Over the past few months I’ve become increasingly interested in the Paleolithic or “caveman” diet and philosophy, promoted by folks like Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple and John Durant, who was somewhat recently interviewed by Stephen Colbert (video above). My understanding of this way of life is still fairly limited (having not lived in myself), but these were the central principles I extracted from the above interview:
- Avoid grains, sugars, and essentially any food that comes in a box.
- Move naturally, staying away from machines like treadmills and ellipticals. Look at how children instinctively play.
- Look carefully at how our species lived before convenience and technological development became a priority.
There are quite a few foods that are grain-based that I enjoy and contain plenty of calories like pasta, hamburgers, and any type of sandwich, so while I’m in the process of trying to gain weight I’m not sure if I’m willing to cut out food groups (that really backfired when I tried being a vegetarian for 6 months), but it’s an approach to eating and living that I think is worthy of your consideration.
As I become continually more confident with my strength gains and ability to maintain a larger diet I’ll certainly be testing these caveman ideas and writing about my experiences.
