find something to eat, even when I do get hungry the hunger isn’t as intense.  It’s not as voracious of a desire.  It’s what I think could be described as normal physical response to the need of energy.

When I started the Paleo Challenge I still had to eat frequent snacks, almost one month into it, I snack when I need to, and I eat when hungry. 

Let’s see what happens over time, but I think my body has turned in a direction which is burning fat, and not sugar.

Check out this link…

It’s an interesting article on 6 food myths, I’m not surprised after reading Omnivores Dilemma that this stuff exists. 

http://www.cracked.com/article_19433_the-6-most-horrifying-lies-food-industry-feeding-you_p2.html

Meals:

Paleo Meals Day 27