Podcast Episode #59: BIG News, Weight Loss Time, Non-Paleo Family, Cold Care & More!

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Topics:

Opening chat:
Practical Paleo is now a 2x New York Times Best-Seller! Look for it in the Sunday October 28 & November 4th issues!
Liz's covered wagon road-trip drama.

1. Weight loss – how long will it take? [ 15:28] 2. Sugar detox & vegetarianism [23:25] 3. Living with a family that eats differently [27:05] 4. Eating on the go [32:24] 5. Symptoms of gluten exposure [37:21] 6. What we do when we're sick/natural cold care [41:48]

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LIZ WOLFE: Hey everyone, I'm Liz Wolfe, nutritional therapy practitioner, and I'm here with Diane Sanfilippo, a certified holistic nutrition consultant and the woman behind Balanced Bites and author of the book, Practical Paleo. Welcome to episode 59 of the Balanced Bites podcast. Remember our disclaimer: The materials and content contained in this podcast are intended as general information only and not to be considered a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. You will get far more out of listening to this, however, than you would out of reading the lyrics to LMFAO's greatest hits.
Do you know who LMFAO is?

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yes, I do.

LIZ WOLFE: D-Sizzle. Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs]

LIZ WOLFE: That's probably really old. I'm really behind on pop culture.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Thank you.

LIZ WOLFE: And just like culture in general. I'm actually wearing a scrunchy right now. You just asked me off the air if I was like going for the side pony because we can see each other via Skype. A SKRRR-UNCHY! But none of this is relevant in the least right now because we have much bigger things happening, Diane? Tel everybody the amazing news from…well, two amazing news items from this week.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Woo hoo! So Monday morning I did my usual checking of social media and stalking of my book and just kind of seeing what it's doing, and sales rankings and whatnot, and I clicked on the New York Times list and found out that it was ranked number 7 in its category for the New York Times Bestseller List.

LIZ WOLFE: Ermahgerd!

DIANE SANFILIPPO: What?

LIZ WOLFE: Ermahgerd, berst seller! [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs] Oh, I'm little froggy right now. Forgive me, people.

LIZ WOLFE: Diane swallowed her microphone and a suit of chain mail and five frogs.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Ugh. Five frogs. Yeah, so I was really excited about that, and I actually ended up calling the publisher about 50 million times, like a stalker, and he must have been asleep. He's like on the West Coast and totally jetlagged from an international trip, and I was like talking to some of the other like marketing people, and like I'm calling him like a stalker, just so you know. And he's not answering the phone, and then he finally gets back to me, and is like, “What? What happened? Is everything okay?” And I said, “Yeah, everything's okay. Have you not checked your computer?” And he was like, “we're supposed to tell you this stuff!” I was like, “I know, but I always seem to know these things,” and he was pretty excited, obviously. Pretty much made his day, but turned out then. So that was Monday. Today's Wednesday, and he called me today and said “Guess what? You made it for a second week in a row.” So he actually got to give me the news in a timely fashion, ahead of time. And was pumped about that, so made it at number 7 the first week, and number 10 the second, and what's awesome about that is, I know, you know, Robb Wolf's kind of like our trailblazer and totally one of my mentors and friends and absolutely love and respect him, and his book made it, but it made it around number 15, I think, and that was a couple of years ago now. And they only print numbers 1 through 10 in each category in the paper. And so I was really stoked to see it come in at number 7. I was actually kind of like slack jawed. My jaw was on the floor. I couldn't even believe it. And just totally beside myself, and you know, when I learned that they don't even print anything over number 10, I was like, that's amazing. So this Sunday, in the October 28th paper, we'll be able to see it there, and then next Sunday, again, the November 4th paper, we'll see it again. So I'm just like totally psyched about it. I can't wait, you know, to get a copy of the paper and do some kind of like nerdy framing of this article and just, I mean, who would have ever thought? It was just never in my wildest dreams. I think I just need to dream bigger is the problem.

LIZ WOLFE: Dream bigger.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Seriously. [Laughs] And my voice is cracking! [Laughs]

LIZ WOLFE: So amazing! Well, I know everybody is super proud of you. I am just bursting over here. Just so honored to be your friend and you know, get to see where this is all going because you've done some amazing things and helped a lot of people.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Oh, thanks. Gee, thanks, Liz.

LIZ WOLFE: Aw, shucks.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Aw, shucks.

LIZ WOLFE: Aw, shucks, buddy. What else is up?

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Amazing news. There was a new episode of New Girl this week. Did you see it?

LIZ WOLFE: {sighs] I was going to say, can we talk about important things now please? Yeah, no, I haven't seen it. Don't tell me what happens. I think my sister texted…texted, yes, that's a word now. She sent me a text of I think a line or a quote from the show, and I was like, DON'T take that any further. I don't want to know.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: All right, we'll talk about it next week. Well, my only other piece of news right now is that I was actually supposed to already be on a plane right now to San Diego, but I was kind of under the weather. I'm blaming, I'm blaming the random hotel you and I stayed at in Scranton for smelling like moldy, mustiness, and…

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, we'll get there.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, we'll kind of…you'll tell us all a story.

LIZ WOLFE: [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: But that's what I'm blaming for this little [coughs] whatever is going on over here. But anyway, long story short. Supposed to head to San Diego today, so I’ll be heading there tomorrow, and I'm doing a book signing on Friday at CrossFit So Cal, and then Saturday…and that's in San Diego, and then Saturday, I'll be in LA at Dogtown CrossFit. They're doing a benefit event right before the book signing, so from 3 to 5 will be the book signing. And then the following week, I'm pretty much hitting every single major city in Texas, so if you live in Texas, I'll probably be near you. So check out the website. Also on the blog posts for this podcast that we always have links for upcoming events. And they're on the website sidebar, and they're free. I just like for people to RSVP, so that we can get a headcount and make sure there's chairs for everyone. And the book signing, just so you guys know, the first part is like kind of an introduction and Q and A, and then at the very end is when I do the signing, so some people have asked, you know, do I need to be there the whole time? Should I come at a certain time? And the reality is you kind of want to be there from the beginning unless you just want to come in and get your book signed and don't want to have like a mini…it's almost like a mini-seminar for an hour. Hopefully, I won't lose my voice. And that's really it. I’m hoping to take it a little bit easier on the talking for this episode, since I've been screaming from the rooftops ever since I've gotten the best seller news. No, really, the neighbors have been telling me to knock it off and I guess that's pretty much what you get in a quiet, suburban New Jersey town vs. like San Francisco, where those people would just have thought I was crazy and ignored me as they do others shouting…

LIZ WOLFE: [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: random things around town. So anyway, what's up with you?

LIZ WOLFE: Well, I've finally ordered a new computer. I got sick of the spinny ball and my computer's pacemaker, as you call it.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Oh, sweet!

LIZ WOLFE: My external hard drive that I taped to my Macbook Pro.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Liz's computer had a pacemaker/insulin pump for the last however many months, so…

LIZ WOLFE: Oh, forever and ever. And it just completely stopped traffic in airport security, which is funny. So I'm in the whatever century we're in now, I'm in that. Oh, what else? I'm currently actually roasting something at my home. I'm at home right now. So at any moment, the fire alarm may or may not go off. I'm just glad it didn't go off when you were talking about your New York Times Bestseller news, but I can't guarantee that my house won't catch on fire since that's generally what happens when I’m cooking. The dog may start barking, just can't make any guarantees about my background environment.
What else? I want to remind folks about the Eat Primal Excursion. It's one of the coolest events I can imagine. Trapdoor Athletics has put together an amazing event that's happening here in the next couple weeks. Go to www.trapdoorathletics.com and check it out. Coupon code: balancedbites to get $20 off registration. It's a Pennsylvania/Philadelphia area event, but should be really, really cool. And other than that, I'm working really hard on getting this skincare guide out to people. It's a little frightening with everything that's going on right now to try and just focus on one thing, but fortunately, you know, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills doesn't start for a few weeks, so I've got that window of time. Other than that, let's see…
Okay, let me tell all about this little drama this weekend.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Our epic workshop return drama.

LIZ WOLFE: [laughs] Oh my gosh. So we had an amazing workshop in Rochester, New York, and because I think it's kind of funny, I'm going to go ahead and tell this story. Can you hear my dog in the background? He's freaking out as my husband just got home.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yes, I can.

LIZ WOLFE: Hey sweetie! I love you too. Okay, so [laughs] So, all right, so I basically since I tried to fake self-sufficiency on all matters, I've been making sure to check my oil levels whenever we go on a long road trip. And because we've been driving my covered wagon to these East Coast workshops, which has been great, but I want to make sure the car lives to see its umpteenth birthday, so before we left Rochester, we stopped to check oil levels and make sure, you know, all is well. So I'm looking at the dipstick thingy-whosit-whatever it is, and I determined that we had sufficient oil and everything was good. But this really sweet, kind, like Good Samaritan-type, I think, must have just thought we were two stupid girls fiddling around under the hood with no clue what was going on.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: I was ready to shoo him away, by the way.

LIZ WOLFE: [laughs] Because…

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Like, we're fine. We're fine.

LIZ WOLFE: Honestly, I honestly should have not been so like, oh, sure, come help us. Absolutely. He was so enthusiastic and so nice…

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.

LIZ WOLFE: And anyway, so he came over and you know, helped us fiddle and fart around under the hood, and he was very decisive about this. He said we should add more oil, like a whole quart of oil. And I'm like, okay, so when it comes to the health benefits of, you know, fermented cod liver oil, I'm totally sure of myself. But the second somebody approaches me with any kind of confidence about something vehicular, I start to just question myself. So of course I add the full quart, I thank this Good Samaritan, and he hands us a loaf of bread from his church. He said “My church wants you to have this bread.” And [laughs] he goes on his way. So [laughs], I know it took all both of us had to not like politely decline the bread, just the irony of it that we had just spent 8 hours talking about [laughs] nutrition, bread-free nutrition in Rochester. But we wanted him to feel good about his good deed, so we just took the bread and you know, just resolved to burn it in effigy later. Anyway, so a few hours down the road, the car literally in giant red letters screams STOP DRIVING! at us. It was like, STOP NOW! OIL PRESSURE! CAR MAY EXPLODE!

DIANE SANFILIPPO: This was like amidst us like belting out to 80s…

LIZ WOLFE: Chicago…

DIANE SANFILIPPO: anthems and Wilson Philips.

LIZ WOLFE: Which was just a lovely moment in itself, and you know, yeah. So, [laughs] so basically I find that I basically flooded the car or whatever. I did something where there's way too much oil. The oil pressure was just bonkers and the car was totally undriveable. So we had to pull over, and we pulled over multiple times to try and figure out, you know, whether or not we were going to be blown up. We had cops stop behind us on the highway, who told us to put MORE oil in. Not helpful. We stopped at a gas station where some gentlemen in Masciote gear, who stank of brewskis, tried to help us, and finally we were like, we're staying here. We're not going any further. And we stayed overnight in Scranton, so I could get the car fixed in the morning. So now, Cave Husband, my husband ended up coming up and spending a lovely day with me in Scranton after you, after Diane left with your ride out of town because we live in different cities, so that made sense. And actually Scranton is a really awesome town, and it was a beautiful fall day, but the moral of the whole story is, when [laughs] when that man handed us that loaf of bread, we should have know that absolutely nothing good could come of the situation. It was just toxic from the beginning. It was all because of the bread.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: You know, I'm actually feeling really good about my desire to be self-sufficient and fear of strangers to the point where had I, had it been my car? I probably would have just waved them away, like, we got it, don't worry about it. Only because especially those two guys at the gas station, I was like, totally going to kill us and put us in the back of the pickup truck. It was midnight…no one will even know. When I went in to go to the bathroom, I said to cashier, I said, can you guys keep an eye on my friend outside because…

LIZ WOLFE: [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: I'm going to the bathroom, and I don't know those guys helping her, and if something happens to her, this is not going to be good.

LIZ WOLFE: Come on over, bring your hunting gear and your field glass.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Oh!

LIZ WOLFE: Tools, yeah. Just idiotic. Completely idiotic.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Atrocious. It was funny, though.

LIZ WOLFE: Oh my.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: The whole thing.

LIZ WOLFE: But we survived. We're here.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: The men were sort of like shaking their heads, like these girls have no idea. And the women are like, I probably would have done the same thing. I can just tell the ones who are listening are just thinking like, I wouldn't have known what to do. Sorry for our craziness in not knowing…well, you know, we know very well how to operate a human body, but a vehicle? [laughs]

LIZ WOLFE: [laughs] It's a totally different story. Organisms, I can handle. Machines, not so much.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Not so much.

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: And this is like the perfect example of people who eat, think that they’re experts in nutrition, and clearly…

LIZ WOLFE: [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Liz just like choked on and spit out kombucha. Clearly not the case, and just because we drive every day doesn't mean in the slightest, we are experts on how our car works, so I'm pretty sure that's an analogy that Robb Wolf made like 3 years ago when I was talking about something, and just kind of telling us how people, you know, think that just because they drive a car, you know, they should know exactly how it works and vice versa. On a human body, like just because you feed it doesn't mean you know what happens once that food goes in, so anyway…

LIZ WOLFE: They call it a dipstick for a reason.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: [coughs] Excuse me. I'm going to mute myself so I'm not coughing into my mic. How's that?

LIZ WOLFE: Do it. All right, this is a long question, too, so you've got awhile to choke.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I'm going to drink some broth.
LIZ WOLFE: Yes, good call. All right, so on to questions. We have had a lot of basic implementation questions coming through, and we thought for today's episode, we'd gather a few and just tackle a few of the foundational points, some of the basic paradigm shifts that are necessary, I think to make this whole Real Food/Paleo/Primal way of life work. I do think we forget at times how difficult the transition can be, and so hopefully this podcast can also help folks who are longer into this lifestyle encourage those who are new to it, kind of have a little bit of compassion and remembering what folks are dealing with.
So question number 1. “How long to see weight loss?” This is from Andrea.
“First off ladies, let me tell you how much I’m enjoying your podcast! I listen to it almost daily and I’m dreading the day when I run out of past episodes and have to wait like a schmuck for the new weekly one.”Points, Andrea for using the word “Schmuck.” Too funny. “Diane, I also have your book and I’m devouring it. So far the stuffed peppers and lemon artichoke chicken are our favorites.
My question is, how long will it take me to see some weight loss. I KNOW, I KNOW… be patient! Trust me, I’ve been listening. And I KNOW, I KNOW, I’m not losing weight, my body is letting go of it. Trust me, I hear all of that and I’m not looking for a quick fix. But I would like some hope.
I’m 35 and have been paleo for almost 3 months. I started the diet because my son has been diagnosed with food sensitivities (dairy, gluten, soy, some nuts, eggs and some others) and I wanted to make meals our whole family could eat. At first I was eating some non-glutinous grains and rice but my research eventually led me to Mark Sisson’s site and I’ve been ‘clean’ ever since. I get so excited to read all the success stories of people who have adopted this way of eating and have had massive physical transformations. However, I have seen none of it. I’m 5’6″ and 220 lbs. I’ve lost a whopping 2lbs and 2 inches and I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll EVER be healthy.
Mind you, I FEEL great! No more symptoms of hypoglycemia, no more constantly thinking of my next feed, way more energy, great outlook etc. I’m not thinking of going back to my old diet ever, I’d just like some help so that I can look as good as I feel.
I should mention that I’m not eating ideal meat at the moment. I’ve got a 1/4 grass-fed cow on order and I’m searching for natural pork, chicken and eggs, but it is not as easy in Canada to find this stuff as it seems to be in the States. Unpasteurized dairy is even illegal. Even if it was abundant, financial constraints are a huge consideration.
I also want to say that when I have logged my calories to see where I’m at, I am still consuming 2,000 or more calories on a normal day. About 70% from fat 20% from protein and the rest from veggie carbs. This really bothers me. I keep reading how a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet will help you curb your hunger so that you’re naturally eating less calories. I’m eating less often, and I would have sworn that I was eating less calories, but amazingly I still manage to eat a ton! I only eat when I’m hungry, so I’m not sure what to do. I’m pretty boring and most of my days are the same.
Breakfast is3 eggs and butter or coconut oil, usually a coffee with coconut milk and sometimes heavy cream (I’m doing some self-experimentation to go totally dairy free, though cream in my coffee is the only dairy I ever have.)
Lunch is a whopping salad with avocado and some sort of protein usually leftover from dinner
Dinner is meat and vegetable.
Snacks: sometimes a coffee with coconut milk, sometimes 1/4 cup of nuts, sometimes a couple of tablespoons of natural peanut butter (I’m working on almond butter but I’m only human!), sometimes some leftover meat from dinner. Some days I don’t snack at all.
Exercise: I’m so proud! When I first started, going for a 20 minute walk seemed a huge deal. I have 2 young boys and don't feel like I had the time to take care of me. Now, I get mad if I can’t get out for my 45 min hoof every day. I am also doing more and more strength exercises. I do kettlebell swings, pushups, rows, squats etc. 2-3 times a week. I’m adding more strength weekly because I’m enjoying seeing my numbers go up.
Sleep: I get about 8 hours a night (WOOT for a good sleeper baby!). I sometimes still feel that 3 o’clock slump though, hence the coffee for a snack.
Supplements: I take cranberry pills to help me stave off the UTIs, a multi and probiotics in capsule form. These are just from Costco. Again, budget is a big concern. I’m on maternity leave, and my husband is just starting his own business. We don’t have cable, we live very frugally; there is not much money to go around currently.
I have a glass of wine 2-3 times a month. I have a couple squares non-dairy dark chocolate maybe 1-2/week. I sometimes steal a bite of potato or some watermelon from my husband’s plate. I don’t ‘cheat’ often because it brings back some of the old feelings of craving and obsession with food, not to mention the hypoglycemia symptoms. I have only had one day in the past 3 months where I had a whole meal that was non-paleo (though it did include a huge steak!) and I didn’t enjoy the aftermath. Thanks for reading the small novel! I’m excited to hopefully hear me on your podcast. It’ll be my claim to fame.”
Well, Andrea, there you go. And may I recommend, although it's not the best idea to go nuts on nuts, if you do need a little bit, I actually really like sunflower seed butter. It kind of approximates the texture of peanut butter a little bit better than almond butter. I'm not a huge fan of almond butter.
But what I have to say on this, and the reason I read that whole “novel” was because it was kind of a delightful thing to read. I mean, two inches in 3 months, to me, is a great and steady victory. She's leaning in the right direction, clearly taking joy in the process, and I think that's the key. At least it has been for me in my own journey. I think it's important that we don't dive into these things with this crazy maniac mindset, but we also need to not be so reserved and unsure of ourselves that we psych ourselves out mentally. So basically, this is just a mindset of gentle learning and patience and just leaning in the direction that we need to be leaning consistently, and Andrea seems to managing the mental environment, too, which I think is amazing, so to me, there's not a whole lot going on here that I would tend to worry about. Again, two inches to me is great, and it's moving, it's just moving a little bit slower than maybe it would on some kind of conventional starvation, a la, you know, what most folks are doing in the mainstream. But that's what I'm thinking. Diane, do you have any thoughts on this one?
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Just a couple of things, like if she's eating the same things really often, then she may be missing some nutrients that she's just not sure of. So this is something that we see a lot. You know, one thing we see often is that people go to meat, veggies, and healthy fats, and they forget that maybe they would feel better with a little more carbohydrate, even though on the fat loss plan, we generally tell people to avoid them. So I'm okay with her, excuse me, avoiding more carbs, but are there nutrients she would be getting, micronutrients, along with that vitamins and minerals that she's not, so if you're logging food regularly, I would say, just check it out, see what's happening in terms of vitamins and minerals, and if regularly, you're not getting something like B vitamins, for example, get some liver into your diet. Do something a little bit different so that you can get a more broad range of nutrients because often just doing, you know, protein and the same green veggies all the time does leave a few different things out. Carotenoids as well as maybe some vitamin A. Again that stuff you can get from liver, even from a better form.
Other than that, you know, I like that she's taking this kind of easy. I don't like the Paleo perfectionism mindset. While I'm all for, you know, a challenge or something where obviously like we're going to talk about the sugar detox next, I think, obviously I'm all for that if people want to do it, but I think that her, as you said, leaning in or sort of like easing into things…you know, 3 months is a short amount of time for when you compare it to like your entire lifetime. So I do think that progress in any sense is good. I think progress is good, and I also think, to some degree, plateaus are okay as well, depending on how far along you are. Just not like a reversal of what's happening. Like if you kind of stall out sometimes or you stall out, and then you make more progress, that's fine. But if you kind of slide back too far, maybe get into more of those foods that you kind of know you don’t want to be eating or end up putting on weight, that's when I would more question it, but if you're just getting steady, positive results, I would say, you know, just steady as she goes. You know, just kind of keep rolling through.
LIZ WOLFE: All righty. Question number 2 is from Vicky. It's about the Sugar Detox and Vegetarianism.
“Quick question. How can a vegetarian complete the 21 Day Detox? It looks like level 2 would work for vegetarians, but does it work for a good sugar detox? THANK YOU!”
This is you, girl. This is you, D-Sizzle.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, so a couple things here. Excuse me, I'm so sorry that I'm like coughing. We tried to delay recording this for that reason, but anyway…We've definitely had lots of vegetarians come through the program successfully. Typically they're completing it at level 1, which includes a small portion of grains per day from unrefined sources. Meaning, they're not eating things like bread, pasta, crackers, etc. Also, it allows for full fat dairy products, so the intention of level 1 was to be accessible to those eating a very standard diet or something geared towards like the conventional wisdom of health food. So it's a pretty big change for those folks. For a vegetarian, it can be…it can easily mean big changes in that the foods, you know, that won't be allowed are anything that's soy based, so no tofu, no soyrizo, no Garden Burgers, soy cheese, etc., none of that processed stuff. And the basis of meals previously may have been, you know, easily grain and legume products, The primary shift for them, and you know, new direction I ask them to take is that they really make the focus, only whole foods based items, build in tons of healthy fats into their meal plan, and just kind of go from there. I think when we remove those dense sources of carbohydrate, and we're also not getting in a lot of dense sources of protein, the focus really should be put back on fat primarily. And so if the person is eating eggs and dairy, as most vegetarians do, the vegans wouldn't, they will still likely see amazing sugar detox benefits. But the full benefits of the dietary reset that people see on things like level 2 and 3, which more closely resemble a Primal or Paleo diet respectively, level 2 allows for some dairy, and level 3 is, you know, excluding all grains, legumes, and dairy, so you know, she probably wouldn't see exactly the same benefit from that level, but absolutely would still see benefit from the Sugar Detox itself.
LIZ WOLFE: Cool! So I guess I’ll just throw in a quick thought, just about the vegetarian thing because in the past, it has proved helpful to folks. There's no judgment here at all. We're all self-determining adults, but I do want to throw in here that sometimes meat aversion, if that is what kind of led a person or what's this, Vicky, to stop eating meat, it can be connected to just a basic physical inability to digest protein which would probably be due to functional stomach acid deficiency, so potentially supporting stomach acid, whether that's with digestive bitters or an actual stomach acid supplement, that might help a person who feels they just can't digest meat, to digest it better. And I definitely encourage folks to try and incorporate animal protein now and then, both from a more holistic perspective, like many Eastern medicine practitioners will actually encourage folks who are having health problems to incorporate a bit more animal protein. Again, absolutely no judgment, but if the vegetarian lifestyle is the result of any, you know, digestive insufficiency, that type of approach might be helpful in tackling that. Good?
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Sounds good.
LIZ WOLFE: All right, question number 3 from Monica, and this is about living with a non-Paleo family.
“I’m a 22 year old university student living at home with a non-Paleo family. My father’s health views differ drastically from my own. He suffers from depression, anxiety and alcoholism, so you can imagine his eating and exercise habits. For this reason, it would be very difficult for me to adapt my diet right now. I have control over my breakfast, lunch and snack, but dinners range from pasta and meatballs, chicken soup, hot dogs, burgers, pizza… not always horrible, but not the greatest either.
I often find myself bloated and feeling too full. I also seem heavier in my stomach area, although I’m not sure how much of that is due to bloat. I’m 5’5” and 115 pounds. I have never gotten my period naturally and know in my heart that I should probably put weight on but am unsure how much or how to do so in a healthy manner. I’m also hoping to heal my digestive issues as much as possible while under my current living constraints. I hope to move out in January, which will coincide with the completion of my undergrad (wooo! stress relief), but was wondering what advice you might have for me in the meantime, or for putting on the weight/solving digestive problems once living on my own.
As far as food, I’m trying to limit gluten to one or two meals a day, I have tried to add more animal protein, and incorporated full fat yogurt (plain, Greek-style) into my diet and have begun to take a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar after my dinner.
A typical day is steel cut oats, almond butter, banana, salmon, sweet potato, broccoli, yogurt and fruit for snacking, pasta and meatballs. No supplements. Sleep is quite poor.
Exercise: 5 times a week of strength and cardio (1 hour altogether), walks 7 days a week for an hour, with light stretching or the odd bike ride thrown in.”
Do you want to start with this, Diane? Or does your voice need a break? Voice needs a break.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.
LIZ WOLFE: So when I was in college, there's a lot going on here, and first of all, I just have to say, it's going to be really hard to tackle any kind of digestive healing when these foods are still in the mix. It's just really, really difficult, so I'm just going to tackle the lifestyle stuff. When I was in college, I was bound by my environment as well, not…I wasn't living at home, I was living in a house, and a dorm, and in a sorority, and whatnot. Woo hoo! And so, at the time I wasn't aware of the Paleo lifestyle, but for a time, I was able to make Atkins work, fairly well. So I'm not suggesting that Atkins is any way a panacea, perfect for everybody, but the point was, we had hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, bagels, all of that stuff, and rather than have that kind of double whammy of bread and dairy, for example, if there was a dairy intolerance at work here, I just ate the toppings, you know. I ate the insides of sandwiches when they would order Mr. Goodsense for us. I'd eat the inside of several sandwiches, eat the toppings off of pizza. I’d eat the meat from, you know, hot dogs and hamburgers rather than the buns themselves, and to me, it's like, I don't see the problem. If you're eating pasta and meatballs, to just at least choose against the pasta. There might be breadcrumbs in the meatballs, but that's going to better than adding a pile of pasta to that. And to me, it's just like why add one stressor to another.
So if you have control over breakfast, pile it on, so you don't deal with ravenous hunger, eating everything that hurts you type hunger late in the day. Get some eggs in there, man, if you possibly can. Just even crack one into your oatmeal while you're coking it on the stove, and stir it in. I don't care. Figure it out. Eat the hot dog and not the bun. There's just really no use in compounding potentially unhealthful things. And I definitely have sympathy for this situation, but I promise you, just that willingness to make the paradigm shift and just kind of push through that curtain that makes it a little bit difficult, it's a lot easier on the other side. Not only will you feel more willing and more positive about your lifestyle because you will have eliminated those foods that really do disrupt mental and physical function. I mean, you may be under a big wet blanket of just crappy feelings and feeling trapped and lack of motivation because of the food that you're feeling like you have to eat. So there's so many reasons just to kind of make this work and if you do, I'd love to hear back from you on it. What you figured out, how you did it, and how you made it work. Those are my thoughts.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, I'm with you. I would just say focus on the foods that are, you know, more grain free to feel better. So loading up on whatever she can that's safe, you know, “safe” for her digestion and worry less about ideal food or food quality or choices, and again, going into that Paleo perfectionism, not worrying so much about that, but when in doubt, I always say protect your digestion first, so I would always recommend like larger meals earlier in the day. I recommend that anyway, but especially since that's what she has more control over. So to get in as big of a breakfast as possible, also lunch and snacks, and kind of leave it to a much smaller meal at dinner, so that she's not left sort of scarfing everything out of, you know, absolutely raging hunger by later in the day.
LIZ WOLFE: All right. Next question from Anthony. This is about eating on the go.
“Can you tell me how to eat Paleo when on the go and you are faced with either Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, etc sometimes I just have time for a quick meal and I am on the road.”
Now this is a huge question that people ask, and they ask it a lot, and I used to worry about it constantly. But it's really actually beyond easy to stay healthy and compliant and well fed on the road. It's really just our overall culture that seems to make us think that it's difficult. I don't know. I also think that part of what convinces us we need all this “on the go food” is probably that old myth about having to eat fifty times a day to keep metabolism going, blah blah blah. Six small meals, all those modern myths. But the truth is, if you get in a great nutrient dense meal first thing, you can be good for hours if you can't get to good food, and eggs take…literally, they take five minutes maybe to make. Five minutes. Get a scoop of fat…I do that sometimes, man. I'll even make a frittata the night before, and eat it in the morning cold, and take a spoonful of palm oil, and just suck it down. I don't have a whole lot of time when I travel, either, probably mostly my fault because I choose to get that extra five minutes of sleep rather than the five minutes of prep time, but I've said before that unless you're literally trapped in a…I say literally a lot. Am I saying literally a lot? [laughs] Shaking her head. She's muted. So unless you're actually trapped in a Wonder Bread factory, there's no real dearth of real food everywhere you look. You know what? Actually, I'll stand corrected a little bit on that because the other week I actually was in an unexpected layover in an airport. I hadn't brought a PaleoKit or sardines or my coconut flakes with me because again, it was not expected, and I actually was pretty hungry. I was foraging in the airport, literally not one thing, literally, was going to work. So eating a salad to me is basically like eating water. Meat is pretty questionable out at the airport. And even the nuts were all coated in partially hydrogenated oils. So I do have a little bit of sympathy here, and if you are going to be stuck in a Wonder Bread factory or the Denver airport, just make sure you're always bringing your sardines, your coconut flakes, and a PaleoKit wherever you go. PaleoKits you can get from www.stevesoriginal.com. They have grass-fed jerky and sales support a good cause, and if you're not stuck in a bread factory hell, then do what Diane and I do, and go to a freaking grocery store. You know? Diane, you cracked me up the other day talking about the way we eat on the road, which is constant. I mean, we are like flight to rental car to hotel to event and then back again, so Diane, tell everybody what you said because it was really funny.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I was like, people always ask us, you know, what can I eat on the go? What can I eat on the road? I'm like, just eat real food. Like we sat in the car, eating sushi that we had custom ordered at Wegman's for them to roll without rice for us. Like it is not that complicated. You just have to sit somewhere and put the food in your mouth.
LIZ WOLFE: And put a plastic bag in your lap…
DIANE SANFILIPPO: It doesn't matter that it's not “portable” if you just sit still for a few minutes. It's totally fine. I mean, it just made me laugh because I was like we're on the road. We're sitting here in the Wegman's parking lot and we're eating sushi, like not a big deal. You know, the foraging for good ingredients can be a little tough sometimes when you're not cooking the food, and we didn't find as many like clean options that we, you know, that we would have wanted to find. We like to get like prosciutto and things like that because prosciutto you can usually find just pork and salt. Like no weird ingredients, no other additives. Lots of the other meats at the store did have them, but yeah, we just kind of like, just pick what seems easy and you know, this is where being a picky eater is just not going to be beneficial to you at all. It's kind of like, you just have to go with what works well. And if you're doing something like following an autoimmune protocol or if you have very strict other dietary restrictions, that's a different story. You're going to need to prepare ahead of time, and really look out for yourself a lot more. If you can’t eat eggs, if you're not eating nightshades, etc., you know, you will need to plan ahead a lot more for this stuff. Make your own jerky, you know, bring other snacks with you, but other than that. And most people do okay with, you know, jerky. Like that is a pretty easy to digest food, you know, people aren't having a lot of intolerance to that, so if you make it at home without any ingredients that are irritating for you, it can be a pretty good choice, and yeah, that's really it. I just…I didn't think it was overly complicated.
LIZ WOLFE: Yup.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.
LIZ WOLFE: All right, next question. This is on symptoms of gluten exposure from Dave out of Lawrence, Kansas. Lawrence, Kansas, Diane, if you didn't already know, is the greatest city on the face of the universe. Rock Chalk, Jayhawks! Nothing? Nothing from your end? [laughs] DIANE SANFILIPPO: No clue. Mm-nn.
LIZ WOLFE: You went to Syracuse, man. You guys beat us at the national championship.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Go Orange! Woo hoo!
LIZ WOLFE: Boo. Carmelo Anthony sucks. All right, [laughs] onto the question.
“I’ve been recently diagnosed with celiac and a leaky gut. I just finished the elimination diet and I am now reintroducing foods on a weekly basis. On occasion, the rigors of modern life force me to eat out. About half the time I come away feeling some pain and/or discomfort which I chalk up to some gluten getting into my food either through cross contamination, something in the food (like a sausage). I am loath to go back on the elimination diet, so I‘m worried that these instances might again to a leaky gut. How much exposure does it take and over what time period? What kind of symptoms should I be on the watch for should I suspect something?
My wife and I love your book so much we bought 4. One for ourselves, one for each of our exes and another for our mother in law. All so our kids can eat as healthy with them as they do with us. Keep up the great work!”
DIANE SANFILIPPO: That's so funny.
LIZ WOLFE: That's hilarious.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: One for ourselves, one for each of our exes? I love that.
LIZ WOLFE: [laughs] So awesome.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: It's awesome. Well, thank you, Dave, because I can pretty confidently say that it's people like you who are helping the book to make the New York Times Bestseller list, so thank you.
So you have the book. Really looking at the guide to leaky gut, I don't even have a copy of the book in front of me, which is kind of ridiculous, but the guide to leaky gut is telling you a lot of information about like whether or not you've been exposed to gluten, basically, so I mean the symptoms can be pretty much anything. You could experience anything from nausea, headaches, you could be vomiting, you could have diarrhea, you could experience mood swings, headaches, you get tired or you can't sleep. Like it can really affect anything in your body depending on the type of sensitivity that you have. So really just noticing any change whatsoever in what you would normally feel, that would be a sign. And I think, you know, you'll know if you're on the road and you just don't feel ideal from the food. I mean, it could be a lot of things. Some people are very sensitive to seed oils and damaged seed oils, so even if you don't get a gluten exposure, just getting some seed oils from a restaurant can make you feel kind of down, but in terms of, you know, how much exposure over what time, what time period, it really depends. Some people will react to, you know, just a few crumbs of something and some people need to physically eat the food to feel the difference. It absolutely just depends on your system.
If you want a lot more information on this, I would definitely recommend tuning into Chris Kresser's podcast. He did an interview with Dr. Alessio Fasano on gluten sensitivity and celiac disease and a lot of the research that Dr. Fasano is doing. And he talked about just how even down to the ability of the gluten protein to act upon zonulin, which is an enzyme that can literally open up the tight junctions between our cells, and in different people, it may happen and open that tight junction for a shorter period of time, or in others, for a longer period of time, and again that depends on your sensitivity. So it absolutely depends. If you're really interested in keeping detailed notes, that will tell you, probably better than anything, you can feel the effects of a food intolerance for usually up to about 3 days after it happened, so even if you didn't feel anything that day, the next day you might feel it. And then I would say, it could affect you for up to two weeks while your gut may need to heal, and it takes about 2 weeks for the entire gut lining to sort of regenerate and change out in a better sort of food environment, so, you know, anywhere from feeling it within an immediate time frame up to a few days, and then, you know, could potentially affect you for a couple of weeks, depending on how serious the exposure is.
LIZ WOLFE: All right, very good. The last question is from Brittany, and it's very fitting.
“What can I take when I’m sick? I always turned to the traditional Nyquil/Dayquil combo but now that I’ve become more aware of the things I’m putting in my body I feel slightly guilty taking those. I know there has to be a better option. Do you have a natural alternative to help with the common cold?”
And I feel like everybody has something that they swear by. I make sure to get my cod liver oil, an extra dose of vitamin D, some extra vitamin C. I like the, oh gosh, what's it called? Oh, I can't remember. It's kind of a C-complex type thing from Whole Foods, and basically all those things simply support immune health. I like a little bit of manuka honey in some soothing tea, and that's specifically manuka honey, which is supposed to be unique in its active properties. It's worked wonders for like fever sores, I recommended that to folks, and so I just kind of trust it for almost anything. Rose Mountain Herbs has a good cold care supplement that I think is made of goldenseal and echinacea. They've also got a respiratory formula, respiratory defense formula, I think, that I like. I don't know what type of herbs are in that one or what kind of potential interactions there may be, so of course check with a professional before you use herbal blends to ensure that they're not going to be problematic for you, but that's really my approach. As much sleep as possible, a humidifier. What do you think, Diane?
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, I slept with the humidifier in my room last night. It's actually one of the reasons I didn’t want to leave. I was like, you know what? I need another night with that humidifier. When you are really stuffy and the air gets dry, it's just a bad situation, so I like the humidifier. Obviously, nutritionally I like broth. I think, I tend to do stuff like oregano. I've talked about oil of oregano before on the podcast, and you can get that in a bunch of different forms. The easiest brand I've seen to find in stores is Oregonal, and you can get the oil, which you would put a couple of drops in a shot of water, take that a couple of times a day. I say a shot of water because if you put that on your tongue, you will feel like you ate an entire…
LIZ WOLFE: Oh my god.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: very hot pizza and you need some help.
LIZ WOLFE: or on your skin, your whole face will burn off.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: What? Pizza mouth.
LIZ WOLFE: Don't put it on your skin. I thought, oh, this might be like tea tree oil. I'll try it on my skin.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Womp womp
LIZ WOLFE: Womp womp.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, it's pretty fierce. You can do the oil. You can also do, they have like a nose spray, a throat spray, depending if you get it at the store, you get it online. They also have capsules, which include, I think, ginger and garlic, not remembering exactly. They're downstairs. But the capsules are just fine, too. They seem to work pretty well. This stuff tends to work a little bit better if you take it at the very first inkling, the very, very first sign of like, I'm not sure if I feel perfect today. And I didn't have it with me because we were, you know, we were on the road that morning and I didn't take it til later in the day, so usually I think it seems to keep things away pretty well for me. So I try and keep that stuff on hand, and the thing is it's a natural antibiotic, and it's not super strong, so it's not like it's going to wipe out your entire gut. But it is an antibiotic food, so, or a food form antibiotic, so what I tend to do is like rotate like a couple hours later, I'll do my probiotic foods, whether it's kombucha or sauerkraut, whatever. Rotate it with the antibiotic herbs and make sure I'm support my immunity as you mentioned, and then drinking the broth and also kind of making more braised foods. So I ate braised lamb a couple of times yesterday. People probably saw that on Facebook if you're following my food posts. So that's really it. And then lots of sleep and rest and depending on how beat up you're feeling, how sick you are, you know, exercise is good. If you think that you are, you know, contagious, please don't get other people in your gym sick, but light exercise to just stimulate a little bit of white blood cell activity is fine. But you know, exerting yourself to the point of exhaustion is definitely not fine. But just that little bit of stimulus can be good. So you can consider it like an active recovery day or just do a workout, but don't go kind of you know guns blazing on things, so…that's what I think.
LIZ WOLFE: I just had a sip of my..
DIANE SANFILIPPO: like everything you said. Echinacea, all that stuff, cod liver oil, vitamin D. I just actually threw some drops of vitamin D down my throat when you mentioned that because it's sitting right here on my desk.
LIZ WOLFE: And I just had a sip of kombucha and got like the coagulated blob of like uh whatever is in there, bacteria. Yeah, which is great, but you don't want to be surprised by it.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Uhhh. No.
LIZ WOLFE: No.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: So before we close out, I want to, and I did this at the end because I know she'll be listening to the entire podcast. I wanted to wish my awesome assistant Charissa a very happy birthday.
LIZ WOLFE: Yay!
DIANE SANFILIPPO: This podcast will go live, I believe, on her birthday, so I just wanted to say thanks for everything you’re doing, and I hope you have an awesome, awesome day. And that's it. Do you want to close us out, Liz?
LIZ WOLFE: Happy birthday. Happy happy birthday, Charissa. You're awesome. Thanks for everything you do. All right, closing it out. That is it. We’ll be back next week with more of your questions. Until then you can find Diane at www.blog.balancedbites.com or in the New York Times Bestseller section.. [laughs] Awesome. You can find me, Liz, at www.cavegirleats.com or my professional alter ego, at www.lizwolfentp.com. Thanks for listening. We'll be back with you next week.

Cheers!
Diane & Liz