A Test Of Mindfulness (The Paleo Diet)

[Gareth]

In September 2010, I snapped out of my misery of being diagnosed with MS, and I undertook a series of lifestyle changes that were designed to keep me more healthy. These lifestyle change were essentially: diet, exercise and meditation. Well the meditation is what first introduced me to the concept of mindfulness which ultimately brought me here. I still strongly see the need for exercise, but this is harder than you might imagine with legs that don't work properly, fatigue issues and two tiny children. The diet, well the diet fell by the wayside........

The recommended diet was essentially vegaquarian i.e vegan with the addition of fish. I am a fairly accomplished cook, so this diet wasn't so bad at first, but I still missed the foods that I used to eat, especially meat. In fact, I managed to last 18 months in total. My meditation practice was developing slowly but surely and it was getting easier and easier to let go of thoughts. Except one. I would be regularly bombarded with the following thought: "Eat what you want, life is too short. Happiness is more important than healthiness" In the end, I figured that this thought ought to be listened to because its voice was so strong and so insistent. I listened to the voice and went back to eating what I always had done. In most ways, I was a lot happier: I had gone from desperately trying to get there and I was paying attention to here - this is one of the key tenets of mindfulness.

During the time that I was on this diet, I was doing lots of reading, convinced that there was a way that I could "beat" MS. One thing that I read about was The paleo diet - the theory of this diet really got me from the start. Essentially we ought to eat what the cavemen ate, because the hardware (our bodies) hasn't really changed much since that time. It seemed to make perfect sense to me. Anyway, I've been talking to a friend that I met on a forum when I was following the old diet who has changed his diet to the paleo diet. I was telling him about the wonders of mindfulness, he was telling me about the wonders of the paleo diet, then the obvious answer hit us. I am going paleo for (at least) 60 days, he is meditating daily for (at least) 60 days, and we'll see where we both end up at the end of it.

This is going to be a fascinating experience for two reasons. Firstly, I look forward to meditating about my diet and whether this actually is the right thing for me or not. I am in a much calmer and more peaceful place than I was back then; I am much better prepared to arrive at a decision that is right for me. Secondly, I will be really interested to see the effect that regular meditation has on Marcus. He has dabbled with it before, but I'm hoping that regular, committed practice will have the same effect on him as it did me.

I will be documenting the journey in this thread, feel free to join in the discussion (or a similar lifestyle change). I am going to ask Marcus if he wants to join in the discussion too. I hope so.

This is day 1.

[rara]

Ace, this is very interesting. Yes, you're right about how dieting and happiness are not necessarily intertwined. I'm currently reading "F*** it" by John C Parkin ... a blunt western philosophy book claiming that exact phrase is our way of doing things the eastern way. It has a great section on diets and how the stress and chore of sticking to them is self-sabotage in itself!

I've been reading into Chinese medicine and the theory of "warming and cooling foods". In a recent illness, I seemed to cure myself not only with meditation and good rest, but by eliminating "warming foods" from my diet for a week. Don't be tricked into thinking that's just warm foods...it's stuff like meat, chilli an so on. Green tea, for example, is a "cooling food". The great thing about this diet was that I developed an undying love for cucumber! Haha. It's also meant to be a good diet for me too, due to my natural hyperactive tendencies and hot headed nature. This diet can help me remain in equilibrium.

So yeah, I'll be following. I hope it leads you to learn even more about yourself!

[FeeHutch]

I think you both trying what has helped the other for 60 days is an inspired idea and I look forward to reading your experiences.

For me the more mindfulness has become a part of me, the harder I found it to ignore the insistent thought that I wanted to give up meat fully and become a vegetarian. Sort of the same experience as you perhaps Gareth but with the opposite dietary outcome I have certainly felt much more at peace with myself and my diet since making the change. I really hope Marcus joins in and shares his experiences too, it will be fascinating!

[Gareth]

Day 6

I feel like I should check in now, it's been a few days since the start of this diet, although I'm sure that paleo people would describe it as a way of being rather than something you do. In much the same way that we would describe mindfulness actually.

Whatever we call it, it's been fairly straightforward so far. I have missed that first cup of tea in the morning, and breakfast is not as simple as it used to be, but a black coffee and a banana or two is not so bad. When I have had time, I have made bacon, egg, tomatoes and mushrooms which is a good breakfast. I had a curry the other night, and it seemed very weird not ordering a naan bread. The curry came, and I enjoyed it with a side of vegatables. The curry was lovely, and I didn't miss the naan bread too much in the end.

I have not been bombarded with too many thoughts about food yet, although it's still early days. Mindfulness has greatly reduced my thinking generally actually. I am much better at noticing when I begin to get lost in thought, and I come back. The major test will be when I go out for a meal, and I am unable to have most of the things on the menu (that really hurt me last time). Socialising with friends will be difficult too, when they are all drinking and I am not.

I'm still really enjoying this journey, hopefully this will continue.

[JonW]

Sounds like you're doing great, Gareth.
Out of necessity I've had to be extremely mindful about food the last six weeks. Having had most of my teeth removed as a result of gum disease and getting accustomed to wearing dentures, there's been very few foods I've been able to take in. It's mostly been yoghurt and soup. But my gums have started to heal now and I'm able to get more adventurous. I had a couple of vegetarian sausages for lunch and savoured them as one is taught to savour the raisin in the mindfulness exercise. Still can't manage cheese though. Sob.

[Gareth]

Day 16

Everything is still going well and very stress free (this is the power of mindfulness for you).

I had the long easter weekend over at my in-laws. It was a situation where I normally would have drunk alcohol, but I didn't really miss it too much so that was OK. Everyone was getting a Chinese takeaway, so I joined in. I got my main course with seaweed instead of the usual noodles/rice and it was quite nice actually. I also ordered a starter of some chicken wings, but when they came, they had obviously been dusted in flour as well as the other spices so I couldn't eat them. This was quite annoying. It's not that I can't eat chicken wings, but they would have to be made in a different way. It's just that I really don't likke being "the weird diet" guy in the room, who has to leave his starter because he can't eat it.

I still don't know if I can do this beyond 60 days or not. There is undoubtedly plenty of nice food that you can eat when eating paleo, but something within me is made unhappy by my food being restricted.

Marcus has told me that peeled potatoes are acceptable for this 60 day trial, so I am eating lots and lots of potatoes - getting a bit sick of them actually. I'm not sure that this is actually the true paleo way, so today I am going to make some 'rice' from cauliflower. We'll see how that goes.

[FeeHutch]

It's a balance between trying something new and being aware that you might have to push past negative thoughts against listening to yourself and acknowledge if it isn't right for you I think.
I really get what you say about not wanting to be the one with the weird diet too. As with mindfulness I guess you will find a way that works for you.

[Marcus]

Hey folks,

I am the other half of this 60 day challenge and am giving meditation a blast. Historically, I did some meditation, it really helped me when my wife was diagnosed with MS and I could not sleep and was just spending all my time digging through the diet information and then looking at the science behind it all on pubmed. Ultimately, as time went on, as we shifted our diet to Paleo, and I got answers that I felt I could trust, and most importantly, as Emma got better and old symptoms resolved and the instance of MS relapses simply stopped rolling around, it fell by the wayside.

Now, life is still stressful, and I felt a lot calmer and more in control so I am giving it another blast in an effort to make it part of my life going forward. As it happens, I have missed a few days, but most days I have got 10 to 15 minutes of breathing meditation done so I am trying to look at the first 30 days as enforcing the habit and the second 30 as being rigid.

Unlike Gareth, I am already sold on the idea of meditation, it worked well for me, my problem is just getting it into my crazy schedule (2 businesses, 3 kids, 1 wife) and having no fixed start or end time each day it can be hard to say I mediate at X o'clock but I have started doing it in the office when I first get in and can get some peace and quiet. I just have to find a way to fit it in more reliably on the weekend (my 9 year old daughter thinks it is hilarious).

Results so far? I think I feel a little calmer. It came at a difficult time as I have just taken on 2 people to expand my business so am in the office all hours god send and the kids are on half term. My wife is training for the London Marathon and we have a 1 year old as well as the 9 and 7 year olds - life is hectic.

I have stopped drinking for a while as well, not that I am a huge boozer, but I need to just try to dial in that side of things a bit and if Gareth can't drink for a while it seems fair. (not that booze is totally out on Paleo but it can exacerbate certain problems we are looking to resolve so it is worth dropping for 60 days to get things dialled in and then try reintroducing non gluten containing drinks like red wine and spirits in a moderate way).

Regarding Paleo - my experience has been nothing but positive. Sure, it was tricky to begin with but as time goes on and you avoid certain foods (wheat / dairy / legumes) reintroducing them has obvious repercussions (gas, acid, digestive discomfort) and that negative feedback from your body makes it easier to say no. I have been Paleo for at least 2 years now and I no longer consider what we eat as weird, different, but from an evolutionary perspective it is everyone else that is weird to me with their high carb, low nutrient, low veg, low fat grain based diets.

What do we eat? Well, bacon and eggs most mornings. Lunch will usually be a salad or some meat and dinners are a selection of vegetables and meat / fish. We eat lots of steak, bacon, fish etc and I have found ways to reproduce most meals we used to eat. We create noodles / pasta from courgettes and marrows with a julienne peeler, we make rice / cous cous from cauliflower. In a way, being freed up from the 'fat is bad' mantra of the traditional western diet I enjoy lots of much more satisfying meals - lots of coconut milk and products, lots of fatty meats etc.

Other benefits? I am bigger (muscle), leaner, stronger, faster and better in pretty much every way for eating like this. I have more energy, better concentration and visibly, I believe we look better and more healthy than many of our younger friends. Emma has MS is complete remission and a couple of really stressful life events over the last few years where I feared a relapse have come and gone (Emma's big problems were scarily aligned with stressful life events). We had another baby, a big risk factor for a nasty post birth relapse again with no problems. The intermittent balance / fatique / vision symptoms that had been on and off for five years prior to diagnosis, all gone, the relapses have slowed from every 4 months or so to... well, there has been no noticeable relapse in 2 years. The symptoms that were pretty much permanent and got worse with stress (and that we were told were permanent by the neurologist and MS nurses) - all gone.

For me Paleo is more than a diet: it is a way of thinking, a way of eating, a way of looking to the past to help make better decisions about our own future. Oh, and I get to eat steak and bacon almost every day, lots of steak and bacon (all from naturally reared, well cared for, grass fed and pastured animals by the way). Paleo and the Ancestral Health Movement has steered the way I exercise from hours pounding the street to science backed strength work and sprints. Paleo has helped me resolve psoriasis that had plagued me for 18 years despite going to the skin hospital and doctor over this period.

For me, the science behind Paleo is solid and I can live with being the odd one out as I just feel so damn good for it. I am hoping a regular mediation practice will provide the final piece to the diet, lifestyle, exercise puzzle and help me deal with stress a little better and focus on the things that are important in life.

Happy to answer any questions about Paleo / Primal / Ancestral diets and lifestyles so fire away and am a sucker for any tips on how to work this into my schedule better.

Cheers
Marcus

[Gareth]

Day 21

Marcus is so convincing with the way he talks about Paleo, and I trust him completely. That is making this process more difficult, but I think that it is all the better as an experiment, because it is difficult.

My major advice to him would be to stop thinking of a way to 'fit in' meditation and just do it, because after a while the idea of 'fitting it in' becomes somewhat meaningless. It becomes a way of life, and you just do it, because you know how it helps you so much. I suppose it's similar to the arguments that he was making in his post. This is making for a fascinating experiment.

The diet (or lifestyle) is relatively easy. I am really enjoying the foods that I am eating. I think the whole thing will boil down to the question of whether I am prepared to be 'different' or not. I have done this with meditation (the concept of meditation is probably alien to most of the people that I mix with), so who knows?

[FeeHutch]

It is so interesting to read both points of view during this experiment. The halfway point is not far away now. Does it feel like you have been doing this for 3 weeks now or does it still feel new?