beatricehamp74: Test-Driving the Paleo Diet: Marissa Embarks on a 90-Day Caveman Challenge

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Test-Driving the Paleo Diet: Marissa Embarks on a 90-Day Caveman Challenge

(CC) Stefan Kloo/Flickr

I’ve been reading a lot about the benefits of the paleo diet for athletes — enough that I’ve decided to take on what I’m calling a 90-Day caveman challenge. Read on for a brief overview of the paleo diet, why I’ve chosen to try it, and how I plan to structure the challenge itself.

What is the Paleo Diet?

The paleo diet, also known as the Paleolithic diet, caveman diet, hunter-gatherer diet or the Stone Age diet, is an eating plan based on a modern interpretation of what we think our ancestors ate before agriculture existed. Think foods like fish and grass-fed, free-range meat, fruit and vegetables, nuts, roots and fungi.

The paleo diet excludes processed foods of any form, including refined sugar and processed oils, as well as dairy, legumes and grains. The idea is that a paleo diet aligns more closely with how our bodies are genetically adapted for health and limits the chances for “diseases of civilization” seen with the standard Western diet.

Critics of the paleo diet question how accurate its tenets are with what our ancestors actually ate and decry it as a fad diet. They also argue that the aforementioned diseases of civilization are more due to an excess of food energy than by consuming foods like dairy and grains. I’ll do my best over the coming weeks to present both sides of the debate alongside my personal experience.

(CC) whologwhy/Flickr

Why the Paleo Diet?

If you’ve been following my yearlong obstacle race challenge, you can probably imagine the focus I now place on health and fitness. I’ve revitalized my workout plan and have seen great fitness gains as a result, but one area I haven’t formally addressed is my diet. I eat pretty well — I cook most of my meals at home and have a couple cheat days a week to dine out — but there’s plenty of room for improvement.

I’ve seen various friends and online colleagues adopt various versions of the paleo diet throughout the years, and they’ve all raved about it. The Crossfit community seems to have embraced the paleo diet most fervently in my social graph. I like vegetables, fruit and nuts enough to eat a semi-raw diet, and I’ve gone periods without eating red meat and been fine, but I really, really like fish and poultry. It’s my stance that nourishment shouldn’t feel like a punishment, so my goal is to learn moderation while eating foods I enjoy.

The real motivation for my 90-day paleo challenge is that I need to adopt a performance-based diet. In the 14 weeks between September 1 and December 1, Deej and I have scheduled eight races, including a Spartan Race and a Tough Mudder, widely considered the genre’s two toughest obstacle race series. I’m ramping up my training starting August 1, and need to pay attention to diet to maximize my fitness gains.

(CC) Augapfel/Flickr

Caveman Challenge Caveats and Considerations

Between August 1 and the end of October, I will follow the modern iteration of the paleo diet. I’ll review all the resources I use and catalog my process along the way.

For August, I’ve planned to sign up for weekly paleo meal delivery from Pete’s Premade Paleo, a family-run business here in San Diego. This is mostly for my convenience, but it’s also to help me get a sense of portion size and meal variety before I try to prepare these meals at home.

My goal is to focus specifically on the paleo diet for athletes, but I also plan to cover some of the common questions, considerations and issues concerning the paleo diet, including the following topics: