Verified by 
A what goes what? Yes, you read that right. A vegan (no animal products) goes Paleo (lots of animal products).
A little over a year ago, I published a much-loved, much-hated blog post about the Paleo diet that still generates comments today.
I realized two things after writing that post:
1) Although I was addressing the original “strict” version of the paleo diet put forth by Cordain in that blog post, there are many different versions of “paleo” out there – some allow fruit; some don’t; some allow grains; some don’t. For every ‘strict’ paleo dieter, you can find a ‘lenient’ one – with each one of them thinking they are “doing” paleo the right way.
2) People love the paleo diet or hate it – there’s very little middle ground
For the past seven years, I’ve followed primarily a vegan diet. I had to go off my preferred method of eating after realizing that I wasn’t getting enough quality protein to heal a broken bone earlier this year. However, once I was healed, I went back to my vegan ways.
Until a few months ago, when at the age of 40, my body started short-cycling. As most women don’t have periods every 2 weeks, I knew it was a sign that something was amiss. Suspecting early perimenopause, I contacted my hormone doctor. Although his news shouldn’t have surprised me, it did.
Yes, I was in perimenopause, but I did it to myself. Thus, it was completely reversible.
How did I end up putting myself in perimenopause? Stress. As I shared in my last blog post, stress can do a number on everything from your weight problems to heart disease to, as it turns out, your hormones.
When you burn the candle at both ends, your body cranks out cortisol to help you keep up with the demands of your life. That is, until you exhaust your cortisol reserves. Instead of my blood work showing that my cortisol levels were too high (indicating I was under a lot of stress), it showed my cortisol was too low. That only happens when: 1) you’re the most laid-back person on earth (clearly not me), or 2) you’ve been burning the candle at both ends for way too long (bingo).
My doctor ordered me to take a month-long vacation. I laughed. 5 weeks into the semester, I was pretty sure my new boss wasn’t going to let me just walk out of my classes and leave someone else to take over for a month. So I did the next best thing: I changed my life as much as I could. I started sleeping more, stopped exercising (to avoid wasting what little energy I had), got out of any obligations I could get out of, re-started my daily meditation and yoga practice, and changed my diet. Enter Paleo.
I started researching ways to treat adrenal fatigue (the fancy term for chronically low cortisol due to too much stress). As I considered my plant-based diet the epitome of health, what I found surprised me. The top recommendations for beating adrenal fatigue were:
- Eliminate sugar – I don’t eat refined sugar so I thought I was good to go (but Paleo takes out honey and agave as well)
- Eliminate dairy – not a problem as I am not a dairy eater
- Reduce or eliminate grains, starchy vegetables, and fruit – umm…. That was most of my diet
- Eliminate caffeine – not a soda or coffee drinker, but I love chocolate!
- Up my protein, especially fatty fish like salmon
So I did what I – a vegan at heart – never thought I would do. I went Paleo, full on Paleo too – no sugar, no grains, no legumes, no starchy veggies. I went to my local library and checked out some of Mark Sisson’s and Diane Sanfilippo’s cookbooks and dove in head first.
I’m on day 11 of what I planned on being a 21-day trial run on the strictest version of Paleo. On the plus side, I’m not bloating, my energy levels are up, and my sugar cravings are gone. On the con side, I miss grains and legumes and really don’t like the taste of most animal flesh or fish. It’s also really expensive to eat that much fish and poultry.
That being said, I will see this through my 21 days. Thereafter, it will be an experiment. I’ll try re-introducing legumes and whole grains in moderation and see what happens. I’ll see if I can tolerate berries (I really miss berries!) and honey without any of my symptoms returning.
What I find most curious is that for the second time in a year, I am going off of my plant-based diet. This leaves me wondering if a plant-based diet is really for me. I know that different people have nutritional needs and function better on different foods (gluten, dairy, and eggs and I do not get along). I am not saying that a vegan diet can’t be healthy. I am still a big fan of plant-based diets and still eat a lot of veggies. I am just having them with fish or turkey instead of brown rice or quinoa – at least until my 21 days is over.
What are your thoughts on Paleo? Is it for you or do you prefer a solely plant-based diet or something else entirely?
