I agree. One of the things I don't agree with Paleo eating is starting the
day with fruit juice. It is the worst thing to start your day with. Might
as well just swallow sugar, for what it does to insulin on an empty stomach.
P
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sheryl Canter" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2001 9:46 AM
Subject: Compulsive Eating (was "Weight Gain")
Katrina Greer wrote:
> I know paleo isn't called a "low carb" diet, but the fact is that most of
the things Ray says paleos are supposed to eat are definitely low carb!
There's a difference between "low carb" and "lower carb". Paleo eating
tends
to be lower carb than the standard American diet because of the absence of
grain. Eating very low carb leads to cravings and/or ketosis, and in my
opinion is not healthy--or at least not ideal. (I realize that Eskimos eat
like this.)
Katrina Greer wrote:
> And besides, I have to eat a wide variety of things or I feel deprived.
...
> I have trouble staying completely paleo because I find it too limited
in variety. Could you post what you usually eat?
It's healthy to eat a wide variety of things, and not impossible to do on a
paleo diet! When I first started eating paleo, I felt the same thing--felt
I
was eating the same foods all the time. That's just because I hadn't
learned
how to cook using paleo ingredients. You need to relearn. I make all kinds
of things now that I never made before. I'm exploring different
vegetables--especially roots now that it's fall--and I have been trying all
kinds of different meat dishes. I've made interesting vegetable dishes with
celeriac, lotus root, beets, greens, winter squash and bone broth. Note
that
roots and winter squash are carby--it's natural to eat more carbs in the
cold
months because that's what's available!
We have a lot of ground beef because we bought a (slaughtered) grass-fed
cow,
and I've been making all kinds of things with ground beef--meat loaf,
sauteed
chop meat with veggies, stuffed cabbage, etc. I make beef jerky and
zucchini
chips regularly for snacks (dried zucchini is far more delicious than potato
chips, and similar in texture). I make all different kinds of salads. I've
discovered spaghetti squash. This is just a sampling of the different foods
I've been eating since "going paleo". You need to explore what you can do
with paleo foods. There's a learning curve here!
Katrina Greer wrote:
> (And I like to snack--probably a nervous habit--ha!).
It's healthy to eat frequently. In this model, you eat just enough to
satisfy hunger. You're then hungry again sooner because you didn't eat that
much. Your body is better able to handle small amounts of food at a time.
There is also research evidence that you will burn more calories this way.
If you eat 1200 calories all at once, you will lose weight slower than if
you eat it in small portions throughout the day.
Nervous eating is something else. That's the compulsive eating
thing--eating
when you're not hungry to calm yourself down.
Katrina Greer wrote:
> Regarding coping mechanisms you mentioned, in the last four weeks I have
given up carbs (which I absolutely love--nobody appreciates french fries and
cookies as much as I do), cigarettes and nail-biting. All this at once has
left me feeling as if I have nothing left to do that will give me that
"comfort" that I need. And everyone always suggests that you replace these
"bad habits" with exercise, so I started a kind of "dancing aerobics" class
three times a week. But I will have to admit that I really don't like to
go. It's not doing the dancing that I dislike, it's the time that it takes
to do it that could be spent doing other, more enjoyable things. The good
thing about the exercise is that when I regained the 6 pounds, I didn't feel
any larger. I am hoping that at least part of the six pounds that came back
was muscle tissue. Any suggestions for other coping strategies?
There is no reason at all to give up carbs, and you should not!!!! If you
do, you will crave them and you will binge. There are plenty of carby foods
that are paleo--roots, winter squash, fruit. These are low on the glycemic
index and will not spike your blood sugar, but will give you the carbs that
you need. Stay away from dried fruit or fruit juice on an empty stomach.
If
you have other things in your stomach as well (protein or fat), your blood
sugar won't shoot up as much. It's better to eat raisins with a few nuts
than by themselves.
Also, let yourself eat a donut or chocolate or whatever else you crave.
Eventually, you'll stop wanting it so much. I have had the VERY ODD
experience lately of finding that the cakes and cookies I thought I loved
are
tasting unpleasantly sweet to me lately. I bought a brownie a week or so
ago, took a bite, and threw it out! I could never have imagined that I'd
ever find a food too sweet, but the paleo diet seems to be adjusting my
taste
buds. I've also cut out salt, and find that commercial sausages (nitrate
free, of course) taste so salty to me they are inedible.
As for how to comfort and calm yourself when you have given up all the
compulsive habits you were using to calm yourself before... This is an
extremely important question--central. First of all, recognize that while
you are learning how to deal with anxiety in other ways, you may sometimes
need to fall back on your old strategies. Don't berate yourself when you do
this. Just note that at this moment you needed to eat when you weren't
hungry because you didn't know how else to calm down.
Second... You will find, as with any addiction, that as you remove the
addictive distraction (in this case, obsession with food and body size), the
real issues causing the anxiety will start to press in on you. This is
actually good. If you are forced to feel the feelings, you will tend to
take
actions to truly fix the problems instead of medicating them (as with drugs
or alcohol) or, if you're using food, "stuffing" them. When you stop an
addictive behavior, you have the opportunity to truly solve the underlying
problems. When you are fleeing the anxiety through compulsive behavior, the
problems will tend not to get solved.
So... (here's the zinger)... this means that sometimes you have to sit with
anxiety--just feel it. As you learn to feed yourself in response to true
hunger, you will be better able to do this because you will start to
experience yourself as a reliable caretaker. Feeding yourself in response
to
true physical hunger has a very deep impact on your psyche--at the very
deepest levels--because this is how we first came to feel safe and calm as
infants. Part of nervous eating is a fear of hunger--we fear that we will
not feed ourselves adequately. And since we have been depriving ourselves
for years, we have reason not to trust ourselves! As we learn to feed
ourselves and become reliable to ourselves in doing this, the fear of hunger
starts to go away, as does the nervous eating. We become calmer and better
able to sit with feelings of anxiety because we start to trust ourselves to
be able to solve our problems. This really happens! I have experienced it.
My main point is, don't feel you have to immediately take away any anxiety
you feel the moment you feel it. This is actually addictive thinking. You
can sit with it. You will be okay. And if you find you cannot sit with it
at this time, go ahead and calm yourself with food if you need to, but do it
without judgement or guilt. You're just learning how to feed yourself
properly, and undoing the damage takes time.
Katrina Greer wrote:
> The minute I start thinking about food I'm not supposed to have, the more
I
know I just have to have it or I'll die! I do better when I CHOOSE to eat or
not to eat.
That is a natural, normal, and HEALTHY reaction! It's HEALTHY to rebel
against unnecessary restriction. Why SHOULDN'T you eat whatever you want?!
You are entitled. Carrying extra fat doesn't make you "unworthy" of eating
certain delicious foods!!!!
Katrina Greer wrote:
> I just want you to know how much it meant for me to hear that you have had
the same struggles that I have been experiencing and how well you are
learning to manage your body.
> Thanks so much!!!
It is very helpful for me to share these ideas and write them out because it
reinforces it for me. I am struggling with this, too, and I need to keep
these ideas top of mind. It's hugely helpful for me to share with others.
It's like sponsoring in 12-step programs, if you are familiar with that. My
compulsive eating has been much better lately, and I can tell from my
clothes
that my weight has dropped somewhat. But the main point is not my
weight--it's freedom from the obsession with food and body size, which I
have
been experiencing, too. I have also been solving some long-standing
problems
that have nothing to do with food, but have a lot to do with the anxiety
I've
been stuffing with food.
Katrina Greer wrote:
> My husband is on it and he likes it too. He has lost 12 lbs. and that
really urks me because he eats more than I do!
My boyfriend eats staggering amounts of food and never gains an ounce. He's
lost about 5 pounds on the paleo diet, brought down his blood pressure,
gained muscle, and lost fat. Some people are just like that--especially
men.
Compulsive eating affects women far more often than men because of our
culture. Just as you find virtually no men who are anorexic, you find
virtually no men who are compulsive eaters. These are women's problems,
caused by the pressures on women in our society.
- Sheryl
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