I'm eating less grains.

I’d like more energy.  I’d like to feel good stomach-wise all the time.  I imagine this would help me with life in general.

I think, and write, a lot about what foods would be maximally beneficial to eat.  I haven’t done much about it… until now!  I’ve been tracking my energy, stomach feeling, and mood for the last couple weeks.  I plan to make a dietary shift and see how these things go.

What dietary shift?  Good question.  Here are some things I believe might have some degree of truth:
- Michael Pollan suggests eating more leaves and less seeds is a good idea because of the balance between omega-3 and omega 6 fatty acids.  Leaves have more omega-3, seeds more omega-6.
- There’s this “paleo” thing.  Here’s Wikipedia.  The idea is that evolution moves slowly, and we’ve only been using agriculture for 10k years, so a lot of recent post-agricultural foods are new to our bodies, so we can’t digest them very well.
- A lot of people hate gluten a lot.  It sort of makes sense, if you subscribe to the whole paleo thing; grain has only been eaten recently.  Also, grain has changed a lot even more recently.
- This book called “The 4 hour body” by Tim Ferriss, which I’ve been reading, recommends a type of low-carb something.  (it’s a kind of neat book.  yeah it’s a lose-weight-gain-muscle book, among other things, but it’s from a pretty nerdy perspective so I can relate to it and trust it a bit.)
- Nobody says “eat more grains.”

So what am I eating?  Some sort of paleo.  Specifically, I will definitely eat these:
- colorful vegetables, as much as possible
- grass-fed meat and fish from the farmers' market.
- good eggs.  (from the farmers' market, or failing that, the most expensive eggs that say “omega-3” on the carton.)
- good fats, including grass-fed butter, olive oil, and probably all sorts of other trendy oils

- fermented things like tempeh, sauerkraut, kimchi, and yogurt

- tea

These are a little controversial but I will probably eat them:
- fruit.  I think, when you start cutting out fruit, you get out of “what caveman ate” territory and into “low carb” territory.
- some starchy vegetables like sunchokes and sweet potatoes; I’m not sure if these are cavemanish or not, but the consensus seems to be “they’re good for you”
- milk, as whole and raw as possible; paleo folks seem to be okay with it even though a caveman wouldn’t squeeze some udders.  Not sure if this is consistent, but I can deal.  Anyway, I’m already pretending to be glutarded, let’s not be lactarded as well.

- nuts; they are seeds, but also generally agreed that they’re healthy

- wine
- coffee; let’s not be crazy here either
These are a little controversial and I will probably not eat them if I can get around it:
- beans; low-carbers would like these, but they’re not very cavemanly or leafy.  They’re definitely seeds.
- tofu; it’s still beans.
- regular potatoes, everyone says they’re like grains, I’m not sure if that makes sense outside Atkins-land but I can live without potatoes pretty easily anyway
- beer (it’s only 3 weeks)
Totally not eating:
- grains
- sugars
- you know all that other bad processed stuff okay

And should I just cut back on grains, or cut them out entirely?  I’m interested in the cut-them-out-entirely approach.  Two reasons:  I hear convincing posts like this one, and I tend to be kinda all-or-nothing.  I’ll probably eventually go to “cut back on grains”, but for the 3-week experiment, it’ll be easier to just categorically reject them.

But I won’t only track self-reported variables.  For argument’s sake, I’ll also track weight and a few key measurements.  I’d like to track body fat percentage, as it seems more useful, but the 7 ways to do that listed in “The 4-hour body” all require scheduling an appointment (meh) or buying a multi-hundred-dollar device.

So here are my pretty rough measurements: (hooray for 1. being young, and 2. being a dude, so I don’t feel any insecurity about posting these sorts of things online)
Weight: 151 lbs.
Stomach at navel: 32"

Biceps: 10.5"

Thighs: 21"

Hips at widest part: 36.5" (I don’t really know what this means.  Butt?  It’s the sort of squeeze point for my lower body I guess: if I were in a hole with circumference 36.4" I would be kind of stuck, and it would be at my butt, so that’s what I measured.)

Neck: 15"

Body fat using US Navy method: 12.08%
Body fat using some random website: 17.22%
Using some other random website: 15%
Well perhaps trying to measure body fat percentage using just measurements is kind of silly anyway.  I’m not too fussed about it.

Which brings us to the conclusion: it’s all an experiment.  Let’s see how my average mood/stomach/energy goes in the next few weeks.  If physical measurements improve too, great!

Finally, disclaimer about comments: Nutrition is something that everyone has a lot of very strong mostly-hand-wavey opinions about.  I am not trying to say that these changes that I’m making are good for everyone.  I don’t even know if they’re good for me.  I’m interested to debate a little bit, but I reserve the right to stop talking and “agree to disagree”* at any point.
*That is the second time I’ve said “agree to disagree” in three days.  That makes me sad.


blog 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010