My Version of The Paleo Diet

I met about 7 different entrepreneurs in NYC during the past couple of weeks,  it's summer after all, and I got to get out and mingle a bit.  The one thing they all had in common: Paleo Diet. Or some variation of it. Including myself.

These were hard-core people, best seller authors, Silicon Valley movers and shakers, people in the entretainment business.  On one dinner we ate only meat, all sorts of it, another entrepreneur we met for coffee put zero sugar or milk in his cup, another one had only eggs for breakfast.

chicken and nuts (Pinterest source)

I first heard about the Paleo diet after reading "Wheat Belly" which caused a tremendous impression on me as I had NO idea how harmful it is to eat bread and/or wheat products, especially the ones that can be found in the supermarkets in our times and hidden in the ingredients of most things we eat, including canned pumkping soup mind you, which I did not suspect at all.

For the first time ever I understood where some of my long-term ailments could  be coming from and decided to drop bread all together. Here is the book review which I entitled "My Big Fat Wheat Belly" because this is one of the most noticeable health offences that wheat produces, and one of the most leathal from the yogic perspective.  You may recall Krihsnamahcarya saying that "a big belly is the main cause of un-timely death"?

At around that time I also heard of the Paleo diet, which uses foods that our ancestors ate for meal planning and nothing else.  Aparently they mostly ate meat and some greens, not grains. Never grains or suggar.

The Paleo Diet, although mine seems to have more veggies
and fruits than meat (source)

Thinking of ancestors made me go back to look at MY OWN ANCESTORS.  The ones I remember, and what they ate.  Meat was at the center.

I have noticed that it is impossible for me to be on a vegetarian diet, and the reason is evident as I look back to the ones that came beofore me through my blood line.

I wish I could be vegetarian.  I would probably feel morally right and superior if I could. I am sure it would help my pranayama and get me closer to the goal of yoga (or would it?)  But I can't.

Not put together that way, I suffer when I do, I become weak and anemic. Get prone to diseases.  It is not in my DNA.  Not what my own ancestors did.   Perhaps one day I will be able to, but not right now.

MY DIET THESE DAYS:

So my diet is these days whatever works for me.

1.- No grains at all, except for one day off, on Saturdays which coincides with asana day off (yeah!)  in which I am allowed to eat anything I want, and surprisingly enough I end up not overdoing it! Go figure. That comes from the Ferris's suggestions, which can be found in a four step description here.

The only exception to the no-grain rule is a little bit of glut ten free steal cuts oatmeal (the type you have to boil for 20 minutes or so) with a lot of chopped nuts for breakfast, or a slice or two of Ezekiel bread if one day of the week (other than Saturday) I have a craving.  But these things happen only in the mornings, and right after yoga, when the body is most able to digest fast and has the whole day ahead to get rid of things.

2.- I do eat fruits, -forbidden by Ferris- but good for me.  My grandmother and my autns and uncles told me countless stories of my mother climbing trees and eating pounds of fruits at the time.  There is where it might come from.

3.- I have avoided the black beans, instead I eat lots of vegetables and nuts, preferably raw, chopped finely.  Dary I do as well, but in very little quantities.

4.- And suggar, only two cups of coffee in the morning with it, after that there is 0 consupmtion of the white stuff.  Not good.

One of my dishes

5.- I also eat meat, mostly fish and chicken.  I am enjoying cooking stews with the amazing tomatoes we get in the summer of New York State.  I saute onions in coconut oil with fresh tomatoes and zucinis.  Then I serve this with fish.  Delicious.

I do not particularly like the way animals are treated, which is a concern, so I choose cage free, organic, and the best of it that I can find.  I am lucky to have some good supermarkets like Adams Fair Acres near me.

In the end, I am more and more moving towards what works for this body at this time, with the life events that surround me considering where I live and where I come from.  I have stopped pretending I am anything other than what is happening now, and it feels good.