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.

Mark Sisson Strikes again!!!

10 Real-Life Reasons Why the Primal Blueprint Works for Me

There’s been a lot more talk in the mainstream recently about “caveman” diets and barefoot training. Primal/Paleo/Evo seems to be gaining in popularity and may be nearing the critical mass needed to garner mainstream appreciation. John Durant appeared on Stephen Colbert last week, Art De Vany was featured in Der Spiegel, Born to Run is a NYT Bestseller and my book recently made the top ten Health and Fitness titles on Amazon. Even so, we Primal types still get those occasional looks of derision or incomprehension when we show up at the gym with our Fives on and a bag of homemade jerky hanging off our belt to do a quick 15 minute HIIT session. I think there’s a sense among outsiders that the Grok fairy tale trumps the science within the Primal crowd – that the notion of living like a caveman is a cute ideal but irrelevant in a 21st century high-tech context. Of course, it’s not true; science always leads the way here at MDA and on most Primal/Paleo/Evo sites. But even with the science completely supporting the idea that we ought to emulate our hunter-gatherer ancestors in many aspects of life, I still hear things like, “I trust my doctor too much to give up the statins and start eating fats.” Or “I’m lazy, undisciplined, and I love good food too much to be able to change this late in my life.” Hey, me too! So for those of you who are looking for more detailed rationale why living Primal is best for everyone (including your doubting spouse and your parents), here are my 10 Real-Life Reasons Why the Primal Blueprint Works for Me.

1. I’m lazy.

Ironically, I spent 25 years of my life pursuing high level fitness and peak health through hard work, discipline, sacrifice and misery. That didn’t work out for me. I’m over it. Now I just want the best results with the least amount of pain, suffering, and sacrifice. I jokingly tell my ex-triathlete buddies, “I’d rather look fit than be fit.” Of course, the irony is that when you actually do what it takes to look fit (eat right, cut the Chronic Cardio, sprint a bit now and then and lift intensely two or three times a week ) you become VERY fit. And healthy. And happy. And more productive. The best part of Primal Blueprint living is that you can get appreciably better results with significantly less time, less effort and less sacrifice. Instead of the old 20-30 hours a week I used to put in training, I now train less than three hours total a week. I try to play the rest of the time.

2. I love good food.

Some people mistakenly think the Primal Blueprint requires giving up eating good food. Nothing could be further from the truth. When I was a college endurance athlete, my buddies nicknamed me “Arnold,” after Arnold Ziffle, the pig on Green Acres. I could eat more than just about anyone in school (including the football linemen). I ate everything and enjoyed it all. But I became a slave to the carbs and to the hunger that they generated every three hours of my life. Later, when I retired and researched the damage I was doing eating grains, sugars, hydrogenated oils and all the other stuff I consumed to fuel my massive cardio efforts, I feared I might have to suffer a lifetime dearth of gustatory delights if I wanted to keep my boyish figure. Never happened. Primal eating reprograms the genes in a way that takes the edge off hunger, while assuring more-than-adequate energy and stable blood glucose levels. Now, I eat as much as I want, whenever I want from a list of fabulously tasty foods. I just avoid eating most things from that other list. Hunger doesn’t drive my life the way it used to. When I sit in a restaurant with a rare 20-ounce rib eye steak, a bowl of butter-sautéed mushrooms and a glass of fine Cabernet in front of me, I never feel sorry for myself that I didn’t order pasta or that I won’t be having the bread or potatoes or rice. And for dessert, if I’m still hungry, I’d really rather have another lamb chop or a bowl of berries than a slice of cardboard cake or mucous-inducing ice cream. Worst case, I can have a small taste of the latter and be satisfied.

3. I like to play.

I spent a fair amount of my life training for grueling endurance contests (marathons, Ironman triathlons, 24-hour relay running events). Only just recently did it occur to me that I NEVER really had fun while I was competing or while I was training. Admittedly, I could sometimes get into “the zone,” but that’s really only a temporary zone of less pain. I did appreciate the valiance of my efforts and certainly felt pride in my accomplishments, but from the time the gun went off until I crossed the finish line, I never once could truthfully say, “Isn’t this fun?” In contrast, today I plan most of my (minimal) training around being able to participate in fun activities later. And while I don’t necessarily see play as “workout time,” it is most assuredly contributing to my fitness. Primal Blueprint training gives me the functional strength and endurance to jump into an aggressive Ultimate Frisbee game, stand-up paddle and surf for two hours, take a 90-minute trail hike with sprints thrown in, play a round of golf, or snowboard for five days in a row. I stay fit so I can play at stuff I find FUN.

4. I like to sleep.

I used to feel guilty if I slept too much. As if I were missing out on something that might be taking place while the lights were still on somewhere. Now I get at least eight hours every night and embrace the idea that I am NOT wasting time, but am recharging the batteries and will probably live longer as a result. I think most people would prefer to get adequate sleep, but feel like it’s a sign of weakness that they “need” eight or nine hours. It’s not. Sleep is integral to health.

5. I don’t like being sick.

No one does. At the peak of my endurance career, I got colds and flus five to seven times a year. I also had severe seasonal grass pollen allergies. The nature of Chronic Cardio training (all that cortisol) and the obligate high carbohydrate diet (all that sugar) kept my immune system so trashed that anything that was going around was going to take me down with it. And stuff is always going around. The Primal Blueprint works because everything about it is contemplated to support or boost the immune system and not trash it. My allergies have long since disappeared. I rarely get any kind of cold or flu now and, if I do, it’s with no real down time and over quickly. Many people argue that this benefit alone is worth the switch to Primal.

6. I’m vain (I want to look good naked).

The Primal Blueprint exercise laws are designed to sculpt a lean, muscled and balanced look without being overly “huge” or disproportional the way bodybuilders can get. It works perfectly for both men and women. I often say here that 80% of your body composition is determined by how you eat. The remaining 20% is a combination of genetics and exercise. If you dial the eating in properly, it doesn’t take very much exercise to optimize muscle size and strength, and to cut the last few percentage points in body fat. Notice I said optimize and not maximize. Think Calvin Klein underwear and SI Swimsuit models as opposed to swollen Muscle&Fitness or WWF cover models.

7. I like to be tan (vain part 2).

Sorry, I never understood the porcelain skin thing. I notice the dramatic effect a lack of sun has on my disposition as much as I notice it on my skin if I skip a few weeks (winter sucks – except for snowboarding). Getting adequate sunlight daily is an integral part of the PB as it has been for humans for millions of years. Vitamin D is critical to maintaining good health. As I say in my book, I honestly believe we’ve seen an increase in overall cancer incidence as a result of (ironically) heeding the advice of doctors to stay out of the sun. I think everyone would rather be outside for a while every day if they knew it was not only NOT harmful, but beneficial. A slight tan just looks good, and it’s indicative of a healthy Vitamin D status. Getting sun also improves mood and productivity as numerous studies continue to show.

8. I’m not organized.

If you saw my desk you’d probably cringe. Stuff all over it everywhere. Same goes with my training style these days, and I love it. I almost never train with anyone, because I like being able to head out the door on a whim and go sprint or hike or bang off a few hundred pushups. I hate having a set training schedule or the idea of having to meet someone at such and such a time to work out together. Don’t get me wrong, I do train with friends once in a while, but the Primal Blueprint training outline fits my fractal, sporadic, random, intermittent, flakey and spontaneous nature. If I don’t feel like training today, the PB says “take the day off – you’ll be stronger and more focused tomorrow.” Not to be outdone, the Primal Blueprint eating style is also unorganized. Not set meal times, no regimentation, no calorie-counting or portion control. Eat when you want and as much – or not – as you want. Of course, none of this is to say you HAVE to be disorganized to benefit from the PB. If you’re organized, it works that much better. But for those who eschew schedules, the PB is perfect.

9. I want to stay uninjured.

Downtime from injury sucks. As I said earlier, I want to get more play time now as I get older. I recognize that my body doesn’t recover from workouts as easily as it used to. I also notice that I have to pay attention to potential soreness a bit more. PB fitness provides a set of guidelines and workout styles that foster balanced, functional strength. It actually focuses on injury prevention and avoidance, while building muscle and burning fat.

10. I like certainty.

I’m a skeptic at heart (OK, I’m actually a cynic). I hate investing my precious time, money, energy or emotion in anything I don’t feel confident will yield dividends. It has to be based in science, rational thought and real results. Conversely, I hate thinking that some of my choices in exercise, diet and health may have been wrong (as they were so egregiously when I followed Conventional Wisdom). I need to have confidence that my choices are good ones. The research backing the PB is the most solid there is. Evolutionary biology and modern genetic – and epigenetic – science are proving that we have remarkable influence over how our genes express themselves throughout our lives. Stuff we do and things we eat turn genes on or off. It’s that simple. Intervals and Tabata work have been proven over and over to be more effective at increasing speed and stamina than Chronic Cardio. The dietary science of low-carb is nearly irrefutable now, as more and more researchers and docs begin to understand the true nature of insulin and they rethink the cholesterol hypothesis. Look, there is no right or wrong here. You can eat Twinkies and smoke cigarettes for the rest of your life and you still might reach 90 or 100. But I have never in my life been more certain of anything than I am that the Primal Blueprint way of eating, exercising and living is the optimal way to have the most energy, the most fun, look the best and live the longest. And I know I can do this for the rest of my life.

So I thought I would hit a short blurb about supplements. I am not talking about the kind that you use to get a "pump" but the ones that actually help improve performance and reduce body fat. Some if this may apply some may not if you are not sure ask your nutrition coach about it.

Glutamine- Key supplement in restoring muscle glycogen; Glut-amine is converted in the liver to glucose, which is then shuttled to the cells and stored in the muscles as glycogen without replenishing liver glycogen. This a great alternative if you are multiday WODing and have trouble stomaching food immediately after a WOD. You can get it in stand alone capsule form or some post workout drinks like Cytomax (really high in sugar =/ ) have it in the ingredients.

L-Carnitine- L-Carnitine helps to transport fatty acids from the cytosol to the mitochondria, which promotes the breakdown of lipids to use fat as a fuel source promoting weight loss and use of fat as energy

Primrose- Can help to reverse insulin resistance, insulin resistance is a key factor that inhibits weight loss. It is best used in conjunction with Alpha lipoic acid. 200mg a day

Vitamin D- Okinawa is a great place to get your Vitamin D from the sun everyday!! Unless of course you work inside during daylight hours or its winter and the sun rarely shows itself. If thats the case then you may have some Vitamin D deficiency and the big D is crucial in the proper function of the thyroid and hormonal production. It has also been cited in many studies to induce the death of cancer cells and has a role in preventing and even reversing the onset of coronary heart disease.

Vitamin C- Ok we have mentioned this one before... Taking some Vitamin C before bed can help to reduce cortisol levels. High cortisol levels are an inhibitor to weight loss. Quality sleep and some Vitamin C will speed weight loss right along!!

Fish Oil- Its true that if you are eating a good clean macronutrient diet that there might not be a need for fish oil. but what exactly is the definition of a clean macronutrient diet? Lean meats; that are free range and naturally fed. (not just grass fed beef but all your sources of meat should be naturally raised.) Right here the majority of us can say we are not as clean as we can be, but why does it matter? It all comes down to the what happens to the meats when they are not naturally raises and fed. First off grain fed beef is much fattier, by about 15-20% than naturally raised, normally this would not be a bad thing except that the grain makes the fat in the meat extremely high in Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio (the average western diet is about a 15-20:1) .... Enter Fish oil, this will help you get back to the good, the EPA and DHA in Fish Oil is your best source outside of naturally raised meats. Quality Fish Oils (Carlson is a great brand) that actually use fish oil and not soybean oil (bad source of omega 3's mostly short chain) can help to get us back to that 2:1 omega 6 to omega 3 which is optimal for both weight loss and performance.

Alpha Lipoic Acid- Lipoic acid has been shown in cell culture experiments to increase cellular uptake of glucose by recruiting the glucose transporter GLUT4 to the cell membrane, suggesting its use in reversing type 2 diabetes. This is a good thing regardless .. better insulin sensitivity is a all around home run and this combined with the primrose can help to quickly reverse the damage we have done to ourselves with high grain diets over the majority of our lives. 200mg a day is the recommended dosage.

OK so that is the majority of the supplements which we have been reading about recently if you have questions about other supplements please feel free to post it to comments and we will try to do as much research as we can to give you the most informed answers possible. Please realize none of stuff works without getting your eating on track though so the hope of eating a happy meal and supplementing with some primrose and ALA will not help you. Hope this helps!!

What do your food labels really mean? 'Free-range,' 'natural,' 'non-toxic,' and other myths

Mitch Lipka
Jan 28th 2010 at 9:00AM

More

Text SizeAAA

Filed under: Food, Health, Consumer Ally

It's easy to get sucked into buying a product based on what its label says -- after all, that's what the label's designed to do. And some of those label claims are regulated by the U.S. or monitored by the industry, and they actually mean something.

Others, though, have almost no meaning -- they're simply a marketplace come-on, and empty claims like "Made with Natural Goodness," "Kid Approved" and "Doctor Recommended" have become as common as those with legal definitions. Today, even regulated terms like "Healthy" and "Contains Antioxidants" have become muddied.
Consumers are exposed to numerous misleading labels every day, says Bruce Silverglade, director of legal affairs at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, whose recent report on labeling demonstrates the need for changes in U.S. food labeling policies. Some rules are quite odd, like the fact that two agencies regulate what's in soup or pizza, depending on whether they contain meat.

One labeling trend Silverglade hates is the claim that a product can strengthen your immune system. "All of these claims imply that eating the product will help ward off diseases -- and all of them are false," he says. "Eating vegetables and drinking cranberry juice are healthy, but they are no more likely to ward off disease than any other healthy food."

Another badly abused phrase: "made with whole grains." You see that more often, too, since the U.S. recommended consuming whole grains. "People have been encouraged to eat grains rich in whole wheat, and some companies have given lip service to that public health advice by adding small doses of whole grains to their product," Silverglade says. He cites Thomas's Hearty Grains English muffins, which contain just a token amount of whole wheat flour. Enriched wheat flour is the first ingredient. "That certainly sounds healthy," Silverglade says. "But that's actually just ordinary wheat flour." Midway down the ingredient list -- below water -- is whole wheat flour.

The CSPI is also concerned about fruit claims for products that contain virtually no fruit. Toddler snack Gerber Graduates Juice Treats Fruit Medley lists a collection of fruits on the package -- but actually has less than 2% raspberry juice, and none of the others. The main ingredients: corn syrup and sugar. Betty Crocker Strawberry Fruit Gushers -- "Made with real fruit" -- is not made with strawberries, and contains just a small amount of pear concentrate: the "real fruit" in question.

The Food and Drug Administration, which polices labeling, hasn't aggressively pursued such issues, which SIlverglade says lets corporate lawyers figure out misleading phrases guaranteed to keep their clients out of legal trouble.

The real standards come from the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the fake ones come from anywhere and everywhere. Few consumers could reasonably memorize and sort through the real and the meaningless. That's why we present a Consumer Ally primer on label claims true and false. (If you don't see a term below that you've noticed, please email it in.)

Organic. Any multi-ingredient product bearing the USDA Organic seal must contain at least 95% organic ingredients. But the federal certification process is voluntary -- and not every product that claims to be organic undergoes such scrutiny.

Made with organic ingredients. At least 70% of the ingredients must be organic. The product cannot carry the USDA Organic seal.

Non- or -free. Must have less than the following per serving: fat (0.5 gram), sugar (0.5 gram), cholesterol (2mg), or sodium (5mg).

Low-. Generally, the product must have less than the following per serving: fat (3 grams), cholesterol (20 mg), or sodium (140 mg).

Reduced. Generally, the product must have at least 25% less of the given component than is typically found in that type of food.

Light. If at least half of the product's calories come from fat, fat must be reduced by at least 50% per serving. If less than half of the calories are from fat, fat must be reduced at least 50%, or calories reduced at least 33%, per serving.

Reduced, Added, Extra, Plus, Fortified, Enriched. These claims can be made relative to a similar representative product.

High, Rich In, Excellent Source Of. All designate products with at least 20% of the recommended daily amount per serving.

Good Source, Contains, Provides. The product must have more than 10% but less than 20% of the recommended daily amount per serving.

More, Fortified, Enriched, Added, Extra, Plus. For vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber with at least 10% of the recommended amount per serving.

Lean. Generally, less than 10 grams of fat.

Extra lean. Less than 5 grams of fat.

Certified Humane. A label for products made by non-profit organizations dedicated to humane treatment of animals. To use the label, animals must have been given no growth hormones or antibiotics, or lived in cages, crates, or stalls; and must have had "access to sufficient, clean, and nutritious feed and water."

Naturally raised. A recent USDA standard for animals raised withhout growth hormones or anitbiotics.

Natural. A term regulated only for meats and poultry -- containing no artificial flavors, colors, or chemical preservatives -- and otherwise meaningless.

Some label terms, although truthful, have little or no real meaning, no standards for definition -- and a high potential to confuse consumers:

• Contains antioxidants
• Doctor-recommended
• Free-range (can mean anything from an animal that roams freely to one that is let out of its cage from time to time)
• Green
• Immunity formula
• Kid-approved
• Made with whole grains
• May lower cholesterol
• Natural (for non-meat or -poultry products)
• Natural goodness
• No trans fat
• Non-toxic
• Parent-tested
• Strengthens your immune system

Chiaki came up with an awesome idea for a meal
Paleo Soft Tacos!!!!
heres what they look like and yep they tasted just as good as they look!!






























enough for two:
6 egg whites
1 pound of Lean ground beef (we used bison beef)
1/2 head of lettuce
1 tomato (diced)
1 avocado
cilantro
1/2 onion
Olive oil or coconut oil

heat about 1/4 cup of oil in a skillet
in a separate skillet cook and season your ground beef
cook one egg white @ a time in the heated oil (pour it in like you would a pancake)
dice the onions and mix half with the ground beef
mash the avocado and mix the rest of the onion and your desired amount of cilantro
to make some guacamole
when everything is cooked put the meat in the egg shell and garnish with tomatoes, lettuce and guacamole
Enjoy!!!