Introduction

Just over three years go, I was experiencing headaches almost every day and migraines at least three times a month. I was in a deep depression that was being somewhat masked by the paroxetine I had been taking daily for 2 years. I was lethargic and struggled to get out of bed before 2pm no matter how much sleep I got, and when I say that I struggled, it felt like my entire body was tied down with heavy weights - I couldn't physically move. I couldn't focus or concentrate and at the time I was supposed to be studying maths at degree level. I dreaded having my period because my headaches and migraines would intensify, stomach cramps would force me to curl up in bed for two days, my moods would be even more erratic and the inside of my mouth would be covered with ulcers. I was desperate to feel normal and couldn't understand why I couldn't find a way out. I knew that food was an important factor in how I was feeling, and I tried various different diets that claimed to give you energy, help beat depression, lose weight and feel great! I was eating wholewheat toast and cereals with skimmed milk for breakfast, brown rice and pasta with heaps of vegetables for lunch and dinner, I was cooking with low calorie, low fat cooking sprays, I was limiting my consumption of red meats and occasionally eating white fish without the skin. I was snacking on fruits and vegetables, drinking fresh juices with spirulina, aloe vera, flax seeds, taking multivitamins and minerals... yet I was constantly craving more food, my energy levels were through the floor, my skin was pale, dry, itchy and spotty and I was constantly bloated and uncomfortable.

My father had bought me some vouchers to see a naturopath for Christmas in 2007, so in January 2008 I went along for an assessment. I was asked about my health, diet, moods, feelings, energy levels etc, then she attached me to a machine that would tell me which foods were good for me and which I should avoid. Sounds a bit hocus pocus, right? But I went along with it because, well, what would I have to lose? The machine printed out a long list of foods and at the top of the list highlighted in angry red print were wheat and sugar, amongst others. She suggested that for now I should just cut out these two foods and see how that helped in the following weeks.

Well, I cut out wheat and sugar and also rye, barley and oats which were also at the top of the list. I noticed improvement in my symptoms within a couple of days. Within a week I noticed that I wasn't getting headaches every day, I found that I could get out of bed before noon and I hadn't experienced another migraine. Within two weeks I had spent most of my time headache-free, I felt happy, my stomach wasn't bloated and I was bouncing out of bed in the mornings. I still hadn't had a migraine. I was amazed at how quickly things had changed.

I wondered why no one had given me this information before, why no one knew that wheat and sugar could cause such problems so I decided to do some online research into wheat- and sugar-free diets. One website lead to another, and another until I found a website that talked about the Palaeolithic diet. That is, the natural diet that humans have been eating for around 2.5 million years before the introduction of mass agriculture and animal husbandry around 10,000 years ago. This way of eating is simple and can be boiled down to a few simple rules (however, there are variations to these rules that I will go into in future posts):

• Eat fresh meat, chicken, seafood, fish and eggs
• Eat fresh vegetables and fruit
• Eat nuts and berries

• Don't eat dairy
• Don't eat grains
• Don't eat beans
• Don't eat refined foods
  
• Don't eat anything that has more than one ingredient

Our Palaeolithic ancestors didn't have access to all of the things that I had been eating up until that point. They didn't eat bread or pasta, they couldn't cook beans or rice until they learned how to use fire which wasn't until at the most 800,000 years ago, and where on Earth would they be able to find such ingredients as modified corn starch, fructose-glucose syrup, emulsifiers, mono sodium glutamate, milk derivatives or aspartame, all of which are common ingredients in everyday food products?

I started to follow the Paleo way of eating. I started losing weight and found that I never went hungry and didn't experience the cravings I used to get from eating so much wheat. My skin became healthy and bright as did my hair, my mouth ulcers disappeared, bloating was no longer an issue, energy levels rose above and beyond what I thought was possible, and little by little my depression began to lift.

So why, after three years am I still at my heaviest weight? Well, it's not easy to follow a low carbohydrate way of eating when there is temptation everywhere I look. It's certainly not easy to follow when faced with people telling me that I am doing the wrong thing and that to lose weight, all I need to do is watch my calorie intake, exercise, eat lots of fruit, veg and wholewheat products, despite the fact that I've already established that I had big problems eating this way for a long time. It's just not that easy.

The main point of this blog is to help me keep focused on my way of eating, my reasons for aiming to eat this way by keeping a record of the information that I discover and to help other people understand why I do what I do. If anyone else benefits from reading what I have to say, then that will be a great bonus. I have made mistakes on this way of eating before and sometimes the mistakes have lasted for several months. It's very easy to give in to temptation which can often lead into an out of control spiral ending in a vat of pizza, chocolate and crisps, and I'm sure there will be slip ups along the way but I hope that they won't be as drastic as all that.

By the way, I've only had one migraine since I changed my diet 3 years ago, and it was a self inflicted chocolate accident.