Plants and the animals need each other and the plants and the animals eat each other

Week two of my protein "diet". I've lost a total of 4lbs. Two weeks, 4 lbs. Some would say that's pretty good. Everyone else I know on this diet (there's a Facebook support group) seems to be losing way more than me. I'm even taking a fat burning supplement and drinking lots of water. Maybe it'll speed up as time goes on? At least I'm losing weight?

I thought it was going to be hard eating all this meat and animal stuff. Turns out it isn't so much. This from a girl who was straight up vegan for three years.

My poor little brother. There I'd be in my vegan stage early twenties, chowing down on brown rice and miso and freaking him out about his scrambled eggs. I'd tell him they were actually aborted chicken fetuses. Deep down I knew they were not actually chicken fetuses (feti?). But it freaked him out and sometimes got him to not eat them. The idea was to slowly convert him to my vegan ideals. It didn't really work, just freaked him out about eggs. Fast forward ten years - now I actually raise chickens and love eating their eggs for breakfast in the morning.

Never a heavy meat eater and not much of a cook, I had a lot to learn about grilling and roasting. The first half dozen attempts turned out some very pink chicken drumsticks, one very dry chicken breast and a roast that was, well, practically bloody rare (and actually that tasted really good - creepy right?).

The idea of this whole thing is to eat like our hunter-gatherer ancestors slash put your body in a state of ketosis so that it burns the fat you store instead of the carbs you eat. It's science.

Lots of people have given me their opinions on why this is dangerous, why this is good for me, blah blah. I'm doing it for 30-60 days. Anything for 30-60 days is not gonna kill you (well, not eating high protein anyway). And I'm still fairly young and healthy. Also, It hasn't been as hard as I thought. There are times I am screaming for carbs but then I get over it. Dozens of studies have been done on how this works and why eating this way is actually very good for you. Plus, I think eating more meat in the winter is quite natural. It's cold. Back in the day that's practically all our ancestors had till spring (some argue the whole migrating to warmer climates thing so there's that) but stay in this climate with the snow and such and there's not Florida oranges or Twinkies or what have you. And every person I've talked to has lost belly fat by eating this way. Belly fat, people. The stuff those of us in our 30's are shocked to find hanging around our middles (except for me it's been there since my mid twenties). So what it's just 4 lbs. I'm losing weight. Around my middle. I took some measurements. It's happening. It feels good and so here I am, doing it. Hoping I can keep it up once I'm up at the state capitol in a week and can't necessarily come home for my lunch break. 

Comments

erinannie said…
What diet are you on? I'm on Ideal Protein. They sound similar.
I like the points you made about how our ancestors ate. Don't forget that many cultures still eat like that. Many cultures in South America and Africa (and other places in Asia), still live off of the land. I was talking to a Peace Corps volunteer who served in Bolivia. She said she lived off of boiled chicken and potatoes. They got vegetables once a month. I've been looking at the diets of many countries in Africa as well. They don't eat canned foods or processed anything. They eat what the grow, in the season it grows in. And you'll never see obesity there!
Unknown said…
Erin, I 'm doing the Four Hour Body slow carb method (some may say it's an adaptation from the Dukan method) from Tim Ferris's latest book The Four Hour Body (follow up to The Four Hour Work Week). It's mostly protein, lots of water and beans and some cottage cheese are allowed. All the protein diets are pretty much the same idea. Put your body in ketosis and your body starts to burn it's own fat reserves, the protein helps you retain (or grow) muscle so you also end up boosting metabolism instead of lowering it like you do with a low cal diet.

Speaking of eating like our ancestors - people who eat traditionally "off the land" are never obese and skip a lot of our modern diseases. They also tend to not have cavities or osteoporosis. We are literally overeating and still starving in the modern world.
Steve said…
Although I agree with you two on many points, there is a clear line to be drawn. The whole living off the land and/or like how they do here in Africa or our cavemen ancestors has it's limits. There is a reason they all have/had age expectancies of only about 50!!! You need to eat a well balanced diet year round. There are many ways to do that, but eating like Africans isn't going to make you healthy, sorry, haha. However, we DO have the added benefit of taking vitamins and other supplements to make up for the loses. I don't think 30-60 days will hurt you SJ. But the trick about any diet, even high protein, is that when it ends, you CAN'T go back to your old ways or you will just gain fat again!!!! You have to modify your eating habits for life and continue to modify them as your body ages and responds to different stimuli (foods, water, environment, stress, etc.) A diet is a VERY temporary fix.

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