The Caveman Diet

Well, the weekend wasn’t too great a start for eating healthier meals. Friday after work I had a fish fry at a bar along with a couple beers. On Saturday my parents were in town and took me out to eat at Kincaid’s, a fantastic steakhouse in the twin cities. I had a delicious prime rib and russet mashed potatoes. That being said I’ve been feeling great and I find I have a lot more sustained energy throughout the day. I’m not sluggish, I actually feel like going outside and doing something physical (possibly a side effect of it being spring, but feeling good about it nonetheless), and all in all I feel healthier than I did a week ago. Which is strange given that I haven’t really altered my diet a whole lot and I’ve probably been eating less healthy this past week than I normally do. Which is promising considering the positive results I have seen so far.

Impressions of the Caveman Diet so far
From day 1 it has been easy to get through the day eating just a handful of nuts and fresh berries. Waiting until after to work to eat my only meal of the day has been easy and I look forward to my one meal, but still manage to avoid overeating. I’ve been impressed with the results as I have lost a decent amount of weight, which I’ll get to later, and have seen a significant increase in energy levels. I wake up easier, seem to be getting to sleep quicker, and overall I sleep better. My daily meals so far have been pretty unhealthy, lots of fried and greasy foods. I will start being more strict with what I eat over the next week and hope to see even stronger results.

Week 1 Meals
Monday-Cheeseburger, Homemade Fries, and Fresh Fruit.
Tuesday-TGI Friday’s-Sesame Jack Chicken and Chicken Sandwich
Wednesday-Two Hot Dogs, Two Burgers, and a Bratwurst. (St. Patrick’s Day BBQ)
Thursday-Taco’s
Friday-Fish and Chips
Saturday-Kincaids-Rock Salt Prime Rib and Russet Mashed Potatoes

Weight Loss
As mentioned earlier, I have lost some weight over the first week. On Sunday morning of last week I weighed in at 196.2 pounds. Over the course of the week I gradually and consistently lost weight despite eating essentially whatever I wanted and drinking a fair amount. The weight loss happened without too much extra physical activity as well. The only thing I did was get out side and play catch a couple of times, which isn’t exactly the most grueling workout, but it did get me outside to enjoy the weather. As of Sunday morning, March 21st, 2010 I weigh in at 186.7 lbs. That’s a lot of weight loss for not a lot of effort. Sometime in the next couple of days I will add a weight loss tracker to the side of the blog, as well as giving an update in each post. I was hesitant at first to include my weight loss in the blog, but it has been significant and I’m sure it will continue to be so. Being that weight loss wasn’t my main goal, I didn’t want to give too much importance to how much weight I’ll be losing. I was more concerned with tracking how I felt, but there’s no easy way to quantify that and there is a correlation between weight loss and an increase in energy so it is what it is. I will weigh myself daily, first thing every morning before jumping in the shower.

Going Forward
Definitely going to be sticking with the diet. I’m going to try one more week of Stage One before jumping into Stage Two. The reason being I want my daily meals to start getting a little healthier before I jump straight into a strict paleo diet. Over the next week, my meals will start gradually getting closer and closer to a true caveman diet. I’ll save until Stage Two before diving right into it, as I don’t want to go cold turkey with my eating habits. Drinking alcohol will also be phased out, which should be a little easier this week as St Patrick’s day has come and gone, as well as opening weekend of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. First thing on the menu will be baked chicken tonight. For the week, meals will include some venison steak, sirloin steak, more chicken, and some veggie items. Snack items will continue to include almonds, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and I’ll toss in clementines and maybe some cashews and other nuts for variety.

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