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Before Paleo in 2008, I'm in red! |
The Secret to Stop Calorie Counting
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Before paleo and accutane in 2008. I had perioral acne which was painful but luckily scarring isn't as obvious as on the cheeks. |
What is Paleo
There are a lot of arguments on what a paleo diet really is. The simplest form is to cut out grains and
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After paleo in winter 2008. |
Why Processed Foods are Just as Bad as Fast Food
What I'm talking about when I say processed foods doesn't mean going to McDonalds. It can mean going to the grocery store and grabbing hamburger helper - or even Indian Spice Mix. Any food in
the grocery store that's prepared and convenient is probably a processed food. The really tasty pasta sauce you love? It's processed. What's the big issue with processed foods? These companies add in all sorts of filler ingredients like whey, maltodexterin and soy lecithin to improve the consistency of the food. This can cause stomach issues for a lot of people. The companies then add a ton of salt, sugar and fat to make the food taste amazing. Our taste buds then become accustomed to these intense flavours and when we eat whole foods it tastes boring. It doesn't have to be that way though. Look carefully at the ingredient lists of prepared foods and learn to read nutrition labels. Or - better yet - stick to whole foods. By that I mean sticking to the edge of the grocery store and picking fresh ingredients and learning how to make sauces from scratch. If you prepare the ingredients in bulk it's not a lot of extra work and will be a lot cheaper too. I prepare bulk sauces and then freeze them. For marinade and salad dressing I simply combine olive oil and balsamic vinegar with oregano which only takes a minute. Yes even vinaigrette salad dressings I avoid since it's a processed food. It's cheap and easy to make my own so why not! All it takes is a bit of habit forming. I wasn't always so savvy in the kitchen though - I watched youtube videos and googled recipes to learn. In this day n age anyone can learn simple cooking - you can do it too! Just watch the Secrets of Sugar to scare you away from the sweets.
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After paleo and during accutane in summer 2009. My eyes were red from the drying effects of accutane! I look like a vampire! |
My Elimination Diet
Years ago I went to a naturopath to treat my acne. She told me to eat more fish and that I was "sensitive" to wheat, eggs, white potatoes, dairy and nightshade vegetables. My whole diet was based on wheat, eggs, white potatoes and dairy so I didn't really know what to do. This was the first time I had tried what was effectively and "elimination diet". I started googling what to eat. I was making baked yam for breakfast, chicken and rice for lunch and salmon with spinach for dinner. I also realized there's basically nothing in the fast food land that I could eat so I put a lot of effort into bringing food to work and planning what I was going to eat ahead of time. I learned new recipes and how to cook simple things like just straight-up sweet potato. I tried new things like almond milk and stevia (no white sugar on this diet either!). I was not going to cheat on my new diet because damn, I wanted to see if this would work. She said even the tiniest cheat would throw off the diet. She also said it could take two months for it to work so I dug in my heels for the long haul. I would not cheat on this diet if you paid me. But you know what, I wasn't counting calories and I wasn't portioning my food at all. At the end of the two months I had lost 20 lbs. Over time, since I wasn't cheating, my taste buds got used to it too. My acne wasn't cured (blerg) at the end of two months but I was turned on to some new foods and armed with a ton of recipes.
Keeping the weight off
Read more about my health journey and my P90X transformation in My Weight Loss Transformation.