I may have something in common with our early ancestors; an eating style. If by definition the word Grok means, to intimately and completely share the same reality or line of thinking with another physical or conceptual entity, than I am to the caveman, a Grok! Never in my life has a lifestyle change so agreed with me! What I have experienced in the last seven days alone has gotten me excited! I was dying to type this entry last week already, but held off hoping to give this experiment some more time and, thus some more legitimacy before jumping to any conclusions.
Look, all diets work. Anytime you are conscientious about your food and exercise decisions there is a payoff, is there not?! The diets never fail. It is us who fail on the diet. Is that because we are all just weak-willed, gluttonous, individuals at heart? Maybe, but I think it has to do with finding the right fit. See, if we're gonna be honest here, few of us are willing to hang in there if there isn't, by our definition, a real payoff. That payoff can be to look better, feel better, lose weight quickly, have more energy, stave off a serious condition, whatever. For some of us, it has to do all that and more in order for us to remain compliant. For me, I'm not quite sure what I was looking for or what it might take for me to actually get behind a certain diet, but I may have just found it. If there is a cure for insulin resistance, this may be it!
Insulin resistance is nothing more than a severe addiction to carbs. (That's my conclusion, BTW) What makes it different or more dangerous than say just some ordinary person who likes to munch on cookies and ravioli, is there is a physiological dependence there. The eating behavior has gone on for so long that the body has come to expect it, and depend on it! Just like breaking an addiction to a drug, your body fights you with "withdrawal" symptoms every time you try to lessen the addiction. Now if you've been fed a whole bunch of lies your whole life about the food pyramid, you may not be aware of any of this. I wasn't! For years I thought the solution to my problem would be a cup of fiber cereal every morning, no red meat, and jogging like a maniac, even though clearly that wasn't working. I had no idea I had a carb addiction that was so severe it was literally killing me! Because, yes, while I joke about being in love with macaroni and cheese, the truth of the matter is, I've spent nearly three quarters of my life on a diet, which means I've had a lot of bowls of Fiber One in my lifetime, a lot of lean turkey on whole wheat bread, and a lot of baked crackers as my indulgence. Who's thinking these things are carbs in the same sense that macaroni and cheese is!?
It's not until I tried this Paleo thing on for size that everything started to come into focus. My body has stopped responding to insulin because I've had one too many bowls of "healthy" cereal in my lifetime. If you think about it, if three quarters of the time you are eating fiber cereal and whole grain breads and snacks, and one quarter of the time, when you snap and can't envision another day of Fiber One, you are eating bowls of macaroni and cheese and ordering pizza, then you have a recipe for Insulin Resistance my friend! Carb + Carb = systems failure!
We shall call my imaginary caveman friend Grok for the time being like Mark Sisson did. Grok and I have so much more to tell you about this. This discussion is far from over so be sure to tune it tomorrow to hear more of my findings.
"If the poor overweight jogger only knew how far he had to run to work off the calories in a crust of bread he might find it better in terms of pound per mile to go to a massage parlor." -Christian Barnard
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