Food Experiment #3

Today marks Day 1 of our third Food Experiment. This doesn't have anything to do with putting together gross or extreme meals (we leave that to the dudes at Epic Meal Time); rather, the two of us have recently started committing to 3- or 4-week long restricted diets to see what we can learn. A brief history:


Last August, The Marmot and I tried our first Food Experiment. I had been training all summer for my first triathlon and was confused that after months of intense, focused training, my weight had not changed at all and my body fat % appeared to be the same as well. My goal was not to lose weight, but I thought it might be a "nice" consequence of my hard work. The Marmot was doing some reading on my behalf about how to train for triathlons with diet restrictions--at the time, we were both vegetarian--and he read a blog about the symptoms of food allergies, specifically gluten. He read me the symptoms and I was stunned: the mild-allergy reactions sounded like what I had been feeling for the past three years. I often complained of feeling bloated, or "too full" after not eating much, and occasionally having sharp pains in my belly.

Out of husbandly solidarity, The Marmot joined me in a 2-week diet restriction to cut out the main culprits for potential allergens: no dairy, no wheat. (We did start eating meat during this time.) I only made it one week into the test before I found myself running late to work, and stopped by a coffee shop to pick up a bagel for breakfast. I thought I was going to DIE, my stomach was in knots for hours. Later in the week I tried a gluten-free bread and had no reaction. Gluten it is! We learned more than that during this test:

1) Though we had been vegetarian for years, we would be more accurately described as grain-atarians. Cutting out wheat really highlighted how poorly we'd been eating, in spite of considering ourselves "healthy" for being veg. We would have cereal and toast for breakfast, a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, pita and hummus for a snack and then some beany-ricey-veggie meal for dinner. No nutritionist would approve of how few vegetables we were eating, and neither of us really saw what we were eating until this forced shift.

2) The Marmot had gone in to this experiment out of solidarity, but found that when he cut out dairy, his skin--which had been in poor enough condition for years that he has been prescribed medication for it, and is now covered with scar tissue--cleared up immensely. Since then, he cut out dairy as a rule; whenever he makes a social exception, his skin suffers.

A few months later, motivated by how much we learned after the first test, we committed to a 3-week test of eating "Slow Carb" back in February. We had gotten the "Four Hour Body" book partially for amusement (the NYT Review was hilarious), and partly to learn some tricks for "prehabilitation" (aka, routines to prevent injury). Tim Ferris outlines a diet plan in the book; I felt so disoriented, like my whole food-life had been turned on its head with the last Food Experiment, that I was willing to try anything. The rules were simple, if restrictive. 6 days out of the week, every meal is composed of the same basic categories: vegetable, bean, meat. Breakfast? Eggs, lentils, spinach. Lunch? Chicken breast, refried beans, broccoli. Etc etc. The idea is to cut out all refined carbohydrates and sugars (no white bread, white rice, fruit, etc) and insulin-spiking foods, and to give yourself one "cheat day" a week to eat whatever you want. This spike in fat and carbs (apparently) shocks your system and keeps your metabolism high for the rest of the week when you are eating simply. We learned:

1) I had not been eating enough for breakfast. On the Slow Carb diet, I ate 2 hard boiled eggs, a cup of lentils and a cup of frozen-then-microwaved spinach every day for breakfast. The mental change was immense: I felt like I was "back." For years I had felt like I was getting...well, dumber. I had felt increasingly trapped in the fog of the present, uncreative, much less mentally nimble than my memory of myself in years past. Turns out I just needed to eat more, and especially more at breakfast!

2) I had not been eating enough protein. I made immense strength gains by the end of this 3 week period, bursting through long-held plateaus in a few important lifts. The Marmot and I both committed to eating more protein at every meal.

3) We did a lot of work cooking, planning meals and having huge stores of food ready for eating (buckets of lentils, trays of chicken breasts, bowls of hard boiled eggs), and found it much easier than I'd anticipated. We got into a daily cooking rhythm, listened to podcasts and talked while cooking and cleaning, and really came to value that time together.

4) The Marmot noticed on his first cheat day that his standard breakfast--a cereal mezcla plus peanut butter toast--made his heart race. He had always associated the heart-racing with grading papers, which he tended to do first thing in the morning.

5) The cheat day-plan was HORRIBLE, and the meal plan itself was unsustainable. I have a pretty strong sweet tooth, and being "unable" to eat an apple or square of dark chocolate to satisfy my craving was very irritating to the point of being distracting all day. By the end of each of the weeks, as we approached the "cheat days," we both found ourselves depressed and listless. We also spent a lot of time talking about and fantasizing about what we would eat on the cheat days. It felt like that craving was ruling our lives, and the restrictions felt overly restrictive to be sustainable for any amount of time. I understand that others have had success with this plan, but it definitely wasn't for us. (Also horrible? That many beans. YIKES.)

6) We did lose body fat. I lost 2" around my hips and 1" around my waist while gaining 1lb, and The Marmot lost 4lbs, which is significant on such a lean frame.

So after each test, we keep what we find valuable and leave behind the rest. Compared to this time last year, we are eating in a lot more (and saving money) by cooking all our meals; we eat a lot more protein and vegetables at every meal, which helps me feel more mentally alert and helps both of our lifts; I eat fruit when I get a sweet craving; we occasionally eat junk (peanut m&ms at the movies are the best) but it is a less-than-weekly exception. So what's left to try?

Paleo. (More info here.)

I have been curious for a little over a month, ever since lifting-idol-turned-nutritionist Krista at Stumptuous started talking openly about it as her meal plan of choice. I have been reading more on my own in my hours of down-time at work, and have grown increasingly interested in trying it out full-on. First of all, it seems very similar to the way I am currently eating: no gluten-grains and minimal other-grains (though I occasionally eat rice), big emphasis on meats & veggies, a bit of fruit. The biggest change will be really upping our fat intake, and completely cutting out legumes. I do enjoy hummus & carrots as a snack, or peanut butter on a banana, so finding alternate small-meal/snacks will be important. What I find encouraging is that each meal I've eaten so far that's proper "paleo" has been really filling and very satisfying (lots of fat will do that!), so I haven't had any off-plan cravings. (I know we are on Day 1, but we have been going unofficial-loosey-goosey-transition-paleo for a week now.)

More as the test unfolds!