Protein and produce: What our ancestors mostly ate

The Pro-Pro™ Program

A. About You

You can enjoy delicious and fun meals when you embark on our Pro Pro™ Program of eating mostly protein and produce. It's that simple

The basic tenets of the Pro-Pro™ system involve eating mostly meat, vegetables, and fruit. A typical meal might consist of steak, steamed broccoli, salad, and grilled red peppers.

Grilled peppers are one of my favorite side dishes

No need to be fanatic about anything
The beauty of our program is that you don't have to be a fanatic about anything. Just maintain a relaxed and easy level of moderation. First and foremost you need to return to the enjoyment of food.

You don't have to fear carbs That doesn't mean you have to be "carbo-phobic". Potatoes are produce and they're wonderful. Just don't eat them every day. When you do eat them, eat them earlier in the day if possible. It's the same with bread. Just make sure you eat very good bread to get the maximum enjoyment out of your "bread allotment".

The shopping is easy Our Pro-Pro™ program promotes shopping directly from producers and farm markets. When you shop and eat from producers and farm markets, your eating experience will be not only more healthful, but more meaningful as well. But if you must shop at the grocery store, (or ideally the health food store) it's easy enough to simply shop the outer isles of most stores.

Eat lots of produce with your protein

Generally the meat and dairy counters (be sure they offer grass fed) and the produce sections are on the outside walls of the store. You'll only need to venture into the inner isles of the store for things like: Olive oil, condiments, and spices, along with household and personal care products.

Speaking of household and personal care products however, later in the program, we will talk about how modern industrial chemicals are affecting your health and your weight, and we will be recommending that you buy "greener" versions of those household and personal care products directly from conscientious and responsible producers and distributors. We will go into that in more detail in later sections of the program / book.

B. Here's why

Our species evolved as omnivores, eating mostly meat and plant matter (leaves, stems, roots, fruits, and some flowers). This included some seeds as well, but most of the plant matter that our ancestors ate consisted of above ground, green and colored vegetation.

As with cattle, grains were only a small part of our ancestors' diet While our earliest ancestors probably ate some grains, when the grasses were headed out, (grain is nothing more than grass seed), and may have even ground them to make cakes and breads, it wasn't until the advent of agriculture, only a short 10,000 years ago, that humans started eating grains as a main dietary staple.

Yummy and nutritious asparagus compliments any meal

Remember the simplicity: Just protein and produce
The Pro-Pro™ program is easy to remember: Simply eating protein and produce. When you eat this way, you are mimicking the type of diet that the early humans who managed to stay alive and populate the Earth used to eat.

These earliest humans had no access to modern health care, and in order to remain alive and reproduce, those with the best diets survived over time and generations, to become our ancestors. They developed the diets that kept them alive and reproducing, and after a short 10,000 years, our bodies still do best on a diet that resembles what they ate.

There are some other principles involved in our program, that we will address in subsequent chapters, but for now the primary principle is easy: Protein and produce!

C. Our experience

Along with the foundation of our program, which is eating high quality, grass fed meat and animal products, free of added hormones and antibiotics, (especially our own grass fed beef), we found that implementing the Pro-Pro™ program spurred my weight loss to even faster and further results, and jump started Mike's weight loss.

As I stated before, there are some other principles involved in our program, and one of them, specifically, was the main impetus Mike needed to really kick his weight loss into gear, and we will be talking about that very soon.

Now, for the most part, our evening meal is the high point of our day, and we relax with appetizers that usually consist of fresh vegetables and dip, then have a scrumptious, savory meal of meat, and all sorts of wonderful vegetables or fruits.

We don't ever count calories, fats, or carbs

Enjoy a hamburger bun or some baguettes now and then, just not every day

Yet we stay slim, vibrant, and healthy. We still obtain plenty of carbs from fruits and vegetables. Our favorite source of carbs is squash, and throughout August and September we grill different varieties of squash , along with other vegetables almost every night.

That's not to say we don't eat any bread or potatoes! We just make sure that we only eat the most enjoyable of white carbs. We have what we call our "white bread allotment", enjoying our French baguettes and a hamburger bun from time to time. And sometimes a potato is the best in comfort foods, especially on a cold and windy day.