Whole 30 - preparation

I am getting ready for the challenge - at least mentally. I generally knew what to expect but just in case (or if anyone is interested) the main points:

The Whole30 Program, As Outlined
Eat real food – meat, fish, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re natural and unprocessed.
More importantly, here’s what NOT to eat during the duration of your Whole30 program. Omitting all of these foods and beverages will help you regain your healthy metabolism, reduce systemic inflammation, and help you discover how these foods are truly impacting your health, fitness and quality of life.
Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc. Read your labels, because companies sneak sugar into products in all kinds of ways.
Do not eat processed foods. This includes protein shakes, pre-packaged snacks/meals, protein bars, milk substitutes, etc.
Do not drink alcohol, in any form.
Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, millet, oats, corn, rice, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa. (Yes, we said corn!) This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch and so on. Again, read your labels.
Do not eat legumes. This includes beans (black, kidney, lima, etc.), peas, lentils, and peanuts or peanut butter. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).
Do not eat dairy. This includes all cow, goat or sheep’s milk, cream, butter, cheese, yogurt, whey, ice cream, etc.
Do not eat white potatoes. It’s arbitrary, but they are carbohydrate-dense and nutrient poor, and also a nightshade.
Most importantly… do not try to shove your old, unhealthy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold. This means no “Paleo-fying” less-than-healthy recipes – no “Paleo” pancakes, “Paleo” pizza, “Paleo” fudge or “Paleo” ice cream. Don’t mimic poor food choices during your Whole30 program!
One last and final rule. You are not allowed to step on the scale for the duration of your Whole30 program. This is about so much more than just weight loss, and to focus only on your body composition means you’ll miss out on the most dramatic (and lifelong) benefits this plan has to offer. Give yourself a well-deserved, long overdue break from fixating on that number on the scale! Absolutely NO weighing yourself or taking comparative measurements during your Whole30.
The Fine Print

A few concessions, based on our experience, and those of our clients. These are less than optimal foods that we are okay with you including during your Whole30. Including these foods in moderation should not negatively impact the results of your Whole30 program.
Fruit juice as a sweetener. Some products will use orange or apple juice as a sweetener. We have to draw the line somewhere, so we’re okay with a small amount of fruit juice as an added ingredient during your Whole30… but this doesn’t mean a cup of fruit juice is okay!
Processed Meat. On occasion, we are okay with organic chicken sausage (those that are nitrate, dairy, gluten and dairy-free), and high quality deli meat, packaged fish (like tuna or smoked salmon) or jerky. Read your labels carefully, because Whole30-approved processed meats, especially jerky, are hard to find.
Certain legumes. We’re fine with green beans, sugar snap peas and snow peas. While they’re technically a legume, they’re far more “pod” than “bean”, and we want you to eat your greens.
Processed goods. We’re okay with cans or jars of olives, coconut milk, sauces and spice mixtures like tomato sauce or curry, or vegetables like sweet potato or butternut squash, but only if the labels prove they’re “clean”.

So that's what I am planning on eating:
- meat. Mostly ground beef in various ways as that's the cheaper way to eat beef. But also "stew meat" and some kalky. For convenience, grass-fed, preservatives-free beef franks.
- poultry. I am not a big fan of chicken, but it's cheap and it's meat. I will try to focus on organic only. And cook a soup once in a while.
- fish sometimes. I will try to include more fish, but that's mostly either from frozen or cans. It's hard to get fresh and to be honest, I don't even know what to do with it. I like preparing fish-cakes, with various can fish, they can be very tasty and practical (to take for a lunch at work).
- eggs. I probably should make a test if I am ok with eggs and stop eating them for a few weeks... but this is such affordable, delicious and easy food, that it's hard to cut it out! Maybe later :)
- green veggies. Mostly from frozen - cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, kale, brussel sprouts. I am still not sure about the night shades, like tomatoes and peppers.
- black coffee and water only as drinks.
- coconut oil as the main fat source (other than meat), with possibly using coconut milk/cream and dried sugar-free coconut.

In addition to products I already cut off from my diet, like grains, processed foods, legumes, I am planning on cutting also:
- dairy (now that will be really painful!)
- fruits
- chocolate (o_0)
- any sweeteners or chemical additions (I already use it very little, but for a month I will cut it completely out)
- nuts (I am still thinking about macadamias)
- seeds

I think that's for now... I might add something or change later on.

off the wagon, on the wagon

I've fell off a bit... Not that I started to eat all nasty SAD-y things, but stopped being careful, or simply eating proper. I started to eat too many fruits, and too much chocolate. As if when I allowed myself chocolate as almost-paleo treat (it's Lindt 70%), I can't stop and eat much too much, like a tablet a day.. o_0 I have no idea where this chocolate urge came from, but it might be from generally eating more carbs in the form of fruits. I need to finally get back on, as I started to be more sluggish, my skin isn't as clear as it's been before.


I think the best would be to just go cold turkey and very strict for a while. I am thinking about doing the Whole30 and cut even dairy. I will switch to black coffee, no cream (cutting sour cream is painful), and only meat, fish, eggs and greens. I want to get back on the right track, and lose the tummy that suddenly appeared over the past few weeks... I haven't been IFing as well, so will have to find a way to include fasting in the program. If everything goes fine, I will slowly reintroduce dairy and see how I feel. I love dairy and it's a great, cheap, addition to the diet. I can't afford eating meat only (with some greens).

I will finish up all the cream and half$half I have, as I don't like wasting, without buying anything new. And I need to restock with meat. I hope to begin in a week or so... or maybe even earlier?

Wish me luck, as I am not good with being very strict on myself... :-/

The China Study

I admit I haven't read it. I've read all the criticism which successfully turned me off from even trying. I admit I am not a scientist and it's probably pretty easy to full me around with lab-lingo. I am glad there are people out there who are very critically thinking and have the knowledge, intelligence and passion to help me understand the fallacies of pseudo-science.
Just today I got in my email a newsletter from dr.Mercola with additional information on the subject.
I guess there are people who are all well on vegetarian diet, but there are no scientific discoveries that would support the idea that animal protein is dangerous. I know that my example is just anecdotal, but it serves enough as a proof to myself that animal protein is health promoting, not the opposite. I am thriving on high-protein, high-fat diet. I add to it carbs from veggies, some fruits and even chocolate here and there. But the base of my diet now is meat and eggs, and I can't remember when I felt better than now.

Dr. Mercola's conversation with Christopher Masterjhon, his earlier article on the China Study, and an article by Christopher Masterjohn discussing the supposed animal protein causation of cancer.

painful return to a workout routine

I've had quite a break in working out. There were many factors that contributed - a lot of work, mild cold/sinus infection, cold weather which made me change fast into warm fleece instead of shorts... and simple old-style laziness. But today I finally did some basic body-weight workout. Boy, am I weak! it's scary. I will have to work steadily to get back in shape... And I am afraid tomorrow will be painful as well! It's good I have to walk to work anyway, it's a good, mild, form of warming up.

I found that generally the cold, dark weather makes it more difficult to keep healthy. I am more tempted to eat chocolate, snuggle in warm robe and watch Buffy or Bones. I haven't fasted in a while as well... But at least I didn't fell of the wagon (other than eating too much dark chocolate), I just got lazy and haven't been much creative in preparing meals, so there has been a lot of hard boiled eggs, slow-cooker beef, beef franks and similar. But it's ok, I fine with that. Maybe I just need to get used to the change in seasons, or simply accept that in the winter it's time to hibernate, slow down, relax...

eating at work

Is not easy. Most of the times I eat during lunch in our faculty room, with my colleagues. I really like that time, as I am lucky to work with a really good bunch of people, so this short break is filled with snarkiness, laughter, serious advice and discussions, small talk... A real break. The problem is that everyone sees what the others are eating. A few of my colleagues are taking dieting very seriously, either weight watchers or main stream understanding of "healthy diet", filled with carbs, low on fat and so on. A few times I engaged in a discussion about nutrition, but I gave up on it and simply sit and work on ignoring when they talk about the new system of weight watchers or low-fat low-calories bs.
But unfortunately it doesn't end there. They have to comment on my food. When I bring things like fish balls or similar then it's fine, the problem begins on the days I bring last-minute lunch, like hard boiled eggs with a small can of smoked sardines. or just eggs. They just can't stand the image of me eating four boiled eggs at once. They stuff themselves with ready to microwave "healthy" pockets, amy's and other crap with the list of ingredients longer than some of my students' essays. But then they ask "aren't you worried about your cholesterol?" to which I generally say simply "no". When I got annoyed with another question of that kind, I said, "You wish you had the cholesterol levels I have". Another time I eat my eggs (btw, we can't have meat at work, that's why it's more difficult to just bring leftovers) another lady doesn't even ask, but states "one of these days you will have a heart attack". Really? Because as much as being overweight is not necessarily a sure tell-all about the person's health, being obese gets much closer to that. And she is far beyond the chubbiness or normal roundness of a woman after giving birth or simply regular, average. I look and behave healthy, I am active and never complained of any health issues other than allergies. I don't think she knows about my Fibromyalgia, so in general I think I look healthy. But based on the fact of me eating four eggs (and rebelliously stating that sometimes I eat up to eight eggs a day) she is sure I eat unhealthy and am killing myself slowly.

I try to keep my mouth shut, because I don't like to be preached to myself either. And I don't want to look like a typical zealous neophyte. I was eating crap just a year ago... but I wasn't telling others what to eat, or that they are killing themselves.

There was only one person who approached me later on and simply stated that she was curious as to why I wasn't worried about my cholesterol. Now that is an intelligent approach. Ask for information, think about it and then make a judgment. I told her how much better I feel, how great my blood work came up, and summarized the basic minimum of the evolutionary argument. I gave her the Primal Solution, and probably will give her Good Calories, Bad Calories, because she asked why the "main stream" preaches something so opposed to what I was saying. I don't try to pretend I know everything, I don't have a background in science, I have troubles with explaining all the details... But I understood enough to feel good about my choices. And the results speak for themselves.

dealing with heavy workload

I work a lot. This year I teach one extra course, which really made a huge difference. While at school I often have no spare time to even make a cup of coffee. I use each and every minute for prep. And even though I have great kids who cause much less stress than some of the last year's students, I am stressed all the time about slipping. I worry I forget something crucial, I fall behind with grading, prepare day by day, with very blurred vision of big picture of each class.
All of that drains me. I come back home tired, don't feel like doing anything. Often I have something extra to do anyway... All of that caused me to slip with my healthy lifestyle. In the past month I worked out maybe.. three times? I started to have cravings for chocolate, and because there is somewhat of a soft spot for dark chocolate among the primal community, I let myself indulge... too much.
I am trying to get back at least with eating right. But I feel I need to get back on the wagon with exercising. I just... don't feel like. *sigh*. Maybe it's a winter thing?

vaccines

I've read a few different discussions or blogs trying to figure out if vaccines are paleo or not. There are people who think eating right will protect them from flu. There are people who believe vaccines are unnatural, and generally an evil seed of fascist government imposing its ideas on free people. There are people who believe vaccines cause autism or other deformations. There are people who simply don't like to see their babies cry of feel miserable for a day so endanger them to diseases that not only can make them miserable for life, but simply can kill them.

I find the anti-vaccine movement selfish and very dangerous. It's one thing to push the big pharma to provide the best, the safest and purest vaccines possible. To push for trials checking the safety of vaccine combinations or best time of vaccine. But to promote no vaccine whatsoever? This is child abuse and selfishness. Vaccines are one of the most amazing achievements of medicine, saving millions of lives. But now there are people who think they know more than the hundreds of professional researches and doctors (hey, I know there are under-educated doctors and biased researchers... but not all of them and not even majority of them!), who can decide about the health and death of not only their own child, but also the health of children around him or her. There needs to be 93% of vaccination in the society for it to protect properly. If it exists, even the not-vaccinated are protected. Saying that the kid is all fine and not sick as a proof for lack of need for vaccine is not just idiotic and ignorant, but also abusive and parasitic.

This article takes on the whooping cough epidemic as one of the signs of dangers of the anti-vaccine movement. Do they really want to go back to the life with polio, measles, small pox and dozens of other horrible diseases?

spreading the paleo gospel

I found that whenever I tried to somehow open the subject of paleo/primal living, it was a failure. But when I have a chance to share how much my health has improved, I get people's full attention. Of course it doesn't happen that often, I don't like to share my private life and health issues with random folks, but if the subject gets around and it makes sense for me to make a comment, I do. Today I was talking with my boss and a nurse who came to our school to do some flu shots. The boss's daughter has a variety of health issues which are difficult to diagnose. She mentioned that some doctors thought she might have fibromyalgia, because of constant fatigue. So I said that the only thing that helped me was going paleo. Both of them got interested, but the nurse got especially interested and the evolutionary base of it all really made sense to it. She wants to google it to check it out. One by one! :) I really hope she gets interested.

I was thinking also about giving the new Robb Wolff's book (after I finish) to another of my friends, who just recently went through breast cancer operations and treatment. It looks like she recovered fully, but of course she is very health conscious - unfortunately in the main stream low-fat way. She is a smart woman, and quite interested in evolution... so I hope that would be a good way of introducing the paleo to her.

My best friend, who lives in Poland, just recently told me how much she feels better since she made some paleo changes. She's had constant health issues, for years has been fighting with too low body weight, and many painful problems, which the doctors can't even figure out. She said that since she incorporated the changes for the first time in months she stopped having horrible stomach pains. That really convinced her, and she wants to try and go 100% paleo when she gets a chance (now she is in the middle of moving apartments, with 10h long work days). I am really happy about it! At least in Poland it's easier to get really free-range eggs, raw milk and "directly from the milkmaid" products. Meat is probably as processed and stuffed with hormones like everywhere else, though.. It's good EU has pretty strict rulings and Poland has to obey.

In our local Russian store I found a real heavy cream, the kind I remember from Poland - 35% fat. It was expensive - $3.99 for 500ml, but the taste... heaven. It is thick like a sour cream, but is deliciously, naturally sweet. It has no additives whatsoever, pure cream. I think I will be getting it more often :)

mhmmm

And I thought it couldn't get better than my recent invention of "hot cocoa" made of vanilla protein powder, cocoa, cinnamon and heat. And a bit cream sometimes.
Well, it can: replace half the water with coconut milk (that's just how much i had in a jar). Add ground cloves.


heaven.

Fibromyalgia and Paleo

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia about two and a half years ago. Looking back I've had it for at least ten years. So what is it?

From the National Fibromyalgia Association website:

Fibromyalgia (pronounced fy-bro-my-AL-ja) is a common and complex chronic pain disorder that affects people physically, mentally and socially. Fibromyalgia is a syndrome rather than a disease. Unlike a disease, which is a medical condition with a specific cause or causes and recognizable signs and symptoms, a syndrome is a collection of signs, symptoms, and medical problems that tend to occur together but are not related to a specific, identifiable cause.

Fibromyalgia, which has also been referred to as fibromyalgia syndrome, fibromyositis and fibrositis, is characterized by chronic widespread pain, multiple tender points, abnormal pain processing, sleep disturbances, fatigue and often psychological distress. For those with severe symptoms, fibromyalgia can be extremely debilitating and interfere with basic daily activities.

The most common way to diagnose someone with FB is check for tender points. There are up to 18 of them. You need to have at least 11 to be diagnosed. I have 16 I think.

That's very general. I want to focus on what FB looked like in my case. And I must admit, I have a very moderate level of symptoms, nothing like some other persons.

PAIN
All over. Everywhere, but you can't pin point it. Spreads through legs, belly, arms. Sometimes sits in one limb only, sometimes hits everything at once. You try changing positions, lift the legs, not move, move... nothing helps. You can just try to sit as comfortable as possible and wait till the worst is over. Then there is this "I have a flu with no fever" feeling. As if you were bruised on every inch of your body, every touch hurts. Putting on underwear hurts. Using bathroom hurts. Touching hair hurts, because your skin hurts. That usually holds for three days. Then there are joint pains. Sometimes random, sometimes as an outcome of long walk, standing for too long, wrong shoes, too hard surfaces or I don't eve know what.
When I finally started to do some workout over the summer (I am a teacher, so I had more time then), my knees would scream, not only during the workout but even in between. After a few days they were hurting all the time. My doctor told me that it is what it is, gotta get used to it.

FATIGUE
Not just tired... but the absolute physical and mental exhaustion. Too tired to prepare a meal, to clean the house, to make the bed. Too tired to visit friends or invited anyone over. Too tired to do shopping, check out a nice place or keep up with a hobby. Too tired to even begin about working out. Too tired to finish up some documents from work or even answer emails to friends.
I used to come back from work, and was sitting from around 5pm to 10pm in front of my laptop, not being able to do anything. I ate whatever I could find when I was so hungry it overcome the fatigue. I was so tired it was difficult to get up and get prepared for bed. Too tired to understand what I was reading on the internet, so I usually was surfing through home decor blogs - pictures only, easy. I was too tired to focus on a book or even watch a movie. I was vegetating.

SLEEP
I could sleep for ten hours and wake up tired. I wake up multiple times during the night for a split second. My body cannot fall deep enough to get into the most important, restorative phase of the sleep. Sometimes I fall asleep without any problems, sometimes I have a hard time with that. On free days I may also take a nap during a day. I aim for 7.5-8h during a weekday, 9h on weekends. If I sleep less than 6h I feel sick, have bad headache and simply remind a zombie.

OTHER
I did have problems with my bowels, and I am getting bad headaches, with occasional really severe ones. I have had problems with concentration, clear thinking and memory. I still struggle with depression and really bad anxiety.


TREATMENT
My rheumatologist has tried various meds and supplements. Nothing worked. No CoQ10, no lyrica, no other. He suggested stretching, exercising (promising that it was supposed to get better after a while of bad pain), and "healthy diet". To be honest, the only advice he gave me that worked, was getting a body pillow!

So why am I writing most of the symptoms in past tense? Well, because they are things of the past for me. Enter Paleo.

I've been eating low-carb since about January, almost-paleo since March-April. Completely gluten-free since July. Even without cutting all gluten the majority of FM symptoms either lessen or disappeared.

PAIN
I have very rarely the "random" muscle or joint pain. I do still have aches, especially after running long errands and/or having to stand for a longer time. The recovery still takes a while.
I am working out, strength, sprints etc., with no joint pain whatsoever! I do lunges, squats and my knees sing the songs of praise.
I still wake up stiff in the morning sometimes, but it takes less time to get moving.

FATIGUE
Gone. Can you believe it? I am a new woman! I come back from work and I have still energy and will to do stuff. I do workout or cook dinner and/or lunches for work, I clean around the house and whatever else I feel like doing. I am able to read and understand what I am reading even after 6pm. I have my life back. It's unbelievable. I think this part of the recover is the most beneficial. I do cook more on Paleo - but now I have time to do it!

SLEEP
Still working to get it better.

OTHER
Can't remember when was the last time I had any GI issues. My focus, ability to concentrate on a task and general mental ability improved dramatically. Anxiety and depression got better, but they need more time for full recovery. I take medicine for both of them.

All of it only thanks to cutting grain, sugar, processed foods, vegetable oils and other crap of that kind. I eat a lot of animal protein of many varieties, fish, good fats like coconut oil and butter, a little bit of cream or cheese, some green veggies and occasional fruit or chocolate. That's it. That's all the medicine I needed!

This post is part of "Paleo Rodeo" @ Modern Paleo!

Fasting and paleo

When I was on my old way of eating (high-carb), I had extremely difficult time with any kind of fasting. When I tried to fast a whole day (for religious reasons, like Yom Kippur), it was a nightmare. Very soon after waking up I would already start to feel bad. A few hours later I would have no energy, had problems with moving my legs fast, my head would feel as if made of lead with pounding pain. Toward the end of the day I would be lightheaded, dizzy and sometimes close to fainting. I thought it was just my nature...

On Monday we had "Back to School Night" about which I completely forgot. It meant that instead of going home before 5pm I made it at 9pm. With no extra food, on some eggs, coffee with cream and protein shake. Hardly any hunger, no headache, energy and full mental attention.
I used to say how I simply couldn't not eat a breakfast. I would be sick and nauseated with this deep, painful need to eat at that right moment. Nothing like that anymore - when I am hungry, it's a normal signal, no attack from inside. It's fascinating to me how all of that has changed.

Yesterday I did my "refeed" dinner. And I had too much. I see on other blogs how people make these humongous meals, sometimes calling them variations of "refeeds". How do they do it? I tried three beef sausages, three eggs with two extra yolks and a bit of veggies (broccoli, green beans, mushrooms). I felt full one third in. I wasn't sure if I should just stop or try and force to eat more. I decided to try and it more, because I don't want my body to think I am starving it, so it would go into starvation mode or something.

Each day this week I came back late from work, so no workout yet. And tomorrow I will be even later... Friday it will be, then. And maybe Saturday as well. I have to do a good strength workout and practice more on pull up bar. I am beginning to being able to do pull up! I have big problems with that... I try with support, and it gets better. chin ups get better as well, now I can do 3-4, and same with parallel chin ups.

Perfect timing

A friend linked me to an article, which included the following short movie:





I still can't believe that there is so much sanity, reason and positive attitude coming from Surgeon General of the US. Instead of shaming the fattis into lean bodies, pressuring masses to take on risky fad diets, there is a message that we can be healthy at any size.

you go girl!

body image, modern society and paleo

I am glad that I see some good entries on body size around the paleo bloggers. It is much more common to see entries ridiculing bigger sizes.

I won't pretend I don't want to "look good naked". I want to have athletic body (well,  not like real athletes, but on the sporty side), firm, strong and healthy. With the emphasis on "healthy". Sometimes I think there is a cult of athletic, ripped body in paleo world. I see the dehumanizing pictures of obese decapitated individuals (as if being obese is so horrible we don't want to humiliate them by showing their faces) next to many entries.

Many people come to paleo being obese or overweight. I really understand that they might want and need to reduce their body fat. But too many times I see people in panic because they paused in their weight loose, as if bodies were machines.

Our society worships the skinny, not the healthy. Often we can see people making fun of female athletes that they look "male" (because only men are athletes?), allowing a few chosen ones to be "curvy", which often is still quite slim.
We know about the term "skinny fat" - often common to people who are skinny, but still have quite surprisingly high body fat, their body work is really bad, they eat crap, they hardly exercise and have any muscle strength... but they are still perceived as more "healthy" than a bigger, fatter person. We tend to watch what fat people eat assuming they are lazy gluttons, and somehow looking for proof that we are "right", they they brought it all on themselves. When we see the skinny junk food eating instead of worrying about their triglyceride levels we are jealous, and the person is made to believe she/he somehow reached some kind of moral achievement.

I am a strong supporter of the "Healthy at Any Size" movement. Health should be the emphasis, not size. There are people considered "overweight" who are stronger, more energetic and healthier, than many "skinny" ones. We don't really know exactly what our ancestors looked like. They were probably very strong and healthy... but it might be that they have occasional fat cushions, especially before winter. Women naturally need more fat, and I think a lot of them had more than the minimum necessary in preparation for pregnancy and breast feeding. Still, they were very active, moving around, gathering and hunting. Somehow I can't see any of these very skinny models go and hunt down anything or even gather wood for fire. They simply wouldn't survive. I also don't think it's that much of a coincidence that they are hardly every smiling. In contrast to the lovely ladies on the left.
We need more acceptance of various body types, with emphasis on health, performance, satisfaction. I want to see more photos of ladies looking like that being the models for us and young girls:

just look at these muscles! I am pretty sure she would do as well running around woods or escaping some nasty critter as she does on court!

Now that's my look goal, I would love to work my back and arms to look that way (more push ups in my future!). But I do realize that it's as well, the result of modern society's body image, even if healthier than the skinny one.

And especially as we age, we should work on accepting our changing bodies. These ladies, for example, are called "The strong women's choir".

Not only by... meat you live. Evolutionary psychology and sociology.

I love the idea of paleolithic diet, I buy into the evolutionary arguments and modern scientific explanation. I have never been a big science fan, I like to know the basic and understand how things work, but it's not my thing. What does interest me more is the social and psychological aspect of everything. I believe that what we eat is only one part of the picture, and the way we live, react and interact with others are extremely important parts of the mosaic.

I have had a discussion some time ago about what is actually "healthy" for our psyche from evolutionary point of view.
Modern life and expectations push us to have hundreds of friends (Facebook anyone?), to be relaxed and enthusiastic when encountering strangers, to run extremely busy and stressful lives. We should be ready for any challenge, and ready to face it alone in many cases. Our familial ties relax very early on, and most of what we learn, we do from strangers at various institutions.

What is anxiety? What is social phobia? Are these disorders or maybe natural responses of our paleolithic psyches not prepared for the neolithic societies? Do hunter-gatherers suffer from anxiety or depression? Food disorders? Schizophrenia?

Our ancestors lived in small groups. A clan made of a few dozens people, never more than a 100 individuals. That made sense - the nature can support you, you are able to support each other, you can easily move to another location, and you can have groups of people with variety of skills, knowledge and life experience. Children learned naturally, almost by osmosis, always among their own. We are told by modern researchers (as opposed to biased anthropologists from extremely sexist and patriarchal society in the beginning of such studies) that members of these early communities were quite equal to each other in terms of gender. Each one was bringing important skills and probably all were contributing in making decisions. Age might have been much more respected than gender. We, as species, evolved with the ability of speech and high intellectual capabilities. The nurturing, supportive clans were extremely important in developing these.

So are my anxiety and social phobia so unnatural? Or maybe my psyche warns me against something unnatural? How often did a caveman interact with strangers? Had to make a speech? Had a stressful job interview? Had to spend most of early life away from family in an institution run by strangers?

I don't think we can go back to the paleolithic reality. But maybe we should go easy on ourselves when we don't exactly fit the expectations of our society. Psychologists that humans cannot create meaningful relationships with more than 300 people. We are flooded by people over the years of our lives. With how many are we really close? Close enough to nurture and support? To teach and to learn from each other's experiences?

After these kind of musings I feel better about being shy, often anxious and stressed about meeting new people. My psyche simply tries to protect each other from unnatural, neolithic reality.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday @Food Renegade.

Delicious hot cocoa/protein shake

I just made myself a delicious protein shake. I was getting tired of the taste ("gourmet vanilla"), I don't like very sweet things. I was generally diluting it with much more water than asked for, but my body started to rebel.
So just now I decided to add some cocoa and cinnamon.  It was very hard to mix it, so I warmed it up in the microwave a bit. To make it just perfect I added about one tablespoon of heavy cream. It's delicious!

I am planning on doing a few push ups just to remind my body I need all the protein I eat, so it will (hopefully) keep burning body fat. I am cooking now some chicken quarters (without skin) for the next few days. I can't switch to white meat, never liked it. It's just too dry! I was a passionate chicken leg eater since my early toddlerhood, so it should stay that way. I think it's very low on fat anyway (I can't believe I am actually saying this!).