Mike Willesee: 'I have a lifelong cynicism about diets'
When Pete Evans challenged me to try the Paleo diet I was not in a mood to say yes.
My poor attitude stemmed from a lifelong cynicism about diets...fads that come and go.
But I said yes and the deal was a 10-week commitment.
Why did I say yes? The best answer would be that out of some sense of fairness I would keep an open mind and not make a prejudiced judgment.
But the true answer was that I was in poor shape. My health was, to say the least, a few points below ordinary.
In the first part of this year I had two back operations and they were not successful. I had difficulty walking and it was painful.
Then one day I found I could not walk at all, and I could barely breathe. I found myself in the emergency ward at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney.
Pulmonary embolisms: blood clots in my lungs. It was a close call.
A month or so later Pete Evans hits me with the Paleo Challenge.
Despite my attitude to diets, yes wasn't just an obvious answer - it seemed necessary. I had to do something.
Pete said I had to do more than try the plan for 10 weeks; I had to "do it". He could not have known how determined I was.
First the "rules"; no grains or rice, no sugar, no dairy, no legumes, and a few others.
And in the "good" foods group you have to be careful to source it to natural production.
Beef, for example, can't come from cows in a feed lot. Fish need to come from the ocean, not a fish farm. Vegetables, organic.
Week one: not bad the first four days but then I started hitting hurdles.
Weeks two to four: no fun at all. I felt sluggish and suffered cravings.
Worse than that I started to realise how irresponsible my diet had been; three cans of coke most days and ice cream was compulsory.
I was now seriously missing my bad habits and I've only mentioned two at the top of the list.
Preliminary conclusion: I've learned a lot about the relationship between food and me. So long neglected.
I've got some distance to go. I have a choice...
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