My favorite take away messages from Paleo Fx-2015 part 4- Robb Wolf- It's not my fault

Farm to Consumer Legal Defense, garden girl and Robb Wolf!

Paleo Fx 2015  Some of my favorite take away messages from Paleo Fx 2015 were from the speakers who see patients or clients in real life.

Robb Wolf:  Robb spoke individually and in panels. I admire that he has gotten so many positive results with the police, fire, and first repsonders in Reno, Nevada. Working as a health care professional in real life, seeing Robb help the first repsonders reduce their medical risks, live safely, and save money for the city is a great thing. Wellness all around.


Take away #1 : It's not your fault
Basically, we are hard wired to seek novelty with food, evolutionary and  wise, but we are now around a lot of hyper-palatable food.  We are also told to moderate all food. Robb proclaimed this as "BS". You all know:  I'm no fan of moderating all junk food. I cheered loudly and became "that chick in the audience that was cheering". 

Take away #2 Novelty, not morality. Our tendency to overeat is biologically driven today. The person who overeats is not lost, it's not a moral failing. Today's food options set us up to override our biologic optimum foraging strategy (worked well long ago, not so much now)

The example that Robb used of the professional eaters- eating ice cream, then pausing to eat french fries because of palate fatigue, and then the eater was able to eat much more ice-cream and finish 10 gallons of ice-cream in 30 minutes.  That made total sense. The person eating was able to trick his palate and full signals to pack in even more food. Wow!  I'm pretty sure I did this with baked chips and M&M's or Skinny Cows and Popcorn at night during my 40 years of binge eating. This explains why I could binge during the day and still be "hungry" or food seeking. Sigh.

Take away # 3 It's not a moral failing

We still have to do something different. We have done everything right- but now we have to do things differently. The forces that made us who we are are not matched to us today. Good genes, bad options.

Take away #4  Excluding Food groups does NOT equal orthorexia. It's a way to survive the food forest. We struggle for a good reason biologically. We are not broken.

Regular Dietetics says abstaining (from grains,etc) is disordered. That's BS!  (this is the part where I cheered loudly). LOL.

Robb also put a plug in for Stephen Guyenet's work and also a plug for Gretchen Rubin's "Better than Before" book.

I've just got to tell you, I'm much better than before by abstaining from Grains and most Sugars. Far from orthorexic, I feel freaking awesome, so I was glad to hear Robb making these statements. One thing about going to Paleo Fx 2015, reading the before and after stories at Primal Blue print and Paleo- Non Paleo, Refuse to Regain, I'm convinced.  I think abstaining from food that makes us sick is underused. The foods that make us sick may vary, and that's okay.


My own experience:
I also think that a Paleo, Primal, or Real Foods approach is way, way underused in long term weight maintenance.

In one photo, I'm moderating grains and sugar, in the other photo, I'm abstaining from grains and most sugars. Clearly, abstaining from substances that kept my binge urges alive just wasn't the right thing for my brain or my body. Not my fault. I still had to do the work and do things differently.

July 2004 eating grains vs June 2015 no sugar, no grains (NSNG)

 What's working for me

1. Continuing learning from the leaders who have messages that fit with my personal situation in the Paleo space.

2. Eating a Paleo-ish food template- for me- the basics are no grains, very low processed or natural sugar.

3. Getting back in touch and staying in touch with my natural full and hungry signals. Not blaming myself for my geneotype or phenotype, but showing up to do the work to keep myself as well as I can. So much is within my personal choices day in, day out.

4. Rejecting the notion that abstaining from grains is bad and moderating is good. I'm better than before!

What did not work in the past:
1. Not seeking out leaders that were like me to learn and keep learning. YES- read books. My special note:  Attend lectures and workshops.  Please. Keep learning. RUN if someone tells you that you don't need to keep learning. You do. Because every life phase is different. Because there is new research that will apply to you. If I had stopped learning once I got to goal weight, I would be morbidly obese again.

2. Counting WW points and moderating everything and blaming myself for not being "strong".

3. Moderating ice-cream and salty foods together. Holy binge cycle and over riding of my biology.

4. Not being able to objectively think for myeslf and look at my results and make changes. Eating a little bit of grains results in a whole lot of pain.

The key note Paleo Fx 2015 talks are available to rent. Also, the talks tend to come out over the year via the Paleo FX youtube channel.

What conferences do you attend to keep learning and keep your head in the game? Do you agree? It's not our fault. But what work can we do?