I’m changing my diet from following the Flat Belly Diet to the Paleo Diet. Here are the primary reasons.
The Flat Belly Diet is primarily a calorie controlled Mediterranean type diet, careful to include good fats - MUFAs, the moly-unsaturated fats - at every meal because it takes good fats to burn fat. I had been using the MUFA principle for several years already - and knew it worked - long before the Flat Belly Diet came out. I *like* Mediterranean food and knew it as basically *good for us.* My favorite food experience was eating in Israel!
However, I avoid sugar, wheat and dairy. I also seem (long history) to need more protein and get sick on a low carb diet. Insulin resistance is a big issue for me, although I’ve been eating clean enough for years, blood sugar no longer is an issue, except it makes it harder to lose weight. The Flat Belly Diet (obviously) worked pretty well for me, but I had trouble getting enough protein without going over their fat guidelines, and, I was working around a lot of foods I avoid.
The Paleo Diet contains no foods I need to avoid! Yea!! And, it recommends higher levels of protein and fats and lower levels of carbs, exactly what I seem to need. It is NOT a low carb diet, but suggests you get your carbs from green vegetables and fruits instead of grains (wheat, rice, etc.). And since I have a problem with wheat, rice, etc. this works very well for me.
The Paleo Diet also has evidence of working better for athletes than high carb diets which are usually suggested for performance and endurance. While I don’t consider myself an athlete, I have had serious issues with what to eat on long distance hikes. The kind of diet most long distance hikers eat is VERY high in carbs, the kinds that are worst for me. If I ate like that I’d soon be in shape too rough to hike. Paleo gives me a diet that should support me in my hiking and other fitness efforts. This has been a huge problem in the past.
Once again, I doubt if the Paleo Diet (or any diet) is *the answer* for me, but the change in my food plan to Paleo style eating will let me see which parts of Paleo are important for my body. I will take the “MUFA each meal” concept with me from the Flat Belly Diet. Paleo encourages the good fats, too.
The goal here is to come up with a personal food plan that reflects an optimal diet for me, one I can lose weight on and then use to maintain health and fitness. I’ve already started the change as you can see by my food log.
At this point, having not finished the book, I’m just eating more lean protein and green veggies, plus not limiting my calories adn good fats so much. This will be a transistion period for a while. I’ll try to smoothe it out as I get used to it and learn more.
