Caveman diet / Paleo diet and how is it working for me

My wife is keen about nutrition and I am a good husband - I listen to her and to be honest, I need to lose the weight. She’s put us on the Paleo Diet aka the Caveman Diet. This post is about how I am going about it.

What is the Paleo Diet? 

This link explains it well: “The paleo diet is designed to resemble what human hunter-gatherer ancestors ate thousands of years ago. Although it’s impossible to know exactly what human ancestors ate in different parts of the world, researchers believe their diets consisted of whole foods. 

By following a whole food-based diet and leading physically active lives, hunter-gatherers presumably had much lower rates of lifestyle diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. In fact, several studies suggest that this diet can lead to significant weight loss (without calorie counting) and major improvements in health.” 

This has happened to me - I have lost 5kgs in 2 weeks. I also have 2 of 3 aforementioned lifestyle diseases and a bad knee. So losing weight is the need of the hour, especially given the 'work from home' situation due to COVID-19 and the lack of physical activity thereof. 

What are my thoughts on it?

A few personal reflections:

1. The secret of a happy marriage is to listen to your wife especially if she's reading the books that you are not!
2. The Paleo Diet seems healthier than the Keto Diet that I did for 6 months in 2018. I did lose 15kgs then but the high-fat bit always sounded dubious to me.
3. I like the aspect of only eating fresh meats, vegetables, and fruits as a part of the Paleo diet. Also no processed foods. (Except in my case a bit too much of Coke Zero and coffee)
4. You cannot do this diet if you don’t eat chicken and/or fish.
5. I wish you could eat cheese and more nuts. (Anyway I don’t smoke, and I am an occasional drinker which I don’t miss at all when I don’t)

All in all, the Paleo Diet looks promising and I hope to continue to lose weight. I am sincerely hoping that means I am getting healthier.

What have I been eating?

Here are some of the things I have been eating:

Breakfasts are usually simple and consistently no frills

Breakfast is usually 3 boiled eggs (1 whole, 2 whites) and a fruit with a cup of coffee...

... and when I feel indulgent (and it is a weekend), I make eggs a bit more fancy as you can see below (recipe here)

Lunch is typically lean proteins and salad. I love playing around with the meat marinade, salad ingredient, and dressing as you can see below.

Pan-fried chicken flavoured with Chorizo slices with a side of red pepper, carrot and cucumber salad with light caesar dressing and a hint of Nando's Mango and Lime Sauce

Chicken marinated with mustard with a side of green salad and cherry tomatoes with a balsamic vinegarette dressing. The red sauce drizzled on the top is Encona Hot Sauce.

Pan-fried smoked haddock, with fried aubergine/eggplant (aka 'begun bhaja') with a green salad with a balsamic vinegarette dressing. 

Lemon & herb marinated smoked haddock, pan-fried in butter with a side of bistro salad with walnuts & chilli cheddar drizzled with Sriracha sauce and Caesar dressing.

Tandoori chicken with a side of pressure baked veggies (carrots, cauliflower and beans)

Rainbow chicken fajita with red, green, yellow and orange bell peppers garnished with red onions juliennes and chive cheddar cheese flakes, and served with a wedge of lime.

Dinners are usually the same as lunch but with a side of pressure baked veggies (cauliflower, carrots and beans). At times, I have 'cheat meals' that I cook not just for myself but for others in the family who are not on Paleo Diet.

Pan-fried chicken with a side of Mediterranean char grilled veggies & walnuts with a drizzle of Sriracha sauce.

Ultra spicy dan dan prawns 

Zucchini pasta with meatballs in marinara sauce

Pan roasted aubergine with tomato chilli sauces, cheddar cheese and spicy chicken sausages 

Breaded chicken steak topped with burger sauce with a green salad and orange juice as a dressing.

I also make these chicken kebabs on a weekly basis (recipe here)

Sometimes I add onion paste to the marinade of the chicken kebabs so that it becomes very much like "Chicken Chaap" or "Chicken Kosha" that you get in Kolkata.

Snacks are usually loads of bananas and a few nuts - walnuts, almonds, cashew nuts, peanuts - but not more than 10-12 pieces a day.

Condiments: The biggest find of Paleo has been hot sauces. I have been able to build quite a global collection as you can see below:

What a hot 🌶 all star global lineup

—————————————————

🇿🇦 Nando’s Range - extra hot, hot, lime and mango, lemon and herb

🇮🇳 Maggi Masala Chilli Sauce

🇯🇲 Encona Hot and Extra Hot

🇨🇳 Lee Klum Kee Chiu Chow Chilli oil 

🇨🇳 The ‘imposter’ chilli oil

🇲🇽 Cholula - regular and chipotle 

🇹🇭 Sriracha

The Rakhal Majumdar Story

Rakhal Majumdar was a defender for East Bengal in the 1940s. He played for 16 years for the club from 1937 to 1952. He captained the club in 1943 when East Bengal won the IFA Shield for the first time. Rakhal Majumdar was also my Borda Mama Dadu (grand uncle) – he was my paternal grandmother Namita’s first cousin. I remember meeting him in my childhood at my grandparent’s house in Lake Road, Kolkata. I have memories of him giving me ‘pen pencils’ whenever I met him. I knew he played for East Bengal but had no idea till recently of his illustrious footballing career.

Thanks to the Facebook pages of East Bengal Club and East Bengal Samachar as well as twitter handles such as East Bengal History, I was able to piece together the story of his career. It has everything - treble winning seasons, an ‘invincible’ double winning season, derby battles with Mohun Bagan, rebel leagues and “freedom struggle” vs Nicholas Saheb of IFA, captain courageous in Paritosh Chakraborty and the “Panch Pandav” era when East Bengal played a ridiculous 2-3-5 formation!

Rakhal Mazumdar was the captain of East Bengal when they won their first IFA shield in 1943

With our first Prime Minister 

From the team photographs, Dadu seems to be of short height and slim/average build, it’s hard to imagine he played as a central defender or centre back as they called it in his time - especially in a 2-3-5 formation! Must have been quite an athlete as in the 1949 treble winning season, the team only conceded scored a total of 111 goals and conceded 11 goals in 31 matches in the 3 tournaments they won - IFA Shield, CFL and Rovers Cup. It is difficult to find such a record anywhere in top flight football. In the following year they won the double of IFA Shield and CFL without losing a game - an invincible season!

An article by Dadu himself

In 1948, he was the bedrock in defence of the East Bengal team that defeated the Chinese National team en route to compete in the London Olympics. A day after the historic triumph over the Chinese Olympic side, Amrita Bazar Patrika published a report with the headline “Chinese National Team Defeated By 2-0.” The report describes how East Bengal outplayed the  opposition in every department and also showed superiority in terms of creating chances with the star being Saleh (not be confused with Liverpool’s current star Salah!). It heaped praises on our two full-backs, Rakhal Majumdar and Byomkesh Bose for their effective tackling and immaculate passing.

This is especially incredible as in those days, the clubs hardly paid the footballers. The players played for identity - East Bengal gave the much needed pride to the Bangal refugees from opar Bangla like my grandparents who were looked down upon by the Ghotis of West Bengal.

Here's the Rakhal Mazumdar story:

PS:
1) The articles on East Bengal Samachar page was in Bangla which I can’t read fluently and had to use an online translator, but the archiving is gold! However, there may be the odd typo.
2) The language may seem a bit partisan - but of course, it is written from our East Bengal point of view 💛❤️