Cavemen Should Be So Lucky

I follow a pretty strict diet. Yesterday, I started with some chocolate covered espresso beans, a 3-egg omlet, a pastry, and a cappuccino. Later in the morning I had a chocolate croissant. For lunch I had fajitas with rice and beans, and a big cookie for dessert. I mean a really big cookie. It was really more of a chocolate chip pie. Later on I had a muffin and an ice-cream sandwhich. When I got home I had some chocolate b-bs, some walnuts, and then steak and asparagus for dinner. Then a rediculously sweet dessert bar, dripping in caramel. Finally some more walnuts, and then a bowl of raisin bran.

Yesterday was Tuesday. And Tuesday is special.

The other six days of the week I eat like a caveman. As rediculous as that may sound, eating like a caveman is the basis for the paleolithic diet (a.k.a. the caveman diet). I follow the paleo diet as described in The Paleo Diet for Atheletes. Essentially, most of the time you are allowed to eat anything that a caveman would have had available.

The foundation for the theory behind this diet is that humans evolved over 100,000 years or so to eat certain types of foods. It's only in the last 10,000 or so that foods requiring processing came into our diet (grains), more recent than that for sweets, and still more recent than that for synthesized oils (trans fats). Thus, many of the health problems that humans experience may be related to consuming foods that our bodies have not evolved to consume.

While it may not be obvious what a caveman would have had available, it's easy to identify lots of things that a caveman would not have had available. Tuesdays notwithstanding, I don't eat refined sugars (e.g. sweets, soda), grains (wheat, rice, oats, etc.), legumes (beans, peanuts), dairy (milk, cheese), or trans fats (e.g partially hydrogenated soybean oil). I only eat fruits and vegetables, meats (leaning towards fish and other lean meats), and nuts.

I do make a few other exceptions besides Tuesdays. I have a cup of coffee every day. I have maybe five alcoholic drinks a week. And if I'm out to dinner with friends or family, if someone has something that's especially good I will have a small bite so as not to miss out. Finally, the protein powder I use to complement my protein intake from natural sources is made from whey and is flavored with cocoa.

There are two things that are so bad (in my opinion) that I avoid even on Tuesdays. The first is trans fats. These molecules are very hard for your body to break down and cause all sorts of health problems with cholesterol. The second is peanuts. Peanuts and peanut oil cause big problems with atherosclerosis, which I understand as arterial plaque.

Those two things aside, why would I do all of this? We typically think of endurance atheletes as calorie burning machines who get to eat anything they want. And at 6 feet 1 inch and 170 lbs, I certainly don't have any concerns about my weight. The reason is twofold.

First, one's diet has a significant impact on one's performance. According to The Paleo Diet for Athletes, athletes who follow similar diets are able to recover faster, get sick and injured less frequently, can train at higher intensities, and observe improved results in controlled endurance tests.

Second, I believe that the effects of an unhealthy diet (and by unhealthy, I mean one high in any or all of grains, dairy, legumes, sweets, trans fats) have a cumulative aspect that contributes to health problems down the road. I am not aware of any studies that are conclusive on this in a comprehensive sense, but I think there are many partial results and this claim will be supported by ongoing and future research.

As an anecdote, I eat as much as I want of fruits, veggies, nuts, and meats. Probably about 3000 calories a day. I get roughly 30 percent of them from fat (nuts, oils, and animal fat). I eat a dozen eggs in a week, and eat some form of animal protein in every single meal. I'm somewhere between 6 and 7 percent body fat. My cholesterol is 114. My LDLs and HDLs are all well within the healthy paramaters.

I recognize that no small part of this is due to lucky genetics, but last time I evaluated these things I was training (and eating) for marathons the traditional way (i.e. lots of miles, lots and lots of carbs from grains). I was unquestionably in good shape by most traditional standards. But I was less muscular, my body fat percentage was about 2 points higher, and my cholesterol was about 15 points higher.

From a diet standpoint, this is what has changed: Now, on a typical day, I will have a glass of orange juice or some unsweetened applesauce with protein powder and some walnuts before my workout. If it's a particularly hard workout I might forgo this and eat a gel or drink some sports drink during my workout instead (not paleo, but okay during and immediately after exercise). After my workout I have two eggs with veggies, some juice, and a cup of coffee. For lunch I get a gigantic salad with spinach, peppers, broccoli, beets, sprouts, grilled squash, and fresh fruit. I liberally pour olive oil on top of it if I think of it, but dressing doesn't really matter to me anymore. I also get about 6 ounces of deli meat or tuna or lobster salad (technically deli meat is not paleo because of the salts added for preservation, but it's a very convenient option for me). I split my lunch into two, have half around 11:00 and the other half around 2:00. In the afternoon I'll have a piece of fruit if I'm hungry. For dinner it might be chicken, or beef, or occasionally fish (I'd like it to be fish more, but it's not always convenient or cost-effective), a vegatable, and some more nuts, and if it's the weekend perhaps a couple of beers or glasses of wine. For dessert a glass of orange juice, some protein powder, and some more walnuts. Maybe another piece of fruit or a carrot if I'm still hungry.

Since going on this diet I feel notably better in many ways. Occasionally in the morning I used to feel very lethargic for 15 minutes or so after waking. That's gone. I feel stronger in my workouts. I can do back-to-back workouts and even double workouts with less fatigue. If you've been doing crossfit with me you've probably noticed an increase in my performance over the last two months. And going from 8-9% body fat down to 6-7% just happened as a side-effect of starting this diet.

So given all of this, what's up with Tuesdays then? To be honest I find it too difficult/discouraging to follow the diet indefinitely. Sometimes I'll see something that's not on the "approved" list and the thought of never being able to enjoy that thing again seems unfair and makes it even more desirable. By giving myself one day a week to eat anything I want, not only is it easy wait x days to enjoy it, I can quantify the part of my diet that is not paleo. If you're just having a snack here and there you never really know how it adds up. One day of splurging a week allows me to get the benefits of the other six days.

Cavemen should be so lucky.