why we get fat.

thanksgiving came and went. i decided to set my paleo ways aside for a few days (not just turkey day, i kind of started a little before then), and now i'm back at it.

here are a few pictures highlighting the indulgent pleasures polotek and i enjoyed over the holiday...

i baked brie in crescent roll dough with apricot preserves, and i made a slammin' crab dip. 

instead of roasting a whole turkey, i opted for one of olivier's turkey roti. it was delicious. obviously.

the spread. 

we had some friends over for dinner potluck-style, and it definitely worked out great. the line up: turkey roti, honeybaked ham, mac-n-cheese, greens with smoked turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, salad with pomegranate seeds and homemade biscuits. also an amazing pumpkin gingerbread and mulled wine were in the mix. at the end, there was still a crap ton of food left, but we gave away generous take-home containers of all the food, since most of it we can't eat.

my curiosity of the damage done was killing me friday morning, so i jumped on the scale. i was up two pounds from my lowest weigh-in couple weeks ago. not terrible. i got back on track with eating paleo since then, and today i scaled up. turns out i'm now down more than i was before last week. six and a half pounds -- how do you like THEM apples?! i like them a LOT.

a couple interesting observations:

my plate. full of yum.

* i tried really hard and could NOT eat all the food on my plate. my major effort got me through a little more than half of the food you see above. i've noticed that i can eat significantly less food than before going paleo and be really full. mind you, i have NOT been starving myself in any way. when i get hungry, i eat. and i don't count calories. i eat until i am full. but once i am full, i stop.

* eating starches and grains during the few days i did, i could notice some differences in the way my body behaved. most notably, i was getting really tired really fast. i also felt sick to my stomach a couple times after eating carb heavy foods.... coincidence?

* eating potatoes, pizza, pasta and sweet things just didn't seem as rewarding as i had hoped. i mean, sometimes i can really fiend for these things, but actually giving myself the chance to eat it was much less climactic then i thought it would be. this makes me hopeful that i will eventually be able to easily overcome my urges. knowing that the reward is not worth the cheat... it's all about the mental challenge. if you can put the cookie, bagel, or muffin down and pick up a piece of sausage, strawberry, or an egg, you will do yourself a great service.

this brings me to the title of my blog post -- "why we get fat"...

i'm at the end of reading the book by that title, which has pointed out and driven home many things that i have considered and questioned about what is preached to us about how and what we should eat.

i could probably fit those things in several blog posts, and i very well may, because there was so much important and interesting information in that book about how we in westernized cultures are as fat as we are today and don't know any better. clearly there are a number of factors that come into play, but there are some simple things that people can do to improve their health, lose weight, increase their energy, and better their brain function - but they are not things that are told to us from the powers that be, like the national institutes of health, or the american heart association, or the government.

the things we should be doing are too often dismissed as quackery or gimmicks, but this book highlights study after study, scientific and historic evidence of how our bodies and biochemistry work. i'll admit that things get a bit redundant at times so the author can drive his point home, but in the end, i consider myself much more enlightened than before i downloaded this to my ipad.

it's a read i highly recommend, and intend to discuss with the world in the coming weeks.