Hush, little baby…
i will take one of each.
Eating paleo is like having baby. (I am not referring to the miraculous act of child birth…hang in there with me, SuperMom’s, I’m on the slow train to my point, as usual.)
Think about it. It’s like YOU ARE the baby. You cry when you have gone too long without eating. When a relative feeds you the wrong food, you get a belly ache. You require 9 hours of sleep or you are cranky (Chris and Josh..stop rolling your eyes!). Adults stop talking when you walk into the room, and shoot you an odd look and a smile. If you don’t get to run around (at the box), you get antsy and annoy people.
Here is what seals the deal: you carry around your own food. When was the last time you had to carry a lunch cooler around everywhere, filled with suitable food? I know several mom’s with young kiddos who have very nicely stocked mini-vans, but once kids are out of the lil’ guy stage… how many adults HAVE to carry food around? Sure, maybe a smashed pack of emergency peanut butter crackers is buried deep in the glove box, but in a pinch, the over-5 y.o. crowd makes a drive-through run and is on their way. Not you, LBBS’ers. You’re outside the box. And that’s what makes you a baby.
That is almond bread.
Your lunchbox filled with delicious food may make you like a baby, but it also makes you…AWESOME SAUCE. (Add that to your word bank, its my new favorite and just made its debut onto the WWW.) Yes, you may carry around smoked salmon, diced chicken breast, hard boiled eggs, cut up veggies, and fresh fruit surrounded by ice-packs…but its right next to your every-day-firmer derriere, a fine pair of delts, one more pushup than yesterday, and your excellent blood lipid panel. You cruise right by the table filled with bagels and muffins large enough to destroy a small third world country’s digestive tract. You have delicious delights to offer the cute kid at the allergy table when you’re volunteering at the elementary school. Your boss is worried about a harassment complaint because she blurted out how great your steak salad looked in the break room. I’d say that makes being a baby pretty damn cool. So…don’t hush, little baby. Let us in on the secrets of feeding yourself on the go, whether it involves airport security, or a Sunday out shopping for a size smaller pants. You only have a week to go. And I bet quite a few of you have stopped counting. You.are.awesome.sauce.
Until next time…
Awesome Sauce. I mean…Mallory.
Blue….oh, so lonesome for you
The Five Stages of Grief. I am guessing many of you have heard of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and her research on the five fluid stages (read: they aren’t sequential, people vacillate back and forth; no one goes through exactly the same experience, some even skip a stage or two) of death and dying. Hold up, hold,up-don’t get depressed on me, I have a feeling this is actually going to be a feel-good talk. Why? We are going to take a brief look into the Five Stages of Paleo Challenge Food Grief. As researched by the one and only me. Don’t worry: I’m a professional. (I didn’t say of what…)
Denial:
“There is SUGAR in lunch meat? But I thought just had all-natural, picked-right-from-a-chicken lunch meat in my lettuce wrap. I call BS. I read it wrong. It’s probably talking about free-range sugar that the chicken found…in, um, worms. This can’t be happening.”
Anger:
“Who talked me into this junk. I have never cooked so much in my life. This is total bologna. OHHH, wait! I am probably not even supposed to say that because I can’t eat it. Well take this, paleo challenge: BALOGNA BALOGNA BALOGNA! Hah!”
Bargaining:
“If I do 15 burpees, then I can have hazelnut creamer in my coffee. I won’t have to subtract points, because I have actually done EXTRA work today. They should give me bonus points for being so awesome. I’m gonna talk to Beau about that.”
Depression:
“I’ll never be able to eat out of the house again. My friends think I’m a freak. Even the dog is looking at me with the hairy eyeball. I’m
just going to lay down, close my eyes, and hope to sleep until March 2.”
Acceptance:
“Wait a minute, aren’t these my skinny jeans? They are falling off. I haven’t had a headache in 3 weeks. I woke up before my alarm. Is that an AB?!? Oh hellz to the yeah, who needs that grain, legume, dairy crap anyway. I knew it was bad for me all along. I was totally going to do this on my own if CFR hadn’t done a challenge…”
Just about two weeks to go! I have both seen and heard about awesome changes in attitude, strength, and body shape in the past few weeks. Some of us had larger changes to make than others. Some of us are changing more on the inside than out. (Oy vey that sounds downright cheesy. But it’s true from cholesterol levels to how we may be feeling about ourselves.) I hope you are beginning to feel like this has been a worthwhile experience, regardless of how many points you have accumulated. CFR’s challenge is a kick-in-the-pants opportunity to challenge what you thought you knew about nutrition, and an opportunity to experience the thrill and frustration of working toward a goal. It is even an awesome chance for those who chose not to participate to witness the effects it has had on others.
Which stage are you on, paleo person? Are you feeling blue, or has it been no big deal? Planning any post-challenge binges? Never touching _____again? What is your favorite experience so far? Any major mishaps where we can laugh at you (I mean with you)? Pipe in and let us know how you are feeling!
Until Next Time…
Mallory
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Oh, Mr. Sandman…
I want you to list the important things you have to do today. Go ahead. Here’s mine:
-Eat an obscene amount of food-avoid the craptastic variety.
-Pick up heavy shit.
-Condition (so as to avoid looking like the above)
-Work @ work
-Get my emissions tested (because evidently you can’t just keep moving that date back forever, which is a stupid rule.)
-Work @ home: food prep, pay bills, cleaning, laundry, pay more bills, finish hanging my picture-project, CFR posts…etc.
-Buy toothpaste and shampoo. And don’t forget the TP this time! (Getting down to the cardboard in this joint)
This is the abbreviated version, I could add about 12million things, and I know most of your lists are at 4x mine. Did any of you think to include things such as:
-Try not to have a stroke or heart attack
-Lengthen quality years of life so I can annoy my kids longer by siding with my grandkids
-Be smarter at work and/or school
-Sprint faster and lift heavier tomorrow
-Yell at _____ less and be happier in general. (Insert: spouse, kids, bad drivers, moron behind that counter, etc, into blank)
“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?” –Ernest Hemingway
Seriously people. If you have been doing every.single.thing that we have talked about in this nutrition post (fish oil, vitamin d, paleo lifestyle, etc), have MADE A GOAL to work toward, and you are listening to Beau (or Sean, or Joby) at the box…I would imagine you have seen some results by now. Not so much? Or: perhaps you noticed initial changes, but now feel like you have somewhere else to go and have stalled. Well…Here is where I let you in on the biggest secret OF ALL TIME. Now all you need to is…sleep. For 8 to 9 hours. Please don’t spit out your drink or punch your computers in surprise/anger- CFR will not be reimbursing anyone.
“The amount of sleep required by the average person is five minutes more” –Wilson Mizener
That’s right, folks. Tell the peanut gallery (word list, people!) about this one-it may be the one piece of paleo information you offer and don’t have them look at you like you have 57 heads. Sleep is key to all things. Check out list two: I wasn’t just trying to one-up your daily to-do list- this is literally what I am talking about! Sleep is essential to all of those things and more. If you are not currently getting at least 7 hours of sleep (that’s as low as you’ll get me to go, sans waterboarding) and it is not due to something unavoidable such as tiny humans or the swing shift, then quit excusing yourself and shut your damn eyes. Naps can be a lifesaver during times when 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep is impossible. (“People who say they sleep like a baby generally don’t have one” –Leo J Burke.) It’s time to brush up on your sleep hygiene- turn off your computers, ipads and pods, nooks, and TVs. Close the curtains and outen-the-lightens. (Look for more on sleep hygiene from Angie to be posted in the comments!) Go to bed and reap the benefits.
“See you when you’re less insulin resistant and more smarter.” –Me
I mean, Until Next Time…
Mallory
I…Wanna Soak Up the Sun
I was pretty tempted to pull parenting response number one out and go all “because I told you so” on you guys for this one. Alas, I will not go that route and will take at stab at explaining why Vitamin D is the important second part of our supplement discussion.
As you all know by now, the paleo diet (Still hate that dirty-d word. Suggestions always welcomed.) is based around fueling your body with things that our genes were tuned to thrive on after millions of years, and not the Neolithic foods that have occurred in the past 10,000 years or so. Let’s not quibble about this: there are some ‘newer’ food items that aren’t so bad, and things like “cavemen didn’t have almond flour cupcakes or cook food in an oven” are not on the agenda today. They didn’t have air-conditioned houses, minivans, or barbells either. Moving right along…
With fish oil, we are trying to bring our body back to its preferred Omega-6:Omega-3 balance. With Vitamin D, we are supplementing so that we can bring the amount of-you guessed it-Vitamin D in our bodies up to a more optimal, dare I even say caveman-like, level.
What did you do today? Oh? You were super awesome and: slept a full nine hours, ate paleo, and picked up heavy shit. Kudos. Let me try again…How often were you outside today? Most of you were crazy busy in one of these places: home, work, car. OK-so a few of your work outside. It was nice for February, but not so nice you were letting it ALL hang out…OSHA is a bummer on this one, and your significant other/mother probably is too. (I feel safe assuming very few things, but this I am ok with!) Long way of saying: we don’t get enough sunshine in our lives. Heck-even if we could soak up the sun all day, we live in Maryland and the weather just isn’t ideal for a year-round tan. Enter Vitamin D supplementation.
Turns out research into Vitamin D is all the rage in the medical community right-even for professionals who have never thought for one second about eating paleo. Maybe you have already soaked up (lol) this information from another source prior to hearing it at CFR. Vitamin D is a key player in fat metabolism, regulating immune response, and (you knew this was coming) regulating inflammation. We don’t make the stuff, so we have to get it somehow-either through our skin via the sun, or through supplementation. (Vitamin D is also found in food sources, but not in great enough amounts to even out the fact you wear pants half the year.) Vitamin D deficiency is being linked to all sorts of nasty stuff: childhood allergies and asthma, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, cancer, and MS to name a few. If you are reading this, you are likely deficient, and need to be supplementing; unless you have both the time and daily access to some glorious mid-day sun.
Average daily supplementation should fall in the 2,000-5,000 IU range, and we are looking to supplement Vitamin D3 in gel form for best results. Vitamin D3 is a pretty inexpensive- a bottle should last you a good long time. Bring some sunshine into your day, strength to your bones, and who knows-maybe some chub off your waist (a surprising result I noticed in conjunction with my own addition), and add some Vitamin D into your morning regimen.
Until Next Time…
Mallory
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea…
The health and nutrition aisle-you’ve been down that aisle in every supermarket and box store. Who on EARTH buys all those supplements? I have visions of unhealthy people throwing one of each in for good luck, “Instead of eating right and getting active, I’ll have one of each and that oughtta take care of it…oh yeah, remember to order pizza on the way home”. This should not be news to you, but that is a pile o’ steaming horse poo. I don’t know what you all have junking up your medicine cabinets, but now that you are exercising smart at CFR and eating paleo, you can throw a majority of it away. When you research supplements in the paleo-sphere, it more or less boils down to two main things: Fish oil and Vitamin D.
Why Fish Oil?
This relates very well to the most recent talk we had on FAT (not many comments on that one…lol). If you have been following the links, or reading on your own (pat yourself on the traps), you know that we NEED fat-it runs our bodies. You were introduced to: saturated, monounsaturated , and polyunsaturated. Your body is able to produce sat and mono. Poly, on the other hand, are essential fatty acids (EFA) that you must obtain from food.
The rock stars of the EFA world are
- Omega-6 (tend to promote inflammation, found in vegetable oils, soy products, processed foods, grain-fed meat, and nuts and seeds-one reason to go easy on nuts)
-Omega-3 (naturally anti-inflammatory, found in oily fish, winter squash, walnuts).
We need these suckers rolling around in order to regulate inflammation in our body and keep things running normally. I am talking serious stuff such as: neurotransmission in the central nervous system, DNA transcription (errors here mean bad news!), inflammation in your cells, and regulation of hormones and metabolism. Our bodies operate best when our omega-6: omega-3 ratio is at 1:1. The closer we get to this, the less inflammation is wreaking havoc on very important and delicate systems, and the healthier we are.
In the event you are sleep-reading at this point, let me remind you that we get EFA’s from the food we eat. In the SAD, thanks to the abundance of low quality, low fat, highly modified and processed food, the ratio is about 14-25:1. You read that right! This imbalance wreaks absolute havoc on our systems, and leads to a wide range of health problems such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and depression. When you walked into CFR for the first time, you were likely an inflamed mess-whether you knew it or not. Beau, Sean, Joby, Angie, or some friendly soul told you to cut out grains and start taking fish oil. Well now you know why.
Eating a paleo diet ameliorates much of our ratio disparity, but omega-6 still tends to be on the heavy side, since most of us don’t eat 100% paleo all of the time, or can’t afford or routinely find free-range, grassfed food sources. The vegetable oils (corn oil has a shocking ratio of 46:1) used in restaurants, and the grain forced/general crap diet and living condition of today’s farm-produced animals are just a few of the reasons that it is tough to get the ratio down to 3:1 even when you are making mostly paleo food choices. Since being perfect is no fun anyway, we can supplement with fish oil. It helps raise our intake of omega-3 EFA, which in turn reduces the inflammation that is leading toward that laundry list of health concerns. We feel better, lift easier, stay healthier. Personally, I notice a recovery difference (muscle soreness) when I fall off my fish oil regimen.
While the goal is to work toward getting our ratio under control strictly through diet (using items like fresh fish, cage-free eggs, and grassfed meat), supplementing allows us to get us closer to this goal. *Remember that you can’t shove crap into your system and expect to even things out with any supplement. That’s just not the way the lara bar crumbles, folks. (It felt wrong saying cookie)*2-4 grams of fish oil a day looks to be the sweet spot. If you are eating super clean, and feel like you are getting enough omega-3 from your food, then by all means, take less. Currently, I pop two of these bad boys at breakfast. Also strive to incorporate good sources of omega-3 into your diet-salmon, sardines, walnuts, cage-free eggs, etc. Remember- if you are choosing to eat paleo, you are already taking a giant leap toward a more balanced ratio and better health. No need to supplement like crazy. And please, just avoid that scary aisle next time you go to the store.
For additional fishtastic information, hop on over to the fish oil FAQ Whole 9’s site.
Next up: Vitamin D.
Until Next Time…
Mallory