This is how I've been describing my current eating plan, started right after the first of the year. It's based on a book, Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution, which I read over the eating extravaganza we fondly call "the holidays" -- although I was not willing to start the plan while pie and mashed potatoes were on offer.
For seven days, I've been using my feral fox image to help me follow the recommendations for the first two weeks of this process. Ms. F. Fox can raid hen-houses in the dead of winter, catch birds and bugs and grubs, can snack on nuts, seeds, bitter mosses and ferns, pine needles, and gag down some kale or cabbage that grows even in the cold. I can eat eggs, meat, fish, nuts, and any vegetable that is green. (Avacados and tomatoes are NOT vegetables.) No fruit, no starchy roots, no grains. No sugar, honey, molasses and no refined or processed foods.
Essentially, the premise of the book is that our Western culture has provided us with a food supply that our bodies interpret as "end of summer, fruit's on the vine, eat everything that tastes sweet and comforting, to build fat for the winter." This evolutionary programing was successful -- so it got nicely encoded in our 21st century genomes, where it is now busy killing us.
This first two weeks in the frozen forest is designed to reset the genes that signal to my body that I, munching sweet potato casserole and mince pies, am in fat-storing mode. A sensible preparation for a winter food shortage, this mode is driven by complex interactions of hormones including insulin, causing every bit of available blood sugar to be packed away as body fat. It's only intended to happen for a few months once a year, not every waking hour all year long.
In another week, I'll be able to start adding back some specific fruits and veggies. If I have done the first two weeks right, I should have lost about 5-8 lbs, according to the book. I'm already down 5 -- probably water weight, but woohoo anyway!
The second premise of the book is that our genes are also being urged to kill us off before we hog any more of the shared resources. I'll talk about that in the next post. It's scary!
Oh, and in honor of my foxy mascot, I'm a redhead again.
Good job mom! Keep at it.
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