My maintenance plan involves using Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution Phase 1. Technically, it’s a weight loss plan, but I sincerely doubt I will lose weight on it. I’m mostly using it as a tool to reduce my protein portions, something I’ve been having a hard time doing. By reducing the portions, I’ll reduce my overall calories. Some of those calories will come from fat that would have been in the meat I’m not eating, so there’s a bit of a savings there.
I do believe that diets tested by physicians in their practice represent a system, so I can’t throw out all the stuff I don’t like and only keep the things I do like, or I’m not going to get anywhere. The one thing I’m not doing, however, is eating soy products. He really, really likes them, and I haven’t eaten them for a long time, and I don’t want to go back. How he justifies this as something our paleolithic ancestors ate (something he talks about a fair bit), I don’t know. He doesn’t take up soy specifically. Suffice it to say that any protein can be subbed with soy, but I will not be doing that.
Vegetable oils are totally banned. Olives are a fruit, so plenty of EVOO is encouraged. Nut and seed oils are allowed, but not peanut oil (I think). He seems to be fine with peanuts. At later stages, he allows whole grains (in serious moderation), though he doesn’t think they are a great idea.
The hard parts:
- I’m cutting back my protein portions by about 1/3rd. I’m not using his suggested measurement (compare to your palm) because I know that won’t work for me. I’ll be using a scale and eating 4-5 ounces in a meal. I want it closer to 4oz, but based on my utter failure at this in the past, I’m giving myself a week to get used to it.
- Fluid milk products are banned. He mentions Insulin-like Growth Factor in passing, and I decided that before I gave up my beloved raw cream in my coffee, I’d better understand why. I’ve certainly heard before that IGF is uniquely fattening and halts weight loss for some people, but I kind of glossed over it. It’s not something I wanted to hear. Yesterday, I read a study and found that fermenting dairy greatly reduces IGF, which means yogurt is OK. Phew!
- Cheese is severely limited. Only one ounce of aged cheese is allowed per day – basically, you can use it as seasoning. Cheese is something that stalls weight loss for a lot of low carbers. It seems like the perfect low carbohydrate food, but like nut butters, it causes issues. He doesn’t ban nut butters, but I only use them once in a while – I’ve had the same jars of 100% natural peanut butter and little jar of almond butter in my pantry for too long. Cheese on the other hand…
- Plain, full-fat yogurt, cottage cheese, farmer’s cheese and ricotta are allowed but count as a protein choice or part of one if you don’t have a full serving.
- Slab bacon is banned. Traditional prosciutto and properly cured dry pork sausage is allowed in moderation. No deli meats, no nitrates. Again, I’ll abide by this one because it does seem to have a point. Low-carbers have issues with cured meats too.
- Let me say that again: no bacon, and no cream!
The good parts:
- Two 1/4 cup nut snacks are allowed per day. They are to be raw and unsalted. I believe in the supremacy of crispy nuts, but those aren’t cooked, so good enough.
- All the green leafy stuff I want. This is a lot of green leafy stuff, but he says that he likes to see people eating the equivalent of an entire bagged salad mix per day. Done and done, I can totally do that. I think this is really the key to cutting down on meal sizes. It’s a *boatload* of fiber, but more about that later. Kale Chips, anyone?
- Most veggies are allowed. Pumpkin is limited to 1 cup per day, starchy veggies (potatoes, winter squash, cooked carrots, cooked beets, parsnips) are banned entirely. I can live with that for a while.
- Two portions of “friendly fruits” per day are allowed. Avocados and tomatoes are fruit, and since he states that several times, it’s probably an important part of the system. I like the friendly fruit list. I’ll miss some of the tropical stuff like mangos and pineapples, and I’m not sure I like green-tipped bananas, but we’ll see.
- Up to four eggs a day are allowed. He suggests Omega-3 eggs, but I can go one better – local and pastured.
- Plain, full-fat yogurt, cottage cheese, farmer’s cheese and ricotta are all allowed. That’s also a good thing since I can make this stuff out of my weekly raw milk share.
- A daily glass of wine or shot (1.5 ounces) of straight spirits are allowed. Yay!
He justifies the suggested supplements really well, and I already do most of what he suggests in that regard. I’m adding chromium picolinate, something I took it back in 1999 when I was on a low calorie diet and that he advises. I had a lot of success with that, so who knows, maybe it’s doing something, and it’s not expensive. I’ve recently started taking fish oil. After reading a few anti-fish oil screeds (yes, they exist), I decided that I’d rather just concentrate on a high quality capsule from fresh salmon squeezings (I take 6000mg per day of salmon oil) and see how that works out for me. I do love me some nuts, and they do contain a lot of Omega-6, so I feel it helps balance that out. I eat fish, but not that much of it. Certainly, I don’t eat it on any kind of a schedule.
Today is my third day on the plan, and it’s going really well. In addition to the food changes, I’m stepping up my exercise a bit. I won’t write about that since reading about other people’s workouts really bores the hell out of me. I did buy a body fat scale (BIA method). I know they aren’t totally accurate, but I hope to see some shift as I get exercise back into my life.
Speaking of scales, my weight went up two pounds (!) after the first day, but since that always happens if I eat a lot of fiber, I’m going to give it some time to settle down. In the past, I’ve cut way back on my portions of green vegetables because of that weight gain, and in hindsight, that seems really stupid. My weight today was the same as yesterday, which is fine with me. If it goes up tomorrow…well, I’ll worry about that when it happens.
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