1. I am less hungry. If I skip a meal, I'm not starving. I don't need snacks between meals.
2. I've lost several pounds. By eating a high fat diet. Eating fat doesn't make you fat. (It takes a lot of retraining to eat high fat foods without feeling guilty.)
3. My teeth feel great. This sounds weird, but my teeth would hurt quite a bit before the diet change, not exactly a full-on toothache, but uncomfortable, you know? That feelings is gone (and I notice it return when I do eat that are not part of the diet). And my teeth don't feel as dirty either, if that makes sense. The grime that seems to accumulate between brushings just isn't there anymore.
4. I don't have cravings anymore. Seriously! After I got past the first two-three weeks, I wasn't craving sugar or carbs like I once did. Of course, if you put a piece of chocolate cake in front of me, I'm going to want to eat it, but I don't just crave sweets out of nowhere.
Ok, so what is this miracle diet?
The Perfect Health Diet is a high fat, moderate protein, low carb, no sugar diet. If you've heard of primal/paleo diets, it's quite similar with the addition of a few select carbohydrates (white rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes) and dairy (milk isn't suggested, but sour cream, cheese, etc. is). Here's a breakdown of the PHD food groups (click to enlarge):
The idea behind the Perfect Health Diet is that early humans ate this way for much longer than humans have eaten "modern" diets which include cultivated crops, so our bodies haven't had time to adapt to these dietary newcomers. I'm still in the midst of reading the book partly because it's very academic in nature, but I really appreciate that there is a depth of research behind this diet and that it's not claiming to be something "new" but rather a return to a very old way of eating.
We started this new diet to correspond with the new year, so we are almost two weeks in. It took a little bit of adjustment and a different mindset to figure out what to eat at first, but now that we are in the thick of it, we've found our new diet to be extremely satisfying and easy to follow. I'm planning some future posts to share meal ideas, recipes, FAQs, and tricks & tips we come up with as we get even more comfortable with our new way of eating. If you want to learn more, you can check out the Perfect Health Diet website, read the book (I love it in digital format so I can quickly search for different topics), and check out my Pinterest Perfect Health Diet board.
This is a great post! My husband started eating primal last year and he has seen HUGE changes. I've recently started a variation of his diet, which actually sounds a lot like what you're doing. I eat carbs, but try to make them the "right" carbs...does that make any sense? :)
ReplyDeleteI think the best part of eating this way is that it's more of a lifestyle change than a "diet" ...I feel so great and I don't even crave Diet Cokes or sugary treats anymore!
My hubby and I eat Paleo and have been for about a year. The tough part was Christmas - I love to bake, and did so... and boy was it hard to get rid of the sugar cravings, even though I didn't eat as many sweets as I normally do. But, we both feel so much better when we stick to it! Good luck! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear this is working so well for you! I hate to see diets that nix anything (carbs, for example)- and you'll get your sugars from fruits and starches here. My husband would never go for it, though; he worked on a dairy farm and milk is a food group for him ;-) Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteI used to feel the same way about diets that completely "ban" something but it's something that's actually pretty bad for you, like processed sugars and grains, it's probably better to get rid of them altogether. I should have said no added sugars instead of no sugar, because of course there are natural sugars in fruits.
ReplyDeleteI was saying that this diet does NOT seem to ban anything altogether :-)
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking to myself yesterday, "I wonder how the Perfect Health Diet is working out for Mandi"? So glad you wrote this post! I've been toying with the idea of trying this later on in the year, but my concern is our food costs going up. We eat very little meat right now (usually 2 meals/wk) for the sake of saving money, and I'm worried that our grocery bill will increase more than we can handle right now if I make the switch. Have you seen an increase in your food costs since starting the diet?
ReplyDeleteOoooh the part about the teeth draws me to that diet because my teeth feel like that a lot! I eat similarly to this, but would definitely have to change some things if I wanted to eat this way exclusively. Does the book talk about why you can have white rice, and not brown? I thought brown was better because it's the whole grain and doesn't break down to sugar as easily.
ReplyDeleteI need to make some similar changes, but I'm not sure about eliminating beans. The rest of it makes sense to me, so I may be checking this book out from the library soon. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYou know, Stacy, that's a question I have too (about the white rice). If the book does explain it, I haven't gotten to that point yet. It's a very technical book, so I'm not to far along. I'll let you know when I get to it.
ReplyDeleteMarie, the whole premise of the diet is eating what was eaten by early man, and beans weren't a big part of the human diet until cultivated crops. I haven't read anything specific about why beans are "bad" yet, but I'll try to update as I get further into the book.
ReplyDeleteErica, sorry I didn't get back to you earlier. As for food costs, we've been eating mostly "whole" foods for a while, so I think we've already mostly adjusted to the costs. Our grocery store has a discount section for meat and we get most of our meat there, so it isn't very pricey. Also, the diet really emphasizes eating some of the less "popular" parts (like the liver, etc.) and making broths from bones to use in meals, which would not be expensive at all.
ReplyDeletePlus, rice and potatoes are pretty cheap!
ReplyDeleteOh, ok! Guess I just got defensive! Sorry I misunderstood you!
ReplyDeleteGlad it's working out for you too! I imagine the holidays can be hard (I love to bake too!)
ReplyDeleteWow, I'd love to hear more about what you eat!
ReplyDelete