This post covers quite a bit of stuff, so excuse me as I tell various bits of the story and try to cover it all. The short version of it is that I’m really making great gains with paleo/primal eating/lifestyle. It’s surprising – rather shocking, the discoveries I’ve found. This post, itself will evolve.

I went vegan for 8 months, ending about April 2012.

It was a mess. I started sleeping poorly, wicked dreams, awakening like a train wreck and feeling frail. Now, mind you, I don’t know all that went on and there could be more to the story like lifestyle habits, etc. I do know that had made a serious effort after having some initial great benefits of cutting out meat at the start.

But over time, towards the end of it, I felt very frail, fragile, and irritable. Not always, but more so each week. I definitely felt something wasn’t right. Was missing.

Possible answers: lack of protein due to very active lifestyle (hoops, gym) and lots of brain work on the computer. Possible lack of calories / fat … I may not have been eating enough.

It’s still possible, and I won’t rule out the possibility, that vegan or vegetarian is the correct course. I do no that it doesn’t seem that way after I’ve been paleo for the last, again 8 months, running to now.

My take on vegan/vegetarian is that I think our bodies need the benefits of meats, fish, fowl that just won’t come from other sources. Until I found out otherwise, it’s omnivore a-la-caveman for me.

Pics of me at the time I stopped Vegan. Bloatiness was a struggle.

How I describe Paleo / Primal eating

It comes down to eating the foods we were (so we believe) meant to eat. That being meats, fish,  veggies, fruits … essentially stuff from the land. I’m told insects are a good move too, but that’s taking me more of a mental leap to be ok with. This ant was in my soup the other day – down the hatch you go. ;D

Mistakes I believe I’ve made.

• Expecting things to change fast when my body needs to adapt. Eating earlier in the day, recommended, took me a while to get used to. 
• Also, I felt drained at times, this I believe was due to the shift from loads of carbs (typical modern diet of breads, cookies, pasta, pizza, and sugary drinks), to getting my energy from healthy sources which arrive in the body slower and steadier.
• Eating too many nuts and chocolate. I believe I’m sensitive to sugars, as in I love them! That sometimes I’d overeat on nuts and chocolate (approved paleo) and think I was playing by the rules. In fact, I believe I was just binging on the yummy flavorness. Gotta watch out for the comfort foods.
• Not eating enough – Especially protein sources. For my level of activity (lots of hoops, gym, jogging tendencies) I started eating more, a bit of forcing, to keep pace with my activity levels. I also started nutrition shakes (paleo) to increase nutrition intake. So far good.

Two examples of meals I eat.

Some Primal / Paleo moves I’ve made as a Long Islander NYC Day Trippin.

• Central Market in Penn Station for a quick all around meal 
  They have a salad bar, neatly placed, with good options. Now I doubt it’s organic, grass-fed, etc, but you can pick and choose vegetables, meats, and create an inexpensive, fast paleolithic meal. I paid 4 bucks for a good size bit on-the-go whilst I hit the train home to Long Island. It beats just about every other option in Penn Station. Unless you’ve found something good – please comment below.
• St Mark’s Market for a great walk-by snack: Nuts and Dark Chocolate - Good quick stop for nuts and dark chocolate. I got macadamia nuts and Green & Black’s dark chocolate 85%. Yes, they have loads of other foods as it is a grocer. Seem to be open late too.
• Down and dirty: Ham and nuts.
  At any grocer, you can grab a packet of ham (or turkey) and a small bag of nuts, and stop off at a nearby Starbucks (better cause more traveled-thru and bustly than cozy coffee shops like The Bean where people are hanging out more like Friend’s on TV), wash your hands, and have at your ham and nuts with a tea or coffee of your choice. VERY good move if you’ve only got 10 minutes to wolf something down before a meeting.
• Wholefood’s cafe & Fairway Market’s cafe.
  These are perfect for semi-quick paleo meals. Warning: it’s easy to pile your plate up high due to the massive choice options – thus grab the little box, fill it with lots of greens (get kale if you don’t regularly eat it).

Some obvious benefits I can attest to.

• More libido.
  I’ve got more stamina in the bedroom and more intense experiences.
• More of an animal on the court.
  I play much better basketball. Starting to score in the 20s and up in church games – like when I was in my teens.
• More of that inner “umpf”.
  There will be times when I’m doing pull-ups when I want to just stop and other times, I’ll have that inner “umpf”, that mustering of all your energy to squeeze out that last rep. I like that energy.
• Eczyma gone (big).
  A bit thing for me was this dry, itchy  crackiness on my hand. One day I did a pull-up and a drop of blood squeezed out of my finger due to the pressure of holding the bar. That was a defining moment – to figure out wtf was going on.
• Deeper, nicer sleep.
  I get tired at night, which is really nice. I can feel the “want” to sleep. Not a crashing that comes after a sugar binge, but a natural one of those I-know-I’m-gonna-conk-out-nicely kinds of sleeps.
• Patchy sunspot on face half gone. 
  
  The left side sunspot patchiness on my face, not a big deal, cleared up and the other side is clearing up too.

Getting leaned out in the mid section. End of 2013.

Some great resources:

• Mark’s Daily Apple – Primal lifestyle with lots on Paleo nutrition. Great book: Primal Blueprint. Go Mark!
• Whole 9 Life – their book is great too: Whole 30.

In summary

I’m very confident I’m doing something right with nutrition by following paleo styles of eating.