I just watched this video, which is linked from the excellent page that got me started on the Paleolithic diet back in August of 2007.

Although the video is somewhat dry, I watched the entire hour and 11 minutes. The information is fascinating. Gary Taubes puts together data from numerous studies over the last century that disproves today’s conventional wisdom: that obesity is caused by overeating and sedentary behaviour. He then synthesize another hypothesis: excess carbs make people fat.

It’s not the carbs themselves that are the culprit, but the insulin that they cause your body to secrete. Insulin in the bloodstream prevents you from burning fat, and encourages the body to accumulate that fat instead. Lowering insulin levels allows fat to be burned as energy. Insulin is the only hormone that causes fat storage in the body. All other hormones encourage the body to burn fat as energy.

If you want to lose weight, don’t worry about the number of calories you consume. In fact, as Taube showed from numerous studies, it’s impossible to maintain weight by controlling the number of calories. Some of the poorest people in America were existing on near starvation diets, yet they had the highest obesity rates. Caloric intake doesn’t affect fat storage. Caloric intake regulates the body’s activity levels. The body is in a constant state of adjustment, changing speed and activity level to match what calories you put in, in an attempt to maintain an equilibrium.

Your goal should be to control your insulin levels. You can do this by watching where your calories come from. If you’re eating too many carbs, which boost your insulin levels, you will be physically incapable of burning fat. If you eat a diet that has higher levels of fat and protein, and lower levels of carbs, you will not be capable of storing fat. It’s as easy as that.

Following these principles allowed me to lose 45 lbs. within six months. I’ve maintained my new weight by maintaining those eating habits. It hasn’t always been easy. Society constantly creates pressure to do like everyone else. The temptation to grab a slice of pizza or a slab of lasagna is pretty strong sometimes. There’s also a lot of miseducation out there. Expensive products labeled as “healthy choice” are a good example. Most of them can aspire only to be “healthier,” but few actually qualify as “healthy.” Whole wheat bread is “healthier” than white bread, but it’s still going to jack up your insulin levels.

Society is driven by money, and there’s no money to be made from anyone if they are following a Paleolithic diet. Unprocessed foods are not profitable, so to try to make people think something is healthy, food companies process food a little bit differently, jack the price up, and stick a “healthy” label on it, usually with a trademark symbol after it. That doesn’t make it healthy though.

Anyway, for people trying to lose weight, I highly recommend eating less carbs for two weeks. Just start by having cut up fresh fruit, plain yogurt, and a handful of unsalted almonds for breakfast instaed of cereal. Big changes can start with small ones.

When I find something I like, I can be quite supportive of it.

I’ve discovered that I have 14 bags of Europe’s Best frozen berries in my freezer. I buy three bags every time I go to No Frills, because they sell them for $3.99. Most other places are selling them for $7 or even $8 per bag. I know I can use them up, because I have a cave shake every morning. I feel rich whenever I open my freezer.

p.s. A great addition to the cave shake is a tablespoon of coconut cream. Use coconut cream and not coconut milk, which is too thin.

Second food entry of the day! Maybe this is becoming that food blog that Hesi told me I should make?

Anyway, here’s another easy cave-friendly recipe. Heat up a pan with a little bit of water in the bottom. Not too much water, maybe half a cup. In the meantime, cut up some sausages. These ones are mild Italian from the butcher’s. Make sure they don’t use any filler like bread crumbs or flour. Good quality sausages are all meat and spices. Cut up some veggies too. I put sweet red peppers, green and yellow zuchinni, and cauliflower. You can use whatever you’ve got in the fridge. Onions are good too. Broccoli also works.

By now, the water should be boiling away in the pan. Throw in all the ingredients and stir them around. Let them simmer and sautee until the sausage is cooked all the way through, and the veggies are tender. It takes about 10-12 minutes. Stir in some fresh ground black pepper to taste, and cut up some fresh basil into the mix if you’ve got any. Remove from heat and serve. Enjoy!

Ok, so people often ask me what I have for breakfast, because they think the caveman diet is too much work. Here’s something easy that I have almost every day, and I never get bored of it. In fact, I make this so much that I actually wore out my old Braun hand blender and had to buy a new one. I got the Betty Crocker (don’t laugh) hand blender from Walmart. It is ridiculously powerful, and came with a clear beaker with measurement marks on the side for blending things in. At less than $15, there’s no excuse not to get one!

Here’s how to make the shake. In the beaker, add:

• Frozen berries (President’s Choice or Europe’s Best or whatever 4-berry mix you can find) up to the 200mL mark
• A handful of raw unsalted almonds
• Two tablespoons of plain yogurt (I recommend Astro Original 2% because it has all natural ingredients and whey protein)
• A tablespoon of ground flax seed (optional but highly recommended)
• Fill to the 350mL mark with unsweetened fruit juice (I recommend President’s Choice or Oasis blueberry/pomegrante juice with no sugar added)
• Fill to the 500mL mark with 1% or 2% milk

Blend! Enjoy.

This breakfast drink takes me about 5 minutes total to make and clean up afterwards. It energizes me almost instantly and keeps me going until lunchtime. Give it a try for a week and see what it does for you.

Laura took Dad and I to see Cirque du Soleil at Copps Colesium last night. It was a spontaneous thing, which made it even more fun. I’d never been to see Cirque du Soleil before, and I was impressed. The music, costumes, sets, lighting, performances were all intricately designed and interwoven with each other, creating what I can only describe as multi-layered audio/visual poetry. They alternated different moods, always keeping your brain and emotions in a whirl, from funny to spooky to awe-inspiring, and then back to funny again. I was impressed by the acrobats who caught and held each other only using their ankles. It boggled my mind and had my heart racing, as half the time, I expected one of them to miss and go sailing into the air and crashing into the crowd far below. I think most of the audience felt the same way. It was very tense in the colesium at that point. There was also a very funny clown who mimed and created sound effects with his mouth and a microphone. He coaxed an audience member on stage with him, and had the guy performing like a pro in no time. It was inspiring to see that kind of audience participation, and gives me ideas for things to do in improv shows with audience memers. Anyway, Cirque was blast: a solid two and a half hours of magic.

I had a couple of interesting photo shoots today. I was shooting two restaurants for a local magazine. The first place was a Vietnamese restaurant that opens tomorrow. The second was a Japanese/Korean place. I really enjoyed working with the restaurateurs. Not only did they each insist that I stay and eat some delicious food, I got to sit with them and chat with them about the restaurant business, and food in general. I feel like a made a few new friends today, and I’m looking forward to going back to these places as a customer.