Nobody on the planet looking to make a meaningful change in their lifestyle would ever, I mean ever, do so without doing research to become informed, right?
The night they ripped my gallbladder from my "gut matrix" (new phrase I believe I just invented to keep the reading interesting), the significant lifestyle change was forced upon me!
No research, no idea what was happening, no idea what would happen afterwards and even now I still believe it was just a major gas bubble?
Stupid right?
The brain has a way of creating "alternate reality movies" as I like to call them, in which you are cast as the star and our brain gets to write the script with any ending it chooses!
When you are unexpectedly sans one gallbladder, you find yourself constantly evaluating alternatives.
For example, how can I remodel my bathroom to include a tv, lounge chair and bed? Should I rent out the rest of my house because I no longer spend any time in any other room except the bathroom?
The script, my friend, was already complete. Mother Nature cast you as the gallbladder-less star without any opportunity to conjure up a more desirable "alternate reality ending". The ending: your guts are a mess, and your life now sucks!
In several of my previous posts, I have discussed the impact of Wired to Eat by Robb Wolf, a great book to serve as a primer for changing your eating habits, healing your gut and possibly helping to reduce or eliminate digestive issues post gallbladder removal. This book helped me to create a "real" different ending via converting my diet to an ancestral one.
This book delves deep into the ancestral and Paleo diet as a vehicle for change to improve gut health and general wellness with good basic starting points to get on the actual diet.
There are numerous terrific books on the Paleo Diet I will cover in future blog posts. The book that I would recommend next after Wired to Eat by Robb Wolf is the Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo.
The second edition has added a chapter entitled "Getting Started with Paleo". This chapter covers a comprehensive transition plan based on your desired implementation strategy. If you click the link above, you can read more of the details, and I can quit sounding like a late-night infomercial:
"But wait if you order now, we will throw in the free toe-nail clippers with blue-tooth capability and the free Julian French fry potato cutter with USB ports, just send $19.99 to cover shipping and handling to receive your "free" stuff!" I know ugh, right?
Note#1: I did not create this blog to sound like an annoying affiliate marketer, however, since I cannot invent everything to resolve gallbladder digestion issues, there are books and products created by great folks that may be able to help you!
Note#2: I recently purchased a new Samsung refrigerator. I noticed that this refrigerator shows up as a network location on my smart tv? Is this necessary? If the bad boy could teleport food from the kitchen to the sofa while I was watching the game, I could understand it! It does not, so why then?
The Practical Paleo book will cover the comprehensive perfect world approach to shifting your diet and all the specific foods to choose from. I am going to talk about my "real world" practical approach and the ongoing daily challenges with following a Paleo regimen.
Here is a basic breakdown of the perfect world ancestral foods on the Paleo diet to consider:
1. Meat - lean and wild preferred
2. Seafood and fish.
3. Fruit and vegetables - naturally growing wild in nature. (steroid strawberries bigger than apples not what Mother Nature had in mind)
4. Nuts like pecans, walnuts, cashews, and almonds.
5. Eggs - lots of eggs.
6. Coconut milk, almond milk, cashew milk are good to go.
7. Herbs and spices, most anything here; You will need these to make this diet sustainable from a palate fatigue standpoint!
Here is a list of what is not on a strict Paleo diet.
1. Jack-in-the-Box Oreo Cookie milkshakes and any other dairy products like milk, cheese, yogurt, or other dairy.
2. McDonald's crack-in-box engineered French Fries. The oil the manufacturers use to cook these Frys is heavily engineered. I am guessing there is a flavor enhancer that has no food value lacing the oil. Anything made with potatoes is out!
3. Grains, legumes, refined sugars, and any processed foods you lay awake at night dreaming about are out! Grains include Captain Crunch, Shredded Wheat, and Doritos for example. The most famous legume is the peanut. Anything made with peanuts is also out.
Wow, if you follow a strict Paleo diet, you are in for a world of challenges to keep palate fatigue to a minimum and the food interesting!
I do not follow a strict Paleo diet. I am about 85% Paleo and 15% regular diet with 0% of this 15% containing my personal "trigger foods".
Before going further, I need to explain "trigger foods" and how strict avoidance is the only real chance you have at changing your diet, healing your gut, and ending your digestive issues post gallbladder removal!
What is a "trigger food"?
First A Story: I have a good friend who is a 30 year plus recovering heroin addict. Over the past thirty years he has had relapses with addiction although he never returned to using heroin.
At one point, he strained his back at work and his Dr. prescribed OxyContin to relieve the pain. Six months later and long after his back healed up, Oxy took over the wheel of his limousine and headed straight for the highway to Hell! This happened a long time before society was aware of what we now know about opiate pain killers.
From a trigger standpoint, anything my friend puts in his body that gives him any sort of high feeling, has the potential to derail his life. He knows it and he will make every attempt to stay away from these obvious triggers.
When it comes to processed foods and refined sugars, you need to know your trigger foods. Quick note, not everybody has issues with trigger foods, so this next section may not apply to you.
Wonder what foods may be a trigger?
Analyze the crumbs in your bed. We do not typically eat steak, salad, or Keto bowls where we slumber! If you can identify the composition of these crumbs, you may be close to identifying one of your trigger foods.
If you choose to go Paleo, your trigger foods will become obvious over the course of the first 30 days on this diet!
If Oreos are one of your triggers, you will start Jonesing for Oreos, the bag will grow to five times its normal size and the little fat pills inside will start talking to you like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men; "You want me in your belly because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you need me in your belly; You can't handle the truth fat boy"!
For me, trigger foods were cookies, candy, high sugar breakfast cereals, pastries any confection or sweet baked goods. I did not care much for the salty side like potatoes chips or Doritos. I have religiously stayed away from all this stuff and no longer crave any of it.
At the onset of a major diet change, it is important to start figuring out what you can eat that is quick and satisfying without further triggering your cravings while still being moderately healthy.
Let us start with snacks. Here is what I did and still do when I feel the urge to graze, which is typically an hour or so before the next delicious meal. When you are going through the transition you may revert to this more than occasionally.
My wife creates these fantastic nut and dried fruit mixes via the bulk food isle at WinCo. I also really like chocolate. In my reading I found that several Paleo diet experts recommend eating dark chocolate - minimum of 86% cacao - as there are antioxidants and some other benefits to doing so.
I find 86% cacao akin to sniffing a Hershey bar and then chomping on a candlestick!
No reason on earth to eat 86% or higher unless you are trying to hate chocolate. I buy 72% cacao in little square packages. I break the square up inside the package and then add the broken pieces to the WinCo nut matrix discussed above.
Here is the trick to avoid over consuming with this snacking strategy:
Choose a small bowl that holds the same amount of trail mix as you could hold in the palm of your hand. Use this bowl to meter the nut/dark chocolate mix.
Another way in which to enjoy snacks in the 15% normal diet realm without activating a trigger is using good old fashioned peanut butter.
I will prepare a small bowl of strawberries, apples or bananas or a mix of all three, glop a large dallop of peanut butter on the inside of the bowl, and dip the fruit in the peanut butter. Once you are off heavy duty refined sugars you cannot believe how the fruit dipped in peanut butter tastes - this is something I now crave when I want to snack.
One other key point I need to make here about major dietary changes is that these types of activities can become your friend’s and family’s worst nightmare.
Ever been to a party or social event and found yourself cornered listening to someone run their mouth about being Vegan, selling Amway, Religion, Fad Diets, Exercise programs or any other topic that tends to breed fanaticism?
When caught in situations like this I typically wish for a personal biological explosive event, either end will do, in which I can create a massive scene to get the fanatic’s mouth to stop moving!
No one wants to hear about what you are doing or your "save the world" revelations!
This is from a guy who created a blogging website to share his personal insights with the world on resolving gallbladder digestive issues post removal, right? Irony.
Remember, it is your journey, and you are doing it for yourself to resolve digestion issues, lose weight or improve your health.
It is simple, you are trading foods that no longer work for your body in favor of foods that do. Not enough here to start a world religion!
Thanks for Reading.......Paul
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