21 day Paleo Challenge/Bootcamp cancelled Oct 1st-Oct 7th

I am going to challenge myself to go 21 days 100% paleo.  I have been 90%+ paleo the past few months and that 10% comes from gigantic cheat meals.  Putting down any cheat foods for a full 21 days will be tough but I think I can do it.  Grace has been teaching me how to cook so I have a new hobby to keep me busy while dodging cravings for sweets.   Now that I know how to make sweet potato garlic fries and paleo peanut butter cups I am not too worried about falling off the wagon.

I plan on following the basics from the Primal Blueprint.   The pyramid below is the fitness aspect of the paleo lifestyle.  This part is easy for me since I have always enjoyed working out.  Hiking the canyons and my dogs easily takes care of the base of the pyramid and kettlebell training offers me both short sessions of strength training as well as sprinting-type work when using lower weights and higher reps.  Kettlebells actually give you more of a "sprint" than actual sprinting does!

 

This is the PB pyramid for food.  I am doing my best to make the bottom of my pyramid  veges and fruits but this can be a challenge!  It takes large servings of veges to equal the calories in meat.  I will do my best to eat all of my meat with as many vegetables as possible.  I believe it is good for digestion as well as appetite control.  I am not going to take any supplements other than the whey protein in my shakes.  The whey is the only dairy I will consume.  I will not eat any grains but will explore grain-like foods such as quinoa and amaranth.  These are seeds btw, not grains.  I am already eating only grass fed beaf and organic free range chicken/eggs as far as my meat sources go. 

 

I also hurt my upper back badly vacuuming the other day if you can believe that.  I was already sore from training and tried to pick up the vacuum with my arm fully extended and pulled something in my upper back.  Grace thinks it is mostly in my traps but all I know is my upper back is locked up pretty good at the moment.  I am not too worried about it because it is probably my 15th time dealing with some sort of injury to the back of my body.  I am sure it will heal and but I know from experience I need to take a week off of strength traning and I  will also be forced to cancel bootcamp for the week of Oct 1st-Oct 7th.   I will have a new schedule starting Monday October 8th including Kettlebell Yoga and a Kettlebell Hiking class.  I also plan to finally offer some AM and PM classes!  Keep an eye on the Runyon Canyon Bootcamp fan page or this blog for more details.

Thanks for your support!

Dysthymia no more

What is dysthymia?
(from the NIH web page)
The main symptom of dysthymia is a low, dark, or sad mood on most days for at least 2 years. In children and adolescents, the mood can be irritable instead of depressed and may last for at least 1 year.
In addition, two or more of the following symptoms will be present almost all of the time that the person has dysthymia:

• Feelings of hopelessness
• Too little or too much sleep
• Low energy or fatigue.
• Low self-esteem
• Poor appetite or overeating
• Poor concentration

In my late 20's I was friends with an experienced psychiatrist.  After knowing him for a few years he asked me if I was ever diagnosed with dysthmia.  He claimed that it was a common disorder, particularly for jewish people (he was jewish fwiw)  I was skeptical about the condition being something typical of jews and believe he said this because he saw so many jewish paitents with the condition.

 Regardless,  I defintely had close to 100% of the above symptoms.  I do not get terribly upset when things are going "bad" but I also do not get terribly excited when things are going "good".   There is some value to being like this.  I believe this condition made me an excellent poker player and enabled me to make a living at the game for many years.  When other players were breaking down from the endless stream of bad beats you inevitably run into while playing I was always pretty much level-headed regardless of my results.

The worse part of dysthymia for me was low energy, low self-esteem., and a lifetime of chronic overeating.  About 6 months ago I slowly started eliminating processed foods and factory farmed meats from my diet. Initially I attacked the sweets I was eating every single night.  It was common for me to eat a pint of Ben and Jerrys, a bag of doritos or potato chips, and probably some cookies before I eventually fell asleep.  I made the effort at first to cut back and then totally eliminate these foods outside of my regularly scheduled cheat meals.   This made me feel better but I still had most of the above symptoms.

A few months after getting a handle on my sweets intake I made the effort to slowly eliminate ALL processed foods.  If it came in a box or a bag (cept for the few organic veges I buy that come bagged!) I stopped eating it.   Without even realizing it I was I was mostly cutting back on modern grains.

I am 90% processed food free at the moment.  My energy levels are off the chart and I have not felt depressed at all for the past 6 months.  Many of my old thought patterns such as, "I'm fat" or "I'm worthless" have completely vanished.  My new way of thinking is so foreign to what I am used to that I barely recognize myself!  My self-esteem is probably a little bit out of control, hence all of the pics I have been posting of myself on facebook lol.

 I have actually lost connection with more than a few friends recently.   The people I used to commiserate with are no longer attractive to me.  I did not realize how incredibly sick I was until I got some relief and realized I was surrounding myself by people with the same condition.  When I tell them abstinence from most modern foods is what "cured" me I am greeted by disbelief and anger.  It is similiar to when I tell my drug-addicted friends to go to a 12-step meeting  to get help with their  drinking or drug use.  They just roll their eyes at me and give me some lip service about how good their life is and  how it is all totally manageable.  I said the same thing about processed foods until I got sick of being sick.  I can never go back to my old ways.  If water seeks its own level I am quite happily leaving some old friends in their puddle of mud.

 

todays food

Made it through the day without a single refined carb!

 

Whey protein, blueberries, strawberries, almond butter, psyllium husk.  I am trying my best to get all of my fiber from food sources but still add psyllium husk to my shakes on every 3rd day.  To say it creates a cleansing effect would be an  understatement!  8am and 1130am 

 

Greens, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, sunflower seeds, red peppers, onions 2 slices bacon. 130pm

 

Spinach lettuce, tomatoes, green olives, sunflower seeds, chicken breast. 4pm

 

 

Picadillo, my favorite!  Grass-fed ground beef, peppers, onions, delicious.  I want to eat it for breakfast as I write this! 7pm

Sunflower seeds.  I ate too many!  Use smaller containers dummy. 9pm

 

 

apple 10pm

 

Turkish apricots with no sugar added. Ate about 20 of em which is a little too many. 10pm

 

Cashews 11pm.

Your food label is probably lying to you!

 

As a fan of mathematics I always get pissed off when I see something that I consider false advertising.  This is the typical beef we buy from Trader Joes and it has all of the things I look for in beef, namely no (or low) hormones and grass-fed.  I did some research on what "no added hormones" means and found out that the USDA requires the lifespan of the cow to be 95%-100% hormone free.  Typically farmers will use GH in the last stage of the cows life to make it bigger and sell for a higher price.  I have no issue with the way this beef is labeled when it comes to GH. A 95% hormone free lifespan is infinitely better than  what is found at the typical factory farm which uses GH on the cow from birth to slaughter.  I also prefer grass fed beef simply because I do my best to not eat grains or animals that eat grains  I do not eat grains because they cause systemic inflammation in the body. The cholesterol in foods is attracted to this inflammation caused by too many carbs, which is what really causes arteriosclerosis.   Cholesterol is only "bad" for you when you combine it with the typical refined flours and starches almost all americans eat.  If you minimize the carbs, no inflammation.  No inflammation and you can safely  eat foods with fat in it and your body will use the fat as energy instead of sticking to the inside of your veins.  

 

The issue I have with this label is the 85% lean, 15% fat part of it. I do not think the average consumer understands what these numbers mean.  On the surface it looks good right?   15% fat  sounds low does it not?  If you read deeper into the label and apply a little bit of math and an understanding of basic nutrition you will see the truth. 

 

There are 240 total calories in a serving of this beef.  If you read the label you will see that 150 calories of this meat are derived from fat.  I am not a math genius by any stretch but I do not think 150 is 15% of 240, is it?  Of course it is not, the truth is that it is 62.5% fat!  The manufacturers get away with this garbage by telling the consumer the percentage of fat in the meat BY WEIGHT, not by calories.  I am also not a nutrition genius but I do know that fat has 9 calories per gram as opposed to the 4 calories per gram protein has.  Fat is more calorie dense.  A pound of fat is much more calorie dense than a pound of protein.  We are being lied to in a very sly way on these labels!  They are technically telling the truth, but unless you understand the above basic ideas you will think you are eating something "lowfat".

 

Why do manufactures do this?  It is easy to figure out.  To make more money!  Would a typical 'health-conscious' person be interested in this beef if it was labeled "37.5% lean, 62.5% fat"!  No way!  We have been trained to think that fat is the enemy in order to get us to eat more of the cheaper, low-nutrition foods that fill the supermarket shelves, namely cheap carbs!  What do you think there is more profit in, easy to grow grains or meat? Meat  involves taking care of a live animal from birth to death and I would imagine the cost of this way eclipses the cost of growing genetically modified grains.    Clearly the money is in the carbs!  Is protein addicting?  No fucking way!  Carbs are addicting, just like any other drug.  How hard would it be for you to put down that bread and eat a good piece of meat with a huge bowl of greens instead? The system wants you hooked on easy to grow carbs!

 

Here's the kicker.  It really does not matter to me how much fat is in this meat. I eat fat and fucking love it! I used this label because the difference between fat% by weight and calories was so drastic.      Fat is the perfect form of energy, way better than carbohydrates!  You can do your own research on this.  I have a few blog posts on my Runyon Canyon Bootcamp page you may want to check out.    I do not believe in the old-science school of nutrition that says animal fats and cholesterol are bad for you.  The most recent evidence says that it is the combination of carbs and fats that causes the problems that people have today. 

 

Hopefully I didnt get too far off track because this post was supposed to be all about truth-in-advertising.  I hope this helps you better understand your food labels and the reason why you are being lied to.   My favorite place for food, Trader Joes, is not truly at fault for this and I still support them..  It is really not TJ's fault, they are caught up in the bullshit  low-fat system like everybody else.

 

Make smart choices.;  Think like a scientist and mathematician when it comes to food!

 

 

 

trip to Trader Joes

 

Grace and I got up early today to hit Trader Joes to load up on mostly non-processed food.  Apples, pears, tomatoes, green and red peppers, coconut flakes almond mik, organic broccoli, organic baby spinach, olive oil, frozen blueberries and strawberries, kiwis, tomato paste, olives, sunflower seeds, black beans, kosher dill pickles, lemons, cage free eggs, grass-fed beef, turkey/buffalo jerkey and some amazing apple smoked bacon.

 

 

Grace is pure paleo at the moment and I am about 90% because I still eat a small amount of whole grains and legumes.

 

another day of food

 

 

8am Whey protein,almond milk, frozen mangos, blueberries, vanilla almond butter.  same thing at 1130am before bootcamp

 

3pm Grace made picadillo and it is my new favorite food!  Ground beef, peppers, onions, some other stuff that makes it taste awesome.  I could eat this every day.

Cashews 5pm

 

 

6pm mixed greens, tomatoes, olives, sunflower seeds, green peppers, onions, grass-fed chicken breast

 

 

8pm 3 eggs scrambled with coconut oil, peppers, onions, 3 strips bacon.

 

 

10pm This is where I stray from 100% paleo. Trisquits and some locally made almond butter.

 

 

Beginning to wrap my head arond the paleo program

The main argument for the paleo diet is, "The Paleo diet is good for you because paleolithic man ate like this and he did not die of lifestyle diseases such as cancer, diabetes or obesity. He ate this diet for 2.5 million years and it is what our bodies are genetically adapted to.  Agriculture started 10,000 years ago and our bodies, genetically speaking, have not had time to adapt to foods we created to feed our  larger populations.. ."  It is obvious to me that his active lifestyle and other factors could of played just as much of a role as diet in preventing these things.  The stronger argument for adopting a Paleo or Paleo-like diet is that the paleo mans CHILDREN did not have these diseases while ours have them in ever growing numbers.

another day eating clean

I had 2 apples early in the day, 1 after I worked out and 1 after I taught bootcamp.

I had 2 protein shakes with whey protein, blueberries and almond butter. I protein shake as my first meal after coffee and one about an hour after class, letting the apple digest alone for a full hour.  I try not to mix fruit with anything else. I am trying to up my overall calorie intake without eating junk and these make a nice 350-400 cal. each.  I am eating more  sugars early in the day than usual  because I ate very lightly yesterday and between my own practice and leading bootcamp I can tell my muscles need some sugars!

Big salad!  It was about twice the size but I started eating it before I remembered to take a picture.  Spinach lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, olives, chicken breast and a small amount of BBQ sauce.  BBQ sauce is definitely your friend, it makes everything good. 

 

3 scrambled eggs with 1/2 green pepper, chunk of onion, chopped garlic, 2 slices bacon,  2 tortillas and tapatio sauce..  You can see that I do eat some refined carbs as they are still very tasty to my palate. I simply try to limit the total amount of processed carbs to about 50 grams a day, about 200 calories.  I am trying to get most of my carbs from raw veges and fruit.  I am not fully paleo because I still eat a small amount of whole grains and even some of these crappy refined grains.  You do not even need to count your carbs or calories when you eat this way.   I have never heard of anybody gaining bodyfat eating a diet based on meats, raw veges, fruits and nuts.

Dam, I prefer them roasted and salted but these are all we have in the house atm :(.  I ate a handful.  They were a'rite.

Can I tell you how much I love dried fruit!?!?  I try and get it from the Farmers Market every Thurs but since I missed it last week I got these dried apricots.  They are friggin awesome.  They are also about half the cost, just $5 for this bag which feeds Grace and I for about 3 days.  I keep forcing her to eat them because I do not think she is getting enough carbs while she is experimenting going full paleo.    I ate about 15 of em.

This is basically a small candy bar with 20 grams of protein somehow infused into it.  It is definitely a crap food but I still eat some crap foods so long as the portion is small.  And I do not mind getting another 20 grams of protein before bedtime.

1 days food in pictures

Whey protein with mango and almond butter.   I had 2 of these today, one for breakfast and one post workout.  It's got a good amout of  protein and a modest amount of simple sugars from the mango.

Pre workout pineapple juce, 1/3 can.  The entire energy-drink business is a fraud.  The 5 hour energy drink will possible give you 5 ours of energy but will definitely give you 19 hours of lethargy to go along.  Brendan Brazier, explains it very well in this clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_ehXrz7h1w

Salad with greens, broccoli, garbanzo beans, sunflower seeds and some chicken breast.  There was a time when I dreaded foods like this but now it is one of my favorite meals of the day.  So long as I can add a little BBQ sauce!

Eggs, bacon, peppers, onions for dinner!

sunflower seeds

dried apricots

 

 

This is a small amount of food for me and I will typically eat at least 1 more full meal on a typical day. Yesterday was a high-calorie cheat day and I always eat about 2/3 volume the next day. It seems to keep my metabolism extremelly high. 

5 minute kettlebell swing challenge with Steve and Grace

Grace and I will meet on the concrete deck above the yoga area at 1:50pm Sunday August 16th to see who can do more 1-arm kettlebell swings in a 5 minute period.  We have agreed to do 10 swings with each arm and then switch arms.  The kettlebell can be put down at any time for rest.  Person with the highest number of swings with clean technique at a steady pace wins!  Grace will still be teaching her usual 2-3pm class at Runyon following this challenge.

Since I am 158 pounds and Grace is 108 pounds here is how we will make it a fair competition.  Stop reading here if you hate math.

Grace weighs 68.35% of what I weigh.  Whatever weight I swing with Grace will have to swing  a bell that is in proportion to the difference in our body mass..  I will swing the 35 lb bell so mathematically speaking Grace would have to swing a 23.92 kettlebell to make this a fair competition.  Of course we do not have a bell of this exact size but we do have a 25 pound bell which Grace has agreed to swing with.   Since the 25 pound bell is .045% heavier than she needs to swing  I have agreed to handicap each of Graces swing at 1.045.  So every time she swings she gets credit for 1.045 swings.  Grace also has the option to use the 26 lb kettlbell and we will adjust the numbers in the same manner if she choses to do so. Even if you do not understand the math just understand that this is a fair competition if we were being compared only on our body size. 

I want to boast and tell Grace that she does not have a chance but unfortunately I have seen her swing the kettlebells and know how strong she is.  I think we are both taking this seriously and are going to start practicing 5-minute sets tomorrow!  Apologies to the downstairs neighbors.

90 days!

Almost missed the fact that I started eating clean 90 days ago! I want to thank everybody who has been coming out to bootcamp and helping me get to this point in my life. It has been a tremendous help to be surrounded by like-minded people. The work ethic most people bring to class is inspiring. I am very lucky to be in a situation where I feel like I am benefiting from Runyon Canyon Bootcamp just as much as the students.

In all honesty if bootcamp did not work out, financially speaking, I was going to have to get involved with one of those companies that pay you to market their stuff using your reputation as a fitness professional and I was very fearful of having to do that. I do not want to have to modify the way I do things just to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I would rather have a few less students if it means I will not have to sugar-coat these classes to appeal to more people.   Fact is I can not believe so many people are showing up!  Every class is a gift and gives me a tremendous burst of motivation.  Instead of selling you meal replacement powders I get to teach this class and talk to you about a nutritional lifestyle that I know works.  I dont have to show you before and after pics of the students but it has been absolutely awesome watching peoples bodies lose fat and gain muscle so quickly!

Your donations go a long way and I hope you feel like you are getting as good of a deal as I am! Here's the 90 day pics. thanks!

 

Sept 8th

blog on blog

These are the bloggers I have been reading recently.  I am particularly interested in the kettlebell swing as a primary tool for fat loss, building muscle and increasing endurance.  There are people who have lost a tremendous amount of weight and kept it off for years using the kettlebell swing as their main exercise.  I do not think I would want to do the kb swing for years on end without doing the other kb exercises but I would like to do a 3-6 month push with it and see what my numbers and body look like.

Tracy Reifkind has taken the kettlebell swing and turned it into a lifestyle.  She has plenty of sick workouts to follow as well as some great instructionals.
http://tracysfoodandthought.blogspot.com/

David Whitley - The Iron Tamer is Master RKC instructor and professional strongman.  RKC is the most well know kettlebell certification course with the oldest reputation.  I may want to do an RKC course one day but it will be a while before I would consider myself ready.  Here's a good video clip and explanation of the RKC standard for the swing.
http://irontamerblog.com/?s=swing

Just so you know I am not only reading about kettlebells!  This nutrition blog is definitely heavy on the science!  For once a blogger says something and has the study to back up the words.  Get ready to feel like you dont know much because this guy makes me feel lke a total idiot.  Stephen Guyeneta is researcher investigating the causes of obesity and the regulation of body fat by the brain.
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/