The Paleo diet has come under recent attack lately for reasons I can only guess about. It might be a conspiracy by the grain commision or corn mafia. Never the less, people have been picking at it lately, basically making arguments about semantics in my opinion. Because of this, I decided to share my experience with the Paleo diet. I started eating predominantly “Paleo” after May 2013 Canadian Weightlifting Championships. I had a lackluster performance and looked fat. I had been trying to “bulk” my way into the 105kg class, but obviously it was not all quality weight. My squat and pressing strength was up, but it did not translate into a higher weightlifting total. I decided I would get back to the 94kg class as I was a bit soft at 102.13kg. I actually ended up getting into the 94kg weight class by August for the 2013 Ogopogo weightlifting competition. My total was only 2 kg lower than nationals even though I weighed approximately 8kg lighter.
Breakfast: Omelette with spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, and peppers.
Post Breakfast: Vitamins, fish oil, ginger, Bulletproof Coffee.
Pre-Workout: Amino Acids, creatine.
Post-Workout: Whey Protein, creatine, Amino Acids, banana.
Lunch: Some type of lean protein, vegetable, and carb (yams, rice, squash).
Snacks (as needed): Nuts, avocado, fruit, protein shake, boiled eggs.
Dinner: Some type of lean protein, vegetable, and carb (yams, rice, squash).
Before bed snack: Greek yogurt with blueberries.
Cheat meals happen 1-3x a week approximately: Wings, Pizza, Hamburgers, Wonton soup.
I was worried that cutting oats, and pasta out of my diet would cut my energy levels but just the opposite happened. I notice that my energy levels are more balanced now.
If you are concerned about losing strength on the paleo diet, you can look at my example. Sure my squats are a bit lighter, but my speed is up, and I feel a lot better. We will see if I can get some squat PR’s at this lighter body weight soon.
Next up, I will be experimenting with eating ketogenic diet which has an emphasis of higher fat content instead of primal source of food. Basically you want to eat a ratio of 4:1(fat to protein) and keep carbs under 30grams a day. Hard to do. But, eating a modified atkins diet while taking exogenous ketones AKA a Ketone supplement, also keeps you in ketosis as per Dr. Dominic D’agostino.
Some good resources are:
http://robbwolf.com/what-is-the-paleo-diet/
http://ketonutrition.org/
I also want to give credit to Rob Macklem for the May 2013 competition photo of me chalking up.
Still a great way to eat. I also tried the keto diet to get down to the 85kg class. I will have to write a blog on that soon. I would have to say that it is a good option to rotate between these 2 diets instead of staying locked into 1 diet long term.