Cavemen (Paleo) Diet and the Band

[Cpt. Ahab 5]

Hi,

I searched the entire forum and haven't found any info on the topic of Paleo (aka, Caveman diet, Primal Blueprint) lifestyle. I was banded on May 22nd. At my heaviest I was 250lbs - 90+ days later I'm at 210 - so pretty good loss. I feel great.

I have read a ton of posts on these forums about what people eat and one thing that struck me as odd was that people continued their bad behavior of craving and eating carbs. In fact the entire post-op diet plan concentrates heavily on sweet stuff: jell-o, pudding, crystal-light, Protein Shakes (sweet flavors: choco, fruit, vanilla, etc.) No wonder people are having problems and constantly complaining.

So here some things I'd like to share. About a month ago, I completely ditched all guidelines from the nutritional guide and decided that I would only eat things naturally occurring in nature. So, no artificial sweeteners, flavors, processed foods, etc. Instead I started buying organic, grass-fed, sustainable, and all that new age bull. As I did this I still age some carbs: whole grains, crispy/crunchy crackers, tortilla chips - all organic and "good for you." Then someone I know mentioned that what I was doing was close to the Primal Blueprint or Paleo lifestyle. Since then I've read up on the topic and completely made the switch to not eat agricultural products (grains). I am still eating dairy (Greek yogurt, Kefir, butter, etc.) Got rid of all the artificial fats (PAM sprays, canola oils, I can't believe it's not butters, blah, blah) and went primal.

Since I've started doing this, my energy levels skyrocketed and my weightloss increased. Before my doctor told me I'd expect to shed about a 1 pound per week. I'm 10cc in a 14cc band - so pretty tight. I get full on a small bowl of food - at that rate I was still losing about 1 lbs per week.

After I started on the Paleo, my weightloss from week to week increased to 2.5 lbs. My energy is high, my skin looks better and firmer and my cholesterol actually dropped (despite using animal fats such as lard or tallow or butter to cook with).

I talked to my doctor about this today and he was pretty impressed. His comment was that as long as I felt good about it and had no issues with any of the foods that I was eating he was 100% behind and actually mentioned that he supports the Paleo / natural foods diets.

Anyway - thought I'd share and ask if anyone out there has tried this and what were your results?

I'm not trying to sell or promote something here - just curious. If I read the book first, I probably would have been a skeptic as always, but since it was an experiment that worked out and already had a name - I'm happy with it.

Ahab.

[cakegirl 12]

It's pretty similar to how I eat too. We're mostly additive free (flavours, colours, thickeners, preservatives, etc.) Lots of meat, vegetables and fruits. No artifically hydrogenated oils (margarines etc), not artificial sweeteners. Just olive oil and butter. I make my own bread with 5 ingredients (baker's flour, olive oil, salt, yeast, whole wheat grains). I make our Pasta from scratch (flour/egg/olive oil) and knead it in my Thermomix then roll out through a Pasta roller. We've started growing our own veggies and herbs (I have a dehydrator to preserve them), and soon will be adding some fruiting trees on our balcony.

We aren't 100% strict on it - we do eat out in restaurants and buy the odd sandwich or sushi when out. We still eat dairy products and grains - obviously, with the wheat in my bread, and also oats for porridge, barley in Soups, etc. We occasionally have processed food like chocolate, but it's always high-quality high-cocoa chocolate, not the horrible cheap compound stuff that's around.

Anyway, while not technically "paleo", we're pretty natural, and I agree that our family's health is excellent, and our energy levels are great. My energy levels used to be not-so-good due to insulin/glucose instability caused by PCOS. I used to be on metformin, but since getting the band, the combination of the quality food that I'm choosing and the quantity being controlled by the band has meant I don't have to take metformin any more, and my energy levels have remained good!

[cakegirl 12]

Also, after the big weight loss in the week after surgery, my weight stayed the same the following week, but since then I've lost about 1kg per week, which is 2.2lbs.

And also, about cholesterol, my "good" cholesterol is high and my "bad" cholesterol is low - again, despite my use of butter in just about everything - yes, even since being banded! My doctor used to be surprised by the results - as a fat person with metabolic issues surrounding PCOS, they expected my cholesterol to be all wrong, but instead it was great

[cecilia_racp 0]

I... knead it in my Thermomix ...

Hi Rebecca. Snap! I'm from Australia too and love my Thermomix. I wish I could have had access to a Thermomix just after my op for the lapband. Did you have your Thermomix before your op? If so, how did it help you?

[Jachut 487]

Weeeellll..... based on my understanding, cavemen were opportunists right? They saw something, killed it and ate it, or picked it and ate it, right?

Soooooo..... just thinking out loud here..... if a caveman had walked into the staffroom at lunchtime and saw, like I did today, the peppermint chocolate bar in a charity box, he would have eaten it too right? I mean, a caveman would never miss such easy prey! Only he probably wouldnt have had $2.60 to pay for it. So does that mean am I on the paleo diet?

Seriously though, I agree with you. I think whole foods in their natural state should be the main part of our diet. I think artificial sweeteners, fake fat, coffee Creamers and Protein shakes are poison. White flour has no place in a healthy diet, really. It offers nothing vital nutritionally.

But I cant go the whole hog, so to speak. I cant give up oats and muesli, I do like the odd rice cake or cracker and everybody must have chocolate sometimes. But I find that what I do 90% of the time is sufficient to keep me thin, healthy and feeling good (lets just ignore the fact that I had bowel cancer shall we? That was probably from my OLD diet).

[cakegirl 12]

Jachut, yes, let's blame your old diet... I recently found out I've got polyps in my colon too, so I'm blaming my childhood/adolescence of almost 100% processed rubbish!

Cecelia - which country are you in? I've had my Thermomix for 3 years and only got banded last month. It certainly made the liquid-only and the mushy stages VERRRRY easy!

[Texasbandit 8]

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my hubby was forced on a low fat/ very low sodium diet due to his congestive heart failure. We dont eat anything processed. My husband has a cheat day once every few weeks, but we cook almost everything from scratch. We dont eat chips or frozen food. Even canned Soups. I make my own Soup, Pasta sauce, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, Desserts, etc. Its wonderful and has saved us so much money. The only thing we really buy is bread, but my hubby eats that. We buy fresh fruits, veggies, meats etc and cook.