Paleo Blues - Keep Your Head Up

Sometimes, with all the conflicting information and personal views out there on the wild place known as the Internet, it's very discouraging to try to eat healthy. There's the 80/20 rule that Mark Sission goes by and Primal Blueprint Fitness, which involves lifting heavy things a couple times a week, moving slowly for long periods of time quite often, and moving fast for a short period of time once a week. There's people who swear by the Whole9 and their Whole30 program. There's people who say dairy is just as bad a grains. There's people who say Paleo desserts are just as evil as the real thing because of your emotional response to that kind of food. It got to the point last week where I almost gave up on fruit because it contains carbs and a banana (the food I like to eat after dinner for "dessert") has approximately 100g of carbs in it and that's about your daily "allowance" of carbs as a Paleo-er.

It makes me want to give up and either go back to the way I had been eating (because I was actually doing pretty well relative to most everyone else I know) or to just eat salad and eggs for the rest of my life (because there's all sorts of ups and downs to every single kind of fruit and every single species of meat). Either choice involved never reading a nutrition/food blog/book/article/magazine/email/any-form-of-written-communication-that-has-to-do-with-food-except-recipes ever again.

Ok, there, you're probably saying. Calm down now. It's not that bad.

You're right, it's not. (Have I mentioned that life is a little crazy right now?) But when the buzz of mostly non-important details starts to get to you, keep this in mind:

1. Women and men have different types of bodies. Women have more fat deposits because, for childbearing - immediate or down the line, these fat deposits are very important. (See this article for more details.)
2. Because of #1, intermittent fasting affects men and women differently. See the same article listed above, I think. (I read a couple of articles yesterday on the topic and I believe it's covered in that article. If not, leave me a comment and I'll look it up and post it.)
3. Carbs aren't the devil. I'm pausing before saying the human body needs some carbs because of all the fully fat-adapted athletes I've read about, but carbs aren't the devil. Or even evil. Carbs are a macronutrient. As a topic, they should be neutral. It's too much or too little carbs/protein/fats that becomes iffy, but... (see next line)
4. Your macronutrient ratios depend on your body, your body's chemistry, and your body's metabolism. And your gender might have something to do with it too. Stefani over at Paleo for Women actually recommends women consume 100-200g of carbohydrates per day, especially those breastfeeding or athletes. (Cue a calming of my banana-induced too-many-carbs-in-one-day freak-out.)
5. I digest dairy well, so milk isn't the devil for me either. I enjoy Greek yogurt on an almost daily basis and have had no adverse reactions.
6. Eating natural foods, organic or conventionally grown, grass-fed or not, is definitely healthier than eating pre-processed, pre-packaged items found in the frozen dinner section of the grocery store. Nit-pick about the details all you want, I'm going to go make myself some beef burgers with peach chutney, eat them wrapped in lettuce leaves, and polish off 1 potato's worth of homemade baked sweet potato fries dipped in cinnamony Greek yogurt. I'm eating whole, less processed foods, and it makes me feel good. Maybe I'll even throw some bacon in with that burger and have a small almond flour brownie afterward (although I'm probably full by this point so maybe not). Have an issue with Paleo desserts? More for me. And, yes, they are a treat for me, too, not an everyday thing.

I think that covers most of it for now. Remember, the body you have is the only one you get. Treat it right, but don't be afraid to treat yourself well, too. It's not worth stretching your budget to its breaking point just to get organic and grass-fed everything. It's not worth stressing out about the details when you're already eating healthier than the vast majority of America's population. And hey, if long distance running (or triathlon-ing, in my case) is more your thing than body-building (or vice-versa), ok. It's all up to you. But don't be afraid of your food or your exercise.

I will also add that I think I still need to do some evaluating of my life, eating habits, relationships with food, and relationships with other people that include food.