The Paleo Solution By Robb Wolf
Recently I had a guest on that talked about fermented foods and a diet high in protein and fat and low in carbohydrates. I know many of your are skeptical about this (of course you are because it defies dogma) but I can tell you personally it works. Over the last year and a half I have focused on a diet of meat and veggies, I weighed myself for the first time in a long time this week and the results are 71lbs of lost weight.
I have not counted calories, I have not even paid attention to fat, I have eaten plenty of bacon and steak and I have not exercised at all in the conventional 1-2-3-4 way. About three months ago I went full tilt bore on it, no more bread (and you know how I love beer bread), no noodles, no rice, I didn’t just eat them in moderation I banished them. The slow loss accelerated and I shed 25 pounds of those 71 in 90 days.
My exercise routine has been gardening, walking and playing with my dogs. I haven’t done a push up (my shoulders were nearly destroyed by my zeal for them in the past) or a jumping jacks and I haven’t been hungry at all.
During this 6 week period is when I interviewed Doc Fermento and found Robb Wolf’s book The Paleo Solution. In the book and in the interview a certain thought came up but was never completed. Basically that some foods are actually designed to repel themselves from being eaten, they are bitter or hard or taste bad until they are cooked and or processed in some way. Rob puts it this way in his book, if you eat a blackberry the seed passes in your stool, a blackberry is designed to be eaten. If you eat a wheat berry it is destroyed and is lost to digestion, it is designed to repel us from eating it. Doc Fermento made some similar analogies during his interview.
Well, while reading The Paleo Solution I had what I consider an epiphany that completes this line of thought. Here it goes,
“All food meant for human consumption is edible and tastes good in its raw natural form even if that isn’t how we eat it due to cultural or health related reasons.”
Let me start with meat, no doubt many of you have never eaten raw meat, unflavored, unsalted, unseasoned plain old raw red meat or fish. I have and I can tell you it is easy to chew, tastes good and if not infected with bacteria or other pathogens does not make you sick. It is only our cultural bias that makes us think we need to cook meat along with the modern reality of how meat is handled and the health risks it creates. Yet make no mistake raw meat tastes good to humans if they are devoid of bias.
Conversely rice is only good to eat if soaked and boiled or steamed, the same is true of wheat, ever toss a handful of wheat berries unsoaked into your mouth? So I started considering all the foods that are acceptable in the Paleo/Protein Power world. For instance sweet potatoes are a go while white potatoes are a no go. Ever eat a piece of raw sweet potato? Yum! In fact try grating one on a salad it is wonderful. Yet how about raw white potato? Not so good minus the steam bath and butter now is it?
I tried this with every food on the go vs. no go list and only one food really stood out as being a somewhat no no and still tasting good raw, it was corn. Funny enough corn is considered a “consume in moderation” food, one of the few cross overs in the world of paleo style eating. So my one “grain” for the last 90 days has been grilled corn once or twice a week with a steak.
Those of you who have seen me recently at Salt Lake and Denver know just how dramatic the weight loss is. I feel healthy and I feel better than I have in years. I have no plans to start “working out” either even though Robb Wolf advocates it. My paleo ancestors walked everyday, they built stuff, they ran only when chasing or being chased. None of them did dips or squats or other repetitive motion activities that destroy our joints.
Again I know many will doubt this can be true, that a man can eat ribeyes, sweet potatoes, bacon and pork chops and loose weight but results are hard to ague with and two pictures are worth 2000 words.
Here is a picture of me right after I left corporate American about 18 Months ago at OpenCamp in Dallas Texas. Three years of “client entertainment” at fancy restaurants and clubs along with stress created the person you see below.
Jack at 281
Now I am not trying out for the cover of GQ and I am not trying to develop a 6 pack, though my wife commented about my abs last night (wink) but contrast the above photo to this one with me standing next to Dave Canterbury two weeks ago.
Jack at 210 with Dave C.
Of course the Government in their eternal wisdom states that I should be about 175 pounds but I played football as a senior in High School at 190 lbs, so I feel pretty good about being 210 at 40 years of age and government is the last group I look to for approval in my life. So I am sticking with my epiphany from now on,
“All food meant for human consumption is edible and tastes good in its raw natural form even if that isn’t how we eat it due to cultural or health related reasons.”
If you want to debate me about this I really don’t have the patience for it. I have over 70 reasons now as to why I know this lifestyle works and works well. To understand what losing 70 pounds is like go look at a 5lb tub of butter in the grocery the next time you are there. Then realize that I lost 14 of those eating the very food government and government medicine insists makes us fat.
If you want the science read Rob Wolf’s book, “The Paleo Solution” and you will find the science overwhelming, personally I don’t need science, I am sticking with results.
This does leave me looking at buckets of beans, rice, pasta and grains in my preps and thinking about how wise storing them is. I have decided I can use it to feed my neighbors while I live on deer, rabbit, tilapia, eggs, goat and chicken and it is survival food if I need it. I also want to point on one last thing for the doubters.
NO I AM NOT SAYING you can eat big macs and loose weight, they are full of sugar, full of unnatural fats and wrapped in bread. I am saying you can eat a ton of high quality meat, ignore the fat and eat large amounts of vegetables, seeds, nuts and fruits and loose weight.
My one indulgence is dark chocolate in moderation, goes nice with a dark beer for desert. I also now love “NorCal Margaritas” a recipie I got from Rob’s book. I really recommend Rob’s book along with Protein Power by the Doctors Eades for those who are skeptical and can’t simply judge the very clear results.
Books Mentioned in this Post
