Small eating window mistakes

[Greg Davis]

I was going to reply in another thread after reading Jordan say this:

IF is difficult without proper diet. Eating too much of the wrong foods, in small windows will magnify your dietary mistakes.

But thought this might derail Heidi's thread. I think this is an important point that if you have a smaller eating window it can be difficult to make the right choices. There are times when I string together a few days of undereating because I delay my first meal and then mess up by jamming in the wrong foods.

A conclusion I've come to recently that I'd be interested to see if others feel the same way:

If you're going to eat a big serving of nut flour/butter, leave it to your last meal or times when you won't be eating for a while after. How many times have you broken a fast like a starving POW and gorged on nut butter at your first meal... then your appetite is effectively over for the rest of the day. For me I like to have a variation of those pmenu "paleo pancakes" but they are so filling that I'll find myself having to eat when not hungry if not careful with those. Same with the chocolate balls recipe..

I know nuts/seeds shouldn't really be a staple of the diet but I do rely on them for calories quite a bit..

[Jordan Glasser]

It's funny that you mention nut butters, because that's where I personally think caused the most trouble for me. I was using nut butters to fill me up after a fasting. It was the only thing that really helped me feel full. But, they were difficult on digestion, and left me tired and lethargic. My conclusion was a little different, it was more digestion related, but the results from my study of one would have been the same. Staying away from high volume nut butters/seeds.

I fell into this trap repeatedly because I was eating 1 or 2 big meals a day. So, if I chose a food, I ate alot of it. which brought out my point of magnifying improper diet. Small amounts of nuts or seeds I can get away with, large amounts proved to be a different story. I have since cut out many of the foods I was using to get my fats, and feel much better. They were, avocados, almond butters, whole almonds, macadamia nuts, and walnut oil. It's now olive oil and coconut oil only.

I guess it comes down to really cleaning up your diet before you IF. I know it's stressed on this site, but, most of us don't eat as well as we think. IF, in my opinion has helped me make these discoveries, and am grateful for every mistake I have made along the way!

[Greg Davis]

Interesting... yeah its a work in progress for me in terms of figuring out what makes me feel lethargic. I know that ideally I would just eat meat/veggies/oil but the thing I find is I don't have a lot of time to spend on preparing meals with proper spices etc. so its hard to make such strict meals really appetizing. So I find myself yearning for things like nuts/seeds, fruit, cheese occasionaly etc. And also unless I just down copious amounts of olive oil I'm gonna have a hard time keeping much weight on being extremely strict- unless I can find a paleo chef whos willing to work for me pro bono (Scott?). Pmenu is a great help and when I come across a recipe that works well I try to store it away so that eventually I accumulate my favorite ways to prepare meat&veggies.

I think an aspect of diet that is often overlooked is that it is probably very important (literally in terms of how your body reacts) for meals to be appetizing (looks, smell, flavor). I'm no scientist but I know that I can feel my body preparing for a meal when it gets all hyped up on the smell of a properly cooked meal versus jamming down a serving of meat & veggies to quickly get in what I know are ideal foods nutritionally. For example, ever been on a camping trip where something about the outdoors etc. got you so stoked on the meal you were about to eat you were drooling at every bite even though you could be eating this same food in daily life and think nothing of it? It feels like there has to be some enzyme secretion (or something scientific sounding) that your body is doing that makes for improved digestion.

That being said, one can also take great satisfaction in applying the accumulated knowledge of paleo/IF/etc. and get stoked on their foods based on the knowledge/perception that it is the ideal food to be eating from a health standpoint.

Bit of a tangent there but basically I'm currently trying to keep nuts/seeds and fruit to moderate amounts and especially stay away from nuts if I know I need/want to eat again in just a few hours.

[Troy Archie]

Yeah I'm in the same boat as you guys with the nut butters plus I find them addictive and could eat the entire jar.

I totally recommend Scotty's olive-oil mayo recipe in PM issue 28. I make up a 2 cup batch every couple days and go at it; its freaking good. Throw it on a big pile of greens, throw in a couple cans of tuna and you got a great meal. My nick name at work is Big Salad.

[Nathan Stanley]

Originally Posted by Troy Archie

My nick name at work is Big Salad.

Nice Seinfeld reference.

[Garrett Smith]

Nut butters are great before bed to get rid of the hungries without having any carbs...

[Troy Archie]

Originally Posted by Garrett Smith

Nut butters are great before bed to get rid of the hungries without having any carbs...

That's not entirely true is it? There is a little...more in cashew butter than any other...

[Nathan Stanley]

I don't think cashews and peanuts are considered paleo.

[Garrett Smith]

Technically, there are a couple grams of carbs, yes.

I must guess that the insulin effect of almond butter's several carbs sure isn't anything to concern oneself about at all...

[Scott Kustes]

Cashews aren't due to the processing required to get past the poisonous layers protecting it. Or something like that. Peanuts aren't because they are legumes.