At Darwin’s Table

I decided three days ago that I had had enough of being and feeling fat. I had a hiatus of a few years of attempting to lose weight. I had enough of trying and then failing to do it. But then I read the paleo diet by Dr Loren Cordain. The premise of the book is to eat what we as humans evolved to eat. He uses his own and others research to determine what humans ate during the paleolithic times and also what hunter gatherers eat today. Then he developed guidelines on how to best simulate their diet. Why would you want to do this? Well humans have had around 100000 generations since our existence and of which 500 were after the agricultural revolution. Our bodies simply have not evolved to eat these new foods such as potatoes, grains, junk food, dairy etc. Evidence shows that our ancestors and hunter gatherers just did not get sick with the modern diseases of civilization but rather died from infectious diseases and trauma ie being bitten by a tiger or something. As a biologist myself who studies evolution I can personally back this philosophy. So I chose to once again try and attempt to lose weight following these principles. This is my journey…..

So I have been following this for the last few days. I have made sure I am eating under 1800 calories a day. But I am starting to wonder if this is too low as I have dropped 2kg (4.4 pounds) in the last two days. I know however that this is probably water. I will carry on for a week and see what happens but if the weight keeps coming off too fast I may eat more. My body has major issues with this diet. I have been very hungry at night and experiencing very strong headaches. Headaches I have not felt before. I believe this is sugar withdrawal. I have seen on TV whenever people go on such diets (ie no sugars or grains) they experience the same thing. Hopefully this will simmer down over the next few days. 

The headaches seem to be subsiding but now my problems seem to be in my intestinal area. Yes in one word Im constipated. I have been eating many many vegetables and lean meats. For example yesterday I had.

Breakfast: Banana and Cashew Nuts 

Lunch: Salad, beetroot, onion, monkfish, lemon juice, capers, tomato and olive oil

Dinner: Canola oil, 6 tomatoes, onion, 250g frozen spinach, 300g Lean skinless chicken, Spices

Snack: Dried rockmelon, Potatoe with olive oil (yes this is not allowed but my head was exploding and felt like this might relieve it. Im easing myself into paleo slowly). 

 So as you can see I am getting fibre. Additionally, my stomach keeps rumbling and feels very acidic and out of sorts. I guess it takes a while for all the bacteria in your gut to sort themselves out so that the ones that can break down vegetables become more dominant. Also my body may be releasing too many acids (perhaps) because of years of feeding it fatty and starchy foods. Anyway I will keep an eye on it over the next few days.