Please pardon me for writing so many stories about food this month but I keep waking up every morning to such astonishing results from my food experiment and I just can't keep my mouth shut. I'm the first person to admit I know very little about how the human body works. It's complicated. When one part of the system breaks down, everything else falls apart. That's what happened to me. I thought I was eating a healthy diet but something was wrong. My blood pressure readings were off the charts and I cringed every time I stepped on the scale. That's when I was asked to become part of an experiment for six weeks. The rules were simple: no meat, no fish, no wheat, no dairy products and no processed foods. Anything with a food label was off limits. My blood pressure started dropping within the first 24 hours. I'm 17 pounds lighter today than at the beginning of this month with only small changes in my activity levels. This morning's blood pressure reading came in at 102/70. Since friends and family members are asking questions about what I'm eating, here's a sample of my daily routine:
Breakfast:
My wife and I share a large smoothie loaded with a half cup of water, 2 bananas, 2 oranges, a clump of spinach, 4 small slices of celery, a few frozen pineapple slices, a cup of blueberries, 1/2 avocado, a tablespoon of flax seed, a tablespoon of Chia seeds, and a teaspoon of organic blue agave. This makes three cups – one for Mrs. Caveman and two for me. I like to have a small plate of nuts on the side – almonds, walnuts and pecans. This fills me up until lunch and I no longer have a need to snack because I no longer crave food between meals.
Lunch:
Small salad with some raisins and nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts) on top and dash of honey.
Dinner:
Steamed veggies and a side of spinach cooked on the stove top in water. I normally have a glass or two of red wine but I stopped this week to give my body time to adjust to a prescription medicine I started taking to allow me to stop peeing every two hours in the middle of the night.
Another point worth noting is the impact on my cholesterol. My total cholesterol reached an all-time high of 230 in June of 2013. I made some adjustments on my own before the experiment began and got it down to 172 in February of this year but the ratio of 6.4 was in the danger zone. There was an immediate change once I gave up all processed foods, dairy products and other foods listed above. My HDL (good cholesterol) nearly doubled from 27 to 49, my total cholesterol dropped from 172 to 139, and my new ratio is now at 2.84, well withing the desired range of 4.5 or less. I will be getting another blood test in six months to document how these food changes are working for me.
Sorry, I can't tell you why this experiment is working so well. My guess is that my body can't tolerate certain foods. I'll leave the interpretations up to the smart people who understand the complex systems inside our bodies. As for me, I'm keeping things simple, taking daily notes about the experiment and staying away from foods with a label. When the experiment is over at the six week mark, I'm planning to re-introduce some foods on a small scale while keeping an eye on my blood pressure numbers. The trial and error process will help me identify which foods are causing challenges to my internal organs. If you're planning on making changes to your food program, consult your physician first and do your best to document your journey so you can help others who are seeking a healthier life. Have a great day.
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