When Healthy Eating is Unhealthy

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I am sure there are many others who have experienced something similar, but I followed a pretty strict paleo lifestyle and now I am realizing it is not the healthiest mentally or physically for me.

I cannot eat enough with paleo, nor eat enough of the right things to fuel my workouts. It made me become very judgmental of others and almost an elitist mentality!

I wrote about it more on my blog this week: http://www.winetoweightlifting.com/2013/08/09/pedaling-backwards/

Have you ever struggled with this mentality?

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  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
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    I haven't personally, but I have seen others that have. It's important to remember that we live in a developed country with an abundance of food, we don't need to place such extreme restrictions on our eating that we end up in deprivation. That is what orthorexia is. And I usually don't like to use that word because it gets overused and misused. But, it does apply sometimes. The paleo diet is not really based in good science. It has some good foods, and recipes, but there's not need for it to be so restrictive. It is another diet fad. It might be good to learn about the other side of it. Nutritious eating is good. Being overly restrictive is problematic, whatever the source of the restriction is. Here is one review of a book on the subject: http://networkedblogs.com/NB28b
  • Mama530
    Mama530 Posts: 605 Member
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    Yes, I went from 215 to 127 and was working out a lot. I felt guilty eating anything, even fruit because of the sugar. Then I fell, stopped tracking and caring. Now, I'm back up to 170 and starting all over again.
  • SJVZEE
    SJVZEE Posts: 451 Member
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    I am sure there are many others who have experienced something similar, but I followed a pretty strict paleo lifestyle and now I am realizing it is not the healthiest mentally or physically for me.

    I cannot eat enough with paleo, nor eat enough of the right things to fuel my workouts. It made me become very judgmental of others and almost an elitist mentality!

    I wrote about it more on my blog this week: http://www.winetoweightlifting.com/2013/08/09/pedaling-backwards/

    Have you ever struggled with this mentality?

    After a three month experiment with primal eating (paleo + dairy), I had to give it up because I was starting to have some major digestive issues. This way of eating works for some, but it just wasn't a good fit for me. Now I'm going in a totally different direction and I'm transitioning to a whole foods, plant based diet. So far it's going really well and my body seems to be thriving on it. But, I know what works for me will not necessarily work for someone else, so I don't push it. No one I know in real life even knows that I've cut out meat and dairy :)
  • themanda04
    themanda04 Posts: 60 Member
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    After a three month experiment with primal eating (paleo + dairy), I had to give it up because I was starting to have some major digestive issues. This way of eating works for some, but it just wasn't a good fit for me. Now I'm going in a totally different direction and I'm transitioning to a whole foods, plant based diet. So far it's going really well and my body seems to be thriving on it. But, I know what works for me will not necessarily work for someone else, so I don't push it. No one I know in real life even knows that I've cut out meat and dairy :)

    i know from just reading a paleo foodplan that it would make me miserable; i hate meat. LOL. my body very naturally adapts to eating a purely vegetarian diet. if i was forced at gunpoint to only eat paleo, i would just die. either by bullet or by diet...either way you're going to get a corpse.
    i eat vegetarian, whole foods, just like sjvzee. i even eat sugar...pure cane sugar. for me, it's about natural, wholesome foods that nourish my body the way my body tells me it needs to be nourished. what i do restrict myself from is wheat, because my body tells me that wheat is not my friend.
  • healthygreek
    healthygreek Posts: 2,137 Member
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    I love a balanced approach to eating. For the most part I eat veggies, fruit, fish, chicken, beans/lentils and some kind of beef once to twice a month. I don't want beef more than that so paleo would be out for me I also love goat, lamb and bison every so often.
    If anyone said I had to cut chocolate and ice cream out of my life, I'd be pretty unhappy.
    I love breads but don't overdo. Every week-end, I must go to my favorite Italian restaurant and eat the crusty Italian bread dipped in olive oil, salt and pepper.
    Variety in our food choices is part of what makes life worth living so no-any restrictive eating plan and the short-lived (in most cases) mentality that goes with these plans is not for me.