Category: Nutrition

Not the P90X nutrition guide, but information relating to Paleo, bad grains, obesity studies etc. Believe me, Paleo is the way to go.

Best and Worst of 2013? Well now we know what gets worst article of the year…

white men cant jumpIt’s not often that an article raises my ire so much that I want to leave a comment after it to explain to the idiot who wrote it how incompetent they are.

No wonder that they turned off comments for this joke of an article.

Best and Worst of 2013.

On the first page, if you can make it past Water yoga and water Zumba as the best without spitting out your morning coffee in disgust you can make it to the biggest joke of page 1 and that is VEGANISM is one of the best trends of 2013. Now I am not shy about bashing vegans because they simply need some sense beating into their poor frail little bodies, but for someone to actually claim it as a BEST trend of the year is irresponsible.Veganism and vegetarianism are not sustainable as lifestyles. The proof is out there, and the denial of the human as an omnivore is as ridiculous as being surprised when your cat brings home the occasional mouse. It’s in our nature! But wait. It gets better, if you can tolerate the bullshit long enough to get to the worst list things go impossibly downhill and the obvious fact that this “journalist” has done zero research to support any of her claims becomes painfully clear.

The Whole 30 diet, going gluten free (for any reason) and too intense workouts (a shot at Crossfit I assume, just vague enough to avoid rampant criticism from the community) are listed as the worst. Now, the last one, TOO intense I get that, TOO lazy and TOO stupid are also not great, and in fact most things that are TOO something are going to reflect badly. I can only assume she was grasping at straws at this point. Her “expert” tells us that sacrificing form for intensity is not good” well I guess sacrificing research for opinion is OK? Nice one.

She claims that the Whole 30 and Paleo lifestyles are strict and unsustainable. Odd then that she should claim that Veganism whose definition excludes entire food groups is OK. No meat, dairy, fish, eggs make for a wonderfully diverse and enjoyable lifestyle. Make sure you eat your beans so you can pretend you are getting all the amino acids you need to build muscle tissue. There is a reason that Vegans are, and I quote, “THINNER” than other groups, their bodies are simply eating them from the inside out and as they waste away they appear thinner. As a matter of fact, as muscle tissue wastes away the individual actually gets FATTER while appearing THINNER. Arm wrestle the next vegan you meet and you will get my point.

It’s not that her whole article is crap, just the important parts. She does have some pieces correct like her disdain for hot classes and vibration machines, but as the quote from one of the great sports movies of all time says “the sun even shines on a dog’s ass some days”. Today is her day.

Roasted Sausage And Onion Bake With Mushrooms

sausagebakeI don’t think I am a chef by any standard but my mother taught me from a very young age that cooking doesn’t have to be complicated and if you have an idea, that’s all you really need. That is why I end up eating things like this.

Costco Italian Sausage – 5 hot 5 mild
6 large white onions
2 med cans of tomato sauce – plain, everything else has sugar in it
1 box of Campbells (or whoever you like)  “stock first” stock – whatever flavour you have handy
Italian seasoning, kosher salt, black pepper, minced garlic

Brown the sausage, chop the onions and throw everything in a baking pot (a deep pan specifically for stewing or roasting)

Bake at 350 for up t0 2 hours depending on how long your onions take to cook. Slice them thinner if you want them to cook faster. First hour you can leave it covered to make sure the liquid cooks the veg, after that open it up to thicken the sauce.

About 30 minutes from the end, throw in some sliced mushrooms and you have an amazing low sodium, zero sugar high protein dinner.

And People Wonder Why I Eat Paleo

sugar_kills_580Oreos as addictive as cocaine…

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/oreo-cookies-addictive-drugs-like-2458182

Sugar Kills…

http://nancyappleton.com/141-reasons-sugar-ruins-your-health/

http://www.eathugger.com/68/why-sugar-kills-you-and-how-to-avoid-it-without-going-crazy/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2096088/Pure-white-deadly-No-cocaine-sugar.html

Suck it up buttercup, protein, veggies, fruit, nuts and seeds… and if you want, a little dairy.

How do you start? Grab a handful of self control and a goal.

Recovery Day 1 – Friday April 26 2013. Plus sugar free BBQ sauce.

tumblr_m4o2eqCLmu1r8v6q9o1_500Bed was surprisingly comfortable however I still was woken up regularly by the pain and had to take pills to manage getting back to sleep. Fortunately Nicole was up early to take Elyse to daycare and I was afforded the luxury of sleeping in. Once awake, I thought it best to try to restore whatever semblance of normality I could back into my life. I was unable to shower, since I have to take 3 days off, but I tried to make it through brushing my teeth, hitting the big hole in the toilet and washing my hands and face as normally as possible. This meant standing without my cane, making sure my posture was good, not leaning over the sink and paying close attention to the distribution of weight between my two legs. I managed to make it downstairs OK, toothpaste stains and all and for the first time in a few weeks had a little bacon and egg for breakfast. My day (and for the next 3 days at least) comprised mostly of wandering doing various menial tasks around the house and then hitting the couch once my leg or back started to hurt. In fact, it was not my back that hurt at all but rather various parts of my lower body. When the urge struck me, I went outside for a walk, which happened twice. I had a goal of 1km walking today, and after both my walks I had reached a grand total of 1280m. I actually downloaded Nike+ that I had on my old iPhone so that I can keep track of my walking since the physio and EVERYONE I spoke to told me that recovery from back surgery is all about staying mobile and above all… walking. The fact that I can keep track of my walking online with Nike+ is a huge bonus too, since statistics and monitoring is one of the things I love about working out. My Nike+ account can be monitored here for those with obviously very little else to do. It’s actually pretty sad that my walking pace after back surgery is not that far off my pace when I used to walk at lunch during work…

Apart from the walking and the sleeping I was also able to make some pork in the crock pot and come up with a pretty good base for a sugar free BBQ sauce. If you add to it your favourite spice mix (of which there are many) you can come up with a pretty damn good sauce:

1 large can of tomato paste
1 400g can of crushed pineapple in juice (no sugar added obviously)
200ml of pineapple or apple juice
150g of pitted dates
Your favourite spice

Getting the pineapple and tomato paste mixed is easy, but getting the dates to cooperate is harder. I opted to put mine in the Vitamix and be done with it. You mix everything together, but make sure that you leave the mixture to sit for a while since using powdered spices takes time to dissipate the flavour. For the spice mix I have 2 that I use, both from the Bulk Barn. Once is called BBQ spice and the other is called Pulled Pork Spice. I find the pork spice to be more salty but both make equally good sauces.

On a related note, a few weeks ago Bob brought a protein bar into work that he and his wife had made and it was magnificent, I have since been playing with the recipe a little to try and get the calories down a little and to jazz it up a bit but once again, getting the dates to behave is proving problematic. You see, the recipe calls for almonds, almond butter and flax meal however I found that if I added dates, it would be tastier, less caloric and you could add pure cocoa chocolate to it for a nice chocolatey kick without the sugar. So, here  is my recipe for protein bars with dates. I find the best thing to do when preparing this is to mix the dates with the coconut oil on the stove then vitamix it. Otherwise you get a very sticky ball of dates in the food mixer. I can’t actually remember the original recipe so this will have to do.

1 cup almonds
1/2 cup flax meal
150g dates
1/2 cup coconut oil
touch of honey
drop of vanilla
1 cup unsweetened coconut
a couple of pieces of pure cocoa

Blend all the dry ingredients in the vitamix and then add the wet stuff, press into a pan lined with foil and if you can get a small cake tin you should be able to get about 25 cubes of protein bar at about 150 calories each. And you know what’s in it! Thanks to Bob for the original recipe however don’t use carob since carob is in fact just sugar with a small amount of carob seed in it.

As for the updates as to how I am actually doing today here are the basics.

I walked 1280m today mostly without the use of the cane.
I an flick my toes against each other, a habit that Nicole finds incredibly annoying while we are watching TV but I couldn’t do it yesterday, That means my toes are getting stronger. I cannot however grasp anything with my toes on my right foot, there is still a long way to go.
I can lift my toes off the floor on my right foot if I stand neutrally, however I cannot raise the foot at all.
After walking today I got a pain my my left shin right at the knee. Also I find that my left hip is sore today. I do expect some odd soreness since I have to assume that my body will have to readjust constantly as my strength returns in my right side. In the mean time, my left side is struggling to compensate, something this is bound to lead to some soreness.
Sitting on the recliner is not as comfortable as I had hoped, this means I won’t be spending too much time here but it also means I have had to try and find a way to get onto and off the floor.

Tomorrow my goal is to walk 1500m. I don’t want to go too crazy so I will see how I feel. I promised no weights or bands or anything until Monday at the earliest.

I got my temporary disabled permit today, something I regret not doing last time. In fact, not having it almost caused me a serious fall last time around. I respect the institute and I do not plan on abusing the privilege.

Finally the cat went in to the vet and it doesn’t look good. Apparently his kidneys are pretty much shot and it seems like if he doesn’t improve over the weekend then it will be time for him to be reunited with his brother Thunder in the big litter box in the sky. Poor little fella has had an arthritic limp for a long time now and it seems like he is falling apart. The tough thing will be what to tell Elyse. I can’t imagine this will be easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jugo Juice

menu_item_protein_big_blueWe have installed a Jugo Juice at our work location so yesterday and today I decided to try it out. Of course, being completely paranoid of any fast food outlet I wrote to the head office to find out exactly what is in the Whey Protein they use and what is in the tropical nectar which I suspected may be packed with sugar and/or HFCS. As it turns out, I got a very nice email from their head office letting me know that the nectar is in fact only concentrated fruit juices and the whey protein is basically just that, whey and little else, no sugar.

Yesterday’s fare was a Can’t Beet This (235 calories, 57g carbs, 2g protein) which I found a little earthy but invigorating. Today I was a little more adventurous given the email reply I received and went for a Tropical Protein (350 calories, 59g carbs, 21g protein ). The Tropical Protein is very good, extremely tasty and quite thick. It is certainly satisfying and makes a great bridge between an early lunch at 1130am and my workout which yesterday was 6pm and should be the same today. I can’t say I would recommend it every day, it’s a little expensive for one, but on a day when I forgot my lunch, it’s a great alternative.

 

Kicking Off

Last night was the first weigh in day for the new round of the Biggest Loser for the husbands of the women of Momstown Aurora/Newmarket.  We had 8 participants, 9 if you want to include me however I am not eligible to win but I could sure use the competition right now. It was a little odd, men are not usually that great at gathering with strangers but I think in the spirit of what we are trying to do it went OK. I hope that they take the opportunity to use my experience and guidance to get some great results for themselves. It’s a 3 month journey, the weigh in officially is only once a month but we are sharing weekly weights to keep tabs on the group’s progress and as an added bonus the women of the group are also participating in their own version of the Biggest Loser. This way, we are treating households, not just individuals.  I think that makes us superherolike, even.

For me, this is an opportunity to get off the 5 lbs that have creeped on and maybe push on towards something epic, but it’s going to take a little more dedication than I have been showing the last few months. I think I am up for it. Role model me!

 

Winter Schedule

I feel lazy, if only because I haven’t really pushed myself this month so far. I am happy to stick with the bootcamps and days off that I should be cranking out workouts. So it’s time for a shakeup. Each year around this time I clear out the garage in preparation to park the car overnight and in doing so, remove the Olympic lifting platform and weights. So it’s back to the basement for a few months of DVD workouts which will give me a chance to get some P90X2, Body Beast and Tapout XT workouts in and possible reviewed too! I guess I will be starting this week too since the weather forecast is telling me that temperatures won’t get above zero again any time soon. It’s not that I can’t take the cold, but rather that it’s dangerous for me to allow my back to get cold and stiff while I work out and my experience has taught me that rotating back to the basement is a welcome change, in addition to being a more stringent workout schedule. Since I will still be doing bootcamp by the looks of things it will have to look like this:

Monday – Bootcamp
Tuesday – Rest or Yoga/stretch
Wednesday – Bootcamp
Thursday – Critical Day Option
Friday – WOD at Gym or RKC at work
Saturday – Full DVD workout
Sunday – Full DVD workout

Also, to update my diet changes I feel a little better, a little stronger and a little bigger but I think my weight is up slightly as I adjust back from the heavier carb cycle. I was thinking it would take at least 2 weeks to see any significant change and of course I am frustrated even though it’s only been a week. I will keep on for another week, it’s hard getting used to the trick of only eating when you need to rather than allowing yourself to snack on fruits all day. I am just waiting for the ketosis to kick in so I won’t feel hungry at all, and in fact, I am already seeing a significant change in my appetite. In addition, I am not yet into the dvd workouts as listed above and so my activity is slightly lower than it will be in the coming weeks. At this rate I am hoping to break through the 232 sticking point and hit 220 by Christmas or New Year.

7 Days Work Plus 12 Hour Shifts = Cranky Caveman

Working 12 hours shifts is nothing i am familiar with nor something I would like to get used to but for the upgrade to our systems this past weekend that was exactly what I had to do. That meant that after my Olympic lifting session on Friday that I had to improvise and do an RKC workout with 20 floors of stairs and 20 minutes on an elliptical. It also meant a wicked arms only workout on Sunday pyramiding from 15lbs all the way to 45lb dumbbells and back down for curls and tricep extensions. It’s now Monday and I have to teach bootcamp tonight which I think will be bodyweight and of course 2 hours of coaching after that.

I’m tired, I am a little frustrated with my weight and I think I am going to try and reduce my carbs a little to see if I can shift a few more pounds. I mean I am not even thinking about my carb load any more and I just calculated an average day when I coach and I was amazed to see the basic elements stack up like this:

Calories 3,099
Fat g 122.7
Carbs g 310.5
Protein g 193.7
The interesting thing is that 210g of those carbs came from bananas and coconut water.
no more bananas for me, and I am going to closely monitor my fruit intake and replace the nuts I shunned a few weeks ago. The goal is to shift my profile from carbs to fat with the same amount of protein and see what happens. My inkling is that I will start to see some weightloss again since my biggest losses came with a HFLC diet when I started Paleo.