Something we rarely address during the Lean up Challenge..Buffness!!

 Thanks once again to Mark Sisson for an awesome blog post I felt it again necessary to steal!!! MDA is awesome!!

 

How to Gain Weight and Build Muscle

So you wanna put on some lean muscle mass. And you want to do it within the context of the Primal Blueprint, but aren’t sure where to start. It’s a common question and it’s about time I addressed it head on.
As I’ve made pretty clear, our ultimate goal is to achieve positive gene expression, functional strength, optimum health, and extended longevity. In other words: To make the most out of the particular gene set you inherited. These are my end goals, and I’ve modeled the PB Laws with them in mind. But that doesn’t mean packing on extra muscle can’t happen with additional input. After I retired from a life of chronic cardio and started living Primally, I added 15 pounds of muscle, while keeping low body fat levels without really trying, so it’s absolutely possible for a hardgainer to gain some. The question is how much and at what expense?
I’d be the first to tell you that lean body mass is healthier than adipose tissue. Generally, the more lean mass a person has, the longer and better they live. But to increase mass at the expense of agility, strength, or speed is, in my opinion, counterproductive. What would Grok do – go for enormous biceps or the ability to haul a carcass back to camp? Unless you’re a bodybuilder (nothing wrong with that, mind you; it’s just not my focus), I can’t advise simply packing on size without a proportional increase in actual strength. Those bulging biceps might look good on the beach, but then again, so does the body that comes with keeping up with the younger guys, knocking out twenty pull-ups in a row, and lifting twice your bodyweight. Form is best paired with a healthy serving of function. The two are quite delicious together, and, luckily, following the PB allows us to get both without sacrificing either.
Of course, we’re all built a little differently. The basic building blocks are the same in everyone, but sexual reproduction (as opposed to asexual reproduction) has the funny habit of producing unique genetics and small variations that affect the way we respond to our environments. It’s why some people are short and some are tall, or why some of us respond better to carbohydrates than others. Even though we all pretty much operate the same way, there IS a range of possible outcomes that is proscribed by your direct ancestors. By that same token, some people just naturally have more muscle mass. They’re usually innately more muscular than the average person, and putting more on through resistance training is often an easy task. Then there are those who can’t seem to gain a pound: the hardgainers. They might be increasing strength, but it doesn’t seem to translate into visible muscle mass. Now, my initial advice for a hardgainer is this – don’t worry too much about it! As long as you’re getting stronger, you’re doing it right.
Let’s face it, though. You’ve probably heard that enough already. It’s fun being the lanky guy at the gym who can lift more than most, but you’re dead set on bulking up (who doesn’t like a bit more muscle to go along with that strength?), and you want to do it in a Primal context. Besides, continuing to increase strength will eventually require increasing size. To do so, you have to target the very same anabolic hormones that others use to get big, only with even more enthusiasm and drive. Like I said, we all have similar engines, but some require more fuel and more efficient driving (sorry for the corny analogy). Activating these hormones will work for anyone, provided they work hard and eat enough food.
The main hormones that contribute to muscle anabolism are testosterone, growth hormone (GH), and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). A little more about each and how to utilize them:

Testosterone

Crazy bodybuilders don’t inject themselves with anabolic steroid hormones that are based on testosterone for nothing. Among other roles, testosterone is an important muscle-building growth factor that favorably affects protein synthesis in addition to working with other hormones (like GH and IGF-1) to improve their function (more on this later). If you want to increase strength and build muscle, testosterone is absolutely required (don’t worry, though: no injections necessary!).

Growth Hormone

It’s right there in the name, isn’t it? Growth hormone. It helps muscle grow and, perhaps more importantly, it burns body fat. After all, leaning out is a big part of building muscle (or else you’ll just look puffy) and GH will help you do it.

Insulin-like Growth Factor 1

IGF-1 is extremely similar in effect to GH, as it should be – GH stimulates IGF-1 production in the liver. In fact, it’s suspected that IGF-1 is actually responsible for most of the “growth-promoting effects of circulating GH.”
Anabolic hormones all work together. In fact, to maximize their muscle-building potential, you must have all three present. Testosterone increases IGF-1, but only in the presence of GH. GH promotes skeletal muscle cell fusion independent of IGF-1, but the two are most effective in concert. Luckily for you, the types of exercises that stimulate the secretion of one will generally stimulate the secretion of the others. Funny how that works out, huh?

Enter The Central Nervous System

In order for your body to start pumping out these delicious anabolic hormones, you must first give it a reason to do so. I might even say you should give your genes a reason to express themselves. The most effective way to do this is by notifying the central nervous system. Now, the CNS can be a stubborn bastard, but he’s all you got when it comes to interpreting stimuli and relaying messages to the rest of the body. He’s not easily perturbed, and he won’t bother if you aren’t serious. If you insist on doing nothing but light aerobics or tiny isolation exercises, your CNS will barely notice. If you want to get your CNS’ attention, pick up the intensity. Run some sprints or do some heavy lifting. When you do an exercise like the squat with a heavy weight, all hands are on deck. Your CNS realizes that some serious exercising is going down and notifies the hypothalamus, which in turn talks to your pituitary gland. This tiny – but vital – member of the endocrine system is the gland that dispatches luteinizing hormones to tell the testicles to secrete testosterone. It’s also the gland that synthesizes and secretes GH. IGF-1 is mostly produced by the liver, but its production is facilitated by the presence of GH, so we can see that it all comes down to CNS stimulation. Chronic cardio doesn’t affect your CNS in any meaningful way, so that’s why we tend to avoid it; vigorous sprints, hard and heavy lifting, and anaerobic output will get its attention, so do plenty of these to maximize muscle growth.

Cortisol: A Hormone to Avoid

Promoting muscle and strength growth also requires avoiding excess amounts of catabolic (muscle wasting) hormones like cortisol. Cortisol is the major stress hormone, and it exists for a very legitimate reason (dealing with “flight or fight” incidents, inadequate sleep, anxiety), but in large amounts cortisol increases serum amino acids by breaking down muscle, inhibiting protein synthesis and reducing amino acid uptake by the muscles – all awful things for muscle growth. Compounding the problem even further, the broken-down muscle is converted into blood glucose, which then raises insulin secretion and increases insulin resistance while promoting fat storage. And we all know how great those muscles look with a nice layer of adipose tissue covering them up! On a serious note, most people following the PB already minimize cortisol by getting plenty of sleep and reducing stress, but if you’re preoccupied with building muscle mass and engaging in extended workout sessions to achieve it, avoiding excess cortisol can get tricky: excessive exercise without enough recovery time actually increases cortisol. It makes sense (think of it like your body’s telling you it needs a day or two off), but the desire for more muscle mass drives many to work out to the point of counter-productivity. Just be careful, and give yourself at least a day of rest after a particularly grueling session.

Lift Really Heavy Things

If you haven’t figured it out already, you’re going to be doing some heavy lifting in order to put on lean mass. The foundation of your routine should be the big compound lifts: squats, deadlifts, presses (bench and overhead), pull-ups, rows, dips, snatches, power cleans, clean and jerks. These engage multiple muscles while triggering your hormonal response systems. Bodyweight stuff, while valuable, simply isn’t going to get you the strength and mass increases you’re looking for. Testosterone, while useful, only gets really anabolic when you start lifting. You need to get under some decent weight, enough so that your CNS and endocrine system are blasted, but not so much that you can’t maintain proper form.
A popular routine is the 5×5 method. Popularized by programs like StrongLifts and Starting Strength, doing compound lifts for five sets of five reps allows you to strike a balance between strength building and superficial muscle hypertrophy. Done this way, your hypertrophy won’t be purely sarcoplasmic, which results in fluid-filled muscles that look big but don’t see a corresponding increase in actual strength. Instead, the 5×5 method promotes myofibrillar hypertrophy: hard, dense muscle fibers that increase strength and size (with no puffiness). That’s real muscle that would make Grok proud.
If you’re lifting heavy and lifting hard, keep your workouts spaced at least a day apart and don’t lift more than 3x/week. Three exercises per session should be perfect. That may not sound like much, but it’ll be plenty if you do it right. Remember, you’re doing big compound movements that will really shock your system, with an emphasis on intensity and power. You don’t want to overwork yourself, release a bunch of cortisol, and set yourself back a few weeks.
Squats and deadlifts are absolutely required. No excuses. They engage the most muscles and produce the biggest hormonal response. They will be the bedrock of your mass building campaign. Most programs recommend doing squats every session, and I tend to agree. You can handle it. Deadlifts are a bit more taxing and so should be relegated to every other workout. So, one week you’ll deadlift once, the next week twice. You can also sub in power cleans for the occasional deadlifts (or do them in addition) if you’re comfortable with such a complex movement. Presses are paramount, both overhead and bench. I’d alternate both types of presses every session. Pull-ups are great, but weighted pull-ups are even better. Same goes for dips. Just try to get one pulling, one pushing, and one squatting exercise in each session.
An example for beginners, with sets coming first in the sequence:
A
Squat 5×5
Pull-ups 5xFailure (add weight if “Failure” is becoming more than 12 reps)
Overhead Press 5×5
B
Squat 5×5
Deadlift 1/2/3×5 (your choice; deadlifts can be incredibly taxing, and with exhaustion comes poor form, so be careful; sometimes it’s better to do a really heavy load for a single set)
Bench Press 5×5
C
Squat 5×5
Pull-ups 5xFailure
Overhead Press 5×5
Do this sequence every week (maybe Monday, Wednesday, Friday) and steadily increase the weight each session. Once you’re making progress, feel free to add in other exercises like dips or more Olympic lifts. For more mass, more lactic “burn” (and more GH secretion), reduce your rest periods between sets or even superset them. If you feel like doing some cardio, stick to sprints once weekly, or even a Crossfit-style metcon (metabolic conditioning) workout, maybe some Tabata burpees. The key is conserving strength and giving your body time to rest and recover for the next round of squats, deadlifts, and presses.
This “program” can be tweaked and altered. Just make sure you’re doing big movements while maintaining extreme intensity and great form. Oh, and always make sure to squat and deadlift. Always. They produce the most testosterone, GH, and IGF-1.

Eat Lots (I Mean Lots) of Plants and Animals

No one would ever call the Primal Blueprint a protein-sparing plan, but you’re going to have to eat even more than before. Stuff yourself. I always say that body composition is 80% diet, and that goes for putting on mass as well as losing fat. You need to provide plenty of protein for all those hormones to synthesize, after all.

• Never let your protein intake go lower than 1g/lb of body weight when you are aiming to add long-term muscle. It’s the building block of muscle, and your body is going to be starving for it.
• Eat plenty of saturated and monounsaturated fat. Fat blunts insulin secretion while increasing testosterone production. Insulin may be useful for stuffing your muscles full of glycogen, but that’s not what you’re going for… right?
• Dietary fat, in conjunction with all the GH you’ll be producing, also spares muscle wasting.
• You may have heard of the popular GOMAD method – Gallon of Milk a Day for easy mass-building. It undoubtedly works, but a gallon of milk isn’t exactly Primal and I can’t recommend it. Instead of milk, why not a dozen eggs a day? ADEAD? If you can manage it, eating them on top of your regularly scheduled meals is a great source of affordable protein, fat, and vitamins (Vitamin A in particular may have pro-anabolic effects).
• Eat often. If you’re going for pure size and strength, fasted workouts and skipped PWO meals may not be the ticket. You’ll burn more fat with the extra GH secretion and existing muscle will be spared, but you may be missing the chance at prime protein synthesis when you fast. A PWO meal of protein and fat will still blunt the insulin secretion and provide fuel for your muscles.
• Increase caloric intake. You’re going to be expending so much energy on the lifts (and you’ll continue to burn through it even on rest days) while eating clean, Primal foods (and keeping insulin low as ever) that fat accumulation shouldn’t be an issue at all. Eat!
• On those days when you do expend a ton of energy – maybe on your metcon or sprint day – having a Primal-friendly starch, like squash or sweet potato, is a decent way to replenish depleted glycogen stores.
• Eat a big piece of fatty meat every single day. Steak, whole chicken, lamb leg, organs, whatever. Just eat a solid piece of animal flesh for a powerful protein infusion on a daily basis.
• A hardgainer is often someone who doesn’t eat enough. Sure, genes play a role, but you can ultimately have a significant say in how those genes rebuild you. To a point. Eat more and lift harder to grab the reins.

I’m a firm believer in the body’s natural ability to achieve proper homeostasis, provided we supply the right environment and the right foods. For some of you, that might mean lower body mass, lower than you’d like. In my opinion, that amount of muscle is probably “right” for you and I wouldn’t recommend going above and beyond to achieve more of it… but I also wouldn’t condemn it, especially if it’s pursued in accordance with the Primal Laws. As for me, I am comfortable where I’m at and tend not to seek added mass (I’m also at a point where lifting heavy increases my risk of injury, and I HATE downtime). But if you are a hard-gainer looking to add a few, as long as it’s not just show muscle and you can actually lift some decent weight and at the very least manipulate your own body weight comfortably, eat those dozen eggs and gain that weight.

An Article about seaweed from Mark Sisson

 Fresh off the press from Mark's 

daily Apple

 

A Visual Guide to Sea Vegetables

About 160,000 years ago the human diet expanded to include seafood. Early humans became coastal dwellers at least that long ago, and ever since then we’ve been inextricably linked to the sea. The sea contains our most reliable source (when we aren’t dining on the brains of ruminants) of the all-important, long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. And then there’s the edible sea vegetation. I’ve written briefly about it before, but edible seaweed seems to be lacking from most folks’ diets, even those eating an otherwise complete Primal diet. For those in Western countries, the only seaweed they’ll happen across on a regular basis comes stuffed with rice and raw fish. It’s not a modern staple, unless you’re in Asia, and it simply isn’t on most people’s radars. It should be, though.

Pretty much every culture with coastal access throughout history made culinary use of sea vegetation. The Japanese and other Asian countries are famous for their seaweed consumption, but even the Vikings and Celts would chew on dried dulse for sustenance (and the red algae even figures into some of the old Norse epic sagas). Hawaiians and Polynesians cultivated kelp farms. Plato famously opined the “sea cures all evils,” and the ancient Greeks regularly ate edible seaweed. Any food with such a wide-ranging history of use across various cultures and time periods piques my interest.
The sea is an especially potent source of minerals. It’s an entirely different story with soil, which most experts agree is being rapidly depleted of mineral content by intensive over farming. And since the plants we eat are only as mineral-rich as the soil in which they grow, most commercial vegetation that ends up on our plates isn’t nearly as nutritious as the stuff your grandparents ate, let alone what Grok ate. Buying from smaller farms can mitigate the deficiencies to a certain extent, since those guys are generally more mindful of soil quality and replenishment (rather than just trying to produce the biggest, most durable fruits and vegetables in the shortest amount of time, nutrition and taste be damned), but incorporating sea vegetables into your diet is an affordable, delicious, surefire way to obtain missing mineral content.
Whereas terrestrial vegetables are limited to what they can obtain from the soil, sea vegetables spend their entire lives luxuriating in the world’s largest, oldest, most complete mineral bath. They soak it up and are among the richest sources of iodine, magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, potassium, manganese, and all other (56 of ‘em in total) minerals essential to the human body. Getting precise numbers for the mineral content of each variety, though, is difficult, because it varies based on location, water temperature, water depth, climate, and season. Rest assured, though, that these things are extremely nutritious, however variable the specifics may be.
There are dozens upon dozens of edible seaweed varieties, so variety should never be an issue. You could conceivably wade out into the shallows of your local coastline, grab a fistful of slimy, slippery vegetation, and consume it without any ill effects. In fact, the only poisonous seaweed I’m aware of is a filamentous, blue-green algae called lyngbya majuscula, or fireweed. Here’s a picture so you know what to avoid. Otherwise, go crazy. Go wild. Try ‘em all. Wild, fresh, dried, or even noodled. Here are a few of the more popular varieties:

Kelp

Kelp is the most readily available type of edible seaweed. In Asian countries, kombu and wakame are popular forms of edible kelp. You’ll generally find kelp in its dried form; soaking it for several minutes makes it pliable and edible, or you can add it directly to soups for extract the nutrients. Kelp also comes in granulated form, to be used in place of salt or as a mineral supplement to your food. A quarter teaspoon of this brand gives you plenty of iodine (over 2000% of the RDA), so if you’re looking to add more iodine to your diet, this is a fantastic way. If you’re looking to reduce your intake, you might try other seaweeds.

Kombu

Kombu is a type of kelp, a brown algae most commonly eaten in Japan. It comes dried, for soup or broth, or fresh, to be eaten as sashimi.
Add a five inch strip to a pot of water with a bit of salt and pepper for a simple, mineral-rich broth, or incorporate a few more ingredients and make Aaron Blaisdell’s Kombu Egg Soup. Be sure to eat the chewy kombu after.

Wakame

Wakame is another popular one in Japan and Korea, where restaurants will often serve fresh (or reconstituted) wakame tossed with a bit of sesame oil over a bed of lettuce. I highly recommend trying this out – the chewy robustness of the seaweed holds up well against the delicate lettuce.
Wakame often appears in miso soups or simple broths, floating on the top in thin strips. It has about the same nutrient composition as kombu and other kelps (iodine, magnesium, calcium, etc).

Arame

Arame is brown Japanese kelp used primarily in Japan, China, and Korea, but Peruvian and Indonesian cuisine employs it as well. It has a sweet, mild flavor, making it a great sea vegetable for beginners. Try sautéing soaked, drained arame with winter squash, onions, butter, and a bit of chili pepper for a great side dish for grilled meat or fish. Soak dried arame for five minutes before using (unless it’s going right into a soup). A tablespoon of dried arame will give you 0.7 mg of iodine.

Dulse

Dulse is a red seaweed that attaches itself to rocks in the North Atlantic and Northwest Pacific oceans. It’s often shredded, dried, and sprinkled on soups, but fresh dulse can be sautéed with butter and garlic, or rubbed with olive oil and salt and roasted in the oven to make chips. I’ve even eaten handfuls straight out of the bag, treating it like edible Big League Chew that won’t destroy your tooth enamel. It has less iodine (by most accounts, about 1/5 of the amount) than kombu, with high amounts of magnesium and calcium. Dulse also comes in shakable flakes, similar to granulated kelp.

Nori

Anyone who’s eaten sushi knows nori. It’s the mildest form of seaweed , generally coming roasted in sheets or squares. Compared to other sea vegetables, it’s also fairly low in minerals and other nutrients, but that just means you can eat even more of it. Try wrapping up gobs of tuna salad (tossed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, sprinkled with kelp granules, perhaps) with your nori squares for a quick, healthy snack, or just eat them plain.

Irish Moss

Also known as carrageen moss (yes, as in carageenan, the common thickening agent that makes up about 55% of Irish moss’ bulk), Irish moss grows along the rocky Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America. It’s also about 15% mineral and 10% protein, and it softens into a jelly-like substance when heated in liquid. Folks in the Caribbean boil Irish moss until it’s jelly, add flavoring like vanilla or cinnamon, and top it off with rum and milk. The concoction is supposed to fight impotence and confer aphrodisiac qualities. The Irish and Scottish boil the stuff to make a tapioca-like pudding dessert. It might be interesting to play with some Primal seaweed pudding recipes, which could be incredibly nutritious (Irish moss is high in iodine, magnesium, calcium, manganese, zinc, bromine, and other minerals) if you avoid sugar. Anyone game?

Alaria Esculenta

Sometimes called dabberlocks, badderlocks, or winged kelp, alaria esculenta is a traditional sea vegetable found in the far north Atlantic Ocean. Greenland, Iceland, Scotland, and Ireland all count it among their traditional foods. It’s a brown seaweed with a large central rib, from which wavy membranes shoot out on either side. Alaria was traditionally dried, then added to soups and stews. A big strip of it goes well in a pot of chili and increases the mineral content considerably.

I understand that some people just don’t dig the flavor of sea vegetables, and that’s fine. Soups and broths are excellent ways to extract the bulk of the useful minerals and nutrients from sea vegetables; eating the stuff itself is entirely optional (although probably optimal). Still, give it a try. For my money, the texture of sea vegetables is unrivaled and incredibly unique.
One thing to keep in mind is that sea vegetables have historically been used as garnishes, flavorants, stock bases, and side dishes. You won’t see heaping piles of kelp replacing spinach or lettuce in salads in Japanese households, for example. Because they’re so incredibly nutrient-and-mineral-dense, sea vegetables can be eaten to excess. Our iodine RDA of 150 micrograms is low. The Japanese typically get upwards of 5-10 mg iodine daily without ill effects (in fact, their traditional health and longevity is rather excellent), but iodine toxicity does exist. Think of sea vegetables as a supplement, albeit a supplement to be used on a regular basis.
Warnings about heavy metal or pollutant toxicity due to consumption of sea vegetables are understandable. If sea vegetables soak up all the beneficial compounds floating around our oceans, it seems plausible that they’d also absorb the bad stuff – mercury, arsenic, lead, etc. Most studies have shown that heavy metal toxicity via seaweed consumption just doesn’t really happen. Only one type, called hijiki, has consistently been shown to possess levels of heavy metals, especially arsenic, that approach toxicity. Avoid hijiki and you should be okay.

I wish I could give accurate, precise figures for mineral and nutrient content of sea vegetables, but I can’t in good conscience. To me, though, that adds a bit of excitement to eating. You know it’s sustained multiple cultures over multiple time periods, and you know it contains the full range of essential minerals – you just do not have the hard numbers in front of you. Well, neither did Grok, nor the Vikings, nor the Pacific Islanders, nor the chronic disease-free Japanese villagers munching on this stuff on a daily basis. It was just there and it was edible and apparently nourishing. I’ll for one continue to get some of my veggies from the sea.

Get Free Health Tips, Recipes and Workouts Delivered to Your Inbox

chrishoward.author, FotoosVanRobin, digiyesica, Akuppa, preetamrai, Airstream Life, Travis S. Flickr Photos

Posted By: Mark Sisson

Whats with all the Greens?

So most of you have probably noticed it seems every time we make a note in your log we say more green leafy veggies.  So whats up, why are we so concerned about the green leafy veggies?  There are a lot of very easy to see reasons we prefer green veggie matter for your primary carbohydrate intake but the underlying reason (and probably the most important isn't nearly as obvious.  We know greens are a good source of low glycemic carbohydrates.  They are extremely nutrient rich and we can often meet the vitamin/minerals needs of our body with just a couple servings.  Unlike their ugly cousins grains they are low in lectin count and free of gluten, so they present very few anti-nutrient values.  So what don't you know? why do we beg and plead for you to eat more greens?

Aside from all the great reasons to eat greens listed above,  there is one that typically goes unnoticed.  We ask you all to eat large amounts of both protein and fats, this is a good thing right? Of course it is but knowing a little about what chemical reactions are going on may help you understand why you need the greens.  So all this protein and fat have a high acid content,  which combine with stomach acids can cause a pretty high acid level within the stomach or what we refer to as net acid load.  While the short term you may only notice some discomfort having a net acid load can lead to a lot of gastric and intestinal problems.  Leaving this net acid load unchecked can eventually lead to binding of calcium,cholesterol and bile particles with the end result being gull and or kidney stones.  If you have ever had these or known someone who has then you know how painful they can be.  So what does any of this have to do with greens?? Greens are the other side of the equation, greens are alkali (or a base) and they help to quell the acidity of the animal protein and fats we eat.  A little may help to quell some of the discomfort in our digestive system but a lot will ensure that we have a healthy gut and drive us toward wellness.  We should always strive to have a net alkai load meaning that we suffer from none of the effects of those darn acidic foods.   So make sure that you are getting in at least one meal every day that has the equivalent of a forest worth of green leafy vegetable matter....

From our perspective

     So the first round of evaluations are over, first time jitters are out of the way... Overall I would like to say that I am so proud of all of you... even if you are not seeing change yet, logging your food choices is a show of commitment in itself.   What exactly are we looking @ and what drives our feedback?  A look @ it from our perspective.

First I would like to say that our intention is not to dishearten anyone with our evaluations,  if you think that either Nicolle or I ever derive any pleasure out of finding something out of place in your log, and having to tell you about it, then you have totally misread the both of us.  The last thing either of us want to do is point out negatives of your effort to do better.  That being said, we are not going to sugar coat what we are seeing, it is very easy to lie to yourself and say hey I am doing great, but here is the perspective part... great in comparison to what?

When we look @ your logs we are grading it like a school paper, there is 100% (total compliance) and then there is percentages of that... Would you ever want a teacher/professor to tell you how awesome you are doing, when you are failing?  We are looking at these as absolute 100% compliance and giving feedback off of that standard.  We realize that not everyone is committed @ that 100% compliance point but we cannot judge each and every participant on individual curves.  This is what conventional gyms and piss poor personal trainers do, they sugar coat everything to give you a false sense of accomplishment.  This is not only deceptive in general but pretty unfair to you, the person trying to get the most out of the experience.   Unfortunately we cannot follow you home every night and motivate you like we do in the gym, encouraging you to press on even when you want to quit.  All we can do is be completely honest and call it like we see it ..... Someone has to keep you honest and unfortunately as much as it sucks for us to be the bad guy/girl its our job and our commitment to you.

There is no pass or fail here, every single day is a new opportunity to fix whats gone wrong and get back on the horse.  The only fail is to give up, and say "fuck it, my health isn't that important pass the plate of cookies this way!!"  If you all knew how badly we want you to succeed , to get the results you want, to fix the downward spiral of your health and live a long, fit and happy life.  Our goal is to help you reach your goals period... There is no underlying agendas except this... I want to create walking billboards... I want people to see the change in you... I want you to become the person they aspire to be...  and more importantly I want you to be the person that you see when you close your eyes.  Confident, beautiful, strong and healthy!!  It's never to late!!!!

All aboard!!!

Alright so we are well underway and you guys have all had nearly two weeks to get the crap out of your cabinets, stock your fridge with good whole foods and figure out that crazy logging system called fitday?  So first impressions?  I am betting about 90% of you are realizing how malnourished you were in terms of protein intake.  I can't count the number of times I have heard "I am having trouble eating that much protein"... Doesn't leave much room for unhealthy snacking does it?   I have had some time to look through a few logs and its a common theme right now... not enough, not enough, not enough!!!   I am amazed that some of you are even functioning .. I have seen logs with as few as 500 calories for the whole day!!! This means either you are not logging all your meals or you are trying to kill yourself... Here is the deal we want you to look, FEEL and PERFORM better... not just look.... eat more!!! if you need to snack throughout the day to get your numbers where they should be, then do it.   Remember every time you cheat right now you are back @ day zero... we need to get you through the first 30 days, gain back some insulin sensitivity, reduce inflammation and improve gut health before we take any liberties with our diet... If you are wishy washy about committing, you are going to end up being one of those people that never gave it a true effort and bitches about how it didn't work for the rest of your life.  This stuff works all you have to do is show some faith and diligence and the weight will start falling off.  We already have reports of some athletes losing 10 lbs already and we are only two weeks in!!!  If you are confused bring us your confusion we will help all we can, but do something!!  We will be giving first feed back on your logs over the next couple of days but if you have questions just ask.....  Jump on board its gonna be a fun ride, but do it soon before you get left behind!!!

But they said it was Paleo.....

So let me start this post by saying I love all of you dearly and that I am so proud of the changes you are making to eat healthier.   Alright so here we go..... I have noticed a huge trend of recipes that tout a "paleo or Paleo Friendly" title.  While they may be bit and pieces of a paleo based diet the end result is often something completely out of whack in terms of what your nutrition should look like.  We really need to stop and take a look to see ..am I making the right choice with this??  First and foremost please understand that paleo friendly foods do not constitute quality foods!! Things like protein pancakes, almond flour muffins, chocolate pumpkin yummy treats (yes I made that one up) ARE NOT PALEO FOODS!  I SAY AGAIN..ARE NOT PALEO FOODS!!! Paleo foods are whole foods, not some concoction thrown together to meet our need for comfort foods.  If the recipe says 1 1/2 cups of almond flour... stop and think... holy crap how many almonds is that?  I can tell you it's a lot more than you should probably be eating on a regular basis!!  If the ingredients are some sort of protein powder.... run!!!! Whole foods people... whole foods.... do you even know what whey is made from? Milk isolate, Which means it brings all the dirty laundry with it that dairy products do... Milk promotes growth, which in itself is not a bad thing.. UNLESS YOU ARE TRYING TO LEAN OUT or even just reduce body fat.  Milk also spikes insulin production in the body.....oh wait we are supposed to not be doing that so we can regain insulin sensitivity that we have beat down over the majority of our lives.   If you are eating these foods regularly I would bet your blood glucose is high and your insulin resistance is pretty damn high.  So what am I saying that all these paleo friendly recipes are bad?  Nope, but they sure as hell aren't good.... Here is the way I see it .. these recipes are a healthier way to enjoy a cheat meal... thats all they are..... I am sure someone is thinking right now " but so and so posted this recipe and they are ripped and lean"... Yep and they were probably a lot stricter with their diet to get where they are and can afford the "occasional" cheat.  I bet they have pretty decent insulin sensitivity and or they are genetically disposition-ed to metabolize these foods better.  All that being said I would still love to see what their A1c levels looked like.  If you are not where you want to be (body composition wise) all I am saying is that finding ways to substitute all your comfort foods may not be the right answer.  One other thing I would like to address here before I close... Sweeteners no matter where they are coming from are not acceptable!  Stevia and agave (have you seen the carb load on the back of the container) are both natural sweeteners which is great but while they carry a label that says they don't increase insulin production more and more studies are saying the opposite.  I also love it when I see a recipe that says 6 packs of splenda.. I then try to picture a caveman pulling his Splenda packs out of his leaf string (ok that was just disturbing).... your body is a complex machine, but like any machine it can be fooled and insulin production can be sparked by both smell and taste... it can even be set off by something as simple as a picture (the notorious food porn).  If you are going to cheat then cheat but don't try to hide behind a paleo friendly label. If you are going to cheat do it right, why put agave, throw some honey in there instead.  Why ruin a perfectly good cafe latte with splenda put some pure cane sugar in there... and then call it what it is ...A CHEAT MEAL!!  So here is my litmus test for you... if you look @ your food log and you can find 3 or more paleo friendly food consumptions in it within a 7 day period you might want to rethink what your goals are.  Is it more important for you to have that paleo protein carrot cake or to fit into those pants you bought 2 sizes too small.   It's your choice as always I have just had it with the paleo friendly propaganda that has people thinking they areeating right..... FFS just because simple green is "Eco Friendly" doesn't mean it won't kill a plant if you poor too much of it in the soil.....It doesn't belong in the Ecosystem and paleo pizza doesn't belong in your diet........... I can sum it up with this... have you ever heard some call CrossFit dangerous because of some silly video someone posted on YouTube... and you say "that's not CrossFit!!  Well dammit "Thats not Paleo"!!

If you have to though here is one of the better recipes I have found (but you still shouldn't eat them every day) and no they are not paleo!!!

Primal Coconut Blueberry  (Holy Crap that's a lot of fat) Muffins

½ cup coconut flour
½ tsp baking soda
1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
few shakes of salt
4 eggs
1/3 cup coconut milk (not light)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 medium bananas, mashed ( starchy carbs but better than natural sweeteners)
1 cup (or more) blueberries
flaked coconut for sprinkling, if desired
Mix coconut flour, baking soda, shredded coconut and salt in a large bowl, set aside.  Beat eggs in a separate bowl and add mix in the coconut milk, vanilla extract, and mashed bananas.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mix until well combines.  Fold in blueberries.  Divide into 12 muffins.   Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

The long road.......

So the Lean up Challenge is over, but that doesn't mean you should be reversing your fortunes. So many of you have done so much work to get where you are and I see it starting to slip away. If you only did the lean up challenge to see how much weight you could lose in 8 short weeks you totally missed the boat. We have all done a lifetime of damage to our stomach's, hormonal systems, liver, pancreas, adrenal glands... the list goes on. 8 weeks of good eating is not a miracle cure, only a introduction to what is possible. For those who have fallen off the wagon, gotten lax with how much is ok, made lots of exceptions or excuses for its just this one time. GET YOUR ASSES BACK ON THE WAGON!

First and foremost while I am all about short term goals, they are not a means to an end. They should be a hurdle on the long road to health. The truth is all of us should have a extreme long term goal that we can make progress towards but may never attain. An extreme long term goal is that goal that is so far down the road that for most us its not in sight... matter a fact it may be so far off that you might think..I might get there in the next life time. So what's the point of even having it then? All the steps in between!!!! Having this super long term goal always gives us something to bring everything back into perspective. What if your only goal was to have a 32" waist or to be able to do a muscle up or even have a sub 4 minute Fran? What happens when you achieve these goals? Most lose focus and drive. I know that when I was in the military a lot of the guys I went through selection with had only the goal of attaining a coveted SOF beret (choose your color and service). So what happened when they got it? They became mediocre operators with no sense of drive. While others who had aspirations of going to Tier 1 units or becoming the best at their craft seemed to excel in all aspects of their career. I guess the point I am trying to make is that while most didn't reach that tier 1 unit or weren't praised as the best at their craft, they were ever improving and even through all their accomplishments were still reaching for the stars.

Short term goals- Everyone should have these and it shouldn't be just one. Picking a goal in each category will not only give you more to focus on but it won't be so devastating if you don't happen to make it. The other thing is that they should be attainable! If you are still working on 10 consecutive pull ups, having a goal of a muscle up might not only be not the best idea for a goal, honestly it would be a pretty poor choice.

Intermediate Goals- This should be made up of several short term goals. Think of your goals like a series of funnels, with the big (short term)funnel @ the top, getting smaller as the goal lengthens. These goals should still be attainable but not without reaching the short term goals in the interim. For instance, you had a couple short term goals of doing 10 consecutive handstand push ups, and 15 1.5x body weight dead lifts, your intermediate goal was do Diane Rx'd. Without reaching those short term the intermediate is probably not going to happen.

Long term Goals- This should be a 2-5 year goal that is attainable but not without the short and intermediate goals and not without consistency over the majority of those 2-5 years. Maybe its all WOD's Rx'd or possibly 6% body fat or hey maybe it's both( it doesn't have to be CrossFit related it's just easy for me to use those examples)!!
Whatever it may be it should be something that is going to keep you in the fight for those 2-5 years.

Extreme long term goal- This is going to be the hardest to choose .. Because so many of the goals we have in mind usually can be accomplished within the other stages of goal setting. For me setting a goal in the specialization I hold dear, Olympic Weightlifting, is my Extreme long term goal. For me the idea of having a 125kg Snatch and 160kg Clean and Jerk, while not currently even close to being in sight, are attainable goals with lots of training and dedication. Will I ever reach that goal? Who knows, but it doesn't mean I will stop trying.

Lastly, if you have a goal you need to write it down and keep it in front of you, especially the short term ones. If I were to erase the goals board, which not nearly enough of you are using .. and you can't remember what your short term goal is, or even your intermediate for that matter, then you were never really trying to achieve it!! I mentioned Darin on the main page the other day because I know this guy sets goals regularly and goes after them without fear of failing. Here is a before and after pic of Darin over the last 6 months of training .. I would post his WOD stats too but honestly I would say the pics speak for themselves and all you have to do is watch the guy WOD and you can see a fire-breather in the making.

The Lean Up Challenge comes to an end.. but it's just the beginning!!

The Lean Up Challenge comes to an end.. but it's just the beginning!!


Alrighty so as I said on the mainpage we are going to keep this page going as
it's not only beneficial for the Lean Up Challenge but for all the athletes @ the gym!
Hopefully it will develop a following and I can justify adding a dedicated nutrition page
that gets daily updates by our awesome crew here!

So let me start by saying congrats to everyone who stepped up to the challenge and tried
to change the direction their health was going with their old nutrition regimen. The change
has only begun!! Just because the challenge is over doesn't mean the challenge is over if you get what I'm saying....

Lessons Learned:
- First and foremost it doesn't matter how many tricks you have in your hat or how hard or much you exercise, you are not going to get the results you are looking for until you clean up your diet... Are there some genetically freakish people that can eat whatever they want and not show the visible effects of it? Absolutely but whats going on inside of their body may be a completely different story.
- Once you get the diet cleaned up the one gram of protein for every pound of body weight has shown to be a sure winner in shedding the pounds... Protein sparks metabolic compliance and causes a thermogenic effect in the body... an effect most people in the fitness industry try to duplicate with supplements.... all you really have to do is eats lots of protein from good lean animal sources.
-Fat is an important factor in sparking weight loss but here is what I can say without question if you are overdoing it you will have body composition changes but won't see it on the scale. Don't over think this, If you are eating a good hunk of animal protein it probably has a pretty good ratio of healthy fats right there with it. What I saw too much of was a rib eye or t bone coupled with an avocado or or nuts or coconut milk. This caused a lot of people to end up around 55% fat intake 35-40% protein with the rest made up in carbs.... Once we got the protein and fat flipped around we saw dramatic weight loss in the athletes. At higher levels of athletic prowess I definitely encourage high high doses of fat but if you haven't gotten to the point of leanness you have your eye set on (or the weight; which in my opinion is irrelevant if you look, feel and perform well) then back the fat off to about 40 % of your caloric intake and you should see it on the scale as well. End run on sentence!!!

-Carb intake..... here is the deal... Get your carbs from green leafy veggies... Period! There is nothing wrong with fruit as a whole, but fructose tends to cause glycogen uptake in the liver first and muscles second.... We want this to be the other way around to optimize performance while still "leaning up". If you have to have fruit try to get it from berries as they tend to be lower in fructose but you should definitely limit it to about 20% of your entire carbohydrate intake for the day. This is also important because we are trying to increase insulin sensitivity and anyone who tells you that you are better off eating an apple than a plate full of spinach is full of shit. Do we even need to talk about grains and legumes? I think this horse has been beaten enough....So what should your shoot for? Honestly I have found for most people running on between 40-70g usable carbs a day works great (thats is a shit load of green leafy veggies folks).

Got Milk? Man this is a tough one for me... I love milk and dairy products but honestly unless you are ultra lean and trying to gain muscle mass you should stay away from the stuff.... Milk is wonderful and I can drink it literally a gallon @ a time. The truth is though "processed" milk has alot of sugar in it, and the more refined you make it(Low-Fat, Skim Milk) the higher it climbs on the Glycemic index. The other reason you might want to stay away from them is they have incredible growth stimulus factors, which is pretty damn counter-productive when you are trying to lean up. I will not deny it is a great and easy source of protein but on a cellular level what is milk but a bi-product of what a cow eats... best case scenario would be that the dairy cows were grass fed... guess what... it's pretty hard to find grass fed raw milk here in Okinawa. So the alternative is grain fed dairy cattle which means all those mean little lectins, and even gluten may be (I say "may be" to give the cows 7 stomachs the benefit of the doubt) making their way into your lucky charms.

Supplements- I will keep this short
Omega-3 from fish oil .. spend the cash and get it from a good reputable source (stay away from Cod Liver oils though as they tend to be problematic for females)
Vitamin D- Get in the sun!!!! If not get a gelcap form of Vit-D 5000 iu's should do the trick
Magnesium- It will help you get better quality rest. You can kill two birds with one stone (zinc) by getting a ZMA supplement.

What's left? Well the last thing I am going to tell you is get some rest... turn off the TV an hour earlier and get some good quality sleep! If you are not resting chances are your cortisol levels are elevated. Low cortisol and insulin sensitivity are the two most important factors in weight loss. Get them under control ..I cannot express how important it is to get adequate rest. One other note on that .. If you have not taken a break from CrossFit and have been going 3 on 1 off for a substantial amount of time ... you might want to give your body a chance to recover .. take a week and just stretch, get a massage allow your adrenal system to recover.

Key notes:
-1 gram of protein for each pound of body weight (50% of your caloric intake)
-Good medium and long chain tryglycerides from animal fats, nuts and pseudo nuts (40% of your caloric intake)
-Lots of green leafy veggies to the tune of 40-70 grams a day (10% of your caloric intake)
-Supplements that are essential for health not corny supplements that are supposed give you magical performance
-Rest, Rest,Rest!!!!!
I would not expect your numbers to work out to be like this every single day this is just a ball park percentage of what we have seen work time and time again! We prescribe to paleolithic eating and that means some times we feast some time its famine our bodies are amazing machine build for this type of adaptation, don't get sucked into a monochromatic menu that always fits these percentages... the body thrives on diversity!

This is an oldie but goodie written by Robb Wolf a couple years back

If you are having trouble grabbing hold of the nutritional concepts we preach maybe this will help

You might have noticed that the nutrition approach we recommend at CrossFit NorCal is a bit...oh, shall I say, contrarian? Where the USDA, AMA and the rest of the Government sponsored entities recommend grains and legumes as the base of the diet, we recommend lean meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

That’s crazy, right? aren’t we going to die from heart disease and cancer if we eat meat? How will we ever get fiber if we don’t eat grains!? I mean, fruit and veggies...what have they got to offer?! I’m being fecetious here, I hope you get that. I do understand our recommendations fly in the face of what we are told to eat from nearly every source you can find...what’s the deal? Well...the deal is, our nutritional approach, a diet the attempts to emulate that of our paleolithic ancestors, is without a doubt the best route to optimized performance and health. Big claim? Yep, but easy to back up. Folks start with us, tweak their food, then look, feel and perform better. Every measurable bio-marker such as cholesterol, triglycerides or blood pressure improve...depression resolves. It just works, because this is the way we are wired to eat. But hey, what the hell do I know? I’m just the crazy guy in the shed telling people to do weird stuff like sleep more, take fish oil and increase their protein intake. How could I possibly be right about this? Well...here are a few interesting things for y’all to consider:

1-A Paleo diet, calorie per calorie, beats any other diet you can compare it to. Here is a nice look at this in a paper from Loren Cordain. If you notice, the basic diet presented here looks like taking a nutritional supplement. Now, if you are ambitious, you can take ANY of those listed Paleo foods, Lean meats, nuts, seeds, fruits and veggeis and compare them to the same calorie content of grains, legumes or dairy (non- fortified...just the way nature made them!) and you will decrease the relative nutritional content of the diet. Don’t believe me? You can actually do this experiment with the USDA Nutrient Database. So before you start waxing eloquent about how “nutritious whole grains are” give this a shot...build a diet the way our government recommends you do it via the food pyramid, then compare that to Paleo foods.

2-Many of the best coaches in the world recommend a Paleo diet. Granted, many also do not, but there are an ever growing number of coaches who recognize that optimized performance will not be found at the bottom of a box of cereal or served on a bagel.
Want a concrete example? How about Joel Friel, US Olympic Triathlon coach and author of The Triathletes Training Bible and Co-Author of The Paleo Diet for Athletes. I could use different examples but the endurance crowd is absolutely the most entrenched in this notion that optimized performance comes from a tube of GU or from some kind of Franken-Food like a Cliff-Bar. Here is an excerpt from The Paleo Diet for Athletes in which Joel talks about the Challenge Loren Cordain placed on him to try the Paleo diet for one month. check it out:

“I have known Dr. Cordain for many years, but I didn’t become aware of his work until 1995. That year we began to discuss nutrition for sports. As a longtime adherent to a very high-carbohydrate diet for athletes, I was skeptical of his claims that eating less starch would benefit performance. Nearly every successful endurance athlete I had known ate as I did, with a heavy emphasis on cereals, bread, rice, pasta, pancakes, and potatoes. In fact, I had done quite well on this diet, having been an All-American age-group duathlete (bike and run), and finishing in the top 10 at World Championships. I had also coached many successful athletes, both professional and amateur, who ate the same way I did.”

“Our discussions eventually led to a challenge. Dr. Cordain suggested I try eating a diet more in line with what he recommended for one month. I took the challenge, determined to show him that eating as I had for years was the way to go. I started by simply cutting back significantly on starches, and replacing those lost calories with fruits, vegetables, and very lean meats.”

“For the first two weeks I felt miserable. My recovery following workouts was slow and my workouts were sluggish. I knew that I was well on my way to proving that he was wrong. But in week three, a curious thing happened. I began to notice that I was not only feeling better, but that my recovery was speeding up significantly. In the fourth week I experimented to see how many hours I could train.

“Since my early 40s (I was 51 at the time), I had not been able to train more than about 12 hours per week. Whenever I exceeded this weekly volume, upper respiratory infections would soon set me back. In Week Four of the “experiment,” I trained 16 hours without a sign of a cold, sore throat, or ear infection. I was amazed. I hadn’t done that many hours in nearly 10 years. I decided to keep the experiment going.”

“That year I finished third at the U.S. national championship with an excellent race, and qualified for the U.S. team for the World Championships. I had a stellar season, one of my best in years. This, of course, led to more questions of Dr. Cordain and my continued refining of the diet he recommended.”

“I was soon recommending it to the athletes I coached, including Ryan Bolton, who was on the U.S. Olympic Triathlon team. Since 1995. I have written four books on training for endurance athletes and have described and recommended the Stone Age diet in each of them. Many athletes have told me a story similar to mine: They have tried eating this way, somewhat skeptically at first, and then discovered that they also recovered faster and trained better.”

So, if you missed the gist of that, Joel was able to train harder, longer and recover faster using a Paleo diet. He recommends the diet to ALL his athletes and includes this information in all his books. Oddly enough, we even have one of his staff dieticians, Kelly Cawthorn, available at CrosFit NorCal.

3-The Paleo diet describes our past, shines a light on our current situation, and provides predictive value for our future. The Nutritional “Sciences” are anything but. In theory they are a subset of Biology. The basic tenant of biology is evolution via natural selection...yet this fact absolutely buggars those in the nutritional sciences. The folks at CSU Chico Nutritional Sciences absolutely HATE the concept of the Paleo diet, yet offer no counter point or model that better describes the data at hand, nor offers the least bit of predictive value. They are awash in “paradoxes”. French Paradox, Spanish Paradox...things are only paradoxical in the nutritional sciences because they made bad assumptions and abandoned the scientific method. I get fired up about this because peoples lives are at stake here and the information we are fed is WRONG. It starts from faulty premise and worsens with every step. Here is an excerpt from The Protein Debate, a work we sponsored between Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study and Prof. Loren Cordain. Here is that excerpt which is the introduction for Prof. Cordain’s piece. The over-arching topic was the role of protein in health and disease in humans. As a side note: I’m a graduate of CSU Chico in biochemistry. When we sponsored this debate, between two of the most highly regarded researchers in the world, I thought the CSU Chico Nutritional Science department might be interested that a former student had sponsored and spear-headed this original work. I forwarded the Protein Debate to the members of the Nutritional Science department. Response? NONE. Sorry, I’m just bitter I guess, here is that introduction from Prof. Cordain:

Introduction
Although humanity has been interested in diet and health for thousands of years, the organized, scientific study of nutrition has a relatively recent past. For instance, the world’s first scientific journal devoted entirely to diet and nutrition, The Journal of Nutrition only began publication in 1928. Other well known nutrition journals have a more recent history still: The British Journal of Nutrition (1947), The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1954), and The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1988). The first vitamin was “discovered” in 1912 and the last vitamin (B12) was identified in 1948 (1). The scientific notion that omega 3 fatty acids have beneficial health effects dates back only to the late 1970’s (2), and the characterization of the glycemic index of foods only began in 1981 (3).
Nutritional science is not only a newly established discipline, but it is also a highly fractionated, contentious field with constantly changing viewpoints on both major and minor issues that impact public health. For example, in 1996 a task force of experts from the American Society for Clinical Nutrition (ASCN) and the American Institute of Nutrition (AIN) came out with an official position paper on trans fatty acids stating,
“We cannot conclude that the intake of trans fatty acids is a risk factor for coronary heart disease” (4).
Fast forward 6 short years to 2002 and the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine’s report on trans fatty acids (5) stating,
“Because there is a positive linear trend between trans fatty acid intake and total and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol concentration, and therefore increased risk of cardiovascular heart disease, the Food and Nutrition Board recommends that trans fatty acid consumption be as low as possible while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet”.
These kinds of complete turnabouts and divergence of opinion regarding diet and health are commonplace in the scientific, governmental and medical communities. The official U.S. governmental recommendations for healthy eating are outlined in the “My Pyramid” program (6) which recently replaced the “Food Pyramid”, both of which have been loudly condemned for nutritional shortcomings by scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health (7). Dietary advice by the American Heart Association (AHA) to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) is to limit total fat intake to 30% of total energy, to limit saturated fat to <10% of energy and cholesterol to <300 mg/day while eating at least 2 servings of fish per week (8). Although similar recommendations are proffered in the USDA “My Pyramid”, weekly fish consumption is not recommended because the authors of these guidelines feel there is only “limited” information regarding the role of omega 3 fatty acids in preventing cardiovascular disease (6). Surprisingly, the personnel makeup of both scientific advisory boards is almost identical. At least 30 million Americans have followed Dr. Atkins advice to eat more fat and meat to lose weight (9). In utter contrast, Dean Ornish tells us fat and meat cause cancer, heart disease and obesity, and that we would all would be a lot healthier if we were strict vegetarians (10). Who’s right and who’s wrong? How in the world can anyone make any sense out of this apparent disarray of conflicting facts, opinions and ideas?
In mature and well-developed scientific disciplines there are universal paradigms that guide scientists to fruitful end points as they design their experiments and hypotheses. For instance, in cosmology (the study of the universe) the guiding paradigm is the “Big Bang” concept showing that the universe began with an enormous explosion and has been expanding ever since. In geology, the “Continental Drift” model established that all of the current continents at one time formed a continuous landmass that eventually drifted apart to form the present-day continents. These central concepts are not theories for each discipline, but rather are indisputable facts that serve as orientation points for all other inquiry within each discipline. Scientists do not know everything about the nature of the universe, but it is absolutely unquestionable that it has been and is expanding. This central knowledge then serves as a guiding template that allows scientists to make much more accurate and informed hypotheses about factors yet to be discovered.
The study of human nutrition remains an immature science because it lacks a universally acknowledged unifying paradigm (11). Without an overarching and guiding template, it is not surprising that there is such seeming chaos, disagreement and confusion in the discipline. The renowned Russian geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975) said, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution” (12). Indeed, nothing in nutrition seems to make sense because most nutritionists have little or no formal training in evolutionary theory, much less human evolution. Nutritionists face the same problem as anyone who is not using an evolutionary model to evaluate biology: fragmented information and no coherent way to interpret the data.
All human nutritional requirements like those of all living organisms are ultimately genetically determined. Most nutritionists are aware of this basic concept; what they have little appreciation for is the process (natural selection) which uniquely shaped our species’ nutritional requirements. By carefully examining the ancient environment under which our genome arose, it is possible to gain insight into our present day nutritional requirements and the range of foods and diets to which we are genetically adapted via natural selection (13-16). This insight can then be employed as a template to organize and make sense out of experimental and epidemiological studies of human biology and nutrition (11).

The 1030 class threw down some incredible plates monday for their "Lunch @ the Gym"

here are some of the recipes:

Baked Salmon
1 Salmon filet
Lemon juice
Garlic salt
Lemon pepper

Pour lemon juice all over salmon then add garlic salt and lemon pepper. Cook @ 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. (10-15 min per inch of thickness) For more flavor you can add soy sauce and olive oil. Just pour it over before you season it.

Grilled Peppers
Green Bell Pepper
Red Bell Pepper
Orange Bell Pepper
Yellow Bell Pepper
Med Onion

Cut them all length ways into strips. Mix all together in a bowl. Put on a long piece of foil. Add olive oil to your liking then some garlic salt. The more oil the yummier :o) Cover with another piece of foil and fold all sides. Shake it a little to get the oil all over then put on BBQ Grill for about 20-25 minutes. You could use olive oil butter it's just as yummy.

Grilled Chicken: (Didn’t bring it but it’s yummy)
Chicken Breast
Lemon Juice
Soy Sauce
Garlic Salt
Lemon Pepper

Mix it all into a Ziploc bag or container and let it marinate for a couple hours (you don’t have to but its better too). BBQ on low until done.

Ceviche

1 can of baby clams (drained)
1/2 chopped onion
4 chopped roma tomatoes
cilantro
1/2 can of small v-8 juice
1 capful of A-1 steak sauce
1 lemon squeezed ( i used that lemon juice container thingy & just add as i go...taste wise)

*mix all ingredients & add sea salt as you go for taste..also, if you need more juices, add v8 a little at a time.

Chicken-Pistachio Salad
Salad
4 pieces thin cut chicken breast
1/2 cup shelled pistachios finely ground
1/2 tspn salt
1/2 tspn pepper
2 tbspn olive oil
1/2 cup diced sweet white onion

salt & pepper chicken then dip in the ground up pistachios. Heat 1 tbsn oliveoil & cok chicken 2 minutes pe side. Place chicken on baking dish & bake for 15 minutes on 375.
Heat remaining oilve oil & brown up the white onion

Dressing
1 tspn grated sweet white onion
1 large ripe avacado
3 tbspn olive oil
2 tbspn fresh lime juice
1 tbspn water

Puree the onion, avacado, oil, lime juice & water in blender

slice up chicken breast on throw on top of a bed of romaine lettuce . Serve with dressing & sauted white onion

Spaghetti Squash

Cut squash length wise and clean out seeds. Drizzle with olive oil and season to taste. Heat oven to 350, wrap in foil or use a baking dish and place squash cut side down and bake for aprox. 30 min or until a fork goes easily in the skin. Let cool. After it's cooled enough to handle scrape out the inside's with a fork. Can be eaten as is or you can use like a pasta and toss with your favorite pasta sauce!!

Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Rub tenderloin with olive oil and seasoning rub. Let marinate at least 30 mins., 8 hours or more is best!!
Grill on high and sear all sides, then turn heat to med. and grill for aprox. 20 mins. depending on the size. It's a myth that pork needs to killed(meaning cooked till it's dry and tough)!! Cook till it's light pink in the center. Let it rest of 10-15 mins. before cutting. This will help keep the juices in!!
This can also be done in the oven. Pan sear all sides in olive oil then place pan in the oven heated to 350 for aprox. 20 mins.

Paleo Pizza

Crust:
1 cup almond flour (or ground almonds)
1 egg
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Beat egg then form dough with all ingredients.
Put on a pan that has been oiled
Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes

Put a tomato paste or sauce that has no sugar added to it on top and then top with your favorite toppings.

I used chicken, green peppers and fresh tomatoes

Make sure all your toppings are cooked before putting on your pizza.

I put pizza with all toppings back in just to heat it all up again.

***Also if you want to cut down the fat, once the crust is done cooking cut it in half and save it for another meal.

What's in the box???

Ok so some of you are probably a little young to remember that line from the movie "7", but in all seriousness do you know what is in what you are eating? Unless you have completely ran for the hills and adopted a truly hunter gatherer life style then you still need to have a look on the back to see what you are really eating. here are some good rules I try to live by:

Rule #1: Don't trust a corporation who's main goal is to sell you the the product!! Just because it says heart healthy, low trans fat, sugar free, etc. on the box doesn't tell the whole story. The FDA has been pretty lax overall in regards to food labeling and serving size manufacturers can legally promote, while they are trying to tighten up the reigns there is still a huge gap between fact and hype.

Rule #2: Educate yourself!!! I was absolutely the worst @ this and it took me finding out how much I didn't know to trigger my thirst for educating myself! You should know that hydrogenated soybean oil (or anything hydrogenated for that matter) is @ the least a yield sign when you see it in the ingredients; how about aspartame? It is a commonly used sweetener in drinks and foods that tout a "sugar free" alternative.....if you really knew the story behind aspartame you would probably elect to have the sugared drink. Some others you might want to do some research on, canola oil, corn syrup (especially high fructose corn syrup which they have begun to cleverly disguise as HFCS in labeling), sorbic acid, yeast, soy, gluten.... I could go on for two pages but as you start with these they will lead you to others.

Rule #3: If its a whole food and the ingredients list is longer than 1 line for no apparent reason..... put the the food down and step away from the shelf!! There is a reason its a called a "whole food".... there are very few exceptions to this rule....

Rule #4: If you are trying something new make sure to research it!! The first thing that comes to my mind on this one is Omega-3 Supplementation. I remember the first time we recommended this and the next week I heard someone talking about the super Omega 3-6-9 supplement they had picked up. The had no idea the reason they were taking Omega -3's was to offset an imbalance in omega 3 to omega 6 ratios (Rule #4.5 pay attention in class). The other thing to watch out for with Omega 3 supplementation is that you are getting your Omega 3 from fish oils. The easy way to check this is look on the back and it should say DHA/EPA from fish oil. There is some shady marketing going on out there that are pushing Omega 3 from soybean oil, chia seeds, and flaxseed .. THESE ARE SHORT CHAIN FATTY ACIDS... Spend the money buy from a reputable brand like Carlson or Nordic Naturals.

Rule#5: Just because it has the same name as the brand next to it doesn't mean its the same thing.
The best example I have found is butter, olive oil butter to be precise ( i think fleischmanns has changed the name to spread now )

Fleischmann's Olive oil butter:
INGREDIENTS: Liquid Vegetable Oil (Soybean Oil, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Olive Oil), Water, Reconstituted Sweet Cream Buttermilk (Water, Sweet Cream Buttermilk), Salt, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Vegetable Mono- and Diglycerides and Soy Lecithin (Emulsifiers)

Land o Lakes Olive oil butter:
INGREDIENTS: Cream, Olive Oil, Salt.
Contains Milk.

There's more to a book than its cover and there is definitely more to what you eating than the front of the box is telling you!!

We had a fantastic dinner last night which made me think that getting a list of some Paleo friendly restaurants wouldn't be a bad idea for a Blog post!!! This is not the end all in regards of where to eat and if you have any suggestions please feel free to post them to comments and I will add them to the Blog:

JAMZ- It's a little ways up the road if you live near Kadena, but Jamz located right on 58 in Onna village is absolutely on of my favorite spots to throw down on some paleo friendly food (if you can resist the Bread they bring as an appetizer). It's a little pricey with most meals for two being around $100 or more but you definitely get your money's worth in regards to food. The Hibiscus is my favorite; 150 grams of tenderloin, 200 grams of sirloin, 2 lobster tails, soup, salad and an assortment of veggies. Yen 10,200


Ghengis Khan- a perennial favorite for those who live near the Sunabe seawall. This is a really affordable Paleo friendly spot, just try not to pack on too much soy as its high in sodium. Yes you could probably end up eating a little too much here but better from here than Pizza In


Beach Tower Hotel- The holy grail of Mongolian BBQ... At around Yen 3000 a person, you get what you pay for!! A large assortment of meats and veggies you can cook right in front of you!!
Even better if its a night out with friends there is an open tap with not so paleo friendly Orion beer and slightly more friendly more Vodka tonic!! Call ahead because the place is usually packed on the weekends....

Four Seasons Steak house- While I am not a fan of the place for dinner (they serve grain fed beef) they serve up some grass fed beef during lunch hour (just ask). again you have to steer clear of the rice and bread but other than that its a solid Paleo meal.

I will add a few more later as I only know then by location and not name, but they are well work a try

All about sweeteners!

This blog post comes from Dr. Mary Eades site..http://www.proteinpower.com/drmd_blog/. If you haven't heard about the site her and her husband Mike wrote one of the first paleoesque books I ever looked @ called protein power life plan... Some pretty powerful findings... I totally recommend it as a must read!! Unfortunately I don't have a copy here anymore but hey there is always Amazon!!

In the dining section of the NY Times last Wednesday, there was a somewhat alarming article by Kim Severson, titled: Showdown at the Coffee Shop (free but requires registration) detailing the entry of the new sweetener Truvia to the world of packet sweeteners.

Photo from NY Times Wednesday April 15, 2009

We’d already heard about its arrival at the Natural Foods Expo West show last March in Anaheim and had even sampled some of it. While I’m glad to see a natural alternative in the low-and-no calorie sweetener department, I’m personally not crazy about this one. Truvia is a blend of rebiana, an extract of stevia, and erythritol, a sugar alcohol. Thought there may be many good things about erythritol, to my taste buds it has a cold, metallic edge that I don’t enjoy. Others who don’t catch that taste twinge would perhaps feel differently about it and will love Truvia’s green packets in the sweetener caddy beside the blue, pink, and yellow ones.

Of course, by convention, for many many years, consumers have associated artificial sweeteners with a particular packet color: blue for aspartame products, pink for saccharine products, yellow for sucralose products, and green for stevia products. And it is related to this topic that I found the real eye-popper in this piece…the big news in my humble opinion…buried in the continuation of the article on page D5:

Consumers are loyal to their favorite sweetener, and to the color of its packet. Now manufacturers like Mr. Petray [CEO of Nutrasweet, which makes aspartame] are mixing up the color code, putting new sweetener combinations in the familiar pink, blue, and yellow.

This is news! And, in my mind, underhanded and sneaky and ethically fuzzy. The article goes on…

His challenge to Splenda combines aspartame and a touch of sugar in a yellow packet called NutraSweet Cane…Mr. Petray’s entry in the stevia wars is called Natural NutraSweet, which comes in a green packet, of course. And the company created a new saccharin-free pink packet, too. [The article didn't say what was in that pink packet, however, but since it's coming from NutraSweet we can be sure that one of the ingredients will be aspartame.]

The yellow packet, especially, is worrisome to me, since most low-carbers avoid aspartame because of some reports that suggest it might be particularly detrimental to the brains of people on a low carb eating plan. And this yellow imposter will have not only aspartame but sugar…real honest to Pete sugar! In the very yellow, pink, and green packets that many of us have come to trust do NOT contain aspartame, there will now be aspartame.

(For a longer discussion on the various sweeteners, see a previous blog post of mine here.)

Once these imposter packets make their way into the commercial market, consumers or diners will no longer be able to rely on colors alone to select their sweetener. We’ll all have to be careful label-readers to keep from being duped.