I would like to share with you my continuing journey with improving my health with nutrition and my personal results with Paleo and LCHF approach.
Three years ago I was suffering from a few years of high stress. I was overweight and still gaining, tired, with a myriad of symptoms including poor sleep, IBS, dry skin and eyes, hearing problems, post nasal drip, sinus problems,and joint pains, which at times were severe and debilitating.
I started on the Paleo Approach program by first doing a full elimination diet. Sarah Ballantine PhD of www.ThePaleoMom.com. I discovered I was intolerant of gluten, dairy and soy so totally eliminated them and started to reintroduce other foods gradually while watching for return of symptoms. I then progressed to what I call a modified Paleo diet where I ate some gluten free pasta and wraps, rice, potatoes and either almond or coconut milk.
With each week I felt better and had more energy. I started doing more exercise including walking, rebounding and a Yoga sequence called ‘The Five Tibetan Rites’.
I suffered occasional setbacks but with attention to healing my gut with Probiotics and L-Glutamine the inflammation soon subsided.
Having reached a reasonable level of health I started looking for ways I could protect myself from chronic illnesses like Diabetes, heart disease, Dementia and cancer – these being the main worries as we age.
I read more and more about eating low carbs and high natural fats, LCHF, followed the research www.DietDoctor.com and everything seemed to make sense. The idea being to keep blood sugar lower and level by eating quality proteins and natural fats like Avocado, olive oil, grass fed butter (which I couldn’t have), coconut oil, oily fish and fatty cuts of meat.
It was quite easy to adapt from Paleo Approach to LCHF and within a very short time I noticed that my blood sugar was more stable, I could go without food for longer periods without turning into Golem and I was sleeping much better.
I really felt the benefits so I wanted to see if medical tests would reflect the improvements. Unfortunately I didn’t have any baseline testing from the past to compare but I think you will agree that they stand alone.
I am 66 yrs old. Metabolic age 55
Weight is 67 kg and stable
BMI 24
Blood pressure 123/64
Liver Function Good
Fasting blood sugar 5.0
Triglycerides 0.7
Cholesterol LDL/HDL ratio 2.04
Bone mass 2.2 kg Muscle mass 40.9
As part of eating LCHF I have been having Bulletproof XCT oil in my coffee, I bake using coconut oil and cook with it. I use coconut milk and cream a lot as I love Thai cooking. I also use olive oil each day, eat garlic, onions, plenty of salad and green vegetables, sweet potato, berries, small bananas and only occasionally other fruit like mangoes or pineapple. I buy free range and grass fed meat as much as possible and have nuts, eggs and fish 2-3 times a week.
My indulgences are red wine and Prosecco but I don’t drink every day. I have dark chocolate and use coco powder to make desserts or Brownies and sometimes sweeten food with a little maple syrup – keeping sugar to an absolute minimum.
I am certainly not strict with eating LCHF as I do not measure my carb intake, only relying on 1-2 small portions a day, always with protein.
Sometimes we eat out and the meal is not low carb at all – like gluten and dairy free pizza, Red Wine and Lemon Sorbet but then I am just more aware of how many carbs I eat the next day. Sometimes I skip breakfast and just have black coffee with XCT oil and that keeps me going all morning which is something I never thought I could do. In the past, after a breakfast of toast and marmalade I would be starving by 10:30am!
Many of you will react with horror at ‘giving up’ many of the things you think of as staples at the moment but I can assure you that the health benefits are enormous and instead of feeling deprived I actually feel indulgent, eating so many of those high fat foods that we have denied ourselves for so long. Throughout my adult life the guidelines have been to eat low-fat to prevent cardiovascular disease and throughout that time heart disease and obesity have been epidemic – time to stop. No low-fat, no artificial fats or oils, low sugar, no calorie counting and no to try to ‘burn it off ‘ at the gym!
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