College. A time of gaining friends, experiences, knowledge, memories, and also a noticeable amount of weight. I personally have had experience with the ups and downs of weight; the scale goes up, mood goes down, tears fly and things break, and the diet begins. Years of experimenting, stuffing various things into my mouth and doing an equivalent amount of research on food and exercise to that of a Harvard scholar have given me a broad insight to the world of food.
After about 4 years of diet and exercise experimentation I've basically tried it all. Not eating, eating a lot, eating often and eating once a day, exercising into a coma and not exercising at all, high school was probably the most perfect time for me to experiment, mess up and come to a physical and mental place of relative balance. Now I say relative because my life like any other, is always changing. Being a college freshman is prime time to try and stay healthy and consistent with exercise. Right? No? Well while it may be difficult to grasp I find this to be as close to the perfect time to hone my knowledge of a healthy active life while balancing school and partying. It's a challenge of course but we're at PSU; aren't we supposed to love competition??
So for my first post I'll briefly explain my current diet/ give some "Paleo" history. Most times these things are explained in a robotic, wordy, or scientific way so I'll break it down and simply as possible. I follow the pale diet. Like Paleolithic. Like dinosaurs, well cavemen really but you get the point. Think of this lifestyle as that of a "hunter-gatherer", so no I don't hunt the squirrels on campus or steal herbs from the Greenhouse, I simply aim to replicate the diet of a hunter gatherer as closely as possible.
What do I eat... Protein and veggies mainly; think meat, fish, poultry, eggs alongside virtually any kind of raw/ steamed/ roasted veggie. I snack on fruit and nuts, and eat baked sweet potatoes after a workout which I'll explain later.
What don't I eat... Grains, bread, dairy, processed foods, any beverage but water (I drink black coffee and tea as well).
So thats it, pretty simple but there a wholeeeeee range of questions I can hear you saying about my personal diet. Most prominent, WHYY?!! Why would you every give up pizza, bread, cereal, sandwiches, granola bars, oatmeal, MILK (I swear I won't die of a lack of calcium. My bones are actually pretty strong...). These questions will be answered as the blog progresses, you may not even agree with them, but thats fine because I'm eating this way and am currently in the best health, shape, and mental state I've ever been in my life. No I'm not trying to sound like a Men's Health product it just comes off that way...
So to keep you reading I'll stop here. Maybe I'll post later this week or maybe you'll have to wait a week, but this will basically be a documentation of my life, food, fitness, work and yes parties, here at PSU while following the Paleo (or Primal) diet. And no I'm not trying to lose weight, just live healthy! Stay classy