Damn it feels good to be a... Caveman?

As promised, I am writing this post as a progress report on the effects of my “Hunter Gatherer” diet. To recap, 30 days ago I pledged to give up processed sugar, potatoes, and white flour for a month. People have asked how I came up with the diet, was I following South Beach, Atkins, or Jared? Nope, I followed common sense, although in principle the diet is similar to all three.

My thinking was, sugar and high amounts of carbs are completely foreign to the diet we have been designed for. For hundreds of thousands of years, we survived as cavemen by hunting meat and gathering berries and veggies. What I believe has fattened most of us, certainly me, is not the fact that we left our cave homes, but rather our desire for sweet things. A love of sweets used to be a positive survival adaptation, as until a few thousand years ago, the only available things sweet were fruits, which also contained many vitamins and nutrients we needed and rarely got. But now, rather than satisfying our sweet tooth with natural sugars, like in fruits and tomatoes, we ingest massive amounts of processed sugar instead.

Give it a few thousand years and as many of us die off young from obesity and diabetes and therefore mate less, maybe humanity’s desire for empty sweets will die down. But as I won’t benefit from such long-term thinking, for the last month I simply cut out the sugar and bad-carbs that our bodies just store as fat, and thus returned my diet closer to what my club carrying ancestors ate. This was how I did it:

To eliminate processed sugar, I just replaced it with Splenda. My almost daily iced mocha, became iced coffee with Splenda. And my everyday Coke, switched to Splenda Diet Coke and Cherry Coke Zero.

As for bleached white flour, IE flour with all the fiber and nutrients removed, I simply replaced it with wheat or whole grain products. I still try to limit my intake of these carb laden foods, but in today’s sandwich driven culture, I allowed myself some wiggle room. One serving a day of whole grain breads or pasta.

Lastly, and most sadly, the potato. Sigh. Quite frankly there is no substitute for this one. I simply abstained from my staple food and in doing so removed a major source of excess carbs in my diet. No more fries, chips, or baked potatoes. If I was a professional athlete, I may have been able to work through these carb bombs. But as I am a professional desk sitter, I just don’t need them. For me, it was veggies or nothing on the side. This has been the toughest part.

To sum up an average day of meals: Breakfast starts with a zone bar (quite good actually) with an iced coffee with Splenda and a little half and half. Lunch is a sandwich, (virtually any kind) on wheat or whole grain bread and an iced tea or Coke zero. I snack mid-afternoon on dry roasted almonds or cashews. Dinner is meat of any kind, steamed or pan cooked veggies sprinkled with parmesan, a Coke Zero, and my favorite dessert, sugar free pudding with CoolWhip. At least once a week I mix in bacon and eggs with one piece of toast and Buffalo wings for dinner. I also allowed myself one treat a week, which usually ends up being a couple slices of pizza or a whole grain bagel. But don’t worry, if you want to try my experiment and none of these foods appeal to you, choose different ones. Just stick with no sugar, white flour, or potatoes and try to keep your net carbs per meal less than 10% of the daily recommended carb intake.

As for the results of the 30 day experiment, admittedly the first two days were pretty rough, filled with serious headaches and even more serious sugar withdrawal. But surprisingly, after a couple days, the cravings subsided and then all but disappeared. I say “all but,” as even today when walking by Froot Loops at Walmart, I found my self coveting them just a bit... That being said, other than a strange latent desire for colorful sugary hoops, my diet wasn’t painful at all with relatively minor adjustment in eating habits. But as for the big payoff...

In the first five days, I lost seven pounds and my previous pumpkin head began to shrink to normal, okay, ogre standards. As of Friday, 30 days since I started, I have lost 20 pounds and am continuing to shrink. And all this mostly without exercise, as for two weeks of the diet I was hobbled with a bad back. The unexpected positive side-effects of the weight-loss have been widespread. My face looks five years younger, all my suits need to be taken in as I’ve lost three inches on my waist, and my collars are loose as I’ve lost an inch on my neck. I sleep better, have no headaches, have a far higher energy level, sweat less in the Virginia summer, and feel like I could play soccer for hours. In short, I feel and look the best I have in years.

Now here’s the big surprise ending... I will NEVER return to my previous eating habits. The benefits of eating this way are just too great to ignore. I plan on sticking with my diet until I lose the last nagging 8-10 pounds and then add back very little, if any, extra treats to maintain my low weight. I can’t remember ever feeling better and all after only one month of change. By giving up useless sugar, I likely added years to my life and time with my wife, daughter, and friends. I strongly urge anyone unhappy with their weight or pumpkin head to give the “hunter gatherer” diet a whirl, at least after consulting with your doctor. In summary, I am now one slim, happy Hominid. Now if they only made Splenda FrootLoops...